Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, December 07, 2000
Faith Miv©!!
The Southern Cross, Page 9
Locating heaven and hell
in the Bible
By Father Eugene LaVerdiere, SSS
Catholic News Service
Ti
he Bible speaks of heaven and
hell in many passages from the book
of Genesis to the book of Revelation,
emphasizing the positive, not the
negative.
The New Testament refers to
heaven with the Greek word
“ouranos” more than 270 times. It also
refers to hell with two different Greek
words, ‘“ades” (Hades) and “geenna”
(Gehenna), but only 22 times!
In the Bible, the word “heaven” has
two different meanings. For many
centuries, biblical writers referred to
heaven or the heavens as part of the
created universe. As we read in Gen
esis, “In the beginning, when God cre
ated the heavens and the earth, the
earth was a formless wasteland, and
darkness covered the abyss, while a
mighty wind swept over the waters”
(1:1-2).
Like the earth, heaven was cre
ated, and it also would pass away with
the sun, the moon, the stars.
Eventually, the biblical people
asked where God was when he com
manded everything in creation into
being.
They answered with the same
word, “heaven,” with a different
meaning. The dwelling of God was not
created, and it would not pass away.
Like God, the dwelling of God is eter
nal.
Like us, the Bible imagined that
heaven was a place where God dwells
with the angels, with the risen Lord
and the blessed or the saints.
Like the Bible, we know that
heaven is not a place, but a state of
happiness and peace “where” God is
present to us and we are present to
God.
The book of Genesis described the
Garden of Eden as heaven on earth.
Adam and Eve, representing the
whole human family, were banished
from Eden. God sent his Son to save
us to live with God eternally in
heaven, fulfilling our potential as
creatures in Christ.
Like heaven, the word “hell” (Ha
des and Gehenna) has two different
meanings.
For many centuries, both the good
and the bad went to Hades after their
life on earth. In the New Testament,
Hades is a place where the damned
are condemned for eternal punish
ment.
Gehenna, a contraction of the He
brew name, ge-ben-hinnon, “the val
ley of the son of Hinnom,” was a real
place, a valley situated south of
^ Jerusalem as a place of human sacri
fice. During the reigns of Ahaz and
Manesseh (see 2 Chronicles 28:3;
33:6), the people of Judah immolated
their sons and daughters by fire (see
Jeremiah 7:31).
In the New Testament, Gehenna
became the principal image for hell as
a place of eternal punishment with
inextinguishable fire.
The Bible compared heaven to the
kingdom of God, as we pray with the
Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father in
heaven, hallowed be your name,
vour kingdom come, vour will be
done, on earth as in heaven” (Mat
thew 6:9-10).
It also compared hell to a place of
outer darkness where there is wailing
and grinding of teeth (Matthew 8:12;
Luke 13:28). The Bible wants to stir
our conscience to follow Christ in the
kingdom of God.
(Father LaVerdiere, a Blessed Sac
rament priest, is a Scripture scholar
and senior editor of Emmanuel
magazine.)
FAITH IN THE MARKETPLACE
What image of heaven or question about it would you like to share?
“I think immediately of my parents who have died. My faith tells me that
heaven is where my dear ones are.” — Marguerite Gomes, Newark, Del.
“The first image which comes to mind is one my Aunt Lisa told us when
we were kids: Heaven will be like a giant ice cream parlor where you can
eat as much as you want and never get sick to your stomach. But rather
than an image, I tend to think of heaven in terms of how it will feel. For
example, in heaven, one’s heart will be full of joy and peace, the way you
feel when you wake up on Christmas morning or when a new baby falls
asleep on your chest.” — Susan Hayden, Sterling, Va.
“I have no real image of heaven. I don’t even know if it’s up in the
clouds. But I do see it as a state of absolute peace, love and harmony.” —
Evelyn Crabtree, Maryland Heights, Mo.
An upcoming edition asks: What important concern of yours would you like a parish
small group to explore? If you would like to respond for possible publication,
, please write: Faith Alive! 3211 Fourth St. N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017-1100.
Jh,'
Liturgy as a foretaste of heaven
By Father Lawrence E. Mick
Catholic News Service
T:
alking about life after death
is always a challenge. Once we die
we enter the realm of eternity,
which means we are
beyond the limits of
space and time.
The problem for us
now is that we can’t
think outside the
realm of space and
time. We struggle to
find words to commu
nicate something of
what life will be like
after resurrection
from the dead.
The liturgy con
fronts the same prob
lem. It struggles to
speak of heaven in
various ways, never
fully able to describe
what heaven is like.
Sometimes the lan
guage of the liturgy
sounds as if heaven is
a place, as when the
Creed says that Christ
“ascended into heaven
and is seated at the
right hand of the Fa
ther.” Though this is
clearly symbolic lan
guage, it uses the im
age of a place and a
throne to speak of
heaven.
Other times the lit
urgy speaks of heaven
in terms of God’s presence. In the
preface of the Eucharistic Prayer,
for example, the liturgy often
speaks of the angels who rejoice in
God’s presence and sing God’s
praises.
In the Eucharistic Prayer itself
we pray that those who have died
will “find in your presence light,
happiness and peace” (Eucharistic
Prayer 1). We pray also that we will
share eternal life with Mary and all
the saints (Eucharistic Prayer 2) for
CNS photo from KNA
we “hope to enjoy forever the vision
of your glory” (Eucharistic Prayer
3).
The fourth Eucharistic Prayer
prays that “in your kingdom, freed
from the corruption of sin and
lna Nutshell
Heaven, (( neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the
clouds,” is “a living, personal relationship with the Holy
Trinity,”Pope John Paul IIsaid in 1999.
He urged some “restraint in describing” heaven, hell and
purgatory because their “depiction is always unsatisfactory.
This final state of being — heaven — is anticipated in
sacramental life; “in the gift of self’ to others; and, in
properly enjoying the gifts the Lord gives us.
death, we shall sing your glory with
every creature through Christ our
Lord.”
This language hints at another
basic idea from our tradition — that
the liturgy itself is a foretaste of
heaven. Ancient and modern writ
ers see our common worship as mod
eled on the eternal worship in
heaven.
The late Father Robert Hovda
was fond of speaking of the liturgy
as “playing kingdom,” a time when
we try to experience what life in the
kingdom will be like in its fullness.
In the liturgy, as in heaven, we
spend time in God’s presence, we
sing God’s praises and are united
he liturgy ... struggles to
speak of heaven in various
ways, never fully able to
describe what heaven is like.”
with all our brothers and sisters in
the love of the Lord.
Of course, to grasp the idea of
heaven as an eternal liturgy it helps
if you don’t find liturgy boring — if
you see it as an experience of life
lived to the full, a time where we are
most alive because we are most in
tune with God, other people and the
whole universe. Liturgy can be a
time of joy and love and gratitude
that makes life worth living.
In heaven, of course, sin will be
no more. Our worship then will be
wholehearted and unceasing. Our
joy will be complete.
Until then, the liturgy is a fore
taste, a hint of what is to come.
Hints and symbols are the best we
can do from our vantage point on
earth. We don’t have adequate
words or images to explain just
what heaven is like.
(Father Mick, a priest of the
Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Ohio, is
a free-lance writer.)
All contents copyright©2000 by CNS