Cardinal Newman -- Self-Knowledge

"Who can understand his errors? Cleanse Thou me from secret faults." Psalm xix. 12.''

 Sermon 4 in Volume 1 of Newman's Parochial and Plain Sermons is called Secret Faults.

A little background on the  Sermons -- they were composed and delivered while he was a vicar at St Mary's Church in Oxford, from 1828-1843, according to Victorian Web.    Since he was born in 1801, this made him quite a young man when he delivered this particular sermon.

He was not what we would call a "charismatic" preacher; he kept his eyes fixed upon his manuscript, never moving, looking at his congregation, or varying the tone or inflection of his voice. This lack of a "pulpit presence" did not keep Newman from gaining a reputation as perhaps the most intellectually and spiritually gifted preacher of his day.

Newman starts off the sermon:

STRANGE as it may seem, multitudes called Christians go through life with no effort to obtain a correct knowledge of themselves.

 Right away, this implies that (1) self-knowledge is important and (2) many Christians do not practice it.   Why would this be so? 

Now (I repeat) unless we have some just idea of our hearts and of sin, we can have no right idea of a Moral Governor, a Saviour or a Sanctifier, that is, in professing to believe in Them, we shall be using words without attaching distinct meaning to them. Thus self-knowledge is at the root of all real religious knowledge; and it is in vain,—worse than vain,—it is a deceit and a mischief, to think to understand the Christian doctrines as a matter of course, merely by being taught by books, or by attending sermons, or by any outward means, however excellent, taken by themselves. For it is in proportion as we search our hearts and understand our own nature, that we understand what is meant by an  Infinite Governor and Judge; in proportion as we comprehend the nature of disobedience and our actual sinfulness, that we feel what is the blessing of the removal of sin, redemption, pardon, sanctification, which otherwise are mere words. God speaks to us primarily in our hearts. Self-knowledge is the key to the precepts and doctrines of Scripture.

So the reason it is important to have a correct understanding of our hearts is that unless we know our own sinfulness (it is understood that correct knowledge will involve the recognition that one is a sinner) we will not understand redemption and grace.

 we shall be using words without attaching distinct meaning to them

This seems to me to be a prefiguring of Newman's Grammar of Assent, which I am also reading.    In Chapter 2 he says:

If a child asks, "What is Lucern?" and is answered, "Lucern is medicago sativa, of the class Diadelphia and order Decandria;" and henceforth says obediently, "Lucern is medicago sativa, &c.," he makes no act of assent to the proposition which he enunciates, but speaks like a parrot. But, if he is told, "Lucern is food for cattle," and is shown cows grazing in a meadow, then, though he never saw lucern, and knows nothing at all about it, besides what he has learned from the predicate, he is in a position to make as genuine an assent to the proposition "Lucern is food for cattle," on the word of his informant, as if he knew ever so much more about lucern.

 If I say the formula "Jesus is my redeemer" but have no understanding of what He is redeeming me from, I will have no true conception of His mercy.

St Therese of Lisieux once pondered on Jesus' words regarding Mary Magdalen -- that she has loved much, because she has been forgiven much; whereas those who are not forgiven much, love but little.

She was not such a great sinner as Magdalen, and, logically speaking, she did not need as much forgiveness from God as Magdalen. But does it follow that she loved Him the less? No, on the contrary, she loved Him all the more. Love has its own logic that mathematicians have no notion of. "I love Him," she reasoned, "because He has forgiven me, not much, but all.""He has forgiven me beforehand the sins which I could have committed."

Father Hardon comments:

This practical confidence in God's mercy is developed by the reflection on one's own sinfulness and the corresponding gratitude to God and the total assurance that I have been forgiven because God has been so merciful to me. But it was also the practical confidence of not only reflecting on my past sins forgiven but also on the sins I might commit. I know what tendencies I've got; I know the weakness of my human weakness; I know the shrewdness of the devil; I know the seductiveness of the world; and I know that nothing but God's mercy can protect me.

 This is the idea that Newman is focusing on, though he is talking to a different group of people, a group who might be fairly oblivious to the extent of their sinfulness.   His point is that we often, for various reasons, mistake ourselves in our innermost center, because surface ease blinds us to our true selves.  

 And this favourable judgment of ourselves will especially prevail, if we have the misfortune to have uninterrupted health and high spirits, and domestic comfort. Health of body and mind is a great blessing, if we can bear it; but unless chastened by watchings and fastings, it will commonly seduce a man into the notion that he is much better than he really is. ... When a man's spirits are high, he is pleased with every thing; and with himself especially. He can act with vigour and promptness, and he mistakes  this mere constitutional energy for strength of faith. He is cheerful and contented; and he mistakes this for Christian peace. And, if happy in his family, he mistakes mere natural affection for Christian benevolence, and the confirmed temper of Christian love. In short, he is in a dream, from which nothing could have saved him except deep humility, and nothing will ordinarily rescue him except sharp affliction.

Other things that blind us:  

1. The social circumstances we live in -- custom and ordinary use blind us to the evil of certain things.
2. Habit -- if we are not careful, we can slide into things that at first shock us.
3. Lack of effort -- we are busy -- we don't want to have the trouble and discomfort of examining our conscience.
4. Self-love -- we prefer not to inquire too deeply into what might make us look worse to ourselves.  

 One remedy he mentions is to study the Bible: 

Ask yourselves, my brethren, what do you know of the Bible? Is there any one part of it you have read carefully, and as a whole? One of the Gospels, for instance? Do you know very much more of your Saviour's works and words than you have heard read in church? Have you compared His precepts, or St. Paul's, or any other Apostle's, with your own daily conduct, and prayed and endeavoured to act upon them? If you have, so far is well; go on to do so. If you have not, it is plain you do not possess, for you have not sought to possess, an adequate notion of that perfect Christian character which it is your duty to aim at, nor an adequate  notion of your actual sinful state

All in all, though this is a challenging call to change, his primary message is that self-knowledge can only take place in the understanding of God's great love and mercy. 

 Can we content ourselves with such an unreal faith in Christ, as in no sufficient measure includes self-abasement, or thankfulness, or the desire or effort to be holy? for how can we feel our need of His help, or our dependence on Him, or our debt to Him, or the nature of His gift to us, unless we know ourselves? How can we in any sense be said to have that "mind of Christ," to which the Apostle exhorts us, if we cannot follow Him to the height above, or the depth beneath; if we do not in some measure discern the cause and meaning of His sorrows, but regard the world, and man, and the system of Providence, in a light different from that which His words and acts supply? If you receive revealed truth merely through the eyes and ears, you believe words, not things; you deceive yourselves. You may conceive yourselves sound in faith, but you know nothing in any true way. Obedience to God's commandments, which implies knowledge of sin and of holiness, and the desire and endeavour to please Him, this is the only practical interpreter of Scripture doctrine.

Here he is talking about a faith that goes beyond profession, as with the child who repeats  "Lucern is medicago sativa, &c.," but does not know what he is saying.   

More reading: 

• Meditation on Newman's Grammar of Assent  (Fr Stanley Jaki) 
• Spirituality in the Parochial and Plain Sermons (PDF) -- Master's Thesis