The Great Divorce - Chapter 5 (Part 1)
Monday Chapter 5Tuesday Chapter 5 continuedWednesday Chapter 6Thursday Chapter 7Friday Chapter 8
An Excellent Audio Book of The Great Divorce is above
and an Amateur Production of the book is below.
C.S. Lewis on Purgatory
Of course I pray for the dead. The action is so spontaneous,
so all but inevitable, that only the most compulsive theological case against
it would deter me. And I hardly know how the rest of my prayers would survive
if those for the dead were forbidden. At our age, the majority of those we love
best are dead. What sort of intercourse with God could I have if what I love
best were unmentionable to him?
I believe in Purgatory.
Mind you, the Reformers had good reasons for throwing doubt
on the ‘Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory’ as that Romish doctrine had then
become…..
The right view returns magnificently in Newman’s DREAM.
There, if I remember it rightly, the saved soul, at the very foot of the
throne, begs to be taken away and cleansed. It cannot bear for a moment longer
‘With its darkness to affront that light’. Religion has claimed Purgatory.
Our souls demand Purgatory, don’t they? Would it not break
the heart if God said to us, ‘It is true, my son, that your breath smells and
your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will
upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the joy’?
Should we not reply, ‘With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I’d
rather be cleaned first.’ ‘It may hurt, you know’ – ‘Even so, sir.’
I assume that the process of purification will normally
involve suffering. Partly from tradition; partly because most real good that
has been done me in this life has involved it. But I don’t think the suffering
is the purpose of the purgation. I can well believe that people neither much
worse nor much better than I will suffer less than I or more. . . . The
treatment given will be the one required, whether it hurts little or much.
My favourite image on this matter comes from the dentist’s
chair. I hope that when the tooth of life is drawn and I am ‘coming round’,’ a
voice will say, ‘Rinse your mouth out with this.’ This will be Purgatory. The
rinsing may take longer than I can now imagine. The taste of this may be more
fiery and astringent than my present sensibility could endure. But . . . it
will [not] be disgusting and unhallowed.
– C.S. Lewis, Letters To Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, chapter
20, paragraphs 7-10, pages 108-109