C. S. Lewis's 61st anniversary day of death and graduation to Glory

Today, November 22, 2024, is the 61st anniversary of death of C. S. Lewis in Oxford and his graduation to Glory. On this same day, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas. And English philosopher Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, died in Los Angeles. Peter Kreeft wrote a fiction book—Between Heaven and Hell—about an imagined conversation between Lewis, Kennedy and Huxley, on Christian faith the morning after they died. I remember where I was and how I felt on November 22, 1963, when I heard the shocking news about the assassination of President Kennedy. During our lunch break at Longfellow Elementary School in Pasadena, CA, word began to spread. Our teachers seemed worried. Earlier in the month we had practiced in an air-raid drill what we must do if the “Russians were coming…”. We must drop to the floor, get under our desks, protect our necks with our hands, and possibly kiss our butt goodbye…. The 1960’s was an anxious time, and frightening in the face of war, assassinations, and civil unrest. Nov. 22 was one of those frightening days. At the Kilns in Oxford, C.S. Lewis was dying. He had said his goodbyes to his dear friend JRR Tolkien, childhood friend Arthur Greeves, and many others. “I have done all I wanted to and I’m ready to go,” Jack told his brother, Warnie Lewis. “Friday, 22 November 1963, began much as other days”, Warnie wrote in his diary: “there was breakfast, then letters, and the crossword puzzle. After lunch he feel asleep in his chair: I suggested he that he would be more comfortable in bed, and he went there. At four I took in his tea and found him drowsy but comfortable. Our few words then were the last: at five-thirty I heard a crash and ran in, to find him lying unconscious at the foot of his bed…” As a C.S. Lewis enthusiast, I almost always remember Nov. 22 each year. We were discussing Lewis’s death today in class before our ZOOM Room was hacked in a cyber-attack by young anarchist who spewed forth vile messages, bullying, hate-filled words, racial slurs and violent threats. Unable to mute them or kick them out of the room (the hack was unstoppable), so we canceled the session, grabbed our necks, protected our heads, and got out of the room—rather shaken. It reminded me of the nuclear air-raid drills and we endured in elementary school, and what I imagine happens today in schools during active-shooter drills and evacuations. 61 years ago today, the author of A Brave New World, the President of the United States, and one of the most influential Christian apologists and famous teachers in the world—fell out of bed and died. I look forward to that Day of Resurrection when the good Lord says to Jack, and to others whose souls are at rest: “Get up, Jack, wake up. Time to rise and shine. It’s that great gettin’ up morning!”