This Friday is the opening of the movie: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I am looking forward to seeing it with the fourth graders of our parish school. This homily is not a promotion for the movie, but I mention it because of something which happened in the lead-up to its release. I bring it up because it will help us understand what is meant the “forgiveness of sin” which John speaks about in today’s Gospel.

The New York Times did an article about C.S. Lewis (author of the Chronicles of Narnia) which was quite critical of the man. Rather than focusing on Lewis’ ideas and stories, the reporter chose to pass on rumors regarding his personal life. That was to be expected considering the state of journalism today. What bothered me more than article, however, was the way some C.S. Lewis’ fans tried to defend him. Their attempts to defend Lewis were like “friendly fire.” Although they had good intentions, their lack of attentiveness caused them to damage their own side, rather that hitting the real target.

The C.S. Lewis defenders undercut the Christian message in two fundamental ways. First, they asserted that even if the rumors are really true, they do not matter because they described things which happened when Lewis was a young man, before his conversion to Christianity. Lewis himself explicitly rejects this line of defense. In one of his books (Problem of Pain) he points out: “We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin.” That a sin took place a long time ago does not change the reality of the misdeed, although it might make it easier for a person to acknowledge it and to repent. Unfortunately the passage of time often has the opposite effect. It can make a person less likely to recognize the damage. “Well, I was young and foolish then. Just sowing a few wild oats, you know.” The defenders of C.S. Lewis may unwittingly encourage that cavalier approach to sin.

The bigger problem was in the defenders’ second line of defense. Some of them simply asserted that the sins mentioned were in themselves no big deal. “So what?” They asked, “We all make mistakes. We are all weak.” Lewis would have reacted strongly to this implicit denial of sin. Anyone who has read his books knows that the last thing you can accuse him of is a casual attitude toward sin. In fact, one of his great contributions is unmasking sin for what it is. He knew that before people could receive the Good News of forgiveness, they had to know what sin actually is. The diagnosis comes before the cure.

Back in John the Baptist’s day, people – pagans, as well as Jews – knew that they had violated divine laws. Today people are not so sure that right and wrong exist or that human beings are even responsible for their actions.* “Sin” is like a foreign word to people of our culture. It has no meaning beyond “something that some people think is bad.” It needs to be retranslated. C.S. Lewis tried to do that. In one of his writings (Letters to Malcolm) he said: “Every sin is the distortion of an energy breathed into us...” By even the smallest sin “we poison the wine as He decants it into us; murder a melody He would play with us as the instrument...Hence all sin, whatever else it is, is sacrilege.”

C.S. Lewis did not write much about sensational sins like murder or adultery or drunkenness. Rather he concentrated on more everyday failings such as tale bearing, ill temper, sloth and cowardice. He shows how seemingly small matters can have great consequences, separating a person from other human beings and ultimately God himself.

Lewis wrote as a man painfully aware of his own past sins and his present sinfulness. After his conversion, it took him a few years to muster the courage to make an auricular confession to an Anglican priest. About his first confession, he wrote (on October 24, 1940), “It was the hardest decision I have ever made.” From that time on he made regular confession to a priest.

He of course was aware of the danger of scrupulosity. He corresponded with a lady who was something of a hypochondriac, spiritually as well as physically. Warning her against anxiety about what a lost soul she is, he told her to just get down to brass tacks: What have you actually done? Just the facts, please. Take those things a wise priest – and listen to what he has to say.** Then, be at peace, knowing that God forgives even your most miserable sins.

That was the attitude of St. John the Baptist when people came to him in the desert. He told them to turn away from their misdeeds and they would be forgiven. Before washing them in the Jordan, the people “acknowledged their sins.” In doing so they prepared themselves for one mightier than John who would give them the definitive baptism – in the Holy Spirit. This Advent we also desire to turn from sin and receive the Savior who John proclaimed.

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