C.S.Lewis: MERE CHRISTIANITY

10. Hope

Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth "thrown in": aim at earth and you will get neither. It seems a strange rule, but something like it can be seen at work in other matters. Health is a great blessing, but the moment you make health one of your main, direct objects you start becoming a crank and imagining there is something wrong with you. You are only likely to get health provided you want other things more —food, games, work, fun, open air. In the same way, we shall never save civilisation as long as civilisation is our main object. We must learn to want something else even more.

Most of us find it very difficult to want "Heaven" at all—except in so far as "Heaven" means meeting again our friends who have died. One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained: our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world. Another reason is that when the real want for Heaven is present in us, we do not recognise it Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.

The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what I mean. The wife may be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry may be a very interesting job: but something has evaded us. Now there are two wrong ways of dealing with this fact, and one right one.

(1) The Fool's Way.
—He puts the blame on the things themselves. He goes on all his life thinking that if only he tried another woman, or went for a more expensive holiday, or whatever it is, then, this time, he really would catch the mysterious something we are all after. Most of the bored, discontented, rich people in the world are of this type. They spend their whole lives trotting from woman to woman (through the divorce courts), from continent to continent, from hobby to hobby, always thinking that the latest is "the Real Thing" at last, and always disappointed.

(2) The Way of the Disillusioned "Sensible Man."
—He soon decides that the whole thing was moonshine. "Of course," he says, "one feels like that when one's young. But by the time you get to my age you've given up chasing the rainbow's end." And so he settles down and learns not to expect too much and represses the part of himself which used, as he would say, "to cry for the moon." This is, of course, a much better way than the first, and makes a man much happier, and less of a nuisance to society. It tends to make him a prig (he is apt to be rather superior towards what he calls "adolescents"), but, on the whole, he rubs along fairly comfortably. It would be the best line we could take if man did not live for ever. But supposing infinite happiness really is there, waiting for us? Supposing one really can reach the rainbow's end? In that case it would be a pity to find out too late (a moment after death) that by our supposed "common sense" we had stifled in ourselves the faculty of enjoying it.

(3) The Christian Way.
—The Christian says, "Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage.

I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same."

There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of "Heaven" ridiculous by saying they do not want "to spend eternity playing harps." The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them. All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible. Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity.

Crowns are mentioned to suggest the fact that those who are united with God in eternity share His splendour and power and joy. Gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs.

C.S.路易斯：返璞歸真-純粹的基督教,汪詠梅譯
望

“望”是神學三德之一，這說明對永恆世界持續不斷的盼望不是（像一些現代人所認為的）逃避，也不是一廂情願，而是基督徒當做的事情之一。這並不意味著我們對這個世界聽之任之。讀一讀歷史你就會發現，那些對這個世界貢獻最大的基督徒恰恰是那些最關注來世的基督徒。決心讓羅馬帝國皈依基督教的使徒們、建立起中世紀文明的那些偉人、廢除奴隸貿易的英國低教會派信徒，他們之所以對這個世界產生了影響，正是因為他們一心專注天國。自大部分基督徒不再關注彼岸世界之後，基督徒對此岸世界的作用才大大地減少。旨在天國，塵世就會被“附帶贈送”給你，旨在塵世，兩樣都會一無所得。這條規律看起來好像很奇怪，但在其他事情上我們也可以見到類似的情形。擁有健康是巨大的福分，但一旦將健康作為自己直接追求的主要目標，你就開始變成一個怪人，總懷疑自己患了麼病。只有將重心什轉移到其他事情，如食物、運動、工作、娛樂、空氣上，你才有可能獲得健康。同樣，只要我們將文明作為主要的目標，我們就永遠輓救不了文明。我們必須學會對其他事物有更多的渴望。

