In addition to the immense joy of contemplating God, of seeing and being with the glorified Jesus Christ, there is an accidental beatitude, through which we will enjoy the created goods that respond to our aspirations. The company of the righteous people we have loved most in this world: family, friends; and also the glory of our resurrected bodies, because our resurrected body will be numerically and specifically identical to the earthly one: it is necessary, says St. Paul, that "this" corruptible being be clothed with incorruptibility, and that "this" mortal being be clothed with immortality.
"This", ours, not another similar or very similar. It is very important," affirms the Roman Catechism, "to be persuaded that this same body, and undoubtedly the same body that has been proper to each one of us, although it has been corrupted and reduced to dust, will nevertheless rise again. And St. Augustine clearly affirms: "This flesh will rise again, the same flesh that dies and is buried (...). The flesh that is now sick and in pain, that same flesh will rise again "18. Our personality will remain the same, and we will have the same body, but clothed with glory and splendor, if we have been faithful.
Our body will have the qualities proper to glorious bodies: agility and subtlety -that is, not being subject to the limitations of space and time-, impassibility -there will be no more death, no more weeping and wailing, no more pain..., no more hunger, no more thirst..., God will wipe away every tear from their eyes19-, clarity, beauty.
"I believe in the resurrection of the flesh," we confess in the Apostolic Symbol. Our bodies in Heaven will have different characteristics from the present ones, but they will still be bodies and will occupy a place20, as now the glorious Body of Christ and that of the Virgin. We do not know how or where it is or how that place is formed. The earth of now will have been transfigured: I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth will have disappeared... behold, I make all things new21. Many Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and also many saints, think that the renewal of all creation follows from revelation itself.
The memory of Heaven, now that the feast of the Ascension of the Lord is approaching, should lead us to a determined and joyful struggle to remove the obstacles that stand between us and Christ; it impels us to seek above all the goods that last and not to desire at all costs the consolations that come to an end.
Thinking of Heaven gives great serenity. Nothing here is irreparable, nothing is definitive, all mistakes can be repaired. The only definitive failure would be to miss the door that leads to Life. The Blessed Virgin is also waiting for us there.
Hablar con Dios