OUR FATE? OUR FUTURE? OUR GLORY?

BY Edwin Cooney

I don’t even have to ask -- I know, because I’m one of you, that you’ve wondered! Yah, I know you’re a critic and a realist, that you’re educated and sophisticated, terrific and scientific, cool and hip – me, too! -- but you’ve wondered! What’s it gonna be like, when suddenly life, as you know it, permanently changes?

The end of our time on earth is, of course, as natural as was our beginning, but most of us have spent our entire lives in fear of it. Those among us raised in Christian homes have been told of two possible occurrences which will mark the close of our familiar earthly existence. These are (1) our physical death or (2) the second coming of Christ during our lifetime here on the Planet Earth.

Millions of people have witnessed the occurrence – and, of course, the results of -- physical death. As starkly real as it is, death seldom if ever simply leaves its physical calling card. It also leaves in its wake such emotional feelings and reactions as horror, loss, anger, sadness, and loneliness. Occasionally it even leaves a feeling of satisfaction or accomplishment. (As evidence of this last point, consider those who recently took part in the hanging of Saddam Hussein!) We also can inherit from death’s visitation a feeling of wonder as well as legend.

Since no one has experienced the second occurrence mentioned above, its likelihood for most of us seems exceedingly remote. Yet, I confess, that I’ve always found even its possibility very gripping.

That is why I was quite fascinated the other night when I received what appears to be one of those email chain letters describing what could conceivably take place on that fate-filled day.

Of course, that day is just like any other summer’s day. You’re driving home and suddenly you hear a rather high-pitched sound like trumpets or a choir. The sound is so unusual and persistent that you pull your car over to the edge of the road or freeway. (The one factor the author doesn’t take into consideration is the possibility that you might be a teenager or young adult whose boombox is on so loud you couldn’t possibly hear the approach of a fire truck or ambulance siren -- let alone the sound of trumpets or a choir)!

Okay! I’ll let the author tell you the rest:

So you pull over, get out of your car, and look up. As you do, you see you aren't the only curious one. The roadside has become a parking lot. Car doors are open, and people are staring at the sky. Shoppers are racing out of the grocery store.

The Little League baseball game across the street has come to a halt.
Players and parents are searching the clouds. And what they see, and what you see, has never before been seen.

As if the sky were a curtain, the drapes of the atmosphere part. A brilliant
light spills onto the earth. There are no shadows. None. From whence came the light begins to tumble a river of color spiking crystals of every hue ever seen and a million more never seen. Riding on the flow is an endless fleet of angels. They pass through the curtains one myriad at a time, until they occupy every square inch of the sky.

North.
South.
East.
West.

Thousands of silvery wings rise and fall in unison, and over the sound of
the trumpets, you can hear the cherubim and seraphim chanting, Holy, holy, holy. The final flank of angels is followed by twenty-four silver-bearded elders and a multitude of souls who join the angels in worship.

Presently the movement stops and the trumpets are silent, leaving only the
triumphant triplet: Holy, holy, holy. Between each word is a pause. With
each word, a profound reverence. You hear your voice join in the chorus.
You don't know why you say the words, but you know you must.

Suddenly, the heavens are quiet. All is quiet.

The angels turn, you turn, the entire world turns and there He is. Jesus.
Through waves of light you see the silhouetted figure of Christ the King.
He is atop a great stallion, and the stallion is atop a billowing cloud.
He opens his mouth, and you are surrounded by his declaration:
I am the Alpha and the Omega.

The angels bow their heads.
The elders remove their crowns.
And before you is a Figure so consuming that you know,
instantly you know: Nothing else matters.
Forget stock markets and school reports.
Sales meetings and football games.
Nothing is newsworthy...
All that mattered, matters no more....
for Christ has come...

From this point the author requests that you let him or her know when you received this message. Assuring you that your reception of this message was no accident, you’re requested not to break the chain and to send it to at least four people. Additionally, you’re promised that if you do send it on, you’ll get a wanted phone call or be contacted by someone whom you’ve been longing to hear from. Finally, you’re assured that you’ve just seen evidence of the beginning of God’s love but that you’ll never see the end of it.

So, what’s this chain letter really all about? Does it have value beyond its plausibility or even lack of plausibility? Even more, is it relevant to non-Christians?

I believe the answer to the last two questions is: yes, indeed!!

My guess is that silvery angel’s wings and Christ returning on a stallion are strictly symbolic to make God fathomable to humankind. The author might have been even more persuasive if Christ were standing in an open Mercedes atop that cloud. Besides, it’s silly to think Jesus would return riding a stallion: the Congressional Women’s Caucus would be outraged!

Clearly, the author is a Believer. He or she believes that Christ will one day return. What is likely to happen once He returns, the author does not say. Nor I think does it matter much what happens. What this does tell us is that the day will come when there will be an end to human control on the earth. Presumably, the arrival of Jesus will mark the end of all wars, and bring to a close all human conflict via the force of an all-abiding love.

We Christians, of course, like to think that we understand God better than anyone else does. However, it’s just possible that not even we understand -- really understand -- much of anything God ever has done or will do. We Christians don’t even take orders particularly well. For example:

It’s written in scripture that God asked His followers to build God’s Church. Instead, we have built many churches, thereby demonstrating our capacity to be political even in worship. Insofar as I’m aware there isn’t anything written in scripture giving us permission to have done this! The good news, so written in scripture and surely implied in the message above, is that God’s love is sufficiently powerful enough to forgive even this self-centered and self-important human tendency on the part of us Christians.

For those of other religious faiths, this Christian isn’t sufficiently smug to be absolutely sure that Christ hasn’t infiltrated your faith. If Christ can return on a horse or perhaps even in a Mercedes, it’s just possible that at some point long ago he could have appeared as Muhammad or Buddah or…! (Please, please don’t tell Billy Graham I said that!)

As for the atheist or agnostic, there’s a message here for you as well. You’ll find that message in the power of its symbolism. Surely you know that in order to appreciate a good mystery or science fiction thriller, the first thing you have to do is suspend belief. If you can do that for Captain James T. Kirk as well as for your enjoyment of other science fiction novels and movies, can’t you do it to save your own soul?

Even if logic must be king, why let the spiritual have an absolute monopoly on faith? If scientific logic is your first love, then by all means enjoy it. Why let the possibility that science may have been conceived and created by an even more powerful force or mind spoil your fun. If you can’t suspend belief for your own benefit, why not do the opposite—suspend disbelief. It may well matter to you and those who love you for a long, long time!

The bottom line is that I like this piece of writing despite its rather tacky plea to spread the word. The reason I like it is because it’s symbolism takes us to the edge of the unfathomable—the awsome power of God’s Love.

We fear the unfathomable because we can neither comprehend or control it. This piece of writing reminds us that just as our individual presence on earth ends, our collective earthly responsibilities will one day end. We need not fear death. Fear is made and perpetuated by humankind. We needn’t fear death any more than we feared the dawning of life on the day we were born.

From the moment we take our first breath, as much as air, water, food, clothing and shelter, we must have love.

What this message tells me is that we were born of God’s and humankind’s capacity for love and that, if we allow it to be so, an eternity of love awaits us.

As to whether or not angels really have or need silver wings — it beats the “you know what” out of me!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY

Originally published January 5, 2007