Beatific vision

Why does he say it's the happiest possible activity in this life? He says, it is the very thing that we will do in heaven.

When we gaze upon God, the activity that we will engage in the beatific vision is the activity of contemplation.

We will live the contemplative life fully in the beatific vision.

So he says, why not start now? So if this life is a preparation for the beatific vision, if it's a foretaste in that sense, therefore to do it now is a great good and a great delight.

But he also foresees that it requires practice.

The life of faith, for example, is a virtue, and that grows.

Today is also a day of prayer for the faithful departed.

Why do we pray for them? Because entrance into the beatific vision requires complete purification from all sin and every attachment to sin, even the smallest imperfection.

Nothing impure shall enter the presence of God.

though God alone judges the soul, the mystical tradition of the Church, found in Scripture and deepened by the saints, teaches that holiness comes through a painful but necessary process of purification.

All who live the new life of grace live in you and by you alone.

I pray today for all the faithful departed who have gone before me.

Purify them of every attachment, that they may be free to enter fully into your beatific vision.

I also offer you my life this day.

Today, on the Solemnity of All Saints, the Church invites us to lift our eyes to the glorious communion of saints and angels.

In heaven, they behold the beatific vision, Gazing with awe and love upon the Most Holy Trinity, they are fulfilled.

Their hearts are open, receiving God's love in its fullness and returning it with perfect charity.

This eternal exchange of love deepens their union with God in an everlasting ascent of glory.

What do we see before, let's say the particular or the final judgment.

We would be in the beatific vision.

What is that? Because I think most people, when they think heaven, they're like, oh, I'm going to go there.

It's going to be like-

gosh.

Oh, man.

But coming back to this, what is it? It's about this beatific vision.

That's the blessed, the happy vision is seeing God face to face, being in the presence of God who is love, is the fulfillment of all desire.

And in nine chapters, Dr. Sutanto covers not only Bavinck's theological anthropology, such things as the image of God, nature of sin, human purpose, and these sorts of things, but also seeks to bring Bavinck's ideas into contemporary conversation and application.

So he examines things that you'd find in sort of theological anthropology, like the federal roles of Adam and Christ, the nature of sin, the beatific vision, the incarnation, things of this sort.

But then he also brings Bavinck into conversation with things like affect theory and cognitive science, as well as issues surrounding race and nationalism.

And in all this, Dr. Sutanto argues for an organic holism as a part of Bavinck's, uh, distinctive anthropology, and, uh, a holism that cuts across sort of typical or maybe expected binaries.

I said that, that this conversation was a, a really intriguing one 'cause it's, it's definitely not one that as... that I've seen, uh, folks having about Bavinck, uh, on race and nation, uh, sort of things, uh, for the most part.

So super helpful.

Um, you do wrap up the book by looking at the beatific vision as well as the incarnation.

You know, would Bavinck think it was necessary, not necessary, inevitable? Um, do you wanna pick one of those two things as, like, kind of a...

In that place there will be great and invincible security, secure tranquility, tranquil pleasures, pleasant happiness, happy eternity, and eternal blessedness.

The Blessed Trinity, the Triune Unity, the Unified Deity, and the Beatific Vision of the Deity.

Take heart, my soul, and investigate further the honor conveyed upon us by Christ.

We will associate with the assembly of angels and archangels, with thrones and dominions, with principalities and powers.