The Distance Between Heaven and Earth

At a retreat on Celtic Spirituality at Sophia Center, Sr. Therese Elias noted that for the ancient Celtic people, the unseen world was continuous with the physical world, and thus they believed that the spirits of the dead were still present with them. For the Celts, heaven and earth were only three feet apart, and in “thin places” the distance was even shorter.

I have an elderly uncle with dementia who is very much in touch with the thin places. Every time I visit him, he tells me that his brother Bernard (who died four years ago) has a job driving the tractor for his nephew on the farm, and though he’s not making much money, he’s as happy as can be. The poet William Wordsworth believed that it is with our imagination that we perceive eternity, and I’m delighted that in my uncle’s perception of eternity, his brother is happy, doing the work he loves, and still helping out family members.

Here at the Mount, our worship aid for the Feast of All Saints included this quote by Charles Péguy:

“We must save ourselves together. We must arrive all together in the heaven of our God. We must present ourselves together. We must not come to look for our God without each other. We must return all together to the house of our Father. We must also think a little about each other and work for each other. What might God say, if we arrive without each other?”

During this month of the remembrance of the dead, it comforts me to know that our deceased loved ones are still thinking about us and working for us. It’s as if they are steadying the top of the ladder as we ourselves make the climb from earth to heaven. When the climb seems long and we are missing them, we should take heart, for after all, they are only three feet away.