Bishop Schneider explains that the glory of Heaven will vary according to the perfection of charity in each soul, both in life and in eternal vision. Martyrdom represents the highest expression of this divine love, as exemplified by Christ Himself. Those who follow His path, especially martyrs, participate most intimately in His eternal glory.
The 144,000 in Heaven
In the Apocalypse of St. John, also known as the Book of Revelation, the Evangelist sees a throng of 144,000 people in Heaven waving their palm branches before the throne of God. When he inquired who they were, the Evangelist was told, “These are they who are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Apoc. 7:14). The glory in heaven, or the perfection of the beatific vision of God, will have different degrees. Our Lord said, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions” (John 14:2). The degree of the eternal glory will depend on the perfection of charity, as St. Thomas Aquinas explains:
In the first way [proximately] the mansions are distinguished according to the charity of heaven, which the more perfect it will be in anyone, the more will it render him capable of the Divine clarity, on the increase of which will depend the increase in perfection of the Divine vision. In the second way [remotely] the mansions are distinguished according to the charity of the way. For our actions are meritorious, not by the very substance of the action, but only by the habit of virtue with which they are informed. Now every virtue obtains its meritorious efficacy from charity, which has the end itself for its object. Hence the diversity of merit is all traced to the diversity of charity, and thus the charity of the way will distinguish the mansions by way of merit. (ST, Suppl., q. 93, a. 3 c)
The Ultimate Example of Love: Martyrdom
Our Lord said, “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
Martyrdom finds its highest and most perfect expression in the Divine virtue of love. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the highest example, the prototype of the martyrs. All His life on earth was directed towards His bloody sacrifice on the Cross, which He desired: “I am come to cast fire on the earth: and what will I, but that it be kindled? And I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized: And how am I straitened until it be accomplished?” (Luke 12:49–50). In the heavenly glory, the martyrs will be following Him most closely, since the Lord surrounded Himself in His first coming here on earth with the martyrs, the Innocent Children, and after His Ascension into heaven, He gave to the young Church her first saint and martyr in St. Stephen.
ooo
This article is taken from a chapter in No Greater Love by Bishop Athanasius Schneider which is available from TAN Books.
