There is one thing in the world that is definitely and absolutely your own, and that is your will. Health, power, life, and honor can all be snatched from you, but your will is irrevocably your own, even in hell. Hence, nothing really matters in life, except what you do with your will. It is the drama of will which makes the story of the two thieves crucified on either side of Our Lord Jesus Christ one of the absorbing incidents of history.

Both thieves at first blasphemed. There was no such thing as the good thief at the beginning of the Crucifixion. But when the thief on the right heard that Man on the Central Cross forgive His executioners, he had a change of soul. He began to accept his sorrows. He took up his cross as a yoke rather than as a gibbet, abandoned himself to God's will, and turning to the rebellious thief on the left said: "Have you no fear of God, seeing that you are under the same condemnation! And we indeed justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes: but this man done nothing wrong." Then from his heart already so full of surrender to his Savior, there came this plea, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom." Immediately there came the answer of the Lord Jesus, "Amen, I say to you, this day you shall be with me in Paradise." - Luke 23:40-43 -

"You." We are all individuals in the sight of God. He calls His sheep by name. This Word was the foundation of Christian democracy. Every soul is precious in God's sight, even those whom the State casts out and kills. At the foot of the Cross, Mary witnessed the conversation of the good thief, and her soul rejoiced that he had accepted the will of God. Her Divine Son's Second Word promising Paradise as a reward for that surrender, reminded her of her own Second Word some thirty years before, when the angel had appeared to her and told her that she was to be the Mother of Him who was now dying on the Cross. In her First Word she asked how this would be accomplished since she knew not man. But when the angel said she would conceive of the Holy Spirit, Mary immediately answered: "Be it done to me according to your word." Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. - Luke 1:38 -

This was one of the great Fiats of the world. The first was at Creation when God said: Fiat lux. "Let there be light." Another was in Gethsemane when the Savior, pressing the chalice of redemption to His lips, cried: Fiat voluntas tua. "Your will be done." - Matt. 26:42 - The third was Mary's, pronounced in a Nazarene cottage, which proved to be a declaration of war against the empire of evil: Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. "Be it done to me according to your word." - Luke 1:38 -

The Second Word of Jesus on Golgotha and the Second Word of Mary in Nazareth teach the same lesson: Everyone in the world has a cross, but the cross is not the same for any two of us. The cross of the thief was not the cross of Mary. The difference was due to God's will toward each. The thief was to give his life; Mary to accept life. The thief was to hang on his cross; Mary to remain behind. The thief received a dismissal; Mary received a mission. The thief was to be received into Paradise; but Paradise was to be received into Mary.

Each of us, too, has a cross. Our Lord Jesus Christ said: "If anyone would be my disciple, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." - Mark 8:34 - Jesus Christ did not say: "Take up My Cross." His cross is not the same as yours, and yours is not the same as mine. Every cross in the world is tailor made, custom built, patterned to fit its bearer and no one else.

That is why we say: "My cross is heavy." We assume that other people's crosses are lighter, forgetful that the only reason our cross is heavy is simply because it is our own. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not make His cross; It was made for Him. So yours is made by the circumstances of your life, and by your routine duties. That is why it fits so tight. Crosses are not made by machines.

Our Lord Jesus Christ deals separately with each of our souls. The crown of gold you want may have underneath it the of thorns, but the heroes who choose the crown of thorns, often find that underneath it is the crown of gold. Even those that seem to be without a cross actually have one. No one would have suspected that when Mary resigned herself to God's will by accepting the honor of becoming the Mother of God she would ever have to bear a cross. It would seem, too, that one who was preserved free from original sin should be dispensed from the penalties of that sin, such as pain. And yet this honor brought to her seven crosses and ended by making her the Queen of Martyrs.

There are, therefore, as many kinds of crosses as there are persons: crosses of grief and sorrow, crosses of want, crosses of abuse, crosses of wounded love, and crosses of defeat!

There is the cross of widows. How often Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke of them; for example, in the parable of the judge and the widow - Luke 18:1-8 - when He rebuked the Pharisees who "devoured widows' houses" - Mark 12:40 - when He spoke to the widow of Nain - Luke 7:12 - and when He praised the widow who threw two mites into the temple treasury. - Mark 12:42 - Widowhood may have been particularly dear to Him because His own mother was a widow, for Joseph His foster father was presumably already dead.

There is the cross of death when God takes someone from you, as He may be doing in this war. It is always for a good reason. When the sheep have gazed and thinned the grass in the lower regions, the shepherd will take a little lamb in his arms, carry it up the mountain where the grass is green, lay it down, and soon the other sheep will follow. Every now and then Our Blessed Lord Jesus, too, takes a lamb from the parched pasture of a family up to those Heavenly Green Pastures, that the rest of the family may keep their eyes on their true home and follow through.

