From Vice to Virtue

one

This meditation is taken from C.S Lewis’, The Great Divorce. In this scene a dead man, a Ghost, is invited into heaven by an angel, but he refuses because he is enslaved by His vices represented by a lizard.

I saw coming towards us a Ghost who carried a little red lizard on his shoulder, and it was twitching its tail like a whip and whispering things in his ear… Then he turned and started to limp westward, away from Heaven.

‘Off so soon?’ said a voice.

The speaker was more or less human in shape but larger than a man, and so bright that I could hardly look at him. His presence struck my eyes and my body too (for there was heat coming from him - as well as light)…

‘Yes. I’m off,’ said the Ghost. ‘Thanks for all your hospitality. But it’s no good, you see. This Lizard can’t live here... I shall just have to go home.’

‘Would you like me to make him quiet?’ said the flaming Spirit—an angel, as I now understood. ‘Of course I would,’ said the Ghost.

‘Then I will kill him,’ said the Angel, taking a step forward.

‘Oh—ah—look out! You’re burning me. Keep away,’ said the Ghost, retreating.

‘Don’t you want him killed?’

‘You didn’t say anything about killing him at first. I hardly meant to bother you with anything so drastic as that.’

‘It’s the only way,’ said the Angel, whose burning hands were now very close to the Lizard. ‘Shall I kill it?’ said the Angel once again.

‘Well, that’s a further question. I’m quite open to consider it, but it’s a new point, isn’t it? I mean, for the moment I was only thinking about silencing it because up here—well, it’s so damned embarrassing.’

‘May I kill it?’

‘Well…, there’s time to discuss that later.’

‘There is no time. May I kill it?’

‘Please, I never meant to be such a nuisance. Please—really—don’t bother. Look! It’s gone to sleep of its own accord. I’m sure it’ll be all right now. Thanks ever so much.’

‘May I kill it?’

‘Honestly, I don’t think there’s the slightest necessity for that. I’m sure I shall be able to keep it in order now. I think the gradual process would be far better than killing it.’

‘The gradual process is of no use at all.’

‘Some other day, perhaps.’

‘There is no other day. All days are present now.’

‘Get back! You’re burning me. How can I tell you to kill it? You’d kill me if you did.’

This is so enlightening - The Angel asks the Ghost, “May I kill it [his lust]?” and the Ghost responds, “You’d kill me if you did.” Why does the ghost identify his vice with himself? Why has he made it part of his identity? Are we similar? Have we become so attached to vices in our life that we consider them a natural part of us we can’t live without?

two

The Angel replied ‘This will not kill you.’

‘Why, you’re hurting me now.’

‘I never said it wouldn’t hurt you. I said it wouldn’t kill you.’

‘Oh, I know. You think I’m a coward. But it isn’t that. Really it isn’t. …If you wanted to help me, why didn’t you kill the damned thing without asking me—before I knew?...

‘I cannot kill it against your will. It is impossible. Have I your permission?’

The Angel’s hands were almost closed on the Lizard, but not quite. Then the Lizard began chattering to the Ghost so loud that even I could hear what it was saying. ‘Be careful,’ it said. ‘He can do what he says. He can kill me. One fatal word from you and he will! Then you’ll be without me for ever and ever. It’s not natural. How could you live? …’

Why is he afraid of losing the vice? Do we fear that if we allow God to change and transform us that a part of us we like, or rely on will be lost and we do not want to let go – so we fear losing ourselves?

three

‘Have I your permission to kill it?’ said the Angel to the Ghost.

‘Yes, Go on, get it over. Do what you like,’ bellowed the Ghost: but ended, whimpering, ‘God help me. God help me.’

Next moment the Ghost gave a scream of agony such as I never heard on Earth. The Burning One closed his crimson grip on the reptile: twisted it, while it bit and writhed, and then flung it, broken-backed, on the ground… For a moment I could make out nothing distinctly. Then I saw, between me and the nearest bush, unmistakably solid but growing every moment more solid, the upper arm and the shoulder of a man. Then, brighter still and stronger, the legs and hands. The neck and golden head materialized while I watched, and if my attention had not wavered I should have seen the actual completing of a man—an immense man…

Wow! In reality our vices make us less than human, more like a Ghost or a beast, and virtue makes us more God-like? So - Why do we cling to them, and why are we so afraid of the process of transformation?

four

At the same moment something seemed to be happening to the Lizard. At first I thought the operation had failed. So far from dying, the creature was still struggling and even growing bigger as it struggled. And as it grew it changed. Its hinder parts grew rounder. The tail, still flickering, became a tail of hair that flickered between huge and glossy buttocks. Suddenly I started back, rubbing my eyes. What stood before me was the greatest stallion I have ever seen, silvery white but with mane and tail of gold. It was smooth and shining, rippled with swells of flesh and muscle, whinneying and stamping with its hoofs. At each stamp the land and trees shook. The new-made man turned and clapped the new horse’s neck. It nosed his bright body. Horse and master breathed each into the other’s nostrils. (Notice – the lizard – lust, was the master but now after the transformation, the new made man is free and he is the Master of his passions)

The man turned from it, flung himself at the feet of the Burning One, and embraced them. When he rose I thought his face shone with tears, but it may have been only the liquid love and brightness (one cannot distinguish them in that country) which flowed from him. I had not long to think about it. In joyous haste the young man leaped upon the horse’s back. Turning in his seat he waved a farewell, then nudged the stallion with his heels. They were off before I knew well what was happening.

five

The Stallion was the good passion of love and desire that had de-generated into the vice of lust, making a slave of the man and keeping him from Heaven. Once the man consents to the process of transformation, though it was not without pain and sacrifice, the result was that both the Ghost and the lizard are transformed into a new-made man and a powerful force, the virtue of love, which carried him into heaven.

We all have our vices, our lizards. But this scene captures so beautifully and powerfully the transformation that God wants to bring about in us if we will only consent and work with him not for the destruction of our desires but for their transformation. And this transformation comes by means of grace and virtue: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance, Faith, Hope and Love.