“Let us understand, as a first truth in religion,
that love of heaven is the only way to heaven. Sight will not move us;
else why did Judas persist in covetousness in the very presence of Christ? why
did Balaam, whose eyes were opened, remain with a closed heart? why did Satan
fall, when he was a bright Archangel? Nor will reason subdue us; else why was
the Gospel, in the beginning, ‘to the Greeks foolishness’? Nor will excited
feelings convert us; for there is one who ‘heareth the word, and anon with joy
receiveth it;’ yet ‘hath no root in himself,’ and ‘dureth’ only ‘for a while.’
Nor will self-interest prevail with us; or the rich man would have been more
prudent, whose ‘ground brought forth plentifully,’ and would have recollected
that ‘that night his soul’ might be ‘required of him.’ Let us understand that
nothing but the love of God can make us believe in Him or obey Him; and let us
pray Him, who has ‘prepared for them that love Him, such good things as pass
man's understanding, to pour into our hearts such love towards Him, that we,
loving Him above all things, may obtain His promises, which exceed all that we
can desire.’"— English theologian, poet, educator, and
memoirist Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), Newman Reader, Parochial and
Plain Sermons 8, “Sermon 6, Miracles no Remedy for Unbelief,”
first preached on May 2, 1830
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