Le nouvel homme
(I) Le Divin zénith
(II) Heaven
(III)
Mais pour l’homme de l’histoire, qui imagine le Paradis perdu et attend la Jérusalem céleste,(12) la conscience de soi en tant que créature est sans cesse tentée par à l’illusion d’une conscience de soi en tant qu’être à part entière, désireux d’affirmer son âme sienne (« They wanted, as we say, to “to call their souls their own” », PP, Chap. 5, 1940, ibid., p. 401b).
Or, cette prétention est le principe même de l’Enfer,(13) car nulle créature n’est entière lorsqu’elle se tient à part du Créateur : elle « se coupe [alors] elle-même (…) de la source de son être »,(14) « Dieu [qui] est le fondement, la racine et la source constante d’où elle tire sa réalité ».(15)
Mon péché — enfermement de la conscience dans lequel je m’isole et m’étiole(16) et qui répète sans cesse le premier péché — est donc celui du Moi qui s’illusionne et se proclame « centre »(17) :
(II) Heaven
(III)
Mais pour l’homme de l’histoire, qui imagine le Paradis perdu et attend la Jérusalem céleste,(12) la conscience de soi en tant que créature est sans cesse tentée par à l’illusion d’une conscience de soi en tant qu’être à part entière, désireux d’affirmer son âme sienne (« They wanted, as we say, to “to call their souls their own” », PP, Chap. 5, 1940, ibid., p. 401b).
Or, cette prétention est le principe même de l’Enfer,(13) car nulle créature n’est entière lorsqu’elle se tient à part du Créateur : elle « se coupe [alors] elle-même (…) de la source de son être »,(14) « Dieu [qui] est le fondement, la racine et la source constante d’où elle tire sa réalité ».(15)
Mon péché — enfermement de la conscience dans lequel je m’isole et m’étiole(16) et qui répète sans cesse le premier péché — est donc celui du Moi qui s’illusionne et se proclame « centre »(17) :
« From the moment a creature becomes aware of God as God and of itself as self, the terrible alternative of choosing God or self for the centre is opened to it. » (PP, Chap. 5, 1940, p. 399b)(18) « The moment you have a self at all, there is a possibility of putting yourself first — wanting to be the centre — wanting to be God, in fact. »(Mere Christianity, Livre 2, 1942, p. 35a)
Aussi, « parce que je suis « je », je dois faire un acte d’abandon personnel [self-surrender] (…) et vivre pour Dieu plutôt que pour moi-même » (PP, chap. 5, p. 401b). Alors que dans le Paradis cet abandon a dû prendre la forme d’un « ravissement » (402a ; chap. 6, p. 406a), l’homme de la Chute — qui a subi « une altération radicale de sa constitution » (PP, chap. 5, p. 402b) en tombant dans l’« idolâtrie du Moi » (« self-idolatry », p. 401b) — doit rendre, dans la souffrance, ce qui ne lui a jamais appartenu :
« to render back the will which we have so long claimed for our own, is in itself, wherever and however it is done, a grievous pain. (…) to surrender a self-will inflamed and swollen with years of usurpation is a kind of death. »(Problem of Pain, chap. 6, 1940, ibid., p. 406a)
Lewis revient souvent sur cette nécessité, quotidienne, de mort à soi-même(19) car elle participe de « l’objectif principal de notre vie » :
« Surely the main purpose of our life is to reach the point at which “one’s own life as a person” is at an end. One must in this sense “die”, become “naught”, relinquish one’s freedom and independence. “Not I, but Christ that dwelleth in me” [Rm 8, 9-10] — “He must grow greater and I must grow less” [Jn 3, 30] — “He that loseth his life shall find it” [Mt 10, 39] »(CL III, 1961, p. 1250)
S’il s’agit d’entrer dans une pratique et une ascèse(20) — car le chrétien n’est homme éveillé (21) que s’il est en marche,(22) c’est-à-dire à condition que sa foi se vive en actes(23) —, le principe actif de la transformation du cœur de l’homme ne peut être que « la conscience la plus élevée de la vie : la présence de Dieu ».(24) Car, comme Lewis aime tant le rappeler,(25) au final, c’est « Dieu qui opère en nous le vouloir et le faire selon son dessein bienveillant » (Ph 2, 13).
