Charity, in its twofold reality as love of God and neighbour, is the summing up of the moral life of the believer. It has in God its source and its goal” (n. 50). The following excerpts are selected reflections from Newman’s sermons on the theme of love.
Faith and Love
Newman says in his sermons, again and again, that we have been created to love. “We love because it is our nature to love; and it is our nature, because God the Holy Ghost has made it our nature” (PS[1] IV, 310). Love gives life sense and fulfilment. “This is our real and true bliss, not to know, or to affect, or to pursue; but to love, to hope, to joy, to admire, to revere, to adore. Our real and true bliss lies in the possession of those objects on which our hearts may rest and be satisfied” (PS V, 316).
Although Newman is aware of the pre-eminence of love, he preaches more frequently about faith than love. He is convinced that faith is the way to mature Christian love. Faith and hope are two “walking sticks” that help us to find the road to love and to advance along it.
“The first grace is faith, the last is love; first comes zeal, afterwards comes loving-kindness; first comes humiliation, then comes peace; first comes diligence, then comes resignation. May we learn to mature all graces in us; fearing and trembling, watching and repenting, because Christ is coming; joyful, thankful, and careless of the future, because He is come” (PS IV, 309).
On the other hand, love is the noblest of all God’s gifts since it never comes to an end. In this respect, as Newman shows in the sermon “Faith and Love” (1838), love surpasses even faith and hope. “Faith and hope are graces of an imperfect state, and they cease with that state; but love is greater, because it is perfection. Faith and hope are graces, as far as we belong to this world, – which is for a time; but love is a grace, because we are creatures of God whether here or elsewhere, and partakers in a redemption which is to last forever. Faith will not be when there is sight, nor hope when there is enjoyment; but love will (as we believe) increase more and more to all eternity” (PS IV, 309).
Love is the virtue that serves as the internal “motor” and driving force for all the other virtues. “We believe God’s word, because we love it; we hope after heaven, because we love it. We should not have any hope or concern about it, unless we loved it; we should not trust or confide in the God of heaven, unless we loved Him (PS IV, 309). Faith and hope must therefore be sealed and permeated by love if they are to remain before God. To live the faith in everyday life isn’t always easy; sometimes it requires the courage to “swim against the current”, and it always requires pain and effort. Some Christians have a certain distaste for sacrifice, self-denial, and duty. To the question of why this is sometimes the case, Newman gives this simple answer: “Clearly because we are deficient in love” (PS V, 336).
Finally, love leads to the goal of our earthly pilgrimage. Newman proclaims “that faith can put us above the world, but that love brings us under God’s throne; that faith can but make us sober, but love makes us happy” (PS IV, 317). Genuine love unites – perfectly in heaven, and in a preliminary way already here on earth. “It is charity wherein the Father and the Son are one in the unity of the Spirit; by which the Angels in heaven are one, by which all the Saints are one with God, by which the Church is one upon earth” (PS IV, 318).
Love of Neighbour
Cardinal Newman had a dislike for an understanding of love that remained in the theoretical and general, and that over-emphasized the importance of sentiments and feelings. In his sermon, “Love of Relatives and Friends” (1831), he opposed all those who talk much of love but are neglectful of their neighbour in their everyday duties. He calls it “foolishness”, when some “talk magnificently about loving the whole human race with a comprehensive affection, of being the friends of all mankind, and the like. Such vaunting professions, what do they come to? that such men have certain benevolent feelings towards the world, – feelings and nothing more; – nothing more than unstable feelings, the mere offspring of an indulged imagination, which exist only when the minds are wrought upon, and are sure to fail them in the hour of need. This is not to love men, it is but to talk about love” (PS II, 55).
Genuine love for mankind exhibits itself in the accomplishment of concrete acts, beginning with our neighbour, whose strengths and weaknesses, merits and eccentricities are all too well known to us. “The real love of man must depend on practice, and therefore, must begin by exercising itself on our friends around us, otherwise it will have no existence. By trying to love our relations and friends, by submitting to their wishes, though contrary to our own, by bearing with their infirmities, by overcoming their occasional waywardness with kindness, by dwelling on their excellencies, and trying to copy them, thus it is that we form in our hearts that root of charity, which, though small at first, may, like the mustard seed, at last even overshadow the earth” (PS II, 57). “Domestic affections” are quite simply a school of self-denial. Fitting in with a concrete community and living daily together with other people requires acts of self-denial. Such acts make love strong and steadfast.
Newman takes the Apostle John, who more than any other made love the centre of his life and work, as an example of mature charity. “Now did he begin with some vast effort at loving on a large scale? Nay, he had the unspeakable privilege of being the friend of Christ.. Thus he was taught to love others; first his affection was concentrated, then it was expanded. Next he had the solemn and comfortable charge of tending our Lord’s Mother, the Blessed Virgin, after His departure. Do we not here discern the secret sources of his especial love of the brethren? Could he, who first was favoured with his Saviour’s affection, then trusted with a son’s office towards His Mother, could he be other than a memorial and pattern (as far as man can be), of love, deep, contemplative, fervent, unruffled, unbounded?” (PS II, 56).
Newman was vehemently opposed to religious currents in which “feelings” played too great a roll. That does not mean, however, that he proclaimed or cultivated an unfeeling love. On the contrary, in his sermon, “St. Paul’s Gift of Sympathy” (1857), he presents the way in which the Apostle of the Gentiles was filled with a sincere and compassionate love for the people, and how precisely through that love he was able to conquer their hearts. By the working of grace within him, the human element was not suppressed, but rather sanctified, ennobled, and perfected.
