In the Office of Readings for the Breviary this morning, there was a beautiful reflection by St. Thomas Aquinas on the joys of Heaven that really made me pause and think for a bit. So often my concept of Heaven, though it is necessarily communal, is rather personalistic in reference to simply beholding God's face. As most children tend to think of Heaven as a place characterized by their favorite things - perpetual games, cotton candy and other such things. The thing that really struck me was St. Thomas' words about our relationship to others there and how our joy perpetually increases. Rather than try to summarize it and fail to show the beauty of it, I'll simply quote it:
"Again, eternal life consists of the joyous community of all the blessed, a community of supreme delight, since everyone will share all that is good with all the blessed. Everyone will love everyone else as himself, and therefore will rejoice in another's good as in his own. So it follows that the happiness and joy of each grows in proportion to the joy of all."
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