Lewis rejoint donc MacDonald pour qui « Dieu est bien plus nécessaire pour cette pauvre conscience réflexive que notre conscience réflexive ne l’est pour notre humanité »(26) : seul le Fils de l’homme peut faire de l’homme un être humain véritable :
Lewis rejoint donc MacDonald pour qui « Dieu est bien plus nécessaire pour cette pauvre conscience réflexive que notre conscience réflexive ne l’est pour notre humanité »(26) : seul le Fils de l’homme peut faire de l’homme un être humain véritable :
« Christ (…) is (…) the new man. He is the origin and the center and life of all the new men. (…) Other men become “new” by being “in Him” »(Mere Christianity, Livre 4, p. 116b)
Plus qu’un but que l’homme accomplirait par lui-même, la victoire du « moi humain » sur le « moi animal » et le « moi diabolique » ne peut être autre chose qu’un profond désir de l’âme — une prière à laquelle répond Dieu en créant en moi le nouvel homme(27) sur l’unique et parfait modèle d’humanité qu’est le Christ.(28)
Lewis rejette toute interprétation doucereuse qu’on serait tenter de donner à de telles affirmations théologiques. La sanctification — cette marche à la suite du Christ(29) dont la conversion constitue la première étape — est un combat sans merci, jusqu’à la mort, entre le vieil homme et l’homme nouveau :
Lewis rejette toute interprétation doucereuse qu’on serait tenter de donner à de telles affirmations théologiques. La sanctification — cette marche à la suite du Christ(29) dont la conversion constitue la première étape — est un combat sans merci, jusqu’à la mort, entre le vieil homme et l’homme nouveau :
« Christ says « Give me All. (…) I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. (…) Hand over the whole natural self,(30) all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think [105] wicked (…). I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself(31) : my own will shall become yours. » »(Mere Christianity, Livre 4, Chap. 8, 1944 ; p. 104b-105a)
En une autre occasion, Lewis ira plus loin dans la violence de la métaphore :
« The people who keep on asking if they can’t lead a decent life without Christ, don’t know what life is about. (…) We are to be re-made. All the rabbit in us is to disappear — the worried, conscientious, ethical rabbit as well as the cowardly and sensual rabbit. We shall bleed and squeal as the handfuls of fur come out; and then, surprisingly, we shall find underneath it all a thing we have never yet imagined: a real man, an ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant, wiser, beautiful, and drenched in joy. »(« Man or rabbit? », ?1946, Essay Collection, II, 2002, p. 355)
La vie chrétienne n’est ni une vie de lâches illusions et de gentillesse sucrée, ni une invitation à la facilité et à l’irresponsabilité. Bien au contraire, c’est parce que le chrétien reconnaît son incapacité à vivre autrement que de manière égoïste et insouciante, qu’il se tourne vers Dieu et l’implore de venir à son secours.(32) C’est donc le choix de l’abnégation de l’homme qui porte un regard honnête à la fois sur ses manquements et sur son appel glorieux à pratiquer l’humanité qui est en Jésus-Christ :
« And now we begin to see what it is that the New testament is always talking about. It talks about Christians “being born again”(33) ; it talks about them “putting on Christ” [Rm 13, 14 ; Ga 3, 27] ; about Christ “being formed in us” [Ga 4, 19] ; about our coming to “have the mind of Christ”(34) »(Mere Christianity, Livre 4, Chap. 7, 1944 ; p. 102b)
Cette (trans)formation intérieure — qui fait de l’homme né de nouveau un ambassadeur de Christ pour les hommes(35) — est magnifiquement décrite dans Le Voyage du Passeur d’Aurore. On y voit Aslan convaincre Eustache de la nécessité de retrouver son humanité perdue (« He realised that he was a monster cut off from the whole human race », The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, chap. VI (?), 1952). Eustache, devenu dragon, doit redevenir Eustache : il doit plonger dans une source au sommet d’une montagne après s’être dévêtu de son Moi animal. Mais vouloir n’est pas pouvoir : à trois reprises, Eustache se révèle incapable d’enlever par lui-même cette peau serpentine qui enferme sa personne. Aslan propose alors son aide et exécute (avec le consentement d’Eustache) une opération de dépeçage mais aussi de chirurgie à cœur ouvert :
« Then the lion said — but I don’t know if it spoke — You will have to let me undress you. I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.
