Lewis: chosen

Friday, November 22, 2024
    Commemoration of Cecilia, Martyr at Rome, c.230
    Commemoration of Clive Staples Lewis, Spiritual Writer, 1963
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
    —John 15:16 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Christ, who said to the disciples “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends “You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others. They are no greater than the beauties of a thousand other men; by Friendship God opens our eyes to them. They are, like all beauties, derived from Him, and then, in a good Friendship, increased by Him through the Friendship itself, so that it is His instrument for creating as well as for revealing. At this feast it is He who spreads the board and it is He who has chosen the guests. It is He, we may dare hope, who sometimes does, and always should, preside. Let us not reckon without our Host.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Four Loves, London: Geoffrey Bles, 1960, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1960, p. 89-90 (see the book)
    See also John 15:16; 6:35,53-56; Rom. 14:1-4; 1 Cor. 10:16-17; 1 Pet. 1:22; 1 John 4:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart to care for those You have placed me among. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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