The Cause of the Canonisation of John Henry Cardinal Newman

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Meditation for the Third Sunday of Easter: if you love me, keep my commandments

Categorised as Featured and published Sunday, April 26th, 2009
A Meditation for the Second Sunday of Easter: the Apostles, Representatives of Christ
A Meditation for the Fourth Sunday of Easter: Christ, the Shepherd of our Souls

"Moses-relief" (consignment of the Law to Moses), from a limestone sarcophagus, Constantinople, Fifth Century, Bode-Museum, Berlin

In this 1835 sermon, Newman tells his hearers that the Christian religion consists in two things: believing in what God has revealed, and doing his will. We achieve this, Newman goes on, through Christ, who shows us both who God is, and how we should live our lives:

“Hereby do we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” [1 John 2: 3] [...]

To know God is life eternal, and to believe in the Gospel manifestation of Him is to know Him; but how are we to “know that we know Him?” How are we to be sure that we are not mistaking some dream of our own for the true and clear Vision? How can we tell we are not like gazers upon a distant prospect through a misty atmosphere, who mistake one object for another? The text answers us clearly and intelligibly; though some Christians have recourse to other proofs of it, or will not have patience to ask themselves the question. They say they are quite certain that they have true faith; for faith carries with it its own evidence, and admits of no mistaking, the true spiritual conviction being unlike all others. On the other hand, St. John says, “Hereby do we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” Obedience is the test of Faith.

Thus the whole duty and work of a Christian is made up of these two parts, Faith and Obedience; “looking unto Jesus,” [Heb. 12: 2] the Divine Object as well as Author of our faith, and acting according to His will. [...]

St. John speaks of knowing Christ and of keeping His commandments, as the two great departments of religious duty and blessedness. To know Christ is (as I have said) to discern the Father of all, as manifested through His Only-begotten Son Incarnate. In the natural world we have glimpses, frequent and startling, of His glorious Attributes; of His power, wisdom, and goodness; of His holiness, His fearful judgments, His long remembrance of evil, His long-suffering towards sinners, and His strange encompassing mercy at times when we least looked for it. But to us mortals, who live for a day, and see but an arm’s length, such disclosures are like reflections of a prospect in a broken mirror; they do not enable us in any comfortable sense to know God. They are such as faith may use indeed, but hardly enjoy.

This then was one among the benefits of Christ’s coming, that the Invisible God was then revealed in the form and history of man, revealed in those respects in which sinners most required to know Him, and nature spoke least distinctly, as a Holy yet Merciful Governor of His creatures. And thus the Gospels, which contain the memorials of this wonderful grace, are our principal treasures. They may be called the text of the Revelation; and the Epistles, especially St. Paul’s, are as comments upon it, unfolding and illustrating it in its various parts, raising history into doctrine, ordinances into sacraments, detached words or actions into principles, and thus everywhere dutifully preaching His Person, work, and will. St. John is both Prophet and Evangelist, recording and commenting on the Ministry of his Lord. Still, in every case, He [Christ] is the chief Prophet of the Church, and His Apostles do but explain His words and actions; according to His own account of the guidance promised to them, that it should “glorify” Him. The like service is ministered to Him by the Creeds and doctrinal expositions of the early Church, which we retain in our Services. They speak of no ideal being, such as the imagination alone contemplates, but of the very Son of God, whose life is recorded in the Gospels. Thus every part of the Dispensation tends to the manifestation of Him who is its centre.

Turning from Him to ourselves, we find a short rule given us, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” [John 14: 15] “He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” [1 John 2: 6] “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” [Col. 3: 1] This is all that is put upon us, difficult indeed to perform, but easy to understand; all that is put upon us,—and for this plain reason, because Christ has done everything else. He has freely chosen us, died for us, regenerated us, and now ever liveth for us; what remains? Simply that we should do as He has done to us, showing forth His glory by good works.

Thus a correct (or as we commonly call it), an orthodox faith and an obedient life, is the whole duty of man. And so, most surely, it has ever been accounted. Look into the records of the early Church, or into the writings of our own revered bishops and teachers, and see whether this is not the sum total of religion, according to the symbols of it in which children are catechized, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments.

From the sermon ‘Saving Knowledge’ (1835) Click here for the full text (leaves site)