As we near the end of the calendar year, and also the end of the liturgical year while we’re at it, the readings and prayers at Mass start taking a turn towards what the Church has traditionally called “the last things.”  And today we get a little glimpse into the life of heaven.  The big takeaway that most people see in this little address by Our Lord is the insight that nobody will be married in heaven.  That may be a relief to some of you, for all I know.  But if you’re more of a romantic or if this idea just bothers you because you happen to be very fond of your spouse, I hope I can set your mind at ease a little bit about why this shouldn’t actually bother you.  It’s because of what the point really is of what Our Lord is saying, why he takes this opportunity to get into a whole discussion about marriage and heaven: he says next, “Those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead… can no longer die, for they are like angels.” 

Now: Public Service Announcement: notice that he says, “They will be like angels,” not, “They will be angels.”  So, I beg you, please avoid saying things like “My uncle Bob got fitted for his set of wings today.”  Angels are not dead humans.  Angels are a whole different thing: purely spiritual beings, all of whom exist to worship God and some of whom also participate in this world by bringing messages from God, like the angel Gabriel, and by protecting created beings, like our guardian angels do for us.  So, in heaven, we won’t be angels, but in some ways we will be like angels, because we will be past any influence and power that death has over us, and we will be with God, face to face, in his pure presence, unmediated, and perfectly direct presence. 

Just like the angels, we will experience God directly.  That’s what heaven is.  That’s the definition of heaven: the pure, unmediated, and perfectly direct presence of God.  Now think about the logical implications of that for your relationship with anyone else who is having that same experience of being in heaven.  You’re in the pure, unmediated, and perfectly direct presence of God; they’re in the pure, unmediated, and perfectly direct presence of God.  There aren’t multiple pure, unmediated, and perfectly direct presences of God; there’s only one.  So, anyone you’re sharing that experience with, by the transitive property, you’re as close to them as you possibly could be, also.  Heaven is not some extremely pleasant tea party where you can go sit on the other side of the room if you don’t really want to interact with a particular person.  This is why it’s not actually a downer that you won’t be married in heaven: because you’ll be closer to your spouse than you are now.  In fact, you’ll be closer to everyone than you are to your closest companion here on this earth, whether that’s your spouse, or your mother, or your best friend, or whoever. 

So this is pretty serious business, and it’s why both Our Lord himself and we as his Church expend a fair amount of energy thinking and talking about heaven, and preparing for it.  We do have to prepare for it, because part of having hearts that are free and loving enough to be in heaven, is our willingness and our desire to be that close to everyone else who is there.  This gets right back to the key Christian message: we really do need to try to love our neighbor, not just tolerate him.  To love our enemy, not just tolerate him.  Because heaven is not just an experience of perfect tolerance, which could be distant; it’s an experience of perfect love, which is always intimate.  St. John doesn’t tell us that “God is Tolerance.”  He tells us that “God is Love.”  Which means that an experience of the pure, unmediated, and perfectly direct presence of God, that we share with others, can’t involve mere tolerance of those who are also participating in that experience.  It has to be love.  And perfect love, at that.  So this is why we actually have to work at becoming holy in this life.  It’s why we have to try to eliminate all hatred, grudges, resentments, envy: we can’t have any of that in us and even want to be in heaven, in what heaven really is. 

So, kidding aside, if you do actually have a sense of relief that you can get away from your spouse in heaven, or get away from anybody else for that matter: you can’t.  We have to work to actually want that, to actually be ready for that.  It’s not trivial.  Now thanks be to God: he will get us there, if that’s what we actually want.  If that’s what we want, he will get us there even if we don’t quite purify all that stuff out of us in this life.  And that’s what purgatory is about: God mercifully arranging more opportunity for us to get ready for that experience of heaven, if we’re not quite there yet when our time on this earth is done.  If it’s what we want; if it’s what we choose; if we’re in a state of grace and friendship with God when we die, he’ll help us get the rest of the way to be ready for that experience of what heaven really is, which is unthinkably majestic, unthinkably powerful, unthinkably blissful, beyond anything we can experience in this life, except the slightest glimpse in our most profound moments of worship, and love, and joy.  Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.