CHALLENGING WORDS PART 2

Part of my Lenten resolve this year is to re-read C.S. Lewis's book 'Mere Christianity.' It's a bit of a brain spa for me as it methodically and artfully builds a case for the Christian belief system.

Originally, Lewis broadcasted it on radio making each chapter concise and colloquial.

Amazingly, early on in the book, I ran across a few paragraphs that remind me of Pope Francis's ecumenical message that I reproduced a few posts back as well as my Catholic joke about the rooms of heaven.

It goes like this.

I hope no reader will suppose that 'mere' Christianity is here put forward as an alternative to the creeds of the existing communions - as if a man could adopt it in preference to Congregationalism or Greek Orthodox or anything else. ( I think Pope Francis would add non-Christian faiths here as well.)

It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meal. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. For that purpose the worst of the rooms, whichever that may be, is, I think, preferable. It is true that some people may find they have to wait in the hall for a considerable time, while other feel certain almost at once which door they must knock at. I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait.

When you get into your room you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise. But you must regard it as waiting, not as camping. You must keep praying for the light: and, of course, even in the hall, you must begin trying to obey the rules common to the whole house. And above all you must be asking which door is the true one; not which one pleases you best by its paint and paneling. In plain language, the question should never be: "Do I like that kind of service?" but "Are these doctrines true: Is holiness here? Does my conscience move me toward this? Is my reluctance to knock at this door due to my pride, or my mere taste, or my personal dislike of this particular door-keeper?"

When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong, they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house.

        My Father's house has many rooms.

       John  14.2