Into the Fire

If you haven’t read a novel by Claudia Mair Burney, you need to do so. Not: you should or you ought to. You need to. This woman can write. Her voice stands out in a crowd. Unique. Real. Quaint. Strong. Wicked. Good.

“Stigmata” is a term which is most familiar to Catholics in reference to the supernatural appearance of the crucifixion wounds of Christ appearing on humans. One would assume a novel written around this topic might be filled with monks and nuns and monasteries, taking place in ancient Italy. Not in present day Michigan at a Vineyard Church.

Regina (Gina) Dolores Merritt, whose name means “Queen of sorrows”, is a single mother of a five year old named Zoe who attends the Vineyard church whenever her fibromyalgia and chronic pain disorder allows. On Ash Wednesday after Pastor Mike pats some ashes on her head in the sign of the cross, she treks up to the balcony to get lost in Jesus. Behind her in line, Anthony Priest, once a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, now heroin junkie extraordinaire, receives his ash cross and for some unknown reason follows Gina up to the balcony in his drug zone. While there, she screams and begins to bleed from one of her palms. In horrific amazement he kneels before her and takes her hand, desperate to help her, knowing he can’t even help himself. The blood touches him, he smells a beautiful rose fragrance, and she runs off to the ladies’ room. He is no longer stoned.

A technique I described yesterday for POV shifts in chapter divisions is used to chronicle the thoughts behind the actions of the characters in this novel. Gina is an ordinary young single mother with “issues”, as Mair likes to put it, a woman who pictures herself as loving the Lord but not in a particularly worthy manner. Anthony Priest has become a shell of a young man with unlimited talent for telling a story but who now indulges in chronic drug use to overshadow the pain of the utter hatred and outright rejection shown to him by his mother, Veronica, or Ronnie as she is sometimes called. Veronica personifies the hypocrisy of the embittered, self-gratifying, self-pitying individual who fancies herself a Christian but is devoid of love or kindness or any sort of forgiveness because of her intense bitterness caused by a tragic event in her young life. As Mair’s books often do, she exposes all kinds of character flaws and makes us cringe in the process as her words hold up a mirror to our souls.

As if the events surrounding the stigmata occurrences aren’t surprising enough, the miraculous healings of wounded spirits while exposing the unbelief of Christian people in supernatural situations points to the calloused views we often form of our faith. Heaven forbid something unusual happens in the church!

Wounded . . . a love story hits a homerun so far out of the park, I can’t even process the distance. There are so many valid subjects addressed in the novel about the inner workings of faith, the supernatural choices of an unlimited God, the righteous love which yearns to be cultivated in us through our Savior, and the arduous battles with which we wrestle against the enemy of our souls. Not to mention the validity of true suffering. All of that with genuine humor mixed in like a rich but light salad dressing.

I think it’s important to note that the supernatural aspects of this novel extend beyond its pages. In the “after words” section at the end of the book, if you’re like me, you skip the discussion questions, but don’t skip Mair’s conversation with friends at the very end. God is so wonderfully outside our little boxes.

Claudia Mair Burney will tell you she’s been just about every denomination known to man in her lifetime thus far. I am not Catholic because I have a problem with some of their doctrine, but if an individual loves Jesus and believes in his death and resurrection as the only way to heaven, then we can all laugh together in heaven about our doctrinal divisions on earth. This novel merges denominational differences effectively and proclaims the beauty and sovereignty of God in His fullness.

Fascinating novel. Well worth the cramming I had to do to get this review posted for today!

Father, you know Mair in all her joys and distresses. You know her suffering and her pain. You know how to get her under her skin. You know how to sustain her. I ask for your perfect will to be accomplished in her body and her life and her writing. What a talent you’ve given her. Encourage her this day with your presence and divine touch. In the Name of Jesus, and by His Blood and Authority and through His Spirit, Amen.