News Item: : Newman and the Future of Britain - Part 1
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Monday 08 March 2010 - 17:14:34
It is truly remarkable that the Papal visit to Great Britain, including the Beatification of that great champion of truth and conscience, Cardinal John Henry Newman, is occuring at this time when the very future of the nation teeters on the edge of a sharp precipice.
On the one hand there is the great hope which Newman holds out to us. This is the ability for our nation to look to her historical Christian roots and rediscover all the good things that grew organically from them. To recall just one pertinent example; our Christian heritage provided the fertile soil, and necessary breathing space, from which could mature our developed concepts of individual liberty in the first place.
On the other hand our nation is choosing, on a daily basis, to deny her Christian roots and to seek to impose a new model of life based in moral relativism. In truth this cannot lead to freedom or unity in any authentic sense. This is because genuine liberty and union are fruits of truth. Falsehood can only ever lead to injustice and disunity. Nevertheless, in these final months prior to the Papal visit, Britain continues to pass radically anti-Christian legislation on a disconcertingly frequent basis.
Many British people today contend that belief in absolute truth divides people and therefore must be abandoned to allow each person freedom to 'make their own truth.' However, in reality, the only guarantee of liberty is for a common cause uniting souls in the quest for absolute truth.
Wherever the Natural Law and the gift of Revealed Truth are received, accepted and lived, people can be guided by the light of Grace at work in their consciences to live in peace and true freedom of heart. Wherever these are denied and suppressed the consciences of people become cloudy and darkened.
Without that interior light of conscience, to seek and be guided by truth, people are no longer able to be responsible for themselves and for their behaviour. Everybody seeks their own pleasure and asserts their own position. The law of the jungle returns. This results in increasing dischord and unrest; to such an extent that militaristic models of policing are developed to maintain a semblence of order. However, with Natural Law and Revealed Truth denied, the very nature of policing turns from being the maintenance of law and order, and changes into the imposition of the ideology of whoever attains power.
As we prepare for the Papal visit it is good to contemplate these two choices which our nation faces and to bring them to Our Blessed Lord in prayer. It is good to reflect on all that Newman truly taught about freedom and conscience as guided by the light of Jesus Christ. Will we choose the way of truth, freedom, and true liberty...or the way of falsehood which can only lead to our demise as a free nation? The evidence for this is all around us if we would but see it.
In the days prior to his election as Pope in 2005, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, preached powerfully;
'We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and has as its highest goal one's ego and one's own desires.'
Who could deny the prescience of these words in light of current developments? And yet, our present Holy Father did not conclude on such a negative note. He continued;
However, we have a different goal: the Son of God, true man. He is the measure of true humanism. Being an 'Adult' means having a faith which does not follow the waves of today's fashions or the latest novelties. A faith which is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ is adult and mature. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us the knowledge to choose true from false, and deceit from truth.
In Christ truth and love coincide. To the extent that we draw near to Christ, in our own life, truth and love merge. Love without truth would be blind; truth without love would be 'like a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal' (1 Cor 13:1).
In preparation for the Papal visit let us draw near to Jesus Christ. You can bet that our freedom - both here and hereafter - depends on it!
This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.236 )
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Monday 08 March 2010 - 17:14:34
It is truly remarkable that the Papal visit to Great Britain, including the Beatification of that great champion of truth and conscience, Cardinal John Henry Newman, is occuring at this time when the very future of the nation teeters on the edge of a sharp precipice.
On the one hand there is the great hope which Newman holds out to us. This is the ability for our nation to look to her historical Christian roots and rediscover all the good things that grew organically from them. To recall just one pertinent example; our Christian heritage provided the fertile soil, and necessary breathing space, from which could mature our developed concepts of individual liberty in the first place.
On the other hand our nation is choosing, on a daily basis, to deny her Christian roots and to seek to impose a new model of life based in moral relativism. In truth this cannot lead to freedom or unity in any authentic sense. This is because genuine liberty and union are fruits of truth. Falsehood can only ever lead to injustice and disunity. Nevertheless, in these final months prior to the Papal visit, Britain continues to pass radically anti-Christian legislation on a disconcertingly frequent basis.
Many British people today contend that belief in absolute truth divides people and therefore must be abandoned to allow each person freedom to 'make their own truth.' However, in reality, the only guarantee of liberty is for a common cause uniting souls in the quest for absolute truth.
Wherever the Natural Law and the gift of Revealed Truth are received, accepted and lived, people can be guided by the light of Grace at work in their consciences to live in peace and true freedom of heart. Wherever these are denied and suppressed the consciences of people become cloudy and darkened.
Without that interior light of conscience, to seek and be guided by truth, people are no longer able to be responsible for themselves and for their behaviour. Everybody seeks their own pleasure and asserts their own position. The law of the jungle returns. This results in increasing dischord and unrest; to such an extent that militaristic models of policing are developed to maintain a semblence of order. However, with Natural Law and Revealed Truth denied, the very nature of policing turns from being the maintenance of law and order, and changes into the imposition of the ideology of whoever attains power.
As we prepare for the Papal visit it is good to contemplate these two choices which our nation faces and to bring them to Our Blessed Lord in prayer. It is good to reflect on all that Newman truly taught about freedom and conscience as guided by the light of Jesus Christ. Will we choose the way of truth, freedom, and true liberty...or the way of falsehood which can only lead to our demise as a free nation? The evidence for this is all around us if we would but see it.
In the days prior to his election as Pope in 2005, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, preached powerfully;
'We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and has as its highest goal one's ego and one's own desires.'
Who could deny the prescience of these words in light of current developments? And yet, our present Holy Father did not conclude on such a negative note. He continued;
However, we have a different goal: the Son of God, true man. He is the measure of true humanism. Being an 'Adult' means having a faith which does not follow the waves of today's fashions or the latest novelties. A faith which is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ is adult and mature. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us the knowledge to choose true from false, and deceit from truth.
In Christ truth and love coincide. To the extent that we draw near to Christ, in our own life, truth and love merge. Love without truth would be blind; truth without love would be 'like a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal' (1 Cor 13:1).
In preparation for the Papal visit let us draw near to Jesus Christ. You can bet that our freedom - both here and hereafter - depends on it!
This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.236 )