“The Mystery of Godliness”

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“The Mystery of Godliness”

Christmas Sermon

Heart Speaks to Heart – Cor ad Cor Loquitur

Sermon Reflection 5 for December 2025

by Sister Mary Catherine Blanding, IHM

https://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume5/sermon7.html

“At other seasons we are reminded of watching, toiling, suffering…
at this season we are reminded simply of God’s gifts to us sinners.”
— St. John Henry Newman

Questions for Pondering, Discussing (The numbers refer to note numbers from his sermon).

1. Our Birth in the Spirit
   St. JHN writes: “As He is born, so we are born.”
   Michael Barber, in The True Meaning of Christmas, reflects: “Christmas is a homecoming… at Christmas our thoughts turn to our loved ones and going home… Like Mary, we too are included in Christ’s royal family, and as ‘Silent Night’ says, we gather around her as she is with Christ in the family of God, where all is bright.”
   
   What are your thoughts on being born in the Spirit? (86)

2. Veneration for His Name
   Scrooge’s nephew Fred tells his unrepentant uncle that Christmas deserves veneration because of its sacred name and origin. For Dickens—Newman’s contemporary—this is the first reason Christmas is special: joy, goodwill, and celebration flow from Christ Himself.
   
   In what ways is Dickens like Newman in this emphasis?
   
   
3. “Christ Our God to Earth Descendeth”
   Newman carefully sketches the divinity of Jesus Christ, citing Scripture and affirming: “Thus, what Our Lord is, none other can be; He has the divine nature…”
   
   Why was Newman stressing this point to the Oxford dons? Is this emphasis still needed today? (87–89)

4. He Took Our Nature, Not Our Sin
   Newman writes that Christ took our nature upon Himself—but not our sin—taking our nature in a way above nature.
   
   What does this mean? (89)
   
   
5. “Round Yon Virgin”
   Newman states that Christ was not born in the way of the flesh.
   
   What theology is implied here? Comment. (90–92)
   
   
6. Hiddenness and Detachment
   Our saint emphasizes Christ’s hiddenness and detachment: He would not accept lodging, acknowledgment, or blandishment from the kingdom of darkness.
   Fr. George Rutler writes: “The Holy Spirit works this way: not through powerful government, but from the small, simple, seemingly fruitless… from simple devotional prayers; from confidence in the Sacraments; from the hidden work and prayers of women religious; from parents striving to raise children amid a depraved generation; from priests standing faithfully at their posts… and most of all, from a no-account town in Galilee, from a Virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph of the forgotten house of David.”
   (https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-nd-philosophy/catholic-faith/newman-in-a-time-of-spiritual-combat.html. accessed 2022)
   
   What are your thoughts on hiddenness and detachment as Gospel living

7. Mystery of Mercy
   St. JHN teaches that mercy is the beginning and sanctification the end.
   
   How does Newman’s description compare with the Divine Mercy message?
   
   
8. Pattern of Sanctity
   Newman asks why Christ “from the first so spurned this world” and lived a mortified life.
   
   What is Our Lord teaching us? What does Newman mean when he exhorts us to see perfection not as the unchecked exercise of all our faculties, but as the subjection of what is inferior to what is higher?
   
   
9. A Season of Gratitude
   At this season, Newman reminds us simply of God’s gift to us sinners—not a time for gloom.
   
   What does he teach here about grace? About joy?
   
   
10. Hidden from the Devil
    Origen comments that through Saint Joseph, the virginal conception and birth of Christ were hidden from the evil one (John Cavadini, Foreword, The True Meaning of Christmas).
    
    What are your thoughts on this “space of hiddenness”? (91)

Personal Reflection Questions

1. “The world knew Him not.”
   Do I know Christ in a real—not merely notional—way?
   “He has no home.” Can He call my heart His home?
   
   
2. This is the season of grace.
   Do I come to Him as a helpless being—as a little child?
   
   
3. “We can do nothing and He can do everything.”
   Jesus to St. Catherine of Siena: “You are she who is nothing, and I am He who is Everything.”
   Am I aware of my nothingness before God, and do I pray for the gift of humility?

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“May each Christmas, as it comes, find us more and more like Him,
who at this time became a little child for our sake—
more simple-minded, more humble, more holy, more affectionate,
more resigned, more happy, more full of God.”

Merry Christmas