About Newman
Contest between Faith and Sight
December 14, 2024
“For all of us surely are on our trial, and, as we go forth into the world, so we are winnowed, and the chaff gradually separated from the true seed.”
This arresting statement comes towards the end of St. John Henry Newman’s 1827 sermon entitled, “Contest between Faith and Sight.” If he were to climb into the pulpit of any church across the land and preach this very sermon today, it would be as pertinent now as it was in the early 19th century, and perhaps even more so. The danger of the world does not always announce itself and thereby give warning to those trying to do right; instead the danger comes from the subtle way that certain nominal Christians profess one thing but live another. Here Newman, like St. John the Evangelist, uses the term “world” in contrast to the “spirit” which gives life.
Newman writes, “the world overcomes us, not merely by appealing to our reason, or by exciting our passions, but by imposing on our imagination.” What does he mean by this? As a way of explanation, St. John Henry has us imagine a young person who has learned his scripture lessons, attended to his catechism, accepted all that was taught him, but without any real understanding about how this faith applies to real life, that is, the world he must live in once he has left the protection of youth.
“Here, then, all at once they lose their reckoning, and let slip the lessons which they thought they had so accurately learned. They are unable to apply in practice what they have received by word of mouth; . . . . and they are gradually impressed with the belief that the religious system which they have hitherto received is an inadequate solution of the world’s mysteries . . . .all men, perhaps, are in their measure subjected to this temptation. [and soon these men will] indulge dreams of happiness, such as this life has never fulfilled.”
These faltering Christians don’t necessarily mean to alter their course away from the Good and towards the worldly way of thinking; it happens gradually as they surround themselves with others who have overtime rejected the hard teachings and instead grasp for what the world offers. If the newly enlightened man then considers at some point his old belief, what he perceives, wrote Newman, now seems, “dull, colourless, . . . unpractical, unnatural, unsuitable to the exigencies of life and the constitution of man.”
This is when the soul becomes vulnerable to the world and the devil. Depending on the individual, the result of this forgetfulness of Christ takes different forms. One person begins trusting the world because “. . . . it speaks boldly, and thinking that evil must be acquiesced in, because it exists . . . . he meets with numberless doctrines among men, each professing to be the true one. He had learned that there was but one Church, and he falls in with countless religious sects, nay, with a prevalent opinion that all these are equally good, and that there is no divinely-appointed Church at all. . . . and at length he looks on the religious system of his youth as beautiful . . . but as utterly unfit for those who live in the world. . . . “ And he slowly begins to forget all he once knew.
For another person who may be “led by a speculative turn of mind, or a natural philanthropy . . . . his opinions become ultimately impressed with the character of a more definite unbelief. Sometimes he is conscious to himself that he is opposing Christianity . . . as he conceives, unavoidably, as finding it in his way. This is a state of mind into which benevolent men are in danger of falling, in the present age. While they pursue objects tending, as they conceive, towards the good of mankind, it is by degrees forced upon their minds that Revealed Religion thwarts their proceedings, and, averse alike to relinquish their plans, and to offend the feelings of others, they determine on letting matters take their course, and, believing fully that Christianity must fall before the increasing illumination of the age . .”
Sadly this situation is present in many today in the public sphere. These once churched Christian or Catholics nod to their former belief, even claiming they are still in the fold, all the while their actions show they have lost all bearings. They actively work against the faith. These individuals are harmful to the Church because they cause others to stumble.
Newman warns thus: “The palmary device of Satan is to address himself to the pride of our nature, and, by the promise of independence, to seduce us into sin . . . . Thus the temptation of becoming as gods works as in the beginning, pride opening a door to lust; and then, intoxicated by their experience of evil, they think they possess real wisdom . . .”. In contrast, Pope Benedict XVI told the faithful that Christ does not rob people of their freedom; rather He is the source of true freedom and happiness.
However, the winnowing has begun. Newman quotes St. John : “’They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not of us. And our Lord stands by watching the process, telling us of ‘the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the earth,’ exhorting us to “try them which say they are apostles, and are not,’ [we must] ‘hold fast that which we have, that no man take our crown.’”
Newman calls this spirit of the world a form of the anti-Christ. We must be constantly on guard so that we are not deceived, even if it means we may have to bear insult from those in the world.
The Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca, who lived in the first century AD, warned against the corrupting influence of the world. He witnessed the many who were becoming enamored of the brutal gladiatorial contests, eventually desiring more and more violence to be entertained, their natural abhorrence eventually dulled. The games became acceptable forms of entertainment, even for the very young. In his epistle 7 Seneca wrote, “You must inevitably either hate or imitate the world. But the right thing is to shun both courses: you should neither become like the bad because they are many, nor be an enemy of the many because they are unlike you.”
St. John Henry Newman would agree. Advent is a time for preparation and conversion. We will help others when we speak the truth by our life, our actions matching the teaching of the One whom we have believed. At Christmas we will contemplate Christ, the light of the world. We will bow before Him in adoration, and then go forth letting his light shine through us in the darkness.
(Preached on Sunday afternoon, May 27, 1832, in the Author’s turn as Select Preacher.)
