- Temptations to Goodness - By Venerable Fulton J. Sheen -
Tactically all the nourishment the earth gives to man/woman comes from the top four inches of soil. But in the depths of the earth are hidden gold, diamonds and other precious things. So it is with persons; we judge through our commerce with them on the surface; the way they seem to act, the manner of speech and the ephemeral judgements based on the common hearing of the judgements based on the common hearing of the hourly newscast. As a result, most humans are thought to be very superficial, when the truth is that those who seem to have no depth at all to careless eyes really contain treasures of surpassing worth. What is often interpreted as shallowness in others is really a hiding of tragic forces, which only in great storms are brought to the surface.
A young divorced woman who seemed to be lost in the whirl of fashion took into her home on weekends a young victim of leprosy whom society disdained. I said to her: "I know why I have him in my home; it is because he stands for Christ Who bore in His Body all the sins and leprosy of the world. But why do you have him in your home:" She answered: "For the same reason." One would never suspected such deep fountains of sympathy and compassion.
What is true of the depths in others is also true of ourselves. It has been said that every atheist is afraid in the dark. Herod, who did not believe in a future life, nevertheless believed that Our Lord was John the Baptist risen from the dead. Communists, who deny religion, talk much about it. There is a buried life in every soul awaiting resurrection. As J. Hunter put it:
Yet still, from time to time, vague and forlorn,
From the soul's subterranean depth upborne
As from an infinitely distant land,
Come airs, and floating echoes and convey
A melancholy into all our day.
A bolt is shot back somewhere in our breast
And a lost pulse of feeling stirs again.
The eye sinks inward and the heart lies plain.
In the subconscious depths of the soul come inspirations which are too noble to be of our making; the mud and slime which sink down to our subconscious mind cannot suddenly shoot forth flowers and blossoms. There is some other force from the outside which completely changes the direction of our lives. Travelling in the pathways of triviality, it takes some alien Power from the outside to divert us into the Highway of the King. The old theologians used to call these motivations to goodness, "Actual Graces". A better wording would be temptations to goodness.
Why is it that we practically always use the word "temptation" to imply an inclination to evil? Actually, every soul has more temptations to be good than it does to be evil. And we turn down more temptations to virtue than we do to vice. It is, therefore, quite wrong to think of our subconscious mind as a snake pit of rottenness and corruption. There may be some snakes of our hatching, but there are many more visitations of the angels or holy inspirations prompting us to realize the potentialities of our being.
The famous Psalm which begins with the words: "Out of the depths have I cried to You, O Lord" is a poetic expression of this truth. There are two kinds of despair: the hellish despair which comes from a man relying solely on his own resources, and the creative despair which makes one cry to God, from Whom saving experiences come. The surface of life seems to say one thing to us, and it often is hopelessness and despair; but the depths cry out to something else that is not of our own making.
Selfishness always rides on the thin ice of the soul, but true peace of mind comes from the fountains of the deep in which there is a cry to connect oneself with the invisible and eternal source of truth and love. If a man/woman could ever escape from himself/herself he/she could escape from God, but even when he/she lands on the moon he/she brings himself/herself with him/her. The pendulum has no sense apart from the clock, nor the carbon without the original, nor the shadow without the light. All escapes are vain, as Francis Thompson found when he wrote: "I fled Him down the nights and down the days... but ever and anon came on the Voice: Lo, naught contents thee who contents not Me."
- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!
If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function, so the body grows until it has built itself up, in love. - Ephesians 4:15-16 -
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