Saturday, July 26, 2008

mere mortals?

I was reading the other day at my favorite coffee shop (the shop with the biggest pastries!...and some pretty good coffee) and was just smacked upside the face with this passage from C.S. Lewis. As odd as it my be this is my first Lewis, so...sorry if i'm just way behind. Something my pastor said tonight reminded me of this. It comes from the last page of the first chapter of The Weight of Glory:

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean we are perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously- no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner - no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to you senses."

And a few quotes from Pastor Krist:

"Love is inconvenient."

"What would happen if the Church started doing something creative with the Golden Rule?"

I used to be better at this neighbor loving stuff. And by neighbor i mean the people around me at any given point. When i was a kid i loved people. In elementary school i used to talk to everyone, "be nice" to everyone. What happened? Well somewhere along the line I started caring what was cool, what I looked like, what other people looked like, what other people could get me...and I lost some of that innocence. I want it back! I want to see people as glorious, precious creations. Lord, help me.

10 comments:

marcushackler.com said...

It's amazing to think that we've got it all wrong. We are taught today that humans are lowlife scum when in fact God created us to be the zenith of Creation. As we all are of equal importance in that, it challenges us to view our neighbor in a different way - one of great worth.

marc said...

yes we were created as the "zenith of creation," but then we fell. We are that "lowlife scum" until Christ redeems us. I think too often we believers forget that we were in that terrible state, or against our best efforts, find ourselves back there daily. The crazy thing is that even as disgusting messes God still loves us just like we're the zenith of creation. Too put on those eyes is our vocation, remembering that we were shit too before Christ and are constantly fighting out of our lowly state toward the great love, right along-side our neighbors...wait, I think i just defined church.

JML said...

So philosophical Marc, I'm proud of you! Does that mean that you're going to be hairy forever? I think it does. How do you feel about that? :)

marc said...

define hairy.

Tracy Wilde said...

I'm totally with you Marc. This has been burning in me as well...I've been trying to articulate it on my blog a little bit. I loved this quote..."And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner."

wow, I'm certainly moved to love. my mantra right now is, God, let me crave justice and let love flow out of me.

thanks for the excellent post! today!

Anonymous said...

Well put C.S. Lewis, Marc Herring and Pastor Krist!

Melissa said...

MTH: I love you, I really do, do. Thanks for sharing your heart.

Kevin said...

Hey - good post. C.S. Lewis is a phenom! Thanks for the vote - http://tinyurl.com/5w4uor

katie henbest said...

more posts already!
and best be posting a lot in L.A.

katie henbest said...

oops...and YOU best be posting...