Can you see heaven from here?

One definition of a saint is someone who is already in heaven beholding God. The first reading today (Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14) gives us a good image of this: “a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue, [standing] before the throne and before the Lamb.”

The response to the psalm, “Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face,” not only echoes the definition above but adds the sage advice that if we want to find ourselves beholding God in the life to come, we must seek him while we are still here on earth.

Our Gospel today (Matthew 5:1-12a) tells us how we can see God’s face. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” the first Beatitude proclaims. But what does it mean to be spiritually poor? Just as the materially poor beg for their daily bread, the poor in spirit are those who take on the posture of beggars who lift up empty hands to God, recognizing they are nothing without him. Self-sufficiency can blind us; accepting our ultimate dependence on God can help us see him more clearly.

“Blessed are those who mourn….” Those grieving after losing a loved one surely feel deeply impoverished. We can only hope that the mourning doesn’t bury them under despair but urges them to seek out the One who promises that death is not an end but only the beginning of a new chapter. But the mourning in this Beatitude also refers to grief over sins, especially the sins we feel powerless to resist. The face of God comes like the sun in the mourning, comforting us, forgiving us, and strengthening us to try again.

“Blessed are the meek….” The Greek word translated as meek is praüs. Biblical meekness is not weakness but God’s power exercised with his gentleness. Jesus uses the same word to describe himself, “Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart” (Matthew 11:29). And Jesus lived out this meekness on the cross, when he could have come down and smote his torturers, but instead still prayed for them, “Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do.” When we are able to say the same words in prayer for those who have hurt us, we must have gotten a glimpse of God’s face.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” because they are actually hungering and thirsting for the God of righteousness. So, too, those who are merciful—they are seeking the God of mercy. And the peacemakers—they are trying to make peace because they are looking for the God of peace.

“Blessed are the clean of heart….” To know what it means to be “clean of heart,” we consider its opposite: to have a heart that is cluttered. If there are too many things taking up space in our lives, God may be pushed to a hidden nook or cranny and be forgotten. The “clean of heart” are those who discard extraneous things to make room for what is truly essential. Then we will indeed see God.

“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,” like St. Stephen, the Church’s first martyr. His bold preaching of Jesus led to his stoning. “But he, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God… and he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God’” (Acts 7:55-56). I have always found a sobering message in the fact that we celebrate the feast of St. Stephen the day after Christmas. If we have truly seen Christ, then we must be ready to be martyrs, too—not always in the giving up of our lives but in living as faithful witnesses to Jesus.

All the Beatitudes have promises attached to them. Most are expressed in the future tense: They will be comforted; they will inherit the land; they will be satisfied. The futurity helps us cling to God in hope. It reminds us that even when our earthly labors seem to bear no visible fruit, our longing is not in vain. The ultimate fulfillment awaits the moment we step into eternal glory and finally gaze upon God face-to-face.

But the very first and the very last Beatitudes break the silence of the future to declare: “Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” The Kingdom is not merely a distant destination; it is an enduring reality now—already broken into our world, even as we await its fullness. And lest we miss it, the first part of every Beatitude is expressed in the present: not “Blessed will you be,” but “Blessed are you….”

This shift in tense moves us beyond the transactional and into the transformational. God’s grace comes not only as a wage to be paid later. God’s grace is also life to be lived now. Goodness is its own reward because right action refines the soul.

In the Ignatian tradition, we recognize a deep spiritual law: We become what we contemplate. When we live out meekness, mercy, and peace, we are not simply performing moral duties. As we gaze upon the One who is the pure source of all meekness, mercy, and peace, we are inspired to become meek, merciful, and peaceful. By beholding God, we do not merely acquire virtues. We are transformed into his likeness, reflecting the face of God to a world that does not always see him.

Your prayer assignment this week:

Aside from the providential timing of the feast of St. Stephen, another pair of feast days has always brought me a quiet joy. November 1 is All Saints’ Day. November 2 is All Souls’ Day. But most of us Filipinos visit the resting places of our dearly departed not on November 2, but on November 1. I think this is a powerful testament of hope and faith—a bold belief that our loved ones whom we miss are already with God in heaven.

But that hope and faith can also be lived out right now. As Belinda Carlisle sings:

They say in Heaven, love comes first
We'll make Heaven a place on Earth
Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth

Pray with the acoustic (not the pop-rock) version of her song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxVQNRYA_xQ) as you reminisce about your dearly departed today. Remember how they brought a slice of heaven to your life on earth. Ask for the grace to live out the Beatitudes here and now, to make those around you feel truly blessed, and to anticipate the glory ahead by making heaven a place on earth.