Newman on the special love of our Lord for St John

Newman draws out some very fine lessons for the feast of St John the apostle and evangelist, entitled "Love of Relations and Friends." (II.5, found here).

As usual, he reviews the facts and texts about the life of St John. He was the special beloved of Jesus, sitting next to him at the last supper, head on his breast; he was entrusted with the care of Mary, the Mother of Jesus; he was granted a revelation of the mystery of heaven. St John was favored, apparently, more than Andrew, Peter or James, also special friends of our Lord.

Newman calls this a remarkable truth, because we may tend to think that God must love all equally, and that true social reformers would act only out of a pure love of humanity, above any particular attachment or love. Of course, Chesterton would later excoriate the man who loves humanity and hates concrete human beings. Newman puts this truth forward in a most exquisite manner, and with some profound if understated challenges to the prevalent philosophy of public life today, namely why should one be concerned about a politician's family life? Or we downplay the "charities of private life, while busy in schemes of an expansive benevolence." These schemes of "expansive benevolence" have wreaked their havoc throughout the twentieth century, and they gain their persuasion in liberal society today. We neglect what counts, Newman will caution us, real love. One must read and relish the long cadences of his prose. But here are a few of the finer passages.

After discussing why it is impossible to love all men and on a large scale, he says this:

The real love of man must depend on practice, and therefore, must begin by exercising itself on our friends around us, otherwise it will have no existence. By trying to love our relations and friends, by submitting to their wishes, though contrary to our own, by bearing with their infirmities, by overcoming their occasional waywardness by kindness, by dwelling on their excellences, and trying to copy them, thus it is that we form in our hearts that root of charity, which, though small at first, may, like the mustard seed, at last even overshadow the earth. The vain talkers about philanthropy, just spoken of, usually show the emptiness of their profession, by being morose and cruel in the private relations of life, which they seem to account as subjects beneath their notice.

Newman elaborates on this notion with a variation of the principle that grace builds upon nature, it does not destroy it. If we are to love, we must begin to love our family and friends, as they are right next to us. They are the ones who may annoy or irritate; they are the ones whose excellence we see and we may envy rather than praise. They are the ones who will reveal the tender mercies of God.

And again he exposes the fraudulent claims of the reformer or socialist:

A man, who would fain begin by a general love of all men, necessarily puts them all on a level, and, instead of being cautious, prudent, and sympathising in his benevolence, is hasty and rude; does harm, perhaps, when he means to do good, discourages the virtuous and well-meaning, and wounds the feelings of the gentle. Men of ambitious and ardent minds, for example, desirous of doing good on a large scale, are especially exposed to the temptation of sacrificing individual to  general good in their plans of charity. Ill-instructed men, who have strong abstract notions about the necessity of showing generosity and candour towards opponents, often forget to take any thought of those who are associated with themselves; and commence their (so-called) liberal treatment of their enemies by an unkind desertion of their friends. This can hardly be the case, when men cultivate the private charities, as an introduction to more enlarged ones.

Newman then would have us see the truth that is now denied across our society and which contradicts a fundamental of liberalism : "private virtue is the only sure foundation of public virtue; and that no national good is to be expected (though it may now and then accrue), from men who have not the fear of God before their eyes."And so we mock the evangelical voter not just for his excess or hypocrisy, but for the very true principle that calls him forth. But it is not the point of Newman's sermon to vindicate or underwrite a political agenda , but to call his listener to holiness. So his fitting ending includes the following:

how large a portion of our duties lies at home. 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.

Newman on the Mystery of Christmas

Stained glass, University Church of St Mary the Virgin

I remember when I first started reading Newman in earnest some ten years ago; I read a remark by Fr Ker that Catholics should most of all read the Parochial and Plain Sermons, written when was an Anglican divine, because of their focus upon the moral demands of the gospel and the call to holiness. I would liken the experience of reading each of these sermons to that of an encounter of a magnificent stained glass in a light filled chapel. As each piece sparkles with the light in a distinctive color or shape, so too does each sentence and each paragraph shine with its own peculiar meaning. The heart and mind are illuminated with every turn of the prose. Or better yet, each sermon requires a meditative turn of mind, but Newman's great gift of writing, and speaking, brings the listening soul along the path of prayer. He now composes a scene and fills out some spiritual consideration and then draws out a resolution for improvement. 

The sermon on Christmas, The Mystery of Godliness (V.7, found here), is a fine example of the power of his sermons. As for the "mystery of godliness, which should be before our minds at all times, " Christmas is a special time for meditation upon the mystery for we see today that "the Most Holy took upon Him our flesh of 'a pure Virgin'." Newman first reminds us of the great holiness and majesty of the second person of the Trinity so that we understand the great condescension of his incarnation as man. He did not come out of the clouds, nor morph himself as some pagan divinity - rather he was born of a Virgin as announced in Isaiah. And as we read in the Gospel, "two separate Angels, one to Mary, one to Joseph, declare who the adorable Agent was, by whom this miracle was wrought." Newman reviews and states our creed. But then he begins to draw out the profound implications of the creed, for "This is the great Mystery which we are now celebrating, of which mercy is the beginning, and sanctity the end." With this sentence Newman frames his meditation -- Mercy, the beginning, and sanctity the end.

