My little sister is blind and I am wondering if somehow she will be able to see God in heaven. Do we know anything about this? And how about other disabilities?
Before I venture to answer your question, it is important to recall the fundamental teaching about heaven, which applies to all the souls there, no matter what disabilities they may have had on earth.
Heaven is “perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity … with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed … the ultimate end and fulfilment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness” (CCC 1024).
The most important aspect of heaven is that everyone there will be supremely happy. Who wouldn’t be happy, in the presence of God, Our Lady, the angels and all the saints?
At the same time, we should remember that when we arrive in heaven we will be there in our soul, not our body.
Only with the resurrection of the body on the Last Day will we be “whole” again, body and soul.
Nonetheless, many of the people who saw heaven during near-death experiences said they saw loved ones there, whom they recognised by their faces. That suggests that we may have some sort of “spiritualised” body in heaven.
The Catechism sheds further light on your question: “To live in heaven is ‘to be with Christ.’
The elect live ‘in Christ’, but they retain, or rather find, their true identity, their own name” (CCC 1025). So, everyone will retain their own identity in heaven.
We will be the same person there that we are here. On earth we identify ourselves by our personality, our memories, our body, our talents, our abilities and disabilities. People with disabilities identify themselves in the same way.
It is important here to clarify what we mean by “disabilities.” When we think of the word, we generally mean a lack of ability in some bodily or mental function. In that sense, we all have disabilities.
We cannot all run as fast as an Olympian, or sing as well as an opera singer, or think as well as a university professor.
People with “disabilities” in the usual sense of the word, simply have more serious lacks of ability.
They may not be able to walk without a limp or a mechanical aid, they may not be able to see or hear, etc. But these are not defects. They are simply variations in the way God made us. Disabilities do not make a person less perfect, less pleasing to God, less loved by God.
At the same time, people with “disabilities” have many abilities, sometimes acquired with great effort. We admire them for their prowess in sport, so evident in the Paralympics, in their many talents, their success in various fields of work, the arts, music, etc.
Many have made great contributions to society. If asked whether they would like to be free of their “disability” in heaven, many would answer flatly “no.” Their disability is part of who they are. It is their identity. They just want to be themselves.
We all do. We will be in heaven the same person we are on earth, with all the variations of talents and abilities we have here. We will not be clones of some “perfect human,” whatever that might be. Even Christ appeared in his resurrected body with the wounds in his hands, feet and side that he suffered on earth.
What we will not have, of course, is moral defects: sin and its consequences. Nor will there be pain or suffering, since God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rev 21:4).
And all, even the blind, will see God “face to face” (1 Cor 13:12). Looked at in this way, it is most likely that any “disabilities” we had on earth will have no effect in heaven.
In summary, in heaven we will be the same person we are now, enjoying “supreme, definitive happiness” (CCC 1024).
