Preview: Newman and the Greek Church Fathers: the Sacraments

On Monday, October 7, we're going to continue our Son Rise Morning Show discussion, based on Father Ian Ker's introduction to the Paulist Press collection of Selected Sermons of Saint John Henry Newman, of how his study of the Greek Fathers of the Church influenced Newman in his theology and that influence on his sermons. 

As a reminder, the first three topics we've discussed are: The Incarnation, The Resurrection and Ascension, and the Indwelling of the Spirit/Justification. Our topic on Monday, October 7 is Sacraments. Please tune in at my usual time, about 6:50 a.m. Central DST/7:50 a.m. Eastern DST here or catch the podcast later.

Just to provide some context: As an University of Oxford student and Fellow and Anglican minister, Newman had sworn to uphold the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England. Under those articles, there were only TWO Sacraments: Baptism and The Supper of the Lord, according to Article 25, "Of the Sacraments":

SACRAMENTS ordained of Christ be not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather they be certain sure witnesses, and effectual signs of grace, and God's good will towards us, by the which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our Faith in him.

There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel, that is to say, Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord.

Those five commonly called Sacraments, that is to say, Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and extreme Unction, are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel, being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles, partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures; but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, for that they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God.

The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about, but that we should duly use them. And in such only as worthily receive the same they have a wholesome effect or operation: but they that receive them unworthily purchase to themselves damnation, as Saint Paul saith.

This article clearly separates the Church of England from the Catholic Church, East and West and the Eastern Orthodox Churches (where the Sacraments are more commonly called the Mysteries), and also clearly removes the sacrificial aspect of the Supper of the Lord by eliminating the priestly role of its ministers. And the Church of England also rejects the doctrine of Transubstantiation. We've dealt with the issue of how Newman accepted the Catholic Church's doctrines about the Mass, Holy Communion, and Transubstantiation through his conversion before, when we examined Newman's PPS "The Eucharistic Presence" in April this year. 

Where did Newman find this lesson about the Sacraments or the Mysteries from the Greek Fathers? Certainly the mystagogy of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Saint Ambrose of Milan, and Saint John Chrysostom, etc., played a part. Saints Augustine of Hippo and Maximus the Confessor also presented instructions to the neophytes after their reception of the Sacraments of Initiation. Having received the mysteries/sacraments, they could be told more about what they had received and how to respond to those graces. Living the Mysteries: A Guide for Unfinished Christians by Scott Hahn and Mike Aquilina is an excellent introduction to these catecheses.

In his introduction, Father Ker provides a hinge between the Indwelling of the Spirit and the Sacraments with this question, "But how do we receive this Presence and enter into this loving relationship?" and the answer Newman learned from the Greek Fathers, " . . . the Sacraments were the concrete means of our union with God." (p. 38). 

As he had left behind the Calvinist doctrine of double predestination, Newman had also accepted the doctrine of the salvific, regenerative effect of Baptism (even Infant Baptism! in an 1828 sermon) after he had served as an Anglican deacon at Saint Clement's near Oxford. Thus, he writes in a 1835 PPS, "Regenerating Baptism" that Christ,

Though He now sits on the right hand of God, He has, in one sense, never left the world since He first entered it; for, by the ministration of the Holy Ghost, He is really present with us in an unknown way, and ever imparts Himself to those who seek Him. Even when visibly on earth He, the Son of Man, was still "in heaven;" and now, though He is ascended on high, He is still on earth. And as He is still with us, for all that He is in heaven, so, again, is the hour of His cross and passion ever mystically present, though it be past these eighteen hundred years. Time and space have no portion in the spiritual Kingdom which He has founded; and the rites of His Church are as mysterious spells by which He annuls them both. . . . Thus Christ shines through [the Sacraments], as through transparent bodies, without impediment. He is the Light and Life of the Church, acting through it, dispensing of His fulness, knitting and compacting {278} together every part of it; and these its Mysteries are not mere outward signs, but (as it were) effluences of His grace developing themselves in external forms, as Angels might do when they appeared to men. He has touched them, and breathed upon them, when He ordained them; and thenceforth they have a virtue in them, which issues forth and encircles them round, till the eye of faith sees in them no element of matter at all. Once for all He hung upon the cross, and blood and water issued from His pierced side, but by the Spirit's ministration, the blood and water are ever flowing, as though His cross were really set up among us, and the baptismal water were but an outward image meeting our senses. Thus in a true sense that water is not what it was before, but is gifted with new and spiritual qualities. Not as if its material substance were changed, which our eyes see, or as if any new nature were imparted to it, but that the lifegiving Spirit, who could make bread of stones, and sustain animal life on dust and ashes, applies the blood of Christ through it; or according to the doctrine of the text, that He, and not man, is the baptizer.

