Tuesday in the 5th Week of Lent: Letter 28
Letter 28 begins with the obvious. If the Patient is living the Christian life, now is not the time for him to die in the war! Screwtape notes:
He has escaped the worldly
friends with whom you tried to entangle him; he has “fallen in love” with a
very Christian woman and is temporarily immune from your attacks on his
chastity; and the various methods of corrupting his spiritual life which we
have been trying are so far unsuccessful.
Clearly, if the Patient were to die today, he would
certainly go to heaven and be lost to the demons and their Father below
forever.
Apparently the war has resumed in full force and the Patient
is once again faced with the possibility of military service. You will remember that C. S. Lewis served in
World War I in the trenches and was wounded.
He also volunteered to serve in World War II and was turned down for
active duty because of his age and health but was put to work in the Cambridge
volunteer militia and for the BBC. His
book, Mere Christianity began as a radio broadcast designed to
give the people hope during the bombing of London.
Now Screwtape wants Wormwood to focus his efforts both on
keeping his Patient alive and tempting him with the fears and emotions of the
possibilities of what might happen.
They, of course, do tend to
regard death as the prime evil and survival as the greatest good. But that is because we have taught them to do
so. Do not let us be infected by our
propaganda.
Even Screwtape recognizes the eternal truth of Paul’s
teaching in Philippians 1:21, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” He reminds Wormwood, “If he dies now,
you lose him. If he survives the war,
there is always hope.”
Screwtape says about we humans that “…it is so hard
for these creatures to persevere.”
It seems that after a while the youthful loves and hopes, give way to
the quiet despair that comes with growing older. In our middle years, prosperity takes over and
places us firmly in the world.
His increasing reputation, his
widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure
of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at
home in earth which is just what we want.
You will notice that the young are generally less unwilling to die than
the middle-aged and the old.
By 70 years old, an effective demon can unravel the soul and
firmly root them in continuing to live in this world for as long as
possible. And as long as they live in
the world they are subject to temptation by their demon.
Screwtape points out to Wormwood that it is quite possible
to teach the aging human that there is great value in Experience which seems to
bring a false assurance that Heaven can actually be found in this world if the
correct combination of science, politics, and psychology can be put to good
use. Screwtape tells Wormwood
A great human philosopher nearly
let our secret out when he said that where Virtue is concerned, “Experience is
the mother of illusion”; but thanks to a change in Fashion, and also, of
course, to the Historical Point of View, we have largely rendered his book innocuous.
That great human philosopher was Immanuel Kant who wrote in
this book, “Critique of Pure Reason” that experience is the source of truth for
nature, but the mother of illusion for moral laws. I find it rather interesting that demons know
and quote moral philosophy.
There are 2 good pieces of news for us in Screwtape’s last paragraph. First, as we have said before, even Screwtape admits that ultimately God wins. Demons only get to work on us for the few years we can be tempted in this life. Life eternal is off limits.
And Second, life expectancy has now increased since people
are living significantly longer than the 60 or 70 years Screwtape expects. He tells his nephew:
Apparently He (meaning God) wants some – but only a very few of the human animals with which He is peopling Heaven to have had the experience of resisting us through an earthly life of sixty or seventy years.
Given we have a blueprint now for disrupting Screwtape and Wormwood’s temptations thanks to his Letters, we will still have to resist but know we know God’s power and the demons’ secrets.
I want to highlight our first reading for today from the Old
Testament Book of Numbers. The
Israelites are in the Wilderness and the people are growing impatient. They begin to complain about not having enough
food and water and they have grown tired of eating the manna God provides each
day. Clearly God grows tired of us and
especially when we complain too much. Complaining may be the vice to corrupt the
virtue of THANKSGIVING.
The reading continues with God apparently sending poisonous
snakes. Actually, I don’t personally
believe that God does that but rather the Israelites blame God for any and
everything at this point. They pray and
repent and ask God’s forgiveness. God
instructs Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole, so that anyone
who looks at it in faith after being bitten by a snake will live.
Now I found this quite interesting and did some research on
this particular symbol. I knew it looked
a lot like the symbol for Medicine. It
is actually called the Rod of Asclepius and named after a revered figure in
Greek mythology. His followers included
physicians who established healing temples across ancient Greece.
The serpent symbolizes renewal and rejuvenation because
snakes shed their skin which was seen as a sign of rebirth. The staff represents authority and the role
of a healer.
And this is indeed the symbol for the American Medical
Association and the World Health Organization.
This ties in perfectly with our Prayer for Today which
highlights how we are born anew by God’s Grace through faith. Let us Pray.
Almighty God, through the incarnate Word you have caused us
to be born anew of an imperishable and eternal seed: Look with compassion upon
those who are being prepared for Holy Baptism, and grant that they may be built
as living stones into a spiritual temple acceptable to you; through Jesus
Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever. Amen.