(Not a book review)
C.S. Lewis thought that hell was in the minds of those who are there, while heaven is actual reality since it is union with God. Many atheist say they are realist, I guess that means that those who believe in the Transcendent are not. I think it is a silly notion, to call oneself a realist. Actual reality, the understanding of what reality is all about is something each is trying to seek, but never really finds. We are such interior creatures, everything is processed from our own subjective inner world that to say one is a realist over and against someone else is in fact one of the most unrealistic things anyone can do in my opinion.
In the book “The Great Divorce”, C.S. Lewis deals with this notion of reality. At the beginning of the book he finds himself in a huge city, a dreary place, that seems real yet he lets us know that it is not really. For in this dreary town there is perpetual drizzle, and the homes, shops and book stores cannot stop it. There is no one around, so he walks about making the funny statement that the neighborhoods are of the sort that sells Aristotle in their book shops.
He finds out later that the reason there is no one around is that as soon as one ‘thinks’ up his house, he has a quarrel with his neighbor and moves away, so the town as it expands and gets bigger seems to be empty because no one can put up with anyone else. In time he finds a bus stop and some people were there lining up to board a bus. Even though there will be plenty of room on the bus the men and women are fighting and pushing to get a good place in line. On the bus as they where going on their trip to the outskirts of heaven there was constant fighting and even gun fire in the bus, but of course no one was hurt, they are already dead.
When they get to the outskirts of heaven it is not a very comfortable place. Too bright, walking on the grass is like walking on glass, very painful, for they are lighter than the grass, less substantial there than, well, everything. In fact they can hardly be seen at all, like ghost there, though in the town they just left, they seemed to be very real.
The book allows us to eavesdrop on the encounters by the travelers meeting with those who live up in the mountains. So each person on the bus meets someone that they knew on earth and have a conversation. The central point of the conversation is to convince/invite those from the town to come with them up the mountain. Some do and some don’t. The book is a good read and so I recommend that the book be read and more than once. Each reading takes the reader deeper into the central point of the tome. It is entertaining as a story. Deeply insightful in human psychology and deals with some deep spiritual truths about our freedom and how we can misuse it and self create ourselves into something quite nasty actually. The conversations bring this to light and of course I would think most who read the book can see themselves in each character. Some do choose to stay, but only after a painful struggle to accept anther way, a broader way, a more real way to deal with the actual truth of the matter.
At the end of the book, as those going back to hell, for that is what it was, were getting on board the bus, C.S. Lewis met George McDonald and conversed with him. They talked about free will, how we choose, and how evil can never blackmail reality into shrinking into their small world. For hell was not real, it was an empty illusion that those in that state choose over the brightness of reality. No one on the bus had an ounce of humor about themselves but deadly serious in their choices and final embracing freely their fate of living in the ever expanding city that was in reality a ghost town, without real substance.
Before C.S. Lewis got back on the bus, George asked him how the trip was. Well it was a long trip and he guess it will be a long trip back there. “Is it hell?” Lewis asked. “Well if one stays there freely it is hell. If they accept the invitation to death to self and greater joy, it was purgatory” George responded.
George started looking into the grass that they were standing on. Then he knelt down and asks C.S. Lewis to come and look. As he knelt down he pointed to a very small crack in the soil, tiny, and said: “This is where hell is, it is actually very small and without any real substance.”
Heaven is real and can be harsh to those who don’t want it. Clinging to a way of being can consume the humanity of those who do not want to be released or accept mercy and healing. They have themselves, the one thing they loved, they become their sin, it eats them for eternity, and it is an eternal journey of desegregation, of becoming less and less human. While reality calls us to become ever more human into the very likeness of Christ Jesus, the Word that was present at the beginning and called into being all that is.
The story is of course about each of us I believe and how deeply important our little choices are everyday. When I read the book, I see myself in all of the characters, and see the games I can play in order to not to face the truth of the matter. One truth is this, I choose, the choice can be from a deep place of freedom, or from an instinctive reaction that is easy to make but disastrous in the long run, but a choice none-the-less. Our past and our hurts can influence us, but to allow them to control us is like driving a car without a steering wheel. We make ourselves in victims and build our own interior prison. It is difficult, or can be, to let go of that.
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery
