Faith opens up for us the mystery of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, the Saviour who wishes to call all men to Himself. The introduction to belief and the accompaniment of man on his journey of faith was something close to John Henry Newman’s heart throughout his multifaceted pastoral activities. The following quotations from his writings, above all from his sermons, may illustrate this.
What is faith?
“The essence of Faith is to look out of ourselves; now, consider what manner of a believer he is who imprisons himself in his own thoughts, and rests on the workings of his own mind, and thinks of his Saviour as an idea of his imagination, instead of putting self aside, and living upon Him who speaks in the Gospels” (PPS II 161f)[1].
Faith is the divine virtue that lifts us up beyond our individual egos and, as it were, places us in a new world. Faith is “the chosen instrument connecting heaven and earth” (US 177)[2]. The believer can leave behind his own wishes, feelings and ideas. He is ready to be called by God out of the confines of his own world and to enter into the invisible, but real realm of God. Faith has a transforming power. Someone who used to listen only to himself becomes one who listens to God. Someone who desires to follow his own path may turn into one who longs to be led by God. “This is the true spirit of faith: to wait upon God, to watch for and to follow His guidance, not to attempt to go before Him” (PPS III 8).
Faith is a relationship of a person to God. This act of trusting in God, however, the person’s surrender to him, is more than a mere relation. Faith has a specific content, truths revealed by God. A Christian of faith assents with all his being to “a definite deposit”, that was “put into his hands at his baptism, in a form of words called the Creed” (cf. PPS II 256). Faith is the assent of the whole person to the events of salvation history, realities, the essence of which is expressed by the Church in formulae that can be professed and taught and are to mark our lives. “When men realize a truth, it becomes an influential principle within them, and leads to a number of consequences both in opinion and in conduct” (PPS VI 263).
In faith man responds to supernatural revelation in the power of grace and in freedom. In the strength of this divine virtue, he obeys the Word of God with understanding and will, in word and deed. Faith and obedience are so closely related that Newman says in a sermon: “For not a single act of faith can be named but what has in it the nature of obedience… In proportion as a man believes, so he obeys; they come together, and grow together, and last through life” (PPS III 85f). And in another passage he impresses upon his listeners: “Revelation puts us on a trial…: the trial of obeying for obedience-sake, or on Faith” (US 172).
How do we arrive at belief?
Faith cannot be achieved by man’s own power. It is a gift of divine grace. It is a “supernatural principle” (US 193). For grace to develop and mature, two prerequisites are necessary, in addition to grace: a testimony coming from without and the inner disposition that permits a free reception of the witness of revelation. Certainly, the inner prerequisites for faith are very important for Newman.
In his understanding they are more of a moral than of a merely intellectual nature. They originate from the inner man, if he is willing to listen to the small voice of his conscience. Conscience gives man commands to which he has to pay attention.
“And, from the nature of the case, its very existence carries on our minds to a Being exterior to ourselves; for else whence did it come? and to a Being superior to ourselves; else whence its strange, troublesome peremptoriness? I say, without going on to the question what it says, and whether its particular dictates are always as clear and consistent as they might be, its very existence throws us out of ourselves, and beyond ourselves, to go and seek for Him in the height and depth, whose Voice it is” (SVO 65).
Newman knew that someone who seeks to listen to his conscience loses his complacency. He realizes how imperfect he is and how often he falls into sin. His conscience makes him aware of his guilt, but cannot take it from him. “For all these reasons then, – because he feels his ignorance, because he feels his guilt and danger, – a religious man who has not the blessing of revelation, will be on the look-out for revelation” (SVO 67f).
The Oxford sermons demonstrate Newman’s conviction that obedience to the commands of conscience is the way to a firm belief in revelation. He invites his hearers: “Let us but obey God’s voice in our hearts, and I will venture to say we shall have no doubts practically formidable about the truth of Scripture” (PPS I 201). “Only follow your own sense of right, and you will gain from that very obedience to your Maker, which natural conscience enjoins, a conviction of the truth and power of that Redeemer whom a supernatural message has revealed” (PPS VIII 120).
By conscience Newman does not mean a mere fancy of man, nor the voice of his ego, nor a judgment influenced by subjective wishes. Conscience has nothing to do with opinion or arbitrariness. It signifies “the dutiful obedience to what claims to be a divine voice, speaking within us” (Diff II 255)[3]. True obedience to this voice had led Newman to the communion of the Catholic Church. Some thirty years later he wrote: “Never have I since 1845 for a moment hesitated in my conviction that it was my clear duty to join, as I did then join, that Catholic Church, which in my own conscience I felt to be divine” (Diff II 349).