The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. »(chap. VII)
Eustache est ensuite jeté dans l’eau. Il en ressort redevenu garçon(36) et reçoit de nouveaux habits de la part du lion qui le renvoie vers ses compagnons. Le conte, loin d’être angélique, souligne que cette opération radicale, cette conversion, n’est que le début d’une nouvelle vie.(37) La nature profonde d’Eustache lui a été rendue ; il aura maintenant à lui laisser toute la place :
« It would be nice, and fairly nearly true, to say “from that time forth Eustace was a different boy.” To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. The cure had begun. »(chap. VII)
(13)
Au tournant de son autobiographie spirituelle, Lewis rappelle à son lecteur : « Remember, I had always wanted, above all things, not to be “interfered with.” I had wanted (mad wish) “to call my soul my own.” » Il avait pris auparavant le soin d’introduire ce XIVe chapitre par une citation de George MacDonald : « The one principle of Hell — “I am my own”. » (Surprised by Joy, 1956, The Inspirational Writings of C.S. Lewis, Inspirational Press, 1994, p. 117, 125) : « For the one principle of Hell is — “I am my own. I am my own king and my own subject. I am the centre from which go out my thoughts ; I am the object and end of my thoughts; back upon me as the alpha and the omega of life, my thoughts return. My own glory is, and ought to be, my chief care; my ambition, to gather the regards of men to the one centre, myself My pleasure is my pleasure. My kingdom is — as many as I can bring to acknowledge my greatness over them. My judgement is the faultless rule of things. My right is — what I desire. The more I am all in all to myself, the greater I am. The less I acknowledge debt or obligation to another ; the more I close my eyes to the fact that I did not make myself ; the more self-sufficing I feel or imagine myself — the greater I am. I will be free with the freedom that consists in doing whatever I am inclined to do, from whatever quarter may come the inclination. To do my own will so long as I feel anything to be my will, is to be free, is to live.”» (Unspoken Sermons, Regent College Publishing, 2004, p. 140). — Cf. également Theologica Germanica, que Lewis a lu régulièrement depuis 1938 jusqu’à sa mort (1938 (CL II, p. 232), 1941 (CL III, p. 1540), 1942 (CL II, p. 528), 1945 (CL III, p. 1559), 1949 (CL II, p. 994), 1958 (CL III, p. 978), 1961 (CL III, p. 1295-1296)) : « For the more a man followeth after his own self-will, and self-will groweth in him, the farther off is he from God, the true Good, [for nothing burneth in hell but self-will. Therefore it hath been said, "Put off thine own will, and there will be no hell."] » (Theologica Germanica, Chap. XXXIV, dans la traduction que Lewis lisait).
(14)
« Having cut itself off, as far as it could, from the source of its being » (PP, Chap. 5, 1940, ibid., p. 402a).
