Beatific Vision
The Beatific Vision is a term in Catholic theology describing the direct perception of God enjoyed by those who are in Heaven, imparting supreme happiness or blessedness. Outside of the Catholic tradition, many believe that it is possible to experience God directly while still on earth, but Roman Catholic theology, humans' understanding of God while alive is indirect (mediated), while the beatific vision is direct (immediate).
Thomas Aquinas defined the beatific vision as the ultimate goal of human existence after physical death. Aquinas's formulation of beholding God in Heaven parallels Plato's description of one beholding the Good in the world of knowledge. However, Aquinas himself is believed by some to have experienced the Beatific Vision just before his own death.
The Beatific Vision should not be confused with other mystical experiences such as the attainment of a unitive state with God, visionary revelations from angels, or even glimpses of an aspect of God. However, some have argued that the Catholic insistence of this limited definition of the Beatific Vision makes it unattainable even in Heaven, while at the same time discouraging to those who seek mystical experience with God on earth.
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)
In 2 Peter 1, the promise is given that Christians became "partakers in the divine nature," while the Book of Revelation reports numerous visions of God and this throne.
Christian tradition
Catholic theology, however, took the view that the true Beatific Vision is impossible to achieve while still on earth. The term is defined by the Catholic Encylopedia as "The immediate knowledge of God which the angelic spirits and the souls of the just enjoy in Heaven."
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"
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.
However, other saints and mystics hint a direct vision of God while still in the flesh. Two major themes of Christian mysticism are 1) a complete identification with Christ, thus participating in his divine nature; and 2) the perfect vision of God, in which the mystic seeks to experience God "as he is," and no more "through a glass, darkly." (1 Corinthians 13:12)
In his work The Ladder, Saint John Climacus describes how to raise one's soul and body to God, as if on a ladder, the goal of which is theosis (mystical union with God). The later tradition of Hesychasm used meditative practices designed to eventually experience God directly as "Uncreated Light." Saint Theresa of Avila wrote of the "devotion of union," an ecstatic state in which the faculty of reason is absorbed in God, characterized by a blissful peace, a conscious rapture in the love of God.
Formalizing the Beatific Vision
In the thirteenth century, philosopher-theologian Thomas Aquinas described the ultimate goal of a human life as consisting in the intellectual Beatific Vision of God's essence after death. 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.
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. 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.
Before finishing his Summa Theologica, Aquinas reportedly experienced ecstatic visions, ceased all writing, and declared: “All that I have written seems to me like straw compared to what has now been revealed to me.” Some believe that, ironically, Aquinas himself experience the Beatific Vision on earth after arguing that it could only be experienced in Heaven.
Pope John XXII (1316 - 1334) held that the saved do not attain the Beatific Vision until Judgment Day negating the idea that the Beatific Vision is enjoyed by those currently in Heaven. Catholics are quick to point out that his opinion was not expressed ex cathedra and therefore does not constitute official Catholic doctrine, although the text of his declaration indicates that his intention was otherwise. However, the College of Cardinals held a consistory on the problem in January 1334, and pope withdrew his view.
An official declaration issued by Benedict XII in 1336 stated:
Since the passion and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, these [pure] 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. [1]
Other traditions
Later Christian tradition, as well as various mystical trends in other religions, often speak of direct visions of God.
Hindu and Buddhist thought have long spoken of the experience of samadhi, in which the soul finds union with the divine while still in the body. The mystical tradition in Islam speaks of literally seeing with God's eyes: "When I love him, I am his hearing by which he hears; and his sight by which he sees; his hand by which he strikes; and his foot by which he walks." (Hadith of An-Nawawi 38)
George Fox and the other early Quakers believed that direct experience of God was available to all people, without mediation. Later Christian mysticism, unencumbered by fears of being declared heretical, became more bold in its verbal expression of direct spiritual perceptions of God. New Age and psychedelic philosophies also speak of direct experiences with God while still in the body, or sometimes temporarily out of it.
Yet, such experiences may not be the same as that defined by the Beatific Vision. Indeed, few if any of those who report to have experienced God directly ever claim that what they have perceived is the entirety of God, or that other would necessarily perceive God the same way. Catholic tradition, meanwhile, continues to insist that the Beatific vision is unavailable to those on earth.
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- ↑ [ http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/B12BDEUS.HTM BENEDICTUS DEUS] Retrieved September 13, 2008.
