Words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen
A father brought his young son to me, a conceited, young delinquent, who had given up his faith and was bitter with himself and everyone whom he met. Following our visit the boy ran away from home for a year. The boy came back just as bad and the father brought him to me asking, “What should I do with him?” I advised him to send his son to a school outside the United States. About a year later, the boy came back to see me, requesting, “Will you be willing to give me moral support for an enterprise I have undertaken in Mexico? There is a group of boys in the college where I am who have built a little school. We have gone all around the neighborhood and brought in children to teach them Catechism. We have also brought a doctor from the United States, once a year for one month, to take care of the sick people of the neighborhood.” And I asked, “How did you become interested in this?” He replied, “The boys went down there during the summer and I joined them.” He recovered his faith, morals, and everything else in his neighbor. It is the poor, indigent, needy, sick, fellow creatures of God, who give to us great strength.
Some years ago, there was a man from India who went into Tibet. He went in to do evangelizing in that non-Christian country with a Tibetan guide. During the trip they got very cold crossing the foothills of the Himalayas and sat down, exhausted and almost frozen. This Indian man, whose name was Singh, said, “I think I hear a man moaning down there in the abyss!” The Tibetan said, “You’re almost half dead yourself, you can’t help him!” Singh said, “Yes, I will help him.” He went down and dragged the man out of the abyss and carried him to the nearby village and came back completely revived from that act of charity. When he returned he found his friend who had refused to aid the neighbor, frozen to death. Therefore, one way to escape the anxiety of life is to find your neighbor.
If you expel miracles from the life of Christ, you destroy the identity of Christ and the Gospels. Even a neutral attitude toward the miraculous element in the Gospels is impossible. The claim to work miracles is not the least important element of Our Lord’s teachings, nor are the miracles which were wrought by Him merely an ornament to His life. The miraculous is interwoven with His entire life. The moral integrity of Our Lord’s character is dependent upon the reality of His miracles. If He were a deceiver, He was not what He claimed to be. We cannot put asunder two things which God has joined together; namely the beauty of Christ’s character and the reality of the miracles He worked.
(excerpt from Your Life is Worth Living)
Reflection on the Archbishop’s Words by Father Andrew
The Archbishop’s meditation hits home powerfully! In our world of narcissism and self-interest, his words show us that the only way out of our self-centeredness and the unhappiness it brings us is to reach out in love and service to others. No one is as unhappy as a spoiled individual. When a person thinks only of themselves and never of others, they entrap themselves in a prison of unhappiness. They begin by thinking that if they only had everything they wanted and everything went their own way, they would be perfectly happy; they end up sadly realizing that that is only an illusion. This is because true joy and true meaning is found in giving: “It is in giving that we receive” (from the “Peace Prayer of St. Francis.”)
I remember a young man who called me on the phone one day and said to me, “I am tired of living for myself. I have to do something for someone else.” He went on to dedicate himself to helping people in need. He said of this experience of helping others, “I’ve finally found my place in life.” We will also find our place in life and the God Who put us there when we stop focusing on ourselves and turn compassionately to our brothers and sisters who are in need.
(Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR is the Vice-Postulator of the Cause for Canonization of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Please visit our website!)
