Vigils Reading

THE DWELLING-PLACES

OF OUR FOREFATHERS

From a sermon by St John Henry Newman4

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The Churches which we inherit are not the purchase of wealth nor the

creation of genius, they are the fruits of martyrdom. They come of high deeds

and sufferings, as long before their very building as we are after it. Their

foundations are laid very deep, even in the preaching of Apostles, and the

confession of Saints, and the first victories of the Gospel in our land. All that is

so noble in their architecture, all that captivates the eye and makes its way to

the heart, is not a human imagination, but a divine gift, a moral result, a

spiritual work.

The Cross is ever planted in hazard and suffering, and is watered with

tears and blood. No where does it take root and bear fruit, except its preaching

be with self-denial. It is easy indeed, for the ruling powers to make a decree, and

set religion on high, and extend its range, and herald its name; but they cannot

plant it, they can but impose it. The Church alone can plant the Church. The

Church alone can found her sees, and enclose herself within walls. None but

saintly men, mortified men, preachers of righteousness, and confessors for the

truth, can create a home for the truth in any land. Thus the Temples of God are

withal the monuments of his Saints, and we call them by their names while we

consecrate them to his glory. Their simplicity, grandeur, solidity, elevation,

grace, and exuberance or ornament, do but bring to remembrance the patience

and purity, the courage, meekness, and great charity, the heavenly affections,

the activity in well-doing, the faith and resignation, of men and women who

themselves did but worship in mountains, and in deserts, and in caves and dens

of the earth.

They labored, but not in vain, for others entered into their labor; and, as

if by natural consequence, at length their word prospered after them, and made

itself a home, even these sacred palaces in which it has so long dwelt and which

are still vouchsafed to us, in token, as we trust, that they too are still with us

who spoke that word, and with them, his presence, who gave them grace to

speak it.

O happy they, who, in a sorrowful time, avail themselves of this bond of

communion with the Saints of old and with the Universal Church! O wise and

dutiful, who, when the world has robbed them of so much, set the more account

upon what remains! We have not lost all, while we have the dwelling-places of

our forefathers; while we can repair those which are broken down, and build

upon the old foundations, and propagate them upon new sites! Happy they, who

when they enter within their holy limits, enter in heart into the court of heaven!

And most unhappy, who, while they have eyes to admire, admire them only for

their beauty’s sake, and the skill they exhibit; who regard them as works of art,

not fruits of grace; bow down before their material forms, instead of

worshipping “in spirit and in truth;” count their stones, and measure their

spaces, but discern in them no tokens of the invisible, no canons of truth, no

lessons of wisdom, to guide them forward in the way heavenward

In heaven is the substance, of which here below we are vouchsafe the

image; the thither, if we be worthy, we shall at length attain. There is the holy

Jerusalem, whose light is like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper

stone, clear as crystal; and whose wall is great and high, with twelve gates, and

an Angel at each; whose glory is the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb is the

light.

 

4 Parochial & Plain Sermons, John H. Newman (Ignatius Press CA, 1987) pp. 1348-1349.9