Eat, Pray, Love. The title of that bestselling book helps me think about the readings for this week. It may seem like a stretch, but bear with me for a minute.

As the full title of the book explains, Eat, Pray, Love is the story of writer Liz Gilbert’s “search for everything in Italy, India, and Indonesia.” I think the readings this week tell the story of an entire faith community’s “search for everything” in God.

Eat. Liz Gilbert travels to Italy to focus on the joys and pleasures in life. Her descriptions are great, but beyond gelato, what really is at stake? Contrast this to the trip we take with 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14. A woman and her seven sons are faced with a choice: eat pork in violation of their beliefs—or die. One by one, they choose to die. In their resistance, they affirm their belief in God and in resurrection. It is not a happy story, but it is a compelling one that asks, “What do we believe?”

Pray. The first time Liz Gilbert tries to speak to God, she says, “It was all I could do to stop myself from saying, ‘I’ve always been a big fan of your work.’ ” I like the line, but St. Paul is more eloquent—and more generous—as he prays for us: “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father . . . encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.” What good can we do in deed and word?

Love. Gilbert’s book concludes that happiness “is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.” In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t get caught up in earthly riddles. Instead he reminds us that our God is “not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him, all are alive.” Now that’s a happy ending! It is, however, also a challenge to think in terms beyond the personal.

In Eat, Pray, Love, Gilbert’s subject is herself—and that’s what limits her journey for me. Instead of stories that focus on individual answers, I think I’ll look for stories that focus on the self in service of others, stories that ask “What do we believe? What good can we do in deed and word?”

Laura Brady is a professor in the English department at WVU and a member of St. John’s.


Watch:
Entertaining Angels

Questions of the Week:
What do we believe? What good can we do in deed and word?