Resurrection

There is a beautiful “incense hymn for the departed” from the Maronite Catholic tradition, a rite in full communion with Rome seated in Beirut, Lebanon, which reflects on the Resurrection:

Isaac buried Abraham as he grieved and mourned for him, 

since life after death was hid, unknown to mankind.

But to Moses God appeared, speaking with him to reveal 

the just and the righteous are alive with their God.

This references God’s revelation to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3), when God says He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In his sermon, “The Resurrection of the Body,” St. John Henry Newman takes Christ’s own words about this as his principal text: 

Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For He is not a God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto Him. (Luke 20.37-38)

Christ confirms that God revealed to Moses not only his Holy Name, but also the doctrine of the Resurrection. Even though their bodies have died, God is still the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who “live unto Him” even beyond bodily death. Christ came to show that there is a life after death for everybody–the Patriarchs, the Jews, and us.

St. John Henry Newman’s sermon suggests that, if this is true, then there are very practical things that all must apply to their lives right now. First, Newman begins with a biblical principle that is confirmed by the highest forms of modern medicine and sciences today: there is more to our bodies and souls than our “senses” can know. There is always something just beyond our full comprehension and ability to explain. The complexities of real situations always force us to revise and rethink inherited theories. A human is a soul and a body, a complex single nature that “is born once and never dies.” Although it sounds like a paradox, Newman says that God has revealed in Scripture and Christ that “our bodies, even when dead, are still alive,” since “all live unto Him,” both the living and the dead. This means that there is much about our own persons, body and soul, that remains mysterious.

Next, Newman notes the first practical demand: the eternal life of our bodies and souls is sustained and nurtured by the Eucharist, without which Christ teaches we have no life in us (John 6). Newman says that the Eucharist and the Resurrection of the body are similar in that we can know the “effect,” but cannot rationally know how they work. They are truths “addressed solely to our faith, not to our reason,” because we have nothing to “reason upon” when confronted with them—no human method of science can allow us to arrive at knowledge of them. They are mysterious, spiritual, sacramental works of God. Even so, they are an objective part of revealed truth that we may be confident in. In John 6, Christ links partaking of the Eucharist—his true body and true blood—with eternal life and the Resurrection, and immediately adds that those who partake of it will be raised up on the last day.

The Eucharist is our “means of living forever.” The Eucharist is God’s appointed way to bring us eternal life now and unto eternity: “[God] can sustain our immortality without the Christian Sacraments, as he sustained Abraham and the other saints of old time; but under the Gospel these are his means, which He appointed at His will.” The Body and Blood of Christ nourish our bodies and souls bound for Resurrection. In nature and in faith, we are what we eat—literally. God has willed that our body be filled with the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of His Son, and that this be our necessary nourishment for life everlasting. 

Since our current earthly bodies become the very locations of such an immensely holy plan, Newman thus asserts his second practical notion: “Our bodies shall rise again and live forever; they may not be irreverently handled.” Now and for eternity, we are called to be, body and soul, temples of the Holy Spirit. We must have holy hearts and holy bodies that we may have the Life of God in us. 

Newman then emphasizes how eagerly and zealously we should “study to cleanse [our bodies] from all sin, that they may be true members of Christ!” Newman wonders what use it is to reverence holy places—churches, shrines, sacramentals, etc.—if we do not first reverence ourselves, cleansing our actual bodies and hearts from all immorality and impiousness. The thought of one day rising to new life in the Resurrection means that right now we must rise to a new life of holiness in what St. Paul calls our “members,” the physical body and spiritual soul God has assigned to each of us.

The Resurrection is not a far-off, pious ideal that, in the midst of life’s practical demands, we put on a shelf until Death comes calling. It is a reality that requires a total renovation of our current life, and demands present application. We must be holy now that we may partake of the Eucharist, the True Body and Life of Christ, and that we may make progress toward that perfection of Eternal Life required of us on Judgment Day. Newman’s ending rhetoric helps us imagine the cost of ignoring this truth:

Wretched men they will then appear, who now for a season enjoy the pleasures of sin. Wretched, who follow their own selfish will, instead of walking by faith, who are now idle, instead of trying to serve God, who are set upon the world’s vanities, or who scoff at religion or who allow themselves in known sin, who live in anger, or malice, or pride, or covetousness, who do not continually strive to become better and holier, who are afraid to profess themselves Christians and take up their cross and follow Christ. May the good Lord make us all willing to follow Him! may He rouse the slumberers, and raise them to a new life here, that they may inherit His eternal Kingdom hereafter!

Even though many may not currently have access to the Eucharist due to quarantines and closures, Newman’s thoughts can help us to do two things. First, we can reflect on the many graces and powerful things God has given to us in previous receptions of the Eucharist, and show God gratitude. For instance, we might prayerfully remember our first Eucharist, or recall vivid moments of lasting graces communicated to us on special feast days or in trying times. Second, we can follow Newman’s advice, and zealously apply ourselves to inward and outward holiness in our souls and bodies in preparation for our next reception of the Eucharist.

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“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you.”

The Psalms, the "voice of the Church," invite us to enter into the sufferings of Christ and His people, and cling to God above all.

Applying Newman's theory, it seems clear that the notion that women's ordination to to the priesthood, would not maintain the type of the early Church.

In 1990, the International Theological Commission, issued a document titled "The Interpretation of Dogma" in which Newman's seven notes are endorsed.

The path forward for us personally and for the Church at large, requires returning to the core truths that Christ Himself has revealed to us.

We are made to be gifts to God and gifts to each other, body and soul; to go against God’s law, which is for our good, is to refuse the gift.

What does John Henry Newman mean by the words: "to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often?"

