Irving Berlin expressed a view of heaven when he penned the lyrics to “Cheek to Cheek”.It was first performed by Fred Astaire as he danced with Ginger Rogers in the 1935 movie, Top Hat.
"Heaven, I'm in heaven, and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak...And I seem to find the happiness I seek when we’re out together dancing cheek to cheek. Heaven, I’m in heaven, and the cares that hang around me through the week seem to vanish like a gambler’s lucky streak when we’re out together dancing cheek to cheek. Oh! I love to climb a mountain to reach the highest peak but it doesn’t thrill me half as much as dancing cheek to cheek. Oh! I love to go out fishing in a river or a creek but I don’t enjoy it half as much as dancing cheek to cheek…”
Look at Fred. Being with the object of his affection takes his breath away. His cares are forgotten, the thrills of mountain climbing and fishing are trumped by the thrill of being united with his beloved…face to face.
Throughout history, poets, prophets, philosophers and homilists of every culture, primitive or advanced, have attempted to describe heaven. The concepts of an afterlife embraced by all cultures have one thing in common: Heaven is a happy place. Human descriptions of heaven as happy are right on. The essential characteristic of heaven is that it is a state of being of a spirit or human soul, rather than a place as commonly perceived and represented in human language. Descriptions of heaven as a place leave the realm of reality. Pope John Paul II pointed out that descriptions of heaven as a place are understandably inadequate to describe the reality of heaven since the language of place is tied to the temporal order in which this world and we humans exist. Thomas Aquinas explains why human language is inadequate to describe the reality of heaven thusly, “Incorporeal things are not in place after a manner familiar to us, in which we say that bodies are properly in place after a manner befitting spiritual substances, a manner that cannot be fully manifest to us.” St. Paul points out the inability of man to comprehend heaven while pointing out that heaven is a state of being for those who love God, “eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things God has prepared for those who love him.”
There is something to be said for Fred Astaire’s concept of heaven. It involves being united and in intimate communion with the one you love. For Fred it was, as the old expression goes, “heaven on earth”.
Heaven is the fullness of communion with God. As Pope John Paul II expressed it, Heaven “is neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but a living, personal relationship with the Holy Trinity. It is our meeting with the Father which takes place in the risen Christ through the communion of the Holy Spirit”. When we pass from the form of this world, those who have welcomed God into their lives and have sincerely opened themselves to his love, at least at the moment of death, will enjoy that fullness of communion with God which is the goal of human life. Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state (not place) of supreme, definitive happiness.
There are degrees of happiness in our current temporal order that we can experience, like Fred Astaire, that are but foreshadowings of the supreme, definitive happiness that is the ultimate end of our knowing, loving and serving God in this life.
We are all like Fred Astaire each in our own way. There are certain activities that bring joy or happiness to us in varying degrees. Climbing and fishing brought Fred only half as much joy as dancing cheek to cheek with his beloved. What is it you love most to do? Who are the people you love most to be with? Think of the activities and personal relationships that bring or have brought the most joy to you, accepting that love is surrender (sacrifice) of self to excellence, or what one perceives to be good. Look at the surrender (sacrifice) of time, money, and effort some make because they love to play golf (or a million other objects that people say they “love”). Love can be shallow or deep depending on the degree of excellence to which one surrenders. On a higher plane, consider the self surrender (sacrifices) one makes to a beloved soul mate to make a successful marriage. Consider the same with respect to bringing a child into the world and rearing it. The joy that these acts of love (self-surrender to excellence) engender is among the greatest that we can experience in our temporal lives, because there is a direct relationship between the degree of sacrifice willingly made out of love and the happiness derived from the act of love.
So, how can all of this discussion help us understand what joy (heaven) God has prepared for those who know, love, and serve Him? Think of some of the happiest times in your life. You earned them. Those feelings or states of euphoria resulted from actions you performed. You paid a price. In heaven you will experience all of the joy you and all the rest of mankind have ever experienced without having to do ANYTHING that was done in this temporal life to earn it. The joy of holding a baby in your arms and all other human joys will be yours without having to hold the baby! Or do anything at all. You will be in communion with the font, the essence of all happiness. Your joy will be supreme and independent of any extrinsic effort.
Many have wondered what they will do in heaven or who they will meet. They think of all sorts of things they would just love to do and of seeing their relatives and friends and even favorite historical figures and celebrities. Imagination can run wild when we consider what might bring us joy in this life, but we can only do so from a temporal perspective that no longer will exist after death. No need to make a list of what you would like to do or of people you would like to meet. In Heaven, any happiness you seek from the activities or people on the list will be yours without asking and will pale in comparison to the joy of union with the Supreme Being, HE WHO IS. Is what? EVERYTHING! You will share in the essence of BEING! You will possess the ESSENCE of happiness. Your price of admission to eternal bliss has been purchased by the ultimate act of love by which Jesus Christ has redeemed you.
