We Are Already Close to Heaven

30 December 2025  1 John 2:12-17

“Yet the world and its enticement are passing away.” (1 John 2:17)

There won’t be Bible Study in heaven. Why ever would we need it? Why would we need a witness to the revelation of God when in heaven God is present to all in His fulness? All the people who wrote the Bible will be there, all the people who can answer all the questions that the Bible doesn’t will be there. We won’t have to do the heavy lifting of exegesis when we are seeing God face to face all the time.

So, is the Bible passing away?

There won’t be any rosaries in heaven either. Why would we need them? We won’t need the discipline of memorizing verses to focus our attention, and remembering people to pray for, because there will be no distractions. How could there be when the very light we see by will be the glory of God? If every tear will be wiped away, and there is is no more sickness, no more pain, no more suffering or dying, what would we even be praying for?

Heaven is the light not only that we see, but by it we see everything the way it truly, perfectly is. It is the music that you can’t describe, or touch, or imitate, and it draws out the sighs too deep for words, and the peace that passes understanding.   And it is here. Now.

So, is prayer passing away, too?

We are told in scripture that there will be no marriage in heaven. In heaven “they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). St. Paul says that marriage is a small model of the relationship Christ has with the Church (Ephesians 5:32). In heaven, however, that relationship is perfected, so what need will there be of models?

So, is even marriage passing away?

There are so many things about heaven we can’t possibly understand. For one thing, it is a place outside of time. What does that mean? Can we even comprehend a world in which the experience of “before and after” has no meaning? The same applies to the experience of “better and worse.” Heaven is a place of complete fulfillment – there is no worse, there is only the perfect. What can it mean to make a decision in a place where nothing is worse? So, if we can’t understand how experiences as basic as “before and after” and “better and worse” work in heaven, how can we possibly understand how things like the Bible, Prayer, and Marriage fit in?

Well, here is what we can know: Scripture, Prayer, and Marriage (and many others) are signs in the Christian world. That means they contain what they signify, and since they are signs of heaven, that means they all contain bits of heaven. We don’t know how the Bible is in heaven, but we can know that heaven is in the Bible, and in Prayer, and in Marriage, and in many other things, especially the Mass. We live very close to all of these right now, which means we all are living very close to heaven. Almost all of the things of this world we hold on to like we hold the sand at the seashore, and the tighter the fist we hold it in, the faster the sea helps them to find a way out; the harder we hold on, the faster they slip away. The heaven that is in the signs God gives us, however, doesn’t give us stronger hands to clench harder. We don’t grasp it at all: in those signs heaven grasps us. It is the light not only that we see, but by it we see everything the way it truly, perfectly is. It is the music that you can’t describe, or touch, or imitate, and it draws out the sighs too deep for words, and the peace that passes understanding because its purpose is to remain forever.

And it is here. Now. It is in all the signs and sacraments God has given to us, available to anyone who seeks.

So, seek.