"A paradise within thee, happier far." - from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667)
Paradise Lost is considered one of the greatest works in English literature. But few, including me, have actually read it.
Yet, this long, lyric poem suggests not only how paradise was lost in the Garden of Eden, but how paradise may be won. It is by turning to the "paradise within thee."
This is the paradise, Milton says, that comes with belief in Christ. But, what a surprise that that paradise lives within us, not without.
These is no garden in this world that can offer anything more wonderful than what grows at this moment somewhere in our hearts. The question is not whether the garden of joy is within, but whether we are allowing God's Love to nurture it.
Caregivers are so often nearby when others die. What happens when the beating heart of a patient ceases and no amount of medical intervention will enable the heart to resume its life-giving rhythm?
Chaplains are, of course, part of the caregiving team - sometimes too small a part. It is frequently the chaplain who is called when life-saving efforts are over. Sometimes, at the moment of death, those nearby report seeing a wave of heat leaving the body of the recently deceased. Could this be a sign of the soul's departure?
Chaplains offer an idea of paradise grounded in the Bible. Who among us does not wish for this elusive "place," this state in which we are not only freed from pain but enter a world of, perhaps, eternal ecstasy?
Because of my new ministry to prisoners, particularly those on Tennessee's Death Row, I have been particularly intrigued by the spiritual life of those who are locked for the rest of their lives in iron and concrete cages.
What is the opposite of paradise on earth? Consider the life of the primary inmate I visit. Glenn, is forbidden any kind of contact with any living thing. During his one hour outside each day, he is released like an animal into a completely caged area completely alone. He may not touch the hand of another prisoner through the wire mesh and will be severely punished if he does.
When I see Glenn, we talk either through a steel door or with a glass partition between us. Of course, he is not allowed plants or anything else that lives. He even has to wear leg irons when he is talking with me through the glass.
But, we all know that there are millions who suffer far worse than Glenn. They come to us imprisoned by pain, locked up in severe anxiety, or held hostage by terrifying mental illness.
What can we do to ease the suffering of others?
In Jesus' final moments on this earth, one of his fellow prisoners, hung on a nearby cross, implored the Savior: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus replied, "Truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:42-43)
That "today" was two thousand years ago. Yet, we may believe that when that day came, it lasted for eternity.
Our worldly days are marked by our personal mix of pain and joy. For all our wishes of paradise within, it is a rare human being who seems to have found this.
Still, there is a pathway to worldly paradise that each of us knows how to find. It is often, an elusive path for we rarely recognize it. Paradise on earth may pass through us each time we offer God's Love completely and selflessly to another in need.
Perhaps, that is "the paradise within thee, happier far."
-Reverend Erie Chapman
Note: Painting, Adam and Eve, is by William Blake (1808)
