Sadism and Masochism respectively isolate, and then exaggerate, a ‘moment’ or ‘aspect’ in normal sexual passion. Sadism exaggerates the aspect of capture and domination to a point at which only ill-treatment of the beloved will satisfy the pervert — as though he said ‘I am so much maser that I even torment you.’ Masochism exaggerates the complimentary and opposite aspect, and says ‘I am so enthralled that I welcome even pain at your hands.’ Unless the pain were felt as evil — as an outrage underlining the complete mastery of the other party — I would cease, for the Masochist, to be an erotic stimulus. And pain is not only immediately recognisble evil, but evil impossible to ignore. We can rest contently in our sins and in our stupidities; and anyone who has watch gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know they were eating, will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insist upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. A bad man, happy, is a man without the least inkling that his actions do not ‘answer,’ that they are not in accord with the laws of the universe.
— C.S. Lewis
Cited from The Problem of Pain (New York: HarpersSanFrancisco, 1940), 90-91.
This broken world is so topsy turvy that some can confound passionate sensations for pain and become duped into imagining that so-called pain to be something pleasurable. Yet, when we face off with the pain that is impossible to ignore, like sudden loss of love, dignity, or innocence. Such experiences are unspeakable in the sense we cannot even find the words to express them. But Lewis reminds us it is within such deep and dark places that God shouts to us from glory in such a way that can hardly be ignored. We find ourselves in that lowly state prostrate, within the mists of the storm, peering down into a watery vortex, and crying out, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” Pain is then a way God calls our attention to the reality that something is broken in this world and needs the kind of care and attention that He alone can offer.
Clive Staples Lewis (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963) was an exceptional scholar, novelist, and Christian apologist from the Anglican tradition. Chronicles of Narnia serves as a fine example of Lewis as a prolific storyteller who captivated the imaginations of multitudes.
A learned scholar with expertise in medieval and Renaissance literature, Lewis also authored numerous fiction and non-fiction works that touched on matters of philosophy and Christian apologetics.
Love Truth Blog 