The Everlasting Voyage
Three classic Community of Aidan and Hilda Voyagers (i.e. those living by vows) have recently died. Teresa Cross had struggles. Madeline Cotter had dementia for several years.In contrast Joy Holt was heart and soul into a wonderful ministry with her husband Geoff at the heart of a Birminggham multi-racial neighbourhood - Sparkhill. Joy was diagnosed unexpectantly with a terminal condition. She received terminal care in their own home. Geof sent a glorious photo of a radiant Joy. Another Voyager commented: I expect Joy to greet me in heaven with a big smile.
I am drafting a series of letters for Voyagers etc to be released after my death. One of them is about The Everlasting Voyage. Here is an extract in its draft form:
When you come to heaven’s pearly gates and a Voice addresses you, will it say ‘You have chosen The Way Less Travelled, the Way of my own heart’ or will it say ‘You forfeited My priorities and took the easy path. Therefore you will not be assigned the responsibilities you might have been given.’?
We have an eternal calling. Yet, just as the apostle Peter began to sink when he saw Jesus in the distance, so we can begin to sink when we lose our memories, social contacts and are beset by regrets and death pains. I commend the practice of reviewing your life journey as if you are on your death bed.
If, in our faltering final season on earth we unite our prayers with those of the saints and angels we will rise above despair. The Three of Love are the Sun: the saints and angels are the rays of sun bathing us in heaven’s glory. In particular we pray with Aidan and Hilda. Aidan was broken-hearted, but he died standing in prayer and accompanied by angels. Hilda ceased not to give praise in solidarity with her sisters until her last day. Ask what do they want for Lindisfarne, for your neighbourhood? In patience and struggle seek the faith, hope and love of the saints and bathe fellow life-voyagers in heaven’s glories.
We never stop voyaging. The journey never ends. Even if we were to be 100 years old and with a barren wife may we, like Abraham, harbor no distrust, be strong in faith and give glory to God (Romans 4). God looks not on the X,Y or Z of what we have done for CAH so much as for one who voyages to the very last minute of life on earth.
After a person has taken their First Voyage someone may read from Marjorie Milne of Glastonbury’s ’s poem Rhymes of a Lindisfarne Monk: ‘Often my heart is a heavy stone. Mocked, trodden under and spat upon .My way a mirk, and I alone, alone Then in my heart flames a climbing star. As his pilgrim feet come flashing far To bring me where the blessed are. He is the cleft in the dark sky riven Whereby I may leap to the bending heaven Through the storm. ‘
Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your sting?
Christ is risen from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 1 Corinthians 15
Heaven is only desirable if our deepest longing is love, self-sacrifice, the pure charism of each soul, a desire for blindness to be transformed into insight. There is a control-freak in most of us so practise letting go. ‘There remains a challenge: to incline our hearts to the source of life, and to know before we die that that we have truly lived’ (Robert Ellsberg).
How do we know that we will not be extinguished or re-incarnated as a pig when we die? There is no earthly insurance policy. However, Jesus gives us some clues. He called himself I AM (Yahweh – that is I Was , I Am, I Always Will be). I AM rose from the dead. He promised his friends before he died that in his Father’s household (i.e. universal community) there are places suited to everyone, that he goes to prepare our unique position that ‘where I am there you may also be’(John 14:2,3). Jesus was probably referring to the long trade routes and wayside resting places. So heaven is a journey (voyage) with a vast household of relatives. It transcends galaxies and aeons and yet honours every God thing that has formed our unique selves
Both Aidan and Hilda were escorted to heaven by angels. Others witnessed this and were transformed. When Columba died on Iona people saw the whole island and surrounding sea lit up by angelic light. Before you leave this earth talk to your guardian angel on your right and your left.
The final scene in the film of The Lord of the Rings is of Gandalf embarking on a voyage into eternity. Although, at death, we voyage into the largely unknown, we are given a few clues.
Hebrews 8 depicts a sanctuary that is a sketch and shadow of the heavenly one. So trademarks of the Christian dispensation on earth offer us a sketch and shadow of the heavenly reality.. In heaven there is not uniform blandness but variety of focus points.
We move from this limited, earth-bound existence to the cosmic dimension. No longer are we confined by our bodies, brains, upbringing, location, conditioning. But the essential you (which some people, notably suicides, have never got to know) is released into the unlimited dimension. Jesus gives us one or two clues. The twelve apostles will lead twelve ‘tribes’ (Matthew 19:28). You will be given some responsibility that perfectly fits your character. Those who instructed others in virtue on earth will shine like stars in eternity (Daniel 12:4). You will be the first fruits of a new creation, of a new heaven and new earth. (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22, 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1) Our earthly commitment to care for creation will stand us in good stead.
When we have been truly ourselves/of God (for the two are the same thing) we have already been on a tiny bit of the eternal voyage. You can look forward to the glow of enjoying the fruits of obedience, the glow of achievement. But what about all that was unredeemed in us when we died - is there a purgatory, a purging process? Maybe, but there is no clicking clock: in the next life an instant is like a thousand years. In heaven we shall be unique but without selfish ego.
The Community’s Theological Advisor, Rev. Dr. Ian Bradley, has written an anthology of Readings on Death and Heaven (The Quiet Haven DLT). Although this reflects a typically British, Victorian tradition there are some universal and biblical gems in it.
We will not be lost in an ocean, we will continue to voyage, but now we will be guided by an everlasting light.