My daughter is beginning to wonder if I will ever be able to make it through our read-aloud of the Chronicles of Narnia without crying. (The answer: Probably Most definitely not).
I can’t help myself! Something new strikes me with each new reading of this beloved series; finding deeper meaning and beauty every time I pick it up. Seriously, if you haven’t read these books in a while (or at all), consider this your sign. You’re never too old to go back through the Wardrobe.
During my most recent reading of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I found Aslan’s behavior after his triumphant return striking, especially in light of my pondering on play and on this current season of Paschaltide.
Aslan has just come back to life after being killed by the White Witch and reveals Himself to Lucy and Susan who were mourning him.
“Oh, children,” said the Lion, “I feel my strength coming back to me. Oh, children, catch me if you can!” He stood for a second, his eyes very bright, his limbs quivering, lashing himself with his tail. Then he made a leap high over their heads and landed on the other side of the Table.
Laughing, though she didn’t know why, Lucy scrambled over it to reach him. Aslan leaped again. A mad chase began. Round and round the hilltop he led them, now hopelessly out of their reach, now letting them almost catch his tail, now diving between them, now tossing them in the air with his huge and beautifully velveted paws and catching them again, and now stopping unexpectedly so that all three of them rolled over together in a happy laughing heap of fur and arms and legs.
It was such a romp as no one has ever had except in Narnia; and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind. And the funny thing was that when all three finally lay together panting in the sun the girls no longer felt in the least tired or hungry or thirsty.
This joyful scene highlights a fundamental aspect of play—the Resurrection gives us the reason and freedom to play.
Aslan with the vitality of a child begins to run and laugh and play; while the girls, drinking deeply of this resurrected joy and partaking in His game, experience a taste of that new life and the renewal of their weary souls.
But all is still not well in Narnia. The country and its people are in peril. Aslan’s faithful followers are dying in battle against the army of the White Witch who is now confident in her victory.
Their play, like ours, is an act of resistance against anxiety and fear; it is an act of hope in the resurrection. Aslan has already won. He is alive. He is here.
In Scriptures, we see that the resurrected Jesus also takes on this playful quality. (Aslan and Jesus are one in the same after all).
Jesus momentarily conceals His identity when Mary Magdalene sees him in the Garden and playfully asks: “Why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” and he did something similar on the Road to Emmaus: “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.”
He stood on the shore where his friends had been (unsuccessfully) fishing and cheekily asked if they caught anything. He tells them again to lower the nets onto the right side of the boat and suddenly their nets are close to bursting.
He went through locked doors. He ate breakfast with his friends.
Like Lucy and Susan of Narnia, the disciples felt alive again. The disciples of Christ, who days before hid away in fear, now had something in which to place their hope.
Although the world around them was –and still is– full of darkness, sin, sickness, and death, the Resurrection changed everything.
You can papably feel it at the Vigil. When the light breaks through the darkness, triumphant voices rise in song piercing the long night. Rejoice! Let us Rejoice!
The Deacon sings out in the Exsultet :
Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her,
ablaze with light from her eternal King,
let all corners of the earth be glad,
knowing an end to gloom and darkness.Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice,
arrayed with the lightning of his glory,
let this holy building shake with joy,
filled with the mighty voices of the peoples.
Not only is Easter a celebration of Christ’s coming back from the dead but a recognition of what that means for us. New life is being offered to us. We can leave anxiety and fear behind and confidently stand in the joy and freedom offered to us by the Resurrection.
The powers that separated us from God have been dismantled; the Stone table has been broken.
We are woken from the slumber of sin and death, like the Statues of Narnia made flesh and bone again with Aslan’s breath.
Christ wiped out our debt to the Father; He banished the darkness. Even death itself has turned backwards.
We have reason to hope, we have reason to dance, we have a reason to play.
Jesus has already won. He is alive. He is here.
Happy Easter, friend! I’m glad you’re here. We’ve been exploring the theme of play and because I’m a slow writer, we’re really just beginning. You can read Part I here. If you haven’t already, please subscribe and join us on this little journey.
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Oh man, both times I've read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to the kids, I sobbed trying to read about Aslan's death while they confusedly patted me 😅😅
This is such a beautiful reflection on an incredible book!