The Church a Home for the Lonely - Dr. Donald Graham

Dr. Donald Graham, Associate Professor of Systematic and Pastoral Theology at St. Augustine’s Seminary in Toronto, Ontario looks closely at Newman’s 1837 sermon, “The Church a Home for the Lonely.”  In the opening lines of the sermon Newman explains home as the attainment of that which satisfies the human heart. The only thing, in Newman’s mind, that ultimately satisfies the heart is love and being loved by that which we are made – heaven itself. Dr. Graham develops that heaven “claims” our highest love and “persevering exertions.” Heaven then actually is our home, and we are lonely without it. The Church, being our home on earth, is our means to come home. Because there is a gap between what we experience now and what we will someday experience in heaven, this life is fluid, transient, and passing. The world has a in-built instability in time and space. Even in our happiest moments we know that life moves on and that we can’t rest in place. Dr. Graham references the eighth chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, Lumen Gentium, in elaborating on Newman’s point that this restlessness is a sign of God reminding us that we are all pilgrims and that with the Church we are on a pilgrimage towards heaven. During this pilgrimage there is a tension created when we pursue happiness in the wrong way – by things that we think will satisfy us. However, when we wrongly pursue only the things of this world, God uses this upset to remind us that there is infinitely more beyond this realm. When we bump into the many limits of this world, we discover that the world “cannot inspire confidence in love.” This restlessness manifests the drive that God put within us – to be one with Him. Newman reminds us that restlessness is only satisfied in God, in the true religion. If we don’t have the true thing, we will often manufacture something to take its place. Finally, through scripture, Newman points to the temple as being a foreshadowing of home. We need something which the world cannot give which the Gospel has supplied. Jesus left us with a secret home for faith and love and joy. Christ comes to redeem us and to draw us into Himself through the sacraments of the Church. The Church then becomes a home, a community that extends throughout time. This is where we find the only one who satisfies the soul. Christ created a church to endure for the ages. Newman asks us what home are we seeking, this limited earthly home or the substance of God through the power of the Spirit?

 Dr. Graham’s book chapter, “Newman’s View of the Church as a Home – Ecclesiology and Theological Anthropology in a Pastoral Context,” is available for download at newmanontap.com under the menu item, “files of podcast sermons.”

To approach Newman's majestic thought it is highly recommended to download the formatted sermon at www.newmanontap.com. Comments and suggestions are appreciated on the same site.