Teach Mormons about Catholicism (Home)
Table of Contents:
1. Prophets of God 7. Man
13. The Restoration
19. Baptism
2. One God 8. The Image of God
14. Tradition
20. Confirmation
3. Jesus Christ
9. The Fall of Adam
15. Catholic
21. Marriage
4. The Holy Spirit 10. Original Sin
16. The Church
22. Purgatory
5. The Holy Trinity 11. Faith and Grace
17. Apostle
23. Heaven and Hell
6. The Creation 12. Authority
18. The Priesthood
24. Eternal Life
24. Eternal Life
Mormonism: After Final Judgment their are three kingdoms of glory
(GP
Chapter 46)
Catholicism:
- Jesus Said, He Who Eats My Flesh And Drinks My Blood Has Eternal Life
- Whoever Believes In The Son Shall Have Eternal Life
- This Is Eternal Life To Know God
- In God's Plan Man Has The Vocation Of Subduing The Earth
- He Who Humbles Himself Will Be Exalted
- Man Can Partake Of The Divine Nature To Become A Son of God
- The Beatitudes Proclaim The Blessings And Rewards
- The Pure in Heart Will See God Face To Face And Be Like Him
- All The Righteous Go Into Eternal Life, The Just Will Reign
- All The Just, Having The Glory Of God, Will Be In The Father's Presence
- The Righteous Shall Reign For Ever With Christ
Jesus said, He Who Eats My Flesh And Drinks My Blood Has Eternal Life
Jesus said: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever;... he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and... abides in me, and I in him" (Jn 6:51, 54, 56) (CCC1406). The Lord addresses an invitation to us, urging us to receive him in the sacrament of the Eucharist: "Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you" [Jn 6:53] (CCC1384). The first announcement of the Eucharist divided the disciples, just as the announcement of the Passion scandalized them: "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" [Jn 6:60] The Eucharist and the Cross are stumbling blocks. It is the same mystery and it never ceases to be an occasion of division. "Will you also go away?": [Jn 6:67] the Lord's question echoes through the ages, as a loving invitation to discover that only he has "the words of eternal life" [Jn 6:68] and that to receive in faith the gift of his Eucharist is to receive the Lord himself (CCC1336).
Whoever Believes In The Son Shall Have Eternal Life
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life [Jn 3:16] (CCC458). He who believes in Christ becomes a son of God. This filial adoption transforms him by giving him the ability to follow the example of Christ. It makes him capable of acting rightly and doing good. In union with his Savior, the disciple attains the perfection of charity which is holiness. Having matured in grace, the moral life blossoms into eternal life in the glory of heaven (CCC1709). Filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can bestow true merit on us as a result of God's gratuitous justice. This is our right by grace, the full right of love, making us "co-heirs" with Christ and worthy of obtaining "the promised inheritance of eternal life" (CCC2009). We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him and do his will [ Rom 8:28-30; Mt 7:21]. In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God, to persevere "to the end" [Mt 10:22] and to obtain the joy of heaven, as God's eternal reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ (CCC1821).
Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of our journey here below. Then we shall see God "face to face", "as he is". [1 Cor 13:12; 1 Jn 3:2.] So faith is already the beginning of eternal life (CCC163).. The Holy Spirit... he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life" [Titus 3:6-7] (CCC1817). The Holy Spirit has marked us with the seal of the Lord "for the day of redemption" [Eph 4:30; 1:13-14; 2 Cor 1:21-22]. "Baptism indeed is the seal of eternal life." The faithful Christian who has "kept the seal" until the end, remaining faithful to the demands of his Baptism, will be able to depart this life "marked with the sign of faith," with his baptismal faith, in expectation of the blessed vision of God - the consummation of faith - and in the hope of resurrection (CCC1274).
This Is Eternal Life To Know God
God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us "partakers of the divine nature" and of eternal life [2 Pet 1:4; Jn 17:3] (CCC314). "Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?" To the young man who asked this question, Jesus answers first by invoking the necessity to recognize God as the "One there is who is good," as the supreme Good and the source of all good. Then Jesus tells him: "If you would enter life, keep the commandments." And he cites for his questioner the precepts that concern love of neighbor: "You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother." Finally Jesus sums up these commandments positively: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" [Mt 19:16-19] (CCC2052). To this first reply Jesus adds a second: "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me" [Mt 19:21]. This reply does not do away with the first: following Jesus Christ involves keeping the Commandments. The Law has not been abolished, [Mt 5:17] but rather man is invited to rediscover it in the person of his Master who is its perfect fulfillment. In the three synoptic Gospels, Jesus' call to the rich young man to follow him, in the obedience of a disciple and in the observance of the Commandments, is joined to the call to poverty and chastity [Mt 19:6-12, 21, 23-29]. The evangelical counsels are inseparable from the Commandments (CCC2053).
