Asceticism: Newman’s wisdom for today

In western, modern societies we live in a culture of superabundance. Store shelves are overflowing with products, and we can choose from a wide variety of diets. We always have something to wear, and we can dress differently every day of the week. Thanks to the internet, we can access cultural goods every day, both in terms of high and low culture. Despite this, the scale of mental problems and sadness is enormous. So, is it not true that we have many things in excess, but we lack what is most important: love? This article looks into the wisdom of Doctor of the Church, Saint John Henry Newman for answers to this question. Argued here is that what he said in the sermon “Love, the One Thing needful,” can be our guide.

Newman begins with a quote from St. Paul’s Hymn of Love (1 Cor. 12:31–13:8). He then notes that many believers are dissatisfied with themselves and that their minds and hearts are not in harmony: “Their reason and their heart not going together; their reason tending heavenwards, and their heart earthwards.”1 Newman also notes that their actions are not motivated by love for God.

Newman emphasizes, based on the example and words of St. Paul, that great deeds and sacrifices without love are of little use. Faith, too, is not a necessary proof of love. Neither is almsgiving! Nor is martyrdom! Newman summarizes it this way:

I do not say that at this day we have many specimens or much opportunity of such high deeds and attainments; but in our degree we certainly may follow St. Paul in them,—in spiritual discernment, in faith, in works of mercy, and in confessorship. We may, we ought to follow him. Yet though we do, still, it may be, we are not possessed of the one thing needful, of the spirit of love, or in a very poor measure; and this is what serious men feel in their own case.2

Newman then analyzes everyday life and points out that many people undertake their duties solely out of blind obedience and fear, not out of love for God. As a result, those who observe them develop a false impression of religion. Thus, nominal Christians caricature Christianity as “the religion of the children of this world, who would, if possible, serve God and Mammon, and, whereas religion consists of love and fear, give to God their fear, and to Mammon their love.”3

The Oxford preacher seeks, together with his listeners, the answer to the question: “How are we to learn, not merely to obey, but to love?”4

Newman laments that people lack love and are unwilling to fight for it through prayer and penance. The saint points out that the lack of love manifests itself in a tendency to preoccupy oneself with trifles, novelties, seeking variety in religious life, discouragement with the monotony of performed activities, and with worrying about attacks on Christ, Christianity, and ourselves because of faith. He concludes, “He who loves, cares little for anything else. The world may go as it will; he sees and hears it not, for his thoughts are drawn another way; he is solicitous mainly to walk with God, and to be found with God; and is in perfect peace because he is stayed in Him.”5

Fortunately, Newman does not stop at pointing out mistakes and criticizing his listeners for their lack of love, but he instead suggests an effective solution: asceticism. Newman suggests that if I want to overcome evil in my life, I must learn to give up certain goods to accept God’s love and express it myself. Newman specifies:

If I must, before concluding, remark upon the mode of overcoming the evil, I must say plainly this, that, fanciful though it may appear at first sight to say so, the comforts of life are the main cause of it; and, much as we may lament and struggle against it, till we learn to dispense with them in good measure, we shall not overcome it. Till we, in a certain sense, detach ourselves from our bodies, our minds will not be in a state to receive divine impressions, and to exert heavenly aspirations. A smooth and easy life, an uninterrupted enjoyment of the goods of Providence, full meals, soft raiment, well-furnished homes, the pleasures of sense, the feeling of security, the consciousness of wealth,—these, and the like, if we are not careful, choke up all the avenues of the soul, through which the light and breath of heaven might come to us. A hard life is, alas! no certain method of becoming spiritually minded, but it is one out of the means by which Almighty God makes us so. We must, at least at seasons, defraud ourselves of nature, if we would not be defrauded of grace.6

These words of Newman correspond closely with his sermon published in the seventh volume of Parochial and Plain Sermons under the title “The Duty of Self-denial.” Newman says there that self-denial is necessary to learn to truly love. This is how he begins the sermon:

Self-denial of some kind or other is involved, as is evident, in the very notion of renewal and holy obedience. To change our hearts is to learn to love things which we do not naturally love—to unlearn the love of this world; but this involves, of course, a thwarting of our natural wishes and tastes. To be righteous and obedient implies self-command; but to possess power we must have gained it; nor can we gain it without a vigorous struggle, a persevering warfare against ourselves. The very notion of being religious implies self-denial, because by nature we do not love religion.7

It is an interesting and little-known fact that Newman delivered the first version of the sermon “The Duty of Self-denial” on 28 March 1830, as part of the Course on the Liturgy,8 under the title “The Liturgy Forming the Character—viz. to Self-Denial—The Commination and Lent Services.”9 It is worth understanding the suggestion made here: the means best suited to form self-denial and love is liturgy and the participation in it.

Thanks to this self-denial, we will have a prepared heart to contemplate the Savior’s love. Newman emphasizes that Christ showed His Love in his deeds. When we have the Cross before our eyes, renunciations will come more easily; we will be aware that they are not for their own sake but for the growth of love within us. Newman advises:

Think of the Cross when you rise and when you lie down, when you go out and when you come in, when you eat and when you walk and when you converse, when you buy and when you sell, when you labour and when you rest, consecrating and sealing all your doings with this one mental action, the thought of the Crucified.10

Newman also encourages us to contemplate Divine Mercy, a consequence of Christ’s Incarnation. Participating in the liturgy allows us to accept it and look at the Crucified One, thereby gaining proper distance from the affairs of this world. To see that we do not truly need food, clothing, or any other kind of wealth in excess, but only what we need, sharing the rest with others. And above all, to receive the love of Christ, fully available to us in the liturgy, so that we can bring it to others.

“It is by such deeds and such thoughts that our services, our repentings, our prayers, our intercourse with men, will become instinct with the spirit of love. Then we do everything thankfully and joyfully, when we are temples of Christ, with His Image set up in us. Then it is that we mix with the world without loving it, for our affections are given to another. We can bear to look on the world’s beauty, for we have no heart for it. We are not disturbed at its frowns, for we live not in its smiles. We rejoice in the House of Prayer, because He is there “whom our soul loveth.” We can condescend to the poor and lowly, for they are the presence of Him who is Invisible.”11

While the first part of Newman’s sermon was very demanding, the end is full of hope, pouring comfort into the hearts of his listeners. Filled with God and love, they can go to their brothers and sisters and share the Good News.

Obviously, love is the thing needful. Saint John Henry Newman demonstrates that the necessary condition for love is asceticism, which is expressed in self-denial and a willingness to deny oneself good but unnecessary things. The teacher of asceticism and love is the liturgy, which directs our eyes and hearts to the Cross and the sacrifice of Christ. Through it, we can truly receive and give love.

1 Newman, PS (Longmans, Green, 1891), 5:328.

2 Newman, PS, 5:330.

3 Newman, PS, 5:332.

4 Newman, PS, 5:333.

5 Newman, PS, 5:336.

6 Newman, PS, 5:337.

7 Newman, PS (Longmans, Green, 1891), 7:86.

8 Which Robert C. Christie called “an early jewel of the Newman canon.” For more, see: Robert C. Christie, “Conversion through Liturgy. Newman’s Liturgy Sermon Series of 1830,” Newman Studies Journal 3, no. 2, (Fall, 2006): 49–59.

9 Newman, John Henry Newman Sermons 1824–1843 (Oxford University Press, 1991), 1:96–105.

10 Newman, PS, 5:339.

11 Newman, PS, 5:337.