Though St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians that “Eye has not seen and ear has not heard what God has prepared for those who love him,’ if we read Scripture we can learn some things about heaven. But much of it is still a mystery.

Recently on Father Simon Says™, a listener called in and asked a few questions about heaven, one of which was whether we will have free will. Father Richard Simon responded that this is one thing we can know about heaven, saying, “Of course, because without free will you can’t love.”

However, Fr. Simon clarified that our experience of free will in heaven will likely be different than our experience of it on earth.

“The one thing we won’t have in heaven, in a certain sense, is time,” he explained. “At least not time as we understand it. I’ve often said that this is the only time in our life when we have time.”

“We can make the decision in time here. But having made the decision in time, then the decision will have been made. We won’t have to revisit the case. We will continue to have free will and we will freely love God. Because when you are forced to love someone [love] is not possible.”

Despite the fact that it can be difficult to wrap your mind around the heavenly experience (and sometimes things are a mystery, which is OK), it’s helpful to determine what we do know and what we don’t, and focus on staying close to the Lord so we can find out for ourselves one day.

“Remember to take what I say with a grain of salt,” Fr. Simon concluded. “In heaven we’ll ask the angels what they think about my theory.”

Listen to the full conversation below:

Father Simon Says airs weekdays at 2:00 p.m. Eastern/11:00 a.m. Pacific on Relevant Radio® and the Relevant Radio App.