The end, the purpose of the Incarnation, is our redemption and sanctification -- "He who is all purity came to an impure race to raise them to His purity. He, the brightness of God's glory, came in a body of flesh, which was pure and holy as Himself, 'without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without blemish;' and this He did for our sake, 'that we might be partakers of His holiness.'" It was "to make us partakers of the Divine nature; to sow the seed of eternal life in our hearts; and to raise us from 'the corruption that is in the world through lust,' to that immaculate purity and that fullness of grace which is in Him." Newman would not let us get caught up in sentimentality of the season, but recalls us to the purpose of our religion.

The mercy is to be found in the manner of Christ's life on earth -- his humble manner of life. This too is a mystery of the day. This passage carries us along from the image of this day, the humble birth in Bethlehem, to the ministry along the roads of Israel, so that we catch a glimpse of his great mercy:

He was born of a poor woman, who, when guests were numerous, was thrust aside, and gave birth to Him in a place for cattle. O wondrous mystery, early manifested, that even in birth He refused the world's welcome! He grew up as the carpenter's son, without education, so that when He began to teach, His neighbours wondered how one who had not learned letters, and was bred to a humble craft, should become a prophet. He was known as the kinsman and intimate of humble persons; so that the world pointed to them when He declared Himself, as if their insufficiency was the refutation of His claims. He was brought up in a town of low repute, so that even the better sort doubted whether good could come out of it. No; He would not be indebted to this world for comfort, aid, or credit; for "the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." He came to it as a benefactor, not as a guest; not to borrow from it, but to impart to it.

Newman suggests that the very shortness of Christ's life is a sign of merciful instruction: "He came into the world, and He speedily left the world; as if to teach us how little He Himself, how little we His followers, have to do with the world." Newman was drawn to the image of lightning as an apt one for the life of Christ. "He came and He went, before men knew that He had come, like the lightning shining from one side of heaven unto the other, as being the beginning of a new and invisible creation."

So what must be our resolution upon meditating upon the birth in Bethlehem? To abandon the worldly ambition and the natural but noble goal of the development of our  natural faculties, physical, emotional, mental. "Let us come to the Sanctifier to be sanctified. Let us come to Him to learn our duty, and to receive grace to do it." As Bloy said -- there is but one sadness, not to be a saint. 

Newman returns us to the signs of the season: "This is a time for innocence, and purity, and gentleness, and mildness, and contentment, and peace. It is a time in which the whole Church seems decked in white, in her baptismal robe, in the bright and glistering raiment which she wears upon the Holy Mount." 

And he draws us to a conclusion, both simple and challenging  before he descends from the pulpit: "May each Christmas, as it comes, find us more and more like Him, who as at this time became a little child for our sake, more simple-minded, more humble, more holy, more affectionate, more resigned, more happy, more full of God."

Ite ad Joseph

From Rembrandt, The Nativity

From Pope John Paul II, Guardian of the Redeemer [Redemptoris custos] (1989):

Joseph was an eyewitness to this birth, which took place in conditions that, humanly speaking, were embarrassing-a first announcement of that "self-emptying" (cf. Phil 2:5-8) which Christ freely accepted for the forgiveness of sins. Joseph also witnessed the adoration of the shepherds who arrived at Jesus' birthplace after the angel had brought them the great and happy news (cf. Lk 2:15- 16) . Later he also witnessed the homage of the magi who came from the East (cf. Mt 2:11).§10

In Joseph, the apparent tension between the active and the contemplative life finds an ideal harmony that is only possible for those who possess the perfection of charity. Following St. Augustine's well-known distinction between the love of the truth (caritas veritatis) and the practical demands of love (necessitas caritatis), we can say that Joseph experienced both love of the truth-that pure contemplative love of the divine Truth which radiated from the humanity of Christ-and the demands of love-that equally pure and selfless love required for his vocation to safeguard and develop the humanity of Jesus, which was inseparably linked to his divinity.§27

[His] patronage must be invoked as ever necessary for the Church, not only as a defense against all dangers, but also, and indeed primarily, as an impetus for her renewed commitment to evangelization in the world and to re-evangelization in those lands and nations where-as I wrote in the Apostolic Exhortation Christideles Laici - "religion and the Christian life were formerly flourishing and...are now put to a hard test." In order to bring the first proclamation of Christ, or to bring it anew wherever it has been neglected or forgotten, the Church has need of special "power from on high" (cf. Lk 24:49; Acts 1:8): a gift of the Spirit of the Lord, a gift which is not unrelated to the intercession and example of his saints. §29

