Monday, March 26, 2007
library nostalgia
I went to the library today. I walked by the books. I saw the books. I smelled the books. And I remembered: I love books. I love to read. That is all.
Forever
I am taking a class at UNCC called Murder, Marriage, and Mayhem: The Golden Age of Spanish Theatre. Interesting title, right? Actually, it has been a really interesting and very challenging class. We read whole plays in Spanish. YIKES :)
So, tonight, we were talking about an the last play that we read called El Burlador de Sevilla (the play that is the basis for the famous opera Don Juan). In it there is an allusion to the myth of Cupid and Psyche. When I was in elementary school, I used to check out Greek mythology books to read just for fun (nerd = needs extra reading daily). Anyways....so I was familiar with the myth. The brief version is this:
There was a young girl named Psyche who was very beautiful. The goddess Aphrodite was jealous of Psyche and sent her son Cupid to pierce her with one of his arrows so that she might fall in love with an ugly man. Instead, Cupid himself fell in love with her. He married her and came to her every night, but told her she must not see him, because he was a god. Out of jealousy, her own sisters warned to that he might be a dangerous serpent and that she should light a lamp while he slept to find out his true form. Disobeying, she lit a lamp and at once was saddened by what she had done because she realized that it was the god of love himself, and she had betrayed him. A drop of wax fell on him, and he awoke and fled.
The idea that we discussed in class was that of in one instance seeing paradise and then losing it. My mind flashed back to CS Lewis' book Till We Have Faces, which is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche with a lot of variations. Although certainly a work of fiction, Lewis is a master of capturing and conveying true truth through story.
And if it was a dream, Sister, how do you think I came here? It's more likely that everything that had happened to me before this was a dream. Why, Glome and the King...seem to me very like dreams now...You could see it was a god's house a once. I don't mean a temple where a god is worshiped. A god's house, where he lives. I would not for any wealth have gone into it. But I had to...for there came a voice so sweet-sweet? oh, sweeter than any music, yet my hair rose at it too- and you know what it said? It said, "Enter your House" (yes it called it my house), "Psyche, the bride of the god." Till We Have Faces, CS Lewis, 112-113.
Cupid and Psyche are a myth.
This is the truth: those who belong to Christ are His bride, and one day, they will be invited to spend all of eternity with Him....in paradise! In a place more beautiful than we can imagine!
No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him Isaiah 64:4
All of this flashed through my mind in an instant when she mentioned Psyche glimpsing paradise and then losing it.
My heart cried out: I want paradise! I want an eternity with God! I want to spend eternity with Christ, the lover and savior of my soul! I want to hear Him say well done and invite me into His house to live and enjoy and glorify Him forever. I don't want to miss that...
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—
kept in heaven for you! 1 Peter 1: 3-4
I will praise you, O Lord my God,
with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. Psalm 84: 12
So, tonight, we were talking about an the last play that we read called El Burlador de Sevilla (the play that is the basis for the famous opera Don Juan). In it there is an allusion to the myth of Cupid and Psyche. When I was in elementary school, I used to check out Greek mythology books to read just for fun (nerd = needs extra reading daily). Anyways....so I was familiar with the myth. The brief version is this:
There was a young girl named Psyche who was very beautiful. The goddess Aphrodite was jealous of Psyche and sent her son Cupid to pierce her with one of his arrows so that she might fall in love with an ugly man. Instead, Cupid himself fell in love with her. He married her and came to her every night, but told her she must not see him, because he was a god. Out of jealousy, her own sisters warned to that he might be a dangerous serpent and that she should light a lamp while he slept to find out his true form. Disobeying, she lit a lamp and at once was saddened by what she had done because she realized that it was the god of love himself, and she had betrayed him. A drop of wax fell on him, and he awoke and fled.
The idea that we discussed in class was that of in one instance seeing paradise and then losing it. My mind flashed back to CS Lewis' book Till We Have Faces, which is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche with a lot of variations. Although certainly a work of fiction, Lewis is a master of capturing and conveying true truth through story.
And if it was a dream, Sister, how do you think I came here? It's more likely that everything that had happened to me before this was a dream. Why, Glome and the King...seem to me very like dreams now...You could see it was a god's house a once. I don't mean a temple where a god is worshiped. A god's house, where he lives. I would not for any wealth have gone into it. But I had to...for there came a voice so sweet-sweet? oh, sweeter than any music, yet my hair rose at it too- and you know what it said? It said, "Enter your House" (yes it called it my house), "Psyche, the bride of the god." Till We Have Faces, CS Lewis, 112-113.
Cupid and Psyche are a myth.
This is the truth: those who belong to Christ are His bride, and one day, they will be invited to spend all of eternity with Him....in paradise! In a place more beautiful than we can imagine!
No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him Isaiah 64:4
All of this flashed through my mind in an instant when she mentioned Psyche glimpsing paradise and then losing it.
My heart cried out: I want paradise! I want an eternity with God! I want to spend eternity with Christ, the lover and savior of my soul! I want to hear Him say well done and invite me into His house to live and enjoy and glorify Him forever. I don't want to miss that...
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—
kept in heaven for you! 1 Peter 1: 3-4
I will praise you, O Lord my God,
with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. Psalm 84: 12
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