In his book Till We Have Faces, a fiction book, C.S. Lewis highlights the nature of real relationship. The book's main character, Orual, demands a meeting with the gods regarding the unfair death of her sister, Psyche. The relationship between Orual and Psyche is a strange one: Orual is ugly, while Psyche is beautiful; Orual is militaristic and a strong leader, while Psyche is sensitive and well-liked. Yet Orual, in spite of the jealousy, loves Psyche and so demands a hearing. Through the jealousy, however, Orual puts on a mask and wears it almost constantly. Finally, the gods will hear her complaint about Psyche's death. Yet in this hearing Orual doesn't receive an "answer" to her sister's death, but the realization that she will never understand the gods "face to face" until she herself takes off the mask.
This got me thinking about the masks we wear--and the vast majority of us do wear them. Sometimes they are necessary. Sometimes they are a hindrance. They always hide who we really are, though. A week ago I heard John Ortberg say that to experience God we must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives. I think it's also true to say that to experience God, we
must ruthlessly take off our masks. C.S. Lewis once said that next to the sacraments of baptism and communion that the face of another human is the closest we come to God. How important to have people with whom we must never wear masks! How can we see God face to face, until our face is no longer hidden from other people?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I think it's easy to wear a mask. We all from time to time have been guilty of hidding behind what we are good at education, sports, kindness (hospitality) etc. You want to give something, but you don't want to give too much for fear of rejection. Even in a relationship with our almighty creator there's a fear of rejection. “We” are in fact Sheep-ple, after all. I think it’s a contradiction. I want our Shepard’s guidance, but I struggle with sacrifice.
hey opticalwaveguy, glad you could share from the original story which lewis retells.
you raise a great caution--one i tried to highlight in the original post by noting that sometimes masks are necessary and that we need people not to wear masks around, but not that we should never wear masks. i would never recommend that someone be completely raw and open to *any and all.* that is not only dangerous to themselves, it is unfair to the one to whom they are opening themselves up! so, great caution. thanks for reinforcing it.
Post a Comment