Review of Christ The Lord The Road to Cana by Anne Rice.

I finished Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana just before my vacation. It was one of those books that was at first hard to get into and then hard to put down. Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana was also the kind of book that you need to let sink in or do some pondering over to fully appreciate.

Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana begins with Jesus still laboring away as a lowly carpenter, not knowing exactly what God's plan for him is. He struggles with very human feelings and for me, it was hard to try to put that into perspective. As a Catholic, I believe that he was conceived of the Virgin Mary and was born man. Somehow in my mind's eye, I viewed his upbringing a bit more divine, perhaps? I literally interpreted that phrase as meaning that he was born looking human like the rest of us, yet somehow different in that he was somehow absolutely perfect in everything he did and that he always knew God's plan for him.

With Anne Rice's imaginings, I began to see Jesus more as a true human and see him struggle with human feelings of love and love lost, not to mention human urges. This is what I meant in a previous post about having a hard time reconciling the book with my faith. Jesus to me is on a pedestal. He was never, forgive me Father, a horny guy. At first, this disgusted me. But I was able to work through those feelings because why wouldn't Jesus feel what we feel? Why wouldn't a normal man of 33 years have biological urges? Or worse, be accused of being homosexual because he had not married at such a late age?

It was like I was seeing things in a different light. In picturing him loving and losing and lusting (not in that particular order), I began to feel that Jesus was like me, a human. I think this was the point of the whole book. I don't think I am the only one who viewed Jesus as a completely perfect person who never had a lustful thought cross his mind. I always thought of him as having a one track mind--- all about God, 24/7; that from the moment he was conceived, he was completely holy and could do nothing wrong. Kind of like the kid in the class who always knew the answer to every question and never got into trouble in class.

All in all, I think this book is worth the read. While I had a hard time with the first half of the book, I did come to enjoy reading it and attempt to picture the plot in my mind. Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana held my attention and provoked thought while reading. I think you will enjoy it too.