Peter Costello
Emerging from the Mess, by Brendan McManus SJ and Jim Deeds
(Messenger Publications, €12.95 / £11.95)
The cover of this third book in the series begun with Finding God in the Mess and continued with Deeper into the Mess, brought to mind (for me at least) the words of St John Henry Neman’s poem (only later a hymn), written while he was a week becalmed in the straits of Bonifacio off Sicily, in 1833, anxious to return quickly to England where he had work to do.
Emerging from the Mess is not so much a companion as a continuation of those earlier best-selling titles by the same authors . One is a spiritual director in Belfast, the other a poet. They have given thought not just to their ideas, but also as to how they might be best expressed for ordinary readers, rather than the well trained and well informed, for indeed the sort of people who feel the need for real help and are often denied it.
No one needs to have explained to them what the “mess” is. We are all, merely from being human, in our different ways, aware of it. The authors evoke those “darkest hours of the night” which have troubled all of us from time to time.
Those fears which are often irrational and silly, yet often all too real and unbearable, that the kindly light of day does much to disperse. But Newman and the authors have in mind the lighthouse of faith, that warns of the unseen rocks on which minds and lives are all too often wrecked.
“Our world,” they write,” is not just one of uncertainty, drought, war, and death but also a place of growth and purification. We need to be open to learn about humility, compassion, and grace. Christ reveals our destiny – to be with the Light, breaking open the clouds of isolation.”
Those who are already familiar with the earlier books will need no urging to acquire this one. Those who are new to the series will quickly realise how sustaining the authors are, and how much they need to read the earlier book.
Caught in a dangerous place Newman prayed to Christ, and the authors follow this line. Relieved at last as the wind came on, he felt that sense of gratitude which Newman expounded to his readers in all his work. There are many who find themselves now becalmed to whom the sail-filling breath of the Holy Spirit will come as the greatest possible relief.