The only thing I regret about reading “Mere Christianity” is that I didn’t read it sooner. The way C.S. Lewis logically lays out his argument makes sense to this accountant brain and the subtle passion for the topic that underlies his observations is inspiring, but what stopped me in my proverbial tracks was Chapter Two of Book Two: The Invasion.

Lewis begins by sharing a view he calls Christianity-and-water that says, “there is a good God in Heaven and everything is alright — leaving out all the difficult and terrible doctrines about sin and hell and the devil, and the redemption.” This is, in his view, a boys’ philosophy. It is too simple.

This book was copyrighted in 1952 and sadly not much has changed in the past 74 years. What he called Christianity-and-water is what we now call “spiritual but not religious.” It’s the sense that if I’m a good person, I’ll go to heaven because a loving God would never send someone to hell — if hell even exists. It’s the belief that loving someone means being OK with whatever he or she decides for his or her “truth” and disregarding the Truth of natural law.

He calls this approach too simple because “real things are not simple. Reality is usually something you could not have guessed.” The reality of how the universe is constructed, for example, doesn’t follow what could be considered a logical plan: all the planets being the same size and being equal distances from each other, or getting progressively further from or closer to each other. Rather, there seems to be no plan in how it all works; we just know it does.

He goes on to discuss dualism — the idea that there are two independent, equal powers at work behind the scenes. One power is good, the other bad. But in order to have good and bad, there has to be a standard, a third power defining what is good and what is bad. Lewis defines wickedness as the pursuit of something good in a bad way. He argues that bad can only exist relative to good. Bad is a perversion of good. “Goodness is itself; badness is only spoiled goodness.”

This, he says, is why Christianity sees the devil as a fallen angel. The evil one has his powers given to him by God, or goodness. He is not original; he is a perversion. As a result, the universe is at war, but it’s a civil war, a rebellion. Bad rebelled against Good. The devil rebelled against God, and we live in the part of the universe occupied by the rebel.

We are in enemy-occupied territory.

As Catholic Christians, we profess love as desiring what is best for someone, we strive to forgive those who hurt us, we are on our knees on Sunday in front of the Body, Blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ because we know we are flawed and we can’t get by without him. We have become countercultural. We are the weirdos now. We endure the snide comments about confession and Church. We make the decision to take our children to Sunday Mass instead of the soccer field. We make sacrifices to provide our children with a Catholic education rooted in the truths of our faith. And we pray. We pray a lot because evil is out there, all around us, and we need our Savior.

These are acts of subterfuge. This is how we battle and as time goes by it becomes more and more a battle. Lewis wrote in post-World War II England. He survived the Blitz. Britain had a front-row seat to the horror that was that war, and it makes his comments even more chilling and poignant.

He said, “Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed … and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you are really listening-in to the secret wireless from our friends; that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going.”

This doesn’t scare me. This empowers me. Unlike the Allies during the war, we know the outcome. We know that Jesus Christ won the war. We may battle, we may suffer, we may hurt, but the war is won, and our Savior is the victor. I hope that one day in heaven the big picture will be revealed if for no other reason than I suspect it is fascinating. I agree with C.S. Lewis that reality is something we couldn’t guess, and I’ll bet the reality of the salvation story is amazing.

In the meantime, while here with my boots on the ground, I’m going to stay out of the foxhole and instead engage in acts of subterfuge. I’m going to pray. I’m going to partake of the sacraments. I’m going to do the nice thing. I’m going to do what is right and true and beautiful because that’s what God wants, and I’m in his army. I challenge you to join me in acts of subterfuge for our Lord.

2026 Fasting Update

The October fast was harder than I expected. I refrained from getting sucked into those interesting articles that pop up when I open my web browser. Weirdly this month, when I woke up my computer each morning, Firefox automatically opened. Didn’t use to do that. It was a good fast though. Two more months remaining.