In Sin and Error Pining: Christmas in an Unholy Land

By Fr. Gordon J. MacRae

Though I grew up on the North Shore of Boston, I lived for several years in Albuquerque, New Mexico. To prepare for Christmas, people in the Old Town district and other neighborhoods would place lit vigil candles in hundreds of small, sand-filled brown paper bags to encircle their homes, line their driveways, and often even adorn their flat adobe roofs. These vigil lights – called “Candelarias” – were displayed throughout the neighborhoods by the thousands, and their collective effect was a beautiful and breathtaking vigil for the birth of Christ. On Christmas Eve, families and friends from all over would crowd into their cars for a solemn drive through Old Town Albuquerque to view the Candelarias.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, even inside this prison, or at least my small corner of it. As the annual bipolar express into Christmas depression commences all around me, the walls of this cell have become covered with Christmas cards sent by TSW readers. The cards are beautiful and a stark contrast to the bleak place they now adorn.

The collective effect has transformed this captive world in sin and error pining into one of expectant hope, and the strangest thing has happened. As Christmas draws nearer, prisoners – few of whom receive many cards and some none at all – keep coming to this cell to look at the growing numbers of faith-filled cards. “How does one person know so many people?” one asked. “No,” another corrected him. “How does one person know so many GOOD people?” Pornchai loves to give tours of our cards, and tells the other prisoners that we have never even met most of the senders. He explains that they are TSW readers who think of us and pray for us – “including you,” Pornchai tells them – as we spend another Christmas here. It reminds me so much of the vigil of the Candelarias. You should take some pride in this, for it was you who provided the lights that draw them...

You can take pride in the fact that many of the cards you have sent to me and to Pornchai now serve a solemn purpose in an unholy land. They are the Candelarias that summon the alienated and alone to the Christ Child.

I’m about to mark my 19th Christmas in such an exile, living in punishment for crimes that never took place. For Pornchai, it’s his 21st Christmas in prison. But one thing is clear. Not all who dwell in this unholy land are without hope for redemption. When Jonathan finally left this prison last year at Christmas, when his daughter was one year old, he handed me a note as he was going out the door. It was one of the nicest Christmas gifts I or any priest could ever receive:

“I will always remember all the ways that I could count on you. You never take anything from anyone, but please take this: You were a better father to some of us in prison than any of our own fathers ever were in freedom.”

I don’t know that what Jonathan wrote was entirely accurate. I have a hard time measuring such things, but I got another note recently that literally knocked me on my . . . umm, priestly posterior. It was from my friend, Alberto Ramos about whom I wrote in “Why You Must Never Give Up Hope for Another Human Being...”  (continued)

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• In Sin and Error Pining: Christmas in an Unholy Land

Deacon cured through intervention of Cardinal Newman preaches at Westminster Cathedral

London, England, Nov 10, 2009 / 12:09 am (CNA).- Deacon Jack Sullivan, whose cure from crippling back pain advanced the beatification of Servant of God John Henry Cardinal Newman, preached from the pulpit of Westminster Cathedral on the Feast of St. John Lateran. He talked about his miraculous cure and praised Cardinal Newman’s spiritual insights and “extraordinary” foresight.

Deacon Sullivan, a permanent deacon from the Archdiocese of Boston, discussed the Basilica of St. John Lateran’s history and described it as “a magnificent sign of victory” for the countless Christian martyrs in the early centuries of the Church.

“The basilica now stands as a stately and enduring sign of hope and light that the Church world-wide might continue to endure and prosper.”

He discussed the Gospel reading for the day about Jesus expelling the money changers from the temple before turning to Cardinal Newman.

Describing the nineteenth-century theologian and convert from Anglicanism as one of those called by Christ to “inspire and revitalize” the Church, Deacon Sullivan said the cardinal’s thoughts reflect the “enduring truth” about mankind and his quest for the Creator.

“When gazing upon the din and clamor of this world, Cardinal Newman was gifted with a most extraordinary sense of foresight, a supernatural vision enabling him to see far beyond the rather limited and worldly sight of his contemporaries,” the deacon declared. “As a sign of Christ's presence in the world, he could see clearly that which was beyond the horizon. He could see clearly far above the clouds, to that shining cross in the sky, to that heavenly dimension. And he brilliantly preached and wrote about what he saw.”

He cited Cardinal Newman’s discussion of the virtue of faith as a “practical perception” of the unseen world that understands that “this world is not enough for our happiness.”

John Henry Newman encouraged Christians to “cross over the threshold of worldliness” through “inner conversion.”

