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The Great Divorce
by Collen Mayer
C.S. Lewis is arguably the most influential
Christian thinker of the 20th
century. His books are widely circulated,
available in a multitude of languages, and
read by all ages, from child to adult, from
casual reader to learned theologian. Lewis
has written some of the most beloved
children’s books ever printed (The
Chronicles of Narnia) and some of the
most popular religious books ever made
available outside of an academic setting
(e.g., Mere Christianity, The
Screwtape Letters). And Lewis’
popularity continues to grow.
In this article we’ll look at one of Lewis’
lesser-known books, but one that is, in my
opinion, quite possibly his greatest work;
this book is entitled The Great Divorce.
While it is impossible to adequately
summarize and analyze such a great work in a
few pages, we will take a brief look at the
book with the hope of encouraging more young
adults to read the work in its entirety.
Crossing the Mountains
The Great Divorce
is a look at heaven and hell and the choice
of one or the other. Lewis takes the reader
on an imaginary bus-ride to the “mountains”,
an imaginary place outside of heaven where
everyone must cross in order to reach the
Pearly Gates. In the book the characters
arrive right outside of the mountains and
are invited to depart on the difficult
journey through the mountains to reach
heaven and meet God. Each person is sent a
guide to assist them on their journey. The
book is narrated by a man who has just
arrived at the mountains and who is
considering whether he will take the journey
or whether he will go back to where he came
from.
As the story begins, the narrator curiously
watches as person after person arrives at
the mountains but refuses to take the
journey. Some turn back after looking at
how difficult the climb will be across the
mountains; some turn back because they
aren’t willing to give up the things of
their previous life to enter this new one;
some refuse to even get off the bus in fear
of the interior change that will have to
take place to approach heaven. By showing
the many people in the book who refuse to
make the journey into the mountains, Lewis
shows the many different reasons people
ultimately reject heaven and choose an
eternal destiny apart from God. For this
reason Lewis’ work is an extremely important
one; the decision that each character has to
make – whether to desire heaven and seek out
God or to reject it – is our own decision as
well; and the things that hold each
character back from giving their life to God
and journeying through the mountains are in
many ways the very things that often hold us
back from God. Therefore this book is much
more than just an imaginary journey to a new
place; it is a challenge to each one of us
to examine our lives and see what is keeping
us from God.
Let’s take a look at a few of the situations
Lewis brings forth in his book and offer a
brief analysis of them.
Receiving Our “Rights” as Christians
One meeting is between a supervisor and his
guide, who was a former employee of the
man. The guide had committed murder in his
former life on Earth, and is now in heaven.
The confrontation begins with the man asking
his guide how he can possibly be in heaven
after the horrible crime he committed; he
cannot understand how his guide to heaven
can be a former murderer. The guide
understands his pupil’s confusion, and
explains to him that after the murder he had
to completely give up his old self and give
his life over to God – it was the only way,
he explains. And the guide urges his former
supervisor to do the same thing.
But the man will have no part of it. He
feels he is being mistreated by being sent a
former murderer as his guide, and he
continually demands to be given “his
rights”. The supervisor believed he had
lived a good life and should be entitled to
certain privileges now that he is in
heaven. The guide tries to explain to his
new pupil that in heaven no one is given
their rights or what they deserve; they are
given something much better. The guide goes
on to explain that in fact, the murder was
not even the worst thing he had ever done;
he had killed his former boss with his heart
through his anger many times. But all of
this was of no consequence now because he
had given up himself to live for God and all
the wrongs he committed were forever
forgotten. The guide again urges his pupil
to do the same. But the man wants no part
of any place that puts a former murderer
over himself, and angrily leaves the place
to go seek his “rights”.
In this encounter, Lewis shows a unique
understanding of sin and forgiveness that is
somewhat different than the common view of
it held by many Christians. In the
“conventional” view the people who commit
murder, who commit rape, who steal, all
receive the punishment they deserve when
they die, and those who refrain from these
serious sins all receive the reward they
deserve in heaven. Lewis shows through the
meeting between the man and his guide that
the seriousness of a sin is often based more
on the state of the heart than on the action
itself; it is for this reason the guide can
explain that the great anger he held for his
former boss was more serious than the murder
he committed in a fit of passion. Lewis is
telling us that before we judge, say, the
people we see on the news who commit
horrible crimes, we need to look at
ourselves and see if we don’t have a similar
anger and hatred in our own hearts. Recall
Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount:
You have
heard that it was said to the people long
ago, "Do not murder, and anyone who murders
will be subject to judgment." But I tell you
that anyone who is angry with his brother
will be subject to judgment.