All Jesus did, said and suffered had for its aim restoring fallen man to his original vocation (CCC518). In God's plan man and woman have the vocation of "subduing" the earth [Gen 1:28] as stewards of God. (CCC373). To human beings God even gives the power of freely sharing in his providence by entrusting them with the responsibility of "subduing" the earth and having dominion over it [Gen 1:26-28]. God thus enables men to be intelligent and free causes in order to complete the work of creation, to perfect its harmony for their own good and that of their neighbors (CCC307). Created in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully "divinized" by God in glory (CCC398). God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us "partakers of the divine nature" and of eternal life [2 Pet 1:4; Jn 17:3]. With beatitude, man enters into the glory of Christ [Rom 8:18] and into the joy of the Trinitarian life (CCC1721).
We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvellous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end (CCC1040). Only at the end, when our partial knowledge ceases, when we see God "face to face", [1Cor 13:12] will we fully know the ways by which - even through the dramas of evil and sin - God has guided his creation to that definitive sabbath rest [Gen 2:2] for which he created heaven and earth (CCC314). In this new universe, the heavenly Jerusalem, God will have his dwelling among men [Rev 21:5]. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away" [Rev 21:4] (CCC1044).
He Who Humbles Himself Will Be Exalted
Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God. But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or "out of the depths" of a humble and contrite heart? [Ps 130:1]. He who humbles himself will be exalted; [Lk 18:9-14] humility is the foundation of prayer, Only when we humbly acknowledge that "we do not know how to pray as we ought," [Rom 8:26] are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer (CCC2559). By prayer we can discern "what is the will of God" and obtain the endurance to do it [Rom 12:2; Eph 5:17; Heb 10:36]. Jesus teaches us that one enters the kingdom of heaven not by speaking words, but by doing "the will of my Father in heaven" [Mt 7:21] (CCC2826). Christ Jesus always did what was pleasing to the Father, [Jn 8:29] and always lived in perfect communion with him. Likewise Christ's disciples are invited to live in the sight of the Father "who sees in secret," [Mt 6:6] in order to become "perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" [Mt 5:48] (CCC1693).
In all of his life Jesus presents himself as our model. He is "the perfect man", [Rom 1 5:5; Phil 2:5] who invites us to become his disciples and follow him. In humbling himself, he has given us an example to imitate, through his prayer he draws us to pray, and by his poverty he calls us to accept freely the privation and persecutions that may come our way [Jn 13:15; Lk 11:1; Mt 5:11-12] (CCC520). The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me." "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" [Mt 11:29; Jn 14:6]. Jesus is the model for the Beatitudes and the norm of the new law: "Love one another as I have loved you" [Jn 15:12]. This love implies an effective offering of oneself, after his example [Mk 8:34] (CCC459). His commandment is "that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." [Jn 13:34; cf. 1 Jn 3; 4; Lk 10:25-37] This commandment summarizes all the others and expresses his entire will (CCC2822).
Man Can Partake Of The Divine Nature To Become A Son of God
The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature": [2 Pt 1:4] "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God." "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God." "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods" (CCC460). We can adore the Father because he has caused us to be reborn to his life by adopting us as his children in his only Son: by Baptism, he incorporates us into the Body of his Christ; through the anointing of his Spirit who flows from the head to the members, he makes us other "Christs." God, indeed, who has predestined us to adoption as his sons, has conformed us to the glorious Body of Christ. So then you who have become sharers in Christ are appropriately called "Christs." The new man, reborn and restored to his God by grace, says first of all, "Father!" because he has now begun to be a son (CCC2782). By this power of the Spirit, God's children can bear much fruit. He who has grafted us onto the true vine will make us bear "the fruit of the Spirit:... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" [Gal 5:22-23]. "We live by the Spirit"; the more we renounce ourselves, the more we "walk by the Spirit" [Gal 5:25; Mt 16:24-26]. Through the Holy Spirit we are restored to paradise, led back to the Kingdom of heaven, and adopted as children, given confidence to call God "Father" and to share in Christ's grace, called children of light and given a share in eternal glory (CCC736).
Christians have become "children of God," [Jn 1:12; 1 Jn 3:1] "partakers of the divine nature" [2 Pet 1:4]. Coming to see in the faith their new dignity, Christians are called to lead henceforth a life "worthy of the gospel of Christ" [Phil 1:27]. They are made capable of doing so by the grace of Christ and the gifts of his Spirit, which they receive through the sacraments and through prayer (CCC1692). "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" [Phil 4:8]. A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions. The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God (CCC1803). Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good (CCC2288). The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine (CCC2290).