One hundred years ago, Pope Leo XIII had already exhorted the Catholic world to pray for the protection of St. Joseph, Patron of the whole Church. The Encyclical Epistle Quamquam Pluries appealed to Joseph's "fatherly love...for the child Jesus" and commended to him, as "the provident guardian of the divine Family," "the beloved inheritance which Jesus Christ purchased by his blood." Since that time-as I recalled at the beginning of this Exhortation -- the Church has implored the protection of St. Joseph on the basis of "that sacred bond of charity which united him to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God," and the Church has commended to Joseph all of her cares, including those dangers which threaten the human family. Even today we have many reasons to pray in a similar way:

"Most beloved father, dispel the evil of falsehood and sin...graciously assist us from heaven in our struggle with the powers of darkness...and just as once you saved the Child Jesus from mortal danger, so now defend God's holy Church from the snares of her enemies and from all adversity."

Today we still have good reason to commend everyone to St. Joseph. §31

Leon Bloy -- more on Mary and the meaning of Christ's birth

Christ is come out of Mary just as Adam is come out the earthy Paradise, to obey and suffer. Mary is thus symbolized by the Garden of Delight "planted by God in the beginning." . . . This Garden, closed fast since the disobedience, hortus conclusus, to the tribulation or the despair of many billions of human beings, was the goal of "the generations of the heavens and the earth," according to the Holy Book's vastly mysterious language. 

That was a marvelous garden in which it never rained. A fountain sprang from the earth to water everything, and a river older than all geographies flowed out of this paradise at once to branch into the four rivers, the names of which, according to learned interpreters, mean or seem to mean: Prudence, Temperance, Quickness of Spirit, Fecundity. We must believe that these four names enfold in a way no man can understand the vocation of Mary: Queen, Virgin, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, Mother of God. . . .

By means of the Immaculate Conception, God was able to place his foot upon earth. Here is the sole door through which He was able to escape from the Garden of Delight which is his Mother and whom a thousand centuries of blessedness could not enable us to understand.

You would have to knw what were Adam and Eve, what were the plants and animals in that Garden, what was the disobedience and what it cost. You would have sufficiently to wipe away everything men have thought for seventy or eighty centuries in order to make possible, I do not say the evidence or the distant mental image, still less the vague expectation, but a bare something resembling a heartbeat in the face of this fact: that with everything lost forever, as it is with the fallen angels, there all the same remained preserved a drop of divine Sap, just enough to save billions of worlds; and that in the end there blossomed that Flower more beautiful than Innocence. which Christians name, understanding nothing about it, the Immaculate Conception, Mary herself, the sublime Garden regained.

And yet shall I dare say this? nothing has yet been achieved. That Garden, closed so long by the Disobedience of the first Man, had first to open itself to eject the least of men, like a worm, who was to redeem all other men. For this Mary's obedience was not enough -- it frightens me to write it. There was needed, reabsorbed within Her, the impatience and sorrow of all the centuries.

Leon Bloy, Pilgrim of the Absolute, pp. 230-232

on Mary as a new Eve see John Henry Newman's reading of Church Fathers at this site

Leon Bloy - fingertips touching the dark

Shepherd at watch, from Rembrandt

"I merely take this opportunity to beg you to be on the watch. Present-day events are certainly hideous, but their tendency has nothing commonplace about it. What is willed absolutely and everywhere is the end of the Church, which cannot end. But indeed it is a theological truth that should there remain but one single Catholic, the Church would live in him, together with all her mysteries, all her miracles, all her power, all her fecundity. . . . I therefore think, once again, that we are at the prologue of an unspeakable drama, the like of which has not been seen for twenty centuries; I invite you to a certain amount of recollection." -- Leon Bloy, from 
Pilgrim of the Absolute, Selections by Raissa Maritain (Pantheon Books, 1947), p. 202

The Maritains took heed of the wild prophet of Paris. These last days of advent leading up to Christmas seem to be a good time to make a final watch. We pray to be such a Catholic, with the fecundity of the Church living in us -- awake to the truth of the Incarnation, reverent before the tremendous mystery of the real presence, and sincere in love. The culture and the politics keeps everyone buzzing with the "unreal words" against which Newman preached. We still sleep in our routines, we still let ourselves be drawn to the cheap baubles of gossip and opinion, we still study indifference and envy, even hatred. The sons of Adam are a doomed race. But for a New Adam. And of course, a New Eve.


