A Severe Mercy: A Story of Faith, Tragedy and Triumph

In the final portion of the novel, the author continues to narrate the various stages of his grief and the process he had to undergo to find a new way of living without the person he loved most in the world. The Illumination of the Past had begun to make possible the collection of the various eras of their life into a single, unified narrative. In death, strangely, the author’s love for Davy is woven together into a single act by which he can love every moment of Davy’s existence all at once. The meaning of their life together also comes to light in the act of remembering since the Christian worldview affirms that all the various acts of providence to guide them to their final end can only be seen in hindsight. From an eternal perspective, however, they can all be seen simultaneously, but from a finite, human point of view, the past makes sense only by referring them to their final end.

In this act of memorial contemplation, the author contemplates the relation of time and eternity and finally understands how he had a sense of Davy’s presence. If Davy truly were with God in eternity, her presence would now exist outside of time and space. This would mean two things: first, that her presence would genuinely be able to comfort him in a way that didn’t need to make sense from his limited perspective; second, that as he now felt her presence begin to fade from his consciousness, this also needed to make sense since their experience of the flow of time was now severed from one another. No longer could the Shining Barrier protect their loving union; death had dissolved the earthly bond of their love. What death had not done, however, was destroy their love, for not only could they still love one another—as both were still alive, though in different states of living—but they were also able to share their love of the highest good: God.

The two final realities to which the author found himself conforming his mind came in the final stages of his grieving process. The first was coming to a complete understanding of his wife’s death as, in the words of Lewis, a severe mercy. This severe mercy was the mercy of God in allowing Davy to come home to the life of the blessed in heaven—for which she was longing—and, simultaneously, allowed the author to be wholly consumed with love for God. The experience of Davy’s death, as the author will admit, brought him closer to God and to the realities of the faith than anything else had ever done. This is, in part, the author’s answer to the problem of evil: Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does God allow suffering and pain? For the author, this is part of the mystery, the reality that human beings often are taught the most—and come to know the true meaning of love—in times of great sorrow and grief.

The final truth revealed by the process is the understanding that when a loved one dies, those who mourn them must undergo two different deaths. The first is when death occurs, but the second occurs when the person’s memory begins to fade and die in the mind of those left behind. This second death comes with its own sense of sorrow and loss, and in a way (as the author points out), is almost more difficult than the first since the presence of the deceased is no longer present constantly in the heart. This causes its own sorrow and must be born with patience and grief.