Our Home in Heaven
The Vocation to Marriage
Cormac Burke
CHOSEN by GOD, HOLY and BELOVED
Col. 3:12
Chosen by God to give witness to Christ and to bring all those who surround us the joy of knowing we are God’s children. CPB #30
To live out our vocation as beloved daughters and sons of Christ and become identified with Christ.
This vocation has two clear purposes: a call to faithful love and to fruitful love. CCC 2363
The first purpose is that spouses grow together in goodness, and in that openness to goodness which prepares them for HEAVEN. This means specifically that they are meant to grow in loving God (the first commandment) by means of growing in love for each other throughout their lifetime.
The second purpose is that they carry on God’s loving work of creation. In other words that as co-creators with God, they bring children into the world and rear them in the setting of family love, so as to prepare them for a life that can lead to HEAVEN.
HEAVEN
Pope Benedict XVI
In Christ ascended into heaven the human being has entered into intimacy with God in a new and unheard-of way.
Man henceforth finds room in God forever.
Heaven: this word heaven does not indicate a place above the stars, but something far more bold and sublime. It indicates Christ himself, the divine Person that completely and forever takes on humanity, he in whom God and man are united forever. And we draw near to heaven, indeed, we enter into heaven to the extent that we draw near to Jesus and enter into communion with him.
Man’s being in God, this is Heaven
Pope Benedict’s first Encyclical, Deus Caritas, God is Love
Pope Benedict’s last words, “Jesus, I love you,”