Memorial of Saint John Henry Newman

Lectionary: 464

And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 

Oddly, the same consumers who think their expectations, demands, and requests should always be honored immediately, are the least willing to ask persistently and wait patiently for satisfaction. However, they will complain endlessly and tirelessly to their friends and acquaintances about how badly they were treated. Apparently they find deep satisfaction in disappointment, and their most prized and guarded possession is resentment. 

The Lord teaches us a very different attitude and gives us a very different spirit. As we honor Saint John Henry Newman, who was recently honored as a "Doctor of the Church," we remember his long, patient journey to Catholicism. The enthusiastic Episcopalian lad entered the seminary and found enchantment in the early Patristic authors of Christianity. However, the more he studied them the more uneasy he became with the Protestant tendencies of his English Catholicism. 

He detected a strong, defensive tendency to Monophysitism. That is, the belief that Jesus was truly the Son of God and the Son of Mary; but, upon his resurrection and ascension, his human nature was no longer relevant. It had disappeared like a drop of ink in the ocean. It no longer mattered whether Jesus is male or female, Jew or gentile, Asian or American. It doesn't matter that he was subject to the Roman empire and spoke Chaldean. 

The Monophysite Christian can forget all those apparently irrelevant details about Jesus of Nazareth and come to know him spiritually. In fact, you have only to read the Bible to personally encounter the Lord; you needn't be bothered by Apostolic tradition and Apostolic succession. Fellowship in the church with its messy human relationships is optional because the Lord's humanity is no longer important. The sacraments are nothing more than symbolic reminders about what it means to be Christian, and can give one a marvelous feeling of belonging to something, if you're in the market for good feelings. 

As the Saint recognized that nonsense in his Episcopal tradition, he became more convinced that the dowdy old Roman Catholic Church, with its rigid rituals, Latin obscurity, and uncompromising moral code, kept the true Body and Blood of Mary's Son. 

In the meanwhile, because Newman was a prolific writer and charming speaker, all of England watched his progress and expected his transfer to Roman Catholicism. Several younger curates came to him, stayed with him in a quasi-monastery that he set up, and entered the Roman church ahead of him. When he finally made the leap, because he had opted for celibacy even as an Episcopal priest, he was rapidly ordained as Roman Catholic and then given the cardinal's hat. 

John Henry Newman had asked, sought, and knocked at the door for understanding, guidance, and faith through many dark nights and long years. Finally a kindly light led him to the true faith in Jesus Christ.