Frank O'Malley, in "The Passion of Leon Bloy" (Review of Politics, 1948) pointed out a deep similarity between Bloy and Newman:

The years in which Bloy lived were, like Newman's or Dostoevski's, or our own, those in which science and invention, rationalism and materialism had accomplished their wondrous domination of the world  -- and the bourgeois satisfaction with the status achieved was complete. The anti-Christian spirit had capitalized upon the spinelessness and spiritlessness of "Christendom." Scientific rationalism had concluded that it could explain everything, that there were no transcendent worlds beyond to reach. The world daily became more ready-to-hand, more easy to manipulate: the darkness of the unknown retreated before the advance of the new seers. Thus all sense of mystery, all sense of reverence, all sense of love -- the awesome and self-surrending spirit of the religion -- evaporated. But Bloy, no less than Newman and Dostoevski, deplored this wanton dissipation of the most enduring force in man's life, this spreading out of rationalism and materialism to encompass all that makes life meaningful. Bloy, like Newman, realized that the new and free thought lacked the "center of power", such a "first element" as was available to every Christian. The thought of Bloy was directed to unity in the personality of Christ, as the object and center towards which everything in creation is drawn -- in Claudel's words, the center and navel of the world. For Bloy, Christ was at the center of everything, taking upon himself all that man bears and suffers.

Bloy said of the little flocks of believers -- "when they stretch out their arms in prayer, the tips of their fingers touch the darkness." (Pilgrim of the Absolute, p. 216) They touch, yes, the darkness of night and early morning - the darkness of the watch -- but also the darkness of mystery. Newman began Advent in the dark and cold; Bloy continued the watch in prayer, finger-tips touching the dark, and filled with hope.  Christ-mas is near.

Rembrandt, The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds, 1634

Havel and John Paul II on Witness to Truth

John Paul II and Vaclav Havel both took a deep interest in theater; they were both called to act on the world stage; they both understood the vital importance of truth -- and the whole truth about man and God. Havel wrote an influential essay entitled "The Power of the  Powerless" in which he explained the importance of truth and the rejection of the system of lies and the atmosphere of mendacity that surrounds the powerful bureaucrats. He spoke of a revolt consisting in  "an attempt to live within the truth." Here is his description of one who refuses the slogans and the superficial explanations of the powerful bureaucrats:

 He has exposed it as a mere game. He has shattered the world of appearances, the fundamental pillar of the system. He has upset the power structure by tearing apart what holds it together. He has demonstrated that living a lie is living a lie. He has broken through the exalted facade of the system and exposed the real, base foundations of power. He has said that the emperor is naked. And because the emperor is in fact naked, something extremely dangerous has happened: by his action, the greengrocer has addressed the world. He has enabled everyone to peer behind the curtain. He has shown everyone that it is possible to live within the truth. Living within the lie can constitute the system only if it is universal. The principle must embrace and permeate everything. There are no terms whatsoever on which it can co-exist with living within the truth, and therefore everyone who steps out of line denies it in principle and threatens it in its entirety. . . .

 The original and most important sphere of activity, one that predetermines all the others, is simply an attempt to create and support the independent life of society as an articulated expression of living within the truth. In other words, serving truth consistently, purposefully, and articulately, and organizing this service. This is only natural, after all: if living within the truth is an elementary starting point for every attempt made by people to oppose the alienating pressure of the system, if it is the only meaningful basis of any independent act of political import, and if, ultimately, it is also the most intrinsic existential source of the "dissident" attitude, then it is difficult to imagine that even manifest "dissent" could have any other basis than the service of truth, the truthful life, and the attempt to make room for the genuine aims of life.

In his reflection on Pope John Paul II's critique of the culture of death, Fr James Schall said: "The role of Christianity in politics is a philosophic one. It is to maintain an accurate statement of the truth of things, of what is, even the truth of science when science will not stand up for itself. It is to perform this clarification even when the words we use, like 'choice,' do not accurately describe the fact to which they refer. We destroy millions of already begun human lives with no scruple and little compunction." (see his second essay, The Role of Christian Philosophy in Politics, at this site). John Paul said: "People lose sight of the fact that life in society has neither the market nor the State as its final purpose, since life itself has a unique value which the State and the market must serve. Man remains above all a being who seeks the truth and strives to live in that truth, deepening his understanding of it through a dialogue which involves past and future generations." (Centesimus Annus, #50.)


Truth is a rare thing in a world of dictators, bureaucrats, and technicians. Searching for truth and speaking truth demands rare courage. That is why we celebrate the life and work of Blessed John Paul II and Vaclav Havel.


