When it comes to the Christian notion of the "end times" we can often think in this way.  Why worry about the Earth, when we're all trying to get into heaven?  Why worry about nature when it is the salvation of the person that we seek?  Or more explicitly, why worry about the salvation of the body, when it is the soul that is all important? 

In the end, so it goes, Earth, nature and body are not what counts.  What really counts in the end are heaven and humans, or more importantly, heaven and the human soul. This assumption, while commonly accepted by many Christians is, in fact, heretical. 

This is so because the assumption fails to consider the fact that Christianity is committed to matter. Think of the Word made flesh, the incarnation, the Holy Spirit active and at home in all creation, the resurrection of the body of Jesus Christ, the final fulfillment of all creation in the Trinity, when God will be "all in all." 

For a long time we have focused on the destiny of the individual person as we grappled with notions of heaven, hell, purgatory and limbo.  Graphic accounts of the hereafter, particularly of the fires and fumes of hell, marked many a Lenten mission.  Little attention was afforded the notion of a collective destiny of all creation.

As Christians, we are a people of the "future."  Future in the sense of promise and hope.  The Kingdom of God, the Promised Land, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Second Coming of Christ – all these point toward a future that is expressed fully only in God. 

We know that we are incomplete and unfinished, tears are still shed, our hearts long for peace of soul and justice in the world.  Hope is a theological virtue, rooted in the promise of the resurrection of Christ. 

In the resurrection of Christ the universe radically changed.  It would never be the same again.  The promise of God broke through the chains of death and violence to reveal life and light at the heart of creation. 

In the resurrection, the material body of Jesus Christ was taken into God.  The resurrection signaled the life-giving promise of God.  The beginning of the divinization of the world had taken hold.  Jesus became the first born of all creation, the beginning of the transformation of the entire universe. 

All creation groans and  longs for final fulfillment.  Creation "waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God,"  groaning in hope for "the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Rom. 8: 18-23). 

So, do monkeys go to heaven?   If we believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the final fulfillment of all creation in the Love of God, then yes, monkeys do go to heaven. 

We hope that all creation will reach fulfillment in God, but such fulfillment will no doubt depend on the "level of being" of each creature.  God relates to each creature on its own terms.  This is mysterious.  However, our faith speaks of a fecund, loving God who embraces all creation in the vivifying Spirit, and in Christ, in whom all things hold together – all things, monkeys and humans alike.