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Category Archives: The Problem of Pain

What We All Desire

02 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by Fr. Moore in C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, Thought for the Day

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Happiness, Pain and Suffering

The Christian doctrine of suffering explains, I believe, a very curious fact about the world we live in. The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment, He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose* an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bathe or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.

The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis

*Note: It seems to me that “oppose” should instead be “pose as”, but I haven't been able to confirm this.

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Our Need to Surrender to God

28 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by Fr. Moore in C.S. Lewis, Salvation, The Problem of Pain, Thought for the Day

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Dependence on God, Dying to Self, Free Will, Obedience

Sorry I did not post anything at all last week. My kids were on Easter break, my parents were in town and I was enjoying not having anything in particular to do. Today, just something quick from Lewis.

If the happiness of a creature lies in self-surrender, no one can make that surrender but himself (though many can help him to make it) and he may refuse. I would pay any price to be able to say truthfully 'All will be saved.' But my reason retorts, 'Without their will, or with it?' If I say 'Without their will' I at once perceive a contradiction; how can the supreme voluntary act of self-surrender be involuntary? If I say 'With their will,' my reason replies 'How if they will not give in?'

The Problem of Pain, by C.S. Lewis

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Heaven – the Desire of our Hearts

27 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by Fr. Moore in C.S. Lewis, Salvation, The Problem of Pain, Thought for the Day

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Heaven

There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven; but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else. You may have noticed that the books you really love are bound together by a secret thread. You know very well what is the common quality that makes you love them, though you cannot put it into words: but most of your friends do not see it at all, and often wonder why, liking this, you should also like that. Again, you have stood before some landscape, which seems to embody what you have been looking for all your life; and then turned to the friend at your side who appears to be seeing what you saw—but at the first words a gulf yawns between you, and you realise that this landscape means something totally different to him, that he is pursuing an alien vision and cares nothing for the ineffable suggestion by which you are transported. Even in your hobbies, has there not always been some secret attraction which the others are curiously ignorant of—something, not to be identified with, but always on the verge of breaking through, the smell of cut wood in the workshop or the clap-clap of water against the boat’s side?

The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis

We all desire Heaven – God has put that desire within us. But we can only catch glimpses of it here on this earth. If we try to hold onto those fleeting moments in which we perceive the other side then we will never arrive where God is trying to lead us. If you want to find what you are looking for – the thing which you have always desired – then remember it is not on this earth.

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Happy (but not as we understand it)

06 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by Fr. Moore in C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, Thought for the Day

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I am currently working on my sermon for Sunday and therefore, since it is already Thursday afternoon, I haven’t much time to write on my blog. But, in my preparation I came across the following from C.S. Lewis. It may take some time to completely understand what he is saying here in just a few words but it is worth the time.

What we would here and now call our ‘happiness’ is not the end God chiefly has in view: but when we are such as He can love without impediment, we shall in fact be happy.

The Problem of Pain

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Fr. Moore

Fr. Moore

Parochial Vicar Our Lady of the Atonement San Antonio, Texas FrMoore@truthwithboldness.com

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