I'm reading C. S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, all of which are immensely interesting. Number 21 demands a comment!
First, read this portion of the letter:
Keep in mind that Lewis is writing these "letters" in the voice of "Screwtape" who is a demon. So everything Screwtape says is from the perspective of demons; "Our Father" is Satan, and "the Enemy" is God. Prior to the paragraph quoted above, Screwtape has been teaching his "dear Wormwood" about humans' tendency to believe their time, amongst other things, is their own, and how Wormwood should try to keep the soul assigned to him believing this illusion. Wormwood can use this for the devil's purposes because "Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury. And the sense of injury depends on the feeling that a legitimate claim has been denied." (from the second paragraph of the same letter.).
In other words, if we humans believe our time is our own and then have some of it taken up by others in activities undesirable to us, we will naturally feel angered or at least irritated by these impositions. The devil can then use this sense of injury and subsequent irritation to distance us from God.
However, I would note that the devil lives under his own illusions: he is in continual denial that Jesus Christ has over-come all obstacles that could separate us from God. We do indeed belong to the Lord (whether we like it or not) and we will meet Him face to face, bowing the knee and answering for our lives. Coming face to face with Christ we will have all illusions shattered. If we are alive in Christ, we will be glad to be freed of them.
My personal prayer is that the Lord grant me the grace to gratefully discard any and every illusion in this life well before judgment day! My experience is that the Lord's love for me is so lavish, He does this gradually and gently, allowing me to exercise my fiat, providing me the opportunity to freely and truly love Him above all else.
For the times I choose to remain blind,
Lord have mercy.
For the times I resist You,
Christ have mercy.
For the times I am slow to yield to You,
Lord have mercy.
May the Lord have mercy on each of us and grant us the grace to say Yes to His Love.
Lord, it is only by the help of Your Holy Spirit that I can seek You and find You and say Yes to You.
Praise be Thee that You actually persistently seek and find us!
Blessed be the Name of the Lord now and forever.
Amen.
The joke is that the word "Mine" in its fully possessive sense cannot be uttered by a human being about anything. In the long run either Our Father or the Enemy will say "Mine" of each thing that exists, and especially of each man. They will find out in the end, never fear, to whom their time, their souls, and their bodies really belong -- certainly not to them, whatever happens. At present the Enemy says "Mine" of everything on the pedantic, legalistic ground that He made it; Our Father hopes in the end to say "Mine" of all things on the more realistic and dynamic ground of conquest.
Your affectionate uncle
Screwtape
Keep in mind that Lewis is writing these "letters" in the voice of "Screwtape" who is a demon. So everything Screwtape says is from the perspective of demons; "Our Father" is Satan, and "the Enemy" is God. Prior to the paragraph quoted above, Screwtape has been teaching his "dear Wormwood" about humans' tendency to believe their time, amongst other things, is their own, and how Wormwood should try to keep the soul assigned to him believing this illusion. Wormwood can use this for the devil's purposes because "Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury. And the sense of injury depends on the feeling that a legitimate claim has been denied." (from the second paragraph of the same letter.).
In other words, if we humans believe our time is our own and then have some of it taken up by others in activities undesirable to us, we will naturally feel angered or at least irritated by these impositions. The devil can then use this sense of injury and subsequent irritation to distance us from God.
However, I would note that the devil lives under his own illusions: he is in continual denial that Jesus Christ has over-come all obstacles that could separate us from God. We do indeed belong to the Lord (whether we like it or not) and we will meet Him face to face, bowing the knee and answering for our lives. Coming face to face with Christ we will have all illusions shattered. If we are alive in Christ, we will be glad to be freed of them.
My personal prayer is that the Lord grant me the grace to gratefully discard any and every illusion in this life well before judgment day! My experience is that the Lord's love for me is so lavish, He does this gradually and gently, allowing me to exercise my fiat, providing me the opportunity to freely and truly love Him above all else.
For the times I choose to remain blind,
Lord have mercy.
For the times I resist You,
Christ have mercy.
For the times I am slow to yield to You,
Lord have mercy.
May the Lord have mercy on each of us and grant us the grace to say Yes to His Love.
Lord, it is only by the help of Your Holy Spirit that I can seek You and find You and say Yes to You.
Praise be Thee that You actually persistently seek and find us!
Blessed be the Name of the Lord now and forever.
Amen.
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