#438 Bishop Fulton Sheen, From "Way to Happiness", Introduction "Plan and Purpose"

Sometimes you just have to reach back and seek eternal truths , eternal truths that are settled on our hearts , put everything in perspective and , as you know , many times I turn to John Paul II , bishop Fulton Sheen and others , like the modern-day prophets really .

But this is all timeless wisdom , you know , to tap into divine life and love and truth and to see the big story . Otherwise , we get caught up into our little story and we become anxious , nervous and sometimes depressed , you know , and even immobile . You don't even know what to do anymore .

So , anyways , it's good to just to take this time before Christmas to set back , spend a couple of days , to get deeper , right into the heart .

I picked up a little book that I've had for many , many years , a Way to Happiness and an Inspiring Guide to Peace and Hope and Contentment , by Bishop Fulton J Sheen , and I'm not going to go deeply into his biography right now , it's easy enough to find , but he wrote this in 1953 . So that was 70 years ago now .

But you know , when you tap into timeless wisdom , it might have been written this morning , right ? I talk about John Paul like that a lot . This is eternal wisdom , eternal truths , you know , that are deep within the in the human heart .

So he wrote this little book and I'm going to unpack this over the next week or two and it starts out with an introduction and that's what I'm going to get into today called plan and purpose . Plan and purpose . It's so beautiful and and he starts out this way , the material that's been written .

It was written with a particular purpose in mind , a special method and a deliberate spirit . He writes the purpose will be to bring solace , healing and hope to hearts , truth and enlightenment to minds , goodness , strength and resolution to wills .

The method will be the application of eternal moral and spiritual principles to the basic problems of the individual and societal life today . The spirit that is written in will be that of charity , of that of love , the love of God and the love of neighbor . We could use a little bit of more of that . Huh and quote it's really .

If this isn't brain surgery , is it ? You know he's tapping into the two great commandments you know it really is one one link together Love God , receive divine life and love and truth from God . Be filled with that and then go out and make that Manifests in the world , lived in the world . And it starts with love of neighbor .

Right , if we all turned around and just did that , everything would change in an instant . You know , the friends of mine who walk in this way are incredible . They're incredible , you know . You sit with them , you have a glass of wine or a coffee and in something beautiful is coming out of their , their lives and their hearts .

You know , and yet they look at the truth . They look at all the problems around them . You can discuss that with them , but yet there's charity in their voices and their minds , coming from their heart , something when you have this faith or when you tap into timeless truth , and and you can only do that when you tap into God himself .

So that's what we're gonna get into right now . So buckle up and get ready for today's episode . And Bishop Sheen is talking about plan and purpose for this book that he put together , way to happiness . And here he's gonna , in the preface , will declare the basic assumptions of this book , the overall thing , and there's three of them .

First , the over emphasis on politics today is an indication that people are governed . Rather than governing the complexities of our civilization forces to organize into larger and larger units , we have become so intent on governing what is outside of us that we neglect to govern our own selves .

Yet the key to social betterment is always to be found in Personal betterment . Remake man , and that means man and woman . Anytime I you hear me say man . Of course that's man and woman . Remake man and you remake his world . We gravely need to restore to man his self-respecting , to give him his appropriate honor .

This will keep him from bowing cravenly before those who threaten to enslave him and will give him the courage to defend the right Alone , if need be , when the world is wrong . Isn't that something , huh , could have been written again ? You connect this morning .

Second , as society is made up by man , so man and his turn is made by his thoughts , his decisions , his choices . Nothing ever happens to the world which did not first happen inside the mind of some man . The material of the skyscraper merely completes the architect's dream . Even the material of our physical selves is the servant of our thoughts .

Psychologists recognize the fact that our bodies may become tired because the tiredness of the mind , worry , anxiety , fear and boredom are felt as physical . Mind fatigue oftentimes results in bodily fatigue .

One basic reason for tiredness of mind is the conflict in all of us between the ideal and Achievement , between what we ought to be and what we are , between our longings and our havings , between our powers of understanding and the incomprehensible mysteries of the universe . A house divided against itself cannot stand this .

