Cardinal Newman: Christ hidden and revealed in his disciples

       The light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” John 1:5               

 I say that Christ, the sinless Son of God, might be living now in the world as our next door neighbor, and perhaps we not find it out…

True Christians look just the same to the world as the great mass of what are called respectable people. But in their hearts they are very different. They make no great show. They go on in the same quiet ordinary way as the others, but they are really training to be saints in Heaven. They do all they can to change themselves, to become like God, to obey God, to discipline themselves, to renounce the world; but they do it in secret, both because God tells them to do so, and because they do not like it to be known. Moreover, there are a number of others between these two with more or less worldliness and more or less faith. Yet they all look about the same to common eyes, because true religion is a hidden thing in the heart: though it cannot exist without deeds, yet these for the most part are secret deeds, secret charities, secret prayers, secret self denials, secret struggles, secret victories…

 And yet, though we have no right to judge others, but must leave this to God, it is very certain that a really holy person, a true saint, though he looks like other people, still has a sort of secret power in him to attract others to himself who are like-minded. To influence all who have anything in them like him.  And thus it often becomes the test; whether we are like minded with the saints of God, whether they have an influence over us. And though we seldom have means of knowing at the time who are God’s own saints, yet when all is over we have; and then on looking back at the past, perhaps after they are dead and gone, if we knew them we may ask ourselves what power they had over us, whether they attracted us, influenced us, humbled us, whether they made our hearts burn within us. And alas! too often we shall find that we were close to them, had means of knowing them and knew them not, and that is a heavy condemnation upon us, indeed…

The holier a man is the less he is understood by the men of the world. All who have a spark of living faith will understand him in a measure.  The holier he is they will for the most part be attracted the more; but those who serve the world will be blind to him, scorn and dislike him, the holier he is….

Parochial and Plain Sermons, pp. 880-1

Cardinal Newman: Trust in God

     1. "God was all complete, all blest in himself, but it was his will to create a world for his glory. He is almighty. He might have done everything for himself. But it has been his will to bring about his purposes through the beings he created. We are all created for his glory. We are created to do his will. I am created to do something or to be something for which no one else is created. I have a place in God's councils, in God's world which no one else has. And whether I be rich or poor, despised or esteemed by men, God knows me and calls me by my name.
     2. God has created me to do him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to anyone else. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life. But I will be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for his purposes. As necessary in my place, as an archangel is in his. If indeed I fail, he can raise another, as he could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work. I am a link in a chain,  a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for nothing. I shall do good. I shall do his work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth, in my own place, while not even intending it, if only I keep his commandments and serve him in my calling. 
     3. Therefore I will trust him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve him. In perplexity, my perplexity may serve him. My sickness, my perplexity or sorrow may be the necessary causes of some great end which is quite beyond us. But he does nothing in  vain. He may prolong my life, he may shorten it. He knows what he is about. He may take away my friends, throw me among strangers, he may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me, and still He knows what He is about.
       O Adonai, O Ruler of  Israel, O Thou that guidest Joseph like a flock; O Emmanuel, O Eternal Wisdom, I give myself to thee. I trust thee entirely. Thou are wiser than I, more loving to me than I am to myself. Deign to fulfill thy high purposes in me. Work in and through me. I am born to serve thee, to be thine to thy instrument. Let me be thy blind instrument.  I ask not to see, I ask not to know,  I ask only to be used."


The Works of Cardinal Newman, Meditations and Devotions, pp. 300 -302

Cardinal Newman: On Trust and Abandonment

I believe, O my Savior, that you know just what is best for me. I believe you love me better than I love myself. That you are all wise in your providence, and all powerful in your protection. I am as ignorant as Peter was as to what is to happen to me in time to come. But I resign myself entirely to my ignorance and thank you with all my heart that you have taken me out of my own keeping. And instead of putting such a serious charge upon me, you have asked me to put myself into your hands. I ask nothing better than this, to be in your care and not in my own.

Cardinal Newman on "Providence and the Cross"

"Lord, we know not what is good for us

Or what is bad.

We can't foretell the future. Nor do we know when you come to visit us

 In what form you will come. 

Therefore we must leave it all to you. 

Do you, in your good pleasure, come to us, 

And be with us.

 Let us ever look upon you, 

And do you look upon us, and  

Give us the grace of your bitter cross and passion, 

And console us in your own way 

And at your own time."

