The Beatific Vision

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

The March equinox – also called the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere – marks the beginning of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere and the autumn season in the Southern Hemisphere.

What will it mean, in the end, to see God? This longing, knitted deep into the fabric of our being, is at once one of Scripture's great promises and puzzles.

The beatific vision is the ultimate direct self-communication of God to a person. A person possessing the beatific vision reaches, as a member of redeemed humanity, perfect salvation in its entirety, i.e., heaven. The notion of vision stresses the intellectual component of salvation, though it encompasses the whole human experience of joy and happiness coming from seeing God finally face to face and not imperfectly through faith. The infinite God will never be done showing us the immeasurable riches of its grace or the entire vista of itself.