THE P RTAL
April 2018 Page 10
Thoughts on Newman
Newman on Resurrection
“… the Apologia pro vita sua of Blessèd John Henry Newman rates with St Augustine ’ s Confessions and St Thérèse of Lisieux ’ s Story of a Soul for candid self-reflection ”
The Revd Dr Stephen Morgan reflects on these three masterpieces
Amongst the works of autobiography , the Apologia pro vita sua of Blessèd John Henry Newman rates with St Augustine ’ s Confessions and St Thérèse of Lisieux ’ s Story of a Soul for candid self-reflection . All three works differ from the “ kiss-and-tell ” genre of modern celebrities and the “ I-was-right-all-along ” approach of the self-justifying political has-been .
What distinguishes them from these lesser offerings is the desire of their authors to lead their readers not to an appreciation of their subjects but to a love of God . Newman ’ s is even more focused than that of either Augustine or Thérèse in that it is , rather than an account of events , explicitly a history of his religious opinions , written to explain how he had come to find the fullness of the Christian Faith in the Catholic Church . In many respects , it has similarities with the collection of the epistles of the Apostle Paul to the various nascent Churches that make up so much of the New Testament .
Telling the story of his teenage religious conversion – his “ coming to faith ” in the expression I hear bandied around by my Evangelical friends – Newman records that from that moment on he considered the articles of the Creed to be “ facts not opinions ”.
It is a bald statement that sits uneasily in the present age where ecumenical and inter-faith priorities mean we mostly eschew such absolutist claims as we dialogue and accompany , share and receive .
Nonetheless , if we are to avoid becoming selfimmolating casualties of the dictatorship of relativism , we would do better to pay attention to Newman ’ s words .
Newman stands in a line of great Saints passing through St Paul , St Augustine and St Thérèse for whom the entire meaning of life stemmed from the realisation that Christ who had been crucified on Calvary , had indeed risen from the dead on that first Easter morning . The Victorian Cardinal was one
with the tent-maker from Tarsus in understanding that if the Resurrection were not a fact , then all was pointless : “ And if Christ be not risen , then is our preaching vain , and your faith is also vain .” ( 1 Corinthians 15:14 )
Although 1400 years separated the two men , the Oratorian Priest and the Bishop of Hippo Regius both well understood that “ The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the new life of believers in Christ .” ( St Augustine , Sermon 231 )
For St Thérèse , as for Blessèd John Henry Newman – near contemporaries , yet products of entirely different religious upbringings – the Resurrection was the response of the loving Father to the entirety of love that embracing the Cross requires .
If we give the Resurrection any thought these days – and since we are in the Easter season we have little excuse for not so doing – it is as something that happened to Jesus , but for Paul , Augustine , Thérèse and Newman because it was something that happened to Jesus , it is something that will happen to us .
If the purpose of autobiography is to sensationalise the largely mundane and sordid , or to excuse and justify the inexcusable and unjustifiably , this might all seem a bit irrelevant .
If , however , the apology we offer for our own life is written to lead to the salvation of souls other than just our own , then the plain truth that the Resurrection of Christ is a fact , is the cornerstone . As Newman observed , we are saved by facts not opinions .