Written by Martin Bashir, Religion Editor BBC
Submitted by Paul Burgess

During this Coronavirus pandemic, we’ve all become sadly almost used to seeing a daily tally of the number who have died of the disease, on our Tv screens and on our phones as we’ve searched for the latest information. Globally that number now stands at 297,311 and it grows by the hour. Each of those deaths represents a loved one, a family member, a husband, wife or child, who will be grieved and terribly missed. Here in the UK and elsewhere this has sparked a renewed interest in religion, prayer and a search for a better understanding of the meaning of life and death and for hope in these dark times as our Religious Editor Martin Bashir explains:
With so many nations severely impacted it is hardly surprising that the language of global warfare is being used to describe responses to the coronavirus. Medical and nursing staff are said to be on the front line of the battle, and we calculate the number of casualties from London to Lesutu, Rome to Romania, Haiti to Hongkong.
It was during an actual war, the Second World War, that the BBC invited the Medieval scholar, C.S. Lewis, to give a series of radio talks. He was invited by the then Head of Religious Broadcasting, James Welsh, who had read Lewis’s book The Problem of Pain, and was moved by one particular line. Lewis wrote, “God whispers in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, and shouts to us in our pain.”
It certainly looks as if people in Britain are listening. Before the coronavirus began to impact the nation less than 6% of adults in the UK attended a religious service during any given week. But, according to a survey of more than 2,100 people by the polling organisation ComRes, and despite churches, mosques, synagogues and other places of worship being closed, that number has shot up to almost 25%, with people watching services on line or listening to radio broadcasts.
The survey also found that almost half of Britain, 44%, said they were now praying. And they are not just praying; they are talking about a subject which most of us find difficult to discuss: death. The international movement of so-called death cafes, of which there 10,00 in 70 countries, record a record number of people wanting to discuss their fears and anxieties.
Since his death in 1963, C.S. Lewis is probably best known, not for his wartime talks, but for his children’s stories under the over-arching title, The Chronicles of Narnia. What’s most surprising is that, although Lewis was writing for children, he chose to deal openly and frankly with death. This may have been shaped by his own experience because his mother died after his ninth birthday.
And yet, his notion of death is also shaped by hope. Because Lewis, a Christian, believed in the Resurrection of Christ, and therefore life after death. It is why the central character, Aslam, the great Lion, rescues all of Narnia and defeats the White Witch, not in battle, but through his sacrificial death, mirroring Christ’s death on the Cross.
One of the most moving passages about death appears in the story, The silver Chair, and describes the end of the life of King Caspian. Death is dreadful and all around are described as weeping. But suddenly, after a drop of blood from Aslam’s paw falls into the stream where King Caspian lies, life begins again. Here’s how Lewis describes the scene:
“His white beard turned to grey, and from grey to yellow, and it got shorter and vanished altogether. And his sunken cheeks grew round and fresh, and the wrinkles were smooth, and his eyes opened, and his eyes and lips both laughed. And suddenly he leapt and stood before them – a very young man.”
One moment the tragedy of death, but now a resurrected life!
The tragedy of the coronavirus has made us pause and look for hope, as they did during the Second World War. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, and shouts to us in our pain.”
10/5/2020 04:06 GMT. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w172x7b3tx3n4nd at 10.15 min. Accessed 19/5/20