It started on Instagram and an interview between Oliva Hunt and a priest named Brother Richard, a Capuchin. Br. Richard told how, on his first day as a hospital chaplain, he was called to the bedside of a dying man. When he arrived, the curtains were drawn round the man's bed while nurses tried to revive him. So, he waited. Just then, a man came up to the priest and stared at him. Br. Richard, thinking he was a patient who was upset at what was happening, asked the fellow if he would like him to pray for him; he did. Then, a nurse came out to ask him to pray for the patient inside. He had just died. He stepped forward, saw the man in the bed, and realised he was the man he had just been praying with.
The second appearance came a day or two after the above and it involved C. S. Lewis, of all people, appearing to the Bible scholar J. B. Phillips not once but twice in the days after Lewis' death. I don't have the link to the article I read but this one covers it reasonably well. The one thing it doesn't mention is that Philips, if I recall the original article correctly, had been depressed at the time so Lewis' words related to that that.
After reading the article, I took a look at the first part of it here. The one thing I would dispute is its description of Lewis as being 'of the Evangelical tradition within Christianity.'. He was a low churchman but definitely not Evangelical. I'm currently reading Alister McGrath's biography of Lewis so it will be interesting to see where he places Lewis. I think, though, even if he said 'Lewis was an Evangelical' the designation would not be helpful today as what Lewis believed is certainly not what Evangelicals today do - communion of the saints, confession, and, if I remember correctly, Purgatory.
Anyway, back to apparitions. The third example was Olive Hunt and Br. Richard again. The latter describes a dream that a woman told him about. In this dream, the woman had seen all the deceased members of her family: mother, father, and all her siblings, all of whom had pre-deceased her. They were on the other side of a river, calling her to join them. She searched for a bridge but could not find one before waking up.
What to make of it all? I suppose the dream is the easiest one to rationalise. It could have been a God given vision, a divine gift given to someone who would soon die (which is what happened). But then again, maybe the dream came from her sub-conscious. It knew she did not have long to live and prepared her for her passing with this vision.
What about the Lewis appearances? Of course, Phillips may have been lying. Why would he, though? What benefit would it bring him? Non Christians would dismiss the event a priori. Sure, Christians would be divided between those who regard such appearances as demonic in origin and those who affirm their validity. Obviously, the former would also dismiss what happened. So, perhaps Philips wanted to impress the latter. I would only regard this as a possibility, though, if he tried to profit out of his supposed experience. Did he? To be honest, I know nothing about Phillips's life so have no idea. It's a feeble response but all I can say is that there is no indication from his Wikipedia page that this happened. Indeed, it doesn't even mention the story at all.
Finally, what about the man standing next to Br. Richard? He didn't know the dying patient so couldn't have suffered a stress induced 'vision', if such a thing is even possible. Could he have mistaken a different patient for the one dying? I suppose if the lighting was low that is possible. Going back to the stress induced idea, it was his first day as a chaplain so perhaps the stress of the moment caused him to mistake the standing man for the dying patient.
Those are the arguments against. The only vision I find it difficult to believe, though, is the dream. I have to admit that in its case, I want to believe it. Regarding C. S. Lewis and the standing man, I think it is harder to believe that they didn't happen, rather than that they did.
As a final note, I was interested to read J. B. Phillips's wife's account of the first vision. She was in the room at the time and saw her husband talking to someone but did not see C. S. Lewis herself. It reinforces for me the idea that visions are a divine gift for the person they are meant for. Why doesn't God allow other people to see the vision? Why didn't He allow Mrs. Phillips to see Lewis? The best answer I can give is because her pathway to God is her own, not her husband's. J. B. Phillips needed to see Lewis, she didn't.
A final, final note: I don't know if it is me but - excluding mother Mary - I don't often hear or read about saintly apparitions. I rarely, if ever, hear about St. Peter, St. Teresa Benedicta, or St. John Henry Newman etc appearing to anyone. They can happen, and do: Jesus, of course, met Moses and Elijah during the Transfiguration. The only such appearance I can immediately think of is St. Carlo Acutis. I saw a video recently made by someone who saw a boy that they took to be him outside a church. Perhaps I am just out of the loop because I would expect saintly appearances to be discussed more often. I guess a kind-of exception to this would be St. Thérèse of Lisieux's roses. How I would love to receive one of those! But, as I always say to myself when I think this, thy will be done, Lord.
image
No comments:
Post a Comment