Читать книгу Seeking God with Saint John Henry Newman - Ryan J. Marr - Страница 7

To get the most out of this book, you will want to maintain as reference points two mottoes that Newman adopted as guiding principles in his life. The first is “Life is for action.” For Newman, this motto was a reminder that to accomplish great things, we sometimes have to venture beyond what we can prove at any given time. Our culture tends to value skepticism. It’s commonly asserted that one should not accept as true what cannot be proven with absolute certainty. Newman, however, recognized that if we waited until every intellectual hurdle was cleared away before we acted, we would never accomplish anything: “Life is not long enough for a religion of inferences,” he wrote; “we shall never have done beginning, if we determine to begin with proof. We shall ever be laying our foundations. … Life is for action. If we insist on proofs for everything, we shall never come to action: to act you must assume, and that assumption is faith.”⁶ Here I must address a possible misunderstanding. When Newman mentions being motivated by faith, he does not have in mind taking a blind leap or acting contrary to reason. Faith is not unreasonable, but neither can it be constrained within the limitations of reason. When it comes to following God’s call, sometimes we are forced to act prior to having all of our difficulties resolved, and then it is only after acting — after practicing obedience — that the reasons of faith begin to make sense to us.

As Newman says, “Ten thousand difficulties do not [add up to] one doubt.”⁷ Though it’s important to struggle with the difficulties that faith raises for us, they need not, should not, prevent us from acting or cause us to descend into a hopeless state of doubt. Again, life is for action. To accomplish great things, we must make “ventures of faith … [yet] without the absolute certainty of success.”⁸ Newman continues: “This, indeed, is the very meaning of the word ‘venture;’ for that is a strange venture which has nothing in it of fear, risk, danger, anxiety, uncertainty.”⁹ So, as you read this book, if you find yourself struggling with doubts or anxiety, keep in mind Newman’s counsel. Resolve not to allow doubts or fear of failure to prevent you from a venture of faith, “for nothing would be done at all, if [we] waited till [we] could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.”¹⁰ Like Abraham, we have to be willing to journey to an unfamiliar place if we are to discover all that God has prepared for us to accomplish. If Newman’s spiritual wisdom is going to bear fruit in your life, you must be willing to act on the convictions that well up within you before you necessarily see the whole picture.

Another motto that Newman adopted and held dear was “Holiness before peace.” On the surface, this second motto can appear confusing. Are not holiness and peace both vital aspects of life in Christ? Why prioritize one (holiness) over the other (peace)? To understand what Newman had in mind with this motto, we have to grasp precisely how he was using the term “peace.” “Peace” can refer to a fruit of the spirit (see Gal 5:22). This kind of peace is always good and should be pursued by all Christians, regardless of their circumstances. “Have no anxiety about anything,” Paul exhorts the Christians at Philippi, “but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6–7). Supernatural peace is promised to us in Scripture, so when this peace is lacking, we should renew our efforts to cast all of our anxiety upon God (see 1 Pt 5:7).

But there is another way that we use the word “peace,” and that is as “the absence of conflict.” While acknowledging that Christians are called to live at peace with their neighbors, Newman also saw that the desire for peace can sometimes be used as an excuse for avoiding necessary conflict. For example, we may remain quiet about our faith in certain circles because we fear losing friends who do not share our convictions. Or perhaps we cut corners at work and sacrifice our integrity for the sake of keeping a job. In such instances, we are opting for “peace” — the absence of conflict — over holiness.

Of course, we have to be prudent in deciding when and how to witness to the Gospel. I have met some Christians who assume that they are being persecuted like the prophets just because others happen not to like them.¹¹ This is a mistaken mindset: We shouldn’t go out of our way to step on others’ toes. But we should recognize that being faithful to what God is calling us to will inevitably involve some level of conflict with the power brokers of this world. As Our Lord said to his disciples, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (Jn 15:18–19, NIV). Newman makes a similar point in his sermon “The Ventures of Faith,” in which he challenges his listeners to take risks that might cost them something for the kingdom of God. In Newman’s view, more of the Church’s members need to develop “a high and unearthly spirit,” such as the saints have.¹² “How is it,” he asks, “that we are so contented with things as they are — that we are so willing to be let alone, and to enjoy this life — that we make such excuses, if any one presses on us the necessity of something higher, the duty of bearing the Cross, if we would earn the Crown, of the Lord Jesus Christ?”¹³

Newman’s description of those who want “to be let alone and to enjoy this life” really gets to the heart of the matter. This outlook, unfortunately, has broken out like a plague during several periods in Christian history. Consider, for instance, how many millions of baptized Christians lived in Germany when the Nazis rose to power, yet only a tiny minority spoke out against the heinous actions that were perpetrated by the Third Reich. And while it may be easy to disparage the apathy and silence of German Christians from that era, who knows for sure what sorts of things future generations might chastise us for failing to speak out against. In this light, if our lives are devoid of conflict or if we feel little or no tension over the predominant values of the broader culture, we may want to reevaluate the substance of our witness.

With the above in mind, we could repurpose another maxim from Newman’s preaching: “True faith is not shown here below in peace, but rather in conflict.”¹⁴ Now, in saying this, Newman was talking about internal conflict, or the personal struggle against sin that each Christian must wage. But his sentiment could just as aptly be applied to our public witness. As long as we are in this world, our faith will be demonstrated through conflict. The members of Christ’s Body on earth are described as the Church Militant for good reason. Certainly, we ought to remember that “our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph 6:12, NIV, slightly altered). Battle we must, though, for peace gained at the expense of holiness, as Newman reminds us, is really no peace at all.