Father Ker quotes this long passage from "Worship, A Preparation for Christ's Coming", calling it "magnificently mysterious":

And what is true of the ordinary services of religion, public and private, holds in a still higher or rather in a special way, as regards the sacramental ordinances of the Church. In these is manifested in greater or less degree, according to the measure of each, that Incarnate Saviour, who is one day to be our Judge, and who is enabling us to bear His presence then, by imparting it to us in measure now. A thick black veil is spread between this world and the next. We mortal men range up and down it, to and fro, and see nothing. There is no access through it into the next world. In the Gospel this veil is not removed; it remains, but every now and then marvellous disclosures are made to us of what is behind it. At times we seem to catch a glimpse of a Form which we shall hereafter see face to face. We approach, and in spite of the darkness, our hands, or our head, or our brow, or our lips become, as it were, sensible of the contact of something more than earthly. We know not where we are, but we have been bathing in water, and a voice tells us that it is blood. {11} Or we have a mark signed upon our foreheads, and it spake of Calvary. Or we recollect a hand laid upon our heads, and surely it had the print of nails in it, and resembled His who with a touch gave sight to the blind and raised the dead. Or we have been eating and drinking; and it was not a dream surely, that One fed us from His wounded side, and renewed our nature by the heavenly meat He gave. Thus in many ways He, who is Judge to us, prepares us to be judged,—He, who is to glorify us, prepares us to be glorified, that He may not take us unawares; but that when the voice of the Archangel sounds, and we are called to meet the Bridegroom, we may be ready.

In addition to the bolded passages in which Newman emphasizes the presence of Jesus in the Sacraments, I've highlighted in italics how Newman emphasized what we Catholics usually call the Precious Blood of Christ and how It washes us clean. 

In the two Sacraments accepted by the Church of England Newman saw--through his study of the Fathers--how personally and fully God reaches out to the Christian. He even notes a distinction between the Holy Bible as "a common possession" that "speaks to one man as much and as little to his neighbor" and the Sacraments as "sensible tokens of God's favour", personally received as required by human nature (which God created). (Justification, 323)

Once a Catholic Newman began to receive the other Sacraments, starting with his Confession to Blessed Dominic Barberi, his first Holy Communion, his Confirmation (1845), his Ordination (1847), and Extreme Unction on his deathbed (1890). And as a Catholic priest, he celebrated Holy Mass, baptized infants and others, heard Confessions, officiated at weddings, and anointed the sick and the dying. The Fathers prepared him for the fullness of these "concrete means of our union with God."

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, pray for us!

Saint Ambrose of Milan, pray for us!

Saint John Chrysostom, pray for us!

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us!

Random Excerpts from Newman's PPS and Catholic Sermons

At the end of my post on the Indwelling of the Spirit, Part II on Friday, September 27 for my Son Rise Morning Show spot this morning, I commented:

What Newman learned from the Fathers of the Church about the Indwelling of the Spirit and deification he poured into his sermons and his pastoral care as both an Anglican minister and a Catholic priest, urging his congregations to be aware of this indwelling and be willing to cooperate with its Grace and inspiration for the faith, hope, and charity it imparted.

After doing so, I thought of examples I could post to demonstrate that assertion and went to four sermons from the first four volumes of eight published Parochial and Plain Sermons, finding these statements:

