The great G.K. Chesterton once made a telling distinction between the imagery of Buddhism and Christianity. If one looks at an image of the Buddha, he says, it is generally of a rounded, sleek figure with its eyes closed. The sayings of the sages of the East have tended to be lofty and inspiring. If one looks the poverty at large tracts of the East, however, their wisdom seems to have made little difference to the world in which they lived, from which, in many cases, they separated themselves. The holy men of the east are to be found in high, quiet, clean places, engaged in lofty contemplation, awaiting those in search of enlightenment to come to them.
The medieval image of a Catholic saint, on the other hand, is an emaciated figure with burning eyes wide open, staring searchingly on the world about. The Christian saint marches out to call the world to conversion, to live a life worthy of God. “Thy will be done” is their inspiration; to embody the holiness of God in their very lives. The saints of Christendom do not sit in lofty isolation, waiting for the world to come to them; they go down into the stews to search for men, to bring the Good News from on high to earth’s lowest places; there they are to be found, washing the feet of the lowliest, as did Jesus, who humbled himself and did not grasp at equality with God. It is through the saints of Christendom that the world has been irrevocably changed.
One of the distinguishing marks of Christianity is its concern with reality. For Cardinal Newman, it is the key to the true Christian Church. He pointed out continually that a Christian life is not one moved periodically be lofty thoughts, such as can be inspired by sermons, which then goes out to live its more or less pagan existence until moved by the next lofty inspiration. It is a life lived out in constant daily faithfulness to God through prayer, charity and sacrifice. It is persistence in faith rather than intensity of feeling that marks out the way of a Christian. This is the meaning of St. Philip Neri’s ordinary way to holiness; it is also the meaning of Jesus’ calling to take up of one’s cross daily and follow him. Or his words at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel: “It is not those who say ‘Lord, Lord!’ who shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven.” Or, finally, in the profound words of the Lord’s Prayer: Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!”
The challenge to us is to live for Christ, to do his will. Day by day, we must strive for God and his kingdom through prayer and the sacraments, through self-discipline and self-sacrifice; through doing his will. It is not good enough to feel inspired by lofty words, and then to go out and continue in the same old way. We must go out from here and actually do what he asks. And if we sometimes do it grudgingly, it is of the utmost importance that we do it nevertheless.
Fr Phillip
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