Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Today is the feast of one of our newer saints, John Henry Newman, canonized in 2019 by Pope Francis. Even more recently—on November 1 of last year—he was named a Doctor (Teacher) of the Church by Pope Leo. So what can we learn from our newly designated Teacher?
The Franciscan Media site Saint of the Day sums it up well: before Newman, “…Catholic theology tended to ignore history, preferring instead to draw deductions from first principles….After Newman, the lived experience of believers was recognized as a key part of theological reflection.” Newman reflected on his own lived experience—an Anglican priest, whose faith journey led him from Evangelical Anglican to High Church Anglican to Roman Catholic priest and eventually Cardinal. He concluded that there is “something true and divinely revealed in every religion” and “an orderly succession” of revelation. In other words, he recognized that there is a development in doctrine, as the Church comes to understand revelation more fully, and every believer’s experience counts in that process. He wrote on development of doctrine and also “On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine”—very modern views for someone who died in 1890!
His thoughts on conscience, religious liberty, Scripture, the vocation of lay people, and the relation of Church and State were somewhat controversial in his lifetime, but very influential on the Second Vatican Council. They are also, I would argue, fully in keeping with those of Paul and of Jesus in today’s readings.
In today’s selection from Galatians, Paul traces a development throughout Scripture and into his own experience of the understanding of the relationship between faith and the law. The law, he is saying, is not an end in itself—it does not save us. Rather, observing the law leads us to faith in the One who gave the law, and that faith, more fully revealed in the crucified Christ, is what saves us. Thus, as Paul has come to know through his own missionary experience, even Gentiles who have never known, much less observed, the law are saved through faith in Christ.
Similarly, Jesus debates with some in the crowd about his own ministry: is it of God, or is it demonic? He asks the crowd to reflect deeply on their actual experience of him and what they have seen him do, and to compare it to what they have seen “your own people” do. And he tells a cautionary parable. It’s not enough just to have your own demon cast out, if you leave your inner room empty and swept clean. You must invite in God’s Spirit, lest the evil spirit return with reinforcements.
Good advice for us today! Take time to reflect deeply on our own experience, looking for signs of God’s presence and action, both in our lives and in the world around us. Let Scripture, the Church, the saints teach us how to recognize those signs. And then embrace them in faith and deep trust, understanding that faith is not a “thing” but an ongoing process of seeking, finding, embracing, and acting.
—Margot LeBreton Merz