People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, "If you keep a lot of rules, I'll reward you, and if you don't I'll do the other thing." I do not think that is the best way of look at it. I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God and with other creatures and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God and with its fellow-creatures and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.
---C.S.Lewis: from Mere Christianity
I so love this passage from Mere Christianity that I read it over and over again. I think every high school student should have to memorize this passage beforehe/she is allowed to graduate from high school, despite our so-called 'separation of church and state.' This has less to do with Christianity than with basic morality and integrity, with who we are and will become as people.
Each time we choose to read and to think about and reflect on Truth, we are turning ourselves into truth, until it permeates our bones, our hearts, our minds, and even our flesh. Here is great advice from the Epistle to the Philippians:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things....and the God of peace will be with you (4:6-9).
The beauty of this advice is that when we follow it, we turn ourselves into positive energy. When we dwell on the negative, the impure, the things and situations that displease us, our minds become darkened, and we cannot find peace and joy until the situation is 'fixed,' or we just get tired of carrying it around. Praise and thanksgiving do not change the situation, but it changes us. The Light of the Presence of God flows into us, transforming us from the inside out.
Praise and thanksgiving is a discipline at first, until it enters our bones and our flesh, our minds and our hearts. Then it becomes a habit; we are transformed by it into joyful, 'heavenly' creatures. It took me years and years to 'get' the concept of Purgatory, until the Lord gave me an image of understanding. We cannot enter the joy of heaven while unhappiness, griping, complaint, unrest, anger, hatred, resentment, and untruth fill our core spaces -- our bones, our flesh, our minds, and hearts. We must wait in the 'outer rooms' until the central part of us is changed into Truth, Joy, Peace, Forgiveness, Dancing....
Then we are ready to meet other heavenly creatures who have become Truth incarnate. Nothing lying or unclean or impure can enter heaven; it has no place there. The first letter of John tells us that God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. Love is made complete in us so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment...perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The man who fears is not made perfect in love (chapter 4).
What does it mean that 'love is made complete in us' but that we have 'become love,' as St. Therese put it -- we have become love incarnate, in the flesh. That is, because Jesus Christ has taken over our flesh, our minds, our hearts, our emotions-- because everything in us has been surrendered to His rule and dominion, He has made us into a 'new creation.' The old has gone and been buried in the earth; the new man is made after the "Second Adam, the spiritual man." We have become Truth; we have become Peace; we have become Joy; we have become Love Incarnate. Now we are ready to enter into the Life that has been prepared for us from the beginning.
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