The Church makes none of us less than we were before. But we chiefly value freedom in order to give it away; everyone who loves surrender his or her freedom, whether his passion be the love of another person, the love of a cause, or the love of God. When a man loves a woman, he says, "I am yours," and the surrender of freedom gives him into a sweet slavery. Every person in love with God says, as Saint Paul did, "What will you have me to do?" - Acts 9:6 - and adds, as we do in the Our Father, "Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." In both instances, freedom is surrendered for the sake of a greater joy. Freedom hoarded is of little value - spent, for something we love, it brings peace and perfects one's personality in the law and love of God.

The new certitude of the convert, then, is a precious thing and very different from the abandonment of will and intellect some imagine it to be. But the full tale of the benefits from conversion is not ended. We must speak of another christening gift - peace of soul. There is a world of difference between peace of mind and peace of soul. Peace of mind is the result of bringing some ordering principle to bear on discordant human experiences; this may be achieved by tolerance, or by a gritting of one's teeth in the face of pain; by killing conscience, or denying guilt, or by finding new loves to assuage old griefs. Each of these is an integration, but on a very low level.

This kind of peace Our Lord calls false, and He likens it to living under the dominion of Satan: "When a strong man fully armed guard his palace, his possession are safe." - Luke 11:21 - It is the peace of those who have convinced themselves they are animals; the peace of the stone-deaf whom no word of truth can pierce; the peace of the blind who guarded themselves against every ray of heavenly light. It is the false peace of the slothful servant who had the same talent at the end as at the beginning because he ignored the judgment that would demand an account of his stewardship. It is the false peace of the man who built his house on the shifting road, so that it varnished with the floods and the storms. With such false peace of mind, Satan tempts his victims; he makes it seems refined to the refined, sensual to the sensual, and coarse to the coarse.

Conversion brings the soul out of either chaos or this false peace of mind to true peace of soul. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid." - John 14;27 - The true peace is born of the tranquility of order, wherein the senses are subject to the reason, the reason to faith, and the whole personality to the Will of God. The true peace that follows conversions is deepened, not disturbed, by the crosses, checks, and disquietude of the world, for they are all welcomed as coming from the hands of the Loving Father. The true peace can never come from adjustment to the world, for if the world is wicked, adjustments to wickedness make us worse. It comes only from identification of one's own will with the Will of God.

The peaceful soul does not seek, now, to live morally, but to live for God; morality is only a by-product of the union with Him. This peace unites the soul with his neighbor, prompting him to visit the sick, to feed the hungry and clothe the naked; for by loving another soul one gives to God.

The only real pain the convert now has is his inability to do more for the love of God. It is easy to fulfill the claims of lesser ideals, such as Humanism, and their disciples quickly become complacent; there are already as virtuous as their code asks them to be. It is very easy to be a good Humanist, but it is very hard to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. Yet it is not the memory of past sins that creates this pain amid the peace, but present shortcomings: Because the convert loves so much, he feels as if he had done nothing. What gift can ever be an expression of this new love? If he could give God the universe, even that would not be enough.

All energy that was previously wasted in conflict - either in trying to find the purpose of life or in trying alone and futilely to conquer his vices - can now be released to serve a single purpose. Regret, remorse, fears, and the anxieties that flowed from sin now completely vanish in repentance. The convert no longer regrets what he might have been; the Holy Spirit fills his soul with a constant presentiment of what he can become through grace. This spiritual recuperation is accompanied by hope, at no matter what age the change occurs - although the convert always regrets that he waited so long. As Saint Augustine of Hippo said, "Too late, O ancient beauty, have I loved thee." But since grace rejuvenates, it quickens even the old to consecrate service.

And there are many other ways in which peace of soul will manifest itself after conversion. It makes somebody out of nobody by giving them a service of Divine Sonship; it roots out anger, resentments, and hate by overcoming sin; it gives the convert faith in other people, whom he now sees as potential children of God; it improves his health by curing the ills that sprang from a disordered, unhappy, and restless mind; for trails and difficulties, it gives him the aid of Divine power; it brings him at all times a sense of harmony with the universe; it sublimates his passions; it makes him fret less about the spiritual shortcomings of the world because he is engrossed in seeking his own spirituality; it enables the soul to live in a constant consciousness of God's presence, as the earth, in its flight about the sun, carries its own atmosphere with it.