Example One: PPS Volume 1, Sermon 16. The Christian Mysteries

Therefore, if we feel the necessity of coming to Christ, yet the difficulty, let us recollect that the gift of coming is in God's hands, and that we must pray Him to give it to us. Christ does not merely tell us, that we cannot come of ourselves (though this He does tell us), but He tells us also with whom the power of coming is lodged, with His Father,—that we may seek it of Him. It is true, religion has an austere appearance to those who never have tried it; its doctrines full of mystery, its precepts of harshness; so that it is uninviting, offending different men in different ways, but in some way offending all. When then we feel within us the risings of this opposition to Christ, proud aversion to His Gospel, or {214} a low-minded longing after this world, let us pray God to draw us; and though we cannot move a step without Him, at least let us try to move. He looks into our hearts and sees our strivings even before we strive, and He blesses and strengthens even our feebleness. Let us get rid of curious and presumptuous thoughts by going about our business, whatever it is; and let us mock and baffle the doubts which Satan whispers to us by acting against them. No matter whether we believe doubtingly or not, or know clearly or not, so that we act upon our belief. The rest will follow in time; part in this world, part in the next. Doubts may pain, but they cannot harm, unless we give way to them; and that we ought not to give way, our conscience tells us, so that our course is plain. And the more we are in earnest to "work out our salvation," the less shall we care to know how those things really are, which perplex us. At length, when our hearts are in our work, we shall be indisposed to take the trouble of listening to curious truths (if they are but curious), though we might have them explained to us. For what says the Holy Scripture? that of speculations "there is no end," and they are "a weariness to the flesh;" but that we must "fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man." [Eccles. xii. 12, 13.]

Example Two: PPS Volume 2, Sermon 14. Saving Knowledge

To know God is life eternal, and to believe in the Gospel manifestation of Him is to know Him; but how are we to "know that we know Him?" How are we to be sure that we are not mistaking some dream of our own for the true and clear Vision? How can we tell we are not like gazers upon a distant prospect through a misty atmosphere, who mistake one object for another? The text answers us clearly and intelligibly; though some Christians have recourse to other proofs of it, or will not have patience to ask themselves the question. They say they are quite certain that they have true faith; for faith carries with it its own evidence, and admits of no mistaking, the true spiritual conviction being unlike all others. On the other hand, St. John says, "Hereby do we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments." Obedience is the test of Faith.

Thus the whole duty and work of a Christian is made up of these two parts, Faith and Obedience; "looking unto Jesus," the Divine Object as well as Author of our faith, and acting according to His will. Not as if a certain frame of mind, certain notions, affections, feelings, and tempers, were not a necessary condition of a saving state; but, so it is, the Apostle does not insist upon it, as if it were sure to follow, if our hearts do but grow into these two chief objects, the view of God in Christ and the diligent aim to obey Him in our conduct. {154}

 Example Three: PPS Volume 3, Sermon 9. A Particular Providence as Revealed in the Gospel

These are the meditations which come upon the Christian to console him, while he is with Christ upon the holy mount. And, when he descends to his daily duties, they are still his inward strength, though he is not allowed to tell the vision to those around him. They make his countenance to shine, make him cheerful, collected, serene, and firm in the midst of all temptation, persecution, or bereavement. And with such thoughts before us, how base and miserable does the world appear in all its pursuits and doctrines! How truly miserable does it seem to seek good from the creature; to covet station, wealth, or credit; to choose for ourselves, in fancy, this or that mode of life; to affect the manners and fashions of the great; to spend our time in follies; to be discontented, quarrelsome, jealous or envious, censorious or resentful; fond of unprofitable talk, and eager for the news of the day; busy about public matters which concern us not; hot in the cause of this or that interest or party; or set upon gain; or devoted to the {127} increase of barren knowledge! And at the end of our days, when flesh and heart fail, what will be our consolation, though we have made ourselves rich, or have served an office, or been the first man among our equals, or have depressed a rival, or managed things our own way, or have settled splendidly, or have been intimate with the great, or have fared sumptuously, or have gained a name! Say, even if we obtain that which lasts longest, a place in history, yet, after all, what ashes shall we have eaten for bread! And, in that awful hour, when death is in sight, will He, whose eye is now so loving towards us, and whose hand falls on us so gently, will He acknowledge us any more? or, if He still speaks, will His voice have any power to stir us? rather will it not repel us, as it did Judas, by the very tenderness with which it would invite us to Him?

