Like Gerontius in the writings of St. John Henry Newman, we set up artificial distances between ourselves and God
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This week we celebrate All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1). That day, Pope Leo will formally declare St. John Henry Newman to be a Doctor of the Church — one whose holiness of life and clarity of teaching are a great guide for following Christ.
In Newman’s extended poem “The Dream of Gerontius” the main character, Gerontius (“old man”), has died, and his guardian angel is bringing him to the throne of God. Gerontius — thinking that space and time ended when he died — wonders: Why does there seem to be a distance between him and God? The angel explains: “It is thy very energy of thought, Which keeps thee from thy God.” In other words, it’s not a distance of space that keeps him from God. What he’s experiencing as “space” is the difference that remains between his will and God’s will.
That raises a good question for each of us: What’s the “distance” between my will and God’s will for me? Whatever it is, that’s the distance from where we are to heaven.
This difference is expressed in another way in a Gospel reading from Luke. Jesus tells a parable about the Kingdom of God, where the master of the house locks the door and says he doesn’t know a group of people who are knocking for entry. They say: “We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.” The master replies: “I do not know where you are from.” The people are talking about physical proximity and think that’s sufficient. The master of the house is talking about the location of their hearts.
How can we grow closer to God in this interior dimension? St. Paul speaks in stirring words that can help us out.
In Romans 8, St. Paul says that God destined us “to be conformed to the image of His Son.” That’s an extraordinary goal! That’s our destination.
But then he also helps us see the path we have to walk to get there. He asks, very poignantly: “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?” We should pause at that point and realize: he’s not talking abstractly! He’s talking about very real situations in his own life and in the life of the Christian community. We might add our own litany: sickness, violence and poverty. The answer to the question, then as now, is: Sometimes it sure feels like those things will separate us from the love of Christ!
But St. Paul says: “No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through Him who loves us.” In other words: we don’t have to let those things separate us from the love of Christ. Jesus has already been into them all and conquered them. What remains is to let Him conquer those things in us.
Every place we’re tempted to draw back from Jesus and withdraw into ourselves — there’s the “distance” in our own hearts between Jesus and us. And whatever that distance is, that’s how far we need to travel — like Gerontius — between where we are and heaven.
St. John Henry Newman, Doctor of the Church, pray for us!
