By Judie Brown
A word is, according to Merriam-Webster, “a speech sound.” While this is accurate, it is also insufficient to describe the Word—our Lord who teaches the truth that leads to eternal life. For as Christ prayed regarding His disciples, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.”
It is that Word that defines our role in this world, especially during these devastating times when politics defines which persons are worthy of legal protection, colleges are offering Plan B emergency contraception to students without requiring them to identify who they are, and parents are being criticized because they want to protect their children from our so-called gender-dysphoric malady.
Exactly what word could we use to describe such horrors, other than the word evil, which immediately comes to mind? As we know all too well, the antidote for these offenses against God is faith. While it is true that prayer and action are required, the point is that without the Word guiding our actions, nothing lasting can occur.
When we consider the walls of ignorance and hubris into which we butt our heads daily, we understand that only with Christ are we able to persist. While it may pain us to be rejected by some, it should bless us to realize that in this work we have the eternal WORD ever at our side. Assuring us of this promise, Saint John Paul II said, “Remember that you are never alone, Christ is with you on your journey every day of your lives!”
This brings me to the profound words of Blessed Fulton J. Sheen, whose wisdom is timeless and whose beatification recently occurred. Our family used to gather around the radio, and we never missed his radio addresses. Not only that, but years ago, when Sheen was national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Los Angeles, our Catholic grade school student body had the chance to attend a Mass he celebrated. Little did we know that one day in the future, this amazing Catholic priest would become a candidate for sainthood.
Sheen’s homilies were as amazing as his efforts to raise up the poor, the homeless, and the destitute. His devotion to God and to our faith were inspirational, and he once said that “it’s impossible to lose your footing when you’re on your knees.”
And so, it is my pleasure to share a few of his words with you as we praise God for his life and his legacy:
- Faith is the light that guides you through the darkness.
- Faith is seeing the invisible, but not the nonexistent.
- God has become man so that man might become God-like.
- The measure of love is to love without measure.
- Love is not a feeling; it is a decision, a choice, an act of the will.
- Nothing ever happens in the world that does not happen first inside human hearts.
- The Blessed Sacrament is the first and last sacrament.
- The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white host.
- A soul does not think. A soul is a thought.
- Peace is not the absence of war; it is the presence of justice.
Throughout his life, Sheen strove to grow closer to God but never backed away from his need to pray and to confess to others that he was a human being blessed with gifts given to Him by God. All one need do is read his powerful autobiography, Treasure in Clay, to know beyond a doubt that he was destined to receive recognition for his extraordinary life.
And it all started with the Word.