Example Four: PPS Volume 4, Sermon 12. The Church a Home for the Lonely

May thoughts like these, my brethren, sink deep into your hearts, and bring forth good fruit in holiness and {199} constancy of obedience. Whatever has been your past life, whether (blessed be God) you have never trusted aught but God's sacred light within you, or whether you have trusted the world and it has failed you, God's mercies in Christ are here offered to you in full abundance. Come to Him for them; approach him in the way He has appointed, and you shall find Him, as He has said, upon His Holy Hill of Zion. Let not your past sins keep you from Him. Whatever they be, they cannot interfere with His grace stored up for all who come to Him for it. If you have in past years neglected Him, perchance you will have to suffer for it; but fear not; He will give you grace and strength to bear such punishment as He may be pleased to inflict. Let not the thought of His just severity keep you at a distance. He can make even pain pleasant to you. Keeping from Him is not to escape from His power, only from His love. Surrender yourselves to him in faith and holy fear. He is All-merciful, though All-righteous; and though He is awful in His judgments, He is nevertheless more wonderfully pitiful, and of tender compassion above our largest expectations; and in the case of all who humbly seek him, He will in "wrath remember mercy."

And then, looking at a couple of the Catholic sermons he wrote (otherwise, he used notes for his homilies at the Birmingham Oratory):

Example One: Faith and Prejudice, The Calls of Grace:

And if you are conscious that your hearts are hard, and are desirous that they should be softened, do not despair. All things are possible to you, through God's grace. Come to Him for the will and the power to do that to which He calls you. He never forsakes anyone who calls upon him. He never puts any trial on a man but He gives Him grace to overcome it. Do not despair then; nay do not despond, even though you do come to Him, yet are not at once exalted to overcome yourselves. He gives grace by little and little. It is by coming daily into His presence, that by degrees we find ourselves awed by that presence and able to believe and obey Him. Therefore if any one desires illumination to know God's will as well as strength to do it, let him come to Mass daily, if he possibly can. At least let him present himself daily before the Blessed Sacrament, and, as it were, offer his heart to His Incarnate Saviour, presenting it as a reasonable offering to be influenced, changed and sanctified under the eye and by the grace of the Eternal Son. And let him every now and then through the day make some {51} short prayer or ejaculation, to the Lord and Saviour, and again to His Blessed Mother, the immaculate most Blessed Virgin Mary, or again to his guardian Angel, or to his Patron Saint. Let him now and then collect his mind and place himself, as if in heaven, in the presence of God; as if before God's throne; let him fancy he sees the All-Holy Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. These are the means by which, with God's grace, he will be able in course of time to soften his heart—not all at once, but by degrees; not by his own power or wisdom, but by the grace of God blessing his endeavour. Thus it is that Saints have begun. They have begun by these little things, and so become at length Saints. They were not saints all at once, but by little and little. And so we, who are not saints, must still proceed by the same road; by lowliness, patience, trust in God, recollection that we are in His presence, and thankfulness for His mercies.

Example Two: Discourses to Mixed Congregations, God's Will the End of Life:

The end of a thing is the test. It was our Lord's rejoicing in His last solemn hour, that He had done the work for which He was sent. "I have glorified Thee on earth," He says in His prayer, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do; I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world." It was St. Paul's consolation also; "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord shall render to me in that day, the just Judge". Alas! alas! how different will be our view of things when we come to die, or when we have passed into eternity, from the dreams and pretences with which we beguile ourselves now! What will Babel do for us then? Will it rescue our souls from the purgatory or the hell to which it sends them? If we were created, it was that we might serve God; if we have His gifts, it is that we may glorify Him; if we have a conscience, it is that we may obey it; if we have the prospect of heaven, it is that we may keep it before {122} us; if we have light, that we may follow it; if we have grace, that we may save ourselves by means of it. Alas! alas! for those who die without fulfilling their mission! who were called to be holy, and lived in sin; who were called to worship Christ, and who plunged into this giddy and unbelieving world; who were called to fight, and who remained idle; who were called to be Catholics, and who did but remain in the religion of their birth! Alas for those who have had gifts and talent, and have not used, or have misused, or abused them; who have had wealth, and have spent it on themselves; who have had abilities, and have advocated what was sinful, or ridiculed what was true, or scattered doubts against what was sacred; who have had leisure, and have wasted it on wicked companions, or evil books, or foolish amusements! Alas! for those, of whom the best that can be said is, that they are harmless and naturally blameless, while they never have attempted to cleanse their hearts or to live in God's sight!

