Danyelle Catoe- Eyes to see and ears to hear

In Till We Have Faces, one of the main characters, Orual, is struggling with her belief in the gods. She is very angry with them because, in her opinion, they stole her sister from her. At one point in the story, Psyche was sacrificed to appease the gods. Orual had faith that her sister was still alive and went to search for her on the mountain. She did find Psyche very much alive, and was overjoyed. However, much to her dismay, Psyche seemed to be suffering from hallucinations that she was now a goddess. Orual tried desperately to talk her out of it, but Psyche kept insisting that they were currently sitting in her palace. Orual could not see anything but the mountain, and eventually crossed back over to the other side of the river. However, later that night, Orual woke up. As she was drinking from the stream, she glanced over to where she knew her sister was. Through the fog and mist, she was almost sure that she did indeed see a palace. However, once she was able to think about it logically, she reasoned her way out of it. The explanation she told herself was that it was late: her eyes must have been playing tricks on her.
This excerpt from Till We Have reminds me of the analogy that Scripture presents of people who do not understand the Gospel. Jesus, as well as other prophets from the Old Testament, reference unbelievers as having “eyes but not seeing, ears but not hearing.” This is exactly what Orual is experiencing. Though she sat in the palace with Psyche, she was not able to see it. She drank Psyche’s wine, but only tasted water. She was able to attain a glimpse of the palace late at night, but later talked herself out of it. She found it easy to blame the gods, but not believe in them.
In the Bible, Paul informs the Romans “what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:19-20). This is similar to the idea presented in Lewis’s novel. Everything that Orual needed to know was available to her. But she refused to believe. Instead, she resisted the gods at every opportunity because to believe in them did not benefit her. It was easier for her to ignore them, or dislike them. She struggles with this throughout the entire novel, and never really changes her attitude. This attitude did not seem to be beneficial for her at any point. She harbored this bitterness of years, which prevented her from really understanding what was going on. If she had acknowledge the existence of the gods in the beginning, then she never would have forced Psyche to try to see the “Beast,” Cupid; Psyche would never have been banished. She would have been able to remain blissfully married. Orual’s unbelief ended up hurting her sister more than it hurt Orual herself.