Finding the Elusive God

I am completing my THIRD read... sucessively. That speaks for itself. Order it, digest it - make it your own: and pass on the good news.

This is a moving and deeply reflective book. Paul Scanlon describes his journey of faith as one in which he has "experienced exquisite moments of joy as well as times of hard sledding...." In his poignant moments, he exposes the deepest of spiritual dimensions. At the end of each chapter, Questions For Reflection are very thought provoking. Readers are engaged in recognizing their commonality with the remarkable witnessing stories from several cultures. God is made visible in their daily struggles. It is an excellent book full of metaphoric language that helps one to put faith in God back into one's own life. For example, the anecdotes of Scanlon's ministry in the mountainous jungles of Mexico expose the reader to the overpowering faith of indigenous peoples. Simple acts of Love like the Tzeltal native who carried his wife for three days to get her to a hospital. This loving husband had his wife tied facing backward seated on a chair that was fastened to his back as they navigated treacherous paths. This man was the Good Shepard, literally carrying the lost sheep on his shoulder." Read in solitude the book is enriching but read in small sharing groups, it is wonderous.

I used this book for a personal retreat and found it wonderfully insightful and encouraging. Obviously, this book comes out of a lot of struggling and searching and finding hints of that oh, so elusive God. Fr. Paul asks "why is it that we hesitate" to give ourselves to God. And he answers "...because we know deep down in our gut that if we swallow hook, line and sinker our lives will change. Andwe don't really want that." That sums up so much of my struggle and search. The images and the people you meet in this book help make it real and the search becomes a lived experience. I recommend this book to all seekers.

This is a treasure of a book that wells up out of years of loving, compassionate service to (and with) God's "poor," i.e., those who whatever their economic status have been rendered powerless, helpless, in dire need of the God who alone can help them --- which turns out to be all of us. "Which one of us is not poor? Which one of us does not hunger for love, acceptance, and worth? Who has not experienced moments of self-doubt, been crushed by feelings of worthlessness?..." Fr. Paul singles out major experiences in his own life as missionary among the materially poor and as pastor in churches of middle class America. This he does, not to focus attention on himself but upon those he writes of ... like the rain-drenched Indian who had come to the mission looking for help to bury his wife who had just died and Sr.. Mari who rushed to comfort and help him and the little boy his father and the missionaries found as they arrived, gently, lovingly, tending to his dead mother... like Domingo Guzman, the contemplative Indian youth accompanying Frs. Paul and Louis through the Chiapas jungle and alerting them to the beauties of sight and sound all about them which they, city folk, had been unaware of... like Don Santos forgiving from his heart the murderers of his young son. These and many other "observers of God" Fr. Paul offers as teachers in the way of finding God in our own day-to-day lives. So his proposal of the examen of conscience not so much as a reflection on our sins but upon God in our lives. And so the questions asked after each chapter, inviting us to see and particularize our own experiences of God. "When, where was it that I last "saw" God? Many books speak of the search for God. Fr. Paul speaks of the finding of him, and finding him, often, in the least likely of places. All we need do is be alert, prayerfully alert. No easy job, but as evidenced in and through this book, one worth while for ourselves and all the world. Fabian S. Parmisano, O.P.