Paul is exemplary in the realization of charity, a love simultaneously human and divine. He who lived in deep inner union with Christ was also filled with a deep human love for his friends and fellow workers. He longed to see them, he suffered with them, he was deeply grieved by the unfaithfulness of some of them. He possessed a subtle empathy that showed itself through sincerity in his relations, and delicacy and tact in his behaviour. “He, in a word, who is the special preacher of Divine Grace, is also the special friend and intimate of human nature. He who reveals to us the mystery of God’s sovereign Decrees, manifests at the same time the tenderest interest in the souls of individuals” (OS, 116).
In a letter to his Anglican friend, John Keble, Newman wrote: “The first duty of charity is to try to enter into the mind and feelings of others”[2].
This is, naturally, only possible when our relationships towards others are pervaded with respect and reverence. “No one really loves another, who does not feel a certain reverence towards him. When friends transgress this sobriety of affection, they may indeed continue associates for a time, but they have broken the bond of union. It is mutual respect which makes friendship lasting” (PS I, 304).
Love and Truth
Newman exposes the distortion of the concept of love found in religious liberalism. Characteristic of this is, for example, his sermon, “Tolerance of Religious Error” (1834), wherein he proceeds from the general maxim that when we place ourselves and not God in the centre, we tend easily towards one-sided attitudes. “Be our mind as heavenly as it may be, most loving, most holy, most zealous, most energetic, most peaceful, yet if we look off from Him for moment, and look towards ourselves, at once these excellent tempers fall into some extreme or mistake. Charity becomes over-easiness, holiness is tainted with spiritual pride, zeal degenerates into fierceness, activity eats up the spirit of prayer, hope is heightened into presumption” (PS II, 279).
Newman is of the opinion that it is relatively simple to cultivate individual virtues, particularly when they lie within the trend of the time. One such easily exercised virtue is generosity. Indeed, many hold this noble virtue in high esteem, but they neglect its complementary virtues of firmness of principle and faithfulness to truth, and so they tend not only towards error but also to the toleration of error. In John the Apostle, love of man and fervour for truth are united in an exemplary manner, and that is why Newman puts him before the eyes of Christians as a pattern and model. “So far were his fervour and exuberance of charity from interfering with his zeal for God that rather, the more he loved men, the more he desired to bring before them the great unchangeable Verities to which they could submit, if they would see life, and on which a weak indulgence suffers them to shut their eyes. He loved the brethren, but he ‘loved them in truth’ (3 Jn 1). He loved them for the Living Truth’s sake which had redeemed them, for the Truth which was in them, for the Truth which was the measure of their spiritual attainments. He loved the Church so honestly, that he was stern towards those who troubled her. He loved the world so wisely, that he preached the Truth in it; yet, if men rejected it, he did not love them so inordinately as to forget the supremacy of the Truth, as the Word of Him who is above all” (PS II, 285ff).
Newman saw realistically that in his time there were many who followed John in his kindness and friendliness, but only a few who bore within them his zeal for the Faith. He complained that these Christians only recognized God as a “God of love” and not, at the same time, as a “consuming fire” (Heb 12:29). That is why it is not unusual “that they ungird their loins and become effeminate; no wonder that their ideal notion of a perfect Church, is a Church which lets everyone go on his way, and disclaims any right to pronounce an opinion, much less inflict a censure on religious error” (PS II, 289).
This concept of love, marked by religious liberalism, which is not only to be found in Newman’s time but which is also widespread today, cannot, according to Newman, be reconciled with the history of salvation. It contradicts the love with which God loves man; it contradicts the love with which man is called to answer God’s love. Newman exhorts those who listen to him: “Here then lies our want at the present day, for this we must pray, – that a reform may come in the spirit and power of Elias. We must pray thus ‘to revive His work in the midst of the years’; to send us a severe Discipline, in the Order of St. Paul and St. John, ‘speaking the Truth in love’ and ‘loving in the Truth’, – …Then only will Christians be successful in the fight…when they…are loving in the midst of firmness, strictness, and holiness” (PS II, 289ff).
Love and Grace
Newman was against all superficial and one-sided talk of love. He often showed that only those who made concrete acts of faith, and prayed fervently to receive this great gift from God, would grow and mature in the genuine love of God and neighbour, for only the grace already given seminally in baptism enables us to truly love.
And that is why Newman prays: “My God, Thou knowest infinitely better than I, how little I love Thee. I should not love Thee at all, except for Thy grace. It is Thy grace which has opened the eyes of my mind, and enabled them to see Thy glory. It is Thy grace which has touched my heart, and brought upon it the influence of what is so wonderfully beautiful and fair. How can I help loving Thee, O my Lord, except by some dreadful perversion, which hinders me from looking at Thee? O my God, whatever is nearer to me than Thou, things of this earth, and things more naturally pleasing to me, will be sure to interrupt the sight of Thee, unless Thy grace interfere. Keep Thou my eyes, my ears, my heart, from such miserable tyranny. Break my bonds – raise my heart. Keep my whole being fixed on Thee. Let me never lose sight of Thee, let my love of Thee grow more and more every day”[3].
[1] Parochial and Plain Sermons (= PS I – VIII), Sermons Preached on Various Occasions (=OS), Christian Classics, 1966-1968.
[2] The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman, Vol. XXII, ed. Charles Stephen Dessain, London 1972, 69.
[3] Meditations and Devotions, Christian Classica, Westminster 1975, 3.