Into The Darkness

At long last, John Henry Newman has been canonised. His Cause took some time to get going, but once it did, and the first miracle granted saw him beatified, there was no stopping him; his canonisation comes nine years after his beatification, that is quick. And why should it occur so quickly?

Well, the answer to that question is to be found in the providence of God - what we usually call the kairos, God's time. Every Cause seems to conform to this as particular individuals are raised up at the appropriate time for a reason. Of course the saints have a relevance for every age, but God also uses the glorification of his servants to speak to his people in a particular age. Future generations will draw wisdom and relevance from St John Henry on many issues, quite apart from the holiness of his life, but for us today, he has something to tell us given the difficulties we face. To discover what he has to say to us now, we need only look at his life and his writings.

John Henry was a man who was immersed in darkness and controversy for most of his life. He lived under suspicion both as an Anglican and as a Catholic. His famous response to his being raised to the college of cardinals, 'that the cloud has lifted forever', certainly reveals how he experienced that darkness as it also reveals how he hoped that he and his scholarship would now finally be accepted within the Catholic Church. Of course he had many other trials to face, and his ill-health towards the end of his life conformed  him even more to the cross of Christ. 

That darkness, that living as somewhat of a stranger in the Church, is an experience many share in today. John Henry's work was utterly orthodox, creative and insightful, but it was often misunderstood, as it is today by many. Senior members of the hierarchy were wary of him, he could  not  be completely trusted because he did not exactly conform to the way that things were normally done. That he had been an Anglican, and a turbulent one at that, did not make things easier for these churchmen either. He did not quite fit in. And yet, if we look at the lives of the saints, we see that is often a common experience among them. Saints stand out because they are radical - utterly orthodox, but different - the grace of God has taken possession of them in an extraordinary way. They conform too much to Christ, and that poses problems for others for whom mediocrity is a comfort and safety-valve.

St John Henry was not a man without faults, reading his letters reveals all too clearly he had his issues - all of the saints, with the exception of the greatest, Our Lady, were sinners. But he strove for holiness and that began, not when he became a Catholic, but long before it, when he had his first conversion as a young man and turned to God. His work in the Oxford Movement was not just to discern the authentic teaching of Christ, but to embrace it to the point of holiness. That this process led him to Catholicism would surprise him and cause great suffering, but it drew him further and further into the light that leads through the gloom. He embraced the darkness to enter the light - a concept we find in the mystical theology of St John of the Cross.

This is one of the lessons St John Henry teaches us today as he is raised to the altars. He invites us to follow him into the darkness in order to follow the light. Mysticism aside, he wrote of such a process in one of his early works on Arianism. There he wrote of the experience of the ordinary faithful plunged into darkness as they professed their belief in the divinity of Jesus, the orthodox faith, as many, if not most, of their pastors and shepherds embraced and promoted the heresy of Arius. They held firm, they withstood the confusion, they remain firm (to the chagrin of their pastors) and they stayed true. This was an example for John Henry and led him to understand the nature of the sensus fidelium; this is the example he offers to us.

Raised to the altars in a time of great confusion, St John Henry Newman now speaks to the ordinary faithful of the Church: 'You know the Gospel, you know the timeless teaching of the Church - the orthodox faith; be faithful, stay firm, even if your pastors have gone astray. If they have conformed to the novelty of the age, you must remain true'. As a priest, I have spent the last few years listening to so many faithful Catholic lay people immersed in great darkness who ask me what they must do. My advice is always the same: stay true to the faith, pray, read and gather with other faithful Catholics. Times such as these produce great saints who will in time encourage many other Catholics in future ages who find themselves in a time of great darkness. This is the role St John Henry plays for us today.

St John of the Cross tells us not to fear the darkness, it is within that desolation of the senses and spirit that we are lead to the Living Flame of Love. God is within that darkness, indeed he embraces us and uses this experience to purify and sanctify us. The darkness will not just not overcome us, it will in fact serve us as we seek to attain the vision of God. We live in extraordinary times, as we hold firm to what we true; we must not let them go to waste, we must allow these difficulties serve the work of God within us, the work of sanctification. And as we embrace that trial, we become light for others; though we do not see it ourselves, light shines through us - we see this in the life of St John Henry who thought himself in a cloud when he was inspiring so many others.