Think salvation, and the image of the cross would be the first to appear in the mind of a practicing Christian. We believe and profess that the Word was made flesh, and by dying for us on the cross, pays off the debts of our sin. God gives us salvation through Christ. This is the most basic understanding of Christianity. Christianity 101, if you would.
However simple this concept may be, it can be a difficult idea to visualize. How do I picture salvation? What does everlasting life really entail? A typical imagery of heaven would include angels with harps flying around, playing melodious tunes. Some of us would even imagine being in a beautiful place with white fluffy clouds all over. Virtues like peace, beauty, awe and every other word we would associate with 'good' would certainly fit the description of the place we would call heaven. After all, we are going to spend all eternity in this place. If anything at all, it had better be good! As a child, this was typically how I imagined heaven to be. It was satisfactory for a child's imagination. To an adult however, I must admit this notion of paradise is truly limited. For some reason, words like beauty and peace seem to be replaced by words like 'boring' in the long run. I didn't want to spend an eternity gazing at clouds, listening to angels playing harps. The whole idea seemed somehow unheavenly!! It had to be better than this... After all, I believe the Blood of Christ entitles us to so much more. But what exactly is this 'so much more'? If heaven is to be a place where every desire is ultimately satisfied, what would it possibly look like?
If we were to imagine what heaven looks like, a plausible question to ask would be "what kind of salvation does the cross of Christ offer?". When scripture tells us that God gave us "his only son" that we may have "eternal life" (cf. John 3:16), what exactly is the offer? To take a deeper look at eternal life, we must first acknowledge the fact that the 'gift' of this 'life' is not something new being offered unto humanity upon the Incarnation. Man, since the beginning of time, was created for eternal life. After all, the "tree of life" was already placed in the "middle" of the garden ever since the beginning of creation. Humanity, since its very beginnings, was destined for life. Only upon the fall did we lose our rights, as it were, to the tree that gives life (cf. Gen 2-3). But even in Genesis, the imagery of eternal life appears somewhat primitive. One has to take a deeper, Christ-centred look at the scene of Creation in order to paint the image of the eternity we are destined for with greater clarity.
The tree of life in Genesis is an interesting potrayal of the gift of eternity that we were destined for. By eating the fruit of this tree, we are expected to have life. The Fall established a separation between man (as in mankind, both man and woman) and the source of this life (cf. Gen 3:22). By His justice, God disallows man to "put out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life" and to "eat of it and live forever". However, the central claim of Christianity lies in God's abounding love, in which by becoming Man, he would breach this separation between man and life. And how exactly is this done? By the cross of course!! Christ redeems the world by offering himself up for our sins. As the New Adam, charged with a mission to put man right with God, Christ picked the right "tree" (as opposed to the first Adam) and bore the "curse" that was upon humanity (cf. Galatians 3:13). By this, Christ becomes that fruit of the tree of life. And so, a call to life would typically involve consuming the fruit of this tree, which is the "flesh" and "blood" of Christ (cf. John 6:53).
At this point, we could see how the Eucharist (Holy Communion) plays an important role, as a sacrament, a visible sign that points to the yet unseen grace of everlasting life. However, lets keep the focus on what eternal life looks like. Even since the beginning, life involved the act of "consuming" . At the Eucharist, Redemption (just like Creation) points out to the same act. Psalm 34 tells us to taste and see that the Lord is good. Christ tells us that we have no life unless we eat his flesh and drink his blood (John 6). It is indeed "outrageously" interesting to note that God's call to salvation, is not merely a call to a beautiful place. Rather, when God calls us to life, he calls us to 'consume' him. When we consume something, it is more than merely knowing, touching or feeling. The food that we consume becomes one with us. To draw upon a greater analogy, 'consume' could also be replaced with 'consummate'. At the consummation of a marriage, the bride becomes "one flesh" with the bridegroom. Again, the analogy brings us to the same concept of salvation. The call to everlasting life is a call to become "one flesh" with the Lord. I hope this helps paint a better picture of heaven.
In Christ, heaven is more than just a place. Ever since the beginning, man was created with an 'ache' for God. It is this desire for God that the Cathechism of the Catholic Church describes as being "written in the human heart" (CCC 27). This very same desire may manifest itself in various ways in our lives. In a way, we could say that this desire (for God) is the mother of all desires. Thus, it would be better to see heaven as a state rather than a place. Heaven is the state that we enter when we become one with God, and all our desires are completely consummated. We meet our rightful end, life's true goal- God is this goal. I think a quote from St. Augustine would be the best way to conclude:
"...you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until it rests in you"
Heaven is to be one with God- the God who is Love.
