May 23 2008
I’ve Never Spoken to a Mere Mortal
It’s true. This came up in our Truth Project study, and then I caught it today at Jolly Blogger. The point is that we, and everyone we have ever known, have eternal souls. Those souls will ultimately reflect incredible beauty and majesty, or unspeakable horror and corruption. This is from C.S. Lewis, not surprisingly.
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would strongly be tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.
— C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, HarperOne, pp. 14-15.
If that’s the case, how should we respond to those we meet?
