The Dwarf Ghost argued with the Lady. He talked about being sent back to Hell. "No one sends you back," she said. "Here is all joy. Everything bids you stay." Apparently the Dwarf Ghost was the real man, but he was shrinking in size as his countpart, the "Tragedian" was overpowering his personality with negativity and doubt. The Lady begged him, "He is killing you. Let go of that chain. Even now."
It's interesting. There's Scripture where God addresses us as people: "'Even now,' declares the Lord." Steve Camp wrote a great song with that title.
The Lady gets emphatic: "Quick. There is still time. Stop it. Stop it at once."
"Stop what?"
"Using pity, other people's pity, in the wrong way. We have all done it on earth, you know. Pity was meant to be a spur that drives joy to help misery. But it can be used the wrong way round. It can be used for a kind of blackmailing. THose who choose misery can hold joy up to ransom, by pity. You see, I know now. Even as a child you did it. Instead of saying you were sorry, you went and sulked in the attic ... because you knew that sooner or later one of your sisters would say, 'I can't bear to think of him sitting up there alone, crying.' You used their pity to blackmail them, and they gave in in the end. And afterwards, when we were married ... oh, it doesn't matter, if only you will stop it."
The Dwarf Ghost disappeared, somehow absorbed by this Tragedian man. She addressed him and told him to come to Love, for she would not step out of this Love she now lived in. He was pretty much completely given over to himself. He would not bend his will and surrender to God. He defied God's rule. Then he just vanished. I presume he went to Hell.
The Lady was alone, but other Bright Spirits met her and sang songs of joy to her: "The Happy Trinity is her home; nothing can trouble her joy..." Even losing her husband and his stubborn will that opposed His Loving God could steal the joy away from her, for she lived in it. She gave herself over to God and His joy, which buoys her now.
C.S. Lewis gives an interesting explanation as to why the saints will not have sorrow for those in Hell -- even their loved ones:
"While it sounds merciful," he writes, "see what lurks behind it. The demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe: that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs should be the final power; that Hell should be able to veto Heaven.
"...Either the day must come when joy prevails and all the makers of misery are no longer able to infect it; or else for ever and ever the makers of misery can destroy in others the happiness they reject for themselves."
It goes on to explain how Hell is smaller than one pebble of the earthly world. I recall the song by King's X: "Faith, Hope, Love," where a voice says at the end: "Listen to me very closely, there is more Heaven than Hell." I bet this book inspired that.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at April 30, 2007 12:12 PM