C.S. Lewis is, and has been for most of my life, one of my top three authors. I find as I grow older, that I come to appreciate his works on deeper and richer levels than I ever have and I fully believe he was divinely inspired. Not Bible level, but close enough.
I decided to start re-reading a lot of his works this year and I am not regretting that decision at all. I started with Mere Christianity and as an extra bonus, my husband and I are working through the C.S. Lewis Doodles on YouTube with our family. A fifteen minute video turns into a three hour discussion on faith, theology, philosophy, and more as our kids enjoy both the visual stimulation and time with us to ask the hard questions. Believe me, they are hard questions.
My husband, the kids, and I read through the Chronicles of Narnia over the winter months because honestly, that is the best time to read Narnia books – when the weather is cold and there’s a fire in the hearth. Cozy blankets, hot cocoa with marshmallows, and even a cuddly cat all add to the ambience. I cannot explain why, but so it is.
One of my book clubs decided to read Till We Have Faces so that was my next option. I devoured it in two days, highlighted so many good quotes, and had an excellent discussion with the club about the human experience, true versus false love, suffering, and how the gods interact with human beings…
Yep, you heard that right. The gods. Plural.
Till We Have Faces, for those who have never read C.S. Lewis, is his retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth. He narrates it from the oldest sister’s point of view and the changes he makes are profound in the telling of the story.
Because C.S. Lewis was a Christian, and in the middle of Greek mythology where the gods are mysterious and silent or chaotic and destructive or mercurial and hedonistic, he wove a narrative that is so poignantly expressive of man’s relationship with God that I am still reeling from the impact.
C.S. Lewis was accused by one critic of being misogynistic and sexist in his writings, but that same critic, upon reading Till We Have Faces without knowing the author, stated his astonishment at how the writer could only have been female given the deep understanding of the female condition and character in the voice of Orual, Psyche’s eldest sister.
Lewis managed to write the wrenching, heartbreaking love of a mother for her child turning to dust and bitter ashes when that love becomes obsession and jealousy. Orual could not bear to see her sister loved by another, given to another, and in her blindness and jealousy, her love took a cruel, destructive turn. Orual realizes it many years later, after Psyche has lost her husband’s trust and was forced to wander the world, completing quests for Cupid’s cruel mother Ungit. The mirror held up to Orual when she realizes she is Ungit, the ugly, jealous, cruel hag hurt to read, but her words later on when she completes her own punishing quest and has her awakening are so beautiful. The ugliness of Ungit is washed away and she, in a sense, becomes Psyche. Loved and loving others purely and with her true face.
But I was wrong to weep and beg and try to force you by your love. Love is not a thing to be so used.
Orual to Psyche
Her mentor speaks to this when Orual stands before the gods and accuses them of their cold indifference and mercurial cruelty toward human beings. After her rant is over, she realizes it was not the one she wanted to say, but the truth of the matter that exposes her for the flawed, broken human being she is and vindicates the gods for their mercy.
The Fox tells her,
When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you’ll not talk about the joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?
I was instantly transported to that verse in the bible where Paul writes,
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I also have been fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:12
Our imperfect understanding of God’s holiness and limitlessness is hampered by our limited and finite being. We can see Him, but through a dim glass and while we can know Him enough to trust and follow Him as He gives evidence of Himself, everywhere we look, often our quest for Truth is hindered by our own selfishness and jealous desires. Our love for God can be warped and twisted just as our love for others, because until we see ourselves as “the gods” see us, we cannot comprehend the depth, width, length, and richness of God’s love for us.
It seems like some have an easier time in this journey. Like Psyche, their love is pure and rich and selfless, so they seem to have a clearer view of God than others. Their journey seems to be eased by that understanding, but we must realize that each of us has our cross to bear. Psyche was loving and pure, but her love for her sister Orual was in a way selfish, because she gave in to Orual’s entreaties to break Cupid’s trust, instead of loving her enough to say no. For that, Psyche had many years of questing before she could be reunited with Cupid and before she could come to Orual in forgiveness and trust, loving her more fully and purely than ever before.
I gave Till We Have Faces a five out of five stars and am already planning on re-reading it again later this year. Sometimes mythology and fiction can tell the story of God in a way that no other genre can. I appreciate the power of story and C.S. Lewis was a masterful storyteller. I would have loved to meet him, but must wait for the other side of the veil for that.