Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the Father loves also the one begotten by him. In this way we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. (1 John 4:19-5:4)
Is it fair to say that few of us love God, according to John’s criteria? How many of us love brothers or sisters who we haven’t seen, such as those in Central America or in Africa? It may be unfair to have to love those we don’t know and haven’t seen. Love has special meaning for us, but for Jesus – for God – love is all encompassing.
Speaking of love and God’s love, I provide below what has been written about Father Andrew Greeley by his friend Michael Leach in May 2013 – a little less than 10 years ago [Note: Michael Leach, formerly president of the Crossroad/Continuum Publishing Corporation and publisher of Orbis Books, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Catholic Book Publishers Association in 2007.]
(begin) On Nov. 7, 2008, on a windy day in Rosemont, Ill., Fr. Andrew Greeley, wearing a Barack Obama baseball cap and a light raincoat, stepped out of a cab. His raincoat caught in the door, the cab pulled away, and Greeley fell to the ground, smashing his head. He suffered a fractured skull, and his brain would not stop bleeding. He was no longer able to write the novels that used to write him, initiate the witty repartee that delighted friends and confounded foes, or look at you with twinkly blue eyes that showed complete interest in what you were saying. Those eyes closed for good on May 30, 2013.
Andy's books, his seminal articles, his work as a sociologist of religion, and his constructive criticism of the church made him a popular guest on talk shows. I remember when he was the sole guest on "The Phil Donahue Show." A woman in the audience asked him, "If you're so critical of the church, why don't you just leave?" He famously said, "I like being Catholic!" I asked him to write a book called I Like Being Catholic. He wanted to but was too busy. I asked again the next year. He said wait. I asked again in a year. Andy said, "Look, you should write it." So I did. It was the most successful book I ever did.
In the 1970s, Greeley the author entered a new orbit. It was as if the big black obelisk from "2001: A Space Odyssey" appeared in his study and turned him into a new creation. He called and said, "Mike, I'm going to write novels now. I can reach more people that way. I want to tell stories of God's love. I know Seabury doesn't do fiction, but I was thinking you might help me on your own time and be my editor. I make a good salary from the University of Chicago and will pay you what you need. What do you say?"
I said, "Send me whatever you've got and I will edit it for free. I'm writing my own book at night so just give me time." He sent me two manuscripts: a literary novel called Death in April and a science fiction novel whose name I forget but the hero manned a spaceship called "The Mayor Daley" and I liked that. I left the first novel to the side and had fun with the second. The science fiction novel didn't get published. McGraw-Hill published Death in April, but few people read it. Andy honed his skills on his own and found an agent. His next novel was The Cardinal Sins, read by millions of people around the world. A popular Catholic novelist was born.
Andy received criticism because his novels had mild sex scenes and some people couldn't tolerate that a priest might know and write about such things. To him, sex was a sacramental sign of God's incredible love for us. Everything was a sacrament to him! He could see a movie and find five Christ figures in it, even if the movie was "Gidget Goes to Rome." He was totally sincere about seeing God's love "lurking around corners." And he not only knew that "the chosen part" of sex between spouses was unselfish love but that unselfish love made for the best sex. A man doesn't have to have sex to know that this is so, or to celebrate it. Andy loved celebrating the good stuff.
Most of all he loved writing novels. "The storyteller is like God," he said. "The storyteller creates these characters. Falls in love with them, and then they won't act right." One of his lasting contributions is to show us that God is a Storyteller who writes straight the crooked lines of our lives, and that Catholicism is all about the stories. He observed, "Religion has been passed down through the years by stories people tell around the campfire. Stories about God, stories about love. Practically speaking, your religion is the story you tell about your life."
His family and friends knew that while Andy could show a dark side like everyone else, he was one of the kindest and most generous men you could ever know. Some priests knocked him because he earned lots of money and lived well. But they never praised him when he gave a million dollars to St. Mary of the Lake Seminary or to the University of Chicago, or he tried to give a million dollars to the archdiocese to support inner-city schools rather than close them and Cardinal Joseph Bernardin refused his gift. Greeley would establish a private fund for the schools, and later endowed a scholarship fund. I know one reason he kept on writing novels even when sales inevitably began to slip was not to live well but to keep on supporting others. (end)
Father Greeley lives on in his books and writings. One of my favorite books is “The Book of Love: A Treasury Inspired by the Greatest of Virtues” written and complied with Mary Durkin, his sister (2002)
Deacon David Pierce
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