10 Great Souls I Want to Meet in Heaven

by S. Michael Wilcox

I understood how magnificent humanity was and how widespread God’s involvement has been in the affairs of his children. He has many voices with which he speaks to bring truth and goodness and beauty into the world.

Yet man was created in the image of God, not only outwardly, but also inwardly, in the qualities of the soul. Humanity was the last act of creation, its crown! We shouldn’t be surprised to see evidences of glory and honor in our fellowmen. Therefore, our journeys through the centuries of the past should uncover examples of “the beauty of the world!”

Generalization of a culture, an age, or a religion is prone to misjudgment, dismissal, or ignorance, but when we contemplate humanity one life at a time, it is difficult not to find much to love and admire. Ultimately our compassion is expanded and our empathy enlarged.

We need to learn from one another. Of one thing I am certain: No single people, tradition, religion, governmental form, ethical program, moral code, or civilization has had sufficient wisdom and goodness to set the pattern and govern the world in the ways of peace, decency, and mutual respect. I do not believe God ever intended it to be that way. He wants us to reach out and learn from the wisdom he has given to humanity over broad sweeps of time and place and personality. How, for instance, can we of the Western tradition believe we can ignore—to the extent we have—a full half of humanity who have lived and thrived in Asia, especially China and India? Their civilizations were high, their ethics commanding, and in China they never endured the darkness that Europe went through for centuries after the fall of Rome. We should be as Erasmus of Rotterdam was: a citizen of the world, whose homeland is everywhere.3

I assumed while growing up that God spoke to the Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament; sent his Son in the meridian of time who, with the help of the apostles, established his Church; revealed truths also on the American continent to Nephite prophets; and finally restored everything through the revelations and labors of Joseph Smith. I believed that my Father in Heaven is a loving God toward all his children. My idea of him was often difficult to align with this rather limited understanding of his interaction with humankind. What of the Chinese? What of those in India? He speaks often of his voice penetrating even the isles of the sea. What about those during the centuries of darkness we call the Great Apostasy? Surely God would speak to humanity through every voice he could find. I firmly believe this. God has many voices. If we cannot hear his voice in that of a prophet or apostle, perhaps we can hear it in that of a sage, or a poet, or a philosopher, or a playwright, or an artist. Their voices also find their roots in God.

Mormon gave an important address to those he called “the peaceable followers of Christ.” It was so critical that Moroni included it in his own additions to the golden records. Therein Mormon taught his people that “every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.” He counseled them to “search diligently in the light of Christ . . . [and] lay hold upon every good thing,” and “cleave unto every good thing” (Moroni 7:3, 13, 19, 28). In a manner of speaking, he is saying, “Plant your foot in the light of Christ, then reach out.” Let us search! The focus of Mormon’s address is charity. Beyond our usual definition, charity is also an invitation extended to us to harvest truth, goodness, and beauty from all cultures, all places, and all people, anticipating that our search will be richly rewarded.

With the light of Christ as our foundation, our point of planting, we are free to explore and encouraged to augment. We can find beauty and goodness in an almost inexhaustible number of people and places.

What I marvel at is how much God has accomplished with ordinary people who are also part of flawed humanity.

There are times in all of our lives when we must retrace our steps, return to the spot in the road where we committed an offense, and ask for pardon.

If you want to connect to the pure beauty of Francis’s soul, listen to Jenny Oaks Baker’s arrangement on the violin (an Italian instrument) of “All Creatures of Our God and King.”15 She catches the majestic joyfulness, the complete adoration of the Giver of Life, the sheer love of all things that directed Francis’s paths, greater than anything I have ever read or listened to before about the Italian saint. “We are minstrels of the Lord,” he said of the Canticle. “What are the servants of God if not His minstrels, who must move people’s hearts and lift them up to spiritual joy?”

Francis was one of the earliest peace-seeking diplomats, and the tragedy of his failure was not grounded in the infidel Muslims, but in his own fellow Christians, who refused to see good or truth in any other faith.

Francis learned that belief in God, faith, and truth could be discovered outside of Christian teachings. He was particularly impressed by the call to prayer five times a day and he personally prayed in the mosque. When criticized for so doing he replied, “God is everywhere.”

