by C.S. Lewis, 1945
People get on a bus, arguing, cruel to one another, leave a gray ugly place – go to a beautiful place – get off angrily and in a hurry. Meet “saints” sent to greet them one-on-one. One person is confronted by a saint who was a murderer who humbled himself and asked for forgiveness. The bloke he was sent to show the way would not lose himself – he kept insisting he had his rights and refused to go with the saint – “grumbling,” “whimpering” a little, he “made off.” Back to the bus.
2nd person met by a saint couldn’t believe he had been in Purgatory, which would be hell if he rejected the offer: The saint told him he was in Purgatory because he was “apostate” A person who forsakes his religion, principals, cause, etc.” He refuses to go with his saint to meet God face to face because he could not let go of his intellect and his ideas of what God was. (He is a Bishop for Episcopalian Church and is writing a paper on what Christ would have been like had he not been crucified so young – he would have changed his views.)
There’s a woman who refuses to go with her “saint” because she’s ashamed of how she looks.
Another woman refuses to go because her husband is there and she can’t nitpick, nag, and control him any longer.
One woman who lost her son may or may not have gone – she was saying she didn’t believe in a God who would take her son.
Only one person gave up his sin – it was a lizard on his shoulder – lust, I think – and he let the “saint” kill it for him. The lizard became a magnificent white stallion – the man became a magnificent man and hopped on the stallion and rode to the mountain where Heaven and God and Jesus await.
Very, very interesting. Amazing!
Wayne’s note: “The unforgivable sin–the one we won’t let go of, the one we prefer over God. Hebrews 10:26.” Hebrews 10:26, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left.”