Sermon Blog
Surrender to God
April 12, 2025
In a challenging 1848 Lenten sermon, “Surrender to God “ St. John Henry Newman expands our understanding of what it means to “subdue ourselves to Christ.” In this sermon, he acknowledges that the common practice of fasting from food during lent is a good and valuable thing, but he then suggests that there are many other valuable things that we consider in our goal of surrender to God.
Newman writes: “I answer that fasting is only one branch of a large and momentous duty, the subdual of ourselves to Christ. We must surrender to him all we have, all we are. We must keep nothing back. We must present to him as captive prisoners with whom he may do what he will, our soul and body, our reason, our judgment, our affections, our imagination, our tastes, our appetite.”
As is his custom, St. John Henry introduces various situations which demand our care if we are desirous of this surrender. In a few lines that could be written exactly for our current time, he writes:
“ . . . the present war with evil spirits [is] very different from what it was in former ages. They attack a civilized age in a more subtle way than they attack a rude age. We read in lives of saints . . . of the evil spirit showing himself and fighting with them face to face, but now those [spirits] assault men in a more subtle way . . . . they address themselves to our pride or self-importance, or love of money, or love of ease, or love of show, or our depraved reason, and thus have really the dominion over persons who seem at first sight to be quite superior to temptation.”
Newman then proceeds to examine these “more subtle ways” that we are tempted. He defines a more subtle temptation or sin as one that is outwardly more difficult to identify in contrast to the “broad or gross” temptations which are easily seen.
“But there are a great many things wrong which are not so obviously wrong . . .. they are the very same thing as what is forbidden, but dressed up and looking differently.”
What are some of these “many things” which may fool us by not being so “obviously wrong”? St. John Henry answers:
“To take some examples. [Going out to rob for personal gain] . . . would be an open, bold temptation. But if [the devil] tempted one to do something unfair in the course of business . . . it would be a more subtle temptation. . . . So equivocation is a more subtle sin than direct lying. [Likewise] a person who does not intoxicate himself, may eat too much. Gluttony is a more subtle sin than drunkenness, because it does not show so much. And again, sins of the soul are more subtle sins than sins of the body. Infidelity is a more subtle sin than licentiousness.”
Newman advises that we should examine ourselves and look below the surface of things. He also encourages us to be sincere with ourselves and to avoid justifying our behavior.
He gives several other examples of subtle temptations, but two that are particularly applicable to today. The first is “Idle curiosity,” or looking into things that should be left in the dark, whether it be gossip, prying, reading poor books, or for us today, watching harmful images. He says we must “mortify our curiosity.” This curiosity is present in idle conversation with others and in browsing indiscriminately at books or movies. The ancients called this vice curiositas, or profane curiosity. We should ask ourselves about our use of social media and news. Do we routinely give in to idle curiosity?
The second subtle temptation that is especially applicable to today is the desire for knowledge. Newman writes, “Let us mortify our excessive desire for knowledge” the accessibility of such which surrounds us in “this civilized age” . . . St. John Henry warns us about the danger of pouring over purely secular subjects for pleasure or for the purpose of learning useless information, desiring knowledge past that which is necessary.
He states: “Knowledge is very well in its place, but it is like flowers without fruit. We cannot feed on knowledge; we cannot thrive on knowledge. Just as the leaves of the grove are very beautiful but would make a bad meal, so we shall ever be hungry and never be satisfied if we think to take knowledge for our food . . . Religion is our only food. Here then is another mortification. Mortify your desire of knowledge. Do not go into excess in seeking after truths which are not religious.”
This warning against excessive desire for knowledge as “flowers without fruit” is an image that he had contemplated years earlier in 1833 during his Mediterranean voyage. Off the coast of Sardinia, he wrote a short, straightforward poem entitled, “Flowers Without Fruit.” It begins with the invitation: Prune thy words:
“PRUNE thou thy words, the thoughts control
That o’er thee swell and throng;
They will condense within thy soul.
And change to purpose strong.
But he who lets his feelings run
In soft luxurious flow.
Shrinks when hard service must be done.
And faints at every woe.
Faith’s meanest deed more favour bears.
Where hearts and wills are weigh’d.
Than brightest transports, choicest prayers.
Which bloom their hour and fade.” (June 20, 1833).
The word “meanest” in the 8th line is defined as shabby, or slight, to indicate that even poor but heartfelt honest prayers bear fruit. Excessive emotion and over-wrought prayers which are full of “flowery” language but are empty, bear no fruit. Newman was keenly aware of the temptation of turning religion into feeling which can fool the world into believing it is true.
To make a connection between the earlier poem and the strong sermon is to realize that our time allotted on earth should bear good fruit. Simple honest prayers can help us in our battle against subtle temptation which can result in our life bearing little fruit, even if it seems outwardly as though we are successful.
A we enter into Holy week, we can keep in mind Newman’s admonition against subtle sins and emotional prayers. God asks for our self-surrender, that we offer ourselves with Christ keeping nothing back, living detachment from material things and practicing charity with those in need, serving those around us. We must die to ourselves so that Christ may live in us and we can co-redeem with Him.