Listening to God is done keeping in mind the normative value of the whole of Tradition and of the Church’s Teaching.  

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About Cardinal John Henry Newman

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A Guide to John Henry Newman will interest educated readers and professors alike, and serve as a text for college seminars for the purpose of studying Newman.

Review by Catherine Maybanks
(Catholic Herald, April 1, 2023)

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Fr Peter Conley takes us on an exciting journey into the spirituality and inner life of Saint John Henry Newman.
 

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Endorsement by Neyra Blanco (Amazon)
I bought this book for my son and he loved it, he wrote this review and urged my to submitted: “I think this book has a very beautiful message, because it shows how the young Newman was so determined to achieve his dream of becoming a priest, but even after his dream he continued to work in the church with passion until the day he died, it’s so admirable that even Newman so old and so weak still had that urge to continued his work of being a priest. And the book is well written with words not too complicated with very enjoyable texts and well illustrated pictures. I highly recommend this book for a 5th grader.  

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What is a Classical Liberal Arts Education? Why is it so important for the development of a person?

Fr. Juan R. Vélez answers these and more questions you might have about University Education in the 21st century. This book is aimed for parents, prospective University students, and educators. It will help you discern why adding Liberal Arts electives to your education will help it form it better, and help the student learn to reason, and not just learn.

He also explains how many Universities have changed the true meaning of Liberal Arts, and the subjects, and gives advise on how to choose College Campus, Subjects, and Teachers.

A wonderful book that every parent should also read way before your children are College bound. A Liberal Arts education can start earlier in life, even from home.

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Endorsement by Christopher Moellering (Goodreads, September 14, 2019)
In Passion for Truth Fr. Vélez gave us an outstanding biography of Cardinal Newman. In this work, he provides a concise overview of his thought and his devotion. This is a great work for someone who, perhaps hearing of Newman for the first time because of his beatification 13 October, 2019, wants to know more about this English saint.Vélez is a wonderful writer in his own right, and the frequent quotations from Newman round out the work nicely. I especially appreciated the frequent citing of Newman’s Meditations and Devotions, which show a different side of his spirituality than his more well-known works, Development of Christian Doctrine and the Grammar of Assent.

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Take Five: Meditations with John Henry Newman, endorsement by Illow M. Roque (Amazon, September 3, 2010)
“There is a time to put direct inquiry on hold and give ourselves to prayer and practical duties.” Sound advice from one of the earlier, thought-provoking reminders in this sparkling gem of a book: Take Five | Meditations with John Henry Newman, written by Mike Aquilina and Fr. Juan R. Vélez and published by Our Sunday Visitor. This particular paragraph, referenced above, which begins with a direct quote from soon-to-be canonized priest, cardinal and poet, John Henry Newman: “Study is good, but it gets us only so far . . .” is actually the 15th in a series of 76 concise, logically organized meditations moving from the elementary to the sublime. Each meditation–one per page–is built upon the great man’s writings and remarkably rich spirituality. Whether taken whole in one reading or in part page-by-page over a course of weeks and months, these wonderfully insightful meditations will open up, even to the busiest reader in the midst of the world, a unique pathway into prayer and contemplation. My advice to spiritual inquirers at all levels, from the novice to the spiritually adept, is to follow the authors’ recommendation to use this book as a guide for daily prayer and meditation. The structure of the book itself is ideal: first, the authors introduce us to Cardinal Newman, the man, where we are given the opportunity to get to know him through a brief sketch of his life and spirituality at the beginning of the book. This is something readers will likely find themselves referring to again and again, prompting many, I suspect, to even wider explorations of this most gifted Christian leader. Then comes the meditations, consisting of a short summary of Newman’s thoughts on subjects taken, as the authors explain, from various salient points for which Newman is justly remembered: The pursuit of objective religious truth; Teaching on the Virtues; Defense of the Catholic Church; A devout spiritual and moral life; and Generosity and loyalty in his friendships, which sets the topic and tone for each meditation to follow. Each meditation consists of an excerpt taken from Newman’s thirty-plus volumes of writings and diaries. Next comes three brief and extremely useful sections entitled: “Think About It,” which establishes a prayerfully resonant tone throughout the book; “Just Imagine,” which provides a vivid, prayerful experience of the Scriptures that tie in, and finally, “Remember,” a pithy summation which the authors suggest may be used as a daily aspiration. Each meditation is given its own page, which makes it ideal for daily reflection for readers on the go. This book is a must have for every serious Catholic who wants to take their faith to the next level, which is to respond appropriately to the universal call to holiness and seek interior union with God.
David Warren

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you.”

Robert Kirkendall

The Psalms, the "voice of the Church," invite us to enter into the sufferings of Christ and His people, and cling to God above all.

Fr. Juan Velez

Applying Newman's theory, it seems clear that the notion that women's ordination to to the priesthood, would not maintain the type of the early Church.

Fr. Juan Velez

In 1990, the International Theological Commission, issued a document titled "The Interpretation of Dogma" in which Newman's seven notes are endorsed.

David Warren

The path forward for us personally and for the Church at large, requires returning to the core truths that Christ Himself has revealed to us.

Robert Kirkendall

We are made to be gifts to God and gifts to each other, body and soul; to go against God’s law, which is for our good, is to refuse the gift.

Fr. Juan Velez

What does John Henry Newman mean by the words: "to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often?"

Fr. Juan Velez

Listening to God is done keeping in mind the normative value of the whole of Tradition and of the Church’s Teaching.  

Fr. Juan Velez

The sensum fidelium is a confirmation of authentic doctrinal development in contrast to corruption of doctrine. It can also be described as a spiritual instinct for Catholic truths.