In business, in the home, in household duties, in the factory, all actions are done in the sight of God, all thoughts revolve about His Truths. The unreasoning blame, the false accusations, the jealousies and bitterness of others are borne patiently, as our Lord bore them, so that love might reign and that God might be glorified in the bitter as in the sweet. Dependence on Him becomes strength; one no longer fears to undertake good works, knowing He will supply the means. But above all else, with this deep sense of peace, there is the gift of perseverance, which inspires us never to let down our guard, or to shrink from difficulties, or to be depressed as the soul presses on to its supernal vocation in Christ Jesus, Our Lord.

A final effect of complete conversion is less pleasant: One becomes the target of opposition and hate. A person can join any other movement, group, or cult without provoking hostile comment from his neighbors and friends; he can even found some esoteric sun cult of his own and be tolerated as a citizen exercising his legitimate freedom and satisfying his own religion needs. But as soon as anyone joins the Church, hatred and opposition appear. This is because his friends intuitively know that he no longer shares the spirit of the world, that he is now governed by Spirit, is lifted into a truly supernatural order, is united with Divinity in a special way, which is a challenge and reproach to those who would make the best of two worlds.

This reaction is not difficult to understand. Forget, for a moment, that the Church exists; and suppose there should suddenly appear on earth an institution equally Divine, which claimed to teach Truth as unerringly as God teaches it; which summoned children every morning to schools where they would begin and end their lessons with prayer; which forbade its married members to dishonor their marriage ties; which taught purity in a carnal environment; which, in all its decisions on society, on human rights, on politics and economics, started with the principle that nothing really matters except the salvation of a soul.

How would the world receive it? With defiance, hatred, vilification, persecution, and unremitting attacks. Whenever the Voice is heard, the Presence felt, there is such violent opposition as had been promised: "But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." - John 15:19 -

As a consequence of this opposition to Christ, those who know a convert invoke a thousand far-fetched explanations to avoid the true reason - namely, the appeal of Divinity. The conversion of the young is explained as a phenomenon of adolescence; in the slightly older, it is blamed on a disappointment in love; the mature are called guilty of a mental aberration due to change of life; the old are accused of senility; in the unlearned, it is due to ignorance; in the learned, it causes raised eyebrows and the reflection, "Surprising! I thought he was too intelligent for that sort of thing."

It is this fear of provoking the enmity of the world that discourages many from becoming converts. Of this Our Lord Himself warned: How else could heaven be known but by the enmity it would provoke among the worldly? "For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against the mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." - Matt. 10:35 - In this sense, Our Lord, indeed, brought a sword, causing division among human beings; but the peace He also brought recompenses those who, apparently giving up everything and find all that is.

Who are the prospects for conversion? How are the men and women set apart who will, in a year or two, seek out the Church? What kind of people need conversion? There is no special temperament, no unique mood that marks the next year's convert. Everyone in the world is looking for certitude, peace of soul, and freedom of spirit. In the quest of every pleasure, even in the pursuit of the unlawful, all people pursue their ceaseless quest of the Infinite. Where they look for God is the only question on which they differ. In this they are divided, as music lovers are: The music we love is the music we already have in our souls. The disordered soul likes discordant music; the unregulated will enjoys unregulated dissonances and rejects the finer, better orchestrated symphonies. It might take considerable education and self-discipline to make jive-loving minds appreciate the "Leonore" No.3, overture, or any work of Handel, Mozart, or Beethoven. Yet the love of some kind of music is in everyone; it is in the kind of music one loves that the difference lies, and no one enjoys good music without training and discipline.

Everyone wants the things that only a love of God will bring, but most people today seek them in a wrong places. That is why no one comes to God without a revolution of the spirit; a person must stop seeking his good in Godlessness. "And this is the judgment: because the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light: for their works were evil. For everyone that does evil hates the light, and comes not to the light, that his works may not be reproved." - John 3:19-20 - Anyone who turns his face toward the light will be converted; but the turning must be done of his or her own free will. One can bribe tyrants, coax Quislings, flatter dictators, but there is no way to win God's love except by love. To each soul, He is forever saying, "Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock." - Apoc. 3:20 - Shall we refuse to open it? To each mind, he reiterates, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life." - John 14:6 -

Are we ashamed to receive the truth, lest it expose our ignorance and perversity - even though that exposure bring us to glory and peace? To every heart, Our Lord says, "I am the Good Shepherd." - John 10:11 - Shall the frightened lambs lost in the brambles and thickets of modern life refuse His saving Hand? There is one simple way of beginning a conversion: Cease asking what God will give you if you come to Him, and begin to ask what you will give God. It is not the sacrifice it sounds, for, in having God, you will have everything besides.

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 -