Some Thoughts
I have been a little lazy lately about taking time to continue to write down some of my recent thoughts, sorry about that. I finished "Perelandra" by C. S. Lewis about a week and a half ago, but before I was finished it began building even more meandering hallways through my mind. Here is one idea I especially liked and another I very much appreciated Lewis for writing:
"'I know what he is thinking,' said the King, looking upon the Queen. 'He is thinking that you suffered and strove and I have a world for my reward.' Then he turned to Ransom and continued. 'You are right, ' he said, 'I know now what they say in your world about justice. And perhaps they say well, for in that world things always fall below justice. But Maleldil always goes above it. All is gift. I am Oyarsa not by His gift alone but by our foster mother's, not by hers alone but by yours, not by yours alone but my wife's -- nay, in some sort, by gift of the very beasts and birds. Through many hands, enriched with many different kinds of love and labor, the gift comes to me. It is the Law. The best fruits are plucked for each by some hand that is not his own.'"
Perelandra (Venus) is a world with many similarities to earth, only in this story Satan was unsuccessful in causing the "Eve" of Venus to sin. But what the story goes on to tell us, is that even in an uncorrupted world grace still plays a dominate role in all life. There are many implications that can be drawn from this idea, but my favorite is the thought that even if we could earn our salvation, the salvation we have in Christ Jesus will always be a much sweeter and a much greater salvation. This follows with the thought that as we live out Christian love in sacrificing our lives for others, we give our brothers and sisters this "better fruit", and as we are loved by our brothers and sisters we are able to partake of a "better fruit" than that which we could have gained on our own. Serve and be served.
The second passage I would like to write comes at the turning point of the book. Ransom has been trying to win a spiritual argument with "Satan" who has possessed a human body and is attempting to cause "Eve" to sin. Ransom is losing the argument miserably and losing faith in God's decision to send him to fight this battle. The book turns when Ransom realizes that it is not his job to have a spiritual argument with "Satan", but it is his job to physically kill "Satan", or at least die trying. Here is a passage that comes after this realization:
"It was fortunate that something so horrible should be so obviously out of the question. Almost, but not quite, Ransom decreed that whatever the Silence and the Darkness seemed to be saying about this, no such crude, materialistic struggle could possibly be what Maleldil really intended. Any suggestion to the contrary must be only his own morbid fancy. It would degrade the spiritual warfare to the condition of mere mythology. But here he got another check. Long since on Mars, and more strongly since he came to Perelandra, Ransom had been perceiving that the the triple distinction of truth from myth and of both from fact was purely terrestrial -- was part and parcel of that unhappy division between soul and body which resulted from the Fall. Even on earth the sacraments existed as a permanent reminder that the division was neither wholesome nor final. The Incarnation had been the beginning of its disappearance. In Perelandra it would have no meaning at all."
"'I know what he is thinking,' said the King, looking upon the Queen. 'He is thinking that you suffered and strove and I have a world for my reward.' Then he turned to Ransom and continued. 'You are right, ' he said, 'I know now what they say in your world about justice. And perhaps they say well, for in that world things always fall below justice. But Maleldil always goes above it. All is gift. I am Oyarsa not by His gift alone but by our foster mother's, not by hers alone but by yours, not by yours alone but my wife's -- nay, in some sort, by gift of the very beasts and birds. Through many hands, enriched with many different kinds of love and labor, the gift comes to me. It is the Law. The best fruits are plucked for each by some hand that is not his own.'"
Perelandra (Venus) is a world with many similarities to earth, only in this story Satan was unsuccessful in causing the "Eve" of Venus to sin. But what the story goes on to tell us, is that even in an uncorrupted world grace still plays a dominate role in all life. There are many implications that can be drawn from this idea, but my favorite is the thought that even if we could earn our salvation, the salvation we have in Christ Jesus will always be a much sweeter and a much greater salvation. This follows with the thought that as we live out Christian love in sacrificing our lives for others, we give our brothers and sisters this "better fruit", and as we are loved by our brothers and sisters we are able to partake of a "better fruit" than that which we could have gained on our own. Serve and be served.
The second passage I would like to write comes at the turning point of the book. Ransom has been trying to win a spiritual argument with "Satan" who has possessed a human body and is attempting to cause "Eve" to sin. Ransom is losing the argument miserably and losing faith in God's decision to send him to fight this battle. The book turns when Ransom realizes that it is not his job to have a spiritual argument with "Satan", but it is his job to physically kill "Satan", or at least die trying. Here is a passage that comes after this realization:
"It was fortunate that something so horrible should be so obviously out of the question. Almost, but not quite, Ransom decreed that whatever the Silence and the Darkness seemed to be saying about this, no such crude, materialistic struggle could possibly be what Maleldil really intended. Any suggestion to the contrary must be only his own morbid fancy. It would degrade the spiritual warfare to the condition of mere mythology. But here he got another check. Long since on Mars, and more strongly since he came to Perelandra, Ransom had been perceiving that the the triple distinction of truth from myth and of both from fact was purely terrestrial -- was part and parcel of that unhappy division between soul and body which resulted from the Fall. Even on earth the sacraments existed as a permanent reminder that the division was neither wholesome nor final. The Incarnation had been the beginning of its disappearance. In Perelandra it would have no meaning at all."
posted by Brian | 12:12 PM
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