If it's Matt--and it just might be since I've been talking to Anna the past three weeks--it would be appropriate since he works for the Coming Home Network, helping pastors and family members on their journeys to the Catholic Church. Newman's example as a convert and then as one aiding those who wanted to become Catholics will be essential to his role as a canonized saint. I quoted that passage from the 1865 edition of the Apologia pro Vita Sua a couple of weeks ago in which he noted some difficulties he had with certain Catholic teachings but then stated: "I had no difficulty in believing [them], as soon as I believed that the Catholic Roman Church was the oracle of God, and that she had declared this doctrine to be part of the original revelation.
That's a statement so clear that "cradle" Catholics, baptized and initiated throughout their childhoods should meditate upon it. Do I believe that the "Catholic Roman Church" is the oracle of God, teaching His revelation? As a late great friend of mine commented in another context, if I believe that I receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ at Mass in the Catholic Church, how can I dissent from other Church teaching, like against abortion, contraception, and euthanasia? Once I believe she is the sure guide and teacher of God's revelation, I believe her and accept her authority, based upon the Word God, the Holy Bible and the Apostolic Tradition. Newman's faith is a great model to follow in a skeptical and unbelieving world for those who came to the Catholic Church from other faith communities, those who converted, and those who grew up Catholic.
Newman studied and read himself into the Catholic Roman Church mainly through reading the Fathers of the Church and then seeing their teaching handed on through the ages until his own day. As Father Ian Ker says in his Newman on Vatican II, he was a historical theologian. Newman is one of the great guides to Church History. He acknowledges all the failures and failings of the members of the Church at the same time he has great faith and confidence of the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Church, keeping her from error in teaching on morals and doctrine.
Another great significance to Newman's canonization is the role of Mother Mary Angelica's EWTN: both miracles obtained by his intercession were requested by Catholics in the United States of America who had come to know Newman because of programming on EWTN!
1. God was all-complete, all-blessed in Himself; but it was His will to create a world for His glory. He is Almighty, and might have done all things Himself, but it has been His will to bring about His purposes by the beings He has created. We are all created to His glory—we are created to do His will. I am created to do something or to be something for which no one else is created; I have a place in God's counsels, in God's world, which no one else has; whether I be rich or poor, despised or esteemed by man, God knows me and calls me by my name.
2. God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission—I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his—if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.
3. Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it; He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide the future from me—still He knows what He is about.
O Adonai, O Ruler of Israel, Thou that guidest Joseph like a flock, O Emmanuel, O Sapientia, I give myself to Thee. I trust Thee wholly. Thou art wiser than I—more loving to me than I myself. Deign to fulfil Thy high purposes in me whatever they be—work in and through me. I am born to serve Thee, to be Thine, to be Thy instrument. Let me be Thy blind instrument. I ask not to see—I ask not to know—I ask simply to be used. Amen.
Blessed John Henry Newman, pray for us!
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