These reflections were part of a book study Fr. Rob led on C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters.
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As we wrap up our study this week, one thing capturing my attention is that anything at all can be an opportunity for temptation. I believe that we tend to lump “sins” into a particular category—maybe “sins of the flesh” that in our imaginations revolve around things like substance abuse or promiscuous sex. The “drinkin’ and carousin’” type of sins. If I’m not someone who does such things (like those kinds of people do), and I perceive myself as a generally good person, and if I even go to church, well . . . I’ve got it all together.

Paul describes the “works of the flesh” in Galatians 5:19-21: “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Isn’t it curious that when we read through this list we tend to shorten it in our minds to something more like, “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these”? My point is that we tend to step over the things we ourselves do and note instead the things that we believe other people do. Never mind my own anger, quarreling, dissension, jealousy, greed and the like which are getting equal billing alongside the other sins. Those aren’t “real” sins, right? Maybe we tend to think so because they’re just so common and ordinary as opposed to more salacious sins. Screwtape makes it pretty clear that it’s the more subtle, more ordinary things that are just as much if not more of an occasion for temptation than the scandalous.

I also notice that each character in the story has his or her own “demons.” Each has their own Wormwood, Screwtape, Slumtrimptet, Toadpipe, or Slubgob. This is true: we all have our own demons, which means we all have our own sin. As a mentor of mine who was a recovering alcoholic used to say, “We all have something. My thing is booze. What’s yours?” Could it be anger? Jealousy? Greed? Gluttony? Sloth? Lust? As the first letter of John says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). The truth is we all have temptations and sin to deal with in our lives. And, as the letter continues, “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). When we recognize our struggles and our failings we should never use this as an opportunity for self-shame. The Church, for far too long, has shamed people in acknowledging human sinfulness. The other side of the truth is that we are made in God’s image, beloved by God who is eager to forgive. All of our failings are an opportunity for new life, fresh starts through the experience of the grace and mercy of God. That is what the good news of Jesus Christ is all about—we may have our demons, but we have a Lord who is eager to save us from ourselves.

We will soon enter the season of Advent, and once again hear the invitation of John the Baptist to “Prepare the way for the Lord.” I find myself wondering what it means to prepare the way for the Lord. What does it mean to do that? To offer a sneak peak into what I’ll be preaching that first Sunday of Advent, I believe it means preparing a way for grace and mercy in a world that has little or none to offer. Screwtape and his nephew and their colleagues stand ready to accuse. This world is eager to condemn. We await and long for the savior who is coming into the world to share in our experience of being shamed and condemned by the world, but to lead us into new life, new beginnings, and a day of resurrection.

These reflections were part of a book study Fr. Rob led on C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters.
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​My summer sabbatical began with a five-day retreat in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state. This retreat was a Men’s Rites of Passage (MROP). The MROP is designed to initiate men into a vision of manhood more in line with the saints of the Church, in contrast to unhealthy, even toxic, expressions of masculinity. There was a wide range of ages, and each initiate was focused on a different phase or aspect of life. I will celebrate my 50th birthday in December, so for me this time had a lot to do with being initiated into the second half of life. It allowed me to reevaluate my understanding of what it has meant to me to be a man, and how I want to be a better man in this next phase of my life.

One of the most meaningful moments of my time at the MROP came rushing back as I read letter 15 last week. Screwtape tells Wormwood that “the Present is the point at which time touches eternity. . . . [God] would therefore have [human beings] continually concerned with eternity (which means being concerned with Him) or with the Present—either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure. Our business is to get them away from the eternal, and from the Present” (p. 75-76). He goes on to say, “nearly all vices are rooted in the future. Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead” (p. 76).

During a group session, one of our leaders talked about his own past MROP experience. What he left with was a sense of his inability to focus on the present. “I spent my whole life up to that point focused on what was next,” he said. “I was always focused on the future, and missed so much of what was really important.” His statement hit me like a ton of bricks because I realized that I’d done some of that myself over the course of my adult life. I spent a lot of time looking to the future, and what the next thing on the horizon was for me. As a consequence I missed a lot of what was happening for me in the present. It was a powerful moment, and became one of my biggest takeaways of the summer. It allowed me to recommit myself to being present in the present.

Lewis’s words (via Screwtape) resonate with me. I’d never really thought of vices as rooted in the future, but that seems right to me. I’d never really reflected on my own ambition as a potential temptation. Our culture values ambition, or “climbing the ladder,” and ambition of a certain degree is certainly fine. It can be good to be ambitious. Like anything, however, our ambitions can overtake us, and push us to live forward in such a way that causes us to miss the beauty, wonder, and “present graces” that are right in front of us.

I’m reminded of the somewhat trite saying, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow’s a mystery, and today is a gift. That’s why they call it the present.” How about you? Did this concept of the present being the “point that touches eternity” resonate with you? Do you ever feel like you wish you could be more present? What else has been speaking to you in these letters?