What we think is the right road
My life is very busy and I don't have time for "spiritual reading." Even the Bible warns us that "there is no end to the writing of books, and too much study will wear you out" (Ecclesiastes 12:12).
But it's the wrong road
Some wag once said, "When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." Reading of itself thus guarantees neither success nor salvation, for we can abandon or ignore reading when it challenges us, or we can read worthless or trashy material. Reading widely and well offers, we realize, no certainty of personal character and courage. Being well versed in the classics – in what is called the "great books" – cannot ensure that readers will be wise and noble and kind. Great readers can be fools and knaves.
One may resolve to read the Bible from front to back and then back to front; one may read all the books recommended in Father John McCloskey's "Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan"; or tackle the list offered to priests and seminarians by Father Gary Coulter; or consult Bill Bennett's shorter list of "Books Everyone Should Read" – and still, after all that, remain a dolt.
One philosopher who used to teach at Notre Dame pointed out that many students in personal crisis (a death in the family, a shattered romance, etc.) turned for guidance to the janitor in the academic building housing the philosophy department. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: "The Holy Spirit can use the humblest to enlighten the learned and those in the highest positions" (2038).
Wisdom is the ability to discern the timeless in the temporal and the changeless amid change. I think that remarkable quality – wisdom – is invariably accompanied by humility, which was a characteristic of the truly wise janitor at Notre Dame, and humility may not be a quality of academically accomplished people.
Sometimes the "sage on the stage" is, in fact, a person whose knowledge and discernment we should prize. Other times, those who speak and write (gently clearing my throat as I type these words!) can and should be safely ignored. That is true of all authors, teachers, coaches and homilists.
Consider that the lessons taught by Our Lord were, in fact, widely ignored. The arguments advanced by many demagogues, however, have often been embraced over the centuries. How do we ensure that we listen to God's Word and reject what is contrary to the Gospel?
The answer is simple: Find the right advisors; listen to the best lectures; read the right books; examine yourself in the light of what is good and true and beautiful (Ps 1:1, Prv 12:15).
But we know we are inclined to sin (CCC 407, 408, 409 and 418). Sometimes, we can't see the moral forest for the trees – and sometimes we don't want to. It is exactly here that good reading can help us, if we let it. Reading widely and well must be complemented by reading wisely, meaning that there are morally healthful books, for all ages, that may help us to see things, and to think thoughts, and to examine our actions in the light of virtue (defined by the Catechism as "a habitual and firm disposition to do the good" which we develop by our own effort "aided by God's grace.")
A vicious refusal to grow in virtue cannot be overcome by good plays and poems. God has given us a yearning, though, for what is right, and good reading nourishes that desire. Reading about faith, responsibility, friendship, courage, industry and compassion – especially accompanied by earnest discussion under the direction of serious and seasoned mentors – helps us to be worthy of our Christian calling (refer to Eph 4:1, Phil 1:27).
All that said, I can't agree with the idea that we do not have time for spiritual reading. All of us tend to make time for the things that are important to us. There are, to be sure, many pressures on today's families, but is there no way to obtain even 20 minutes a day for the kind of reading which helps us distinguish right from wrong and good from evil? More than 20 years ago, "The Book of Virtues" was published; it contained great moral stories, many of them short and many of them seminal, meaning influential and able to stimulate thought about what we should do and what we should aspire to.
I understand "spiritual reading" in a broad sense. Three men, for example, have inspired me over the years, although I have too often let them down: Atticus Finch ("To Kill a Mockingbird"), Philip Rhayader ("The Snow Goose"), and Frank Skeffington ("The Last Hurrah"). These fictional men are certainly not Jesus, Aristotle, St. Paul or G.K. Chesterton – but they are, and have been, important to me in many ways over the years. These characters are not my parents or my best teachers and priests; they share my mental "stage" with many others, including certain sports figures and even some movie heroes, but I repeatedly come back to Atticus, Philip and Frank.
If good reading is no insurance against failure (and it isn't), good reading – spiritual reading – always offers us at least the golden opportunity to nourish our moral lives. As Father Bede Jarrett once put it: "I cannot hope to keep my soul alive unless I continually give it the food that it needs": a comment he makes in an essay entitled "Make Time for Spiritual Reading." St. Augustine heard the words "Tolle lege!" ("Take up and read!"), inspiring his subsequent conversion. "Tolle lege!" is good advice for us, too.
Deacon James H. Toner is currently associated at Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro.