Karlo Broussard answers a caller’s question about seeing our loved ones in Heaven both before and after the Second Coming, and explains the notions of a New Heaven and a New Earth.
Transcript:
Host: Theresa in Fresno, California, listening on the Immaculate Heart radio app, you are on with Karlo Broussard, what’s your question? Good morning, good afternoon, thanks for taking my call. My question is, I have a friend who doesn’t have any religious background and she is concerned that there is no one in Heaven who wants to see her. So I don’t know what to say to that, I told her, “I will be there, Jesus wants to see you, Mary wants to see you,” and will we see our loved ones in Heaven?
Karlo: Oh, very good question. Yes, so Theresa, I would commend you for the answer that you gave this individual in saying that you want to see her, if by the Grace of God you indeed make it to heaven; Jesus definitely wants to see her, the Blessed Mother and all the saints want to see her and that is absolutely correct.
Teresa, you know when we get in Heaven, the Church teaches that we will not only experience happiness by virtue of our knowledge and communion with God, but also our knowledge and our communion with the mystical Body of Christ, with other members of the mystical body of Christ and we will have–currently the Blessed in Heaven don’t have their bodies yet but they have an awareness and the knowledge given to them by God of who is present among the Blessed in Heaven. But when we get our glorified bodies back we will actually see the other members of the mystical Body of Christ and those dwelling in the New Heaven and the New Earth with us, we will recognize them, we will remember them from our relationships here in this life.
So this is something that you can continue to share with your friend and say, “There will be knowledge of others.” We will know who is there, we will communicate with them by the graces and the power that God gives us, and we will have our glorified bodies where we will see each other, including our Blessed Lord, including the Blessed Mother, see each other in all of their glorified bodies recognizing each other and from that intimate knowledge and communion with other saints in the New Heaven and the New Earth, Teresa, we’re gonna experience happiness, the happiness flowing not only from the Beatific Vision of God, but also the happiness flowing from this communion of this relationship with other members of the mystical Body of Christ. Does that make sense?
Caller: Yeehaw! I guess it does make sense.
Karlo: Yes ma’am! Thank you so much.
Host: Thank you very much Teresa for that call and for that question. And you mentioned a New Heaven and a New Earth, and we’re to take that literally, that there will be a New Earth?
Karlo: That’s right, well, the Church teaches definitively, for example in paragraphs 1042 – 1044, the Catechism is affirming a constant teaching of the Church, which is also found in Sacred Scripture, that there will be a New Heaven and the New Earth. The Catechism states how the universe will be renewed, there will be a new universe, the universe will be transformed as the Catechism states in paragraph 1046 – 47 within that area. So the material universe will continue to exist but it will be transfigured, you might say transformed, taking on new characteristics akin to the new characteristics that we’re going to get in our glorified bodies, such as incorruptibility.
There will be no more decay in the material universe, so we will have physical bodies with new qualities and properties and characteristics, by the Grace of God it’s a miracle, and even the physical universe will continue to exist with new characteristics, new properties, according to Church teaching but also according to Sacred Scripture as well. For example, St. Paul writes about in Romans 8:18-25 where the creation would no longer be subject to decay, and of course in Revelation chapter 21, you know, Christ is talking about, “Behold, I make all things new,” and St. John is talking about a New Heaven and a New Earth.