There emerges, then, from her history one great and wonderful lesson, and it is this: Christ rose from the dead, not because He is man, but because He is God. The Church rises from the sepulchre in which violent hands or passing errors would inter her, not because she is human, but because she is divine. Nothing can rise from the dead except divinity. The world should profit by experience and give up expecting the Church to die. If a bell had been tolled on a thousand different occasions and the funeral never took place, men would soon begin to regard the funeral as a joke. So it is with the Church. The notice of her execution has been posted, but the execution has never taken place. Science killed her, and still she was there; history interred her, but still she was alive; modernism slew her, but still she live.

Even civilizations are born, rise to greatness, then decline, suffer and die, but they never rise again. But the Church does rise again; in fact she is constantly finding her way out of her grave because she has a Captain who found His way out of the grave. The world may expect her to become tired, to be weak when she is rich, but the world need never expect her to die. The world should give up looking for the extinction of that which so many times has been vainly extinguished.

Like a mighty oak tree which has stood for twenty centuries, she bears fresh green foliage for each new age, that the age may come and enjoy the refreshing benediction of its shade. The flowers that open their chalices of perfume this spring are not an old root. Such is the Church. She is reborn to each new age, and hence is the only new thing in the world. It is the errors that are old, for our so-called new thought is only an old mistake with a new label; it is not a new enthusiasm nor is it a new loyalty. The Church has put to bed all the errors of the past, for she knows that to marry the passing fads of any age is to be a widow in the next. She is therefore not behind the times, but beyond the times, always fresh while the age is dying.

She will go on dying and living again, and in each recurring cycle of a Good Friday and an Easter Sunday her one aim in life will be to preach Christ and Him crucified. As a student I may be expected to know something of her aims, and as her priest I may be expected to know something of her secrets, and I honestly assure you, at the close of this series,that the Church seeks not the overthrow of governments, desires not to impede progress, strives not to persecute those who differ with her ( I know all these things are said about her ). But what she does seek, with the full ardour of her soul, is to bring minds captive to the understanding of Christ, to leads wills to the glorious liberty of the sons of God, to thrill human hearts with the love that leaves all others cold, and open eyes to a beauty that leaves all other beauty plain. And, hence, if any single word of mine has lifted up but one soul to a nobler understanding of Christ, or fanned a single spark of love for His cause into a flame, or induced the tendrils of a single heart to entwine about the Heart of hearts, then I shall believe that my words and my life shall not have been spoken or lived in vain.

The Church will go on, but its end and purpose will ever remain the same: to bring the peace of Christ to the souls of our countrymen. There will be no weapons to make that peace an armed peace, but there will be two insignificant instruments used, which have been used from the beginning, and they will be the instruments our Lord Jesus Christ taught His apostles to use, namely those of fishermen and shepherds. I might say, therefore, we will go on "by hook and by crook", and the hook will be the hook of the fishermen, and the crook will be the the crook of the shepherd; and with the hook we catch souls for Christ, and with the crook we will keep them, even to the end of time; for as fishers of men and shepherds of souls we are committed to the destiny of making Christ the King of human hearts, and with only the sign of Jonah the prophet, the fulfilment of that destiny can never be doubted, for if Truth wins, we win; if Truth....Ah! but Truth can't lose.


BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN  ( 1895 to 1979 )

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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 -