Lessons from the Past

            When I heard that the theme for the retreat this year had been Celtic Christianity, I dug out a book by Esther de Waal entitled Every Earthly Blessing - Rediscovering the Celtic Tradition. The Celtic tradition has become quite popular of late, which caused me to be wary of what might be another ‘new age’ search in the wrong direction. But, I have read and enjoyed other books by De Waal so was confident that her contribution was likely to be rooted in her Christian faith. I was comforted then by a line in her introduction that reads “All the excitement of the rediscovery in recent years of the riches of the Celtic tradition has led to an outpouring of writing, some of it excellent… but also, unfortunately, to large numbers of facile and superficial studies looking back longingly to a Celtic church that never existed.”

            Her book, or at least as much as I have read thus far, introduces us to men and women “who knew suffering, who knew the dark as well as the light, who prayed with tears.” It is important not to romanticize the Celtic world, cautions de Waal, and precisely because the men and women knew dark as well as light, we who struggle in today’s world can find voices that resonate.

            One of the chapters, Pilgrims and Exiles, describes Celtic monks, peregrinators who embarked on journeys with unknown destinations. They left behind all that was dear to them, friends, family, and homeland, and “they set out into the unknown, a journey for God.” They went because something in them drove them into exile, “seeking the place of one’s resurrection, the pilgrimage to heaven, the true home.”

            I’m sure that the idea of finding one’s true home is one that resonates with many of us. Though we may know that ultimately our true home is with Christ, on earth many of us search in one way or another to find a place that feels like home, or what we might imagine home to be. When I was growing up, my parents moved frequently, to this day I’m not sure why, likely the moves were for economic reasons or job changes. But, the result was that we never had a family ‘home.’

            Fredrick Buechner, another voice that resonates certainly with me, describes a similar experience growing up, in a piece he calls Longing for Home. His description of that longing speaks to my experience over the years. I know of people who have grown up in the same area and never moved far from it, but that is no reason to think that they don’t have, somewhere deep within, that same longing for something that is truly home. We try our best to create home for our families and for ourselves, and perhaps we are able to create something that for the most part feels like home, although I suspect that for most of us something, just beyond reach, is missing.

            In August, Paul and I moved into a bungalow in Arlington, and we are in the process of making it our home. I love the house even with its 60-year-old quirks! I love the neighborhood with big old trees that house the birds that I love to watch, and that swoosh and sway when the wind blows wherever it will. But, I also know that part of what will make it home is the person with who I share it.

            Speaking of his grandmother’s house, which was the closest to home he would experience, Buechner comments that when he looks back, his grandmother looms large in his memory, “which leads me to believe that if … the first thing the word home brings to mind is a place, then the next and perhaps most crucial thing is people and maybe ultimately a single person.”

            I began by speaking about the Celtic peregrinators who, compelled in their hearts to do so, would leave their homeland and all that was familiar. De Waal gives several examples of poetry written by them, words that tell of a deep homesickness, a longing for homeland, even though their heart is restless in search of God, “it is the parting of the soul and the body for a man to leave his kindred and country and go from them to strange, distant lands, in exile and perpetual pilgrimage.”

            Perhaps in one respect we are all in ‘perpetual pilgrimage.’ Circumstances of life bring us to places and situations that we may never have expected, but we don’t travel alone. As Christians we carry Christ within. Christ within is who we bring to each person we meet and who is with us always when those we love are far away in this life or the life everlasting. 
Buechner closes his article by saying ,“I believe that… the home we long for and belong to is finally where Christ is. I believe that home is Christ’s kingdom, which exists both within us and among us as we wend our prodigal ways through the world in search of it.” It seems to me that the Celtic ‘saints,’ both those who travelled afar and those who stayed close to the hearth, have much to teach us as we travel together on our ‘prodigal ways.’

            May you know the presence of Christ in all that you do and wherever you travel.

Esther De Waal. Every Earthly Blessing. Rediscovering the Celtic Tradition. Morehouse Publishing, 1999.

Frederick Buechner. A Longing for Home from Secrets in the Dark - A Life in Sermons.

**Reverend Binder will be leading a class on Celtic Christianity this Fall.