The Weight of Glory

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of the kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously--no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinners--no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat, the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden." - CS Lewis, The Weight of Glory

What  an intellect! I always have to read something by CS Lewis twice before I can understand  and grasp it in it's fullest. It's true; one of God's goals for us here on earth is for us to have meaningful, sincere and real relationships with each other. These are often the hardest most excrutiating relationships to have, but in the end, the most rewarding of them all. While I find the prospect of being that vulnerable to so many people  daunting, the prospect of such freedom in my relation to others intrigues me...