Bookshelf Christian Life
By WILLIAM C. GRAHAM
There were days and there were
cultures in which children were encouraged to be Mary or Joseph-like, with all
girls given either a Marian first or middle name, and boys given the first or
middle name of Joseph. I had heard of these cultures but never met one of them
in these United States until coming to Illinois for a year as a guest professor
at Lewis University in suburban Chicago. St. Andrews Parish in
Romeoville, where I am happy to pray with the folks, has in the front offices:
Mary the bookkeeper, Marian the secretary, Maria the director of worship, Sr.
Maria the director of religious education, Sr. Mary Delores the principal,
Bernadette Mary the stewardship coordinator, Marian the secretary for religious
education, and a male Marion in maintenance. We are not far here from the reign
of God.
And, speaking of the reign of God, the books considered this month
are more volumes under the general rubric of spirituality.
In Altogether Gift: A Trinitarian Spirituality (Orbis, 143
pages, $12 paperback), Michael Downey seeks to articulate the contours of a
Trinitarian spirituality shaped by three insights of the late, esteemed
Catherine LaCugna with whom he had collaborated on an essay for The New
Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality. These insights include the assertions:
whatever is said of the mystery of God begins with the Incarnate Word and the
activity of the Spirit in human life; the relational mystery of God is
expressed in the language of Father, Son and Spirit; the Trinitarian doctrine
is a practical teaching expressing not just how we understand God but the human
call of being created to glorify God by living in communion with God and one
another through Christ in the Spirit.
Downey and LaCugna had planned to work together on a book of
Trinitarian spirituality, but her illness and death cancelled those plans. This
book is a different treatment of what they had first planned. In it, he looks
to enunciate a grammar of the Trinity to speak to the deepest
desires of the human heart, the region of wound and wisdom wherein we
long for loving communion with God and others.
His book is intended for those who recognize the need for
theological foundations in living the Christian life. To this end, Downey
concludes that as we come to know the love of the Father through the Son in the
Spirit, we come to recognize the magnitude of Gods love in human life and
creation, in history, our own lives and the lives of others, in church and the
wider world. His reflection on vocation is a model of spirituality not in
service of private piety, but seeking a rich awareness of the life of the
baptized in the communion of Christs Body in the Spirit.
Downey does not give directions or how-to steps about managing or
improving ones life. He notes that his is not a recipe book, but is
intended for spiritual seekers with some theological formation, even if it is
not formal theological education, as he aims to connect technical treatises
with personal life. Here he reveals himself as the kind of pastoral writer much
needed today: one who can effectively be an informed interpreter or mediator
between the academy and the pews.
He wisely notes that his work is neither a comprehensive theology
of the Trinity nor a systematic presentation of Trinitarian spirituality. His
task instead is to call attention to the gift given in the Trinity so as to
invite participation in the mystery of the Three in one Love. Trinitarian
spirituality, he asserts, is nothing more or less than living both in and from
this gift.
Chapter Six includes 15 points for prayerful reflection, which
seem to be the logical conclusion of such a book. Each is intended to be of
help in pondering the mystery of Gods love.
Those responsible for the academic formation of the churchs
emerging lay ministers and those lay ministers seeking better formation in
lived spirituality should be among the audiences who should appreciate this
little volume.
I much appreciated Long Have I Loved You: A Theologian
Reflects on His Church, by Jesuit Fr. Walter J. Burghardt (Orbis, 506
pages, $20 paperback), noted author and preacher, author of 18 books and 270
articles, and editor of Theological Studies for 44 years. His title
recalls Augustines confession, Late have I loved you. I
flipped first to his epilogue, Grateful Memories, which is devoted
to the 27 men and women who have led him to the books conclusion and his
own: Ive been blest. And such a collection it is: of wit and
wisdom and insight and blessing and grace, character after gifted character.
The telling is an inspired litany of love and kinship, both intellectual and
spiritual, and conveys no hint of name-dropping. But such a list!
I took this book when traveling on a plane and did not look up
from it, even when stuck on a runway at OHare without explanation. This
is not an autobiography, Burghardt insists, but a reflection on much of a
century, one man reflecting after eight decades interaction with hundreds of
other minds, faces, voices and hearts.
His chapters are shaped around areas of thinking and living that
have engaged his attention: I look back into a living past, I stare into
my present, I peer into the future. He hopes that his experiences may
illuminate significant areas of human, religious and Christian
developments.
Writing of his own technique for preparing to preach, he
illustrates the attitude of awe to which believers are called: on tiptoe
of expectation, ready for every surprise of our surprising Spirit. He
helps us to understand Ignatian spirituality, which has clearly formed and
sustained him, as an effort to find God everywhere, in all persons and things.
This poetic sense of awe provokes the question, How is it that more than
4,000 varieties of roses can grow and perfume our earth, giant redwoods stalk
the California sky? Because an imaginative Christ gave them
life.
Burghardt is not afraid to criticize. He opines, Most of our
educated Catholics, including clerics, lack a sense of Catholic
tradition. But, he does not consider his own learning complete. He refers
to a book by fellow Jesuit Thomas Rausch, Priesthood Today: An
Appraisal, which has compelled me to reexamine several aspects of
priesthood I have taken for granted ever since my undergraduate years at
Woodstock.
Burghardts insights into feminism in his chapter, From
Eve to Mary to
?: Women in the Church, ought to be required
reading for those who cannot or will not understand what is at issue:
Division, domination, subordination -- such is not Gods design, nor
Gods desire.
Who should read this book? Seminarians and young religious and
those responsible for their formation, in hopes that they, too, will grow
straight and strong and wise in service to the church. All those who seek
holiness and wholeness. Those who look back pleased with a long life and who
can rejoice in a fellow pilgrims wise observations. Those who seek to
enter the church through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. Those who
struggle to see wisdom where first they perceive injustice or oppression.
Readers should also include those who wish to see wisdom at work
in the human community. Those who wish to see the intersection of Christ and
culture. Aspiring poets. Good preachers. Bad preachers. Indifferent preachers
who want to shake off indifference. Readers of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Those who
find Hopkins hopelessly obtuse. Those who seek the Lord. Those who appreciate a
good read.
Finally, biographers who think that biographies and
autobiographies have to begin with grandparents and crying babies.
Hard to think of those who should avoid this book. Cant come
up with a list.
Fr. William C. Graham is at work on a new book titled
Clothed in Christ: A Spirituality for Lay Ministry.
National Catholic Reporter, January 12,
2001
|