Always: October 19-25, 2008 issue of DCHerald

Literature Opens Us to God

by
Erwin Joey E. Cabilan

Last 4 October 2008, Saturday, Syd, Eppi, Manille, Ella, Ken, Kara and I gathered at the house
of Lupe for a simple get-together. A bottle of red wine and a set of European cheese (5 kinds!) were a
perfect combination to warm the cool evening. Lupe’s baked macaroni was fantastic! The cake, for
dessert, was just perfect for those who are diabetic and are conscious of their weight. Love songs and
lighted candles made the space so lovely.

Our group that evening was unique. Manille, Ella, Ken and Kara are in their 20’s. Syd, Eppi
and I are in our 30’s. Lupe, being the eldest, is in her 50’s. But, we never identified according to our
age. We never characterized ourselves as the past, the present and the future. We never branded
ourselves according to the schools where we earned our degrees. Well, there was a point that we
categorized ourselves according to our own zodiac signs but that was to raise a special point: that
despite of our difference still, we belong! But, those are just simply externals. What I find more
interesting was our conversation.

During our tete-a-tete, one of the topics that we discussed was the growing interest among the
people of today, especially the youth, in reading novels on suffering and healing, separation and
reunion, fantasy and reality, rejection and acceptance, dying and living, wanting and needing, the joy in
forgiving, the struggle to let go, to love and to be loved and the pain in loving. Mitch Albom’s Five
People Whom You’ll Meet in Heaven and Tuesdays with Morrie and Paolo Coelho’s The Alchemist,
Zahir, The Pilgrimage, The Witch in Portabello, Like a Flowing River, and etc. are two among the
many authors whose books are greatly appreciated by post-modern men and women.

I read Mitch Albom’s two novels and Paolo Coehlo’s The Witch in Portabello and Like a
Flowing River. I was moved by these books not because they made me cry but because they made me
get in touch with my own humanity. On the other hand, these books have deepened and widened my
relationship with God. I would say that their works are not only inspirational but spiritual in a special
sense. I think there are aspects that we, as catechists, have to consider why most people are into
seeking the sense of sacred in areas of the profane.

1. The Story as a strategy. Stories are powerful metaphors that move the human person to think, to
love and to act. They are not only inspired but are also inspiring. By reading meaningful stories, we
are being led not only to the mind and heart of the author but we journey into our very soul in which
our past is remembered, where we savor the present and have a glance of our future.

2. The Vocabulary is “person-friendly”. Stories can be effectively communicated if it is clearly

understood. Words make a sense if they are relevant to the readers. A down-to-earth novel,
particularly in its choice of words, makes the reader feel “at home” and not just a stranger in entering
into the world of the author.

3. The Content appeals to the readers. Reading the works of Albom and Coehlo does not only make
the reader feel at ease with what he/she is reading but the reader “owns” the story. Owning a story
makes us feel that we are in solidarity with one another. The author’s sorrows and joys, anxieties and
hopes, pains and gains and desolations and consolations are ours. In a special way, we are not
strangers to these life’s realities. We are there in the said story either as the protagonist or the
antagonist!

4. The Message is not only thought-provoking but life-giving. A story without a lesson to learn is
empty. These novels evoke in us not only our basic human desires but our personal and collective
ways on how we can grow as persons and make a better world with others. The message serves the
“icon”, a prototype for learning, for living and for loving. The message gives us the meaning.
Anything that is meaningful is an opening to God.
 As God reveals Himself, He is also hidden and unknown. He hides himself through our day to
day living. In these contemporary works of literature, we are challenged by God to seek Him in all
humility. In a certain novel, God clothes Himself by the garments of virtues as communicated by a
story. God veils Himself through the characters of a story. God uncovers Himself through the series of
events that the story unfolds before us. By being in touch with our own authentic humanity, we don’t
just have a glance of God for God is with us. God is a mystery. He communicates not only His
message but above all, Himself.