The Beatitudes Proclaim The Blessings And Rewards
Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ [2 Tim 1:9-10]. The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith. The parable of the poor man Lazarus and the words of Christ on the cross to the good thief, as well as other New Testament texts speak of a final destiny of the soul-a destiny which can be different for some and for others [Lk 16:22; 23:43; Mt 16:26; 2 Cor 5:8; Phil 1:23; Heb 9:27; 12:23] (CCC1021).
The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity. They express the vocation of the faithful associated with the glory of his Passion and Resurrection; they shed light on the actions and attitudes characteristic of the Christian life; they are the paradoxical promises that sustain hope in the midst of tribulations; they proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly, for Christ's disciples (CCC1717). The Beatitudes confront us with decisive choices concerning earthly goods; they purify our hearts in order to teach us to love God above all things (CCC1728). It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement (CCC1723).
The Beatitudes teach us the final end to which God calls us: the Kingdom, the vision of God, participation in the divine nature, eternal life, filiation, rest in God (CCC1726). The Beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence, the ultimate end of human acts: God calls us to his own beatitude (CCC1719). The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus' preaching. They take up the promises made to the chosen people since Abraham. The Beatitudes fulfill the promises by ordering them no longer merely to the possession of a territory, but to the Kingdom of heaven (CCC1716). Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven [Mt 5:3-12] (CCC1716).
Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God (CCC1822). Jesus makes charity the new commandment [Jn 13:34]. By loving his own "to the end," [Jn 13:1] he makes manifest the Father's love which he receives. By loving one another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which they themselves receive. Whence Jesus says: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love." And again: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" [Jn 15:9, 12] (CCC1823). The Apostle Paul has given an incomparable depiction of charity: "charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" [1 Cor 13:4-7] (CCC1825). "If I... have not charity," says the Apostle, "I am nothing." Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, "if I ... have not charity, I gain nothing" [1 Cor 13:1-4]. Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: "So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity" [1 Cor 13:13] (CCC1826).
The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God. He no longer stands before God as a slave, in servile fear, or as a mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who "first loved us" [1 Jn 4:19]: If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages,... we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands... we are in the position of children (CCC1828). The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion: Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest (CCC1829).
The Pure in Heart Will See God Face To Face And Be Like Him
The sixth beatitude proclaims, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" [Mt 5:8]. "Pure in heart" refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God's holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity; [1 Tim 4:3-9; 2 Tim 2:22] chastity or sexual rectitude; [1 Thess 4:7; Col 3:5; Eph 4:19] love of truth and orthodoxy of faith [Titus 1:15; 1 Tim 1:3-4; 2 Tim 2:23-26]. There is a connection between purity of heart, of body, and of faith (CCC2518). The "pure in heart" are promised that they will see God face to face and be like him [ 1 Cor 13:12; 1 Jn 3:2]. Purity of heart is the precondition of the vision of God. Even now it enables us to see according to God, to accept others as "neighbors"; it lets us perceive the human body - ours and our neighbor's - as a temple of the Holy Spirit, a manifestation of divine beauty (CCC2519).
Purity of heart will enable us to see God: it enables us even now to see things according to God (CCC2531). Misery elicited the compassion of Christ the Savior, who willingly took it upon himself and identified himself with the least of his brethren (CCC2448). The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities [Isa 58:6-7; Heb 13:3]. Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead [Mt 25:31-46]. Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God: [Tob 4:5-11; Sir 17:22; Mt 6:2-4] He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none and he who has food must do likewise [Lk 3:11]. But give for alms those things which are within; and behold, everything is clean for you [Lk 11:41]. If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? [Jas 2:15-16; 1 Jn 3:17] (CCC2447).
Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they "see him as he is," face to face [1 Jn 3:2; 1 Cor 13:12; Rev 22:4]. By virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According to the general disposition of God, the souls of all the saints... and other faithful who died after receiving Christ's holy Baptism (provided they were not in need of purification when they died,... or, if they then did need or will need some purification, when they have been purified after death,...) already before they take up their bodies again and before the general judgment - and this since the Ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into heaven - have been, are and will be in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom and celestial paradise with Christ, joined to the company of the holy angels. Since the Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, these souls have seen and do see the divine essence with an intuitive vision, and even face to face, without the mediation of any creature (CCC1023).
All The Righteous Go Into Eternal Life, The Just Will Reign
At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. Then the just will reign with Christ for ever, glorified in body and soul, and the material universe itself will be transformed. God will then be "all in all" (1 Cor 15:28), in eternal life (CCC1060). "We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him... For those whom he fore knew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified." [Rom 8:28-30] (CCC2012). Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life [Jn 1:12-18; 17:3; Rom 8:14-17; 2Pet 1:3-4] (CCC1996). For it is by grace that we are saved and again it is by grace that our works can bear fruit for eternal life (CCC1697).