I found this quotation among several others I had copied out from some edition of Cardinal Newman's works years ago. The note I had penciled to myself on the side said: Remember to pray this as a way to heal your egocentricity. It was good advice back then. It is good advice now.

Giussani on Friendship in Christ

    "The true companionship, meaning a constructive, creative factor of life, and therefore generator of beauty,  consolation, - repairing what falls down - a positive companionship in this sense can be born only from a friendship. Friendship is the virtue, the energy that constructs the companionship. This is why the Lord, wanting man to know Him, became man and this man generated a companionship. He became present here and now, in every moment of history, within a companionship. And if one claims to have a relationship with the mystery of God and leave out the companionship, and in particular, leave out the authority that guides it, one deceives oneself; it would be an illusion....

    "So what is friendship? Friendship in its minimal state, is the encounter of one person with another person whose destiny he or she desires more than his or her own life. I desire your destiny more than I desire my life.  The other reciprocates this and desires my destiny more than his or her life.  Friendship is like this, and the proof that this is true is that you'd want anyone you'd meet in the diversity of circumstances to understand this, so that everyone would embrace each other. Those who do not experience this must humbly ask the Lord and the Blessed Mother to make it understood to them, because without this, not even the relationship with God is true."

    Is It Possible to Live This Way?  Vol.1 Faith, pp.145, 146

Romano Guardini on Mystery

        "Science is the study of a subject

         by means of the method required by the subject, 

         not by means of some generally applicable method

         that undermines its specific character."

        So, by what method do we study God?

Peter, James and John: Following Him

 Peter: Isn't it funny the way He called us?  "Follow me", He said, and the emphasis was on me! Like He was going to take us somewhere, somewhere we couldn't go on our own.

 John: Yes, but He had no doubt or question as to where He was going nor how to get there. Wherever it was, He would get us there.

James: Still, it's not really a journey, a trip, a going from one spot to another. He means it as a metaphor, right?

John: No! He definitely means it literally, as a real journey, but a life journey, a real journey through life from this world to the next.

Peter: So why didn't He make that clear from the beginning and say: Listen men, I want you all to join my group and spend your lives with me, here in the present and next in the hereafter? That's really what we're doing, living with him and moving around with him in the hope of getting to heaven, no?

John. No, it's more than joining his group and living together in order to get to heaven. What makes us a group, his group, is the following, the getting behind him, the imitating of him, the absorbing of his thoughts, his feelings, his ways,etc. A group united by following Him is what He wants us to be, not just a bunch of people on the way to heaven.

James: Is following the imitating, the learning from, catching from him what kind of persons we should be?

Peter: Maybe another way to put it is this: it's obeying him, doing what he says, not just putting it into our heads, but carrying it out, living it. That's the following He means.

John: Yes, it is both of those things. The imitating and the obeying shapes us into his followers. The following means keeping our eyes on Him, letting his words into us, letting the way He is and what He does shape us inside, change our thinking and feeling so we live more and more by his thinking and feeling, and make it our own, till we feel about one another the what He feels about us. This is the "group" aspect of following Him: his affection for us, not just individually or personally, but as a whole, as brothers.  He wants us to be more than individual persons who follow Him. He wants his feelings for us to shape us into a brotherhood. And that can only happen if we follow Him together.

 James. Why didn't He explain it to us like that in the beginning? Why did He invite us to follow him without  going into the details of what is involved? It's not fair. He should have spelled things out more.

John Why?  If He had explained everything more fully, would you have said yes?

Peter: I wouldn't have! Being with Him isn't so bad.  I like that part. But being with all of you all the time is what is hard to take.

James: I hope you don't think it is any easier for the rest of us to put up with you?! You're harder than anyone to put up with.

Peter: Why do you say that? At least I'm honest enough to say what I think! I don't keep my mouth shut and hide what I'm thinking like the rest of you.

James: Oh sure, you speak up, but you're just trying  to show us up! You want everyone to be impressed with how smart you are, but half the time what you say is really stupid!

John:  Cut it out! You two are getting off the track, arguing about how difficult it is for us to live with one another. That is the whole point of following Him: learning to live with one another because we follow Him.

Peter:What do you mean?

John: You were asking why He didn't explain in more detail  exactly what it mean for us to live in his company, to be with him day in and day out, right?

Peter: Yes.

John: Well, there is no way to explain that beforehand because it's a lived experience. It has to be lived and experienced before it can be understood and explained. Following Him means: learning how to love one another because we love Him,staying together and putting up with one another out of love for him, actually learning to see one another the way He sees us, letting our love for Him become the source of our love for one another. Because we all share the call to follow, we have to be brothers.

