God of Surprises

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As a baptized Catholic who seeks meaning in life and spirituality, yet feels alienated by organized religion, I found this book to be a great comfort. Perhaps it was because Hughes wrote things that validated my own views. I'm sure some of the more conservative Catholics would say he is way off, but, well, he's a priest too and views like his will do a lot more to help people and the Church. This is a guidebook for the journey of life which began at conception and will end at death. It is written especially for bewildered, confused or disillusioned Christians, who have a love-hate relationship with the Church. God is a ‘God of Surprises’ because He is not remote or distant, dwelling only in tabernacles and temples of stone, but near to us. Smiling and waiting to embrace us despite our confusion, bewilderment, anger etc. This book aims to suggest some ways of detecting the hidden treasure in what may be considered a most unlikely field, oneself. Key to his appeal was that he neither preached perfection nor held himself up as anything special. He was, in his own words, one of the many “bewildered, confused or disillusioned Christians who have a love-hate relationship with the church to which they belong, or once belonged”. His winning ability to see God in everyday life was complemented by his refusal to be bound by dogma or denomination.

Chapter Nine is about Christ our treasure, whom we often take for granted and fail to recognize. The Jews did not recognize him and sometimes neither do we. This truth is illustrated in a letter written by an imaginary parish priest complaining of the disruptive behaviour of one of his parishioners. It rejected the notion of a vengeful God and made an impassioned appeal for peace. This recurring theme in Hughes’s writing led to his taking the platform at antiwar demonstrations and developing a close connection with CND and Pax Christi, the international Catholic peace movement. There was another Scottish Jesuit with the same name, Gerard Hughes, writing at the same time, often taking a radically different stance on such issues of war and peace. They became known to colleagues as “Peace Hughes” and “Bomber Hughes”. Officially the Jesuits distinguished between the two by using a middle initial. He remained, to the end, unafraid of speaking his mind, telling an interviewer in 2014 that too many spiritual books were “destructive” and “an easy way to make money”. “There are lots of beautiful words. God is here and Our Lady is there, so all will be well. ‘Just trust,’ they [readers] are told. Trust in what? ‘Just trust in what I am telling you’ is the message. There is very little attempt to encourage people to listen to their own experience, to discover things for themselves.” Gerard William Hughes, Jesuit priest and spiritual writer, born 22 March 1924; died 4 November 2014 The Second Chapter shows us how we can get in touch with our inner selves. The author presents von Hügel’s analysis of the three main stages of human development-infancy, adolescence and adulthood-describing the predominant needs and activities which characterize each stage. The growth of faith and its connection with these stages is also presented.

If Gerard Hughes had expressed during the Inquisition what he'd written here, he would surely have been branded a heretic. Hughes openly challenges many of the most commonly-observed pillars of organized religion but productively offers solutions for churches progressing with the times to serve modern humanity. In the Fourth Chapter, the author suggests some methods of prayer. These methods help us meet the God who is actually out to meet us. Each of us has our own unique way of praying and hence may find one or the other method suitable. The suggestions of the author however could be a useful tool for those struggling to pray. He gives a good variety of methods to choose from. We move towards the field and dig towards the treasure through the decisions we make in everyday life. Chapter Twelve is not a treatise on decision-making, but offers some basic guidelines for individual and group decisions. His honesty about his own struggle to believe and his brushes with depression – his father was a depressive, two of his sisters took their own lives and he feared that he might follow them – attracted large numbers to his retreats. His record, while Catholic chaplain at Glasgow University from 1967 until 1975, of being twice dismissed by the local archbishop and twice reinstated made him something of a hero figure for those battling to promote discussion and debate within an authoritarian church.

The Final Chapter applies the insights of the book to a very real situation- the threat of nuclear war. In this chapter the author expresses his inner feelings regarding nuclear war and beautifully presents the Christian approach to nuclear weaponry and warfare. Hughes’s own spiritual hunger was not satisfied, however, by ministering to others and in 1983 he left to embark on the process of introspection in first Ireland, then the Isle of Skye, that led him two years later to publish his best-known book, God of Surprises. It was a word-of-mouth success. He described God of Surprises as “a guidebook for the inner journey in which we are all engaged”.In the Seventh Chapter, the author gives some exercises that will help us recognize the action of God in our lives and give him praise, thanks and glory for it. He suggests reviewing one’s consciousness and imaginative contemplation. At the end of the chapter, he presents some biblical texts which could be useful for imaginative contemplation.