This is a description of Heaven by Brother John Gray, a Byzantine Catholic. It is from an article in this week's edition of Horizons, the monthly newspaper from the Eparchy of Parma.
Brother John writes:
In the end death comes for us all, the manner, cause and hour known to God alone... The blessed [shall] behold God, "His form shown like a jewel, his face bright as lightning flashes, his limbs as polished brass ... his voice like a giant roaring crowd" (Dn 10:5). Radiating streams of alternately brightness flow outwardly from scintillating Triune God.
The Queen of Heaven welcomes her children who greet family and friends, saints and angels with endless "hellos" replacing former "good-byes." All become stunningly youthful in effortless unbounded flight, reflecting refulgent Divinity, within golden atmospheric ethereal beauty in a kingdom of gleaming iridescense.
God's glory pervasively permeates eternity's translucent polychromatic mountains, fragrant trees, majestic crystalline seas, treasured pets, sprawling mansions, sumptious banquets, and, in fact, our very selves.
The Bible describes a progressive joy, "the sixth is to be shown how their faces will shine like the sun ... like starlight that never ceases." (2 Ezr 7:97). Christ recounts, "Then God's people will shine like the sun in their Father's kingdom" (Mt 13:43), "when they rush to meet God face-to-face, with perfect trust and happiness, without any fear or shame ...receiving from him their reward in glory." (2 Ezr 7:98).
St. Paul aptly refers to the soul and body as "spritual treasure in vessels of clay." (2 Cor 4:7). As time passes, the aged earthenware becomes brittle with tiny fissures. One day, the vessel is dropped and shatters, soul bursts forth, approaches the shores of eternity, and then on to the wondrous embrace of an infinitely loving Father.
At long, long, long last ... we're home!
Rather powerful, don't you agree?
JP
