Michaelmas Evensong 2025
In 1942, C S LEWIS published The Screwtape Letters.
The premise of the book, is that they are a series of letters from a Fallen Angel named ‘Screwtape’ to his nephew – a more junior devil called ‘Wormwood’.
In the letters, Screwtape is advising Wormwood about how to lead his Patient (a human being) away from the Enemy (that is, God), whilst causing maximum chaos in the world.
Naturally, when we speak of Angels, we usually speak of the good angels. But this evening, I want to write as C S Lewis did, in the persona of one of the fallen angels.
* * *
My dear Wormwood,
I must congratulate you on all you have been doing. You have learnt from the experts, but the results are all yours.
We were ordained and constituted in a wonderful order, but the Enemy made one terrible mistake! For some foolish reason He did not want to force us serve him, He wanted us to choose to do his will, but we have chosen otherwise.
And for the same unknown reason, he has given the same choice to the Patients – and this is our great opportunity! To make them like us, and you, my dear Wormwood, have been doing a very good job of it indeed.
I have noticed your efforts in drip feeding bad news every day and all the time into their ears like poison, through their various devices. You have learnt well the lesson that the safest road to Hell is the gradual one.
Some of the Patients have become despondent and angry about the state of the world, which is understandable when you look at the success we have been having recently. So much so that they have stopped listening to the more positive News that the Enemy is always trying to share with them.
Even better, you have undermined the very idea of news itself! Quite an achievement that is worthy of Our Father Below himself! Many of the Patients no longer even believe in the concept of truth any more, and their grip on reality has become weak and confused.
They are told that there is enough food for everyone, while some of them starve to death! You have made them doubt the evidence of their senses, and the logic of their minds, so that they don’t even trust their medicines to save them. Soon they will be so confused, they will not be able to tell the difference between good and evil at all! That really is quite an achievement, my dear Wormwood.
I must also commend you Wormwood, for the work you have done to make them frightened of each other. And the more they fear the more they will hate.
I saw them all waving their flags a few weeks ago – you have skilfully insinuated the idea that there is an ‘other’ who is threatening everything they hold dear.
You have even turned their precious symbol of so-called love and unity into a symbol of hatred and division – soon the very word ‘Christian’ will be so toxic to most of the Patients that the Enemy won’t have a chance to win them to his side.
You have also made them believe that they need strong leaders who tell them what they want to hear rather than what is realistic. In this way, not only will you undermine trust in their leaders, but even in the systems which keep them quiet and content soon, the whole edifice will crumble and they will pick off the poor and feeble ones.
And remember – every time one of the religious leaders tries to speak of these things, you must whisper into their ears the old lie that politics and religion do not mix. Some of them are worryingly alert to the practical and social implications of their beliefs – for the establishment of anything like a really just society would be a major disaster for us. Tell them that their beliefs must have no impact on their actions, even though the Enemy’s Son, whom they claim to follow, had much to say on the subject.
Your final job Wormwood (after which you will receive a promotion) is to get into those places where the Patients gather to plead and squawk about the Enemy. Music and prayer! How I detest them both!
You have already done wonders making them depict our obedient angelic siblings as sweet and inoffensive creatures – so absurd that they cannot possibly believe in them! Some of them go about saying this quite openly – that they are just pretty myths and legends. Some of them do not even believe in us – even though the evidence of our work is all around them! How ridiculous!
If only they knew what the servile ones were really like: That their faces are flames, their wings are shimmering rainbows, their voices like the thunder of waterfalls. Keep from them the truth that they are everywhere, and that when they gather to honour the Enemy, the servile angels are even closer and all around them. Even better, keep them from those places, by telling them they can say their prayers anywhere, that is a clever thing to say because it is partly true – but it undermines the whole project of the Enemy.
Congratulations Wormwood! Right now we are strong.
Oh! Bitter is the memory of that day when our former brother Michael thrust us out of the Enemy’s kingdom and sent us down to the Earth and nether regions of the universe.
For now, the battle is carefully balanced and sometimes they seem to be winning – but I am sure that with your help Wormwood one day we will win.
Keep from them the most important truth of all – that the Enemy is stronger than us and as long as they do not know this – we have a chance – but we must do it quickly. For our time is short, and eternity is long.
Your affectionate Uncle,
Screwtape.