Tuesday, January 7, 2014

C.S. Lewis / The Four Loves 4 / Friendship 2

"In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out.  By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity;  I want other lights than my own to show all his facets...  Two friends delight to be joined by a third, and three by a fourth, if only the newcomer is qualified to become a real friend.  They can then say, as the blessed souls say in Dante, 'Here comes one who will augment our loves.'  For in this love 'to divide is not to take away'.  Of course the scarcity of kindred souls--not to mention practical considerations about the size of rooms and the audibility of voices--set limits to the enlargement of the circle;  but within those limits we possess each friend not less but more as the number of those with whom we share him increases.  In this, Friendship exhibits a glorious 'nearness by resemblance' to Heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed increases the fruition which each has of God.  For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest.  That says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah's vision are crying 'Holy, Holy, Holy' to one another (Isaiah 6:3).  The more we thus share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall all have."  pp. 74,75.


That is just so beautiful.   So beautiful it is breathtaking.

And just like a Bible study.  When everybody gets together and gleans things from the text and loves it and knows their sin and knows their Savior and savors his words and actions.

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