From his own experience Newman is convinced that in conscience God himself speaks to man, even though as if from behind a veil. The more someone sincerely and willingly listens to the small voice in his inmost self, obeying it, the louder and clearer it becomes. “There is a voice within us, which assures us that there is something higher than earth. We cannot analyze, define, contemplate what it is that thus whispers to us. It has no shape or material form… And this yearning of our nature is met and sustained, it finds an object to rest upon, when it hears of the existence of an All-powerful, All-gracious Creator. It incites us to a noble faith in what we cannot see” (PPS VI 339f).
What is the fruit of faith?
The gift of faith is not given to man only to enlighten his intellect and enable him to enter the realm of God, but also to open his heart to the gift of salvation. Revelation took place for our salvation. When we respond to it in faith, it will not only give us insight, but also transform us interiorly. The truth of the Gospel is given to us “as creatures, as sinners, as men, as immortal beings, not as mere reasoners, disputers, or philosophical inquirers. It teaches what we are, whither we are going, what we must do, how we must do it” (PPS I 203f).
It would be wrong to think that faith consists merely in pleasant sentiments or interesting musings. It will impress on us our duty. It ought to take shape in concrete acts, bearing fruit: “Let us do our duty as it presents itself; this is the secret of true faith and peace” (PPS II 160f). As a wise judge of the human soul Newman speaks about the gap between our wishing to do and our actual doing: “Doing is at a far greater distance from intending to do than you at first sight imagine” (PPS I 117). The keystone of faith is thus not the good feeling or the fine thought but the concrete act by which man responds to the word and work of God.
The more someone’s faith is expressed in concrete deeds, the more that person becomes steadfast in spirit. Faith secures access to the power and glory of God, it opens the heart to the divine gifts, it makes us able to achieve what – humanly speaking – is beyond our strength. “True faith does not covet comforts” (PPS V 2), rather it is “ever eager and on the watch, with quick eyes and ears, for tokens of God’s will” (PPS III 109) and at the same time “unassuming, modest, thankful, obedient” (PPS I 211). Whoever leaves himself behind and in faith is looking up to God, will also find a way to his neighbour. Hence, it is “a principal characteristic of faith to be careful for others more than for self” (PPS III 7). True faith is sustained by love and culminates in love.
Thus faith turns into fortitude, which directs man on the way of holiness. “Faith is the element of all perfection; he who begins with faith, will end in unspotted and entire holiness… He who believes has not yet perfect righteousness and unblameableness, but he has the first fruits of it” (PPS V 159).
Holiness does not mean anything extraordinary for Newman, not the ability to perform miracles or to utter prophecy, it has nothing to do with special talents or gifts. Holiness is the vocation and goal of all the faithful. It is faith that has come to full maturity, having grown into a strong hope and ardent love. Holiness is faith that is lived in the presence of God. Cardinal Newman prayed for this faith once in these words:
“O my God, Thou dost over-abound in mercy! To live by faith is my necessity, from my present state of being and from my sin; but Thou hast pronounced a blessing on it. Thou hast said that I am more blessed if I believe on Thee, than if I saw Thee. Give me to share that blessedness, give it to me in its fullness. Enable me to believe as if I saw; let me have Thee always before me as if Thou wert always bodily and sensibly present. Let me ever hold communion with Thee, my hidden, but my living God. Thou art in my innermost heart. Thou art the life of my life. Every breath I breathe, every thought of my mind, every good desire of my heart, is from the presence within me of the unseen God. By nature and by grace Thou art in me. I see Thee not in the material world except dimly, but I recognise Thy voice in my own intimate consciousness. I turn round and say Rabboni. O be ever thus with me; and if I am tempted to leave Thee, do not Thou, O my God, leave me!”[4]
[1] Parochial and Plain Sermons (= PPS I-VIII), Sermons Preached on Various Occasion (SVO), Christian Classics, Westminster 1966-1968.
[2] US = University Sermons, Rivingtons, London 1890.
[3] Diff II = Difficulties of Anglicans II, Christian Classics, Westminster 1969.
[4] Meditations and Devotions, Christian Classics, Westminster 1975, 362.