Rector’s Reflections
Friday 8th February 2025
Why Thomas More Matters
We have now reached the end of the current series of reflections on the life and writings of Sir Thomas More. For much for his teens and twenties, Thomas was not at all sure of his vocation in life. Was he called to be a monk ? A priest? A scholar, like his friend Erasmus? Or was he called to follow his father’s footsteps and become a successful lawyer? If he were to purse a legal career, what sort of lawyer was he to be? The sort of lawyer who just focussed on their legal career, or the sort of lawyer who got involved in politics and held public office? And what of Thomas’ personal life: was he called to remain celibate, or was he called to married life?
In the event, Thomas felt called to pursue a number of different vocations. He went into the law, and in due course became a member of parliament and Henry VIII’s righthand man. He married, and very much enjoyed family life. And at the same time, Thomas continued his academic interests, finding time to write a variety of books, including his Utopia, which proved to be one of the most influential of the many works published in the course of the 16th Century. In all these different vocations, Thomas sought to live out his deep Christian faith.
Of course, being a faithful Christian is seldom easy, especially if one feels called to get involved in the world of politics. In retrospect, it was clear that Thomas’ decision to get immersed in the world of politics was unlikely to end well. Thomas valued loyalty, and he was fiercely loyal to King Henry. But Thomas also put a very high value on his own conscience. What was Thomas to do should his loyalty to the King come into conflict with his loyalty to his own conscience? Which was to give way: his loyalty or his conscience? In the end, Thomas felt that he could not compromise his conscience. So when he was asked to agree that the King was head of the Church, he refused to do so. As far as Thomas was concerned, the Pope was the head of the Church. It was Thomas’ refusal to compromise on this point that led to his execution in 1535.
In terms of his theology, Thomas was very much a man of his times. His beliefs and practices were typical of Late Mediaeval Catholicism, and he rejected much of the theology of the newly emerging Protestantism. We live today in a very different world and context. We may choose to share some or all of Thomas’ beliefs and practices, or we may choose to reject them. It is up to us. But even if we choose to reject Thomas’ theology, there is still much for us to learn from his life and writings.
Thomas reminds us that God calls each one of us to serve him in particular ways. Such vocations come in many different shapes and sizes. Our family lives and our working lives are as much vocations from God as whatever role we may happen to have in the Church. The Church authorities need to hear this, as it still tends to limit the idea of calling to recognised roles in the life of the Church. Thomas reminds us that the idea of a Christian calling is so much broader and richer than this. I think we need to do much more to recognise that all aspects of our lives are God-given opportunities to give glory to God and to promote the values of His kingdom.
Thomas also reminds us of the importance of a well-formed Conscience. There are many elements in Christian ethics, and Christian decision making it is never simply a matter of “following the dictates of our conscience”. But having said this, we need to listen carefully to what our conscience is saying, and to be open to the possibility that when we listen to our conscience, we are indeed listening to a message from God.
And Thomas also reminds us that Conscience comes at a cost. We are called to be faithful disciples of Jesus, and this will mean that there will be times when we will need to challenge the rich and powerful. There will be times when our Conscience will be telling us to stand up for what we sincerely believe to be true, even at the risk of punishment, perhaps even at the risk of death itself.
It takes courage to stand up for what we sincerely believe to be true. Perhaps this is the most valuable of all the lessons we can learn from the life and writings of Thomas. We cannot hope to be faithful followers of Jesus unless we are prepared to “pluck up [our] courage”. Such courage does not seem to have come naturally to Thomas. He had to pray for it. May we too pray to God for the courage we need to be faithful witnesses to Jesus in our own day.