# Love Is Heaven: Reflections on Heaven, Prayer, and the Power of Love
*2020-10-12*

> Bill Young explores whether being a good, loving person is enough to enter heaven, sharing personal stories of prayer, the example of Mother Teresa, and the Catholic sacraments that guide us toward eternal love.

## Is Being Nice Enough?

A recent Los Angeles Times interview with actresses Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman raised the question: does being a nice person guarantee a place in heaven? I’m not sure about Reese, but both women seem kind. The real issue is whether love alone can secure our salvation. Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and that love points us toward heaven.

## Examples of Holy Lives

We all agree that Mother Teresa of Calcutta is in heaven. Her whole life was devoted to feeding the hungry and caring for the poorest, living the Gospel’s call to serve “the least of these.” My own aunt, Sister Mary Teresa, was a Catholic nun for over sixty years. Though I didn’t fully appreciate her dedication while she was alive, her example taught me much about prayer and love.

When I was struggling at work, I prayed the Rosary and asked Sister Mary Teresa to intercede for me. After each decade I felt an overwhelming sense of love that filled me and even extended to strangers I passed in the lunchroom. A few months later my sister, who attended Sister Mary Teresa’s funeral, reported the same deep love. Those experiences convinced me that my aunt had entered heaven.

## How We Can Reach Heaven

Mother Teresa and Sister Mary Teresa gave up everything for Christ, a level of sacrifice most of us cannot match. Yet the Church offers us means to grow in holiness:

• The Eucharist – the real Body and Blood of Christ, a source of grace.
• The Sacrament of Reconciliation – confession to a priest, through whom Christ forgives our sins.
• Divine Mercy Sunday – a special grace that, when we receive communion, confession, and pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet, wipes away the temporal punishment of sin.

Even when we cannot attend Mass in person, we can make a spiritual communion and an act of contrition, trusting in God’s mercy.

## Living the Gospel of Love

Jesus warned that it is harder for a rich person to enter heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. In a wealthy society, we must guard against letting materialism replace love. The command to love our neighbor, regardless of race or status, remains central. Acts of service—like washing another’s feet—remind us that love is the path to heaven.

Marriage, remarriage, and other personal challenges test our commitment to love. We are not called to judge, but to seek God’s forgiveness and strive for conversion through the sacraments.

## Prayer and the Litany of the Sacred Heart

In June we pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a beautiful prayer consecrated by Pope Leo XIII and approved by Pope Pius X. Repeating this litany is not empty ritual; it draws us into the love of Christ’s heart, the source of all mercy and justice. I invite you to join the daily rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy offered by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia (English at 8 p.m., Spanish at 6 p.m.).

*Heaven is not a distant reward but the lived experience of God’s unconditional love; when we love others as Christ loves us, we catch a glimpse of heaven on earth.*