Matthew
5:21-22
Secondly, Lewis makes an important statement
about God’s grace and our own unworthiness
of God’s love. The man in this
confrontation continually wanted “his
rights”- what he felt he deserved. What the
man never comes to understand is that heaven
is a gift that nobody can deserve; and it
can only be received as a gift. And the man
was never going to be able to stay in heaven
until he stopped asking for what he deserved
and instead asked God for what he didn’t
deserve. The question for us to answer is
whether we have an accurate understanding of
grace; do we thank God for the gift of new
life and for choosing us as his children or
do we take for granted all the gifts God has
bestowed on us, thinking that in some way we
deserve them?
Finally, Lewis reminds us that God’s
forgiveness is available for everyone, no
matter how bad the sinner or the sin. But
as the guide explains, the only way to turn
from sin and come to see God is to abandon
our very selves and instead turn to Him and
let Him live our lives for us. We must say
with St. Paul, “It is no longer I who live,
but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians
2:20). And this conversion is necessary for
everyone, from the most holy saint, to the
most cruel sinner.
Where True Beauty Comes From
Another encounter involves a man who was a
painter on earth; apparently he was quite
famous and painting was the one love of his
life. The man comes to the outside of the
mountains and before he even begins his
journey he asks when he will be allowed to
paint again (specifically, he wants to paint
all the wonderful things he sees at the
mountains). His guide reluctantly informs
the painter that “that sort of thing” is no
good at this new place. The guide explains
that on earth, painters help capture
beauties that other people cannot see; they
in essence “paint” brief glimpses of heaven
and of God’s beauty. But in heaven,
painting beauty is not necessary because
everyone sees beauty in its entirety; they
see God face-to-face. The man, very
unsatisfied with his guide’s explanation,
and concerned that his worldly fame will
diminish after his death, leaves the
mountains and goes back to where he came
from.
So what is Lewis’ point in this
confrontation? Lewis is trying to show that
all art, all beauty, and ultimately all
positive pleasures point to God. Throughout
the dialogue between the painter and his
guide, the reader begins to see that the
painter has long lost this important point.
The painter began to consider his art an
end in itself, instead of something
which gives a glimpse of something much
greater. In rejecting heaven in hopes of
remaining a painter, the man chooses a mere
reflection of beauty over beauty itself.
Lewis is reminding us that the many
pleasures we experience on earth are only
signs of God, from whom all good things
ultimately come. So to reject God for
earthly pleasures is to miss the whole idea;
we must let the good things we treasure on
Earth point us to God, not draw us away from
Him. Lewis makes us reflect on a tough
question: do we let the pleasures we
experience lead us to God or do we
seek pleasures on Earth instead of
God. For Lewis the question is of utmost
importance and our answer has eternal
consequences.
The Heavenly Love
My favorite character Lewis introduces in
the book is a beautiful lady whom Lewis
describes as being surrounded by bright
spirits singing the most wonderful songs
ever heard by man. The narrator asks his
guide who this magnificent lady is. The
guide explains that she is a lady whom few
on earth have heard of, but who is one of
the famous ones in heaven.
She is surrounded by hundreds and hundreds
of young men and women – all her children,
the guide explains. The narrator becomes
confused and comments that she must have had
a very large family to have that many sons
and daughters. But the guide explains that
her motherhood was of a different kind than
this; the lady made everyone she met
a son or a daughter through her love, even
if it was only the meat boy who came to her
back door. And after meeting her, these
young women and men, her “children”, went
back to their real parents loving them even
more because of her great love. In the same
way, all men who spent any time with her in
some sense became “her lover” because of the
genuine love she showed them; but this love
made them go back to their own wives being
even more true to them than before. Her
love for people was so real that it went
forth from them to all the people they came
into contact with, and in this way her love
spread throughout the entire earth; indeed,
Lewis explains that “there is joy enough in
the little finger of a great saint such as
yonder lady to waken all the dead things of
the universe to life.”