(15)
Lettres à Malcolm, chap. 14, 1963, Raphaël, 2000, p. 115 ; cf. chap. 15, p. 125 — Source : cf. MacDonald, cité n. 8 — L’image de la racine de l’être incomplet et amputé de la plus belle part de son être est tirée, là encore, de MacDonald : « The liberty of the God who would have his creatures free, is in contest with the slavery of the creature who would cut his own stem from his root that he might call it his own and love it; who rejoices in his own consciousness, instead of the life of that consciousness; who poises himself on the tottering wall of his own being, instead of the rock on which that being is built » (George McDonald, An Anthology, édité par C. S. Lewis (1945), , §201, On Having One’s Own Way (= Unspoken Sermons, III.5, « Freedom »)) ; « Without him at our unknown root, we cease to be. (…) man is dead if he know not the Power which is his cause, his deepest selfing self ; the Presence which is not himself, and is nearer to him than himself; which is indefinitely more himself, more his very being, than he is himself. The being of which we are conscious, is not our full self; the extent of our consciousness of our self is no measure of our self ; our consciousness is infinitely less than we ; while God is more necessary even to that poor consciousness of self than our self-consciousness is necessary to our humanity. Until a man become the power of his own existence, become his own God, the sole thing necessary to his existing is the will of God; for the well-being and perfecting of that existence, the sole thing necessary is, that the man should know his maker present in him. All that the children want is their Father. » (G. MacDonald, « The Remission of sins » , The Hope of the Gospel, p. 23)
(16)
Cf. le texte §87 titré Incompleteness et sélectionné par C.S. Lewis dans les Unspoken Sermons : « He that is made in the image of God must know Him or be desolate… Witness the dissatisfaction, yea, desolation of my soul-wretched, alone, unfinished, without Him. It cannot act from itself, save in God; acting from what seems itself without God, is no action at all, it is a mere yielding to impulse. All within is disorder and spasm. There is a cry behind me, and a voice before; instincts of betterment tell me I must rise above my present self-perhaps even above all my possible self: I see not how to obey, how to carry them out! I am shut up in a world of consciousness, an unknown I in an unknown world: surely this world of my unwilled, un-chosen, compelled existence, cannot be shut out from Him, cannot be unknown to Him, cannot be impenetrable, impermeable, unpresent to Him from whom I am? » (George McDonald, An Anthology, édité par C. S. Lewis (1945), §87, Incompleteness (Unspoken Sermons, II, « The Word of Jesus on Prayer »)
(17)
Sur ce point, Lewis rejoint aussi bien MacDonald que Pascal : « le moi a deux qualités : il est injuste en soi en ce qu’il se fait le centre de tout ; il est incommode aux autres en ce qu’il les veut asservir » (Pensées, Br. 455, Laf. 597) — d’ailleurs, si « la nature de l’amour-propre et de ce moi humain est de n’aimer que soi et de ne considérer que soi [malgré la multitude de ses] défauts et de [sa] misère », c’est qu’elle se laisse entraîner par ses « dispositions, si éloignées de la justice et de la raison, [qui] ont une racine naturelle dans son cœur » (Pensées, Br. 239, Laf. 637). Voir aussi Br. 483, Laf. 372 : « Cependant, il croit être un tout et, ne se voyant point de corps dont il dépende, il croit ne dépendre que de soi et veut se faire centre et corps lui-même. Mais n'ayant point en soi de principe de vie, il ne fait que s'égarer (...) » et Br. 430, Laf. 149 : « j'ai créé l'homme saint, innocent, parfait ; (...). L'oeil de l'homme voyait alors la majesté de Dieu. (...) Mais il n'a pu soutenir tant de gloire sans tomber dans la présomption. Il a voulu se rendre centre de lui-même et indépendant de mon secours. »
(18)