 

Advent 1999: John Paul II addressed Havel and Czech Pilgrims

Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel, left, speaks with Pope John Paul II during a private audience at the Vatican in Rome, Dec 18, 1999.  Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia  died Sunday Dec. 18, 2011 in Prague. He was 75. (AP Photo/Massimo Sambucetti, File)

Vaclav Havel died on December 18, 2011. On that day twelve years ago he met with Pope John Paul II and joined pilgrims from the Czech republic in greeting the Pope. My friend Dr. John Le encourages me to seek in the liturgical calendar some light for understanding events of the day. This is particularly true of the life of Pope John Paul II. December 18th is a week from Christmas day; the antiphon of the day is: O Adonai: “O sacred Lord of ancient Israel, who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush, who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain: come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.” Isaiah had prophesied, “But He shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.” (11:4-5); and “Indeed the Lord will be there with us, majestic; yes the Lord our judge, the Lord our lawgiver, the Lord our king, he it is who will save us.” (33:22). Mr Havel and Blessed John Paul spoke the truth by which they struck the ruthless Soviet system. (see next blog). On that day twelve years ago Pope John Paul spoke to the Czech pilgrims and thanked them for a special Christmas tree they brought as a gift. The lights on the tree remind us that truth is a light in the darkness and truth is the light of Christ: John Paul said: "He is, according to the Evangelist John, 'the true light that enlightens every man'1: 9. The lights sparkling on the Christmas tree symbolize this Light, to strengthen our knowledge of the great mystery: in Christ is the light that can change the human heart." Here is the Holy Father's address to the pilgrims from the Czech Republic on December 18, 1999:


 Mr President, Your Eminence, Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate,


 Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Czech Republic,


 1. With great joy I greet all of you who have come to present the fir tree which has arrived from the beloved Czech nation. This Christmas gift testifies to the sense of respect and esteem that the beloved Czech people has for the Holy See, and at the same time, it is a symbol of warm participation in the joy of the Christmas festivities being celebrated here in the Vatican, in keeping with the particular solemnity that the beginning of the Great Jubilee requires. Yesterday I was able to meet numerous representatives of the Czech Republic at the audience for those taking part in the International Convention on Jan Hus, an important moment of reflection on a sorrowful page in the religious and civil history of the nation. And now I have the joy of extending my cordial welcome to President Václav Havel of the Czech Republic and to his distinguished wife. Thank you, Mr President, for your noble words in which you drew attention to the Government's initiative in giving the Pope the beautiful Christmas tree, which rises majestically next to the crèche in St Peter's Square.  . . . A special greeting to the "Valasský-vojvoda" band which has accompanied the joyful meeting for lighting the tree. Thanks to you the feast of the Lord's Birth, here in St Peter's Square, will certainly be more solemn.


 2. This fir tree, which for several days now has stood pointing to heaven decorated with evocative lights, comes from Mount Beskydy in the region of Ostrava and Opava near Morávka. Along with this tree, you have been pleased to offer other small fir trees that will be put in various places in the Apostolic Palace and in the Curia, all decorated with handmade ornaments from that same region. In addition, you have also presented three figures, dressed in the traditional costumes of Valassko, which have been put beside those traditionally used in the crèche in St Peter's Square. The Christmas tree, with the crib, creates a typical Christmas atmosphere and can help us understand better the message of salvation that Christ came to bring us through his Incarnation. From the stable of Bethlehem to the Cross on Golgotha, with his whole life he bore witness to God's love for mankind. He is, according to the Evangelist John, "the true light that enlightens every man" (1: 9). The lights sparkling on the Christmas tree symbolize this Light, to strengthen our knowledge of the great mystery: in Christ is the light that can change the human heart.


 3. Dear brothers and sisters, as I wholeheartedly thank you for this visit, I express to you all and to your loved ones my best wishes for a Happy Christmas and a Joyful New Year in the warmth of your families. May the imminent Christmas festivities awaken and strengthen in everyone faith in the presence and love of God. With these sentiments, I willingly impart a special Apostolic Blessing to you, to your families and to your entire nation.

Bloy on Mary

Leon Bloy 1846-1917
Godfather of Jacques and Raissa

De Maria Nunquam Satis -St. Louis De Montfort 

"With Mary there is never enough"

 Leon Bloy:

"Mary's glory and universal excellence defy hyperbole. She is that fire of Solomon which never says: "Enough!" She is the earthly paradise and the heavenly Jerusalem. She it is to whom God has given everything.If you think of her beauty, it would be mocking her to say She is Beauty itself, since she is infinitely above that praise. If you wish to extol her strength and power, you could do nothing better than to recognize that She is, in truth, the least of creatures, since She has been able to accomplish the inconceivable wonder of humbling herself lower than all the abysses before which She had already been conceived. If you wish to die, all those of good will who are dying lie in her arms. If you are asking to be born, the Milky Way will spout forth from her Breasts to feed you. If you were so good a poet that you could even astound the innocent couple beneath the plane trees of Paradise, you would seem to be selling the most rotten of goods, short weight, you would look like a slave trader or a slum landlord were you -- even in tears and on your knees -- so much as to dream of saying a word about her purity, which makes the sweat of the damned in the depths of hell look like droplets of dew that hang on a summer morning from the silver and opaline webs woven by engaging forest spiders." Leon Bloy: Pilgrim of the Absolute, selections by Raissa Maritain (New York: Pantheon Books, 1947), p. 241 

