Beatific Vision
The beatific vision is the eternal, direct perception of God enjoyed by those who are in Heaven and sometimes perceived by a select few on earth, imparting supreme happiness or blessedness. In Roman Catholic theology, humans' understanding of God while alive is indirect (mediated), but the beatific vision is direct (immediate).
Thomas Aquinas defined the beatific vision as the ultimate end of human existence after physical death. However, Aquinas himself is believed by some to have experienced a beatific vision just before his own death.
Aquinas's formulation of beholding God in Heaven parallels Plato's description of one beholding the Good in the world of knowledge.
The beatific vision featured in a controversy when Pope John XXII denied that the saved experienced it before Judgment Day.
Ancient Judaism
Judaism took a somewhat ambivalent attitude on the subject. In Exodus 33:20 God says to Moses, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live." However, the prophet Isaiah reported "I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple." (Isaiah 6:1) Later, Ezekiel stopped just short of claiming to have seen God himself, describing instead a vision "the likeness of the glory of the Lord."
High above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him.Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. (Ezekiel 1:26-28)
Such apocalyptic imagery gave rise to a mystical tradition in Judaism which usually followed Ezekiel's line of carefully avoiding any claim to have seen God directly, while medidating, speculating, and reporting in detail various visions of the heavenly chariot or throne on which God sits, the glory of God, the heavenly Temple, angels, and various other orders of heavenly beings. Nevertheless, later Talmudic tradition generally did not encourage this type of mystical activity.
Platonism
The philosophy of Plato, hints at the concept of the Beatific Vision in the Allegory of the cave, which appears in the Republic Book 7 (514a - 520a), speaking through the character of Socrates:
"My opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good (the Good) appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual." (517b,c)
For Plato, the Good appears to correspond to God in Christian theology St. Augustine expressed views similar to Plato's on this subject, and was familiar with Plato's ideas, either directly or via the writings of neoplatonists.
New Testament
The New Testament reports numerous heavenly vision, although it is debatable whether any of these constitutes a beatific vision. Various reports of visitation from angels clearly do not fall into this category. However, several instances are reported of Jesus, while still alive on earth, having extraordinarily direct communion with God, such as at his baptism and transfiguration. In addition, Jesus tells his disciples: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." (Matthew 5:8)
In the Book of Acts, Saint Stephen, just before his death, stated: "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." In addition, Saint Paul hints that he has had a vision so powerful that he dare not speak of it:
I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven... I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. (2 Cor. 12: 1-5)
Catholic tradition
St. Cyprian of Carthage wrote of the saved seeing God in the Kingdom of Heaven.
"How great will your glory and happiness be, to be allowed to see God, to be honored with sharing the joy of salvation and eternal light with Christ your Lord and God... to delight in the joy of immortality in the Kingdom of Heaven with the righteous and God's friends" ~ St. Cyprian
More specifically, Catholic Encyclopedia defines the beatific vision:
The immediate knowledge of God which the angelic spirits and the souls of the just enjoy in Heaven. It is called "vision" to distinguish it from the mediate knowledge of God which the human mind may attain in the present life. And since in beholding God face to face the created intelligence finds perfect happiness, the vision is termed "beatific."
In Catholic theology, the intercession of saints is valid because those who have died in the faith are with God in Heaven and enjoy the Beatific Vision, i.e., unmediated access to God's presence.
History of the beatific vision
In the 13th-Century, the philosopher-theologian Thomas Aquinas described the ultimate end of a human life as consisting in the intellectual Beatific Vision of God's essence after death. see Summa Theologiae
According to Aquinas, the Beatific Vision surpasses both faith and reason. Rational knowledge does not fully satisfy humankind's innate desire to know God, since reason is primarily concerned with sensible objects, and thus can only infer its conclusions about God indirectly. Summa Theologiae
The theological virtue of faith, too, is incomplete, since Aquinas thinks that it always implies some imperfection in the understanding. The believer does not wish to remain merely on the level of faith, but to understand what is believed. Summa Contra Gentiles
Thus only the fullness of the Beatific Vision satisfies this fundamental desire of the human soul to know God. Quoting St Paul, Aquinas notes "We see now in a glass darkly, but then face to face" (i Cor. 13:12). The Beatific Vision is the final reward for those saints elect by God to partake in and "enjoy the same happiness wherewith God is happy, seeing Him in the way which He sees Himself" in the next life. Summa Contra Gentiles
Pope John XXII (1316 - 1334) caused a controversy involving the Beatific Vision. He said, not as Pope but as a private theologian, that the saved do not attain the Beatific Vision until Judgment Day. The general understanding at the time was that the saved attained Heaven after being purified and before Judgment Day. He never proclaimed his belief as doctrine (see 'ex cathedra). The Sacred College of Cardinals held a consistory on the problem in January 1334, and Pope John backed away from his novel views to the more standard understanding. His successor declared it doctrine that the saved attain Heaven before Judgment Day.
Constitution issued in 1336
By this Constitution which is to remain in force for ever, we, with apostolic authority, define the following: According to the general disposition of God, the souls of all the saints who departed from this world before the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and also of the holy apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins and other faithful who died after receiving the holy baptism of Christ—provided they were not in need of any purification when they died, or will not be in need of any when they die in the future, or else, if they then needed or will need some purification, after they have been purified after death—and again the souls of children who have been reborn by the same baptism of Christ or will be when baptism is conferred on them, if they die before attaining the use of free will: all these souls, immediately (mox) after death and, in the case of those in need of purification, after the purification mentioned above, since the ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ into heaven, already before they take up their bodies again and before the general judgment, have been, are and will be with Christ in heaven, in the heavenly kingdom and paradise, joined to the company of the holy angels. Since the passion and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, these souls have seen and see the divine essence with an intuitive vision and even face to face, without the mediation of any creature by way of object of vision; rather the divine essence immediately manifests itself to them, plainly, clearly and openly, and in this vision they enjoy the divine essence . Moreover, by this vision and enjoyment the souls of those who have already died are truly blessed and have eternal life and rest. Also the souls of those who will die in the future will see the same divine essence and will enjoy it before the general judgment.
Such a vision and enjoyment of the divine essence do away with the acts of faith and hope in these souls, inasmuch as faith and hope are properly theological virtues. And after such intuitive and face-to-face vision and enjoyment has or will have begun for these souls, the same vision and enjoyment has continued and will continue without any interruption and without end until the last Judgment and from then on forever.
(On hell and the general judgment)
Moreover we define that according to the general disposition of God, the souls of those who die in actual mortal sin go down into hell immediately (mox) after death and there suffer the pain of hell. Nevertheless, on the day of judgment all men will appear with their bodies "before the judgment seat of Christ" to give an account of their personal deeds, "so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body" (2 Cor. 5.10).
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