Why Prison? Part Two of Four

C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter “If grace perfects nature it must expand all our natures into the full richness of the diversity which God intended when He made them, and heaven will display far more variety than hell.”[1] Nature perfected would be rich in harmonious diversity, and that implies its inhabitants would recognize no boundaries, no divisions, and no labels. Heaven is nature perfected. Perfection then, is wonderfully diverse.

So those who have begun their journey into the Kingdom of Heaven already should long for this type of diversity and lack of that which separates and divides. Removing labels, forgetting pasts, seeing through the superficial, tearing down fences, and stepping across the tracks to engage in relationships with the Others,[2] or at the least, celebrating the positive traits that make all of creation beautifully diverse, seems to be an inevitability for the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. So naturally, the Church today should strive towards this diverse yet unified vision of Heaven.

For many Followers of Christ however, it is tempting to interpret removing the otherness as pulling the down trodden up to their successful and comfortable level. Many Christians believe that they are doing a service to their marginalized neighbor if they can make their neighbor more like them. This is especially prevalent in Western and wealthy cultures. When a Western and typically wealthy Christian sees an Other who is down on their luck, a natural desire seems to be to pull them up, and help the Other transform into a sort of Western and wealthy Christian themselves. The Christian however, in order to pull another up, by definition must be on a higher platform than the Other. This is contrary to the Scriptures that proclaims that all are on the same platform, all have sinned, and all are in desperate need of grace (Rom 3:23). Having certain levels of success in life, or at least achieving a certain level of comfortability or prominence is in no way indicative of spiritual success or spiritual fulfilment.

Indeed it was the rich and successful young ruler who reluctantly walked away from a poor and homeless Jesus, upon realizing that following the Christ meant that he had to give up his comfortable and successful lifestyle (Lk 18:18-30). Father Gregory Boyle wrote, “Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a covenant between equals.”[3] Followers of Christ who want to reach out to the marginalized in society may very well do so, not by pulling the marginalized to the center, but by leaving the comfortable and acceptable center, and joining the Others in their otherness…

[1] C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcom, Chiefly on Prayer (Boston: Mariner Books, 2012), 78.

[2] The title of “Others” is used as a proper noun in this study to encompass anyone that society willfully or unwilling neglects, rejects, marginalizes, and/or exploits.

[3] Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion (New York: Free Press, 2010), 77.