Francis taught us to possess our soul in joy, not find joy in possessiveness. He allows us to believe that even the most holy souls may yet display human frailty. He encouraged us to see good in all things and to feel celebratory rejoicing in each act of creation. God’s splendor was in Brother Fire and Sister Moon, in the wolf’s hunger, and the simplicity of the birds’ songs, in the sweeping landscapes of green rolling hills, in the silent wonder of the night sky, and in the quiet mystery of the crèche of Bethlehem. He helped us feel God in the breeze and recognize his love even in the pain we often must endure. Above all, he helped us to see God’s nobility in each other and to love what we see, even in those whose beliefs are so different from our own, for the Muslim and the Cathar were also God’s children. We are not measured in bolts of scarlet cloth, or the number of prayers we offer each day, or in great deeds of chivalry, but in our common humanity, in our kindness to each other, in the actions brought on by our “good Samaritan” hearts.

Holiness in the individual is the highest holiness of all, the greatest sanctification, above that of temple, cathedral, mosque, or synagogue, for it is in the human heart that God’s spirit reigns so supremely.

He was once asked by a fellow brother, “Why you?” Francis replied, “God could not have chosen anyone less qualified, or more of a sinner, than myself. And so, for this wonderful work He intends to perform through us, He selected me—for God always chooses the weak and the absurd, and those who count for nothing.”20 Those words find their echo in the Doctrine and Covenants (see D&C 1; 133:57–59).

Is there anything we cannot do? We must never limit our God; we must never limit ourselves. He chooses to show us greatness in the meekest of souls that we may know it in our own.

The greatest of all Chinese virtues was benevolence, just as Paul taught that the greatest Christian virtue was charity, and the Buddha taught that the greatest virtue is compassion. Mencius believed completely in these virtues and that man was born with them. They did not need to be instilled in humanity; rather, people came from heaven equipped with them. The challenge was to not let these virtues die, but to foster their growth. What made man unique among all of God’s creations was his heart, which had moral tendencies placed within it that, if nurtured, would lead all men to wisdom and goodness.

Modern man thinks with his brain, but most ancient cultures believed we think with our hearts.

“Given the right nourishment there is nothing that will not grow, while deprived of it there is nothing that will not wither away.”

The teacher, whether a parent, a sage, or the king, accomplished the highest good by helping others do good. There is no greater thing one can achieve. Mencius taught this achievement could be accomplished in five ways: 1. Cause others to grow by nourishing them like rain upon plants; 2. Bring out and encourage their virtues; 3. Help them develop their talents; 4. Answer their questions; 5. Above all, give them an example to emulate.

Mencius could often be plainly blunt, but when he had finished speaking you knew that you had been told the truth. “To feed a man without showing him love is to treat him like a pig [sometimes translated “domestic animal”]; to love him without showing him respect is to keep him like a domestic animal [sometimes translated “pet”].”20 Benevolence required more than just the offered help; one had to recognize the mutual humanity of the recipient on its deepest level—the recognition of an innate equality.

Chinese wisdom consists in not only knowing how to reason correctly in an intellectual sense, but also how to act correctly in a moral sense. This is something we have almost totally lost in Western educational tradition.

“The Way is like a wide road. It is not at all difficult to find. The trouble with people is simply that they do not look for it. You go home and look for it and there will be teachers enough for you.”

The heart does stray. We all know how far it can stray. There are perhaps those who have killed their original, true, childlike heart and may never be able to retrieve it again. But surely it is the goal of humanity to do all in our power to teach, encourage, and cultivate that which God placed within us. Indeed the childlike heart has, as Mencius instinctively knew, always been within us. Did not Paul testify, “In him we live, and move, and have our being; . . . for we are also his offspring” (Acts 17:28).

I pray often that my own life may validate the faith of Mencius as I seek to do good—without need for reward—but simply because it is my nature to do so, for “we believe in being . . . benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men”

That terrible things have been done in the names of Islam and Mohammad should not surprise us much, for horrible things have been done in the names of Christianity and Jesus also. We cannot judge a religion on these matters, but must turn to the origins and try to grasp the essence of the men and women who brought it forth and the spirit of its teachings.

“Truly, God is peace, and from Him comes peace.”