by Father Robert Lauder
ANYONE WHO READS this column regularly may recall that last year I did a series of columns on a book that I very much like, Jesuit Father Michael Paul Gallagher’s Faith Maps: Ten Religious Explorers from Newman to Joseph Ratzinger (New York: Paulist Press, 2010, 158 pages, $16.95).
Father Gallagher provides excellent summaries of the theology of the 10 thinkers. All those whom Father Gallagher decided to include in his book have something important to say to those of us who are trying to be Christians in the 21st century. In addition to Newman and Ratzinger, he discusses the religious vision of Maurice Blondel, Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Bernard Lonergan, Flannery O’Connor, Dorothee Soelle, Charles Taylor and Pierangelo Sequeri.
In his introduction, which is titled, Learning from the Giants, Father Gallagher writes:
“So the purpose of this book is quite straightforward. I hope to offer others the fruits of my reflection on faith, a personal adventure that has lasted half a century. More specifically, I want to gather from the wisdom of ten major writers, to let their wisdom reach people who cannot devote so much time to reading. The aim is to capture what these ‘giants’ say in today’s language and in a non-academic way. I am convinced that many people, whether they think of themselves as religious believers or not, are looking for nourishment of this kind … a mixture of intelligent and spiritual wavelengths. …
“The focus will be more on how we can move towards the possibility of religious belief, and less on the content of what we believe. I realize, as I said, that many of my unbelieving friends can experience this God-talk as a language for which they have no dictionary, no grammar. I would ask them simply to get in touch with their own deeper questions, and then, through browsing in these pages, they might begin to appreciate the long tradition of pondering the strangeness and the surprise called God. How can we do justice to that perennial drama of desire and of discovery in a way that makes sense for today?” (pp. 2-3)
I agree with Father Gallagher that there are many today who, whether they think of themselves as religious believers or not, are looking for intellectual and spiritual nourishment. I believe that deeply. They may not realize it, but the Holy Spirit is operative in their lives.
Around the time that I was writing the series of columns on Father Gallagher’s book, I was discussing the book with two discussion groups, one made of lay people and the other of priests. All of us found the book both informative and inspiring. We wanted to share the insights of the 10 religious thinkers with others. I recall that I recommended the book to some of my friends.
What bothered me at that time and what still bothers me is the question of how can I, as a priest, or indeed any Christian who wants to share the faith with others, help people get in touch with their own deeper questions. Of course, I can try to do that through homilies on Sunday mornings, through this weekly column, through courses at St. John’s University and through talks and religious education courses in parishes. But I am thinking of people who do not attend church on Sundays, who do not read the diocesan newspaper, who are not going to take any philosophy courses at St. John’s University or read any publication that might be described as “Catholic.”
The people I am thinking of are “the un-churched” who have no contact with the Church except what they read in a daily newspaper. How can they be helped to get in touch with their deeper questions?
I agree completely with Father Gallagher’s insights, and I think he is right about how we can help people appreciate the faith and the search for God but what channels can be used?
Recently, at a morning of recollection that I was giving to parish ministers, a man basically articulated the very problem that has been bothering me. He said something like the following: “Though I agree with everything you said, how do we communicate what we believe to our friends and acquaintances who seem to have moved away from the Church?”
In my response, which may or may not have satisfied him, I said, “We have to remember that we are not alone. The Holy Spirit is active. We do what we can depending on the circumstances and the relationships we have and the rest is up to the Holy Spirit.”
We can be confident that the Holy Spirit will use whatever we do. I also believe that deeply. Because of the presence of the Spirit, discouragement should not be an option.[hr] Father Robert Lauder, a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn and philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica, writes a weekly column for the Catholic Press.