A New Look at Gospel Stories

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It’s hard sometimes for me to pay attention to the Gospel readings. Over and over again I’ve heard about the birth of Jesus, about John the Baptist, about the paralytic man at the Pool of Bethesda. I’ve also heard and read hours and hours of learned discourse dissecting every aspect of each of the stories, so much so that I wonder what more can be said about any of them.

But then I remember that each of these stories is eternally made new as people reflect their own thoughts about them.

Joseph Nesi has done just that in his book Know Greater Love, recently published by Convent Books. The book is a collection of 20 stories, all well-known to readers of the Gospels, but often told from a different perspective. For example, we hear from the elder brother of the prodigal son, and also from a Roman soldier who accompanies Jesus on the Via Dolorosa. Nesi gives these characters names that aren’t found in the Bible but which often have meaning significant to the story: he dubs the penitent thief “Achar,” which means “one who is troubled,” as is explained on a page at the beginning of the book.

Like the stories in the Gospel, each of Nesi’s is short – a couple pages at most – and deceptively easy reading, but they give food for reflection that might not come simply by reading the Bible. For instance, Nesi’s story about the boy who provides the bread that then was multiplied explores the meaning of the saying “When you cast your bread on the water, it comes back to you a hundredfold” – something I’d never given much thought to.

My reaction to the stories may be exactly what the author had in mind.

“I’m just showing a different light to these wonderful people in our Scriptures that have maybe have been forgotten, or not named,” he told me.  

Nesi attended Kearns-St. Ann Catholic School and Judge Memorial Catholic High School. “Know Greater Love” is his first published work; he wrote some of the stories for his children and grandchildren. Others came about as friends asked him questions and he researched the answers, Nesi said.

“I want my children and my grandchildren to enjoy the same religion that I enjoy – the riches of being a Catholic,” he said.

Part of that richness is putting his faith in action. Nesi volunteers at the veterans’ hospital in Salt Lake City, and is an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion at St. Olaf Parish in Bountiful, where he also is the Grand Knight of the parish’s Knights of Columbus Council. A professional chef, he does the cooking for Knights activities such as their Lenten fish frys and their annual steak fry. In addition, he volunteers to cook for a Christian men’s retreat house in Logan, and also cooks for widows.

Nesi began creative writing at Judge, where it was part of the curriculum, he said. The stories in Know Greater Love took him more than four years to write, and now he’s considering a sequel.

“It’s not over yet,” he said. “I hear new things from new people.”

His inspiration sometimes comes from friends who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who “always ask for kind of the Catholic slant on things,” he said. “They’ll read something and say, ‘Well, how do you see this?’”

Know Greater Love is available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

Marie Mischel is editor of the Intermountain Catholic. Reach her at marie@icatholic.org.