Pope meets Mehmet

On May 13, 1981, a Turkish mercenary named Mehmet Ali Ağca shot Pope John Paul II at close range in St. Peter’s Square. The pope, who later recovered from his wounds, eventually met his would-be killer in prison. There he spoke with Ali Ağca and forgave him. The pope’s forgiveness, while saintly, is not the most stunning part of the story. What’s remarkable is that the pope did not pardon him. Not after one year, five years, ten years or even twenty. Certainly he had the influence to deliver a pardon, but he didn’t. 

We don’t know why the pope didn’t intervene, but his actions indicate that he believed forgiveness and pardon are different. The difference, according to St. John Henry Newman, can be seen in how God perfectly administers mercy and justice. In his sermon, “Chastisement amid Mercy,” Newman explains that, while God’s forgiveness separates us from our sin, it does not remove its painful effects, including the debt it accrues. 

Scripture and tradition so clearly acknowledge the forgiveness God offers sinners that it’s sufficient to mention just two lines:

  • “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:9
  • “The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God’s grace and joining us with him in an intimate friendship.” – Catechism of the Catholic Church

To restore us to union with Him: This is why our Lord went to the cross. This is why the symbol of our faith is the crucifix. In sign language, the sign for “Jesus” requires touching the tip of the middle finger of your hand into the center of the palm of your other hand (indicating the nails He received in His hands on the cross). Who is Jesus? The One who forgave with His sacrifice on the cross.

Yet sin leaves a mark like a bruised ankle after a bad fall. No one expects the bruise or the pain to go away instantly, despite knowing that the ankle will heal. In the spiritual realm, many of us expect the medicine to work differently. We expect to fall and bruise, no doubt, but after forgiveness we anticipate full and immediate recovery as if nothing had happened, as if the fall was just a bad dream. Newman says it like this: “Now a person who so feels [that his past sin can be easily dismissed], clearly does not understand that sin leaves a burden upon the soul, which has to be got rid of. He thinks it is done and over,—the question of guilt, pollution, punishment not occurring to him. Nothing surely is more common among persons of the most various characters of mind than thus to think that God forgets sin as soon as we forget it.”

Famed novelist William Faulkner once wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Yet many of us, Newman says, think the passing of time and changing conditions are equivalent to repentance. “Yet the fact is, as I would maintain, that men in general do not take the trouble to ask, or, in other words, to repent; but they think the change [in behavior], or apparent change or improvement itself stands instead of repentance, as a sort of means, a sacramental means, imparting forgiveness by itself, by its own virtue, as a work done;”

True repentance requires contrition: regret and sadness over one’s sins and a commitment not to commit them again. From that starting point, change and improvement follow. This process is the same as preached by Jesus and His forerunner, St. John the Baptist, when they urged their hearers to repent and then be baptized. The one who repents, while turning from his sin and toward obedience, also understands the damage he has done. He does not look at his past sin as forgotten, but as a thorn that remains with him, the memory of which pricks with every recall.

One who repents acknowledges the debt accrued by sin, even while accepting God’s forgiveness. The greatest of saints exhibited repentance and at the same time suffered from their sin, despite being welcomed back into relationship with God: “Moses was excluded from the promised land for speaking unadvisedly with his lips. Was he therefore blotted out of God’s book?” Was he not in a justified state, though under punishment? and does not that great Saint show us how to meet the prospect of God’s judgments, when he earnestly supplicates God to pardon him what seemed so small a sin, and to let him go over to Jordan?”

We don’t know what lingering effects our past sin has on us and others. Newman speculates: “It is still a question whether a debt is not standing against them for their past sins, and is not now operating or to operate to their disadvantage. What its payment consists in, and how it will be exacted, is quite another question, and a hidden one. It may be such, if they die under it, as to diminish their blessedness in heaven; or it may be a sort of obstacle here to their rising to certain high points of Christian character; or it may be a hindrance to their ever attaining one or other particular Christian grace in perfection,—faith, purity, or humility; or it may prevent religion taking deep root within them and imbuing their minds; or it may make them more liable to fall away; or it may hold them back from that point of attainment which is the fulfilment of their trial…”

We don’t need to dwell on the past, but the memory of our sin should be an occasion for sincerity, sobriety and sorrow. Knowing that our sin is forgiven should give us peace, but knowing the harm we’ve done should give us even greater resolve to change and atone for past sins. 

On January 8, 2010, after nearly three decades in prison, Ali Ağca had plenty of time to think about what he had done and what he would do now that he was released. In 2014, he visited the tomb of St. John Paul II to lay flowers in his memory. May we all be able to lay to rest the past by never failing to learn from it.

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Aim at ‘seeing the King in His beauty’.  All things that we see are but shadows to us and delusions, unless we enter into what they really mean.

“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.

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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.

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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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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.
Fr. Peter Conley

Aim at ‘seeing the King in His beauty’.  All things that we see are but shadows to us and delusions, unless we enter into what they really mean.

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.