Preview: Newman on Self-Denial on the Son Rise Morning Show

On Monday, March 14, we'll continue our discussion of Newman's Lenten sermons/meditations on the Son Rise Morning Show. We'll be on the air at my usual time, about 6:50 a.m. Central/7:50 a.m. Eastern time. Please listen live on EWTN Radio or on your local EWTN affiliate. This time, however, we'll be looking that a sermon Newman preached during Advent, on December 22, 1833, "Self-Denial the Test of Religious Earnestness." It is the meditation offered in The Tears of Christ for the Friday of Second Week of Lent.

Newman took as his text "Now it is high time to awake out of sleep." Romans 13:11

The excerpt from this sermon in The Tears of Christ does not include this section, which presents what Newman wants his congregation to think about regarding their own religious state:

Now I do not for an instant suspect, my brethren, that you are in the sound slumber of sin. This is a miserable state, which I should hope was, on the whole, the condition of few men, at least in a place like this. But, allowing this, yet there is great reason for fearing that very many of you are not wide awake: that though your dreams are disturbed, yet dreams they are; and that the view of religion which you think to be a true one, is not that vision of the Truth which you would see were your eyes open, but such a vague, defective, extravagant picture of it as a man sees when he is asleep. At all events, however this may be, it will be useful (please God) if you ask yourselves, one by one, the question, "How do I know I am in the right way? How do I know that I have real faith, and am not in a dream?"

Thus Newman reiterates one of the main themes of his Parochial and Plain Sermons, that many Christians in his day professed to believe without really understanding what they believed: their faith in Jesus and their commitment to His teachings were not real, but merely notional. He was trying to wake them up to reality of the Christian life so that it made a difference in the way they lived.

So in this sermon Newman proposes that one way to know that one has "real faith" not notional faith, merely dreaming about being a disciple of Jesus, is to examine one's conscience, identify one's major faults, and practice self-denial as a means of repentance. He warns, however, that no one can be absolutely certain of their state (Newman had by 1833 moved away from Calvinism and dual predestination): "How then shall we try ourselves? Can any tests be named which will bring certainty to our minds on the subject? No indisputable tests can be given. We cannot know for certain. We must beware of an impatience about knowing what our real state is."

Nevertheless, we need to examine our consciences:

Reflect upon our Saviour's plain declarations, "Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." [Mark viii. 34.] "If any man come to Me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after Me, he cannot be My disciple." [Luke xiv. 26, 27.] "If thy hand offend thee, cut it off ... if thy foot offend thee, cut it off ... if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: ... it is better for thee to enter into life maimed ... halt ... with one eye than to be cast into hell." [Mark ix. 43-47.]

From such passages we learn that a rigorous self-denial is a chief duty, nay, that it may be considered the test whether we are Christ's disciples, whether we are living in a mere dream, which we mistake for Christian faith and obedience, or are really and truly awake, alive, living in the day, on our road heavenwards. The early Christians went through self-denials in their very profession of the Gospel; what are our self-denials, now that the profession of the Gospel is not a self-denial? In what sense do we fulfill the words of Christ? have we any distinct notion what is meant by the words "taking up our cross?" in what way are we acting, in which we should not act, supposing the Bible and the Church were unknown to this country, and religion, as existing among us, was merely a fashion of this world? What are we doing, which we have reason to trust is done for Christ's sake who bought us?

Newman emphasizes that this self-denial is a daily duty in obedience to Christ, and then he offers some practical advice to practice the virtue of self-denial everyday. It starts with knowing yourself enough to admit your "besetting infirmities", your worst faults:

Every one who is at all in the habit of examining himself, must be conscious of such within him. Many men have more than one, all of us have some one or other; and in resisting and overcoming such, self-denial has its first employment. One man is indolent and fond of amusement, another man is passionate or ill-tempered, another is vain, another has little control over his tongue; others are weak, and cannot resist the ridicule of thoughtless companions; others are tormented with bad passions, of which they are ashamed, yet are overcome. Now let every one consider what his weak point is; in that is his trial. His trial is not in those things which are easy to him, but in that one thing, in those several things, whatever they are, in which to do his duty is against his nature. Never think yourself safe because you do your duty in ninety-nine points; it is the hundredth which is to be the ground of your self-denial, which must evidence, or rather instance and realize your faith.

Newman proposes a daily sacrifice of our normal desires to help us know that we are not dreaming, but awake:

Make some sacrifice, do some distasteful thing, which you are not actually obliged to do, (so that it be lawful,) to bring home to your mind that in fact you do love your Saviour, that you do hate sin, that you do hate your sinful nature, that you have put aside the present world. Thus you will have an evidence (to a certain point) that you are not using mere words. It is easy to make professions, easy to say fine things in speech or in writing, easy to astonish men with truths which they do not know, and sentiments which rise above human nature. "But thou, O servant of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." (1 Timothy 6:11) Let not your words run on. Try yourself daily in little deeds, to prove that your faith is more than a deceit.

In the conclusion to this sermon, not included in The Tears of Christ, Newman acknowledges that this is hard to do, and indeed, may be a lifetime's work that requires God's grace:

I am aware all this is a hard doctrine; hard to those even who assent to it, and can describe it most accurately. There are such imperfections, such inconsistencies in the heart and life of even the better sort of men, that continual repentance must ever go hand in hand with our endeavors to obey. Much we need the grace of Christ's blood to wash us from the guilt we daily incur; much need we the aid of His promised Spirit! And surely He will grant all the riches of His mercy to His true servants; but as surely He will vouchsafe to none of us the power to believe in Him, and the blessedness of being one with Him, who are not as earnest in obeying Him as if salvation depended on themselves.

Whether in Advent or in Lent, or in any other liturgical season, Newman's counsel is well taken!

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Image Credit (public domain): Andrea di Bartolo, Way to Calvary, c. 1400. The cluster of halos at the left are the Virgin Mary in front, with the Three Marys.