In the 1950s C. S...
Illustration
In the 1950s C. S. Lewis carried on a correspondence with a woman in America who was seriously ill. One of the letters contains a reflection about Lewis' new position at the Cambridge College of Magdalene. Ascribing Mary Magdalene's name to the woman described in Luke 7 he says to his correspondent:
"The allegorical sense of her great action dawned on me the other day. The precious alabaster box which one must break over the Holy Feet is one's heart. Easier said than done. And the contents become perfume only when it is broken. While they are safe inside they are more like sewage. All very alarming."
Another thought in the same letter relates to the attitudes the Pharisee expressed toward the woman.
"We were both talking about cats and dogs the other day and decided that both have consciences, but the dog, being an honest, humble person, always has a bad one, but the cat is a Pharisee and always has a good one. When he sits and stares at you out of countenance he is not as these dogs, or these humans, or even as these other cats!"
(C. S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1971. Pages 34, 38)
--Hedahl
"The allegorical sense of her great action dawned on me the other day. The precious alabaster box which one must break over the Holy Feet is one's heart. Easier said than done. And the contents become perfume only when it is broken. While they are safe inside they are more like sewage. All very alarming."
Another thought in the same letter relates to the attitudes the Pharisee expressed toward the woman.
"We were both talking about cats and dogs the other day and decided that both have consciences, but the dog, being an honest, humble person, always has a bad one, but the cat is a Pharisee and always has a good one. When he sits and stares at you out of countenance he is not as these dogs, or these humans, or even as these other cats!"
(C. S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1971. Pages 34, 38)
--Hedahl
