Loving Aslan more than Jesus (Lamp-Post Listener Voicemail)

If you’re a member of The Bird and Baby, the CS Lewis Reading Group in San Diego, you’ll have heard me talk about The Lamp-post Listener before. Whereas in the The Eagle and Child, Matt and I work through Mere Christianity chapter-by-chapter, in The Lamp-post Listener, Daniel and Phil are working through the Chronicles of Narnia a chapter at a time…

Daniel and Phil recently launched a telephone number where listeners can leave them voicemail (-406-646-6733). Since I love the show, I left them a message and shared with them Lewis’ thoughts on the child who was afraid he loved Aslan more than Jesus. To my delight, my voicemail was included in the most recent episode of the podcast, at about the 44 minute mark. You can listen to the whole episode below:

Loving Aslan more than Jesus?

I recently came across a letter from C.S. Lewis. A mother had written to the author of the Chronicles of Narnia because her son was afraid that he loved Aslan more than Jesus. Lewis’ response was pure gold…

Laurence can’t really love Aslan more than Jesus, even if he feels that’s what he is doing. For the things he loves Aslan for doing or saying are simply the things Jesus really did and said. So that when Laurence thinks he is loving Aslan, he is really loving Jesus: and perhaps loving Him more than he ever did before.

If I were Laurence I’d just say in my prayers something like this: “Dear God, if the things I’ve been thinking and feeling about those books are things You don’t like and are bad for me, please take away those feelings and thoughts. But if they are not bad, then please stop me from worrying about them. . . . And if Mr. Lewis has worried any other children by his books or done them any harm, then please forgive him and help him never to do it again.”

– C. S. Lewis: Letters to Children, pp. 52-53

At the name of Jesus…

bowIf you have ever visited an Eastern Catholic parish or Eastern Orthodox parish, you will have noticed that whenever the Trinity or any of the divine names are mentioned, the priest and people will cross themselves and incline their heads in a bow, even if only slightly.

This is a practice I really like and I’ve often wished that this would be more present at western parishes. Well, I recently found out that, at least in theory, it should happen there too…

The place where you discover this is the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), which is basically a commentary on the Missal, explaining how Mass should be celebrated:

A bow of the head is made when the three Divine Persons are named together and at the names of Jesus, of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the saint in whose honor Mass is being celebrated.
– GIRM 275

How about that?! I did a little more digging and found out that this practice has considerable antiquity. For example, in the 13th Century, the Fathers of the Council of Lyons seem to have been inspired by the epistle to the Philippians where St. Paul talks about how “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on the earth and under the earth” (Philippians 2:9-10). Here’s what the Council said:

Each should fulfill in himself that which is written… that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow; whenever that glorious name is recalled, especially during the sacred mysteries of the Mass, everyone should bow the knees of his heart, which he can do even by a bow of his head.
– Council of Lyons II, Constitution 25

So, even if it’s not common practice in your parish, I’d invite everyone to follow the guidance offered to us by the GIRM and to honour the Lord, His Mother and His Saints with this small gesture of reverence.

Calming of the storm

Work is busy at the moment. In fact, “busy” doesn’t even come close to covering it. I don’t think I’ve ever been so stressed and overworked in all my career and it’s been like this since Easter.

As such, I’ll be taking a brief blogging sabbatical. Maybe see you in May?
CalmingOfTheStorm

1 2 3 4 5 9