(Image of Chartres Cathedral)

The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality by Ronald Rolheiser. Doubleday. 257 pages.

Score: 90 out of 100.

(I updated this post Jan. 3, 2023).

A few years after it came out, in 1999, I read The Holy Longing by Ronald Rolheiser, a priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The book’s insights have stuck with me years, and in this Christmas time season, I recommended it to an old high school friend.

Only now, though, do I see the book shared similarities with the era’s most popular spiritual self-help books, such as James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy (1993), Deepak Chopra’s The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success (1994), and Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie (1997).

How “The Holy Longing” is Similar to “Tuesdays with Morrie” 

One similarity is each book attempted to distill spirituality into principles, laws, lessons, or, in the case of Father Rolheiser’s book, “nonnegotiable demands.” Imagine The Ten Commandments as the centerpiece of the Old Testament or think of the sign with the phrase “Live. Laugh. Love.” that you see in middle- and upper-middle-class houses sometimes, and you get a sense of each book’s essence.

Another similarity is each book de-emphasized or in some cases ignored human flaws or sin. To be sure, The Holy Longing urges readers to confess their sins, and one memorable passage draws parallels between the spiritual benefits of going to confession with those of the characters in the 1989 film “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” for discussing their foibles to the camera. Yet no serious or fair-minded reader would confuse the four books with works by mid-twentieth century Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr or even a secular novelist like Joseph Conrad, each of whom emphasized either human tragedy or weakness.

Yet another similarity is each book became popular. The Celestine Prophecy sold 23 million copies, while Tuesdays with Morrie has sold nearly 18 million. To put those numbers in perspective, even pop music albums from the 1990s that we think of being cultural touchstones did not sell as well or were on par with them:

• U2’s “Achtung Baby” (18 million)

• REM’s “Automatic for the People” (18 million)

• MC Hammer’s “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em” (18 million)

• Pearl Jam’s “Ten” (15.7 million)

(The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success sold 2.3 million copies).

Sales of The Holy Longing were the best of Father Rolheiser’s career, 200,000, and the book is well known in literate Catholic and evangelical circles. Plus, it is tempting to conclude that Father Rolheiser and his editor had “Prophecy,” “Morrie,” and “Seven Spiritual Laws” in mind while working on what became the book:

 … Eric Major, then the Religious Editor at Hodder & Stoughton, asked me to write a book on spirituality. Having taught courses in spirituality for a number of years, I seized on the idea with enthusiasm, immediately imagining how a wide survey of contemporary spirituality might translate into a book. But Eric Major had a different idea. “What I want is for you to write a book that I can give to my grown children which explains to them why I still believe in God and why I still go to church – and that I can read myself on days when I am not so sure why I still believe and why I still go to church.” The Holy Longing resulted from that conversation. And Eric Major’s instinct proved correct; there was a crying niche for just that kind of book.

Yet the book’s sales are dwarfed by the three more popular works.

This is a pity. The Holy Longing is better, much better, than those books.

Three Reasons “The Holy Longing” Excels

The Holy Longing’s intellectual framework is simpler. The Celestine Prophecy described nine spiritual insights. Mr. Chopra’s book elaborated on seven, and Tuesdays with Morrie presented multiple topics and life lessons. The Holy Longing is based on four principals:

For another thing, The Holy Longing is more practical. Among the nine insights in Mr. Redfield’s book are “there is a subtle energy in all things” and “create heaven on earth,” while Mr. Albom notes that “life is a series of pulls back and forth.” Each of the three spiritual books has roots in gnosticism or what a follower knows.

For a yet another thing, Holy Longing is oriented towards what a follower does, how he or she behaves. Its nonnegotiable demands are based on Christ’s exhortation in the Sermon on the Mount to pray, fast, and give alms.

Expanding on the three requirements, Father Rolheiser urges readers to pursue and cultivate:

• Private prayer and private morality                                                                                            

• Social justice                                                                                                                                          

• Mellowness of heart                                                                                                                           

• Community as a constitutive element of true worship

You may think living by the pillars is easy. To its credit, The Holy Longing shows this is not so.

A conservative might be faithful to his wife and have a flourishing family life but neglect the children who go to bed hungry at night and indulge in self-righteousness. A progressive might take part in social protests and help the homeless, but sleep around and neglect going to church.

Challenges to Believers and Seekers Alike

As the passage shows, The Holy Longing is not an ideological book. It challenges Christians and spiritual seekers to adhere to the Gospel. To be sure, Father Rolheiser might best be described as a pro-life liberal or moderate, but only those who put political ideology ahead of their religious faith would shun his book.

Take the book’s call for social justice.

Father Rolheiser notes Jesus discussed the poor constantly and said his believers would be judged on their treatment of the least among them (Matthew 25). Further, he notes all Christian churches have practiced a preferential option for the poor in their hospitals, orphanages, schools, and soup kitchens:

As Jesus himself makes clear, there can be no real relationship with him when the poor are neglected and injustice abounds. When we make spiritually a privatized thing, cut off from the poor and the demands for justice that are found there, it soon degenerates into mere private therapy, an art form, or worse still, an unhealthy clique.

While you may have heard the following analogy, I was struck by the one Father Rolheiser used to distinguish between charity and social justice: charity is helping the people who float down a dangerous river hurt, in danger, or dead, while social justice is going to the mouth of the river to see why the people are floating down it.

The Holy Longing urges people to go to church is a challenge, too (as incredible as that might sound for the more orthodox among us).

Forty- or 50 years ago, few Americans said they were “spiritual but not religious.” Now the phrase is common. Indeed, an increasing number of Americans say they are “nones,” which means they belong to no religious denomination or affiliation. (The trend has abated in the last six years, though). Father Rolheiser argues avoiding church is a mark not of spiritual sophistication but escapism and solipsism:

 Christians are to love not just God but neighbor too. And where do we find our neighbors but at church? They confront us with our own weaknesses and sins, even though we may think they are weird. We can’t retreat to private fantasy. We must get involved not only in the grace of church life but also its muck.

… The search for God is not a private search for what is highest for oneself or for what is ultimate for oneself … It is a communal search for the face of God … And God is in heaven and on earth.

Such insights stuck with me long after I read The Holy Longing, even though too often I failed to abide by them. Plus, the book is written in plain, clear prose. During this Christmas time season, I say many readers can benefit enormously.

What did everybody else think?

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