truly human, ever living, and the Head of his Body, which is the Church on earth and in heaven – all who have ever been joined to him. All who are joined to Christ have his life and his mind flowing through them. So the Church on earth carries in its prayers the whole Church, on earth and in heaven. And the Church in heaven, like its Head, carries in its heart the whole Church, on earth as well as in heaven, although each does this according to their particular calling.
The Bible indicates that believers who have died are alert and aware, even though they have not yet received what the Bible calls their ‘resurrection body’. For example, in relation to great believers such as Abraham, Jesus says about God, ‘He is not the God of the dead but of the living’ (Luke 20:38). Hebrews 12:22–4 says that we mortals are in the presence, not only of God and of angels, but also of just souls who have been made perfect. It would surely not say this if they were inactive and unaware. Paul was sure he would be alive after his death, saying he desired ‘to depart and be with Christ’ (Philippians 1:23, NRSV). Although, from the point of view of those of us who remain on earth, those who have died are ‘asleep’, this is only a temporary, physical separation.
From the time of Jesus, when the prophets Elijah and Moses appeared to him and three friends on a mountain (see Matthew 17:1–8), and throughout Christian history, certain Christ-like persons have appeared to people living on earth. This is unsolicited, a divine gift, and should not be confused with the practice of summoning up the dead, which is forbidden in the Bible (see Leviticus 19:31; 20:6).
The Church, knowing all this, found nothing in the Scriptures that would prohibit Christians from expressing a sense of fellowship with those who have died.
One way to do this is to visualize the communion of saints in sign, singing and sacrament. Perhaps the most natural way to do it is to pray for them – not to change their state of salvation (for their eternal destiny is already decided by God, as Hebrews 9:27 tells us), but rather to share in the process which never ends, of ‘being changed from glory into glory’ (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Those who ask the saints to pray for them are asking them to help them by praying to God. Since God alone is Uncreated, and we are created beings, we should not imagine that there is no variety of responsibility or closeness to God in heaven.
Even if you are among those Christians who do not believe your prayers can affect those in heaven, you can still talk to God about those who have died, simply because it helps to do so. Since Jesus is the Mediator between God and humans (see 1 Timothy 2:5), we can pour out everything we want to say to our departed loved ones and ask Jesus to communicate to them anything of this that he thinks is appropriate. Thus our prayers for the departed can help to preserve and increase the unity between the Church on earth and the Church in heaven.
In many parts of the world, suffering people have been upheld through their belief that a saintly Christian who gave their life for that area is still interceding to God for them in their time of need. Sometimes, in a crisis, there have been visions of the saint followed by a miracle. In Georgia, Southern Russia, Christians often sing a hymn to St Nina, who brought the Faith to that country, which concludes, ‘With the angels you have praised in song the Redeemer, praying constantly for us that Christ may grant us His grace and mercy.’ Many people in northern England strongly sensed that Durham City and Cathedral were saved during World War II by the prayers of St Cuthbert, who is buried there.
Christians believe that death cannot sever the bond of mutual love between the members of the Church on earth and in heaven.
For all the saints who from their labours rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy name, O Jesu, be for ever blest,
Alleluia!
O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine.
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia!
W. WALSHAM HOW, 1823–97
As I write this, angels are sweeping the worlds of pop songs, bookshops and conferences. According to tradition, one of the angels’ big jobs is to help young people make friends of death. But this involves a challenge, which I thought of when I had to speak in Los Angeles (the City of Angels) on the day their Christmas decorations went up. Every street glittered with brilliant Hollywood-style Christmas figures, including angels.
I issued this challenge: ‘My subject is “How to Prepare a Celtic Christmas”. Since almost nothing is known about Celtic Christmases, I can’t give you a shopping list of things to get. I can simply point out two ways you can approach Christmas. The first way is to spend time and money putting up the world’s best angel figures, such as you see around you. The second way is so to live that you can actually encounter an angel for real, as did Mary, Joseph and the shepherds at Jesus’ birth. In order to do this, you have to let go of the world of glitter and enter into stillness…’
I know people who have seen an angel. In fact, according to Hope MacDonald, who saw an angel with her husband which saved them from getting a divorce, one in six people she questioned had seen or felt an angel presence. It is never too early to develop sensitivity to the unseen world.
Become still. Become aware of the presences around you, within you. Hold imaginary conversations with your guardian angel, the angel who will one day escort you into the worlds beyond this.
When the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance. KAHLIL GIBRAN15
Is anything more beautiful than the transformation of a chrysalis into a butterfly? Some people believe that there is one thing more beautiful even than that: the transformation of a human from an earth creature into a being no longer bound by earth.
A human wreck brought into one of Mother Teresa’s homes said, ‘I will have lived the life of a beast, and I shall die like an angel.’
Marie de Hennezel, in her book Intimate Death, tells of her visit to a 25-year-old drug addict on the day she announced she was going to die of cancer. Abandoned at birth by her prostitute mother, the addict had lived a hard, loveless life, ceasing at nothing to slake her wild thirst for love.
When Marie arrived, the patient deliberately pulled from her face the oxygen tubes which kept her breathing. She moved into the position women adopt for childbirth. Then she pushed down her legs as if she were giving birth.
Spellbound, Marie stroked her, and knew intuitively that she must not replace the oxygen tubes. Into her mind came Michael de M’Uzan’s words about the spiritual labour that goes on inside every dying person – ‘an effort to give birth to oneself completely before leaving’. This young woman, who had been pushed to the edge of life, was birthing herself into a new world.16
It is not only at the end of life, or in the mythic wizard world of Harry Potter, that transformations take place. They can take place during our journey through life. We can practise discarding
