Heroes of the Faith
"On Saints and Saintliness", Part III
by John Henry Newman, 19th cen.
A saint is born like another man; by nature a child of wrath, and needing
God's grace to regenerate him. He is baptized like another, he lies
helpless and senseless like another, and like another child he comes to
years of reason. But soon his parents and their neighbors begin to
say, "This is a strange child, he is unlike any other child"; his brothers
and playmates feel an awe of him, they do not know why; they both like
him and dislike him, perhaps love him much in spite of his strangeness,
perhaps respect him more than they love him. But if there were any
holy Priest there, or others who had long served God in prayer and obedience,
these would say, "This truly is a wonderful child; this child bids fair
to be a Saint". And so he grows up, whether at first he is duly prized
by his parents or not; for so it is with all greatness, that, because it
is great, it cannot be comprehended by ordinary minds at once; but time,
and distance, and contemplation are necessary for its being recognized
by beholders, and, therefore, this special heir of glory of whom I am speaking,
for a time at least excites no very definite observation, unless indeed
(as sometimes happens) any thing of miracle occurs from time to time to
mark him out. He has come to the age of reason, and, wonderful to
say, he has never fallen away into sin.
Other children begin to use the gift of reason by abusing it; they understand
what is right, only to go counter to it; it is otherwise with him, - not
that he may not sin in many things, when we place him in the awful ray
of divine Sanctity, but that he does not sin wilfully and grievously,
- he is preserved from mortal sin, he is never separated from God by sin,
nay, perhaps, he is betrayed only at intervals, or never at all, into any
deliberate sin, be it ever so slight, and he is ever avoiding the occasions
of sin and resisting temptation. He ever lives in the presence of
God, and is thereby preserved from evil, for "the wicked one toucheth him
not".
Nor, again, as if in other and ordinary matters he necessarily differed
from other boys; he may be ignorant, thoughtless, improvident of the future,
rash, impetuous; he is a child, and has the infirmities, failings, fears,
and hopes of a child. He may be moved to anger, he may say a harsh
word, he may offend his parents, he may be volatile and capricious, he
may have no fixed view of things, such as a man has. This is not
much to allow; such things are accidents, and are compatible with the presence
of a determinate influence of grace, uniting his heart to God. [Part
IV]
excerpted from A Newman Treasury, selected and
edited by Charles Frederick Harrold, (c) 1943 by Longman, Green and Co.,
Inc., Arlington House Publisher, New Rochesse, New York
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