Agatha Nolen

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The New Men in Christ

Awilda and Irma, Jaume Plensa, Cheekwood 2015

From, The Business of Heaven by C.S. Lewis:

“The thing has happened: the new step has been taken and is being taken. Already the new men are dotted here and there all over the earth. Some… are still hardly recognizable: but others can be recognized.

Every now and then one meets them. Their voices and faces are different from ours; stronger, quieter, happier, more radiant. They begin where most of us leave off.  They are, I say, recognizable; but you must know what to look for.

They will not be very like the idea of ‘religious people’ which you have formed from your general reading. They do not draw attention to themselves. You tend to think you are being kind to them when they are really being kind to you. They love you more than other men do, but they need you less. (We must get over wanting to be needed: in some goodish people, especially women, that is the hardest of all temptations to resist.)

They will usually seem to have a lot of time: you will wonder where it comes from.  When you have recognized one of them, you will recognize the next one much more easily.  And I strongly suspect (but how should I know?) that they recognize one another immediately and infallibly, across every barrier of colour, sex, class, age, and even of creeds.

In that way, to become holy is rather like joining a secret society. To put it at the very lowest, it must be great fun.

Blessings, my friend,
Agatha