« The corruption of the first sinner consists not in choosing some evil thing (there are no evil thing for him to choose) but in preferring a lesser good (himself) before a greater (God). The Fall is, in fact, Pride. The possibility of this wrong preference is inherent in the v. fact of having, or being, a self at all. But though freedom is real it is not infinite. Every choice reduces a little one’s freedom to choose the next time. There therefore comes a time when the creature is fully built, irrevocably attached either to God or to itself. This irrevocableness is what we call heaven or Hell. Every conscious agent is finally committed in the long run: i.e. it rises above freedom into willed, but henceforth unalterable, union with God, or else sinks below freedom into the black fire of self-imprisonment » (CL II, p. 585). Sur ce dernier point, cf. Lettres à Malcolm, chap. 14 : « Il [Dieu] est aussi la lumière pour toute créature bonne et raisonnable ; pour les mauvaises, il est le feu, se manifestant d’abord comme un malaise insidieux, et plus tard comme l’angoisse dévorante d’une présence qu’on repousse et à laquelle on résiste vainement. » (Raphaël, 2000, p. 115)
(19)
« (…) hence the necessity to die daily : however we think we have broken the rebellious self we shall find it alive. (…) / this intrinsic pain, or death, in mortifying the usurped self (…) » (The Problem of Pain, chap. 6, p. 406b) ; « The wrong asceticism torments the self : the right kind kills the selfness. We must die daily (…) » (« Two ways with the self », 1940, Essay Collection, II, Faith, Christianity and the Church, HarperCollins, 2002, p. 298). » — Sur la nécessité d’une mort à soi-même quotidienne, voir Luther mais aussi, en ce qui concerne Lewis, MacDonald : « Self, I have not to consult you but Him whose idea is the soul of you, and of which as yet you are all unworthy. I have to do, not with you, but with the Source of you, by whom it is that (at) any moment you exist — the Causing of you, not the caused you. You may be my consciousness but you are not my being. For God is more to me than my consciousness of myself. He is my life; you are only so much of it as my poor half-made being can grasp — as much of it as I can now know at once. Because I have fooled and spoiled you, treated you as if you were indeed my own self, you have dwindled yourself and have lessened me, till I am ashamed of myself. If I were to mind what you say, I should soon be sick of you; even now I am ever and anon disgusted with your paltry mean face, which I meet at every turn. No! Let me have the company of the Perfect One, not of you! Of my elder brother, the Living One! I will not make a friend of the mere shadow of my own being! Good-bye, Self! I deny you, and will do my best every day to leave you behind. » (George McDonald, An Anthology, édité par C. S. Lewis (1945), , §159, Self (Unspoken Sermons, II, « Self-Denial »).
(20)
« (…) by continual prayer and self-discipline (…) » (CL III, 1960, p. 1134) ; « Keep on, do your duty, say your prayers, make your communions (…). » (1962, CL III, p. 1341). Dans l’entretien donnée à Sherwood E. Wirt, à la question « What is your view of the daily discipline of the Christian life (…) ? » : « We have our New Testament regimental orders upon the subject. I would take it for granted that everyone who becomes a Christian would undertake this practice. It is enjoined upon us by Our Lord; and since they are His commands, I believe in following them. It is always just possible that Jesus Christ meant what He said when He told us to seek the secret place and to close the door. (Mt 6, 5-6) » (« Cross Examination », 1963, Essay Collection, I, Literature, Philosophy and Short Stories, HarperCollins, 2002, p. 149). Lewis a conscience que ce qui est réclamé par Jésus à ses disciples va à l’encontre de la vieille nature : « alas, so much easier to know in theory than to submit to day by day in practice ! Be very regular in your prayers and communions : and don’t value special “guidance” any more than what comes thro’ ordinary Christian teaching, conscience, and prudence. » (CL III, 1954, p. 501).
(21)
« Once we find ourselves spiritually awakened (...) » (« Cross Examination », 1963, Essay Collection, I, op. cit., p. 149). « Think of yourself just as a seed patiently waiting in the earth : waiting to come up a flower in the Gardener's good time, up into the real world, the real waking. I suppose that our whole present life, looked back from there, will seem only a drowsy half-waking. We are in the land of dreams. But cock-crow is coming. » (CL III, 1963, p. 1434). « (...) now I can't spell ! Waking for walking is such a charming misprint that I can't hardly regret it . » (CL II, 1940, p. 451).
