A Look-What-I-Found Rebound
Via a bit of fortuitousness (thanks to my benefactor!), I received an advance copy of a book called The Miracle Detective : An Investigation of Holy Visions by Randall Sullivan. This type of book is crack-cocaine to my mother, and since I'll be seeing her tomorrow in conjunction with a visit here, I thought I'd read some of it before letting her borrow it.
In it Sullivan attempts to discern the authenticity of various Marian apparations, which is sort of like watching a train wreck. The collision of the scientific, rationalist, non-believing mind with He who will not be nailed down is riveting. The irony is that Sullivan, the Rolling Stone editor and God-haunted skeptic, believes it more than Fr. Groeschel. Not to say Fr. Groeschel disbelieves; he calls the happenings at Medjugorje most perplexing and thinks God is using it. He says the most amazing thing about the apparition is the surreal devotion of the people resident. Something happened.
I couldn't put it down. Partly because it's so readable and partly because of the prominence of Fr. Groeschel, for whom my respect just grows and grows and grows. Not just for his piety and charitable works and great learning, but because of his off-handed, almost casual, honesty. He calls the seers of the La Salette apparation ne'er do wells. No white-washing, he's allergic to hagiographies and worries about the Church post-JPII given the weakness of faith at the highest levels of the hierarchy. His blend of scientific and psychiatric and theological knowledge is extremely attractive. I now read Chesterton and Groeschel with similar enthusiasm and reverence.
The author wants clarity on Medjugorje, but Fr. Groeschel advises him to "tread lightly" and not come to a conclusion in the book because it is unknowable. Where God begins and we end is something we'll never know but something we must be content with. I won't give away the ending, but the author's spiritual journey is in some ways more interesting than his conclusions on Medjugorje. I would love to read about the author's spiritual journey post-book.
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