This perennial tension in man can can be accepted and made bearable only by a surrender of the self to God . Then whatever happens is welcomed as a gift of love . Frustration cannot happen to us , for we have no clamorous selfish will .

Society can be saved only if man is saved from his unbearable conflicts , and man can be rescued from them only if his soul is saved . Once , not so long ago , mankind put their hope of happiness in material advance .

Now that mood of shallow optimism has ended , the heavy burden of worry and anxiety about the future of the race and of the individual has made men conscious of something more of their souls . Number three our happiness consists in fulfilling the purpose of our being .

Every man knows from his own unfulfilled hunger for them that he was built with the capacity for three things , of which he never has enough . He wants life , not just for the next few minutes , but for always . He wants eternal life , with no aging , really , or disease to threaten them .

He also wants to grasp truth , not with a forced choice between the truths of , say , you know , I have to learn the truths of mathematics or geography . No , we want to know all truths , don't we ? How should I live ? Thirdly , he wants love , not with a time limit . We want love that satisfies forever and a binding ecstasy of love that does not fade .

So again , those three things , right ? Life , we want truth and we all seek love in our hearts , don't we ? These three things are not to be found in this life and their completion On earth . Life is shadowed by death . Truth mingles with error . Love is mixed with the opposite of love , which is lust or grasping .

True love is a self-gift , but you cannot give what you don't have . You have to receive . This goes back and these are my words to the two great commandments . Right , it really linked together as one . I have to tap into divine life and love and truth . Be filled with that and to become a person of love and give myself away to others .

This is how we find fulfillment . The opposite of that is not necessarily hate , the opposite of grasping and taking you , seeing other people as an object . You know these are still my words the pornographic culture that we see out there using other people . So I go back to Bishop Sheen .

But men , again , men and women know they would not long for these things in their purity . Again , what do we long for ? Life , truth and love . And we would not long for these things in their purity if there is no possibility of ever finding them .

So , being reasonable ourselves , we search for the source from which these mixed and imperfect portions of life and love and truth arrive or derive from . The search is like looking for the source of light in a room .

It cannot come from under a chair , where light is mixed with darkness and shadow , but it can come from the sun , where light is pure , with neither shadow nor darkness dulling it . And looking for the source of love , light and truth as we know it here on earth , we must go out beyond the limits of this shadowed world .

We must open ourselves up to a truth not mingled with error . To life , not mingled with the worry of death to love , not worried , not mingled with lust and selfishness . We must seek something more , huh . We must seek for divine life and love and truth . That's the definition of God . His life is personal enough to be called Abba , father to us .

His truth , the truth that we seek , is personal and comprehensible enough to be a son , jesus Christ , who is the truth . Truth is not a something , truth is a somebody , and his name is Jesus Christ . His love , god's love , is so deep and spiritual that it's a person , the person of the Holy Spirit .

Bishop Sheen ends like this when enough men have found this way to happiness , they will find one another in brotherhood . Social peace will then ensue . And so I end the preface there . Just a quick reflection as I think back about this eternal truth . I was talking to friends of mine .

We all decided to go out for breakfast , and it's always a joy to be with good friends from from our local parish . We have a men's group there , big group , about 150 guys or so , every Saturday morning , six o'clock in the morning . It's amazing . This group has been coming together for seven years , maybe eight years now .

So this past Saturday we didn't have a meeting and a group of eight or nine of us met for breakfast and while we're savoring omelets and coffee and bantering a little bit over harvest grain pancakes , the conversation took an interesting turn when we started to share some of the dreams and visions we had as young men and compared them to what actually transpired

some 20 or 30 or 40 years later . I'll summarize with an old joke right , if you want to make God laugh , tell him your plans . We could all recount wonderful highlights and major disappointments , dreams that came true and many that didn't , pleasant surprises and yet even tragic events .

It is a gift , right , to share this life with friends , the good , the bad , and the ugly , and the beautiful too . Somehow , through all of life's ups and downs , each man sitting with me at breakfast that morning heard a knock . They were looking for something more and we heard this . Behold I stand at the door and knock . Jesus Christ knocks on our door .

