By Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas.

But first a note from Robert Royal: Today, in Rome, the great English convert and theologian, St. John Henry Newman, will be proclaimed Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIV. Newman will enter that august and select company - he makes only the 38th Doctor (i.e., Teacher) out of all the billions of Catholics who have lived on earth. With good reason. His gifts were many and great. And today Fr. Stravinskas reminds us of his achievements - over and beyond the theology, the history, and the polemics - as a poet, and guide of souls.

Now for today's column.

St. John Henry Newman, at age fifteen, embarked on a decades-long journey: in the words of his motto, ex imaginibus et umbris in veritatem ("From images and shadows into the truth"). For many years on his theological sojourn, Newman stood by the teaching of the 39 Articles of Religion of the Anglican Communion, including the one that describes Purgatory as a "pernicious" doctrine. With much prayer, intense study of the whole thrust of Sacred Scripture, as well as the convincing witness of the Fathers of the Church, he ended up writing one of the finest works on Purgatory, "The Dream of Gerontius," which rivals the depth and beauty of Dante's appreciation of Purgatory in his Divina Commedia; perhaps this work is best known through the lovely hymn, "Praise to the Holiest," which Pope Benedict XVI quoted in his homily at Newman's beatification.

In Newman's poem, a soul is in its last agony and is trying to make sense of his final moments, assisted by his Guardian Angel. The dying man cannot understand why he has become so calm in the face of this previously dreaded experience; the angel tells him that the prayers of the priest and his friends who surround him have given him confidence and, further, that the "calm and joy uprising in thy soul is first-fruit to thee of thy recompense, and Heaven begun."

The man gradually slips more and more and becomes concerned about the loss of his senses; the Angel comforts him: "till that Beatific Vision, thou art blind; for e'en thy Purgatory, which comes like fire, is fire without its light."

The soul is buoyed up by that knowledge and conforms his will to God's, asking but to see the Face of God for no more than a moment before embarking on his process of purification. The Angel declares that he shall, in fact, see God for just such a twinkling of an eye, but warns him: "That sight of the Most Fair will gladden thee, but it will pierce thee too."

This soul will now "learn that the flame of Everlasting Love doth burn 'ere it transform." He is now ready to face the Lord in judgment, the sight of whom "will kindle in thy heart all tender, gracious, reverential thoughts."

And what might such thoughts be? Best to allow the poetic genius of Newman to speak directly for, as he knew, cor ad cor loquitur (his cardinalitial motto: "Heart speaks to heart"):

Thou wilt be sick with love, and yearns for Him

And feel as though thou couldst but pity Him,

That one so sweet should e'er have placed Himself

At disadvantage such, as to be used

So vilely by a being so vile as thee.

There is a pleading in His pensive eyes

Will pierce thee to the quick, and trouble thee.

And thou wilt hate and loathe thyself; for, though

Now sinless, thou wilt feel that thou hast sinn'd,

As never thou didst feel; and wilt desire

To slink away, and hide thee from His sight:

And yet wilt have a longing aye to dwell

Within the beauty of His countenance.

And these two pains, so counter and so keen,

The longing for Him, when thou seest Him not;

The shame of self at thought of seeing Him,

Will be thy veriest, sharpest Purgatory.

As the man proceeds to the divine tribunal, he is astonished to hear earthly voices; once more, he is reminded that he hears the priest and his friends praying the Subvenite ("Come to their aid, ye saints of God") on his behalf, bringing now the same Angel of the Agony who strengthened Christ in His final hours to do the same for t...