The Cause of the Canonisation of John Henry Cardinal Newman

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A Meditation for the Third Sunday of Lent: ‘Loyalty to God’

Categorised as Featured and published Friday, March 13th, 2009
A Meditation for the Second Sunday of Lent: ‘God’s Holy Fear’
A Meditation for the Fourth Sunday of Lent: the Church, Messenger of Divine Truth

Nicolas Colombel, Christ Expelling the Money-Changers from the Temple, 1682, Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri, U.S.A.

In the 1834 sermon ‘Christian Zeal’, Newman argues that the Christian, more than simply ‘obeying’ God, should wish to serve him with heart and soul, eager to seek his glory and honour. Some say that zeal is necessarily ‘intolerant’. Criticising such an outlook, Newman goes on to recognise that love should temper and balance zeal, for thus the ‘Saints of God go on unto perfection’:

Zeal is one of the elementary religious qualifications; that is, one of those which are essential in the very notion of a religious man. A man cannot be said to be in earnest in religion, till he magnifies his God and Saviour; till he so far consecrates and exalts the thought of Him in his heart, as an object of praise, and adoration, and rejoicing, as to be pained and grieved at dishonour shown to Him … In a word, a religious temper is one of loyalty towards God; and we all know what is meant by being loyal from the experience of civil matters. To be loyal is not merely to obey; but to obey with promptitude, energy, dutifulness, disinterested devotion, disregard of consequences. And such is Zeal, except that it is ever attended with that reverential feeling which is due from a creature and a sinner towards his Maker, and towards Him alone. It is the main principle in all religious service to love God above all things; now, Zeal is to love Him above all men, above our dearest and most intimate friends. [...]

It is the present fashion to call Zeal by the name of intolerance, and to account intolerance the chief of sins; that is, any earnestness for one opinion above another concerning God’s nature, will, and dealings with man,—or, in other words, any earnestness for the Faith once delivered to the Saints, any earnestness for Revelation as such. Surely, in this sense, the Apostles were the most intolerant of men. [...]

On the other hand, Zeal is an imperfect virtue; that is, in our fallen state, it will ever be attended by unchristian feelings, if it is cherished by itself. This is the case with many other tempers of mind which yet are absolutely required of us. … Whether we read the injunctions delivered by Moses against idolatry and idolaters, or trace the actual history of God’s chosen servants, such as Phinehas, Samuel, Elijah, and especially David, we find that the Law was peculiarly a Covenant of Zeal. On the other hand, the Gospel brings out into its full proportions, that perfect temper of mind …—Love; that is, Love or Charity, as described by St. Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, which is not merely brotherly-love (a virtue ever included in the notion of Zeal itself), but a general temper of gentleness, meekness, sympathy, tender consideration, open-heartedness towards all men, brother or stranger, who come in our way. In this sense, Zeal is of the Law, and Love of the Gospel: and Love perfects Zeal, purifying and regulating it. Thus the Saints of God go on unto perfection. Moses ended his life as “the meekest of men,” [cf. Num. 12:3] though he began it with undisciplined Zeal, which led him to a deed of violence. St. John, who would call down fire from heaven, became the Apostle of Love; St. Paul, who persecuted Christ’s servants, “was made all things to all men;” [1 Cor. 9:22] yet neither of them lost their Zeal, though they trained it to be spiritual.

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