Monday, April 18, 2022

Bring Your Pilgrimage with Jesus into the Present


 

Book title: Jesus: A Pilgrimage
Author: James Martin, SJ
HarperCollins, New York, 2014
538 incredibly engaging pages, including discussion questions, endnotes, topical index, and bibliography.
 

“Show me. Don’t tell me.” That’s a line Mrs. Conners, my English Composition teacher tattooed into our brains every Monday morning my junior year in high school. On Friday’s we had a hundred word paragraph due. “Thou shalt not be boring,” she would call out as we bolted toward the door when the lunch bell rang. 

There’s a good chance Father James Martin, author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage, had Mrs. Conners or an equally inspirational writing mentor somewhere along the way. Martin is a brilliantly descriptive story teller. Martin’s purpose in this book is not to preach (although I imagine he’s an engaging orator), but to coax the reader out of an itchy, dusty, churchy mindset into one of wonder. 

“Ignatian contemplation encourages you to place yourself imaginatively in a scene from the Bible,” Martin writes. “For example, if you’re praying about Jesus and his disciples caught in a boat during a storm on the Sea of Galilee, you would try to imagine yourself on board with the disciples, and ask yourself several questions as a way of trying to place yourself in the scene.” 

“You might ask:” Martin continues, “What do you see? How many disciples are in the boat? What is the expression on their faces? How rough is the sea? What do you hear? The howling wind? The fishing tackle shifting about in the boat? What do you smell? You’re in a fishing boat, so you might smell residues from the day’s catch. What do you feel? Homespun clothes were probably heavy when soaked by storm-driven water. And what do you taste? Maybe the spray on your lips. With such imaginative techniques you let the Gospel passage play out in your mind’s eye, and then you notice your reactions.” 

These two paragraphs are what prompted me to pick the title for this review. 

Martin’s storytelling keeps you on the edge of your seat. He uses a technique that great fiction writers employ when they introduce supporting characters to move the plot along and create space for compelling dialogue. You’re familiar with the mechanics of this method: Sherlock Holmes has Watson. Luke Skywalker has Yoda. Neo has Morpheous. And Father Martin has his traveling companion George. 

We, as readers, get to drop in and listen to Father Martin and George discuss what they are seeing as they literally follow Jesus’s footsteps through the Holy Land and watch Bible scenery in Technicolor clarity unfold before their eyes. We discover that God is working in George’s heart. Martin shares excerpts from George’s journal and journey through deep depression, humanizing George and Father Martin. 

And Jesus. And his disciples. And, for the group of us that read this book together, we discovered - or became reacquainted with - the tangled mess where our flesh wrestles with spirit. Father Martin helps us tap out, quit struggling, and bask in a pilgrimage with Jesus through his Holy Land narrative. 

Often, non-fiction talks at you. Authors want to prove how much they know. Not Martin. His memoir approach is, at once, humble, human, and spiritual. He helps you postpone paying too much attention to your own mess so you can meet with Jesus. He introduces you to a humble, human Jesus. 

If you open the book to the table of contents, you’ll see how Martin organizes the book into 25 chapters titled with a single, biblically-rich word and then sub-titled with a snippet of scripture. Here are some examples (BTW, these aren’t spoilers; this is just what’s found in the table of contents which is where I always like to prowl before choosing a book) : 

  • Rejection - “Is not this the carpenter?” 
  • Immediately - “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” 
  • Happy - “Rejoice and be glad.” 
  • Storms - “Teacher, do you not care?” (Just sit and think on this one for a minute) 

Then there are the chapters with holy land, geographical names: 

  • Gerasa - “Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones.” 
  • Tabgha - “They all ate and were filled.” 
  • Jericho - “He was trying to see who Jesus was.” 
  • Gethsemane - “He threw himself on the ground and prayed.” (Pause again). 
  • Golgotha - “Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.” 

My hands down favorite chapter was Emmaus - “Their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” 

Martin recounts the familiar gospel story from the two men being joined by a “stranger” while traveling on foot on the road to Emmaus. They were expressing grief and exasperation about Jesus's Crucifixion and his ministry and the incredible stories some of the ladies in their group were telling about a resurrection and living Jesus. 

Maybe you know the story; Jesus pretended he didn’t know what they were talking about. Which I love that about the Jesus style. You know what Jesus said often: “He who has an ear, let him hear.” Jesus set things up so that people had to forage a little bit in the words he spoke. He doesn’t leave the most valuable nuggets of truth right on top like they were a $100 bill lying on the sidewalk. 

