There have always been prophets among us.
Unfortunately, far too often we either do not hear them or intentionally ignore
them. How different our Church and world might have been had we listened to Venerable
Fulton J. Sheen.
The good news is that much of what he wrote still is
readily accessible to anyone who wants to read what this often ignored messenger tried to share
during his earthly life and what God is now allowing so many to re-discover and appreciate. May more of us listen
to this prophet. His wisdom and insight are timeless.
The following gem was recently quoted on Church Militant and is well worth sharing here:
“The world in which we live is the battleground of the
Church. I believe that we are now living at the end of Christendom. It is the
end of Christendom but not the end of Christianity. What is Christendom? It is
the political, economic, moral, social, legal life of a nation as inspired by
the gospel ethic. That is finished. Abortion, the breakdown of the family,
dishonesty, even the natural virtues upon which the supernatural virtues are
based, are being discredited. Christianity is not at an end. But we are at the
end of Christendom. And I believe the sooner we face up to this fact, the
sooner we will be able to solve many of our problems.
Thirty or forty years ago it was easy to be a
Christian. The very air we breathed was Christian. Bicycles could be left on
front lawns; doors could be left unlocked. Suddenly all this has changed; now
we have to affirm our faith. We live in a world that challenges us. And many
fall away. Dead bodies float downstream; it takes live bodies to resist the
current. And this is our summons.
We will have to begin to be a different Church. We are
for the moment on the trapeze. We are in between the death of an old
civilization and culture, and the swing to the beginning of the new. These are
the times in which we live. They are therefore wonderful days, marvelous; we
should thank God we live in times like these.”
(Archbishop Fulton J.
Sheen from Through the Year with Fulton
(Photo credit to Wikimedia Commons)
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