There are lovely stories in the Irish tradition of people dying and then meeting all their old friends. This is expressed powerfully in a wonderful novel by Mairtin Ó Cadhain called Cré na Cille. This is about life in a graveyard and all that is happening among the people buried there. In the eternal world, all is one. In spiritual space there is no distance. In eternal time there is no segmentation into today, yesterday, or tomorrow. In eternal time all is now; time is presence. I believe that this is what eternal life means: It is a life where all that we seek—goodness, unity, beauty, truth, and love—are no longer distant from us but are now completely present with us. There is a lovely poem by R. S. Thomas on the notion of eternity. It is deliberately minimal in form but very powerful:
I think that maybe
I will be a little surer
of being a little nearer.
That’s all. Eternity
is in the understanding
that that little is more than enough.
Kahlil Gibran articulates how the unity in friendship that we call anam ara overcomes even death:
You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
I would like to end this chapter with a lovely prayer-poem from thirteenth-century Persia.
Some nights stay up ’til dawn as the moon sometimes does for the sun.
Be a full bucket, pulled up the dark way of a well then lifted out into light.
Something opens our wings, something makes boredom and hurt disappear.
Someone fills the cup in front of us, we taste only sacredness.
A Blessing for Death
I pray that you will have the blessing of being consoled and sure about your own death.
May you know in your soul that there is no need to be afraid.
When your time comes, may you be given every blessing and shelter that you need.
May there be a beautiful welcome for you in the home that you are going to.
You are not going somewhere strange. You are going back to the home that you never left.
May you have a wonderful urgency to live your life to the full.
May you live compassionately and creatively and transfigure everything that is negative within you and about you.
When you come to die may it be after a long life.
May you be peaceful and happy and in the presence of those who really care for you.
May your going be sheltered and your welcome assured.
May your soul smile in the embrace of your anam ara.
FURTHER RECOMMENDED READING
Adorno, Theodor W. Minima Moralia. Frankfurt, 1989.
Aristotle. De Anima. London, 1986.
———. Ethics. London, 1986.
Augustine. The Confessions. London, 1945.
Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. Boston, 1969.
Baudrillard, Jean. Fatal Strategies. New York, 1990.
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London, 1981.
Bradley, Ian. The Celtic Way. London, 1993.
Cardenal, Marie. The Words to Say It. London, 1983.
Carmichael, Alexander. carmina Gadelica. Edinburgh, 1994.
Curtis, P. J. Notes from the Heart: A Celebration of Traditional Irish Music. Dublin, 1994.
Dillard, Annie. The Writing Life. New York, 1989.
Kennelly, Brendan, ed. The Penguin Book of Irish Verse. London, 1970.
Kinsella, Thomas, trans. The Taín. Oxford, 1986.
Levertov, Denise. The Poet in the World. New York, 1973.
Levinas, Emmanuel. Totality and Infinity. Pittsburgh.
Low, Mary. Celtic Christianity and Nature. Edinburgh, 1996.
Matthews, Caitlín. Celtic Blessings. Shaftesbury, 1994.
Merleau Ponty, M. Phenomenology of Perception. London, 1981.
Moriarty, John. Dreamtime. Dublin, 1994.
Murdoch, Iris. Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals. London, 1992.
Murphy, Gerard. Early Irish Lyrics. Oxford, 1956.
Murray, P., ed. The Deer’s Cry: A Treasury of Irish Religious Verse. Dublin, 1986.
