This will be the last post in the series, and it involves what I think is the most important lesson in the book, as well as one of Lewis' main themes from the book. That lesson is living a perfect life, or, perhaps more accurately, seeking to be like Christ and to follow His example in all things that we do.
Lewis says that this is the purpose of Christianity - sharing in the life of Christ. The way that we can do that is by doing the will of God, and following His example in all things, no matter how difficult.
"Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always has existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be Sons of God. We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us. He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has - by what I call 'good infection.' Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else." (177)
Of course, we know that achieving such perfection is an impossible task in our earthly life. We will, no matter how holy we become, no matter how hard we try, fail to live up to the perfect standard of Jesus at some point in our life. However, that should not stop us from trying.
"But when a thing has to be be attemped, one must never think about the possibility or impossibility. Faced with an option question in an examination paper, one considers whether one can do it or not: faced with a compulsory question, one must do the best one can. You may get some marks for a very perfect answer: you will certainly get none for leaving the question alone." (101)
We may also be intimidated by the enormity of the task, and feel like if (and) when we fail, we will be letting God down. However, it is of course not how many times you fall, but how many you get back up. If you are a great sinner, God is especially pleased with you when you repent and seek perfection, for He knows how far You have come. He can see in your heart - even if you fail, God will know if You are trying to do His will.
"And yet - this is the other and equally important side of it - this Helper who will, in the long run, be satisfied with nothing less than absolute perfection, will also be delighted with the first feeble, stumbling effort you mmake tomorrow to do the simplest duty... every father is pleased at the baby's first attempt to walk: no father would be satisfied with anything less than a firm, free, manly walk in a grown-up son. 'God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy." (202-203)
In my life, I find that I simply focus on trying to be "good," and hopefully it won't interfere with the things I really want to do and the things I really want to accomplish in my life. It seems to me that my natural way of thinking is that these things are in opposition somehow - who God wants me to be and who I think I am meant to be. Of course, this could not be further from the truth. God wants us to become the best that we can be and fulfill our purpose in life. If we find what we think our purpose in life is to be at odds with what direction God is pulling us in, well, chances are He is not the one that is confused. We must give up this way of thinking, that we will do God's will just enough to be "good," and then keep the rest for ourselves. In the end, that doesn't work.
"The more you obey your conscience, the more your conscience with demand of you. And your natural self, which is thus being starved and hampered and worried at every turn, will get angrier and angrier. In the end, you will either give up trying to be good, or else become one of those people who, as they say, 'live for others,' but always in a discontented, grumbling way - always wondering why the others do not notice it more and always making a martyr or yourself. And once you have become that you will be a far greater pest to anyone who has to live with you than you would have been if you had remained frankly selfish." (197)
"For what we are trying to do is remain what we call 'ourselves,' to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be 'good.' We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way - centred on money or pleasure or ambition - and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do. (197-198)"
No matter how much progress we make, we are still going to encounter hardships and troubles in our quest for heaven. However, we should not let that get us down or discourage us or think that God is displeased with us and our feeble efforts. He may be merely calling us to a higher level, to a change and holiness we may have never thought possible.
"That is why we must not be surprised if we are in for a rough time. When a man turns to Christ and seems to be getting on pretty well (in the sense that some of his bad habits are now corrected) he often feels that it would not be natural if things went fairly smoothly. When troubles come along - illnesses, money troubles, new kinds of temptation - he is disappointed. These things, he feels, might have been necessary to rouse him and make him repent in his bad old days; but why now? Because God is forcing him on, or up, to a higher level: putting him into situations where he will have to be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving, than he ever dreamed of being before. It seems to us all unnecessary: but that is because we have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing He means to make of us." (204-205)
In the Book of Matthew, Jesus tells us to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. Most people don't really take that literally, or they skip over that passage, but it is vitally important.
"When he said, 'Be perfect,' He meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hardly but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder - in fact, it is impossible... May I come back to what I said before? This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else." (198-199
"In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose." (199)
This leads us to the final, overriding theme of this... we should seek perfection and to be Saints. Striving for anything else is not what God intends for us, it is not a proper use of our gifts. I will let Lewis say it, because I believe these are some of his most powerful, most challenging, most poignant lines in the entire book.
"I think many of us, when Christ has enabled us to overcome one of two sins that were an obvious nuisance, are inclined to feel though we do not put it into words) that we are now good enough. He has done all we wanted Him to do, and we should be obliged if He would now leave us alone. As we say 'I never expected to be saint, I only wanted to be a decent ordinary chap.' And we imagine when we say this that we are being humble." (203)
"We may be content to remain what we call 'ordinary people': but He is determined to carry out a quite different plan. To shrink back from that plan is not humility: it is laziness and cowardice. To submit to it is not conceit or megalomania, it is obedience." (204)
This will never be an easy task... we will always experience difficulties. But if we always strive for sainthood and to perfectly do the will of God, we can't help but became closer to Him and grow in holiness. If we can do this, we can enjoy eternal life with Him.
Amen.
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