The Weight of Glory

The following is an excerpt from C S Lewis' famous essay The Weight of Glory; to me one of the best Christian essays ever written: take your time and think it through. Would love your comments.

Meanwhile the cross comes before the

crown and tomorrow is a Monday

morning. A cleft has opened in the pitiless

walls of the world, and we are invited to

follow our great Captain inside. The

following Him is, of course, the essential

point. That being so, it may be asked what

practical use there is in the speculations

which I have been indulging. I can think

of at least one such use. It may be possible

for each to think too much of his own

potential glory hereafter; it is hardly

possible for him to think too often or too

deeply about that of his neighbour. The

load, or weight, or burden of my

neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on

my back, a load so heavy that only

humility can carry it, and the backs of the

proud will be broken. It is a serious thing

to live in a society of possible gods and

goddesses, to remember that the dullest

and most uninteresting person you talk to

may one day be a creature which, if you

saw it now, you would be strongly tempted

to worship, or else a horror and a

corruption such as you now meet, if at all,

only in a nightmare. All day long we are,

in some degree, helping each other to one

or other of these destinations. It is in the

light of these overwhelming possibilities, it

is with the awe and the circumspection

proper to them, that we should conduct all

our dealings with one another, all

friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people. You have

never talked to a mere mortal. Nations,

cultures, arts, civilization—these are

mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of

a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke

with, work with, marry, snub, and

exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting

splendours. This does not mean that we

are to be perpetually solemn. We must

play. But our merriment must be of that

kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind)

which exists between people who have,

from the outset, taken each other

seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no

presumption. And our charity must be a

real and costly love, with deep feeling for

the sins in spite of which we love the

sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence

which parodies love as flippancy parodies

merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament

itself, your neighbour is the holiest object

presented to your senses. If he is your

Christian neighbour he is holy in almost

the same way, for in him also Christ vere

latitat—the glorifier and the glorified,

Glory Himself, is truly hidden