In each excerpt there is a common call to acknowledge the objective truth of "God's mercies in Christ . . . here offered to you in full abundance" and our need to respond to those mercies with belief and obedience by "lowliness, patience, trust in God, recollection that we are in His presence, and thankfulness for His mercies." Newman warns his readers about the choices they face and the consequences of their choices, but emphasizes the mercy and forgiveness God has for the repentant sinner who believes and tries again.

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Preview: Newman and the Greek Fathers: Indwelling of the Spirit, Part II

On Monday, September 30, we'll conclude our discussion of Newman's discovery of the Greek Fathers's teaching on the Indwelling of the Spirit on the Son Rise Morning Show. Please tune in at my usual time, about 6:50 a.m. Central DST/7:50 a.m. Eastern DST here or catch the podcast later.

Reading the last paragraphs of Father Ker's discussion of how the Greek Fathers led Newman to the doctrine of the Indwelling of the Spirit reminded me of a July 2017 Eighth Day Institute event timed to coincide with the 500th anniversary of what is regarded as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation (Martin Luther's posting of his 95 Theses). 

The topic was "The Patristic View of Salvation: Justification by Faith Alone?" A Protestant (Lutheran) scholar, a Catholic scholar, and an Orthodox Christian scholar each presented and then responded to each other's academic papers on this subject, and other related papers were offered.

The odd thing was that we never really discussed, nor did anyone cogently defend, Martin Luther's doctrine of "Justification by Faith Alone"--in fact, we hardly mentioned it. That was because the representative speakers were reflecting on the "patristic view of salvation" so they spoke about Deification, not "Justification". The Director of Eighth Day Institute commented to members/attendees after the conference:

[The plenary speakers] all found the same emphasis of participation in Christ, or deification, as the Orthodox put it. . . . So while it was remarkable to see the united understanding of salvation as participation in Christ, that emphasis distracted us from the question of justification. I think there are two ways to look at this failure. On the one hand, it’s really not such a failure. The speakers heeded the admonition to return to the Fathers. And they just didn’t find much on the issue of justification. Instead, they found participation, union, and deification. And I mostly agree with all three speakers who indicated that this pre-Reformation emphasis on participation might be the way to get past the dividing issue of justification. . . .

Father Ker concurs that Newman found something similar when he studied the Greek Fathers. Newman had already changed his mind about the Calvinist doctrine of double predestination; moreover, Ker states that Newman "disagrees with Evangelicals who consider [the justification of the sinner] as a state, not of holiness or righteousness, but merely or mainly of acceptance with God'." (p. 36)

In addition to quoting several sermons ("The Law of the Spirit", "The State of Salvation", "The New Works of the Gospel", etc) Father Ker cites Newman's 1838 Lectures on Justification (reissued with an advertisement and corrective notes in 1874).

In a 1985 article for Christendom College, Richard Penaskovic called them a "forgotten classic" arguing that not only did Newman outline a Via Media for Tractarians between the Evangelical view and what he thought of as the "Romanist" view of Justification but he also offered a "powerful new synthesis of St. Paul and the Greek Fathers, especially St. Athanasius" to speak "of grace in highly personal categories" as it is present in the Christian heart and soul. Saint Augustine of Hippo, one of the four great Western Fathers, through his interpretations of Saint Paul's letters, was also an important influence on Newman.

Quoting these lectures, Father Ker sums up Newman's view on the indwelling of the Spirit as the source of the sanctification of the Christian, noting that he had rediscovered the "central New Testament doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, a doctrine that was second nature to the Eastern Fathers who knew nothing of the modern problem of justification":

"The presence of the Holy Ghost shed abroad in our hearts, the Author both of faith and renewal, this is really that which makes us righteous, and . . . our righteousness is the possession of that presence." Justification, then "is wrought by the power of the Spirit, or rather by His presence within us" while "faith and renewal are both present also, but as fruits of it" (Justification, pp. 137-138) . . . justification and renewal are "both included in that one great gift of God, the  indwelling of Christ" through the Holy Spirit "in the Christian soul" which constitutes "our justification and sanctification, as its necessary results" (ibid, p. 112) (Selected Sermons, p. 37)

What Newman learned from the Fathers of the Church about the Indwelling of the Spirit and deification he poured into his sermons and his pastoral care as both an Anglican minister and a Catholic priest, urging his congregations to be aware of this indwelling and be willing to cooperate with its Grace and inspiration for the faith, hope, and charity it imparted.

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!