A public domain image from the European Southern Observatory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been reading in Peter Kreeft,ed., \u00a0The Shadow-Lands of C. S. Lewis: The Man Behind the Movie<\/em> (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994). \u00a0The book contains a selection of writings from the great English academic and apologist, drawn from his many published works.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a passage that struck me deeply, because I know exactly what Lewis is talking about, having experienced precisely the same powerful intuition many times when viewing certain landscapes and looking at the night sky:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
We are to shine as the Sun, we are to be given the Morning Star. \u00a0I think I begin to see what it means. \u00a0In one way, of course, God has given us the Morning Star already: you can go and enjoy the gift on many fine mornings if you get up early enough. \u00a0What more, you may ask, do we want? \u00a0Ah, but we want so much more \u2014 something the books on aesthetics take little notice of. \u00a0But the poets and the mythologies know all about it. \u00a0We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. \u00a0We want something else which can hardly be put into words \u2014 to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. . . . \u00a0At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. \u00a0We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. \u00a0We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. \u00a0But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. \u00a0Some day, God willing, we shall get in<\/em>. \u00a0When human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch. \u00a0For you must not think that I am putting forward any heathen fancy of being absorbed into Nature. \u00a0Nature is mortal; we shall outlive her. \u00a0When all the suns and nebulae have passed away, each one of you will still be alive. \u00a0Nature is only the image, the symbol; but it is the symbol Scripture invites me to use. \u00a0We are summoned to pass in through Nature, beyond her, into that splendor which she fitfully reflects. \u00a0(83-84)<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\nFrom \u201cThe Weight of Glory\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019ve been reading in Peter Kreeft,ed., \u00a0The Shadow-Lands of C. S. Lewis: The Man Behind the Movie (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994). \u00a0The book contains a selection of writings from the great English academic and apologist, drawn from his many published works. \u00a0 Here\u2019s a passage that struck me deeply, because I know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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