Sunday, February 6 : Saint John Henry Newman

“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who watches and keeps his clothes ready” says the Lord (Rv 16,15)… When, then, Christ said that his coming would be soon, yet by saying it would be sudden, he said that to us it would seem long… How it is that Christianity is always failing, yet always continuing? God only knows who wills it,—but so it is; and it is no paradox to say, on the one hand, that it has eighteen hundred years, that it may last many years more, and yet that it draws to an end, nay, is likely to end any day. And God would have us give our minds and hearts to the latter side of the alternative, to open them to impressions from this side, viz. that the end is coming;—it being a wholesome thing to live as if that will come in our day, which may come any day. It was different during the ages before Christ came. The Saviour was to come. He was to bring perfection, and religion was to grow towards that perfection. There was a system of successive revelations going on… Time was measured out for believing minds before Christ came, by the word of prophecy… The chosen people were not bidden to expect him at once; but after a sojourning in Canaan, and a captivity in Egypt, and a wandering in the wilderness, and judges, and kings, and prophets, at length seventy long weeks were determined to introduce him into the world. Thus his delay was, as I may say, recognized then; and, during his delay, other doctrines, other rules, were given to fill the interval. But when once the Christ had come, as the Son over his own house, and with his perfect Gospel, nothing remained but to gather in his saints. No higher Priest could come,—no truer doctrine. The Light and Life of men had appeared, and had suffered, and had risen again; and nothing more was left to do… It was the last time. And hence, though time intervene between Christ’s first and second coming, it is not recognized in the Gospel scheme… It runs, not towards the end, but along it, and on the brink of it; and is at all times equally near that great event, which, did it run towards, it would at once run into. Christ, then, is ever at our doors; as near eighteen hundred years ago as now, and not nearer now than then; and not nearer when he comes than now.

maronite readings – rosary,team