Читать книгу Seeking God with Saint John Henry Newman - Ryan J. Marr - Страница 9

When I visited the Birmingham Oratory for the first time, I was struck by, among other things, the littleness and simplicity of Saint John Henry Newman’s living quarters. Here, in a relatively obscure town — far away from the corridors of wealth and power — a slight, unassuming priest exercised an extraordinary influence on an untold number of lives, accomplishing most of what he did through work done in a single room of a modest priestly residence. In the case of Saint John Henry, the biblical adage rings powerfully true: God truly does use the weak things of this world to shame the strong (see 1 Cor 1:27).

The witness of Newman turns on its head the way we commonly think about how the world works. Modern Westerners tend to view public life through the lens of coercive power. To have an impact on society, to make a name for oneself, to accomplish anything great, one must hold worldly influence and wield it ruthlessly. It is a dog-eat-dog world, we tell ourselves, and the vast majority of the human race can be moved only by the threat of punishment or the loss of privilege.

Saint John Henry refused to approach life according to these terms. While others sought prestige, he chose the lowly path, and in his sermons he consistently counseled his listeners to practice humility and self-denial rather than to insist upon their rights and privileges. Ultimately, Newman recognized where true power resides. He took Christ at his word that, if we will have faith even as small as a mustard seed, we will be able to move mountains (see Mt 17:20). Through his preaching, his writing, and his spiritual counsel, Newman moved something more imposing than mountains: he moved hearts, thousands of them, and, in so doing, he left an indelible impact on the Catholic Church in England.

In his time, Newman was an accomplished scholar, poet, educator, novelist, and philosopher. A thorough treatment of any one of these facets of his life could easily fill hundreds of pages. Our purpose in this book, however, is to zero in on Newman’s life of heroic virtue in order to glean insights that might aid our journey to God. We will walk the path that Newman trod and listen to his recounting of what that journey involved, so that we ourselves might grow in holiness — with the ultimate goal of attaining the union with God that Newman already knows in full. In this book, then, we will be seeking God with John Henry Newman. As numerous Catholics can attest, there are few more reliable guides on the path of life than this saintly convert and kindly priest, who continues to draw many hearts to God some 130 years after his death.