Sticking points

It's just another grey, rainy day here in British Columbia, the kind of day when you have the lights on all day, and perfect for tea and a first edition copy of The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, with its Narnian font and perfect punctuation. It's the tale of a man who ends up in what seems to be a place between heaven and hell along with other 'ghosts', each with their own reasons for wanting to stay or leave.

'There is always something they insist on keeping, even at the price of misery. There is always something they prefer to joy - that is, to reality.'

At times it feels a bit hopeless as each ghost represents - as in the rather sombre Pilgrim's Progress - a different difficulty or demand in accommodating grace, but then I suppose that's the point. Unlike Pilgrim's Progress, which presents a seemingly endless number of ways to fall off the wagon, C.S. Lewis presents an unexpected grace-filled approach to each 'ghost' and their individual sticking point. They just have to choose whether to accept grace: some do, some can't.

Lewis reinforces how futile it is to pretend to understand or pin down heaven, hell, grace and even other people logically or theologically. We can't know and we shouldn't judge the relationship between God and other people, and we certainly shouldn't get so caught up in the knowing and the judging that we forget our own relationship with him.

'When your own heart's been broken it will be time for you to think of talking.'

'Those that hate goodness are sometimes nearer than those that know nothing about it and think they have it already.'

'There have been men before now who got so interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God Himself.'

Equally, he's effective in making one think (1940s English is curiously pleasing to use) about one's own 'sticking point', that prevents one from accepting grace. I read of the ghost who requires assurances that heaven will offer 'a wider sphere of usefulness - and a scope for the talents God has given me - and an atmosphere of free inquiry' that described me just a little too well for comfort.

There's a strong sense from Lewis that if we are 'damned', it's because we damn ourselves, reminding me of the L'Engle meditation suggesting we create our own penance. From this perspective, we place more obstacles in front of ourselves (and others) than God does.

'For a damned soul is nearly nothing: it is shrunk, shut up in itself. Good beats upon the damned incessantly...but they cannot receive it. Their fists are clenched, their teeth are clenched, their eyes fast shut. First they will not, in the end they cannot, open their hands for gifts, or their mouths for food, or their eyes to see.'

But, not wishing to end on a pessimistic note, this is my favourite quote, a reminder to live and love, unstuck.

'But of course!' said the Spirit, shining with love and mirth so that my eyes were dazzled. 'That's what we all find when we reach this country. We've all been wrong! That's the great joke. There's no need to go on pretending one was right! 

After that we begin living.'