Yesterday, Pope Leo proclaimed St John Henry Newman the 38th Doctor of the Church. Newman, of course, belongs to this country and we feel deep gratitude and honour at his promotion. But really, his teaching and his holiness are “for all seasons” and for all people. All in the Church, and not only we, Catholics in England, are invited to learn from Newman, to let oneself be guided by his teaching and his holiness.
We are so grateful that we have the saints. We celebrate them all together today in this transferred solemnity of All Saints. They shine as great lights, examples of Christian life, and witnesses to God’s infinite love. Sometimes we may feel a bit discouraged: “I shall never be a saint. I am too weak.” But the saints kindly come to us and answer: “I did it – why not you?” Above all, they share with us their secret: “God did everything, I just had to follow, to obey and to let Him guide me where I would never had imagined”.
Precisely Newman in the very first of his Parochial Sermons chose to comment on the words of Letter to the Hebrews: “Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord”. It is first of all remarkable that, when he put together a series of his sermons, he began with an invitation to holiness. He was ahead of his time, already announcing what Vatican II would call “the universal call to holiness”, saying: “All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity.”
Then Newman begins by explaining that there are only saints in heaven. Only those attuned to God’s holiness – that is to say, to His perfect bounty, mercy and love – find a place in heaven. There are not saints and ‘half-saints’ in heaven, but only saints: men and women who said fully Yes to God. Our new Doctor explains that someone who would not be a saint could not be happy in heaven. In heaven, there is only God; God is all in all; if you don’t like God, then it is not the best place for you. And he makes a comparison: it is like a church. If you are not interested in religion, if your real choices in life go in a different direction, you cease coming to church, simply because it is boring for you, not really interesting. In a similar way, someone who is not interested in God cannot feel at ease in heaven.
As Christ’s disciples, we have heard the good news. We have received an invitation. Jesus has spoken of the Kingdom – which is another name for heaven. He taught us that this kingdom can be ours if only we become saints. The poor in spirit, repentant, meek, peacemakers, thirsty for justice, merciful, pure of heart, all represent different aspects of the one holiness of God. The universal call to holiness is a calling to embrace the gospel of the beatitudes and to make it the rule of our life. For holiness and beatitude, happiness, are one and the same thing.
Dr Newman warns us rather sternly: holiness is the work of the whole of one’s life. We cannot hope that we shall arrange things with God at the last minute. In His mercy, God will of course welcome any sign that we eventually turn to him from the depths of our heart, but He will also ask us: ‘What did you do with my gifts?’ Here, again, the Saints come to our help. They show us the example of ordinary people who were given to see clearly the goal of our human life, which is God, and to embrace it with a full and heroic generosity. It is true that most of us only come gradually to understanding that God wants to be all for us, and then only gradually draw the consequences in our daily lives. The most important thing is to be on the way, never to despair and, with humility, to begin again and again.
As Pope Leo also said in his homily yesterday, “The lives of the saints teach us that it is possible to live passionately amidst the complexity of the present, without neglecting the apostolic mandate to “shine like stars in the world” (Phil 2:15).” Certainly, we come to realize that we are far from home, our feet are unsteady, we cannot interpret clearly the way ahead. Yet none of this impedes us, since we have found our Guide: Jesus Himself leads our walk in the apparent darkness of this world, according to the words of one of Saint John Henry Newman’s best-known texts, the hymn “Lead, Kindly Light”: “Lead, Kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom, Lead Thou me on;” “Lead, Kindly Light, The night is dark, and I am far from home, Lead Thou me on.”
I suppose there must be some sort of party in heaven when one of them is received among the very exclusive circle of the Doctors. This, of course, is just an image for this ever-growing joy of heaven which we can hardly imagine. Let us only remember that we, too, can give joy to heaven, if only we turn to Christ, we embrace His calling, we give Him the first place in our heart and in our life, for “I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Today there is one joy for the sinners who repent and the saints who celebrate: the one joy of Our Father in heaven, glorious in all His Saints.