St. Mary's Church, Roslyn: Pastor's Page

Dear Friends,

On October 13, Pope Francis presided at the canonization of John Henry Cardinal Newman, an Anglican priest and theologian who championed the Oxford Movement with an eye to the reunification of the Church of England and Rome. Newman famously astonished his colleagues by embracing Catholicism in October of 1845, only a few short years after the practice of Catholicism in England had been legalized, and only a few short years before the Catholic hierarchy was restored in Britain. In doing so, he paid the price (personally and professionally) for his devotion to conscience, relinquishing his prestigious position at Oxford, and establishing Maryvale, the first English Oratory, in 1848. Bishop Barres has published a terrific pastoral letter, “Heart Speaks to Heart,” on the life and contributions of Cardinal Newman that is available in the Church. Please take a copy and enjoy it.

It is not an exaggeration to claim that a significant factor in Cardinal Newman’s attraction to Roman Catholicism was his personal devotion to the Blessed Mother. Even as a young boy, he was drawn to the Rosary; and as a cleric in the Church of England, he was assigned to St. Mary’s Hall in Oxford (the seat of the Oxford Movement), where he wrote his masterpiece, An Essay on the Development of Doctrine (a work that inspired his conversion). It is said that he undertook the Essay with the purpose of refuting Catholicism, but after much prayer, study, and writing, came to the opposite conclusion.

One of my favorite passages from the Essay regards the importance of Marian devotion. Newman points out (Ch. XI: Section II: par. 1) the paradox that “if we take a survey at least of Europe, we shall find that it is not those religious communions which are characterized by devotion towards the Blessed Virgin that have ceased to adore her Eternal Son, but those very bodies, which have renounced devotion to her.” Indeed, those who refuse to honor her in the name of worshiping Christ more purely “have ceased to worship Him altogether.” He goes into an elegant—and eloquent—distinction between the worship of God and the veneration of saints, and it is not surprising that Newman would eventually explain and defend the dogmas of both the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Blessed Mother.

Newman, who understood the cost of fidelity to the truth and was willing to pay it, realized something quite profound about God’s beneficence. On the one hand, Christians worship God alone, and the desire for goodness, beauty, and truth always leads back to Him. On the other hand, God is not “stingy”; his greatness is magnified, not diminished, by the perfection of engraced humanity, which Christian piety recognizes is embodied by the Mother of God. Would that all of us might, through divine grace, attain holy purity, holy virtue, holy excellence.

Faithfully,

Fr. Valentine

Dear Friends:

This Friday, October 18, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist. As we are presently in the C-cycle of Sunday readings this year, we concentrate on his narrative of our Lord’s life, death, and resurrection. The only New Testament writer of Gentile origin, St. Luke was a travel companion of St. Paul, as well as a physician and cultivated writer, whose language indicates a high level of literary skill. His gospel traces Jesus’ ministry to its conclusion at Jerusalem, with his saving death on the cross; its “sequel,” the Acts of the Apostles, illustrates how the gospel then spread from Jerusalem (especially through the preaching of St. Paul) to the rest of the world, symbolized by the city of Rome. The Gospel and Acts are both dedicated to Theophilus, the “friend of God”: perhaps a patron? Perhaps, you and me?

Along with these credentials, there is even the tradition that St. Luke was an artist, perhaps one of the first iconographers. While this attribution may well be fanciful, there is some truth to it. After all, Luke paints a number of “portraits” in his gospel, chief among them the image of Our Lord and Our Lady. (The Annunciation story, of course, is found only in his gospel.) And while Luke claims no firsthand knowledge of the earthly Jesus, tradition suggests that he may have even met the Blessed Mother in her later years. How else would he have known the stories of Jesus’ “hidden” life that Mary pondered in her heart?

On another level, Biblical scholars have called the Lucan Infancy Narrative a literary “diptych,” that is, a two-paneled painting featuring two inter-related subjects: in this case, St. John the Baptist (the fore-runner of Jesus) and Our Lord Himself. At every turn—the announcement by the angel Gabriel, the reaction of the parents (Zechariah and Mary), the Visitation greeting, the supernatural circumstances of the births, etc.—Jesus far surpasses John.

There is, moreover, a degree of tenderness, mercy, and (you’ll pardon the expression) “inclusivity” in Luke’s portrait of Jesus that is unmatched in all the other gospels. It is no coincidence that so many beautiful features—the shepherds who hear the song of the angels, the poignancy of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, Jesus’ deep friendship with women like Martha and Mary, his dinner with Zacchaeus, this week’s account of the ten lepers (including a Samaritan), the healing of the servant whose ear was severed, and his promise of paradise to the Good Thief—are only found in the Third Gospel. They show us that God’s love in Jesus extends to the people who are typically “on the margins”: the rudes, the lost, the ne’er-do-well, women, sinners, foreigners, and even criminals. According to Luke, no one is outside the divine embrace: certainly a lesson for our contentious age.

I end with a note of personal thanks for your kind acceptance of me as your new pastor, and of your warm hospitality to my family and friends this past Sunday. My college buddies, in particular, are thrilled that, after 34 years, I am finally, gainfully employed! Here’s to the days ahead of us; may the beauty of Our Lord come into ever-clearer relief here at St. Mary’s.

Faithfully,
Fr. Valentine