This is from Revelation 3.20 . Each man there sitting at that table was hungering for something more and realized at some point in their journey that the world does not have all the answers to satisfy his deepest thirst for life and truth and love .

And so here comes the biggest surprise of all the knock came from none other than Jesus Christ , whose specialty is searching for those that are hungry , these hungry , thirsty hearts . Right , this is Jesus Christ . It's really when you open yourself up to the hunger that you feel in your own heart to something more , and stop looking for it in this world .

That was never supposed to infinitely satisfy us . I'll give you just a quick point , or simple . This is so simple , yet so profound , something so easy to do .

There's three things that I always speak about , don't I , before you look at that phone in the morning , to fall to your knees , picture yourself kneeling there with our Blessed Mother at the Annunciation when the angel Gabriel comes , and then our Blessed Mother's fiat , her yes to that request and she says what ? Let it be done to me according to your word .

Let it be done to me according to your word . That's all I do in the morning . Before I look at that phone , I flop down to my knees , I say a quick prayer , and it's just this . Let it be done to me according to your word . That's how I start off my day . Second , temptations are bound to come , especially when you turn and open your heart to God .

Right , this is our fiat . And now temptations will come . And here's the key to temptations Temptations are not a sin . Let all people know , especially young men and women . Temptations are not a sin . Jesus himself was tempted . So here we're going to use temptation as an invitation to prayer . Think about how beautiful this is .

Every time I'm tempted , every time a thought comes in , I lift that up . I lift that up and I offer it . I will be done . You know , here's my temptation . Here's what I am . I'm tired of it . I give it to you and I open myself up to prayer .

I will be done and you're making room always for the Holy Spirit to grow and grow and grow within your heart . Number three be kind to the next person you see . So I get off my knees , right ? I've just said let it be done to me according to your word . You know , any temptation that might flow , it's an invitation to prayer .

I lift myself up and then I'm going to be kind , I'm going to show mercy . Maybe it's my spouse that I run into next . I'm going to be kind , I'm going to say something nice . Maybe it's the cashier , maybe it's the person that , the first person I see in the office . Whatever that is , just be kind . In that action .

We manifest that Holy Spirit within us and we manifest them outside , right Into the world . We've become persons of love Again , getting back to those two great commandments . Now I'm filled with divine life and love and I become that I love my neighbor . Right , that's the framework for the day . Let me end with the actual annunciation .

This is from Luke , chapter one , verses verse 26 . The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth , to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David . The virgin's name was Mary , and he came to her and said Hail full of grace , the Lord is with you .

But she was greatly troubled at the saying , considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be . And the angel said to her Be not afraid . Do not be afraid , mary , for you have found favor with God . And behold , you will conceive in your womb and bear a son . You shall call him Jesus .

He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High and the Lord . God will give to him the throne of his father , david , and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever , and of his kingdom there will be no end . And Mary said to the angel how can this be , since I have no husband ?

And the angel said to her the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you . Therefore , the child to be born will be called Holy , the Son of God . Behold , your kin's woman , elizabeth , in her old age , has also conceived the Son , and this is the sixth month with her . Who was called barren ?

For with God , nothing will be impossible . And Mary said Behold , I am the handmaid of the Lord . Let it be to me according to your word . And the angel departed from her , right there . Huh , let it be to me according to your word . This is what we say in the morning huh , let it be to me according to your word .

And Mary's fiat was so beautiful , so profound , that she was literally impregnated with God . As we're sitting there in the morning , before we look at that phone , we fall to our knees and we kneel with our Blessed Mother and we lift our hearts to God . Let it be to me , according to your word . And we are literally impregnated with God .

We are the temples of the Holy Spirit . I offer up all of my temptations all day in prayer , so I'm always lifting , lifting and receiving , and then I'm just becoming that person of love in the world , being kind to others , showing mercy to others , loving even our enemies . Huh , we can only do that with the power of Jesus Christ .

If we all do that , we change the world , just like Bishop Sheen said . Well , thanks for joining me today . Tomorrow I'm going to get into chapter one . These are short and it's on contentment . We can use some contentment . God bless you . Talk to you tomorrow . Bye .