Heaven, Hell, PurgatoryAnswered

Will there be eating and drinking in heaven, and what will heaven be like?

A viewer notes Jesus often speaks of feasting and drinking wine in heaven and asks whether there will be eating there and what heaven looks like.

Answer

We do not know for sure, because no passage of Scripture says it; the implications in various texts may just be metaphors. We do know Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden from trees God made for them, even though they had a guarantee of not dying, so there is at least one indication that we might eat for enjoyment, since we will have the same bodies, glorified, indestructible, never sick or needing sleep. But since our bodies will be incorruptible, we simply do not know. Because Scripture is not definitive, two major views developed. Thomas Aquinas, the contemplative egghead who could sit and stare at the cross for sixteen hours, held that heaven is the contemplative life raised to the highest power: you gaze at God constantly, the beatific vision, not moving about. Augustine, from his very different life, held that with our glorified bodies we will go here, there, and everywhere, instantly transporting ourselves, doing everything we did on earth but without pain or frustration and much faster, and now and then knocking on God's door to talk with Jesus and then going our way. About two dozen fathers and medievals threw this back and forth, some landing in between, because Scripture speaks only in symbols here, and God must have had a good reason. Whatever heaven is, it will be more glorious than you can imagine. You can read all the detail in my commentary on the Apocalypse, chapters 21 and 22.

Dr. Robert Sungenis

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