MONKS AND MERMAIDS (A Benedictine Blog): THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN IMAGINATION: C.S. LEWIS, THE INKLINGS AND G.K. CHESTERTON: mp3's

Thanks to Ancient Faith Radio, we have this series on C.S. Lewis, the Inklings, and G.K. Chesterton. In another post, we spoke of another group of friends who met across denominational boundaries and became each an essential part of the journey to God for all the others. The White Rose (click name) was a group of Munich University students who gave up their lives for the Truth in Nazi Germany,. One among them, Alexander Schmorell, is to be canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church; but the group had Catholics and Lutherans as members. The Grace of God flowed across and through the boundaries, binding them together and making them one in Christ. Each remained true to his or her own tradition; but this did not stop each becoming a vehicle of Grace for the rest. The Inklings, in totally different circumstances, played a similar role in the lives of its members; and the fruit of their friendship continues to inspire us now.

Thus friendship can have an ecclesiological function because faith permits it to become a vehicle of the Holy Spirit. When friendship reflects the present activity of the Holy Spirit as happened in the White Rose and the Inklings it belongs to the charismatic dimension of the Church, like a monastic community, a foretaste on earth of our communal sharing in Christ's divine-human life in heaven. As Abbot (later Bishop) Christopher Butler wrote about his presence in Vatican II, "Before Vatican II, I knew where the Catholic Church was and where it wasn't. Now, after the council, I know where the Catholic Church is, but I can no longer be sure where it isn't." Both the White Rose and the Inklings show us the importance of friendship. May the members of both groups intercede for us to God that our friendships too will bear the maximum fruit..