Mere Mortality

                In “The Weight of Glory”, C.S. Lewis looks at the relationship between God and humanity and determines that God’s relationship with man is very special. Lewis starts out by reminding us that our love for God should in no way be mercenary, but a reward in and of itself. The longing that we attempt to quench with earthly things can only be filled by God. He likens this to the feeling that a schoolboy has when first learning Greek. The schoolboy wants to read English poetry, but must learn his Greek instead because “the desire which Greek is really going to gratify already exists in him and is attached to objects which seem to him quite unconnected with Xenophon” (2). We have a desire for beautiful things, but that desire can only be fulfilled by God. At first, it may be a chore to have a daily walk with God, but eventually, we will reap the benefits. The thing that we gain from our relationship with God is that God is delighted by us.

 This, however, is not a simple thing: “To please God…to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness...to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son – it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain” (6). It is a beautiful thing, but it carries responsibility. The fact that we have not yet felt the fullness of God’s delight means that there is something yet to come. Lewis is a firm believer that “we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door” (8). If, someday, we get in, all the things of our world will be like shadows compared to what God has in store for us.  

Lewis brings up one last interesting, sobering point before he ends his sermon. We need to remember that everyone we encounter will be in some form of eternity after this life. Whether hell or heaven, we do not know, but they will be around forever, as will we. All the people that we encounter have the potential to be “immortal horrors or everlasting splendours” (9). The implications of this are far reaching. We need to be serious when dealing with one another and we must be sure to distinguish between the sinner and the sin.

For me, this last section was the most intriguing. It is not often that we are reminded of the permanence of our existence. Everyone has to spend eternity somewhere. The people that we encounter in our everyday life may end up the same place as we do no matter if we like them or not. Lewis’s reminder is one that can only be followed with the idea that we need to respect the people we are around, for one day they may be sitting next to God or Satan.