In my previous article, I shared a few of the insights that Archbishop Fulton Sheen taught me as I have grown older. Lessons about finding a new mission after retirement, remembering that we are made for eternity, and discovering the peace that comes from counting blessings instead of birthdays.
As I reflected further, I realized there were several other insights from Sheen that have shaped my outlook on growing older and, more importantly, growing holier. Here are three more lessons from a man who never stopped preparing souls—not simply for retirement, but for eternity.
What Are Your Plans for Eternity?
Years ago, I started to ponder the reality of the four last things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. I was thinking that I had spent plenty of time planning things like education, careers, investments, vacations, and retirement. But how often had I thought about making plans for my eternity?
St. Thérèse said her mission was love. She famously promised: “I will spend my heaven doing good upon earth.” Fulton Sheen had a similar spirit. He once remarked in his autobiography, Treasures in Clay: “I sometimes feel that when I come to the good Lord in Heaven, I will take a few days’ rest and then ask Him to allow me to come back again to this earth to do some more work.”
That is not the language of a man waiting to die. That is the language of a man already in love with eternity and knowing that he will continue to work for God in His vineyard from heaven.
Fulton Sheen and the saints challenge us with the question: What are your plans for eternity? Ask yourself: What mission still lies ahead for you? and What kind of work would you like to do when in heaven?
For me, it would be nice to become the patron saint of plumbers, joining St. Vincent Ferrer. Or being given the title of the patron saint of radio announcers, joining St. Maximilian Kolbe.
Both Fulton Sheen and St. Therese, by their example, teach us that we were made to work in this life and to continue working in the next. We were made by God for God, so it only seems right that we would stay busy doing His work for eternity.
Spoiler Alert! Heaven Is Made for Those Who Want Heaven
Within my circle of friends, some think that everyone goes to heaven these days (except Hitler), others think that only a few make it there, and still others believe there is no heaven at all. Fulton Sheen set me straight a few years ago on this topic of heaven when I read his book Victory Over Vice.
The good archbishop writes:
Heaven is a city on a hill. Hence, we cannot coast into it; we have to climb. Those who are too lazy to mount can miss its capture, as well as those who refuse to seek it. Let no one think he can be totally indifferent to God in this life and suddenly develop a capacity for Him at the moment of death.
Where will the capacity for heaven come from if we have neglected it on earth? A man cannot suddenly walk into a lecture room on higher mathematics and be thrilled by its equations if, throughout his life, he neglected to develop a taste for mathematics. A heaven of poets would be a hell to those who never learned to love poetry. And a heaven of divine truth, righteousness, and justice would be a hell to those who never studiously cultivated those virtues here below. Heaven is only for those who work for heaven.
If we crush every inspiration of the divine; if we drown every Godward inspiration of the soul; if we choke every inlet to Christ—where will be our relish for God on the last day? The very things we neglected will then be the very cause of our ruin. The very things that should have ministered to our growth will then turn against us and minister to our decay.
Heaven and hell are, in like manner, both effects of divine goodness. Their difference comes from our reaction to that goodness, and to that extent are also our creations. Both God and man are, in different senses, creators of heaven and hell.
These are sobering thoughts indeed to ponder!
A Happy Death
Perhaps the greatest lesson Fulton Sheen taught me about growing older is this: A happy death is not an accident. It is a masterpiece.
May I leave you with these last words of encouragement from Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, found in the book, The Cries of Jesus from the Cross. In it, Sheen writes:
That brings up the supreme problem of a happy death. A happy death is a masterpiece. Our Lord labored on His masterpiece from eternity, for He is the “Lamb slain from the beginning of the world” (Rev. 13:8). We must labor on ours from the beginning too, for as the tree falls, there it lies.
At the moment of death, nothing will be useful to us—except God. If we have Him, then we shall recover everything in Him. For that reason, a Christian is never in full possession of his life until the day of his death. That is why the Church calls it a Natalitia—birthday, the birthday into eternal life. Eternal exile is only for those who made the earth their fatherland.
No masterpiece was ever completed in a day. It takes years for the artist to discipline his mind and hand, and then years again to chisel away the stubbornness of the marble to make the form appear. The greatest masterpiece of all—a happy death—must be prepared for by practice.
We learn how to die by dying, dying to our selfishness, our pride, our envy, our sloth, a thousand times a day. This is what Our Lord meant when He said: “If any man will come after me, let him…take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). We cannot die well unless we practice dying.
Then, when the time comes for the last stroke, we shall be skilled in it, and we shall not be taken by surprise. Our tower will have been completed; whether it be high or low, it will matter not. It only matters that we finish the plan Our Lord has given us to do. And may we all, as an old Irish saying has it: “Be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows we’re dead.”
Author’s Note: Elements of this article draw upon Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s reflections found in The Cries of Jesus from the Cross, a spiritual classic that has profoundly influenced my own understanding of suffering, aging, and the hope of eternal life. First published in 2018 by Sophia Institute Press and now in its 12th printing, the book continues to offer readers a deeply moving meditation on Christ’s final words from Calvary and what they mean for our lives today.
Editor’s Note: This article is a part of a CE original series, “Cultivating the Soul of a Disciple with Blessed Fulton Sheen,” in celebration of and preparation for Archbishop Sheen’s beatification this September.
Photo by Damian Markutt on Unsplash
