Weighty Matters

I reread C.S. Lewis' The Weight of Glory this week. I had forgotten how beautifully rich is it with insight into the human soul. In the span of less than a dozen pages, Lewis captures the essence of human longings.

There are many quotable sections from it and most of you have probably heard it quoted before (even if you weren't aware of the source). A number of his thoughts are resonating with me this week, but the one that has been the most powerful is this:

It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory
hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about
that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor's glory
should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry
it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in
a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most
uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it
now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption
such as you now meet, if at all,
only in a nightmare.

And a few lines further down:

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.
Nations, cultures, arts, civilization -- these are mortal, and their life is to
ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with,
marry, snub, and exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

"Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses."