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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