When I am asked what the Church means to me, I answer it is the Temple of Life in which I am a living stone; it is the Tree of Eternal Fruit of which I am a branch; it is the Mystical Body of Christ on earth of which I am a member. The Church is, therefore, more to me than I am to myself; her life is more abundant than mine, for I live by union with her. She could live without me, for I am only a cell in her body; but I could normally live without her. I live only as a part of her, as my arm lives only as a part of my body.

So absorbing does she become that her thoughts are my thoughts; her ideals are my ideals. I consider sharing her life to be the greatest gift God has ever given to me, as I should consider losing her life the greatest evil that could befall me.

Dependence is the very essence of my creature existence, for no person is sufficient unto himself. I am not a speck in a moral void, nor a wanderer without a home, nor an isolated unit in creation. Rather, I am dependent on the God appointed destiny whereby I share my love of God with others who love God in the unity of the Mystical Body of Christ. In that Body which is the fullness of Christ do I find the spiritual environment for my spiritual life. In her I live and move and have my being. From out her seven fountains I draw the waters of everlasting life. From out her book of the Seven Seals I learn the secrets of the Lamb. From out her tabernacles I draw the Bread of Life and the wine that germinates virgins. My life is her life; my being is her being. She has my love, my service, as I myself have the entire devotion and service of my hand. She is the living organism, but I am an organ. She is the body, but I am a member. She is Life, I am the living thing. She is the Spouse of Christ, I am but a feature. She is the Vine, and I am a branch.

Abide in me, and I am in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine and you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit: For without me you can do nothing. - John 15:4-5 -

We must not think, because the fullness of our spiritual life is in the Church, that she absorbs us and leaves no room for our individual development. Just as in the natural order the individual cell has its own growth even though it dwells in the body, so in like manner the individual Christian has his own personal development even though a member of the Mystical Body.

There is only one sun to shine upon all the flowers of the world, and hence all flowers are members of the kingdom of the sun. But their mutual dependence on the sun does not prevent the sun from drawing out of each flower its own particular beauty, and its own peculiar perfume. So does the Lord Jesus Christ dwelling in the Church give life and beauty to all who receive Him, yet to each individual soul the Mystical Body gives its special life and beauty. So much so, that there is consummated under the bowers of the Church the union of the soul and its Divine Beloved, which death does not part but seals in everlasting bliss.

The body is made up of many members and countless cells - each with its own personality, though all draw upon a common life and are animated by a common soul. There is no legitimate natural twist or bent or leaning of any personality in the world that cannot find its outlet in the organism of the Church.

While living his historical life our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ did not destroy the personalities of His twelve apostles because they were one with him. Nor did He destroy the passion of a Magdalene after her conversion. He merely changed the direction of their inclinations, making them flow upward instead of downward, transforming an impetuous Simon to a daring Peter, a hating Saul into a loving Paul, a flesh-loving Magdalene into a spirit-loving Mary. Now that He has ascended into heaven and sent His Spirit into His Mystical Body the Church, He continues to draw all souls into the common life of that Body without destroying their property as a member or a cell of the Body.

The simple girl of Lisieux did not cease to be a Little Flower because she became a Carmelite in the Mystical Body of Christ. Ignatius was a soldier both before and after he became the founder of the Jesuits. ( Society of Jesus ) Louis IX was a king even though he was a subject of the king of kings. And, in like manner, each and everyone of us may continue to live our distinctly different lives in the office, in the field, at the machine, and at the university, in the humble duties of a routine world and in the lofty position as leaders of others, just as Thomas a Becket could wear the purple on the outside to please his people and the penitential chain on the inside to please himself.

There is no destruction of nature by grace, but only its elevation to another order. Tears are a common fountain for joy and sorrow. Passions, too, are common outlets for virtue and vice. It is not a different passion that makes a person a saint, from that which makes him a devil. It is the same passion going in a different direction. The Church, then, in embracing our lives within her common life does not destroy our personalities - she does not even destroy our most wicked passions. She transmutes them by the magic of her Sacraments, provides new outlets, fixes new goals, and digs new channels.

The heroes of the world are not different from the martyrs. The same natural courage which would make a man die for Caesar on a battlefield, the Church would transmute into a supernatural courage which would make that person die for the Lord Jesus Christ. The bigots are all potential missionaries, for the same zeal that makes them unwittingly serve falsehood can be elevated by the Church to make them serve Divine Truth. The great scientists are all incipient theologians, for that same curiosity, which drives them to a knowledge of secondary causes, the Church transmutes by leading them to a knowledge of the First Cause which is God. We would not say that the hero who became a saint, nor the bigot who became a missionary, nor the scientist who became a theologian, lost their personalities once incorporated into Christ's Body, any more than we lost our personalities once we became citizens of a nation.

But we would say that in their union with that common life of grace they had found the sublimation of their distinct selves. They would see, as we see, that Christ's Mystical Body is like a beautiful garden, formed by the blossoming of individual flowers each in its own beauty, but in its varied beauty blending into one harmonious, rapturous delight. Each flower of that garden has its own beauty revealed as in no other flower, yet each flower grows in beauty by contrast and by blending with the other flowers all rooted in a common soil and lighted by a common sun.

So it is in the mystical life, where the Lord Jesus Christ dwells in His Church, revealing Himself anew in each individual soul, and never in two wholly alike - here manifesting Himself in a Peter, there in a Paul, here in a Martha, there in a Mary, here in a lover of His infancy, there in a lover of His Cross, here in a rose with thorns, there in a flower without them, and yet all growing more beautiful by their fellowship with other saintly flowers because all rooted in the same Christ-life and all lighted by the same Christ-truth.

                                                             
BY  ARCHBISHOP  FULTON  J.  SHEEN  ( 1895 to 1979 )

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Faith . Hope . Love - Welcome donation. Thank You. God bless. 

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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 -