The Hope of Heaven

“HOW can we not think constantly of Heaven? How can it not be the most powerful force of attraction in our lives? For in Heaven is true life, lasting and definitive, of which the present life is only the prologue.” All the more so since Heaven does not allow itself to be forgotten.

The French bill on euthanasia, passed by the National Assembly in the spring of 2025, is one of the worst of all. It imposes on medical establishments an obligation to authorise euthanasia on their premises, including in Catholic institutions, under penalty of heavy fines for establishments or officials who oppose it. The “offence of obstruction” exposes directors to two years’ imprisonment and a fine of €30,000.

In other words, the text prohibits the director of a facility – whether public, private, non-profit or religious – from opposing the intervention of outside health professionals who come to administer a lethal injection in cases where the facility’s staff invoke the conscience clause.

In many countries that have legalised euthanasia, private institutions have adopted charters expressing their religious and moral convictions, which have been a source of controversy in Switzerland, Belgium and Canada.

In France, in a dramatic turn of events, the Senate first completely reworked the bill, excluding every offence of obstruction, then even all recourse to induced death, and finally, on Wednesday, January 28, in a formal vote, the entire bill was rejected, with 144 votes against, 123 in favour and 38 abstentions.

“The debate showed very clearly that there was no consensus on this text, but a real division between supporters and opponents of assisted suicide and euthanasia. This is a far cry from the idea conveyed by polls commissioned by supporters of assisted death, according to which 90% of French people are in favour of it! Even among elected representatives who support assisted death, there are disagreements,” explained Senator Emmanuel Capus, from the centre-left (Les Indépendants).

Those who are determined to push this law through are the socialists and their allies (ecologists, communists, Macronists). One minister even said that the most vocal supporters were “a very influential lobby of some members of parliament, a strong commitment from the President of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, and the determination of Emmanuel Macron, who has made a solemn commitment to take action on this issue and must therefore see it through to the end.”

According to the president of the Socialist group, Patrick Kanner, this failure resulted from an intense campaign by Bruno Retailleau, “who shot the text down in flames”. However, no reference to God’s will was made. All participants rejected an appeal to God, including the bishops of France when they solemnly justified their opposition to the legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide with this truism: “We do not take care of life by giving death.” No reference to God’s commandment: “Thou shalt not kill.” Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille and President of the CEF (Conference of French Bishops), invokes “fraternity, a central value of our Republic!”

In fact, this is a revolt of man against God. “We, more than anyone else, have the cult of Man.” These are the words of Pope Paul VI, put into practice by all his successors.

“We are not part of a sect led by Bruno Retailleau. Nor did we vote out of obedience to a dogma. Everyone is free on a subject that will determine our society of tomorrow,” replied Senator LR● Anne Chain-Larché.

These liberal positions clearly show that the rejection of the law is the result of human calculation. An appeal to God is rejected.

Well, God responds through the voice of a Communist senator, Pierre Ouzoulias, who clearly stated the truth: “Part of the Catholic right wants to replay the debate on the Claeys and Leonetti Law, in the name of a religious principle, according to which the individual does not have total free will, but rather it is God Who gives life and takes it away.” Enlightened by his hatred, Ouzoulias recalls the Catholic faith to stir up the antichrist hatred of his party! Brother Michael● first notes how the lack of recourse to any supernatural means, renders the defence of Catholics ineffective and doomed to failure. He then reminds us that it is God Who commands. The failure of the bill, he explains, “may be Heaven’s answer to our prayers, our sacrifices and our pilgrimage to Lourdes in a spirit of reparation, for the spectre of euthanasia is receding from us for a time.” According to Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo, deputy and former minister, even if the bill is passed in the Assembly, municipal and senatorial elections will block the process. The Senate will not examine the bill before October 2026. Each chamber must then read it before the Assembly adopts it finally. According to her, therefore, the bill will not be adopted before the end of the legislative term unless Emmanuel Macron decides to hold a referendum. Let us hope that her assessment is correct.

The Terrifying Secret.

Well, if that should arise, we must recall this warning from the smiling Pope, John Paul I: “Hell exists and we can fall into it.” This statement followed a lengthy conversation he had with Sister Lucy who, as a child, had seen Hell on July 13, 1917. She related in her Memoirs that after hearing the Virgin Mary’s demand:

“Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and often say to Jesus, especially when you make a sacrifice:

‘O Jesus, it is for the love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.’

“As She said these last words, Our Lady opened Her hands again, as She had done the two previous months. The reflection of the light seemed to penetrate the earth and we saw what looked like a vast ocean of fire. Plunged in this fire we saw demons and the souls of the damned.