 James: You lost me. Why the emphasis on brotherhood?

Peter:  Me too. What has getting along with one another got to do with  following him? I can follow him even though I don't like everybody in the group.

 John: No, you can't. We can only be as close to Him as we are to one another, and as close to one another as we are to Him. Otherwise we're phony, pretending. He wants to be the bond between us. It is not a matter of acting nice and courteously with one another because He tells us we better get along, and so we do it. It is a matter of the love we have for Him overflowing into the love we have for one another. It's the same love because we share the same call. Our call is a companionship, a sharing, a brotherhood, in the same destiny.

James: Now I'm more confused than I was. What has destiny to do with it?

 Peter: That's right! And besides,  what about you and Him? You have a special relationship with Him, right? And so do I, right? And so does everyone else in the group. We are all individuals, aren't we? Our being called together doesn't do away with the fact that we are all different persons.

John: No, of course it doesn't. The call is personal, but it is also communal, a call for us separate persons to be brothers, and it's the following that makes us brothers, that shapes us in brotherhood. Following him together means that we learn to love one another so that the personal differences become the points of unity, not cause for distance and separation. Does that make sense to you two?

Peter: Let me think about it more.

James: Me too.

John: Look at it this way: Because He calls you and me, I want for you what He wants for you, and you want for me what He wants for me. He wants the same thing for all of us: union with Him, life with him, friendship with him, brotherhood. That's our destiny. It's the future, but it's the present too. We start living our destiny now, and the living of it is what makes it our destiny.The only way we achieve our destiny is by being brothers, and the only way we can be brothers is by following him. Right now we are only starting out, so we can't understand what we are supposed to be,  or the brotherhood He wants us to have, we have to grow into it step by step

James. Let me think about it.

Peter: Me too. Right now it is just words.

Einstein: on Science and Religion

   1."In the temple of science are many mansions."

   2. "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind."

   3. "There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle;  or you can live as if     everything is a miracle."

      Those statements  by Einstein amaze me, almost as much as the startling statements  Fr. Giussani comes out withf. The two are very different men, but have such great minds.They are open to, and in love with Mystery, and much in agreement with each other.
       Why do these three statements of Einstein attract my attention? The only way to find out is to start answering my own question and see what I come up with. Of course, the answers anyone ever gets depend in part on the questions one asks, and those questions probably depend on the way one's brain is wired. That said, my musings may not be what Einstein had in mind when he made his statements, but his words are worth pondering  over anyway.

      1. " In the temple of science"....a temple is God's dwelling place. Science is godlike in the minds of many scientists and people. They worship it. They place their faith in it. Yet this temple of science has many mansions, not  just one God dwelling therein. I presume Einstein is saying that each branch of science thinks of itself as its own authority, and maybe that its method sets the proper standard for "doing science" or that scientific doing is necessary for intelligent, well ordered living. Maybe one branch of science thinks it sets the standards for all the other branches?
            I think Einstein is poking fun at scientific arrogance and conceit. At whose arrogance and conceit in the concrete? At anyone dumb enough to make a god out of science, or attribute to science divine authority. That will include scientists and  us non-scientists, the laypeople, who think we are living smartly and scientifically. Who am I,  a non scientist, to criticize a whole field of endeavor I know next to nothing about?  No one special. But neither is the scientist who speaks his mind about God or religion any expert in that field. So I claim the same right to self expression he has, and I appeal to the great scientist Einstein to give some weight to my rambling.

