Proverbs 3.3

“Do not let mercy and truth forsake you; bind them round your neck,

write them on the tablet of your heart.”

In the Hebrew Bible, the word ‘emeth, is often translated into English as truth or faithfulness implying a divine, religious or ethical context.


In the last book of C.S. Lewis’ classic series of children’s literature, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle, there is a character named Emeth. Emeth has lived his whole life outside of Narnia, the mystical land where animals talk, magic is common and good eventually, always, conquers evil; a land whose true ruler is the Christ figure, Aslan, a talking Lion.

Emeth’s country, Calormene, is a conquering and violent place where people worship a violent and spiteful god named Tash. In the Last Battle, it seems that perhaps, this time, the good Narnians will succumb to the Calormene’s, evil and the dreadful followers of Tash. Among the followers of Tash, Emeth, seems cut from a different mold, a seeker of truth and the good amid the violence and evil, one whose heart is pure. As the Last Battle closes, Narnia is coming to the end of time. Aslan has returned to his people, his army, at long last, has defeated the evil Calormene. Aslan is leading all the characters who are still with him “higher up and further in” to a place that can only be heaven. Somehow, among them is it the “evil foreigner” and follower of the “violent Tash,” Emeth. The others wonder out loud to Emeth how he comes to be among them. Emeth recounts for them an earlier conversation with the Christ figure Lion:


‘Lord, is it then true… that thou and Tash are one?’ The Lion growled so that the earth shook and said, ‘It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites.


For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore, if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child?’ I said, ‘Lord, thou knowest how much I understand.’


But I said also, ‘Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days.’ ‘Beloved,’ said the Glorious One, ‘unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.’ The Last Battle, C.S. Lewis.

Let us bring our hearts of prayer asking to live as seekers of Truth wherever it may lead. May we pray to follow our hearts, that they be opened to Mercy as our guide, the truest north on all the journeys of our living. And may our living become our fervently prayer of mercy and truth in the world. Amen.