"Imagine an earth abandoned to all the powers of darkness, a ravaged human race multiplying from day to day and perverting itself more and more with each generation. Despite this and throughout all this, a tiny little shining ray, a thread of light  which nothing could destroy, the Immaculate Conception piercing the ages and the peoples until the miraculous hour, unknown to the greatest angels, when it would manifest itself in Mary full of grace, conceived without the stain of original sin under the Gate of Gold." Pilgrim of the Absolute, p. 232

For Gaudete Sunday -- Augustine on Joy

Peter Brown says the following about Augustine's understanding of human nature and religious development:

"Delight is the only possible source of action, nothing else can move the will. Therefore, man can act only if he can mobilize his feelings, only if he is affected by the object of delight." Augustine of Hippo, pp. 154-155

"Augustine came to view delight as the mainspring of human action; but this delight escaped human control. Delight is discontinuous, startlingly erratic; Augustine now moves in a world of love at first sight, chance encounters,, and just as important, of sudden equally inexplicable patches of deadness: [Augustine wrote:] 'Who can embrace wholeheartedly what gives him no delight? But who can determine for himself that what will delight him should come his way, and when it comes, that it should, in fact, delight him?'" 155

I found these passages in Augustine's Spirit and Letter:

#5: We, however, on our side affirm that the human will is so divinely aided in the pursuit of righteousness, that (in addition to man's being created with a free-will, and in addition to the teaching by which he is instructed how he ought to live) he receives the Holy Ghost, by whom there is formed in his mind a delight in, and a love of, that supreme and unchangeable good God, even now while he is still walking by faith and not yet by sight;gift to him of the earnest, as it were, of the free gift, he may conceive an ardent desire to cleave to his Maker, and may burn to enter upon the participation in that true existence. A man's free-will, indeed, avails for nothing except to sin, if he knows not the way of truth; and even after his duty and his proper aim shall begin to become known to him, unless he also take delight in and feel a love for it, he neither does his duty, nor sets about it, nor lives rightly. Now, in order that such a course may engage our affections, God's love is shed abroad in our hearts, not through the free-will which arises from ourselves, but through the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. (Romans 5:5)

#26: For no fruit is good which does not grow from the root of love. If, however, that faith be present which works by love, (Galatians 5:6) then one begins to delight in the law of God after the inward man, (Romans 7:22) and this delight is the gift of the spirit, not of the letter;

#42: It is therefore apparent what difference there is between the old covenant and the new—that in the former the law is written on tables, while in the latter on hearts; so that what in the one alarms from without, in the other delights from within; and in the former man becomes a transgressor through the letter that kills, in the other a lover through the life-giving spirit. We must therefore avoid saying, that the way in which God assists us to work righteousness, and works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, Philippians 2:13 is by externally addressing to our faculties precepts of holiness; for He gives His increase internally, 1 Corinthians 3:7 by shedding love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. Romans 5:5

Romans 5.5 appears frequently in Augustine's writing -- the  love is shed abroad in our hearts.
It is grace. So he will write: "The fact that those things that make for successful progress towards God should cause us delight is not acquired by our good intentions, earnestness and the value of our own good will -- but is dependent upon the inspiration granted us by God." (see Brown, p 155)  So Brown notes this paradox: our self-determination depends on that which escapes self-determination (155 and 373-374): "The vital capacity to unite feeling and knowledge comes from an area outside man's power of self-determination. 'From a depth that we do not see, comes everything that you can see.'" Thus, "the idea that we depend for our ability to determine ourselves, on areas that we cannot ourselves determine, is central to Augustine's therapeutic attitude to the relation between grace and free will."

A fitting approach to understanding Gaudete Sunday -- concluding with this passage Brown finds in Augustine's commentary on John: "Give me a man in love; he knows what I mean. Give me one who yearns; give me one who is hungry; give me one far away in this desert, who is thirsty and sighs for the spring of the eternal country. Give me that sort of man; he knows what I mean. But if I speak to a cold man, he just does not know what I am talking about." (26.4)

Third Sunday in Advent.
Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete. Modestia vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus: Dominus enim prope est. Nihil solliciti sitis: sed in omni oratione petitiones vestræ innotescant apud Deum. Benedixisti Domine terram tuam: avertisti captivitatem Jacob. "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your forbearance be known to all, for the Lord is near at hand; have no anxiety about anything, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. Lord, you have blessed your land; you have turned away the captivity of Jacob." (Philippians 4:4–6; Psalm 85 (84):1).

Enrichment of Faith, pt. 2

Mammoser continues the explanation of enrichment of faith with a discussion of Wojtyla's account of  consciousness. Wojtyla blends the attention to human capacity, subjectivity, with an awareness of human transcendence. The enrichment of faith is an expanded consciousness or appropriation of awareness of God. 