Then there is the cross of sickness, which always has a divine purpose. Our Blessed Lord Jesus said  of a particular illness: "This sickness will not bring death - it is for the glory of God." John 11:4 - Resignation to this particular kind of cross is one of the very highest forms of prayer. Unfortunately, the sick generally want to be doing something else than being sick which God has willed at least permissively. The tragedy of this world is not so much the pain in it; the tragedy is that so much of that pain is wasted.

It is only when a log is thrown into the fire that it begins to sing. It was only when the thief was thrown into the fire of a cross that he found God. It is only in pain that some discover Love.

Because of crosses differ, soul will differ from soul in glory. We think too often that in heaven there is going to be somewhat the same inequality in social positions that we have here; that servants on earth will be servants in heaven; that the important people on earth will be the important people in heaven. This is not true. God will take into account our crosses. He seemed to suggest that in the parables of Dives and Lazarus: "My child, remember that you received what was good in your lifetime, while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented." - Luke 16:25 -

There will be a bright jewel of merit for those who suffer in this world. Because we live in a world where position is determined economically, we forget that in God's world the royalty are those who do His will. Heaven will be a complete reversal of the values of earth. The first shall be last and the last first, for God is no respecter of persons. A wealthy and socially important woman went to heaven. Saint Peter pointed to a beautiful mansion and said, "This is your chauffeur's home." "Well," said she, "if that is his home, think what mine will be like." Pointing to a tiny cottage, Peter said, "There is yours." "I can't live in that," she answered. And Saint Peter said, "I am sorry, that is the best I could do with the material you sent up to me." Those who suffer as the good thief did, have sent ahead some fine material.

It makes no difference, then, what you do here on earth; what matters is the love with which you do it. The street cleaner who accepts in God's name a cross arising from his state in life, such as the scorn of his fellow men; the mother who pronounces her Fiat to the Divine Will as she raises a family for the Kingdom of God; the afflicted in hospitals who say Fiat to their cross of suffering, are the uncanonized saints; for what is sanctity but fixation in goodness by abandonment to God's Holy Will?

It is typically American to feel that we are not doing anything unless we are doing something big. But from the Christian point of view, there is no one thing that is bigger than any other thing. The bigness comes from the way our wills utilize things. Hence mopping an office for the love of God is "bigger" than running the office for the love of money.

Each of us is to praise and love God in his own way. The bird praises God by singing, the flower by blooming, the clouds with their rain, the sun with its light, the moon with its reflection, and each of us by our patient resignation to the trails of our state in life.

If the gold in the bowels of the earth did not say Fiat to the miner and the goldsmith, it would never become the chalice on the altar; if the pencil did not say Fiat to the hand of the writer, we would never have the poem; if Our Lady did not say Fiat to the angel, she would never have become the House of God; if Our Lord Jesus did not say Fiat to the Father's will in Gethsemane, we would never have been redeemed; if the thief did not say Fiat in his heart, he never would have been the escort for the Master into Paradise.

The reason most of us are what we are, mediocre Christians, "up" one day, "down" the next, is simply because we refuse to let God work on us. As crude marble, we rebel against the hand of the sculptor; as unvarnished canvas, we shrink from the oils and tints of the Heavenly Artist. we are so "fearful lest having Him we may have naught else beside" forgetful that if we have the fire of Love, why worry about the sparks, and if we have the perfect round, why trouble ourselves with the arc. We always make the fatal mistake of thinking that it is what we do that matters, when really what matters is what we let God do to us. God sent the angel to Mary, not to ask her to do something, but to let something be done.

Since God is a better artisan than you, the more you abandon yourself to Him, the happier God can make you. It is well to be a self-made man, but it is better to be a God-made made. Try it - I mean you, whether you be Jew, Protestant, Catholic - by spending a Holy Hour a day in prayer and meditation. Catholics should include attending daily Mass, thus taking advantage of Calvary's sacrifice.

God will love you, of course, even though you do not love Him; but remember, if you give God only half your heart, God can make you only 50% happy.

You have freedom only to give it away. To whom do you give yours? You give it either to the moods, to the hour, to your egotism, to creatures, or to God.

Do you know that, if you give your freedom to God, in heaven you will have no freedom of choice, because once you possess the Perfect, there is nothing left to choose; and still you will be perfectly free, because you will be one with God whose heart is Freedom and Love.

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 -