TO MARY WILLIS SHELBURNE: On how to rehearse for death and how to diminish fear.
17 June 1963
Pain
is terrible, but surely you need not have fear as well?
Can you not see
death as the friend and deliverer?
It means stripping off that body
//which is tormenting you:
like taking off a hair- shirt or getting out of
a dungeon.
What is there to be afraid of?
You have long attempted (and
none of us does more) a Christian life.
Your sins are confessed and
absolved.
Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave it
with regret?
There are better things ahead than any () we leave behind.
Remember, though we struggle against things because
we are afraid of them, it is often the other way round—we get afraid
/because we struggle.
Are you struggling, resisting?
Don’t you think
() Our Lord says to you ‘Peace, child, peace. Relax. Let go.
Underneath are
the everlasting arms. Let go, I will catch you.
Do you trust me so
little?’
Of course, this may not be the end.
Then make it a good rehearsal.
Yours (and like you a tired traveller near the journey’s end) Jack
* let go ; 2. to release one's hold or grip. 3. to give up; abandon, as one's interest in something.
FROM 9780061947285
From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III
Compiled in Yours, Jack
The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis. Copyright © 2008 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.