ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN’S MESSAGES – LENTEN SEASON (1)

ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN’S MESSAGES – LENTEN SEASON (1) 

[1] It’s never too late. In Lent, we should look ahead rather than back. Though time is too precious to waste, it must never be thought that what was lost is irretrievable. Once the Divine is introduced, then comes the opportunity to make up for losses. GOD IS THE GOD OF THE SECOND CHANCE.

Peter denied, but he had the second chance in which to become as solid as a rock. There really is such a thing as a “second birth”. Being born again means that all that went before is not held against us. The thief on the right side of the Lord on Calvary wasted a human life, but in accepting pardon won eternal life. 

[2] Season of Love. We can think of Lent as a time to eradicate evil or cultivate virtue, a time to pull up weeds or to plant good seeds. Which is better is clear, for the Christian ideal is always positive rather than negative.

A person is great not by the ferocity of his hatred of evil, but by the intensity of his love for God. Asceticism and mortificdation are not the ends of a Christian life; they are only the means. The end is charity. Penance merely makes an opening in our ego in which the Light of God can pour. As we deflate ourselves, God fills us. And it is GOD’s arrival that is the important event. 

[3] Dying daily. If we are to live for Christ, we must “die daily”. Let is an ideal time to think about our own death. A happy death is a masterpiece and no masterpiece is ever perfected in a day. Dubois spent seven years in making the wax model for his celebrated statue of Joan of Arc – and it stands today as a ravishing perfection of the sculptor’s art. In like manner our death must appear as a ravishing perfection of the many years of labor we have given over to its mold by dying daily.

The greatest reason we fear death is because we have never prepared for it. Most of us die only once – WHEN WE SHOULD HAVE DIED A THOUSAND TIMES – yes, even daily. Death is a terrible thing for one who dies only when he dies; but it is a beautiful thing for him who dies before he dies. 

[4] Only God bring happiness. Lenten practices of giving up pleasures are good reminders that the purpose of life is not pleasure. The purpose of life is to attain to perfect life, all truth and undying ecstatic love – which is the definition of God. In pursuing that goal we find happiness. Pleasure is not the purpose of anything; pleasure is a by-product resulting from doing something that is good.

One of the best ways to get happiness and pleasure out of life is to ask ourselves, “How can I please God?” and, “Why am I not better?” It is the pleasure-seeker who is bored, for all pleasures diminish with repetition. 

[5] The Law of Sacrifices. “Unless the grain of wheat falling to the ground die, itself remaineth alone.” The power to find life through death makes the seed nobler than the diamond. In falling to the ground it loses its outer envelope which is restraining the life within it. But one this outer skin dies in the ground, then life pushes forth into the blade.

So too, unless we die to the world with its vices and its concupiscences, we shall not spring forth into life everlasting. If we are to live a higher life, we must die to the lower life; if we live in the lower life of this world, we die to a higher life, which is Christ. To put the whole law in the beautiful paradox of Our Divine Lord: If we wish to save our life, we must lose it. 

Source: Path to Peace [excerpted from the works of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen by James E. Adams for Creative Communications for the Parish, St. Louis, MO: 1985] 

Jakarta, March 29, 2011 [The 3rd Week of Lent] 

The Christian Pilgrim (compiler)