May I Recommend A Good Book?

Second to discovering an excellent restaurant in a foreign city, it must be reading a book that will forever leave its mark. A book so great that you feel the need to share it with as many people as possible. I have a book for you, and it might not be the typical read you might engage in – but trust me, it will speak to your soul and give you a hope that few books can give.

The book I would like to share with you is called Come Forth – The Raising of Lazarus and the Promise of Jesus’s Greatest Miracle, by Fr. James Martin. Now, I know I usually recommend gritty fiction, but this is one book you should read – and with it being Lent, maybe it’s good to engage in some spiritual reading.

Most of us know the story of Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead after four days buried in a tomb. But, until I read this book Lazarus was no more than a distant character who, despite the remarkable events that happened to him, was simply unremarkable and the subject of yet ‘another miracle’ that Jesus performed during his life. Yet, through this book, which is the best sermon you will ever read, Fr. James explores this topic at a much deeper level than most writers have done before, bringing you the reader into the very heart of what happened on that day when the stone was rolled away from the tomb and a dead man came forth.

 Using modern biblical scholarship (trust me - you don’t need a degree in theology to read it), historical evidence and documented testimonies from the early church, Fr. James sets out the evidence that Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha, had to be real people and the event of his resurrection was well known throughout Jerusalem and by the members of the early church, and that they knew Lazarus before and after he was resurrected from the dead. Perhaps the greatest gift that Fr. James brings through the book is that he takes you into the carved earth of that tomb (which you can still visit to this day) and brings to life what that encounter with Jesus must have been like.

His use of art and cinematic imagery, to depict events within the story, had me Googling and YouTubing to study them in more detail as his book revealed the raising of Lazarus in a whole new light with great humour and spellbinding personal testimony and evidence.

In recent years the popularity of self-help books has been on the decline as people realise that they bring little fulfilment to lives of noise and sometimes chaos. Yet, I find that in books like this and in reflecting upon them, we can arrive at a position where we feel the inward change for the better, and a renewal that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

 You need to be no Holy Joe to pick up this book – simply just a seeker and a questioner. I have no doubt that if you decide to read this book then you will approach Easter in a whole new light and the hope of life after death will bring with it new promise.

This book has left me with a burning question and a burning hope. The question is this – What in my life would I like to die and leave behind? And the hope… well it is this. When I take my last breath in this world, I hope to hear three words - ‘Damian, Come Forth!’

 Rev. James Martin, SJ, is a Jesuit priest, editor at large of America magazine, consultor to the Vatican's Secretariat for Communications, and author of numerous books, including the New York Times bestsellers "Jesus: A Pilgrimage" and "The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything." Among his other books, "My Life with the Saints" and "Between Heaven and Mirth" were named by Publishers Weekly as "Best Books" of the year, and three of his books have received Christopher Awards. Father Martin is a frequent commentator in the national and international media, having appeared on all the major networks, and in such diverse outlets as The Colbert Report, Fresh Air, On Being, Fox & Friends, PBS's NewsHour, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe, as well as on the History Channel, BBC, and Vatican Radio. Before entering the Jesuits in 1988, he graduated from the Wharton School of Business. (Amazon Author Profile.)