Written by Father Michael
Summer is here. I know because I was compelled to enjoy a Butterscotch Malted with whipped cream at an ice cream stand and then I woke up at 4:30am with a nightmare. I think I will wait until next summer for my second Malted.
Every summer I dream of spending a few days lazily reading a good novel. However on Father’s Day I mentioned the proposed title of my son’s proposed biography “MY FATHER, THE FATHER” and it has haunted me all week. So I decided to reread three novels since they try to “bring out the victory of the power and the glory of the Lord in spite of man’s wretchedness” (maybe my son’s book will also do). I recommend them to you. “THE POWER AND THE GLORY” and “DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP” are on TIME magazines top novels of the twentieth century. The other you can watch in the air-conditioned comfort of your home, since it was adapted into a good movie, “THE DIARY OF THE A COUNTRY PRIEST”. Robert Ebert recently gave a thumb up when it was screened in Chicago.
These three novels are classics but as fresh today as ever. Earlier this year I gave a presentation on Grace. It is a very difficult subject to explain and comprehend. God gives grace, we do not earn it. Grace is best understood by examples and there are ample examples of grace among the adventures in these books. Each book tell stories of priests in different times and places, facing life, some better than others. Some deserve the grace they receive, others that we would condemn. But the point is that God gives freely to all. God does not play favorites. God loves and forgives.
Willa Cather uses a full pallet of color to paint a beautiful panorama of the southwest in “DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP”. If you are not planning a trip this summer this is the book to read. She will transport you to the beauty and the hardness of New Mexico. The novel is based on historical figures and remains faithful to the times. A French born Ohio based priest is sent by Rome to the wild territory recently annexed to the United States ending hundreds of years of influence by Spain. There is history, humor, and grace in Cather’s vivid prose. You will be edified, exhilarated, and enchanted by her words.
Graham Greene’s “THE POWER AND THE GLORY” was created and existed in controversy. Greene fled to Mexico, a country that did not have extradition treaties with Britain and the USA to escape a pending libelous lawsuit. For seventies years, one of the most Catholic countries, had an anti-Catholic government. Greene’s story about the manhunt for the last priest in a Mexican state is thrilling and full of grace. The man is a “whiskey priest” but with the grace of God he is committed to bringing the sacraments to faithful pheasants in the poor countryside. He goes to his martyrdom shamefully, but remaining faithfully to the gift of priesthood which he received from a loving God. Pope Paul VI told Greene in 1965 “some aspects of your books are certain to offend some Catholics, but you should pay no attention to that” (Stephen Schloesser, America Magazine, Nov. 11, 2000, Altogether Adverse).
George Bernanos’ novel or Robert Bresson’s movie, “DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST”, are both powerful and well done. Pick your choice. The young priest is only seen once to have a slight smile as he boards a train leaving town. This is a story about a spiritually strong but physically weak priest. He is full of grace as he painfully and pitifully performs his priestly duties, which are mostly unappreciated or rebuffed. Grace again carries him through.
If you want to be entertained, lulled into dreams of the countryside, or spiritually challenged and enriched then these books are your tickets.