Eternal Rewards (Part3): The Beatific Vision.

Regarding the afterlife, and eternal rewards, Catholic Theology seems to have focused on a depiction of Heaven that stems from both Biblical and Medieval roots.  At the very heart of this definition of heaven is the idea of the “beatific vision,” i.e.  the blessed in heaven “see God, face to face.” This “vision” of God is not to be understood as “seeing” God with human eyeballs. God is pure spirit and as such cannot be “seen.”  This “vision of God” is a directly intuited and intellectual vision. A precursor to this teaching is found in Matthew 18:10, it tells us that the angels “behold the face of God,” yet they don’t have eyes at all. They are pure spirits. They “see” him with an intellectual and directly intuited “vision.”  Heaven, in this sense,  is understood as a state of being.  Heaven is principally a state of utter and absolute fulfillment.  In the possession of God in the beatific vision the blessed will experience what cannot be put into words; a radical union with God that transcends anything we could envisage. And it is precisely because of that radical union with God in Christ, the blessed will also experience a union with the other members of the Body of Christ that transcends our ability to imagine as well. The image of the mystical “body of Christ” that St. Paul gives us in I Cor. 12 and Romans 12 gives us some inkling of this union, but it can only pale in relation to the full truth of the matter. To use St. Paul’s image, the union of the members of Christ is more radical than the union of my finger here with my hand because it is Christ who makes the members of Christ one! To quote St. Thomas Aquinas: “The intellect which is elevated by divine light in order to see God’s substance is much more perfected by this same light, so that it may understand all other objects that exist in the nature of things.” (Summa Contra Gentiles, Bk. III, chapter 59)

The Catechism of the Catholic Church combines these depictions of Heaven.  The articles read;

1023: Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they "see him as he is," face to face: 

By virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According to the general disposition of God, the souls of all the saints . . . and other faithful who died after receiving Christ's holy Baptism (provided they were not in need of purification when they died, . . . or, if they then did need or will need some purification, when they have been purified after death, . . .) already before they take up their bodies again and before the general judgment - and this since the Ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into heaven - have been, are and will be in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom and celestial paradise with Christ, joined to the company of the holy angels. Since the Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, these souls have seen and do see the divine essence with an intuitive vision, and even face to face, without the mediation of any creature. 

1024: This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity - this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed - is called "heaven." Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.

1025: 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.   For life is to be with Christ; where Christ is, there is life, there is the kingdom. 

1026: By his death and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has "opened" heaven to us. The life of the blessed consists in the full and perfect possession of the fruits of the redemption accomplished by Christ. He makes partners in his heavenly glorification those who have believed in him and remained faithful to his will. Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ.

1027: This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father's house, the heavenly Jerusalem, paradise: "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him." 

1028: Because of his transcendence, God cannot be seen as he is, unless he himself opens up his mystery to man's immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for it. The Church calls this contemplation of God in his heavenly glory "the beatific vision":

How great will your glory and happiness be, to be allowed to see God, to be honored with sharing the joy of salvation and eternal light with Christ your Lord and God, . . . to delight in the joy of immortality in the Kingdom of heaven with the righteous and God's friends. 

1029: In the glory of heaven the blessed continue joyfully to fulfill God's will in relation to other men and to all creation. Already they reign with Christ; with him "they shall reign for ever and ever." 

Yes, Heaven is the place for eternal rewards.  However, the physicality or geography of Heaven, by all accounts, is elusive- beyond our imagination, which is limited by our language.  It seems to be beyond the bounds of time and space, yet it is offered to us as our eternal dwelling place.