Consciousness is indispensable in the deepening of faith, but it has not been absolutized by Wojtyla.  He is careful to point out that consciousness must come to grips with something exterior to the person, namely faith (faith in God is faith in the Supremely Real),  but it does not ‘create’ faith.   Consciousness does not ‘create’ God . . . indeed just the opposite is true. True interiority is in fact man’s response to God. 

 The first conclusion we can draw is that enrichment of faith and the evangelization of culture are not strictly  human tasks to be implemented with ideas and  effort.  They cannot  come about strictly from within – they first requires response because they come from without, through revelation and through grace. God is the protagonist in the consciousness that embraces faith….he must first ‘re-veal’ himself.  And God will be the principal architect of cultural renewal,  awaiting of course the genuine interiority and magnanimity of lay people. 

Since God is [revealed as] Three Persons man finds his ‘basis’ and fully realizes his subjectivity not in self but in  relationship, in the mystery of the life of the Trinity.  Which is to say that man fully realizes himself only in communication (communio), in spiritual personhood, in relationship and in ‘gift of self’ analogous to the Trinitarian life itself.   “Man resembles God not only because of the spiritual nature of his immortal soul but also by reason of his social nature, if by this we understand the fact that ‘he cannot realize himself fully except in an act of pure self-giving.’ (Sources, p. 61)

George Weigel calls this self-giving “the law of the gift,” whereby one’s interior orientation is fundamentally a prayerful, outward, centrifugal relationship  towards God and others rather than to self.   “In this way  ‘union in truth and charity’ is the ultimate expression of the community of individuals.  This union merits the name of communion (communio), which signifies more than community (communitas).  The Latin communio denotes a relationship between persons that is proper to them alone; and it indicates the good that they do to one another, giving and receiving within that mutual relationship.” (Sources, p 61) Wojtyla continues: “Christ himself suggests to us this resemblance, or metaphysical analogy as we may call it, between God as person and community (i.e., the communion of Persons in the unity of the Godhead) on the one hand and, on the other, man as a person and his vocation toward the community ‘in truth and charity’ – a community founded on his right to realize himself through self-giving. How eloquent is the statement in Gaudium et Spes that ‘man is the only creature on earth that God has wanted for its own sake’, as an end and not a means!” (Sources, p. 62) 

This right to realize oneself through self-giving explains why man is incomplete in solitude.  (Gen. 2:18). He requires-- in all his subjectivity including that of his consciousness—to be in relationship.  As person, he requires not only ‘something else,’ but  ‘someone else.’  St. John’s gospel helps us understand who this ‘someone else’ is, and how to reach him.  “Jesus said to his disciples: “if anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we shall come to him, and make our home with him.” (John 14:23-29)  In other writings Wojtyla calls this ‘someone’ a ‘partner of the Absolute.’  In his general audience of Oct. 24, 1979, for example, in his catechesis on Genesis, 2:18, John Paul II notes that when God says “it is not good that man should be alone” he means not only that he needs a ‘helper’ which is provided in the creation of the first woman, but also, because he is constituted “in a unique, exclusive and unrepeatable relationship with God Himself, ” he needs a transcendent partner, a ‘partner of the Absolute.’ 

Maritain referred to Leon Bloy as a "pilgrim of the absolute." It is very interesting that Wojtyla speaks about man as a partner of the absolute." I also think of the Jeweler's Shop, once again, and the ending -- Theresa in speaking about young Christopher and Monica (and all couples) says they "reflect in some way the absolute Existence and Love."Adam had just previously said "love carries people away like an absolute, although it lacks absolute dimensions."The enrichment of faith opens us up to God, the absolute.

Wojtyla on the Enrichment of Faith

Thomas L Mammoser

I recently received a very interesting paper on the evangelization of culture in the new millenium by Thomas L. Mammoser. He currently serves as Vice President and as a Board and Executive Committee member for Midtown Educational Foundation, Chicago; Co-founder and President of the Christian Culture Institute, Milwaukee. Mammoser is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame ('60) with a B.A. in Philosophy and he did graduate work at the University of Chicago and Loyola University. We both had the privilege of studying the philosophy of Maritain under Joseph Evans at ND. I wish to share a few excerpts from his paper on this blog for the next few days. The entire paper may be found here. 

Mammoser compares Maritain and Wojtyla on the need for an inner renewal. Both emphasized the great task of Vatican II as the growth in the evangelical awareness of the members of the Church.

Mammoser writes as follows:

There is a fundamental and dynamic viewpoint from which to judge the reality of the Council and especially its implementation, says Wojytla.  That viewpoint is what he calls the principle of the enrichment of faith. Sources of Renewal deals with Wojtyla calls the  fundamental viewpoint from which to judge the reality of the Council and its implementation, namely “the principle of the enrichment of faith.”  As he puts it:  “Nothing determines more effectively the process of the Church’s self-realization than the reality of faith and its gradual enrichment. It is on this that we must concentrate above all… seeking in it the fundamental interpretation of the Council’s thought” as well as it implementation and genuine realization. (pp. 15-16).

