Book Review: Margaret Silf’s “Just Call Me López”

There’s an old chestnut of an icebreaker/conversation starter that goes something like this: What person, living or deceased, would you most like to spend some time with? (Go ahead, discuss…)

Margaret Silf’s “Just Call Me López: Getting to the Heart of Ignatius Loyola (Loyola Press, 144 pages) takes that question on a spiritual journey and allows us to come along for the ride, as long as we’re willing to suspend our disbelief in the impossibility of the premise of the book – the contemporary narrator’s months-long interactions with the 16^th century saint and founder of the Jesuits. Along the way, what we get is far more than a creative approach to Ignatius’ biography (his middle name was López) or an introduction to his famed spiritual exercises, although we get plenty of both. For those who know nothing or little of Ignatius’ life and approach to spirituality, this slim volume will serve as a fine introduction.

In this unlikely tale of a 16^th-century soldier-turned-saint and 21^st-century woman, we see what happens when one person opens herself to a real-life, real-time experience of the communion of saints. The two are as different as pen-and-ink and laptops are as writing instruments, but their conversations show us that life’s really important questions don’t change with the times and technology. And perhaps the most essential question we can ask as spiritual beings (what is God’s will and plan for my life?) is the question to which most of us continue to seek an answer. That introspective and prayerful approach to life is what lies at the heart of Ignatian spirituality.

In “Just Call Me López” we meet Ignatius at different stages of his life as he comes and goes, an itinerant time traveler and shifter, sharing coffee and the occasional beer with the narrator, Rachel, in her apartment. He first appears when she needs someone most, after she is struck by a hit-and-run driver. What we are privy to in their conversations over several months are the struggles they both face, he as he conceives of his exercises, gathers his companions around him, and forms the Society of Jesus, and she as she grapples with her own call to ministry and to a painfully deep rent in a relationship with a family member. As they share their stories, they are both transformed, as are we, if we allow what is being shared to sink in and go to work on us.

As we learn that López’ life was full of very human faults and imperfect behavior, we gain insight into our own weaknesses and the power of God’s grace working in our lives. Surely, we come to realize, if THIS GUY can learn to discern the meaning and movement of God in his life, we can do the same.

Silf, as some will know, is the author of a number of essential works on Ignatian spirituality, including the acclaimed “Inner Compass,” a practical and experience-based guide to greater self-knowledge and spiritual awareness through the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

There is much to be gained from “Just Call Me López,” which is written with humor, clarity and a clever understanding that in some places we readers are going to roll our eyes in disbelief, such as when Ignatius uses Rachel’s laptop for the first time and instantantly creates a database of his thousands of letters like he’s been doing it all his 16^th-cenury life. But, again, by then we’ve come to love the old guy and care deeply about him and his companions. So we don’t care. It’s part of the ruse we have bought into because we know the story is more important than the medium. (After all, I read this book as an electronic download!)

The real treasure of “Just Call Me López” remains partially hidden (but always in plain sight) throughout the book. For what we gain by reading this fable is what lies at the heart of Ignatian spirituality itself: If we pay attention to what’s going on in our own lives and hearts (even the most seemingly unbelievable moments), and if we heed the feelings and emotions that accompany these events, we come just that much closer to finding God. For God is in the details and the moments of our lives.