Will We Know Each Other In Heaven?

by Fr. John Parks  |  10/13/2024  |  Weekly Reflection

During your life, you may have had the above question. To help us answer it I would like to quote from the ‘Dialogue’ of St. Catherine of Siena. This is a private revelation that Catherine received from the Lord. As a private revelation, it is not necessary for a Catholic to believe but has been judged worthy to believe by the Church and containing no doctrinal error. Put more colloquially, we are free to believe it if it spurns us on to love God more and to set it aside if it does not.

To our question, God the Father revealed to Catherine, “And although they are all joined in the bond of charity [those in Heaven], they know a special kind of sharing with those whom they loved most closely with a special love in the world, a love through which they grew in grace and virtue. They helped each other proclaim the glory and praise of my name in themselves and in their neighbors. So now in everlasting life they have not lost that love; no, they still love and share with each other even more closely and fully, adding their love to the good of all (Dialogue of St. Catherine, emphasis added).”

As you can see from the above quote, the love we share with others in Christ is exponentially greater and closer in heaven. We lose nothing of our human loves on earth –those rooted in God – but it is transfigured and brought to perfection in heaven. How beautiful to think about! How glorious that our human loves can go on for eternity.

This should inspire us to seek holy friendships with others. Friendships that inspire us to grow “in grace and virtue” as St. Catherine says. These friendships are essential for living a faithful life in Christ while on earth and become for us an eternal gift in Heaven.

Do you have these kinds of friendships in your life? If so, thank God! If not, we can ask St. Catherine’s intercession to help bring them about.