5 Books That Have Changed my Life, #4- "Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

 

I sometimes tell my son, “Lying to others is a sin. But lying to yourself is also a sin, and it is the worst kind of lying, because after a while, you will believe yourself, and you won’t know the difference between your lies and the Truth anymore.”

C.S. Lewis focuses on this theme of lies and Truth throughout his book, ‘Till We Have Faces, based on the timeless myth of Cupid and Psyche. This has always been my favorite myth. It is not part of the original Greek Canon of mythology- it was first written down by a Roman, Apuleius, in his work, “The Golden Ass.”

I don’t recommend the “Golden Ass,” unless you just really love Roman literature, BUT imbedded in the middle of this bawdy, bizarre, rambling Roman comedy is a myth of ethereal and timeless beauty, “The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche.” If you’re not familiar with this myth, you can most closely relate it to other stories it eventually birthed, such as Beauty and the Beast.

            Lewis takes this myth and re-tells it from the perspective of the beautiful Psyche’s ugly older sister, Orual. In the myth, the older sister is definitely a villain, and she is in some ways in Lewis’ version as well, but Lewis makes Orual very human, and very relatable. Throughout the narrative she constantly justifies her behavior and blames the gods, demanding that the gods give some sort of account of themselves for their actions. But in the end, she is faced with the truth of who she is and what she is: a jealous, bitter woman who destroyed her sister’s best chance at happiness under the guise of love. 

Lewis was very comfortable using the stories of the old pagan gods to relate Christian themes. He felt that those stories had been placed throughout the cultures of the world so that when Christ eventually came in the fulness of time, the old stories would point the people to Christ. And in many cases, history tells us that the stories did.

I believe the point Lewis is trying to make is that before Jesus Christ can do anything with us, we must be willing to admit who and what we are. If we do not approach Jesus Christ here on earth while we have the chance, we will one day face God Almighty, and all our lies, accomplishments and titles will shrivel and disappear and what we will be left with is the Truth of who and what we really are.

Thankfully, there is redemption for Orual, and for Psyche, just as there is redemption for us if we are willing to face Christ, repent, and believe.

What does this have to do with me? Well, I often catch myself lying to myself. I know what the Truth is in many cases, but I ignore it because it doesn’t make me look good. I found much of Orual’s personal narrative to be strangely familiar.  ‘Till We Have Faces convicts my heart and gives me courage to face Christ honestly with the Truth.

            Lewis’ book reminds me that if I want Christ to heal, redeem, and use me, I must have a face, that is, I must be willing to face the truth about myself- that I am Orual- bitter, small, selfish, petty, clinging, pathetic, and capable of destroying the ones I care about most with my “love.”

        If you think this is unnecessarily harsh towards myself or the human condition, I would just state that it's a blessed relief to not have to pretend anymore. Certainly Orual found it so, and so do I.  

            As Lewis puts it,

“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?”

Theology and deep personal truth aside, the book is just extremely enjoyable. How does Lewis do that? How does he take such deep truths and package them in a way that is fun to read? I've been studying him for years and I still have no idea. In any case, if you are a fan of C.S. Lewis and you haven’t experienced this somewhat unknown fiction by him, YOU NEED TO. And if you've never read C.S. Lewis...you don't know what you're missing out on. Get thee to eBay and buy some used books!