        Shouldn't the scientific method be followed? Followed where? In thinking? In living? In teaching? Much depends on what the scientific method is, no? Surely, it should be followed within the scope of the science where it applies.Can anyone tell me what the scientific method is? Or what its limits are? That second question regarding limits is,  I think,  what the rest of  Einstein's quote implies: there "are many mansions." Each specific science has its proper place in the temple, where it is appreciated and valued, along with all the others. But none of them sits on the throne as god . Why? Because each science belongs to a particular field. How many sciences are there? How many different fields? I would bet that even scientists cannot answer that question. Is not the science of genetic engineering  a new beginning? Cloning was once science fiction. Now it is a legitimate field in its own right. One day it may be possible to create a servile work force, or  an aggressive warrior class, out of animal and computer parts. What would that science be called? What about the field of science that combines human, animal and computer parts, or just animal and human? No matter what the number of sciences is, that number would have to be qualified by the words "at the present time" or "up to now." Because another discovery would explode  into a new science.
        I think science has to narrowly focus its vision more and more to specialize, to study the microcosm, and find more and more in less and less. I think the scientist surprises himself by discovering the macrocosm in the microcosm. The increase in knowledge is a great boon, but also makes any attempt at a universal perspective more and more unattainable.It is a wonderful benefit to humanity that we discover new means of combating sickness and disease. But each new discovery  that improves life also complicates life, posing new questions as to how it should be used, what norms guide its usage, who sets the standards and applies the norms, or does anybody at all?
        The norms don't come from science itself, that's for sure. Scientist are capable of doing science, that's  also for sure. But of monitoring their own scientific field and the application of its  discoveries? That's NOT like leaving a child with his toys, telling him to go and play, and then chiding him for hurting himself, because the damage done when anyone runs amok with science's toys is  astronomical.
       Should governments and politicians should decide the norms that set the limits of science? Big business? Moralists? The press? The voters? The scientific method? The democratic process? Is there any way for science to answer the question? I bet Einstein would say no to all of the above.
               
      2. "Science without religion is lame"...Why? Lame means to be physically disabled, unable to walk as one would with two good legs. Why can't science walk without religion? It has no where to go, no direction to head in, nothing leading it, guiding it, nor propelling it. So how does it progress? It limps along like it always has, growing incrementally, accidentally, by providence that turns misfortune into a blessing, by inspiration, by blind luck, by stumbling on a breakthrough through a hunch,  instinct, or the "scientific method". What difference would religion make? Religion in what sense? How did Einstein mean the word?
       Religion meaning a sense of God behind it all, behind the universe, the Intelligence, the Mystery, behind the complexity, the order, the beauty, the wonder of all that is. I think this is the sense in which Einstein is using the word, "the religious sense", so to speak. He is not referring to any specific religion like Judaism, or Christianity or Islam, ( I do think he would  never be a polytheist).)
       How does this religious sense help science, and cure its "lameness"? It give science the right attitude with which to do its work, the attitude of wonder, which leads to gratitude and joy.  That's all, but that's a great deal. A scientist who is capable of wonder has his mind and heart open to Mystery, to receiving what Mystery is doing in creation, through creation, and with creation. Such a scientist can be in harmony with what beyond his mental grasp at the moment and be blessed with discovery. The know-ability, the intelligibility of creation is more accessible to such a man, because of the inner sympathy the man experiences with what he is studying.
       Religion without science is blind... meaning what, exactly? Religion can devolve into an empty form or a meaningless practice. Dogmatism means the Mystery is reduced to formulas. Ritualism, that religion is a matter of the correct actions and  precise words. Moralism, faith in God is seen as an ethical code or correct manners. Science, since it probes deeper and deeper into Creation, gives Religion an ever greater grasp of God's greatness, intelligence, goodness, wisdom, power, etc. A simple example may make the point more clearly. Early man was able to see the stars, and when able to count, probably numbered them at a few hundred. When, because of telescopes, man was able to see more and more of the sky above, he estimated the stars at a few thousand. As science progressed, galaxies were discovered that revealed a universe beyond imagination. The horizons of religion extend further and further into the infinite expanse of Mystery, giving man even more to wonder about and question, thanks to science. This happens with the macrocosm of the universe, and also in the case of the microcosm of the cell. Science opens man's eyes more and more widely the more broadly and minutely it explores creation.
      3. "There are two ways to live", Einstein says. Why only two? Why not loads of different ways, given man's infinite capacity for choice? Because all the variety reduces to one of the two at root: either there is a God behind it all,and that means everything is miraculous, even the natural is supernatural, or there is no God and therefore nothing is miraculous, and nothing matters. Matter does not matter. Science does not matter. There is no reason to get out of bed in the morning. No reason to do anything at all.
          Let's take the first alternative Einstein offers: "live as if nothing is a miracle". This reduces to living by instinct. Not by reason, but instinct.Why not by reason? Because reason has already been rendered unreasonable due to its elimination the supernatural. Whatever its use, reason becomes a function
of self preservation, ego enhancement and self aggrandizement. A lot of mental effort may go into that way of living, seemingly highly intelligent,  but for the mind to flourish,  it has to do more than function on the level of animal cunning. Reason feasts and fulfills itself when it goes beyond itself into the reality it cannot measure, Mystery.
        Look at the second alternative: live as if everything is miracle. Everything. Waking up in the morning. Breathing. Walking to the bathroom. Daydreaming while showering. The people you run into. The conversations at work. The work itself. The food you eat. Your friendships. The tiredness you feel at the end of the day. The sleep that restores you. The misunderstandings, disagreements, arguments and conflicts you have. The wounds you give and receive in relating to others. None of that could happen if there is not Mystery behind it all, in it all, sustaining it all, while each of us thinks we are each doing everything on our own. If all we are and do is not the gift of Mystery, including our freedom to do nothing and even to do evil, then there is no meaning to it all, no meaning at all. But awareness of the Mystery Present is the blessing that bubbles into joy, gratitude, appreciation, and peace, as well as humble, ongoing wonder which results in further illumination for  both science and religion.

