“It is the one peculiarity of the Christian character to be dependent … It is the Christian’s excellence to be diligent and watchful, and yet to be in spirit dependent; to be willing to serve, and to rejoice in the permission to do so; to be content to view himself in a subordinate place.”

These are words preached by St. John Henry Newman in a sermon on the “Communion of Saints.” He speaks to and indeed proclaims where the true meaning of Christian life is found: it is in receiving from God and responding in tune, or in the words of Jesus in St. Luke’s Gospel: “to hear the Word of God and act on it.” Newman discerned this fundamental obedience as the inner heart of sanctity, but not only that. It was also and surprisingly the inner heart of history, not just an individual’s history, but the world’s history, salvation history. That is a profound and revolutionary thought, if we grasp it. But for Newman, it was not merely a thought; rather, it was first a life, a person, a model … indeed, a mother. It is Mary—first among all the saints—who breaks open in her own unflinching duty before the Word of God, the true meaning of being a contingent and limited creature: a true human being. Everything about her points to her Son, and everything about him reveals her beauty. What Newman discerned is that this exchange is the true meaning of history, which all the saints themselves testify to.

I myself learned to recognize and understand this remarkable truth better by listening to my guest today, Dr. Rebekah Lamb, who is Lecturer in Theology and the Arts in the School of Divinity at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. She joins me today in studio as part of her visit to Notre Dame to deliver a lecture on “The Marian Turn in Newman’s Thought,” which is the topic of our conversation today.

Follow-up Resources:

“C. S. Lewis on Education and the Theological Imagination, with Rebekah Lamb,” podcast episode via Church Life Journal
“Doctor of the Church for Our Times,” by Rebekah Lamb, essay via Church Life Journal
“It’s More Effective to Attract than to Simply Chastise (on St. Philip Neri),” by Leonard DeLorenzo, essay via Church Life Journal

Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

The Marian Turn in Newman’s Thought, with Rebekah Lamb