D. Justifying Presence
D. Justifying Presence
To understand how the Sacraments mediate righteousness with a view to manifesting faith and obedience, one must grasp a vital connection between Newman’s doctrine of incarnation and what he calls, “Justifying Presence.” Predicated on the conviction that the living word became flesh not simply to deliver sinners from guilt (as Newman read Protestantism), nor, on the other extreme, for one to formulate a doctrine of justification “exclusively on the effects of grace” apart from a righteous state (as Newman read Catholicism),736 Newman begins his via media by elevating the justified sinner to fellowship and communion with the divine.737 In this union, according to Newman, the justified receives a gift that exceeds the impartation of divine grace, the very presence of God. The notion is elucidated in Newman’s famous hymn, Praise to the Holiest in the Height:
O wisest love! That flesh and blood
Which did in Adam fail,
Should strive afresh against the foe,
Should strive and should prevail;
And that a higher gift than grace
Should flesh and blood refine,
God’s Presence and His very Self,
and Essence all-divine.738
Once again, Newman’s indebtedness to the eastern doctrine of theosis is evident. It was early in 1835 when Newman applied this concept specifically to the doctrine of justification in a sermon titled “Human Responsibility.” “The grace of Regeneration,” he argues, “. . . is a definite and complete gift conveyed, not gradually, but at once; and it is a state distinct from every other, consisting in the Sacred presence of the Spirit of Christ in soul and body.”739
When Newman speaks of the divine presence, he is explicit about its Trinitarian personhood. “The essential feature of Newman’s understanding of the nature of justification,” McGrath explains, “is his insistence upon the real presence of the Trinity within the soul of the justified believer, conceived in broadly realist terms, which undoubtedly reflects his interest in and positive evaluation of the Greek fathers such as Athanasius.”740 This is, according to Jose Morales, the “most outstanding merit” of the Lectures, the place where “Newman comes face to face with a mystery of faith.”741 Such a positive assessment is due to the way Newman correlates the roles to each of the divine persons in justification and sanctification. Accordingly, the Father declares sinful man to be just, upon the merits and saving grace of Christ, by means of the inhabitation of the Holy Spirit.742 With this Trinitarian framework in view, Newman concludes, “This is to be justified, to receive the Divine Presence with us, and be made a Temple of the Holy Ghost.”743 Such is the heart of Newman’s theology of salvation. The God who declares justification and renovates the soul does so by inhabiting the soul. “He justifies us by entering into us, He continues to justify us by remaining in us,” Newman concludes. “This is really and truly our justification, not faith, not holiness, not (much less) a mere imputation; but through God’s mercy, the very Presence of Christ.744
Newman recognizes that Scripture describes divine presence in various ways. Sometimes it is “described as God’s presence or indwelling,” he summarizes, “sometimes that of Father and Son; sometimes the Holy Ghost; sometimes of Christ the Incarnate Mediator; sometimes of God through the Spirit; sometimes of Christ.”745 The common thread among these appellations is divine inhabitation that results in the justified becoming an adopted son or daughter. Like Christ, who was “justified by the Spirit”746 and “declared to be the Son of God with power,”747 achieving sonship that “did not supersede but implied His inherent righteousness,”748 we also, by virtue of our association with Christ, realize these salvific benefits in concert with the divine persons.749
Newman’s emphasis comes to flower in Lecture VII, in which he develops the subject of union with Christ more fully, describing how “justification is the setting up of the Cross within us.”750 This chapter, entitled “The Characteristics of the Gift of Righteousness,” explores the sanctifying capacity of justification in terms of the adherent presence of Christ, the one who brings the incarnation, sacrament, and justifying presence of God to the human soul.