the taste impossible of acquisition

[soso]

Today's Reading

We have a strange illusion //that mere time cancels sin.

I have heard others, and I have heard myself, recounting cruelties and falsehoods /committed in boyhood

/as if they were no concern of the present speaker’s, and even with laughter.

But mere time does nothing /either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin.

The guilt is washed out /not by time but by repentance and the blood of Christ:

if we have repented these early sins we should remember the price of our forgiveness and be humble.

As for the fact of a sin, is it probable that anything cancels it?

All times are eternally present to God.

Is it not at least possible that along some one line of His multi-dimensional eternity () He sees you forever

in the nursery /pulling the wings off a fly, forever toadying, lying, and lusting as a schoolboy, forever in that moment of cowardice or insolence as a subaltern?

It may be that salvation consists /not in the cancelling of these eternal moments but in the perfected humility

//that bears the shame forever,

rejoicing in the occasion //which it furnished /to God’s compassion

and (being) glad that it should be common knowledge to the universe.

* Consist in - to have (something) as an essential or main part.

* Definition of furnish. transitive verb. 1 : to provide with what is needed especially to equip with furniture

      The inn is beautifully furnished. 2 : supply,

* //which it furnished (the occasion) /to God’s compassion

* it = the shame (?)

* it (=the shame) furnished which (=the occasion) /to God’s compassion

* and (the perfected humility) (being) glad that it(=the shame) should be common knowledge to the universe.

Perhaps in that eternal moment St Peter—he will forgive me if I am wrong—forever denies his Master.

If so, it would indeed be true that the joys of Heaven are for most of us, in our present condition,

‘an acquired taste’

—and certain ways of life may render the taste impossible of acquisition.

Perhaps the lost are those who dare not go /to such a public place.

Of course I do not know that this is true; but I think () the possibility is worth keeping in mind.

* Render is a synonym of make — technically it means "cause to become."<wbr />

       Another basic meaning of the verb render is to give, present, or perform something:

* [certain ways of life] may render [the taste] [impossible of acquisition].

  어떤 삶의 방식들은 그 미각을  습득 불가능한 상태로 만들 수 있다

* It may be that salvation consists /not in the cancelling of these eternal moments

but in the perfected humility //that bears the shame forever,

rejoicing in the occasion //which it furnished /to God’s compassion

and (being) glad that it should be common knowledge to the universe.

구원을 구성하는 중요한 요소는 그런 영원히 존재하는 순간들을 말소하는데 있지 않고

수치를 영원히 견디는 완전해진 겸손함에 있기에

그 수치로 치장된 사건이 하나님의 인애를 향하여 감을 즐거워 하며

그 수치가 전 우주에 걸쳐 일반적으로 다 아는 일이 되어야 함을 기뻐하는 것일 수도 있다

From The Problem of Pain
Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

The Problem of Pain. Copyright © 1940, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright restored © 1996 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. A Year With C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works. Copyright © 2003 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.