Eighth Post - Lent 2017: C. S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory)

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner - no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, you neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbor, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat - the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden."
- C. S. Lewis, "The Weight of Glory"

Here at the end of his address Lewis continues to remind me of the eternal nature of both God and myself. I still struggle with this idea though I do not deny it, it is just I am not used to giving eternity any truly serious thought, to try to understand what it would really mean. Here Lewis wants to shake me and say "Are you listening? Do you understand what it means to be human? Do you know who and what you are because of Him?"

The contemporary age of arrogance makes me respond initially (as I think the vast majority of people would) "Yeah, yeah I do" but when I pause and reflect on how I see people, myself included, interact with one another I have to blush, avert my eyes and say "I don't". Seriously, think of this:

"But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit"

It is immortals whom we cuss out on Facebook because they believe politically differently from us.
It is immortals whom we call ugly, bums, worthless, sometimes trash.
It is immortals from whom we look away in time of need.
It is immortals of whom we lash out against merely because they are a different race, a different sexual orientation, a different nationality, a different religions from us.

I used to think of this in terms of verses like Hebrews 13:2 where we are told to show hospitality to strangers because some who have done so have unknowingly entertained angels. But here Lewis says I need to do that simply because of who we are. The professor points out that I need to take people seriously, that my charity must be real, not something flippant, not something I should do when I feel like it. Within each person is the imago dei, the image of God. Whether they know it or not, I do and I need to act accordingly.

Some will accuse me of being too naive, that I don't understand reality. Maybe, but I don't think so. I think it is a matter of taking what God has told us seriously. Rather than saying just "Amen, I believe" I need to say (and so should you if you say you are Christian) "Amen, I believe, and so this is how I will live".