A great book I've recently found, "Yours, Jack," contains the personal correspondence of C.S. Lewis, including spiritual direction given to so many who sought his wisdom. Here's a snippet towards the end of his life:
To Mary Willis Shelburne: On Lewis's own rule for assisting panhandlers; and on the suffering and eternal destiny of animals.
I do most thoroughly agree with your father's principles about alms. It would not bother me in the hour of death to reflect that I have been 'had for a sucker' by any number of impostors; but it would be a torment to know that one had refused even one person in need. After all, the parable of the sheep and goats makes our duty perfectly plain, doesn't it? Another thing that annoys me is when people say 'Why did you give that man money? He'll probably go and drink it.' My reply is 'But if I'd kept [it] I should probably have drunk it.'...
I am sorry to hear of the little dog's death. The animal creation is a strange mystery. We can make some attempt to understand human suffering: but the sufferings of animals from the beginning of the world till now (inflicted not only by us but by one another) - what is one to think? And again, how strange that God brings us into such intimate relations with creatures of whose real purpose and destiny we remain forever ingnorant. We know to some degree what angels and men are for. But what is flea for, or a wild dog?
pp. 360-361
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
St CS Lewis? Street? Saint? St????
ReplyDeleteC.S. Lewis was added to the Lesser Feasts and Fasts of the Episcopal Church in 2003 and was ratified in 2006. The Lesser Feasts and Fasts is our sanctoral (saint) calendar. Guidelines for 'making someone a saint' are here: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/ecusacalendarchange.html and the propers for C.S. Lewis are here: http://www.io.com/~kellywp/LesserFF/Nov/CSLewis.html
ReplyDelete