In western, modern societies we live in a culture of superabundance. Store shelves are overflowing with products, and we can choose from a wide variety of diets. We always have something to wear, and we can dress differently every day of the week. Thanks to the internet, we can access cultural goods every day, both in terms of high and low culture. Despite this, the scale of mental problems and sadness is enormous. So, is it not true that we have many things in excess, but we lack what is most important: love? This article looks into the wisdom of Doctor of the Church, Saint John Henry Newman for answers to this question. Argued here is that what he said in the sermon “Love, the One Thing needful,” can be our guide.
Imagine a candlestick resting on a table in the corner of a dark room, whose flame does not fade, does not flicker, and does not burn out, but perpetually illuminates the corner and draws others towards its light. This everlasting flame is like a teaching of a Doctor of the Universal Church, seeking not to illumine the entirety of the dark room, but keeps the corner of the room illuminated. Similarly, the teachings of the Church Doctors illumine some component(s) of the mysteries of the Catholic faith without trying to plumb the entirety of the mystery of God.
Two hundred years ago, on 13 June 1824, the young Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, who today the Church celebrates as a saint, made his way down the High and St. Aldate’s with his surplice and his MA hood, to be made a deacon of the Church of England in Christ Church Cathedral, the former medieval nunnery and shrine to St. Frideswide until Thomas Wolsey chose it to become Cardinal College in 1525.
Festivals of Faith: Sermons for the Liturgical Year, by St. John Henry Newman, edited by Melinda Nielsen, presents an impressive and carefully arranged collection of Newman’s homilies.
The cumulative effect of the theological debates at Oxford, together with his pastoral experience and personal reflections, gradually led Newman to a more high church ecclesiological approach, especially on visibility, invisibility, and apostolicity of the church.
