Lately I’ve been reading various books, but the most intriguing is C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. What’s so unique about The Screwtape Letters is the perspective from which it is written. When reading this masterpiece, we get a unique opportunity to overhear a diabolical correspondence between ‘Uncle Screwtape’ and his under-study/apprentice and nephew, Wormwood. Uncle Screwtape describes himself as an ‘undersecretary’ or senior administrator in the demonic department of temptation while Wormwood is merely a junior tempter. The purpose of the correspondence is for Screwtape to offer guidance to young Wormwood as he seeks to keep his ‘patient’ from following Christ and becoming what God wills for him to become. What a fresh way to sharpen the mind of the disciple! By overhearing the correspondence of those who know their enemy (God) well and who’s purpose it is to keep would-be disciples and disciples from following Jesus, we get to hear exactly what our enemy doesn’t want us to do as well as what they want us to do to keep us distracted and not live into the abundant life Christ has for us.
I find this to be an especially good and necessary read during the season of Lent. As we walk this journey of repentance, there’s much to consider in Lewis’ work. Contemplate this admonishment from Screwtape to Wormwood:
“All you then have to do is to keep out of his mind the question ‘If I, being what I am, can consider that I am in some sense a Christian, why should the different vices of those people in the next pew prove that their religion is mere hypocrisy and convention?’”
Isn’t that exactly what the evil forces of this world seek to do — keep us distracted by keeping us focused on our perceived understanding of the ‘sins’ and ‘vices’ of others!? The last thing they’d have us to do is to “acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness.” They’d much rather our attention be upon the ‘manifold sins and wickedness’ of others so as to justify our own lack of faithfulness and humility.
The Eastern Church begins Lent with Jesus’ parable of “The Pharisee and the Tax Collector.” I’ve always wondered why this parable does not have a place in our own Lenten liturgies, as it really does get to the heart of the matter, revealing why the forces of wickedness would do all in their power to keep us focused on the sins of others rather than our own. They know the power of humility, confession, and repentance — it leads to right-relationship with God (justification) which means freedom from their strong grip.
In this parable (Luke 18:9-14), the Pharisee (the religious ‘elite’) is exactly where Uncle Screwtape would have him. He is full of hubris. He truly believes in his heart that he has no need for confession much less repentance. As the Pharisee brags about his good works, I can almost see the wicked smile on Screwtape’s face: Gotcha! Meanwhile, the tax collector, the one we’d never expect to be in right relationship with God, beats his breasts, crying out, ’God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” Jesus says, ‘This man — the tax collector— went down to his home in right relationship to God and not the Pharisee.
This lent, my prayer is that the plan of ‘the powers that be’ will be foiled by our focusing upon our own need for mercy rather than the ‘sins and vices’ of others. For when we’re in touch with the reality of the undeserved gift of God’s mercy and grace in our own lives, we have no need or desire to find reasons to judge others, for we no longer need justify our own sinfulness. Instead, we can focus our energy upon celebrating the gift of God’s grace in and among us as we live in community together.
