It is a strange but certain fact that the Universal Church is never so weak as when she is powerful with the world, never so poor as when she is rich with the riches of the world; never so foolish as when she is wise with the fancies of the world. She is strongest with divine help when she is weakest with human power for like Saint Peter, she is given the miraculous draught of fishes when she admits by her own power she has laboured all the night and taken nothing.

When her discipline, her spirit of saintliness, her zeal for the Lord Jesus Christ, her vigils, and her mortification become a thing of less importance, the world makes the fatal mistake of believing that her soul is dead and her faith is departed. Not so! The faith, even in those days of lesser prayer, is solid, for it is the faith of the centuries: the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. What may be weak is her discipline, her prayerfulness, and her saintliness, for these are of men, whereas her faith is of God. A renewal of spirit, then, will come not by changing her way of thinking, for that is divine, but her way of acting, for that is human.

But the world, failing to make this distinction between the divine and the human in her, as it failed to make it in Christ, takes her for dead. To the world, her very life seems spent; her heart pierced, her body drained; in its eyes she is just as dead as the Master when taken down from the cross, and there is nothing left to do but to lay her in the sepulchre. Once more a great stone is rolled before her tomb; the official seal of death placed upon it, the watch set; but as they watch, saintliness comes back, Christ stirs in Peter's bark, and at the very moment men are saying she is dead, she is seen walking in the glory of her new Easter morn.

With our times came another death this time was inflicted not by executioners, but by other Pilates. These were dangerous days, for any civilization is in a bad way when it becomes indifferent, like another Pilate, to the answer to the question: "What is truth?" From inside and outside of the Church sprang up that old Greek error that there is no truth - an error, which for want of knowledge of its ancient ancestry, was called Modernism. Truth was derationalized, error rationalized, and proofs brought forward to prove all proofs were worthless. Teachers who bedecked themselves in the robes of prophets became insulted if told they were not gentlemen, but remonstrated mildly if told they were not Christians. Minds now were told, and they began to believe, with the force of repetition, that we must be indifferent to both error and truth; that it is a lack of broad mindedness to make up one's mind; that it makes no difference whether God exists, whether Christ is God, or whether the sacraments do actually communicate divine life; the only thing that matters is the subjective impression such beliefs have upon the feeling of the believer. Minds began to live by catchwords, phrases covered up loose thinking, and there was hardly an ear that did not hear such catchwords and phrases as "Life is bigger than logic," and "The Christ of faith is not the Jesus of history."

The new spirit of the age was seemingly burying the Spirit of Christ. Books and articles were shot from the press, and in 1907 there hardly was an article written that did not say that the Church had now definitely reached its end. The world was asked to chant her requiem; a great stone was rolled before the door of her sepulchre; the watch set. "She would never rise again." And according to every human law she never should have rise from the dead! But for some mysterious reason the giant stirred. War was on. Long-range guns were tearing great, gaping wounds in majestic cathedrals; plowshares were beaten into swords; cannon fire changed poppy fields into Aceldamas of blood. And lo! And behold! That which was thought dead was seen on the battlefields pressing a crucifix to dying lips; and when the smoke of battle cleared and the mist lifted, she was seen walking in the glory of her new Easter morn; and even now as men watch her she grows! Christ, then, must have meant what He said when He declared that His Church would endure even to the consummation of the world.

BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN  ( 1895 to 1979 )

                                                                         Page 1
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -