Lenten Reflection: Irreconcilable Differences

The following is the first in a series of reflections on The Great Divorce.
For more reflections on this work, check out the hub page for the series.

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Irreconcilable Differences

A reflection on the preface to C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.  For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Matthew 7:13-14 (NRSV)

Purgatory is the waiting room

Between Heaven and Hell

Which door do I choose?

Only time can tell

If I win or lose

From "Purgatory" by Phoenix/NEBULIN

In the late 18th century, William Blake wrote a book titled The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

A century and a half later, C.S. Lewis wrote an allegorical novel titled The Great Divorce because he believed that some pairings - like Heaven and Hell - have irreconcilable differences and thus were never meant to happen.

The Great Divorce is a surrealistic story about a group of ghosts from Hell who take a bus ride to Heaven.  Strangely, though all of the ghosts are more than welcome to stay in Heaven, a number of them, of their own free will, get back on the bus for the return trip to Hell.  Normally it wouldn't seem to make much sense that someone who had the opportunity to escape eternal damnation to a place of infinite happiness would choose to go back, but, for some reason, as nonsensical as it sounds, Lewis apparently considered it a very likely possibility.

One important point Lewis tries to get across in this novel is that, if a person is in a bad way, she will never get out of it by continuing on the path that got her there.  As painful as it might be, some course correction, if not a total 180-degree turn, will be necessary.  In Lewis's own words,
I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road.  A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it fresh from that point, never by simply going on.  Evil can be undone, but it cannot "develop" into good.

Needless to say, Lewis is preaching for repentance in this book, so I can think of no better time to take a journey through this story than the season of Lent, a time on the church calendar set aside for introspection and repentance.  I hope that you, the reader, will join me on this journey through this strange and fantastical story.  Over the next six weeks, I will be posting a reflection every few days, roughly one per chapter.¹  If you would like to read the story for yourself, it can be found in the religion section of most local bookstores and also in various electronic formats.  This series of blog posts is not meant to be an exhaustive study of this work, so, if you have any insights I have not covered, please feel free to share them in the comments.  As always, any comments or questions are welcomed.

As we rethink our understandings of Heaven and Hell and consider why various ghosts decide to get back on the bus, it is my hope that we will look within and ask ourselves if there might be any any reason we would make the same decision if we were in their shoes.  I think that, over time, we will come to see that this story is less about the "hereafter" and more about the "here and now."


Notes:

1. I would like to thank my friends from Ignite who journeyed through this book with me over the past few weeks.  Without them, this series of reflections would not have been possible.

The photograph of the British bus was taken by Simon Osborne and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.  The photograph was made monochrome by Tony Snyder.