[Pearls Ep 133: Answering Atheism Tuesday.]
As we carry Sunday’s Gospel message into the week, we remind ourselves to always endeavor to pass through the narrow gate. Since Jesus is the gate, and since it is our mission in this life to be united to Him in all that we do, we can see each moment as an opportunity to pass through the narrow gate – to draw close to Jesus.
What’s on this side of the gate? A fallen world, our fallen nature, and the machinations of the enemy.
What’s on the other side? Heaven.
Obviously not Heaven in all its glory – but a taste of Heaven.
Fulton Sheen, reflecting the consistent wisdom of the spiritual masters, taught that we get a taste of heaven or hell in this life – depending on the choices we make. If we choose to go it alone – we invite a certain hellishness into our life here and now. If we choose to turn our life over to God, we get a taste of the peace and joy that awaits in Heaven.
To the fallen, secular world, this kind of talk is utter nonsense.
And yet, it isn’t.
What do the Marxists long for in this life? Utopia (their version of heaven). What did Nietzsche realize was unleashed by the post-modern “death of God”? Hell on earth.
What the determined atheists can’t acknowledge is that they have the same interior wiring we all have – and it is attuned to two over-arching paths we can take – toward God (Heaven) or away (hell). While atheist would refuse the “God” part of that, they can’t deny the experience of desiring some manner of heaven and recoiling from hellishness.
The question for them, of course, is why they should desire a heavenly happiness over hellish misery? It may sound strange, but why should we be wired to desire some form of heaven on earth at all? The best the atheists can muster is that we share some manner of evolutionary psychology that wires us to have a near-universal desire for a heavenly life – this used to be known as Social Darwinism. They don’t call it that anymore. Know why? Because the true Darwinists said it was all bunk because changes over just centuries or even millennia are not from Darwinian evolution – the time scale is just too small. Darwinian evolution requires time scales on the order of millions of years or more.
But that didn’t stop the determined atheists. Just drop “Darwin” from the label, rebrand it as “evolutionary psychology” and forge ahead.
Here’s the bottom line for us – heaven and hell are both quite real. And it behooves us to keep them in mind in all the choices we make. Focusing on the positive, we want to have in mind to pass through the spiritual gate to heaven as often as we are able, so in the postscript you’ll find some observations from Saints who were given glimpses of our heavenly home.
Steve
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life
Postscript: Visions of Heaven.
“Today I was in heaven, in spirit, and I saw its inconceivable beauties and the happiness that awaits us after death. I saw how all creatures give ceaseless praise and glory to God. I saw how great is happiness in God, which spreads to all creatures, making them happy, and then all the glory and praise which springs from this happiness returns to its source. – St. Faustina
“While I was praying, I was enraptured from the world. My life was hanging by a thread. The clouds opened up and a marvelous garden full of flowers appeared in which I could walk a long distance… I cannot describe to you all of the marvels that our good God gives to those He loves… There are meadows and forests, rivers and mountains, homes and buildings, but everything is transparent and spiritualized, while here on earth everything is tainted.” – St. Anna Schäffer
“As I stood there, basking in the splendor of those gardens, I suddenly heard music most sweet – so delightful and enchanting a melody that I could never adequately describe it.” – St. John Bosco