Fifteen Faces of God : A Quest to Know God Through the Parables of Jesus

by MANNING, MICHAEL FATHER

• ISBN13: 9780385531610
• ISBN10: 0385531613
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-03-16
• Publisher: Doubleday Religion

Summary

With a writing style reminiscent of Henri Nouwen, television host Father Manning takes the reader on an exploration of 15 of Jesus' parables and along the way shows the multifaceted nature of God.

Author Biography

MICHAEL MANNING is a Catholic priest who has served as high school teacher, vocation director, provincial, prison chaplain, and pastor. He is a popular speaker at parish missions, conventions, and international retreats and is the founder and president of Wordnet Productions. His program, The Word in the World, is seen weekly on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Table of Contents

Author's Note	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Searching	p. 15
Humble	p. 24
Listening	p. 33
Giving	p. 45
Celebrating	p. 52
Loving	p. 61
Poor	p. 75
Forgiving	p. 90
Authentic	p. 106
Generous	p. 118
Risking	p. 127
Proud	p. 138
Patient	p. 149
Trusting	p. 163
Optimistic	p. 174
Conclusion	p. 187
Parables	p. 189
Acknowledgments	p. 191
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Chapter One:
Searching
    
Matthew 18:12-14  
"What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine thatdid not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost."    

God Seeks and We Resist  
This parable surprises me. How many of us have spent most of our lives seeking God? I have. I'm sure many of you have too in one way or another. But what do we see here? We have God seeking us with abandon! To our human eyes and ears, this shepherd seemsto do a foolish thing. He has a hundred sheep. When one of them is missing, he leaves the ninety-nine and goes in search of the lost one. And what does he do when he finds it? He puts it on his shoulders, and, rejoicing, he brings the sheep home.  

Strange? Disarming? What would happen if we stopped the intensity of our searching every once in a while and looked over our shoulder? What would we see? Would we be surprised to see God searching for us with more intensity than we could ever muster inour search for him? Ah, but how many of us truly want God to find us?   God is in constant pursuit of our hearts, but we are afraid of God finding us. At times, we feel his breath on our necks, and even though we know we can't escape, we still flee. As Saint Ignatius has said, God is everywhere and if we listen closely wecan hear his call the way that lost sheep must have heard the call of his shepherd. God is in all things, in nature, in paintings, in motion pictures. He's also in people. Not just those whom we know in our lives--our family, our friends, the people we workwith in the office--but in the strangers we read about in newspaper accounts when we're eating our breakfast. He's also present in the CNN Headline News we catch in the evening. He's in the eyes of billions of people around the world.  

Why are many of us reluctant to be found, to be known and loved by this pervasive and searching God? Maybe we don't want to lose our freedom to God, the "tremendous lover." Maybe we think God will be angry at us for having left the flock. Maybe it's amatter of being afraid of responsibilities. Another reason for our wanting to flee God may be feelings of unworthiness. How many of us spend countless hours trying to impress people with our virtue without realizing that our so-called acts of niceness are waysof covering up the reality of our brokenness, our failures, our weakness? We don't want to surrender to God because we're afraid of being exposed for who we are. We build a castle around our inner, sinful, vulnerable self. We make a fort of walls and turrets.Our moats, arrows, and hot oil are ready for anyone who wants to get inside! At the center of the castle is a specially fortified room to which we will not grant access--not even to a most trusted lover. We're even reluctant to give access to God.  

Some or all of these things may be true for us, but there is a depth of love that God the Father is hungering for us to enter into. A love that transcends the frailties of human love. In order to jump in, we need to surrender our fears. God is always seekingus, and we must turn and let him embrace us. We must acknowledge his love. Only when we stop, admit that the Father loves us, and then accept his love will we ever be free from the plight of having to prove our worthiness. Only when we turn and acknowledgeour pursuer will we know God. Only then will we truly know ourselves.    
Francis Thompson  
The poet Francis Thompson (1859-1907) focused on this aspect of God the searcher in his poem "The Hound of Heaven." Thompson aspired to be a priest,

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Excerpted from The Fifteen Faces of God: A Quest to Know God Through the Parables of Jesus by Michael Manning
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