THE
P RTAL
December 2015
Page 10
Thoughts on Newman
What have Good
Friday and Easter
to do with Christmas?
The Revd Dr Stephen Morgan explains that for
Blessed John Henry Newman, they were inseparably linked
There is
always a temptation as we approach Christmas to present a saccharine view of what we
celebrate. This temptation can become almost irresistible in a culture such as our own which is so given
to an almost overweening sentimentality. It is a view of Christmas for which Bl. John Henry Newman had
absolutely no time. His long engagement with the Greek Fathers meant that, for Newman, the mystery of the
Incarnation and the part the Nativity played in it was anything but a consoling story about a sweet little baby
born in a stable whilst angels sang Matt Monroe songs in a diamond-sparkled winter sky.
The events in Bethlehem were an awe-inspiring,
solemn, almost dread-full moment when God
intervened decisively to redeem what He had created.
It was the moment after which everything changed,
the pivotal point in history, the necessary first act in
the Paschal drama which would reach its climax on
the Cross and its triumph in the Resurrection and
Ascension. One has only to look at the icons of the
Nativity to be found across the Christian East: they
look decisively to the events of Good Friday, Easter Day
and the Ascension. The swaddling bands in which the
baby is wrapped prefigure the shroud: the manger, the
tomb: the approaching wise men, the fleeing disciples.
So imbued was Newman with the link between
Christmas and Paschaltide made by the Eastern
churches that it did not seem strange to him to talk
directly about the Crucifixion in Christmas Day
sermons, indeed it seemed the natural thing to do.
We find one such in the third sermon of the second
volume of Parochial and Plain Sermons. It isn’t my
usual practice in these brief articles to quote Newman
at length, but for once I know you’ll indulge me as I
wish you a blessèd and Holy Christmas:
Thus does the favoured Apostle and Evangelist
announce to us that Sacred Mystery, which we this
day especially commemorate, the incarnation of the
Eternal Word. Thus briefly and simply does he speak
as if fearing he should fail in fitting reverence. If any
there was who might seem to have permission to
indulge in words on this subject, it was the beloved
disciple, who had heard and seen, and looked upon,
contents page
and handled the Word of Life; yet, in proportion to
the height of his privilege, was his discernment of the
infinite distance between him and his Creator. Such
too was the temper of the Holy Angels, when the Father
“brought in the First-begotten into the world:” [Heb.
1:6.] they straightway worshipped Him. And such was
the feeling of awe and love mingled together, which
remained for a while in the Church after Angels had
announced His coming, and Evangelists had recorded
His sojourn here, and His departure; “there was silence
as it were for half an hour.” [Rev. 8:1.]
Around the Church, indeed, the voices of blasphemy
were heard, even as when He hung on the cross; but
in the Church there was light and peace, fear, joy, and
holy meditation. Lawless doubtings, importunate
inquirings, confident reasonings were not. An heartfelt
adoration, a practical devotion to the Ever-blessed
Son, precluded difficulties in faith, and sheltered the
Church from the necessity of speaking. He who had
seen the Lord Jesus with a pure mind, attending Him
from the Lake of Gennesareth to Calvary, and from the
Sepulchre to Mount Olivet, where He left this scene of
His humiliation; he who had been put in charge with
His Virgin Mother, and heard from her what she alone
could tell of the Mystery to which she had ministered;
and they who had heard it from his mouth, and those
again whom these had taught, the first generations
of the Church, needed no explicit declarations
concerning His Sacred Person. Sight and hearing
superseded the multitude of words; faith dispensed
with the aid of lengthened Creeds and Confessions.
There was silence. “The Word was made flesh.”