In heaven, will we desire to receive more intimacy, affection, and care from all others compared to our earthy life (catholic)?

Question

In heaven, will we desire to receive more intimacy, affection, and care from all others than what we experience in this life on earth (please answer according to Catholic teaching)?

There are two views on this. The first view tells that we will desire to receive less intimacy, affection, and care from others compared to what we experience in this life on earth, because in heaven, God will be our only focus (so we won't care much about our relationships with all others in heaven, or going even further, in heaven, there will be no such desire in us - the desire to be loved by other members of heaven - because we are already perfectly satisfied in God).

The second view (my view), however, suggests that we will desire to receive more intimacy, affection, and care from all others than what we experience in our earthy life. And here is the logic to this view: In heaven, we will be in the perfect and complete union with God, and we will love God perfectly. Also, the Catholic church's teaching on the communion of saints emphasize that it is God's will that we all be in a perfect and complete union in heaven not only with God himself, but also with all others in heaven - And because loving God requires desiring precisely what God desires for us, in heaven, we will desire a perfect and complete union with all others in heaven; and if we are to desire this, surely we will desire to receive more intimacy, affection, and care from all others, more than what we want from others in our earthy life.

I am not sure which view is correct. Can anyone help me with this?

Answer 1

The Divine Comedy relates some idea of movement of the will in heaven, in other words, those beatified constantly are filled by God and yet desire him more and more. This is reflected in Dante's "visual" experience: constant movement, swirling motion, etc., especially canto XXXIII. Contrast this with the scholastic idea of beatitude, which on the whole seems to me much more static and aligns closely with your first view. You can see Caroline Walker Bynum's work "Resurrection of the Body" for a brief overview of Dante's dynamic vision of the Beatific Vision vs the Scholastics. Neither of these viewpoints are necessarily dogmatic, but both sources have been proven orthodox so I think you could in good conscience hope for whichever one you find more edifying so long as the basic belief in the fulfillment of desire, vision of God, etc is maintained. Personally, I find Dante's conception much more beautiful and mystifying. This is completely off the top of my head after a long day, so please correct any inaccuracies there may be. I'll go ahead and quote Dante at length here: Canto XXXIII ~line 90 following St Bernard's prayer to Our Lady, Dante is overwhelmed by the vision of light:

     > *Substance and accidents and their relations
      I saw as though they fused in such a way   
      That what I say is but a gleam of light.

      The universal pattern of this knot
      I believe I saw, because in telling this,
      I feel my gladness growing ever larger.

      One moment made more slip my memory than
      Twenty-five centuries reft from the adventure
      That awed Neptune with the shadow of the Argo.

      So my mind, held in absolute suspense,
      Was staring fixed, intent, and motionless,
      And by its staring grew the more inflamed.*

Answer 2

Both the first view: we will desire to receive less intimacy, affection, and care from others compared to what we experience in this life on earth, because in heaven, God will be our only focus and the second view (OP's view): we will desire to receive more intimacy, affection, and care from all others than what we experience in our earthy life are not reflective of Catholic theology and teaching, which states that

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

Therefore heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings vs. either the lessening of or increase of those longings.