After describing this magnificent lady,
Lewis depicts an encounter between her and
her husband, who had just reached the
mountains. The lady is overjoyed to see him
and instantly goes over to kiss him and tell
him how happy she is that he is finally
there and how sorry she is for any wrong she
has ever done to him. The man goes on to
ask his wife if she has missed him, and says
that he knows how unhappy she must have been
without him. The lady ignores the question
and goes on to welcome him with the most
genuine love possible. But the man persists
and asks again, this time with a slight
tremor in his voice, if she has missed him.
The lady once again changes the subject, and
tells him not to think or worry about that
since all is better now.
But her husband is insistent on pressing the
point, and says he cannot bear to think how
miserable the lady must have been without
him there. Finally the lady lovingly
responds to her husband that he is mistaken
since there are no miseries in heaven. The
man is visibly hurt and responds, “Do you
mean to say you’ve been happy?” The
conversation continues and the women tries
to explain that the fact that she has been
happy in heaven without him does not mean
that she did love him, but only that she is
finally truly in love, because she is
in God who is Love; she is now able to love
her husband like he should be loved, not
merely out of need’s sake like she did on
earth. In heaven, she explains, there are
no more needs; all love is true love,
springing from God’s own infinite love. The
confrontation goes on, and in the end the
man cannot bear the fact that she does not
need him anymore, and he leaves to go back
to where he came from.
In this meeting between this women and her
husband, Lewis first redefines what
greatness really is. Lewis recognizes that
on Earth fame and greatness is about being
known and being popular. Lewis shows that
the true great ones, the real saints, are
often never famous and appear to be quite
insignificant on Earth. But this simple
lady is a saint because her love for others
spread out to the whole world; and while
love rarely makes anyone famous on Earth, in
heaven it is all that matters. Lewis shows
through this lady that no matter who we are,
or what our vocation is in life, our true
calling is to be a saint like this lady; not
necessarily a canonized saint by the Church,
but a saint in heaven, known for our great
love for one another just as this lady is.
In this meeting Lewis also tries to show his
reader what genuine love is. In the end the
man would not accept his wife’s true love
for him because he wanted not for her to
love him but simply for her to need
him. Lewis tries to show that a “love”
based on a selfish need for one another is
not love at all. In heaven the lady found
the true Christ-like love and wanted to love
her husband in this new way; the man would
have nothing of this and insisted on a
lower, need-based love. And in the end,
such a “love” does not work in heaven; in
heaven there are no needs, and it is because
of this that true love is able to exist.
Lewis recognizes that on earth we all have
these craving needs to belong and to feel
loved and understood by somebody else; we
look for the people close to us- friends,
spouses, girlfriends and boyfriends - to
fill these needs for belonging that we
have. But as many couples/friends find,
the needs we have, that great hole in our
hearts that so many times makes us feel
lonely and isolated, cannot fully be filled
by human relationships; indeed God never
intended our relationships with other people
to serve this purpose. God put these deep
desires for companionship and belonging in
our hearts so He could fill them; the
fulfillment we find in our relationships on
earth, whether it be with our friends or our
spouse, is merely a small glimpse of the
fulfillment we will have from God in heaven
when he will take away all loneliness and
fulfill our every desire. So the lady in
the story truly doesn’t need her
husband anymore in heaven; God is filling
the deepest needs and desires of her heart.
And since she is now in Love, in God, she
can finally love her husband with the very
truest love possible, the same love that God
has for her. Unfortunately, the man cannot
grasp this greater love and instead insists
on a much lower kind which had no place in
heaven.
The Choice
So we have briefly looked at three of the
many situations Lewis brings forth in his
work The Great Divorce. On the
surface the book is a wonderful story about
heaven and hell, meant to stir our curiosity
for the afterlife and make us think about
things beyond our earthly life. But as we
have seen, the book is also much more than
that. It is a challenge for us to look at
our lives and the directions in which they
are headed; it asks us to examine our
choices, our morals, and our values to see
whether they are leading us towards God or
separating us from Him. The book shows that
the choice to accept or reject God is the
most important decision we will ever make,
and it is one that is made through the
course of our entire life by all of the
smaller decisions we make everyday. |
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