New Heavens and New Earth

Seeing the seeds of the kingdom in human hearts

03/12/2018

Isaiah 65:17-21 Thus says the LORD: Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create; For I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight; I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people. No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there, or the sound of crying; No longer shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime; He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years, and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed. They shall live in the houses they build, and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant.

The Biblical concept of a new heavens and a new earth is found in both the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament. But each Testament has a very different emphasis. Isaiah chapters 65 and 66 speak of a new heaven and a new earth, but clearly it is referring to an earthly manifestation of that newness. The Old Testament really lacked any sense that God would right all wrongs in the next life, after death. Rather, the Jews believed all would be set straight here and now on earth with the restoration of the Davidic Kingdom. Try to read the Old Testament through the lens of earthly fulfillment of these ancient prophesies; that was their original sense, what Scripture scholars call the “literal sense.”

The New Testament speaks of a new heavens and a new earth in the second letter of Peter and in Revelation 21. But the stress of this second half of the Scripture is decidedly different, it is spiritual and other-worldly. That’s one reason Jesus becomes so perturbed in the gospels with the Jews seeking a sign because their desire was for an immediately earthly good – food, bodily healing, more wine! – rather than waiting patiently for heavenly goods. Jesus wants them to turn their eyes more toward heaven.

Be careful not to take this emphasis too far, though. The two Testaments are only emphasizing one side or the other – earth or heaven – they are not excluding one or the other. The best view is always inclusive: both a new heaven and a new earth. Scott Hahn once shrewdly observed: “Don’t be so heavenly-minded that you are no earthly good.” That would capture the concern of the Old Testament. If we flipped that comment around, we would hit the highlight of the New Testament. That would say: “Don’t be so earthly-minded that you are no heavenly good.” In your Christian experience, especially when reading Sacred Scripture, do you tend to emphasize one more than the other: earth more than heaven, or heaven more than earth?

If you ever visit the Vatican, be sure to get a glimpse of arguably one of the most famous paintings of the Renaissance painter, Raphael. In the antechamber, the room you walk through before you walk into the stunning Sistine Chapel, you find one wall covered with the painting called “The School of Athens.” In the center of the Athenian crowd stand Plato and Aristotle, the central figures in the whole history of philosophy. Interestingly, Plato’s hand is pointing upward to the heavens, while Aristotle (Plato’s student) is pointing downward to earth. In his own artistic way, Raphael taught that the School of Athens also saw the need for a new heavens and a new earth, with a proper emphasis but no strict exclusion.

I believe the best way to balance both heaven and earth – and that is why we read the whole Bible – is to begin with our hearts. The first place we see the sprouts from the seeds of the new heavens and the new earth is not in heaven or earth, but in the human heart. I saw those sprouts last night at the Youth Mass. It was packed with people, they were standing three-deep in the back. Half way through the Mass, Deacon Charlie went to the sacristy to retrieve more hosts for consecration and Communion lest we run out. We had two special groups present: one hundred and fourteen teenagers at the end of their Confirmation retreat (not all from I.C.), and twenty people from our RCIA class.

After Communion I sat for a moment with my eyes closed. But my eyes of faith were wide open. In that crowd I beheld the beginnings of the new heavens and the new earth. Everyone in that Mass believed their true home was in heaven. But they also realized deeply that they must make a difference while they walk in this world. Every heart – including mine – was touched, however inchoately, to be both heavenly-minded as well as earthly good. That is the kingdom of God.

Praised be Jesus Christ!