Czeslaw Milosz: on belief and unbelief

       "A true opium for the people is a belief in nothingness after death - the huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murder, we are not going to be judged."

       

       What a wonderful way of exposing the self deceit of atheism, or of some atheists, at least. "There is no pie in the sky after you die", they like to tell believers. "Faith is a false comfort".  But,"So is atheism", believers can reply: "You can give yourself permission to do whatever you want, without any fear of falling into the pit down below after you go. That's why you believe there is no hell to go to".
       Atheism is something to believe in, a faith, a doctrine, a justification for one's behavior, attitudes, philosophy of life, ambitions, dreams, etc.But it is in no way an equal alternative to intelligent faith in God. Atheism narrows the horizon to whatever the atheist decides to fit into his comfort zone, and excludes anything that would break that little world apart. Atheism is a plow horse with blinders on, focused on one thing only, plowing ahead at what he is driven to do, unable to let himself perceive the Beauty and Mystery that are around him.

Heather King Quote: Christ, beyond all labels

              "Christ... never performed magic trick miracles; he didn't pull rabbits out of a hat, or produce gold ingots...he never held the people up as sideshow freaks or floor models to show how great he was...

                "Christ subverted all worldly systems - political, familial, financial: not for the sake of being subversive, but because acting with utter integrity is automatically subversive. He was left of the furthest left and right of the furthest right, both radically liberal and radically conservative. In one breath he could say" Honor you father and your mother" (Mark 7:10) and in another, "Let the dead bury their own dead"(Luke 9:60).

  Magnificat,  p.61

Merton: The Christ of the Burnt Men

           I hear You saying to me:

           "I will give you what you desire. I will lead you into solitude. I will lead you by the way you cannot possibly understand, because I want it to be the quickest way.

          "Therefore all things around you will be armed against you, to deny you, to hurt you, to give you pain, and therefore to reduce you to solitude.

           "Because of their enmity, you will soon be left alone. They will cast you out and forsake you and reject you and you will be alone. Everything that touches you will burn you, and you will draw your hand away in pain, until you have withdrawn yourself from all things. Then you will be all alone.

            "Everything that can be desired will sear you., and brand you with a cautery, and you will fly from it in pain, to be alone. Every created joy will only come to you as pain, and you will die to all joy, and be left alone. All the good things that other people love and desire and seek will come to you, but only as murderers to cut you off from the world and its occupations.

           "You will be praised and it will be like burning at the stake. You will be loved and it will murder your heart and drive you into the desert. 

             "You will have gifts and they will break you with their burden. you will have pleasures of prayer, and they will sicken you and you will fly from them.

              "And when you  have been praised a little and loved a little I will take away all your gifts and all your love and all your praise and you will be utterly forgotten and abandoned and you will be nothing. a dead thing, a rejection. And in that day you shall begin to possess the solitude you have so long desired. And your solitude will bear immense fruit in the souls of men you will never see on earth.

            "Do not ask when it will be or where it will be or how it will be.. On a mountain or in a prison, in a desert or in a concentration camp or in a hospital or at Gethsemani. It does not matter. So do not ask me because I am not going to tell you.  You will not know until you are in it. 

            "But you shall taste the true solitude of my anguish and my poverty and I shall lead you into the high places of my joy and you shall die in Me and find all things in My mercy which has created you for this end  and brought you from Prades to Bermuda to St. Antonin to Oakham to London to Cambridge to Rome to New York to Columbia to Corpus Cristi to St. Bonaventure to the Cistercian Abbey of the poor men who labor in Gethsemani:

           "That you may become the brother of God and learn to know the Christ of the burnt men."

                                  SIT FINIS LIBRI, NON FINIS QUAERENDI

Thomas Merton:  The Seven Storey Mountain,  pp  422, 3