Category: Fulton Sheen

The lovely people do not come to God because they think they are good through their own merits or bad through inherited instincts. If they do good, they believe they are to receive the credit for it; if they do evil, they deny it is their own fault. They are good through their own good-heartedness, they say; but they are bad because they are misfortunate, either in their economic life or through the inheritance of evil genes from their grandparents.

Look for the Church that is hated by the world, as Christ was hated by the world. Look for the Church, which is accused of being behind the times, as Our Lord was accused of being ignorant and never having learned. Look for the Church, which men sneer at as socially inferior, as they sneered at Our Lord because He came from Nazareth…Look for the Church, which the world rejects because it claims it is infallible, as Pilate rejected Christ. After all, he called Himself the Truth. Look for the Church, which, amid the confusion of conflicting opinions, its members love as they love Christ and respect its voice as the voice of the Founder. The suspicion will grow that if the Church is unpopular with the spirit of the world, it is unworldly, and if it is unworldly, it is otherworldly. Since it is other-worldly, it is infinitely loved and infinitely hated, as was Christ Himself.

If I were not a Catholic and were looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world; in other words, I would look for the Church that the world hates. My reason for doing this would be that if Christ is in any of the churches of the world today, He must still be hated as He was on earth in this flesh. If you would find Christ today, find the Church that does not get along with the world.

When you think of the condition of the world is in now, you sometimes wish that Noah missed the boat.

The modern atheist does not disbelieve because of his intellect but because of his will; it is not knowledge that makes him an atheist…The denial of God springs from a man’s desire not to have a God-from his wish that there was no Justice behind the universe so that his injustices would fear not retribution, from his desire that there be no Law, so that he may not be judged by it; from his wish that there were no Absolute Goodness, that he might go on sinning with impunity. That is why the modern atheist is always angered when he hears anything said about God and religion–he would be incapable of such resentment if god were only a myth.

If bringing children into the world is today an economic burden, it is because the political system is inadequate; and not because God’s law is wrong. Therefore the State should remove the causes of that burden. Humans must not be limited and controlled to fit the economy, but the economy must be expanded to fit the human.

Very few people believe in the devil, which suits the devil very well. He is always helping to circulate the news of his own death. The essence of God is existence, and He defines himself as: “I am Who I am.’ The essence of the devil is the lie, and he defines himself as: “I am who I am not.” Satan has little trouble with those who do not believe in him; they are already on his side.

Any book which inspires us to lead a better life is good.

The world blesses not the meek but the vindictive; it praises not the one who turns the other cheek but the one who renders evil for evil; it exalts not the humble but the aggressive. Ideological forces have carried that spirit of violence, class struggle, and clenched fists to an extreme that the world before has never seen.

(Repose) reminds us that all actions get their worth from God: “Worship” means “admitting worth.” To worship is to restore to your workaday life its true worth by setting it in its fundamental relationship to God, Who is its end and ours.