(22)
« Remember He [God] is the artist and you are only the picture. You can’t see it. (…) Walk — don’t keep on looking at it. » (1962, CL III, p. 1350).« He [God] wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand ; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. » (The Screwtape Letters, chap. 8, p. 142b).
(23)
« What matters is your intentions and your behaviour » (1951, CL III, p. 127) ; « to act on the light one has is almost the only way to more light » (1941, CL III, p. 1540) ; « You are of course perfectly right in defining your problem (which is also mine and everyone’s) as « excessive selfness ». (…) Your danger now is that of being hypnotised by the mere sight of the chasm, of constantly looking at this excessive selfness. The important [1350] thing now is to go steadily on acting, so far as you can (…) as if it wasn’t there. You can, and I expect you daily do — behave with some degree of unselfishness. (…) The continual voice which tells you that your best actions are secretly filled with subtle self-regard (…) must for the most part be simply disregarded — as one disregards the impulse to keep on looking under the bandage to see whether the cuts is healing. If you are always fidgeting with the bandage, it never will. » (1962, CL III, p. 1349-1350). À un homme qui se relevait d’une grave crise spirituelle, C. S. Lewis pouvait dire: « You need something that will direct your attention away from yourself to God and your neighbours. (…) / be regular in prayer and the Sacraments: do all the good to those you live among: and trust to God. » (1962, CL III, p. 1353).
(24)
« (…) the highest consciousness of life, the presence of God » (George McDonald, An Anthology, édité par C. S. Lewis (1945), , §3, Divine Burning (Unspoken Sermons, I, « The Consuming Fire »). « What God does for us, He does in us. » (« A slip of the tongue. », Essay Collection, II, 2002, p. 387).
(25)
Mere Christianity, Livre 3, chap. 12, 1943, TCCSLSC, 2002, p. 82 ; Lettre à Stuart Robertson, 1962, CL III, p. 1336-1337 ; Lettres à Malcolm, chap. 9, 1963, Raphaël, 2000, p. 80
(27)
« As to Man being in “evolution”, I agree, tho’ I wd. Rather say “in process of being created” » (CL III, p. 111).
(28)
Dans une lettre adressée au père Don Giovanni Calabria, Lewis évoque « our common Lord (true God and the only true Man — for all we others, since the Fall of Adam, are but half men » (CL II, 1949, p. 979) ; la même année, au même destinataire : « [in] the Lord (...) in the One True Man, lives youth everlasting » (CL II, 1949, p. 999). « Christ is still Man. Human nature has been taken up into the Divine Nature (see Athanasian Creed) and remains there » (CL III, 1944, p. 1550). A la fin de sa vie, toujours à propos de Jésus-Christ : « there is one Man in whom we do find it [crystal perfection] » (1962, CL III, p. 1378) ; et déjà en 1936 : « The great thing is to stick to the “one Man” [Ep 2,14-15].(…) the whole man (…) offered to God (…). » (CL II, 1936, p. 194). Dans Les Miracles de Notre Seigneur, MacDonald décrit Jésus posant son regard sur les disciples, un Jésus « with no introverted look of self-consciousness or self-withdrawal », « more human than any of the company » (G. MacDonald, The Miracles of our Lord, chap. II, p. 9)
(29)
« I wanted them [les amis de Mary Margareth McCaslin] to follow Christ » (CL III, 1954, p. 501). « As to the way, you know there is only one — Christ. And you know that the first step is repentance, and after that, attempted obedience. / I take it that St Paul means Sanctification is the process of "Christ being formed in us", the process of becoming like Christ — so that the title of the medieval book (...) The Imitation of Christ is a formula for the Christian life. » (CL II, 1949, p. 940).
