The Paradise of God

The Hebrew term for ‘heaven’ or ‘paradise’ is ‘Gan Eden’. From the very beginning, Adam and Eve were placed in a type of paradise. The garden of Eden was a paradise of pleasure. Together, man and woman enjoyed both communion with God and communion with one another. When sin entered the world, everything changed. Man was driven out of the paradise of the garden and God “placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24). Paradise was lost and humanity was incapable of returning on its own accord.

The New Testament is a recapitulation of the Fall. Christ, the new Adam (see 1 Corinthians 15:45) is once again tempted in the garden (Gethsemane), and once again present with the woman (Mary, the new Eve) at the Tree of Life (the Cross). Christ was crucified, placed in a tomb and risen from the dead in a garden (see John 19:41). Later Mary Magdalene encounters the Resurrected Christ and supposed him to be...you guessed it...the gardener (see John 20:15). The new fruit from the new tree of life in the new garden is none other than the Eucharist. What Adam lost, Christ restored. Satan’s apparent victory is left turned on its head.

Let’s go further still, “...one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water...For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled…” (John 19:34-36). In Eden, God placed a heavenly guardian with a flaming sword to block paradise, preventing its re-entry. At the Cross, all of salvation history is fulfilled at precisely the moment an earthly soldier pierces the heart of Christ with a sword. With the opening of Christ’s heart, paradise is restored. Through the wounded heart of the Savior, we once again have access to the Paradise of God. To enter into Paradise is to enter into the heart of God. Or rather, to enter into the heart of God is to enter into Paradise. His blood has paid the ransom for our sins and the water has cleansed us and made us new. The wounded and pierced heart of Christ serves as the open door to our salvation “which no one is able to shut” (Revelation 3:8).

Although we’ve sinned, turned from God and succumbed to the temptations and subtleties of the devil, God had a plan to restore what was lost. The entire biblical account represents a journey back into union with God. It’s an adventure back into the heart of the Father where we find his efficacious and lasting freedom. It’s a journey back into the Paradise of God. And it’s God himself who comes to our rescue and fights relentlessly on our behalf.

“The whole of the Christian life is like a great pilgrimage to the house of the Father, whose unconditional love for every human creature, and in particular for the ‘prodigal son’...should encourage everyone to undertake…a journey of conversion” (Saint John Paul II). On the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday, 2005, the Pope uttered his final audible words, “Let me go to my Father’s house.”

Our journey out of bondage and into the Promised Land is a mission to find ultimate (and splendid!) union with God. Our forty days is but a start along the journey of a lifetime, or as the Franciscans like to say, “continual conversion.” The omnipotent, omniscient and immutable God, the Alpha and Omega, the transcendent One, the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sanctifier, allows his heart to be wounded, crushed and opened. He descends into the depth of the human condition to elevate us into the heights of his Trinitarian life and love. He longs to restore us to himself, bringing about union with his people. Our God is the Father who wants to share all that he is and all that he has with his sons and daughters.

The three defining factors of Heaven are as follows:

• Being in the presence and/or union with God.
• There is no sin. Heaven and sin are mutually exclusive. They cannot exist together.
• No more suffering (see Revelation 21:4).

The last of the three states of the spiritual life is the Unitive state. It’s true that the ultimate union with God takes place only when a soul reaches Heaven itself, the eschatological promised land. Nonetheless, some souls reach and experience a type of heavenly union even during their life on Earth. Radiating the love of Christ to all they encounter, the great Saints were so closely united to God and consumed with his love that they became a living flame of love. Everything else was burned away and purified. Every action, every word, every movement becomes motivated by love alone. “[This] step of love causes the soul to burn gently...The Holy Spirit produces this gentle and delightful ardor by reason of the perfect soul’s union with God. We cannot speak of the goods and riches of God a person enjoys on this step because even were we to write many books about them the greater part would remain unsaid” (The Dark Night of the Soul, II.20.4).