I’ve been thinking about my pretty constant desire through the years to go to heaven during my retreat. It is good to desire to go to heaven. It is necessary to desire to go to heaven, so as to glorify the Lord and love Him all the more. This is not presumptuous, for it doesn’t cancel out altogether the fear of hell, and has one participate in all the sacraments all the more, such as Confession! We must trust in the Lord, and use all the means we have to get on our way to heaven as He Himself draws us there.
One’s fear of going to hell is not to be equated with a desire to go to heaven!
Do you want to go to heaven? Yes.
Why? To be happy.
What’s that? You know, it’ll be nice…
And that, my friends, is simply the fear of hell, which is not the same as desiring to go to heaven, which leaves us with the question of what a true desire to go to heaven is all about…
• Heaven is about love, since God is love.
• Heaven is about truth, since God is truth.
• Heaven is about seeing the Father through, with and in Jesus, the Mystical Body of Christ.
• Heaven is rejoicing in the good of the other as one’s own good since that will be true, as that good will be God Himself. This is the joy of the Holy Spirit.
But let’s make this a bit more personal. I asked Jesus about a desire to go to heaven while before Him in the Blessed Sacrament today.
I felt that all the mercy He’s given me is just bursting to give glory to Him in the sense that I would be happy, so happy, for all to know all the sins I’ve ever committed in the sense that no one would care about that sin — all that arrogance, all that pride — except to let that fact of my life on this earth be an occasion for them to praise the Lord for His mercies for me right unto heaven. All others would see that good of the Lord’s grace turned to glory within me as their own good, and that would be right, as that good would be theirs, the Lord’s good love for us all. And, again, I would see my good in them, that good being God Himself.
That’s my desire to go to heaven. Without the Lord, I would desire to go to hell. Yikes! Not that! But, again, this cannot just be about a desire to escape hell. There is so much more to desiring to go to heaven. Remember: We can’t get there from here; He has to draw us, who are here, from there. It’s not about us. It’s about Him, loving Him, praising Him, thanking Him, worshiping Him: going to the Father through, with and in Jesus, the Mystical Body of Christ, by the fiery love of the Holy Spirit.
Am I ready to go to heaven? That’s another story altogether. I think if I were to die now, I would spend the rest of time in purgatory, awaiting the end of the world! So, more to do on this earth while, please God, being drawn by our Lord to heaven! A good way to skip purgatory is to pray for the souls of the faithful departed. Our Lord said that it is they who, having reached heaven before us, will welcome us into the eternal habitations. And that’s very, very wonderful.
Fidelium animae per misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace. Amen!
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
How good to spend our purgatory here on earth! When we die we can go straight up, straight to Heaven, like a balloon.
Oh, but isn’t it so hard to describe the “desire” in words? It is so beyond desire, so much more than a longing – like an utterance so deep from within that you cannot adequately characterize it. Yes, I feel that too, and have for the last couple of years. It can be so strong, as to be almost painful, so far do I feel from the realization of it. BUT, as you said: “It’s about Him, loving Him, praising Him, thanking Him, worshiping Him….”
Thank you for sharing this, I was smiling through tears as I read it.
Father,
Is it unreasonable to want to go straight to heaven? I mean imagine standing before Jesus at your personal judgement and knowing you need to depart to purgatory – how sad a thought. After a lifetime of toil, pains, disappointments and so forth, I like to imagine Jesus embracing me and saying “welcome home!” I think after seeing Him having to leave His presence would be hell.
So what do we need to do to bee line to heaven?
Father, I find this an inspiring and yet challenging post.
Much as in most of us will desire to go to heaven, the fear of hell may take center in our lives. Thank you that you have demonstrated how different the two are.
We get/will get to Heaven by the power and grace of God. The good works that we do are in obedience to Christ and in order to purify ourselves so that we can become holy as He is holy. But it is all of Grace. We cannot do anything worth while on our own.But specifically GOD communicates His Grace to save and strengthen us to journey towards Heaven, in the some primary ways:
-By being born again in baptism
-By receiving communion in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
-By living life so that at death we are friends with God. This means that we die without mortal sin on our soul and live life so as to avoid mortal sin. But if we sin we must confess mortal sin to a priest in the sacrament of confession with true repentance and avoid it in the future.
Remember as Father as you go on with your retreat; all of us who have the desire to go to heaven that by God’s grace we will live worthwhile lives.
Hey Joisy Goil
Our joy in heaven will be to thank the Lord, which means we need to be so generous with the Lord’s presence to us now that we understand that for which we have to be thankful.
Keeping up with the sacraments, being faithful in whatever circumstances the Lord has permitted or provided for us, prayer, including prayer for the faithful departed, a bit of penance, a bit of almsgiving…. In other words, charity in all truth: Loving God and neighbor with the same act of love, the Mystical Body of Christ, head and members. Yikes!
Hello Carolyn! A bolloon’s O.K., but I’d just like to go… ZIP!!! and be at those gates right away, and meet those souls I’ve prayed for, who will be happy about welcoming me. THAT would be so very, very wonderful. And then, seeing our Heavenly Father, of the most tender mercies. Yay!!!
What about struggling with doubt ? I seem to be in some sort of tandem where I seek the Kingdom and His Righteousness. I try to listen to His voice. I try to respond. I try … While fearing life will end and there will be nothing else. It’s not a simple doubt of an agnostic. I believe. But I doubt. I think if I answer your question here honestly I don’t desire Heaven and I fear Hell and I accept Purgatory. I do desire Heaven, I want to go there in the end … But I’m afraid of going there. I’m afraid of going there and leaving my kids behind for any length of time to struggle without me. No I’m not ill or actively dying at the moment. But I dread God’s timing. I trust God’s timing. I trust He who is Love brings all things to Good for those who desire Him. My kids are His kids. I know that. I’m most grateful for the privilege of being their Mother; them on loan from God. But I’m so very afraid – I’ve seen mothers go before and leave young kids – it makes no sense to me. The suffering kids bear when they loose their Mother. I’m afraid of that of it comes today or in 30 years – though I think 30 years is best. I fear it because even if I am in Heaven my kids may come to suffer the same doubts as I do now, not seeing me, not knowing I am reaching out. It pains me greatly to imagine them wandering without me through the wasteland. I know I am not God or the Lord. I take my duty to point them to Him very seriously and I do all I can or attempt it at least to introduce them to all His nuances. How can I have such faith and such doubt and be so afraid of parting from this temporary life. I question of my kids are taking God’s place – I don’t think that is it. Sorry for the long response.
Think of Jesus, His being cut down, He who, of anyone, is most needed here… dying, then rising, but then ascending to heaven, but with us, the Holy Spirit teaching us all He said and did and does in our lives, drawing good out of evil, the redemption, from Jesus’ death and resurrection and learning to look to this Most Blessed, good and kind Trinity with a bond of love, He drawing us to Himself. Yikes!
Thanks ☺ Jesus of all most needed here. I think this meditation will help me.