This weekend God has spoken to us so loudly. He spoke to us through the Gospel; He spoke to us through Pope Benedict XVI; and He spoke to us through our Archbishop Paul Cremona OP.

He spoke to us about faithful servanthood. Not just about servanthood, but about FAITHFUL servanthood. For it is not enough to serve, it is not enough not even the intension to serve. The quality of the service is what distinguishes the service that God and humanity deserve. God and humanity are the ‘much’ and the ‘little’; what belongs to ‘the other’ and what belongs to ‘you’; what is ‘the true riches’ and what we have rendered as ‘dishonest wealth’. Fidelity in little things, in what belongs to the other, and with dishonest wealth, promises fidelity in much, in what belongs to you, and in true riches. Fidelity towards the human being brings you closer to fidelity to God.

What an example of faithful servanthood in Cardinal John Henry Newman, who was beatified by the Pope on Sunday at Birmingham! With this cerimony, the Pope has gone beyond the police He himself has established, of presiding only over the canonization of saints. You need no extraordinary intelligence to see in this gesture of the Pope some special spiritual bondage with Cardinal Newman. They are both great intellectuals; both of them enjoy an extraordinary gift in reading the signs of the times and in discerning the heart of man and his conscience. However, choosing to go against the custom to beatify this Cardinal Himself, was not just a question of personal favour and pleasure. The Pope wanted also to convey a striking and urgent message for all of humanity at the beginning of the third millennium. He wanted to give us an incarnate illustration of a true and faithful servant.

Cardinal Newman was faithful, first and foremost to God’s voice in his conscience, before being faithful to his Church or to the Pope or to his close and precious friends and members of his family. No true Church, no holy Pope, should be afraid to preach and promote the primacy of conscience. The problem with man today, including even Christians and Catholics, is that they do not really listen to the voice of God in their conscience. The problem with us is that we are so much influenced by ‘the spirit of our age’, and the culture of our times. Relativism and subjectivism have created quite a confusion of our personal feelings, ideas and passions with the voice of our conscience.

What Cardinal Newman experienced and expressed is similar to what St Augustine experienced and expressed in the axiom: “Love, and do whatever you please”! We need not be afraid of promoting such a scary idea. No harm can ever come out of love. Of course, if it is true love. And if one is really listenning to the true voice of his conscience. That is why the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The proof of follwing one’s own true conscience and of possessing divine love, is the faithful witness to the truth and the exaltation of human dignity.

The Pope’s warning against “a more aggressive secularism”, given in Britain, does not reflect a greater challange than the one Blessed Newman had to be and remain faithful. It has always been difficult to follow the voice of one’s own conscience, to love even those who disagree with you and try to shut your mouth. Yet, today, we are heading towards a more subtle and aggressive of the Christian message from the public square and from the marketplace.

It is here that the reflection made by our Archbishop at the Diocesan Assembly last Friday becomes one of a great stratigic value. In a nut shell He was saying: by one’s self, in the society we are living, it is very difficult to be and maintain faithfulness to the Good News. We need a space in our lives where we can share together with other believers, who are also seeking to be faithful servants. It is only through their support that we can have courage to move on against the currents of our times.