Most of us periodically ask ourselves if we’re successful. We generally start by looking at how many assets we have and how much money we make. Then, we compare to averages, what we think neighbors, friends, and enemies have, or charts that show such things.
These are popular measures of success, but they’re short-sighted. A broader, wiser analysis includes seeing how well the people we love are doing. Do they believe in God? Do they behave accordingly? Are they working or loafing? Are they self-supporting adults or dependent? Educated or illiterate? Kind and loving or hostile and angry? Obedient or self-willed? Headed for Heaven, or not?
The most important measure of success is how well we’re doing our primary job on earth, saving our own soul. St. Thomas Aquinas said that we can do so by “being adequately obedient”. Or, we can do a little more. Some believe that, if we want to get into a higher level of Heaven, we’re required to do more than “be adequately obedient”.
We are told that there are levels in Heaven by no less an authority than St. Paul. He tells us of a man who was: “caught up to the third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2). That would imply that there are at least two lower levels and possibly some higher.
Moslems speak of “seven levels” of heaven, based on a pre-Copernicus observation of the sky. Early observers mistakenly believed that the earth was the center of the solar system and seven celestial objects rotated around it, each indicating a different level of Heaven:
We should not spend a lot of time on such things. As Holmes said to Watson, “It makes no difference to me or my work if the sun goes around the earth or if the earth goes around the sun.” We may conclude, “It makes no difference to me or my work if there is one level or 7 or 70,000 levels of Heaven.” Barring a direct revelation, these things are beyond us.
Our duty is clear. Our job is to save our souls. We mustn’t get distracted by notions that have, in the very essence of their being, only the ability to distract our souls from He Who lovingly programmed us amidst the chaotic order in which we live.
Defining our duty and doing it means that we human programs freely choose to obey The Operating Instructions He has had written and downloaded for us, and, after choosing to do so, do so.
That is success.
