"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Matt and I were invited onto The Quizzical Papist pub quiz podcast for a battle of whits!
S3E16: Quizzical Papist (Download)
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Read moreSo this is what I did today…
Over the last month or so, I have been involved in quite a few online discussions about abortion and I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect upon a few of the interactions as several of them involved strange arguments and bewildering claims…
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The other day I received an email from a reader who had spoken to a non-Catholic with a rather rare point-of-view, and who asked for helpful suggestions when speaking to him…
During a discussion about the Saints, the Protestant in question made the following statement:
“…no one is in Heaven except Jesus, Enoch, and Elijah.”
This sort of theological position is rarely held by those in mainstream Protestantism, but how might we respond to this?
Picking back up my notes for C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”…
1. Hope is not wishful thinking
“Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do”
2. It does not mean we can abdicate from our earthly responsibilities
“It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven”
3. We often don’t want Heaven
Most of us find it very difficult to want “Heaven” at all-except in so far as “Heaven” means meeting again our friends who have died.
(a) …usually because we’re too focussed on this world…
“One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained: our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world. Another reason is that when the real want for Heaven is present in us, we do not recognise it”
(b) …even when this world should be pointing us to the next…
“There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what I mean”
We can respond to this in three different ways:
(i) Blame those things
“He puts the blame on the things themselves. He goes on all his life thinking that if only he tried another woman, or went for a more expensive holiday, or whatever it is, then, this time, he really would catch the mysterious something we are all after. Most of the bored, discontented, rich people in the world are of this type”
(ii) Become disillusioned
“He soon decides that the whole thing was moonshine… And so he settles down and learns not to expect too much and represses”
(A) Which would be great if man did not live for ever
“But supposing infinite happiness really is there, waiting for us? Supposing one really can reach the rainbow’s end?”
(B) …but not if man lives forever
“In that case it would be a pity to find out too late (a moment after death) that by our supposed ‘common sense’ we had stifled in ourselves the faculty of enjoying it”
(iii) The Christian Way
“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.”
4. We shouldn’t interpret the descriptions of Heaven overly-literally
“There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of ‘Heaven’ ridiculous by saying they do not want ‘to spend eternity playing harps.’ The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them… People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs”
(a) They symbolic
“All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible. Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity. Crowns are mentioned to suggest the fact that those who are united with God in eternity share His splendour and power and joy. Gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it”
1. What is hope?
2. Does the belief in Heaven mean that we can ignore earth?
3. Why do we sometimes struggle to desire Heaven?
4. In what way does this world point to Heaven? How do people respond to this?
5. Why should we not interpret Heaven’s descriptions in the Bible?
No doodle!
Today marks my blogging anniversary. I have now been writing this blog for one year exactly.
[Pause for applause]
Over of the 365 days of this blog’s existence I have written 137 posts, which works out at about a post every two or three days. Not bad at all.
Not a lot of people know this, but I was officially declared dyslexic at school when I was ten years old. As such, writing has never come easily to me. Even if you see a post on this blog which is composed of even just a few sentences, I can guarantee you that I put quite some time into its composition. Therefore, the fact that I’ve managed to regularly write on this blog every two or three days for a year is really quite an achievement for me 🙂
The other night I went to see the movie Courageous with a bunch of other guys on a “man trip” ;-). I’ve written about this movie before, but over the next few weeks I’d like to mention a few other thoughts which came to mind while watching the film…
In the story, a group of four men decide to sign a Resolution, a statement of conduct (derived from Scripture) which they promise to follow as both men and as fathers.
In a certain scene, one of the men shows a copy of the Resolution to his wife. She gets really excited and then starts asking him lots of questions. What will the final Resolution look like? What is he going to wear when he signs it? etc. The man gives his wife a look of complete incomprehension and confusion. It’s clear that he hadn’t even considered these things. To this she responds:
“If you’re gonna do this, then do it right. Something like this requires…ceremony!”
I had to smile at this, since, to my Catholic ears, I heard:
“If you’re gonna do this, then do it right. Something like this requires…liturgy“ 🙂
Later in the film we see what this ceremony looks like…
All the men are wearing suits and their family members are present, also in formal attire. They meet in a beautiful park underneath some trees. A long-time friend and minister to one of the men officiates, calling each of the men forward one-by-one. Each man then repeats the Resolution out loud in the presence of his family and pastor, after which he signs a framed copy of the Resolution written in beautiful calligraphy, which he later hangs in a prominent place in his home.
