PLEASURES OF THE GLORIFIED SENSES.
The life of heaven is also one of pleasure through the glorified
senses. These pleasures, as well as those of the Beatific Vision, are
certainly beyond our comprehension. Still, we may form some idea of
them by reflecting on the exquisite delights which reach our soul
through our senses, in our present state of imperfection. They are so
fascinating that the world runs wild with their intoxication. What,
then, must they be in heaven, where everything is perfect? For, in
that world of God's magnificence, both the senses and their
respective objects exist in their highest perfection, which is far
from being the case here below.
Now, give free scope to your imagination. Let it roam among the
blessed, and flutter from creature to creature. Build up all you can
of pure pleasure, and you will never reach any more than the dimmest
and faintest shadow of the reality. Gaze upon the glorious body of
Jesus Christ, the most perfect and lovely that ever came from the
hand of God. It is the very sun that gives beauty to the whole of
heaven. Then contemplate the transcendent beauty of the Immaculate
Mother, who, next to Jesus, is clothed with the greatest glory. Feed
your eyes upon that countless multitude of saints. They are all
beautiful, because they have all risen with a body glorified after
the likeness of Christ's glorious body. Each one has a beauty and
perfection of his own, according to his merits; and the very lowest
is clothed with a loveliness far superior to anything ever seen in
this world.
If there is a rush to see beautiful objects, grand and sublime
sights, magnificent scenery, and the works of art, on account of the
intense pleasure enjoyed through the sense of sight, what shall we
say of the exquisite pleasures in store for that sense in heaven!
Then again reflect how very captivating, soothing, and enlivening
music is. The ear revels in it, and pours into the soul torrents of
harmony, which make her, for the time, altogether forget the outer
world. So captivating is it, that hours pass by unheeded, and she
would almost fancy it is the echoes of angels' voices she hears.
What, then, must heavenly harmony be, if our imperfect music is so
delightful? Think, also, how exquisitely the odors of flowers,
incense, and all manner of perfumery produce a soothing effect upon
man, banishing cares, and infusing a new life into him. What must
those pleasures be in heaven?
We have already seen that, in heaven, there is to be neither eating
nor drinking, as we now understand these two actions. But this does
not mean that the sense of taste is not to be gratified. It most
certainly will be, though not by corruptible objects, as in this
world. The same must be said of the sense of touch or feeling, which
is diffused over the whole body.
The five senses of the human body are not mere accidental ornaments,
which may or may not exist; they are essential to the integrity of
its nature. Thus a blind or a deaf and dumb man is not a perfect man,
because he lacks something which is essential to the integrity of his
nature. Now, as glory does not destroy the nature of the body, but
perfects it, it follows that all the blessed must rise with their
five senses in their full perfection. And as their perfection
consists in their activity and power of receiving impressions from
external objects, and conveying them to the soul, it is evident that
the senses must remain active in heaven, and have suitable objects to
act upon. This is precisely what we learn from the angelic doctor,
who maintains that the glory of the body does not destroy its nature,
but perfects it, and even preserves the very color that is natural to
it.* He maintains, moreover, that every power or faculty is more
perfect when acting upon its proper object, than it is when inactive;
and, as human nature will reach its highest degree of perfection in
heaven, it follows that every sense will there act according to its
nature.+
* Corporis gloria naturam non tollet, sed perficiet: unde color qui
debetur corpori ex natura suarum partium, remanebit in eo, sed
superaddetur gloria animæ.--S. Thom., Suppl., q. 85, art. 1.
+ Potentia conjuncta actui suo perfectior est quam non conjuncta: sed
humana natura erit in beatis in maxima perfectione: ergo erunt ibi
omnes sensus in suo actu. Præterea, vicinius se habent ad animam
potentiæ sensitivæ, quam corpus: sed corpus præmiabitur vel punietur
propter merita vel demerita animæ: ergo et omnes sensus præmiabuntur
in beatis, et punientur in malis, secundum delectationem et dolorem
vel tristitiam, quae in operatione sensus consistunt.--S. Thom.,
Suppl., q. 82, art. 4.
According to this doctrine, not one sense of the human body is either
dead, inactive, or excluded from enjoyment, in heaven. And why should
any one of them be excluded? Why should the sight, or the hearing, or
even the sense of smell, be rewarded, rather than the taste, or the
sense of touch? Certainly no valid reason can be given.
Theologians teach that in hell every sense of the human body shall
have its own peculiar punishment; and that the sense of feeling,
especially, shall be tortured; because, in most cases, it is
principally in that sense that the reprobate have most offended God.
Surely we must not imagine that God is more severe in punishing the
wicked, than He is good and liberal in rewarding the just. Now, is it
not precisely in the senses of taste and feeling that the saints have
suffered most for God? Look at that countless multitude of martyrs.
Many were starved to death; others were scourged until they died
under the torture; others were torn by the wild beasts; others were
crucified; others were burnt with a slow fire; while others were
tortured for days together in every limb and sense, and that, too,
with all the ingenuity and appliances that the most refined cruelty
could devise.
Then again, look at that countless multitude of confessors, virgins,
and others, who, in the practice of virtue, became their own
executioners. They suffered inconceivably by frequent and long
fastings, by coarseness of diet, by wearing hair-cloths, and by
otherwise torturing their flesh. And now, shall these senses go
unrewarded in the blessed, while they are so terribly punished in the
reprobate? Certainly not. All that we can say is that, at present, we
do not know how all this is to be realized; but as the whole man in
all his senses has served God, and suffered for Him, it is but just
that he should be rewarded in his whole being, which includes every
sense of the body, as well as every faculty of the soul.
Hence, in our meditations on heaven, we must let the pleasures of the
glorified senses enter as an integral element of man's happiness. We
must contemplate these pleasures as seriously as we do the pain of
sense in the reprobate, only avoiding the introduction of anything
gross or carnal, and, therefore, repugnant to a state of
incorruption. Hence we must, as already shown, avoid introducing
eating, drinking, sleep, or anything else which, by its very nature,
belongs to the animal life of man.
We must also banish from our ideas of heaven all the carnal pleasures
of this world, as they are now understood. Our blessed Lord himself
told the Jews, who believed such pleasures to exist in heaven: "You
err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For, in the
resurrection, they shall neither marry nor be married; but shall be
as the angels of God in heaven."* All such pleasures, which were
intended only for this world of imperfection, will be replaced by
others of a superior order, and suited to our spiritualized bodies.
* Matt. xxii. 29.
So, then, we see that the life of heaven is one of sensible pleasure
through the glorified senses, as well as one of exquisite mental and
moral enjoyment in the Beatific Vision. These sensible pleasures
have, moreover, a peculiar characteristic, which the pleasures of
sense have not in our present state of imperfection. In heaven the
blessed can enjoy them all without fear; for none of them are
forbidden, and, consequently, they can never be followed by bitter
remorse or shame. Neither have they, as in this world, a tendency to
darken the mind, and turn the heart away from God. They will rather
intensify our love for Him, who is the Author of our exceeding
blessedness, whether it comes immediately from himself or partly from
the beautiful creatures He has prepared to complete the happiness of
His beloved children.