Heaven and sub-human life entelechies?

What is the destiny of the myriads of
sub-human life forms (plants and animals) which have seen the light of day, and in time, left their imprint on the face of the earth?

St. Paul tells us,  
      "For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; 
      for creation was made subject to futility not of its own accord  but because of the one 
      who subjected it, in hope that creation itself   would be set free from slavery to corruption 
      and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God." (Rm 8:19-21)

Who is "the one" who subjected creation to futility, corruption and death as we know it? Some commentators say God. Is God the direct cause of corruption and death? Others, instead, indicate that the fall of man ushered corruption and death on the planet. This is not likely because the animal kingdom was subject to suffering and death long before God created man. Further, it is difficult to see how the fall of man could have cosmic repercussion on such a vast scale.

A more likely scenario is that "the one" refers to Satan and all the angelic powers who rejected God.

Heinrich Schlier observes, "In their nature the principalities present the universe and human life as a world of death. It is by subjecting them that death results. Through their nature they introduce death to the world, and so they show themselves as beings of death."28

The principalities and powers as integral to the cosmic order somehow warped the web of life and the food chain. In the present state of the world, some animals eat plants while other kill and eat other animal species and man eats both. Was this the order first established by God? God surely gave dominion to man over the animal kingdom but as regards to food we read as follows:

      "See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth 
      and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food; 
      and to all the animals of the land ... 
      I give all the green plants for food."(Gn 1:29-30) 

There is no direct indication in Genesis 1 that animals were to be used as food.

St. Paul tells us that sub-human life forms, through man, are also destined for glory. But, we may ask, how will God accomplish this? Scholastic philosophers have maintained that the souls of plants and animals come to an end with death. On the other hand, Gottfried Leibinz (1646-1716) maintained the monads, entelechies or souls of the sub-human world were simple substances, that is, without parts and could not be destroyed by death, the separation of parts. In his view, at death the monad or entelechy returns to an unconscious mode of existence while still retaining "perception" meaning an affection for its own being.

The eminent theologian Karl Rahner in the Theology of Death states that the relation of the entelechies to matter is conceived as reaching down the ultimate, metaphysical ground of material reality. The entelechies of sub-human living world do not appear merely as organizing principles, superimposed on inorganic matter already formed chemically and mechanically but as constituents of the universe. From this viewpoint ,death in the sub-human world does not appear as a simple cessation of the life-entelechy but as a surrender of the entelechial relation at a certain space-time point in the world, while the entelechical powers persist. There is a supposition here that the entelechies' character is supra-individual to some extent.

Since the entelechial powers cannot be destroyed, they will have a role to play in the formation of the Renewed Universe according to God's plan and share in the glory of the New Humanity.

How can we get to heaven?

One day Christ said to his disciples that in his Father's house there were many dwelling places and that he was going to prepare a place for them. Thomas retorted that they did not know where he was going and the way to get there. Jesus said to him,

"I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Jn 14:6)