Touched by Grace

Grace. A gift. Unexpected. Unrequested. A source of wonder and awe and hope and forgiveness and love.

That's how I felt as, through teary eyes I read the last few pages of Mary Doria Russell's magnificent book Children of God, the concluding book of her two-part series that begins with The Sparrow. The two books, which will forever be a single story in my mind, are among the top books I have ever read. They ring with the power of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy or A Tale of Two Cities as life changing books in my life's canon. Remarkable story-telling; characters to fall in love with; a world unlike any you have ever seen but as real and as filled with drama as the one we inhabit. That is because throughout the books Russell is dealing with the big issues of life and God and theology, set in a future on a different world but filled with you and me and those we know around us.

At the center is Emilio Sandoz, Jesuit priest; possible saint(?); God-fearing, God-hating, God-searching everyman. In this second book he is heading back to the distant world that he explored in the first book. Between pain and hope, love and sorrow, is it possible for a miracle to occur? Is it possible that God can have something to do with all creation? Is cosmic love a possibility?

To my relief Russell does not pull a miracle out of a hat in a "deus ex machina" ending. She does not fall into any more sentimentality than you would expect in a story about love LOVE. My tears were from the fact that the story was coming to an end and I had fallen in love with Sandoz and Candotti, the Jana'ata and the Runa, Nico and all those who were now long gone. It is therefore a story about mortality and God and hope.

Sandoz refers to the "necropolis" of his heart, the City of the Dead where all those who have gone from his life are "living." It is from there that grace flows, not from Sandoz but from God having touched Sandoz and us with the unnameable, indescribable, transcendence that we so glibly call "God." As one who is aging and therefore whose own necropolis of the heart fills more each year, there is a power in that which redeems and sanctifies.

Grace.

This is actually the 4th post on this series (#1, #2, #3) with a 5th one coming next week.