Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Heaven, But Never Dreamed Of

[Miss Hepburn]

[quote name='nunsense' timestamp='1284111563' post='2171303']
I think one of the main problems is the actual word 'sex' because it has associations that make it seem crass and carnal, despite the fact that God intended it to be an experience of physical and spiritual generative intimacy here on earth.
So while I agree with much of what has been said in this thread, I prefer personally to use other words rather than 'sex' to describe the Divine Romance, such as spiritual intimacy and union or the very appropriate word Ecstasy, although this word too has some negative associations now.
Kreeft may be writing for a non-Catholic audience, but I am still not sure that using such terminology as 'sex' and promiscuity' to describe heaven is going to convey the right idea. It might just put up more obstacles to understanding what he is actually trying to say. But that could just be me.
Miss Hepburn, I do agree with the agony and ecstasy part.... God is certainly a divinely magnificent lover.
[/quote]
Yup, that darn word s-e-x ...and the connotations people can place on it.
(That's why I had to say the [i]essence[/i] of what s-e-x is - the purity of it.)

Your picture looks great, btw.

[Paddington]

[quote name='TeresaBenedicta' timestamp='1283636240' post='2167914']
who would want candy while having intercourse?
[/quote]

Starburst?

[MithLuin]

I was eating starburst while reading the Song of Songs last night. Does that count? [Ok, not precisely [i]while[/i], but in close temporal proximity to.]

The original analogy was that a child, not knowing what sex is, would ask some pretty silly questions when they first find out about it. Like...oh, if this is so good, does that mean I can eat candy at the same time? Because, in a child's world, eating candy is pretty exciting! If told, 'no,' the child might conclude that sex is rather boring - no candy. Likewise for the people who think that heaven without sexual intercourse would be...tedious.

I think my oh-so-astute 10 year old question was something along the lines of, 'Why don't people just do this all the time (like, continuously)?' I mean, if it's good....

I can't remember what my mother's reply to that was.....

[kafka]

[quote name='Pliny' timestamp='1283749964' post='2168684']
From a Peter Kreef article about sex in Heaven:
[/quote]
I dont like Kreeft's speculations. There is no support in Sacred Scripture or the teachings of the Saints, Mystics or Doctors in that quoted passage. True spiritual love is not sexual. One simply loves everyone without any sort of boundaries forever. It is in a sense infinite because it includes the true love of God who is Infinite. The sexual act on earth is an expression of the unitive, marital and procreative. This act includes spiritual love if the spouses are in the state of grace or fully cooperating with actual grace, yet the sexual act itself which is a unique expression of human love does not qualify spiritual love as sexual.

And I disagree that everything here on earth is analogous to Heaven. That is a broad sweeping statement. And I disagree with his focus on pleasure in some of the previous posts. Pleasure is just a mere consequence of love or an act of love. It is not a moral act itself or an end which can be directed toward the ultimate end who is God. It is a mere vain consequence which comes and goes and should never be sought for itself, for that would be a disorder. So trying to teach people about Heaven using sexual pleasure as an analogy is really absurd and secular, bowing down to a familiar and erroneous secular way of thinking which I think should never be done.

And I agree with nunsense that he shouldnt be using those concepts to teach people.

But I do agree that there will be unique relationships in the New Heaven and New Earth. These are the the relationships begun on earth, completed and fulfilled in the next age:

Isaiah
{62:4} You will no longer called Forsaken. And your land will no longer be called Desolate. Instead, you shall be called My Will within it, and your land shall be called Inhabited. For the Lord has been well pleased with you, and your land will be inhabited.
{62:5} For the young man will live with the virgin, and your children will live with you. And the groom will rejoice over the bride, and your God will rejoice over you.

the young man with the virgin implies that if both spouses are completely saved and in the New Heaven and New Earth they will live together with their children if they are saved, but it specifically says young man to refer to men, and also indirectly to refer to the resurrected who are eternally young. It says virgin to refer to women and indirectly means the resurrected just will be virgins in soul and body like Jesus and Mary. The groom rejoicing over the bride is Christ rejoicing over his resurrected Church.

Edited September 10, 2010 by kafka

[kafka]

[quote name='kafka' timestamp='1284159750' post='2171573']
This act includes spiritual love if the spouses are in the state of grace or fully cooperating with actual grace, yet the sexual act itself which is a unique expression of human love does not qualify spiritual love as sexual.
[/quote]
Additional thought:

human love does not inform or qualify true spiritual love which is based first in God who is Infinite Love. True spiritual love informs human love.

Edited September 11, 2010 by kafka