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Hello Father Angelo,

I am writing to you because, being a believer, I need to understand one thing: from my life experience (but perhaps not only mine), I believe that there may be wounds that we receive in our lives that stay with us as a “thorn in the flesh” (after St. Paul) throughout our life, and which every now and then cause us pain, make us limp, until the end of our earthly days… well, what I ask you is this: the Lord (who certainly allows all of this for a greater good) promised us that, at least in the Eternity of Heaven, these wounds will also go away forever, right?

Everything, absolutely everything, will be totally and permanently healed, cured, and redeemed, right? In a way that we may not yet know, however He granted us that, right? At least in his Word (the Scripture)?

Well, if you can help me…

Because I need – even more than I need air to breathe – to hold as an actual prospect that, one day, all, absolutely all suffering will end, and we will live in infinite, full, and permanent happiness and joy.

Thank you.

Kind regards, pray for me, a mutual prayer.

I wish you a good continuation on the Path of your apostolate work on the web.

Answer from the priest

Dear Son,

1. the Lord granted to those who go to heaven that there will be no wounds of any kind.

He said it in Revelation 21:27: “Nothing unclean will enter it, nor any (one) who does abominable things or tells lies. Only those will enter whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

2. From here, we can carry with us wounds inherited from our parents, caused by ourselves or by others.

Well, all of this will be perfectly healed.

Jesus said: “I make all things new” (Rev 21:5).

A. Wikenhauser comments: “Now the seer hears speech of God himself. It is the first time in the Revelation that God speaks, and it is not without meaning that this happens at the end of the book.

His first word closely recalls Is 43:19 (in the text of the Seventy), and is an assurance given to the seer that in the end of times he will radically transform the entire Creation and all the States of life that are currently observed” (Revelation of John, 21:5).

And Marco Sales: “Thus there is the great restoration of all things in Jesus Christ of which he spoke to St.Paul in 2 Cor 5:17: ‘So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.’”

3. In the Revelation we also read this promise: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord” (Rev 14:13).

“blessed”: St. Thomas emphasizes the meaning of this adjective “Blessed” by going back to statements from the Latin thinker Cicero: “those who are in goodness without any evil are called blessed” (Tuscul. quaest., book V, chap. 10) and “blessed is he who lacks nothing and who is perfect and complete in his own way” (Ib., book V, chap. 13).

4. Speaking about the future life, St. Augustine says: “When this body has become immortal and incorruptible, then all temptation will also cease. […]. Now, in fact, our body is in the earthly condition, while then it will be in the heavenly one” (Discourse 256).

He says again: “There no one will be our enemy, there we will never lose any friend” (Ib.).

5. St. Thomas, commenting on Jesus’ promise: “Blessed are you if you do it” (Jn 13:17), says: “But the reward promised to the saints is not only that they shall see and enjoy God, but also that their bodies shall be well-disposed; for it is written (Is. 66:14): ‘You shall see and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like a herb.’” (Summa Theologiae, I-II, 4, 6 sed contra).

And St. Augustine: “When this body is no longer animal, but spiritual, then the soul will be the same as the angels, and what once was a burden will be a glory for it” (De Gen ad litt. 12).

6. Therefore, there will be no wound, no cause for sorrow for those who are in Heaven, but perfect happiness.

Wishing you such fullness of life, I bless you and remember you in prayer.

Father Angelo