大多數人發現，去“天堂”除了意味著能與去世的朋友重逢之外，其他方面很難令他們渴望。很難的一個原因在於我們沒有接受過這方面的訓練，我們整個的教育都傾向於讓我們將注意力集中於此世。另外一個原因是，當我們心中出現對天堂的真正渴望時，我們不能認辨出這種渴望。大多數人，他們若真正學會省察內心，就知道自己渴望、強烈地渴望某個在此世不能擁有的東西。這個世界有各種各樣的事物主動要將自己給你，但是從未兌現。我們第一次戀愛、第一次想到某個異國他鄉、第一次選讀一門令自己心馳神往的課程時的那份渴望，婚姻、旅行、學習都無法真正滿足。我指的不是通常人們所說的失敗的婚姻、假期、學習生涯，我指的是理想的婚姻、假期、學習生涯，我們在最初渴望之時捕捉到的某個東西在現實中消逝了。我想大家都明白我的意思，妻子可能是好妻子，賓館、風景可能無可挑剔，從事化工可能是一份很有趣的工作，但是我們總感覺缺了點麼。針什對這一事實，出現了兩種錯誤的生活方式、一種正確的生活方式。

（1）愚人的方式。愚蠢的人將一切歸咎於事物本身，一輩子都自始至終認為，只要他另找一位女人、度一次更豪華的假期，他就能真正捕捉到大家共同追求的那個神秘的東西。世界上大多數對生活感到膩味不滿的有錢人都屬這種，他們終其一生都（通過離婚法庭）不斷從一個女人轉向另一個女人，從一片大陸輾轉到另一片大陸，從一種嗜好轉向另一種嗜好，總是認為最新的東西終於就是“那真實的東西”，但總是以失望告終。

（2）大徹大悟的“聰明人”的方式。這種人很快就認定一切不過是空想，他說：“當然嘍，人年輕的時候都是這樣想。但是等你到了我這把年紀，你就不再去追求那些可望而不可及的東西了。”所以，他就安定下來，學會不抱太多的期望，抑制自己過去（用他自己的話說）“癩蛤蟆想吃天鵝肉”的幻想。這種方式當然比第一種要好得多，它更讓人感到幸福，也減少了給社會帶來的麻煩。它往往讓人變得自命不凡（認為自己超越了他所謂的年輕人），但是總的來說，他的日子過得還比較舒服。若沒有永生，這便是人所能選擇的最佳道路。可是，萬一真有永久的幸福在那裡等待著我們呢？萬一人真的能得到那些原以為可望而不可及的東西呢？倘若如此，（在死後不久）我們發現，因為自己誤以為真的“常識”，我們扼殺了自己享受永久幸福的能力，那就太晚、太遺憾了。

（3）基督徒的方式。基督徒說：“這些渴望若無從滿足，造物就不會生來具有這些渴望。嬰兒感到飢餓，就有食物這種東西存在；小鴨想游泳，就有水這種東西存在；人有性慾，就有性這種東西存在。我若發現自己心中的一個渴望此世萬事萬物都無法滿足，最可能的解釋是：我是為了另一個世界而造。塵世上沒有一種快樂能滿足這種渴望，並不證明宇宙是場騙局，塵世的快樂可能原本並不是要滿足它，只是要激起這份渴望，暗示那個真實的東西。果真如此，一方面我必須小心，永遠不要鄙視塵世的幸福，不存感恩之心；另一方面，永遠不要將它們誤當作那個真實的東西，它們不過是摹本、回聲或影子。我一定要在心中永葆對真實的故鄉的渴望（這個故鄉只有在死後才能找到），一定不要泯滅這份渴望或將它棄置一邊，我生活的主要目的應該是不斷地向那個故鄉行進，並且幫助別人向它行進。”

有些愛開玩笑之人想讓基督徒對“天國”的盼望顯得荒謬，便說自己不希望“將永生都耗在彈琴上”。我們不必為這些人煩惱。對他們，我們的回答是：如果他們讀不懂成人讀物，就不要談論這些讀物。聖經上所有的比喻（琴、冠冕、金子等）當然都只是象徵，是力圖以此來表達不可表達之事。聖經上提到樂器，是因為對很多人（不是所有的人）來說，音樂在此世最能讓人聯想到狂喜和無限，冠冕讓人聯想到在永恆之中與上帝合一的人分享上帝的尊榮、能力和喜樂，金子讓人聯想到天國的永恆（因為金子不鏽壞）和寶貴。那些從字面上理解這些象徵的人倒不如認為，當基督教導我們要像鴿子時[瑪10：16]，他的意思是我們會下蛋。