The enrichment of faith, says Wojtyla, has a twofold dimension.  As with all Councils it can be understood first in a doctrinal sense; all Councils deal in some way with the content of faith.    In this sense we might see Vatican II as representing a qualitative enrichment—a deeper understanding and richer presentation of the truths of the Catholic faith in the broad context of the modern world.  Not “the discovery of fresh truths not already contained in revelation, but merely the interpretation of revealed truth in relation to new historical exigencies…” (Note by Italian translator, Sources, p. 18) Thus enrichment of faith, at its origin, must come from above, from ‘the teacher of all things.’  This is what we might call its objective sense in that it is ‘from above and outside’ us.  It is a supernatural gift of God –a grace -- which the Church as human community must seek to cooperate with and to enhance.  This enrichment, in turn, constitutes a new stage in the Church’s ‘self-awareness’ in its advance towards the fullness of divine truth. 

But growth in self-awareness, says Wojltya,  helps us to realize that “it is impossible to treat the Church merely as an ‘object’: it has to be a ‘subject’ also.  Because—especially given the personal, pastoral nature of this Council-- enrichment of faith “calls for that truth to be situated in the human consciousness and calls for a definition of the attitude, or rather the many attitudes, (emphasis added) that go to make the individual a believing member of the Church.” (ibid, pp. 17-18).  This is the “subjective or interior side” of the enrichment of faith, where it enters into the human person and actually touches, influences and guides the man of faith.  For it is “the transcendent character of the person, together with man’s responsibility to the truth” that defines the subjective range of the Church’s consciousness, in which the Church in a sense discovers itself.” (p. 36) 

This “subjective sense’ of the Council—and specifically Wojytla’s notions of consciousness and attitude as they relate to the evangelization of culture-- are our focus here because an enlightened consciousness and a vigorous attitude are indispensable to bringing the  “objective’ messages of the Council, which have yet so much to say to modern man, to life in contemporary culture.  They are found in and orientate individual ‘subjects’ – knowing and believing persons; collectively the People of God.  It is to these people that the messages of the Council are primarily directed and where the responsibility for the objective  enrichment of  faith and the evangelization of culture in the new millennium ultimately rests.   

It is only the faith-based  “interiority” of lay people – their contemplative spirit, their God-centered ‘subjectivity,’ their awareness of  and commitment to Christ’s message--  that can fully engage and orient this new age of human history.  As amply demonstrated in our times, attitudes of ignorance, complacency and superficiality are quite ineffective agents of cultural enrichment. For all its inherent power to bring about positive cultural and social change, Christianity is first and foremost a religion that must be lived to be effective.  It is therefore only truly  enriching  – personally and culturally -- when it is ‘subjectivized’;  that is, when it works from within, like leaven.  This is so because, as Wojtyla has written elsewhere, “culture develops principally within this dimension, the dimension of self-determining subjects. Culture is basically oriented not so much toward the creation of human products as toward the creation of the human self, which then radiates out into the world of products.” (Person and Community, p. 265.) 

John Paul II spoke of this lack of interiority and need for inner renewal to young people in Madrid in May, 2003.  “The drama of contemporary culture,” he said, “is the lack of interiority, the absence of contemplation. Without interiority culture has no content; it is like a body that has not found its soul.  What can humanity do without interiority? Unfortunately, we know the answer very well.  When the contemplative spirit is missing, life is not protected and all that is human is denigrated.  Without interiority, modern man puts his own integrity at risk.” (John Paul II, Meeting with Young People, Madrid, May  3, 2003, found here)  

And as Maritain wrote in The Peasant of the Garonne: “The true new fire, the essential renewal (engendered by the  Council), will be an inner renewal.” (p. 65).

I think that Mr. Mammoser has brought out an essential idea for understanding Vatican II, that of the enrichment of faith. A similar point was made by Dr. Waldstein's workshop, summarized in a blog from October of this year (see here and scroll down to October 1, 2011). I am also grateful for the reference to the statement to the young made in 2003. John Paul counsels us to go to Mary to discovery prayer: "Dear young people, I invite you to be part of the 'School of the Virgin Mary'. She is the incomparable model of contemplation and wonderful example of fruitful, joyful and enriching interiority. She will teach you never to separate action from contemplation."

His final exhortation is also very touching: "I give you my own witness: I was ordained a priest when I was 26 years old. Fifty-six years have passed since then. So how old is the Pope? Almost 83! A young man of 83! Looking back and remembering those years of my life, I can assure you that it is worthwhile dedicating oneself to the cause of Christ and, out of love for him, devoting oneself to serving humanity. It is worthwhile to give one's life for the Gospel and for one's brothers and sisters!"