Monday, 17 January 2022

Heaven - bliss or creating?

Some (many?) people seem to want Heaven to be a place of bliss, in which all is euphoric; and there is nothing unpleasant, nothing 'dysphoric'. 

A place and state in which all the possible modes of being are absolutely happy; and unhappiness is impossible.

But I regard Heaven as essentially a place of eternal commitment to love, in which our 'work' is to participate with God in creating


To be motivated to love and create seems to entail that we must be able to suffer considerably less-than-blissful states of being; we must Not be continually euphoric but must also experience (in some sense, albeit not exactly the same as in mortal life) the unpleasant, the unhappy; else we would not be motivated to create. 


Even love (the pre-requisite of Heaven) is something that is dynamic, happens through-time, moves through modes of being including the less-than-blissful. Heaven is like an ideal family; and even the best family at its best necessarily contains many emotions of sub-optimal happiness.

This is obvious and necessary, in that if happiness is optimized; then creation cannot be optimal - and vice versa. If we really do regard Heaven as the place where we work with God, with Jesus Christ, in the eternal and joyous task of creation - then we would not want to be blissfully happy at all times. 

I am not saying that in Heaven the nature of suffering is the same as earth, because that is not true. Much of our earthly suffering is due to sins such as fear, despair, resentment, guilt and so forth. These are absent from Heaven. 

Yet Heaven will include the good, divine passions, and the passions may make us sorrow and weep; even as Jesus sorrowed and wept - but in a context of absolute faith, hope and love. 


We should learn from earthly mortal life that times of the highest creation - whether that be the raising of young children, or works of art; or crafts, building, making... 

These states are not characterized but continuous unremitting bliss - even though they yield the deepest and most lasting satisfactions. 

In other words; the common idea of Heaven as nothing-but-bliss-forever... is something that needs to be set-aside and superseded if we are really to want what Jesus Christ is actually offering.