As Lord, Christ is also head of the Church, which is his Body [Eph 1:22]. Taken up to heaven and glorified after he had thus fully accomplished his mission, Christ dwells on earth in his Church (CCC669). Through Baptism the Christian is sacramentally assimilated to Jesus, who in his own baptism anticipates his death and resurrection. The Christian must enter into this mystery of humble self-abasement and repentance, go down into the water with Jesus in order to rise with him, be reborn of water and the Spirit so as to become the Father's beloved son in the Son and "walk in newness of life" [Rom 6:4]: Let us be buried with Christ by Baptism to rise with him; let us go down with him to be raised with him; and let us rise with him to be glorified with him. Everything that happened to Christ lets us know that, after the bath of water, the Holy Spirit swoops down upon us from high heaven and that, adopted by the Father's voice, we become sons of God (CCC537).
All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven (CCC1030). Before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire (CCC1031). Christ will come "in his glory, and all the angels with him .... Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left.... And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" [Mt 25:31, 32, 46] (CCC1038). The New Testament uses several expressions to characterize the beatitude to which God calls man: - the coming of the Kingdom of God; [Mt 4:17] - the vision of God: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" [Mt 5:8; 1 Jn 2; 1 Cor 13:12] - entering into the joy of the Lord; [Mt 25:21-23] - entering into God's rest: [ Heb 4:7-11] There we shall rest and see, we shall see and love, we shall love and praise. Behold what will be at the end without end. For what other end do we have, if not to reach the kingdom which has no end? (CCC1720).
Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ (CCC1026). The Church will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven, at the time of Christ's glorious return. Only then will "all the just from the time of Adam, 'from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect,'... be gathered together in the universal Church in the Father's presence" (CCC769). All those he has redeemed and made "holy and blameless before him in love" [Eph 1:4], will be gathered together as the one People of God, the "Bride of the Lamb" [Rev 21:9], "the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God" [Rev 21:10-11] (CCC865). Those who are united with Christ will form the community of the redeemed, "the holy city" of God, "the Bride, the wife of the Lamb" [Rev 21:2, 9] (CCC1045). The Church is nothing other than "the family of God." From the beginning, the core of the Church was often constituted by those who had become believers "together with all [their] household" [Acts 18:8]. When they were converted, they desired that "their whole household" should also be saved [Acts 16:31; Acts 11:14] (CCC1655).
The Holy Spirit has marked us with the seal of the Lord ("Dominicus character") "for the day of redemption" [Eph 4:30; 1:13-14; 2 Cor 1:21-22]. "Baptism indeed is the seal of eternal life." The faithful Christian who has "kept the seal" until the end, remaining faithful to the demands of his Baptism, will be able to depart this life "marked with the sign of faith," with his baptismal faith, in expectation of the blessed vision of God - the consummation of faith - and in the hope of resurrection (CCC1274). This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father's house, the heavenly Jerusalem, paradise: "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him" [1 Cor 2:9] (CCC1027).
At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign for ever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed: The Church... will receive her perfection only in the glory of heaven, when will come the time of the renewal of all things. At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself, which is so closely related to man and which attains its destiny through him, will be perfectly re-established in Christ [Acts 3:21; Eph 1:10; Col 1:20; 2 Pet 3:10-13] (CCC1042). In the glory of heaven the blessed continue joyfully to fulfill God's will in relation to other men and to all creation. Already they reign with Christ; with him "they shall reign for ever and ever" [Rev 22:5; Mt 25:21, 23] (CCC1029). Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness (CCC1024). "New heavens and a new earth" [2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1] will be the definitive realization of God's plan to bring under a single head "all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth" [Eph 1:10] (CCC1043). When Christ presents to his Father an eternal and universal kingdom." God will then be "all in all" in eternal life [1 Cor 5:28] (CCC1050).
Our Father is in heaven, his dwelling place; the Father's house is our homeland. Sin has exiled us from the land of the covenant, [Gen 3] but conversion of heart enables us to return to the Father, to heaven [Jer 3:19-4; Lk 15:18, 21] (CCC2795). Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have access to the "Father's house", to God's life and happiness [Jn 14:2]. Only Christ can open to man such access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us (CCC661). "Heaven" or "the heavens" can designate both the firmament and God's own "place" - "our Father in heaven" and consequently the "heaven" too which is eschatological glory. Finally, "heaven" refers to the saints and the "place" of the spiritual creatures, the angels, who surround God [Pss 115:16; 19:2; Mt 5:16] (CCC326).