It is not given us to understand very much of the other-worldly reality in this life, although we do know enough to answer the rationalists who say that heaven and hell are “nowhere” and therefore non-existent because they cannot see them. These places are indeed “somewhere,” and some living on earth have been there and returned to tell of them; but these places are seen by us in the flesh more by faith than by knowledge: Now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know even as I am known (I Cor. 13:12).
2. Christian Experiences of Heaven
True Christian experiences of heaven always bear one and the same stamp of other-worldly experience. Those who have beheld heaven have not merely travelled to a different place; they have also entered into a whole different spiritual state. We who have not experienced this personally must be satisfied with the description of certain outward features which, taken together, distinguish these experiences rather clearly from all of the experiences of the aerial realm which we have examined above.
Numerous Lives of Saints contain descriptions of souls entering heaven, as seen from the earth. In the Life of St. Anthony the Great we read: “Another time, Anthony was sitting in the mountain, and looking up he saw one carried on high, and a joyful band meeting him. Filled with wonder, he pronounced them a band of the blessed, and prayed to learn what this might be. And straightway came a voice to him, saying ‘This is the soul of Ammon, the monk of Nitria, who led an ascetic life down to his old age’” (Life of St. Anthony, Eastern Orthodox Books edition, p. 38).
Abba Serapion thus described the death of St. Mark of Thrace: “Looking up, I beheld the soul of the Saint already being delivered from the bonds of the body. It was covered by angelic hands with a bright white garment and raised up by them to heaven. I beheld the aerial path to heaven and the opened heavens. Then I saw the hordes of demons standing on this path and heard an angelic voice addressed to the demons: ‘Sons of darkness! Flee and hide yourselves from the face of the light of righteousness!’ The holy soul of Mark was detained in the air for about one hour. Then a voice was heard from heaven, saying to the angels: ‘Take and bring here him who put the demons to shame.’ When the soul of the saint had passed without any harm to itself through the hordes of demons and had already drawn near to the opened heaven, I saw as it were the likeness of a hand stretched out from heaven receiving the immaculate soul. Then this vision was hidden from my eyes, and I saw nothing more” (Lives of Saints, April 5).
From these accounts we may already see three characteristics of the true Christian experience of heaven: It is an ascent; the soul is conducted by angels; it is greeted by and joins the company of the inhabitants of heaven.
Experiences of heaven are of various kinds. Sometimes a soul is conducted to heaven before death to be shown its wonders or the place prepared there for the soul. Thus, St. Maura, after resisting the two false visions of the fallen spirits during her martyrdom (described above as an example of the temptations that can occur at the hour of death), described the God-given experience that followed: “I also beheld a third man, very comely of appearance; his face shone like the sun. He took me by the hand, led me up to heaven and showed me a throne covered with white garments, and a crown, most beautiful in appearance. Amazed at such beauty, I asked the man that had led me up to heaven: ‘Whose is this, my lord?’ He told me: ‘This is the reward for your struggle.... But now return to your body. In the morning, at the sixth hour, the angels of God will come to take your soul up to heaven.’ ”39
There is also the experience of beholding heaven in vision from afar, as when the First Martyr St. Stephen beheld the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). Here, however, we shall study only the specific experience that is most comparable to today’s “after-death” experiences: the ascent to heaven, either at death or in a Divinely-granted experience, whether “in” or “out” of the body.
St. Salvius of Albi, a 6th-century hierarch of Gaul, after being dead for the better part of a day, returned to life and gave this account to his friend, St. Gregory of Tours: “When my cell shook four days ago, and you saw me lying dead, I was raised up by two angels and carried to the highest peak of heaven, until I seemed to have beneath my feet not only this miserable earth, but also the sun and moon, the clouds and stars. Then I was conducted through a gate that shone more brightly than the light of the sun and entered a building where the whole floor shone with gold and silver. The light was impossible to describe. The place was filled with a multitude of people, neither male nor female, stretching so far in all directions that one could not see where it ended. The angels made a way for me through the crowd of people in front of me, and we came to the place towards which our gaze had been directed even when we had been far away. Over this place hung a cloud more brilliant than any light, and yet no sun or moon or star could be seen; indeed, the cloud shone more brightly than any of these with its own brilliance. A voice came out of the cloud, as the voice of many waters. Sinner that I am, I was greeted with great respect by a number of beings, some dressed in priestly vestments and others in ordinary dress; my guides told me that these were the martyrs and other holy men whom we honor here on earth and to whom we pray with great devotion. As I stood here there was wafted over me a fragrance of such sweetness that, nourished by it, I have felt no need of food or drink until this very moment. Then I heard a voice which said: ‘Let this man go back into the world, for our churches have need of him.’ I heard the voice, but I could not see who was speaking. Then I prostrated myself on the ground and wept. ‘Alas, alas, O Lord!’ I said. ‘Why hast Thou shown me these things only to take them away from me again?...’ The voice which had spoken to me said: ‘Go in peace. I will watch over you until I bring you back once more to this place.’ Then my guides left me and I turned back through the gate by which I had entered, weeping as I went.”40
Several more important characteristics are added in this experience: the brightness of the light of heaven; the invisible presence of the Lord, Whose voice is heard; the Saint’s awe and fear before the Lord; and a tangible sensing of Divine grace, in the form of an indescribable fragrance. Further, it is specified that the multitudes of “people” encountered in heaven are (in addition to the angels who conduct souls) the souls of martyrs and holy men.
The monk of Wenlock, after being raised up by angels and passing through the toll-houses, “saw also a place of wondrous beauty, wherein a multitude of very handsome men were enjoying extraordinary happiness, and they invited him to come and share in their happiness if it were permitted to him. And a fragrance of wonderful sweetness came to him from the breath of the blessed souls rejoicing together. The holy angels told him that this was the famed Paradise of God.” Further on, “he beheld shining walls of gleaming splendor of amazing length and enormous height. And the holy angels said: ‘This is that sacred and famous city, the heavenly Jerusalem, where holy souls live in joy forever.’ He said that those souls and the walls of that glorious city ... were of such dazzling brilliance that his eyes were utterly unable to look upon them” (The Letters of St. Boniface, pp. 28-29).
39
Lives of Saints, May 3, English translation in
40
St. Gregory of Tours,