“The latter were like transparent burning embers, black or bronzed, having human form. They were floating in this fire, lifted up by the flames that issued from within themselves, along with clouds of smoke. They fell back on all sides, like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid cries and groans of despair that were horrifying to hear and made us tremble with fright.

“It must have been this sight that caused me to let out the cry that the people around me heard. The demons could be distinguished from the souls of the damned by their horrible and repellent likeness to frightening and unknown animals, but they were transparent, like burning black coals.”

“This vision lasted only a moment, thanks to our good Mother in Heaven who, at the first apparition, had promised to take us to Heaven. Otherwise, we believe we would have died of terror and fear.”

“But we are not made for Hell. In Adam, God created us holy and happy, and all His work of salvation aims to bring us back to a paradise better than the one that was lost. To accomplish this return to Him, we have the whole span of a lifetime, which is at once a lot and a little. It is a lot in terms of the mercy and patience of our heavenly Father, Who never wearies or is disheartened by our acts of defiance and cowardice; it is little in terms of our dilatoriness and carelessness, always ready to waste those precious hours that pass quickly and will never return. It is also little in view of the work to be accomplished, that of holiness, according to the Lord’s commandment: “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”

“This truth is too little known: we are all called to the perfection of charity in this life. We must not leave that ‘final touch’, those ultimate steps which alone will make us fully children of God, until the moment of death or the time of Purgatory. The ladder placed before humanity to climb is not too short, as is commonly believed, to reach Heaven immediately, and the trial of Purgatory is neither normal nor inevitable. Theologians teach this truth: Purgatory is a place of punishment and we should not have to go there if we are faithful to grace. In other words, the earthly vocation of all of us is to attain the holiness that leads us directly from earth to the bosom of God in heavenly bliss. We believe, out of a misguided sense of humility, that this happiness is reserved for a select few, for saints, but this is a mistake that impoverishes our hope and discourages our purest impulses. In truth, Providence provides all of us with a path that leads straight to God, and we have the power to follow it without fail to its marvellous end.

“How contrary this is to common opinion! So many souls do not taste the joy of a living faith because they remain timorous, held back in their mediocrity by the idea that they are not called to do better. They do not know how to pursue perfection and they lack this good desire and effective will to pursue their vocation to the end and to strive toward God with a love that grows purer and more vehement each day. As a result, they vegetate, and this is regrettable because they too could live in an intimate union with God in this life here below.

“This is what the prayer of Saint Andrew Avellino brings to full light. We should embrace this desire to become better every day, to grow in perfection without ceasing, because inspiration and grace are available to us, just as they were for Saint Andrew. This holy desire is already half the work, because as soon as it appears in the soul, it gives rise to a programme of sanctification, successive ‘degrees’ for the ascent of the Holy Mountain. The soul then ceases to follow headlong a long and winding road at the bottom of the plain, but with its gaze raised towards the summit of light, it examines the route, the difficult passages, and in this overview it already tastes the strong joy of the expected victory. Only the length of the journey escapes it, fortunately. It is a common optical error in the mountains to estimate everything as much too close. Thus, the soul that decides to embark on the path of perfection, identifying the three or four stages to be completed, imagines climbing them in a few years, but the realisation will reveal unexpected lengths. No matter, the important thing is to commit oneself!”

(Father Georges de Nantes, Letter to My Friends no. 45, November 10, 1958)

Brother Bruno of Jesus-Mary.

THE DESIRE FOR HEAVEN IS A GIFT FROM GOD

“At that time, I possessed a faith so vivid and clear, that the thought of Heaven was all my happiness.”

“Beyond the sad clouds, my gentle Sun is still shining.” (Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, The Story of a Soul)

In this marvellous month of October, when the sun’s rays are golden and all of nature is experiencing the last mild days, it would seem as though even the smallest creatures are teaching us how to die well. This month leads toward All Souls’ Day, but first toward All Saints’ Day, when paradise opens up before our dazzled eyes, with its myriads of angels and men, glorious, transfigured by joy, singing a hymn of praise with fervent love.

How is it that we are unable to think about Heaven constantly? How can Heaven not be the most powerful force of attraction in our lives? For in Heaven is true life – the everlasting and definitive one –, and this life serves only as its prologue. In Heaven is the fullness of happiness, of which our earthly joys are but reflections or signs; in Heaven is light; in Heaven is the marvellous work of contemplation and praise, of which all our earthly labours, our intellectual pursuits, our technical and artistic creations are but poor substitutes. Everything we love to do on earth is but a diversion from the great expectation of the vision of Heaven. No doubt the heart and mind are caught up in the affections and interests of daily life, because they are within their reach, but these lights, however close and bright they may be, should always appear to us only as a superimposition, like the light of lamps under the midday sun!

