Pointers to heaven

I’ve got ten pointers to heaven to share starting with GOODNESS. Mrs Foster, the lady across the road in my childhood, exuded goodness which pointed beyond herself. I imagine heaven as a place thrilling with the goodness of God so evident in the neighbour who went out of her way for me as a child. Rembrandt’s lady painted in 1633 has a similar quality. The act of imagining heaven is a pointer to its existence since it would be strange to imagine it unless the aspiration had been sown in my heart.

In my ten pointers to heaven I move on to TRUTH. Before I was ordained I was a scientist researching plastics preparing the way for the lightweight electrical components of today’s smartphones. In this pursuit I was drawn forward by the unveiling of truth my intelligence served [cf Blake’s picture of Newton]. I became convinced that mind is prior to matter. By extension, accepting the existence of a Mind and a realm beyond the whole material world is a logical belief, confirmed by the revelation God has given of himself and heaven. 

In my ten pointers to heaven I move on to BEAUTY. Experiencing beauty, as in this garden, is being struck physically so as to enter a more profound dimension of human awareness than the cerebral or emotional. Like being in a conversation which is interrupted by something happening so participants look away from their engagement to the cause of distraction. The experience of beauty can be overwhelming. It really puts you in your place and it points beyond this world to something beyond yet alongside also revealed by God - heaven!

In my ten pointers to heaven I move on to HOLINESS. ‘Holiness is the church’s greatest influence’ wrote Pascal. ‘People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive’. This is exactly my experience. In this blog I set forth reasons or pointers to heaven, not proofs, but lines that can convince seen in concert. Meeting Fr John Hooper at St Mary Magdalene, Oxford something hit me inside from beyond this world. His holiness became my greatest pointer to heaven.

In my ten pointers to heaven I move on to LOVE. Giving and receiving love is so wonderful we could see it as the greatest pointer to heaven. My experience of marriage to Anne and sharing life with our children and grandchildren never seems an end in itself. Through faith, but also reasonable reflection, it is hard to see this as a mere ‘sand castle’ to be swept away by the ‘tide’ of death. Sacrificial love in and outside of families seems to head somewhere beyond this world, a reality death’s tide will actually reveal.

In my ten pointers to heaven I move on to SUFFERING which is a pointer to taking an eternal perspective so as to make any sense of it. That apart it points to a cruel unintelligible world. Camus compares search for meaning in life in the face of suffering to forever rolling a boulder up and down a hill. He concludes once you realise life’s cruelty you are forced to make protest at it. As a Christian I too protest and hold to a heaven-promising God not aloof from cruelty who was ‘crucified for us’.

In my ten pointers to heaven I move on to VISIONS or times when heaven opens up for individuals. I have had such experiences. Whether holy imagination or God speaking directly the consequences were real, seeing me through crises and rebuilding conviction I am heading for sight of his face in heaven. My spiritual director once advised me: ‘Pray for a vision of God more to his dimensions and less to your own’!  Through visions in answer to prayer light can shine to make God and heaven more real to us on earth.

In my ten pointers to heaven I move on to scripture PROMISES. Scripture contains promises I know to be true such as those concerning living in peace, guidance, God’s presence in the Eucharist or answered prayer. All of these I am in a position to test and confirm the truth of. I am not yet in a position to test the promises about heaven but my experience up to date of God’s faithfulness to what he promises in scripture makes me utterly optimistic. ‘Grace has led me safe thus far and grace will lead me home’. 

In my ten pointers to heaven I move on to Christ’s RESURRECTION. I regularly present and debate Christianity on radio and social media and at the centre of that engagement is challenging folk about the resurrection of Jesus. ‘No thoughtful Christian can allow the Resurrection to be placed in one category with any other class of event’ Austin Farrer wrote, ‘anymore than he can allow God to be placed in one category with any other class of being’. Besides this heaven blog I commend my resurrection blog https://40resurrectionpointers.blogspot.com/

I end my ten pointers to heaven with WORSHIP. In celebrating the Eucharist we are lifted into the heavenly hub of adoration to effect consecration of all that is to God. ‘There light spills evermore from the fountain of light; it fills the creatures of God with God as much as they will contain, and yet enlarges their heart and vision to contain the more. There the flame of deity burns in the candle of mankind, Jesus Christ and the saints, united with him, extend his person, diversify his operation, and catch the running fire’ (Austin Farrer).