“And so he surrendered his will to follow the ‘kindly light of truth’, most often at great cost to himself,” Deacon Sullivan explained.

Noting that Cardinal Newman’s works often came in response to personal attacks or attacks against the Church, the deacon said these challenges enabled Newman to achieve his “remarkable” spiritual insights.

A Miraculous Cure

Discussing how severe pain and suffering can be a source of spiritual growth if patiently endured, Deacon Sullivan explained his own affliction.

In 2001 a serious spinal condition caused him what he described as “intolerable pain with utterly no prospect of relief.” He was on the verge of complete paralysis and in jeopardy of losing his job and failing to complete his preparation to become a deacon.

“Had God called me this far only to slam the door in my face?” Deacon Sullivan asked, saying he was “completely helpless.”

“But it was this state of mind that lead me to prayer. I called upon my very special intercessor and faithful friend: ‘Please Cardinal Newman, help me to walk, so that I can return to my classes and be ordained.

“Suddenly I felt a tremendous sensation of intense heat all over, and a strong tingling feeling throughout my body, both of which lasted for a long time! I also felt an overwhelming sense of joy and peace, as well as a strong sense of confidence and determination that finally I could walk!”

“Totally invigorated, I sprinted out of my room and then up and down all the corridors on my floor, with the nurse tagging behind shouting ‘slow down - slow down!’” he added.

The same day of his ordination, Sept. 14, 2002, was the day that the Fathers at Cardinal Newman’s Birmingham Oratory had voted to formally initiate the beatification process for their founder.

The deacon said this was a “wonderful sign” affirming Cardinal Newman’s intercession.

“In this Mass, as in every Mass, I thank God for this marvelous gift, with all my heart, and praise His Holy Name!” the deacon’s homily concluded.

The principle celebrant of the Mass was Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, President of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

Cardinal Newman will be beatified in 2010, the bishops' conference reports.

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With his daring scheme for Anglicans, Benedict XVI fulfils the hopes of Cardinal Newman

By Damian Thompson

Newman: supported special arrangements for Anglican converts

Was Pope Benedict XVI inspired by Cardinal John Henry Newman, whom it is hoped he will beatify in England next year, when he suddenly threw open the gates of Rome to disaffected Anglicans on Tuesday morning?

The official website for Newman’s Cause hinted as much when it greeted the announcement with a reminder of Newman’s support for a proposal to establish an Anglican Uniate Church for converts, similar to that provided for Byzantine-rite Catholics. The plan was conceived by Ambrose Phillips de Lisle and Newman rightly guessed that it would be unworkable. But if it could be made to work, he said, he was all in favour. As he wrote to de Lisle in 1876:

“Nothing will rejoice me more than to find that the Holy See considers it safe and promising to sanction some such plan as the Pamphlet suggests. I give my best prayers, such as they are, that some means of drawing to us so many good people, who are now shivering at our gates, may be discovered.”

And now it has been, thanks to Pope Benedict, who I hope will name his great scheme after Newman. I am sure the Pope is familiar with the reference to “shivering at the gates”, which William Oddie quotes in his book The Roman Option, an account of the English bishops’ failure to meet Anglican pastoral needs in the early 1990s. The then Cardinal Ratzinger is believed to have read the book, which reads as a dreadful reproach to a hierarchy which determinedly set up obstacles to Anglican corporate reunion. The bishops had no idea that those obstacles would be swept away with such force this week – and for a good reason: the Holy Father did not consult them.

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"Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us.
I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired.
It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action.
The greatest action that can be on earth. It is. . .the vocation of the Eternal."

-- John Henry Cardinal Newman

John Henry Cardinal Newman to be Beatified

Vatican City, Apr 23, 2008 / 03:12 am (CNA).- The Vatican has approved the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, the English convert and theologian who has had immense influence upon English-speaking Catholicism, the Birmingham Mail reports.

John Henry Newman was born in 1801. As an Anglican priest, he led the Oxford Movement that sought to return the Church of England to its Catholic roots. His conversion to Catholicism in 1845 rocked Victorian England. After becoming an Oratorian priest, he was involved in the establishment of the Birmingham Oratory.

He died in 1890 and is buried at the oratory country house Rednall Hill.

The Catholic Church has accepted as miraculous the cure of an American deacon’s crippling spinal disorder. The deacon, Jack Sullivan of Marshfield, Massachusetts, prayed for John Henry Newman’s intercession.

At his beatification ceremony later this year, John Henry Newman will receive the title “Blessed.” He will need one more recognized miracle to be canonized.

The case of a 17-year-old New Hampshire boy who survived serious head injuries from a car crash is being investigated as a possible second miracle.

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