'Heads I Win, Tails You Lose!'

I was reading from Newman's Works this morning and came across a passage from 'Anglican Difficulties' that I found quite relevant to Anglicans today. It is no secret that many are unsure about how they will respond to the Holy Father's offer and it is my humble view that they would do well to think about Newman's words below. Undoubtedly most have read them before but they are worthy of reading numerous times again. The Church is at a crucial point in history where the hopes of reunification and the voice of Christ's Priestly Prayer are being spoken each day. To me, this offer really is a Newman miracle!

I would think that the Season of Advent would be an opportune time to teach congregations why reunion with Holy Mother Church is a necessary step to bringing God's Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. The Reformation, as far as I see it, has run its course and the Counter Reformation that has been underway since Trent has taken the past 400 years to come to the recent decision from the Holy Father. It seems to me that now is the time for a positive response when the Apostolic Constitution is made public and I do not see the point in waiting to see what is put on offer by a General Synod. That answer appears to be similar to a hope of being able to stand in the middle of the pitch waiting for the referee to toss the coin in the air and calling 'heads I win, tails you lose'.

The words from Newman clearly perform the heart surgery that is needed by each one of us who have either made the decision to return to Holy Mother Church or are in the throws of that very difficult and often painful decision now. The reality of the weight of this decision is not to be underestimated. But, I would pray that those many wonderful priests in the Anglican church along with their people would enter this period of time with a completely open heart to answer this invitation with a positive response filled with grace and gratitude as somewhat of a taste of the 'the Great Wedding Feast' to come. Many who are now unsure have been quite clear that they have doubted the safety of their present position and now I would pray that a favourable response is forthcoming from all. I trust that all readers will read Newman's words in the present framework with regards to the decision that is now being called upon to be made. Newman speaks from the heart then and prophetically to open hearts now, calling upon all to consider what they may lose if they say 'No thank you!' to the Holy Father.

There is but one set of persons, indeed, who inspire the Catholic with special anxiety, as much so as the open sinner, who is not peculiar to any Communion, Catholic or schismatic, and who does not come into the present question. There is one set of persons in whom every Catholic must feel intense interest, about whom he must feel the gravest apprehensions; viz., those who have some rays of light vouchsafed to them as to their heresy or as to their schism, and who seem to be closing their eyes upon it; or those who have actually gained a clear view of the nothingness of their own Communion, and the reality and divinity of the Catholic Church, yet delay to act upon their knowledge. You, my dear brethren, if such are here present, are in a very different state from those around you. You are called by the inscrutable grace of God to the possession of a great benefit, and to refuse the benefit is to lose the grace. You cannot be as others: they pursue their own way, they walk over this wide earth, and see nothing wonderful or glorious in the sun, moon, and stars of the spiritual heavens; or they have an intellectual sense of their beauty, but no feeling of duty or of love towards them; or they wish to love them, but think they ought not, lest they should get a distaste for that mire and foulness which is their present portion. They have not yet had the call to inquire, and to seek, and to pray for further guidance, infused into their hearts {359} by the gracious Spirit of God; and they will be judged according to what is given them, not by what is not. But on you the thought has dawned, that possibly Catholicism may be true; you have doubted the safety of your present position, and the present pardon of your sins, and the completeness of your present faith. You, by means of that very system in which you find yourselves, have been led to doubt that system. If the Mosaic law, given from above, was a schoolmaster to lead souls to Christ, much more is it true that an heretical creed, when properly understood, warns us against itself, and frightens us from it, and is forced against its will to open for us with its own hands its prison gates, and to show us the way to a better country. So has it been with you. You set out in simplicity and earnestness intending to serve it, and your very serving taught you to serve another. You began to use its prayers and act upon its rules, and they did but witness against it, and made you love it, not more but less, and carried off your affections to one whom you had not loved. The more you gazed upon your own communion the more unlike it you grew; the more you tried to be good Anglicans, the more you found yourselves drawn in heart and spirit to the Catholic Church. It was the destiny of the false prophetess that she could not keep the little ones who devoted themselves to her; and the more simply they gave up their private judgment to her, the more sure they were of being thrown off by her, against their will, into the current of attraction which led straight to the true Mother of their souls. So month has gone on after month, and year after year; and you have again and again vowed obedience to your own Church, and you have protested against those who left her, and you have thought you found in them what you liked not, and you have prophesied evil about them and good about yourselves; and your plans seemed prospering and your influence extending, and great things were to be; and yet, strange to say, at the end of the time you have found yourselves steadily advanced in the direction which you feared, and never were nearer to the promised land than you are now.