One on One with Scott Hahn, Part 1

As a busy man and one who generally spends as little time as he possibly can on social media sites, I am breaking from the norm and doing my first blog post, as Athena promised not far back. I had the distinct pleasure two weekends ago to spend about four and a half hours driving Scott Hahn back and forth from the airport. Athena’s mom, who is a pro at organizing Catholic conferences, had called Scott Hahn’s house about 6 months ago and was able to get him to come to little Sandpoint, Idaho, to give a 3hr talk. She knew how much of a fan I was of his work, and of our mutual connection with Opus Dei, and so she was generous enough to fly our family up to Sandpoint for the weekend, and offered me the opportunity to be Scott Hahn’s driver. Are you kidding me!!?? Of course I would.

Scott Hahn was an extremely nice and personable person. When I told him that it was going to be around a 2hr drive to Sandpoint, he joked that I must have drawn the short straw and expressed his sympathies that I had to spend a large part of my day being his chauffeur. Looking at the bright side of things, he smiled, laughed, and joked that I was going to get some time off Purgatory for my generosity. I must have done a good job concealing my bursting excitement because far from being generous, I was fulfilling a dream.

He asked me about my spiritual journey, and so I told him my long tale of sin and conversion. The climax was reached when I spoke about the night 4-5yrs ago when God gave me a profound revelation while praying a Rosary with Athena. After receiving the revelation, I grabbed a randomly selected book out of my roommate’s (Andrew St. Hilaire) closet and went immediately to the chapel to pray. While on my knees in front of the Blessed Sacrament, the purpose of that revelation came to light as I learned that I was called to be in Opus Dei while reading that random book: Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace, by Scott Hahn.

Scott Hahn was so excited when he heard that story. He praised God for making His will known to me in such an extraordinary way, and at the same time was humbled that his book was instrumental in the process. I told him how I have been attending Opus Dei events in Phoenix for the last 3 years, and he asked me who the priest is that runs them. I said that it was Fr. Juan Valez, my spiritual director. It turns out that Scott Hahn has known Fr. Juan for years, even before he became a priest. Before I know it, Scott Hahn is excusing himself to make a phone call. The next thing I hear is: “Hi Fr. Juan! This is Scott Hahn. I am here with Cory Gaunt, and we were just talking about you and about his wonderful story of coming to know God’s will for him in Opus Dei. Let me put you on speaker phone.” It was unbelievable; I am still buzzing over it. Certainly a moment I will never forget.

On a separate note, Scott Hahn told me that his all time favorite theologian, by a long shot, is Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI). He had first started reading Joseph Ratzinger’s books (by random chance) while he was still protestant. Now you can find Joseph Ratzinger referenced in many of Scott Hahn’s books. He wrote the forward to Joseph Ratzinger’s book, Many Religions, One Covenant, and he even wrote a book about the Pope’s biblical theology, called Covenant and Communion. Scott Hahn met Joseph Ratzinger twice before his election as Pope, and once since. When Joseph Ratzinger was elected as Pope, Scott Hahn was sent a flurry of emails, texts, and phone calls congratulating him that his favorite theologian was now Pope. Lastly, it was Scott Hahn who years ago insisted that Fr. Fessio, head of Ignatius Press, publish more books by Joseph Ratzinger; Ignatius Press is now the official English publisher of Pope Benedict XVI’s writings.

In the next post I will cover more interesting things that I learned about him and various other subjects.