A Hermit Without a Permit

Eddie Doherty teaches us how to see God amidst the smiles and tears, picnics and deserts of our own life because he saw Him there.

Father Eddie achieved such a blending of profound truth and lightness of heart. He trusted completely his humanity as a way to God. This does not sound like a new idea. But it’s a truth which tends to get more and more obscure as one gets “serious” about life with God. Father Eddie was serious about his life with God. At the same time, no one was more insistent that everything that God made was very good, and that we could come to God in and through all the gifts of creation. Whether it was humor, food, the beauties of nature, good times with his friends, he never thought of going beyond them to God but somehow through them. It was his special grace to be able to do this in a marvelously wholesome way.

We are used to heavy and profound truths about man’s life with God appearing in heavy and profound books. The world has many such books. They are among the great treasures of mankind. They nourish our minds and hearts way down deep. But Father Eddie’s insights are so well integrated into his view of life that they sneak up on you while he is talking about food or people or rock hunting in Arizona. Be careful you don’t miss them as we often miss the inspirations of God which are woven into our daily humanness.

What shall the conversation of heaven be like? Heavy, ponderous, a deep spiritual truth in every sentence? Or will it be light—certainly suffused with truth and beauty—but playful, humorous even? Father Eddie’s way of relating to Jesus and Mary and the saints may just possibly be the most natural way of all—the way everybody’s doing it now in heaven.