(30)
« By handling over the natural self to Christ I mean placing it under His orders and trying to will His will. If a man does that he will usually find that one of the things Christ wills is for him to eat, drink, sleep etc. Not always, but usually. You can’t tell in advance what He will tell any man to do about the natural appetites. He may tell one man to be very austere, another to be kinder to the flesh than he has been hitherto. » (CL II, 1944, p. 631). « Your question what to do is already answered. Go on (...) doing all your duties. And, in all lawful ways, go on enjoying all that can be enjoyed — your friends, your music, your books. Remember we are told to "rejoice" [Ph 4, 4]. Sometimes, when you are wondering what God wants you to do, He really wants to give you something. » (CL III, 1962, p. 1369). Ailleurs : « Because God created the Natural (...) it demands our reverence ; (...) from another point of view (...) because Nature, and especially human nature, is fallen it must be corrected and the evil within it must be mortified. But its essence is good ; correction is something quite different from Manicheans repudiation or Stoic superiority. Hence, in all true Christian escetism, that respect for the thing rejected (...). Mariage is good, though not for me : wine is good, though I must not drink it ; feasts are good, though today we fast. » (« Some thoughts », 1948, Essay Collection, I, Literature, Philosophy and Short Stories, HarperCollins, 2002, p. 325).Point de mysticisme dans les propos de Lewis. Le nouvel homme est n’est pas un homme illuminé qui cesserait de vivre une vie de créature terrestre — bien au contraire, il continue de vivre sa vie, bien mieux, il apprend à vivre cette vie qui n'est pas la sienne car non plus centrée sur lui mais centrée en Dieu et orientée vers son prochain : « more God-centered, and neighbour-centered and less self-centered » (CL III, 1956, p. 732).
(31)
Le seul qui soit en droit de pouvoir dire « Moi-même » sans s’illusionner est Dieu, âme des âmes, vie de la vie, être des êtres : « “Who are you ?” asked Shasta. “Myself,” said the Voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook : and again “Myself”, loud and clear and gay : and then in the third time “Myself,” whispered so softly you could hardly hear it. » (The Horse and His boy, chap. XI, 1954).
(32)
« There is no forgetting of ourselves but in the finding of our deeper, our true self — God's idea of us when he devised us — the Christ in us. Nothing but that self can displace the false, greedy, whining self, of which, most of us are so fond and proud. And that self no man can find for himself; seeing of himself he does not even know what to search for. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." » (G. McDonald, Sir Gibbie, chap. XXIV)
(33)
Jn 3, 3.7 — Cf. Lettres à Malcolm, chap. 21, 1963 : « En tant qu’impératifs pratiques pour ici et maintenant les deux grands commandements doivent être traduits comme suit : “agissez comme si vous aimiez votre Dieu et votre prochain” (…) . Ainsi, le commandement nous dit en réalité : “Vous devez naître de nouveau” » (Raphaël, 2000, p. 173).
(34)
1 Co 2, 16. Cf. Ph 2, 5 que cite Lewis dans les Lettres à Malcolm, chap. 5 : « Je dois être à la fois un agent et un patient. Je prie pour recevoir la capacité d’agir ainsi à long terme, et je demande à Dieu qu’il me donne “la pensée qui était aussi en Jésus-Christ” » (1963, Raphaël, 2000, p. 43).
(35)
« Men are mirrors, or “carriers” of Christ to other men. » (Mere Christianity, Livre 4, chap. 7, 1944, p. 102b)
(36)
« But the whole point is that you can keep forever only what you give up: beginning with the thing it is hardest to give up — one’s self » (CL II, 1947, p. 788).
(37)
« (…) our (ggod) nature is depraved, and (...) a turning round or conversion (rhetorically describable as death or going astern) is necessary, i.e. the notes are alright but need to be re-arranged into a new tune. » (CL II, 1941, p. 465). « As Charles Williams says there are three stages : (1.) The Old Self on the Old Way. (2.) The Old Self on the New Way. (3.) The New Self on the New Way. / After conversion the Old Self can of course be just as arrogant, importunate, and imperialistic about the Faith as it previously was about any other interest. (…) You and I, clearly, both know all about that : one makes blunders. » (CL III, 1951, p. 141) ; « (…) being a fallen, and still imperfectly redeemed, man. » (CL III, 1960, p. 1134).