Seeking God with Saint John Henry Newman. Ryan J. Marr
God has guided the Church this far amid many ferocious storms, and we can trust that God will continue to guide her in the years to come. Our belief in the indefectibility of the Church — i.e., that the gates of hell will not prevail against her (see Mt 16:18) — does not rest on the greatness of our strength, or on the natural gifts of our bishops, but solely on the promises of God. It is God who preserves the Church, and thus, we should seek to have the kind of patience that Newman recommends whenever we find ourselves disturbed by the circumstances around us.
As for our own experience of the Church, today we are less likely to fret over such issues as papal infallibility or the political machinations that took place at Vatican I, but, for different reasons, it can still be difficult to live as a member of the Body of Christ. Alongside the challenge of intellectually making sense of the Faith, contemporary Catholics may struggle with the hypocrisy that we see in the Church or with the abuse perpetrated by some who were appointed to be our pastors. Regardless of which factors cause you to question your faith, Newman’s example can serve as a source of inspiration. Newman dealt with heavy-handed bishops, and at times he was troubled by the narrow-mindedness that he perceived on the part of certain outspoken Catholics.25 But he never contemplated leaving the Church. Besides his sense that God was ultimately in control, Newman was also convinced that Christianity was inherently a social religion. In terms of living out the Faith, then, there are no Lone Ranger disciples. We come to know the love of God not in spite of but precisely through our communion with our brothers and sisters in Christ. As Newman once observed, “the love of our private friends is the only preparatory exercise for the love of all men.”26 And there is no more intimate form of friendship, arguably, than walking together as baptized members of Christ’s Body. Life in the Church is far from perfect, but by remaining committed to the family of God, we will learn to sacrifice our selfish desires in humble submission to others who are themselves imperfect.
Newman did not merely preach these ideas; he also modeled them — most notably, in his leadership of the Oratory community of priests that he established in Birmingham. Since its founding in 1849, the Birmingham Oratory has been a shining testimony to Newman’s theology of friendship, which is rooted in shared worship of the Triune God. From Newman’s vantage point, the love we have for our friends and our relationship to God are inextricably bound together. As 1 John 4:20 warns, “If any one says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” In a similar vein, Newman wrote:
Should God call upon us to preach to the world, surely we must obey His call; but at present, let us do what lies before us. Little children, let us love one another. Let us be meek and gentle; let us think before we speak; let us try to improve our talents in private life; let us do good, not hoping for a return, and avoiding all display before men. Well may I so exhort you at this [Christmas] season, when we have so lately partaken together the Blessed Sacrament which binds us to mutual love, and gives us strength to practice it. Let us not forget the promise we then made, or the grace we then received. We are not our own; we are bought with the blood of Christ; we are consecrated to be temples of the Holy Spirit, an unutterable privilege, which is weighty enough to sink us with shame at our unworthiness, did it not the while strengthen us by the aid itself imparts, to bear its extreme costliness.27
Newman’s pastoral heart shines forth brightly in this exhortation. For him, heeding the call of God meant, first and foremost, embodying a life of meekness, mutual love, and unassuming beneficence toward others. By following this “little way,” Newman did end up “preach[ing] to the world,” but he did not start with this latter accomplishment in view. He began with friendship and humble service to others and then trusted God to multiply the fruits of these small offerings, and God clearly did.
In 1890, after nearly seven decades of humble service in the kingdom of God, Newman passed away after a brief bout with pneumonia. In his will, Newman had made provisions for a small memorial plaque to be installed at the Oratory, upon which were inscribed the words Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem — “Out of shadows and images into truth.” After a lifetime of seeking the truth, Newman had finally reached his home, the loving embrace of his heavenly Father. The epitaph that Newman chose for his funerary marker was eventually incorporated into the collect for his feast day; it is a moving prayer that can be offered for a variety of intentions, but especially when asking for the grace to imitate his example:
O God, who bestowed on the Priest Saint John Henry Newman the grace to follow your kindly light and find peace in your Church; graciously grant that, through his intercession and example, we may be led out of shadows and images into the fulness of your truth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.28
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