Martin writes, “They then sadly describe the events of the Crucifixion and share with him their crushed hopes: ‘We had hoped that that he was the one to redeem Israel.’” 

Then Martin writes this: “‘We had hoped’ may be the saddest words in the New Testament.” And Martin camps here for a few more pages in the Emmaus chapter. 

This makes my mind wander and camp somewhere else. This concept of Jesus “hiding” in camouflage before he springs who he is on them because I think - I’m convinced - that Jesus - from a hiding place - springs who he is on us from time to time. Jesus wraps his truth inside a tasty-parable-sushi-roll. Rice and seaweed on the outside with tasty sauces and delicacies on the inside waiting to delight you. 

Jesus hides himself in obvious places. He hides where he’ll be discovered by those who want to discover him.

On the Emmaus Road the Jesus guys walked with were talking about Mary at the empty tomb. Mary had the worst weekend of her life. She watched her friend crucified on a cross. She is confused and disoriented when she arrives a couple of days later at an open, empty tomb. 

Here’s how John describes it in his gospel: 

They (angels at the open tomb!) asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” 

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 

At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” 

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 

Jesus said to her, “Mary.” 

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” 

How come she didn’t recognize him? Jesus was hiding; he was hiding in her distress. 

But Jesus hides where he’ll be found. Especially those places familiar to us like our own distress, depression, or disillusionment. We need to our eyes ease out of focus a bit and we'll see him.

That’s what Martin brings out so masterfully in this book where he explores the Holy Land with a friend. Jesus lived and worked among regular people is a regular place to show them how they can become holy through him in their normal, work-a-day lives. It doesn’t take a trip to the holy land to discover this. It takes looking a little below the surface where Jesus is hiding in plain sight waiting for you to find him. 

Pick up this book.

Friday, October 16, 2020

Book Review: God and the Pandemic by N.T. Wright

 I wish I didn’t wait until my own life was in crisis to pick up a book by Tom Wright. He always, always, always brings a fresh practical perspective. Wright never fails at this in what he writes.

Wright writes. 

He writes things that will affirm what you already think on the un-crazy side of your brain. “That’s exactly what I think” you’ll hear yourself say out loud. Other times, you’ll think, “wow, I never thought about things that way... it makes so much sense.” 

I'm grateful Wright provides a solid, intelligent framework for thinking, feeling sad, and applying correction to your current crazy impulses. You’ll definitely want to share this book with friends, and even more importantly, your leaders. 


 

Friday, May 31, 2019

New post on book blogging project


Whenever I get into a conversation about Allie, inevitably people will ask me about Charity. The whole Allie story is heart breaking, and people are especially moved by what Charity has had to go through.

I added post 23 to our book blogging project. Check it out here.

Monday, November 27, 2017

Grief. Is it ever good, Charlie Brown?



I've heard that this time of year is especially difficult for those whose lives have been touched by tragedy or loss. I'm not aware of the statistics, but anecdotal stories abound. Coming off of the long Thanksgiving weekend, while celebratory for many of us, we've also been reminded by loss in our lives. So many of us are in different stages of healing from that loss.

Yesterday my friend Gus posted a picture of a marquee with this quote:
"If you are more fortunate than others, build a longer table, not a taller fence."

Let's live that way this holiday season. You can both celebrate AND go through grief together. But don't do either alone. One way to get through it is to give yourself away. I write about that here in the 22nd post in our book-blogging project.

Wednesday, November 01, 2017



In the middle of the Bible is a collection of the best poetry ever written. These poems explore, express, celebrate and complains about man’s relationship with God. This isn't shrink-wrapped easy believism. This ancient literature isn't trying to convince you of God’s existence or lay a religious guilt trip on you so you'll behave yourself. These are poems that portray conflict between what man thinks about God and what man thinks God does. There is a section of these poems grouped together that are called “lamentations.” These poems question whether God is even there. And if maybe he is, does he care about what is going on in our lives.

This is where most people live. This is what most people think when they think about God. But not very many people admit it and none are more honest than the writers of these poems called Psalms. Most people you meet are either religious or unreligious, and my assertion is not very many people in your life are really honest about what they think about God.

I think God forces you into situations where you’re confronted with this fact. This is what I write about in post 21 in our book blogging project. Let me know if any of this resonates with you.

Where are my Angels? -Post 21