We lack magnanimity; we do not dare to hope on a scale commensurate with God’s gifts, and we cling jealously to earthly goods, greedily, for fear that the divine bliss of Heaven might not replace them or grant comparable pleasures. This attitude is folly and sin. It is folly and it is a sin. Will not the supreme sweetness of Heaven fill all our faculties to the very last cell of our bodies and to the marrow of our bones? We are reluctant to believe, and our hearts are too penurious to suspect the generosity of the Good God towards His miserly creatures! He Who gave us all these desires, could He be unable to fulfil them? Or would He not want to, when everything He has done is beautiful and good? Rather than believe this, we pursue earthly pleasures, and when they fade away, in the bitterness of bereavements and tears, weary souls no longer believe in the joys of the hereafter and withdraw into fruitless sorrow. It takes a young and generous soul to think about Heaven, to dream about it, and those who constantly keep it in mind know how to welcome the joys of the earth and lose them without seeing their hope decline.

Yes, the desire for Heaven is a gift from God that gladdens the soul in its youth and becomes its hidden treasure in middle age, its immense hope on the threshold of death. It is for the soul the subject of endless meditation. In this light, its reason shows it the fleeting and secondary nature of earthly joys and sorrows. Everything takes on value only with a view to Heaven, and nothing is worth anything except what prepares for it. Day by day, hour by hour, the movement of the hands on the face of a clock reminds us of the approach of that solemn minute when the soul will enter into the Glory of its God. I was once acquainted with a person who, undoubtedly enlightened by the gift of Wisdom, could not hear a clock strike or see its dial without being filled with great joy for this reason. Absorbed by the thought of the bliss to come, this soul already lived in its radiance, longing for it: “There are still a finite, determined number of ticktocks left, and then it will be eternity,” she told me; then, pausing to listen to the steady ticking of the watch: “And you see, it is decreasing… soon there will be no more!” she would say with a smile. Obviously, in this state of grace, all the pain, toil and suffering that the soul accepts does not alter this joy, but rather enriches it: in Heaven, “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” and “He will repay every debt” a hundredfold! Even daily courage will be magnified because time is running out and efforts will not continue indefinitely. Just a little longer and the time of eternal rest will come!

To perceive death approaching from afar as a friend in the depths of the heart is a gift from God. Then life is no longer an endless desert or a pointless adventure, but it becomes a very rich time of trial, an important novitiate, every minute of which must be filled to the full. For it lasts just long enough for us to understand death’s purpose and make the most of it, the fruit of which will be eternal.

Even during the crossing of the desert by the People of God, there was already “the rabble that had a strong craving”. They only wanted to return to the base satisfactions of Egypt and cursed the desert. With them, “the children of Israel also wept again, and said, ‘Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic! But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.’ ” (Nb 11:4-6) Such are most men still, and Christians themselves. Their conduct is that of slaves who make no attempt whatsoever to understand the benevolent designs of their Master. They advance towards the Promised Land, but by force and as if reluctantly, thirsting and hungering only for earthly food. Yet they are going to “the Land flowing with milk and honey” that God the Father has prepared for them in His love, but they do not want to know it. They cling only to their familiar pleasures and even come to despise the miraculous food that is offered to them and that comes from Heaven to reveal to them its savour.

More beautiful and exalting is the faith of the Patriarchs that the Epistle to the Hebrews gives as an example: “These all died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” (Heb 11:13) Like Abraham, who lived in a tent but “looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Everything they desired and prepared as sons convinced of their Father’s wisdom and love, we have already received in Jesus Christ; yet, like them, we still hope for better things in immortality: “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come.”

How much better endowed is the present generation than those distant ancestors of our faith! We can already see what they glimpsed in the darkness of an imperfect revelation. It is as though a heavenly City were being built before our very eyes. The community of saints is already prefigured and formed in the visible community of the Church, and from one shore to the other the passage is so simple that it is almost easy to imagine it, despite the mystery. The spiritual nourishment of the Eucharist already has the savour of divine goods and begins to satisfy our hunger, much more than the manna, which was only its physical symbol. The charity that brings us together is the same that triumphs in Heaven, and there we shall find again these same faces, already transformed by the grace of baptism. The hymns of the Church are the earthly rehearsals for the immense Hosanna that resounds in the choirs of angels, and the Sacrifice of the altar will reveal its well-known mystery to those who will taste it at the eternal Wedding Feast of the Lamb.

This continuity triumphs over death; it lifts our hearts to God, to where so many relatives, friends and brothers, whom we have loved, have already entered. There, they continue the life – transfigured yet almost unchanged – of divine and human love that they had begun among us. Truly, our whole life, all our joy, all our love are in Heaven.

(Father Georges de Nantes, Letter to My Friends, No. 44, October 1, 1958.)