387. What Angels Do in Heaven

There is no way to list all the functions that people have in the heavens or to describe them in detail, though it is possible to say something on the subject in general terms; they are innumerable and vary depending on the roles of the communities as well. In fact, each community plays a unique role, since the communities differ depending on their virtues (see above, 41) and therefore on their function. This is because virtues for everyone in the heavens are virtues in act, which are functions. Everyone there does something specifically useful, for the Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of uses. ¹

Bilješke:

6815. I have been allowed to introduce into their minds the question of whether or not they wished to make any use of all the knowledge they possessed. For it is not sufficient to take delight simply in knowing, because knowledge looks towards useful services, and such services must be the end in view. I have intimated to them that knowledge by itself is not useful to them but will be useful to others with whom they may be willing to share it. It is not at all suitable for a person who wishes to be wise to stop at simply possessing knowledge, for knowledge is merely the means to an end; it should serve as the means to discover the services that ought to be performed by people in their lives. But those spirits have said in reply that they take delight in knowledge and that knowledge by itself is useful to them.

1103. 'Canaan will be his slave' means that people who make worship consist solely in external things are able to perform inferior services. This is clear from what has been stated at verses 25-26, about Canaan being a slave. People such as these are not in fact 'slaves' in the Lord's Church on earth, for there are many of them who hold primary positions and who are over all others. They do nothing from charity and conscience, and yet very strictly they keep up the external things of the Church, and even condemn those who do not do the same. But because no charity and no conscience exist with them, and they make worship consist solely in external things devoid of internal, such persons are 'slaves' in the Lord's kingdom, that is, in the next life; for they are among the unhappy. The types of service they perform there are inferior, which, being many, cannot be explained satisfactorily here, but will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with later on.

[2] Indeed everyone, no matter who, must in the next life perform a use; for the sole purpose for which a person is born is that he may perform a use to the community he is in, and to his neighbour, while he lives in the world, and in the next life may perform a use in accord with the Lord's gracious purposes. It is the same with the human body: everything there must perform a use - even the things which in themselves seem to be good for nothing, such as fluids which in themselves are waste matter, for example the many secretions of saliva, bile, and so on which not only have to serve food passing through but also to separate waste matters and clear the intestines. The same applies to the use performed by manure and dung in fields and vineyards; and so on.