Some Great Advice From Bishop Fulton J. Sheen to Start the New Year
Last time we kicked off the New Year with some ideas to help us avoid frustrations and disappointments when pursuing our important goals. We also noted, however, that, despite our best efforts, frustrations and disappointments may still throw us for a loop. Our pursuit of an important goal, whether in our business or personal life, will naturally, almost inevitably, hit some snags, bumps, even a concrete wall or two, along the way. But no worries: Bishop Fulton J. Sheen rides to the rescue with some insight about the true meaning of disappointment. We'll see how and why those snags, bumps and walls can lead us closer to God. (Emphasis added.)
“Having discovered why you are disappointed, namely, because of the distance between an ideal conceived in the mind and its actualization in flesh or matter, you do not become a cynic. Rather, you take the next step of trying to avoid disappointments entirely. There is nothing abnormal about your wanting to live, not for two more years, but always; there is nothing queer about your desiring truth, not the truths of economics to the exclusion of history, but all truth; there is nothing inhuman about your craving for love, not until death do you part, not until satiety sets in or betrayal kills, but always. Certainly you would never want this Perfect Life, Perfect Truth and Perfect Love unless it existed? The very fact that you enjoy their fractions means there must be a whole. You would never know their arc unless there were a circumference; you would never walk in their shadows unless there were light. Would a duck have the instinct to swim if there were no water? Would a baby cry for nourishment if there were no such thing as food? Would there be an ear unless there were harmonies to hear? And would there be in you a craving for unending life, perfect truth and ecstatic love unless Perfect Life and Truth and Love existed? In other words, you were made for God. Nothing short of the infinite satisfies you, and to ask you to be satisfied with less would be to destroy your nature. As great vessels, when launched, move uneasily on the shallow waters between the narrow banks of the river, so you are restless within the confines of space and time and at peace only on the sea of infinity."
Consider here our pursuit of excellence in our work. Such a pursuit frequently involves an "ideal," e.g., defining an "ideal" customer or client, scheduling your time according to "model day," eliminating defects in a manufacturing process, carefully tailoring your professional services to meet individual client needs and preferences. Bishop Sheen notes why that pursuit never can be, nor should it be, fully satisfied.
“Your mind, it would seem, should be satisfied to know one leaf, one tree, or one rose; but it never cries: ‘Enough.’ Your craving for love is never satisfied. All the poetry of love is a cry, a moan and a weeping. The more pure it is, the more it pleads; the more it is lifted above the earth, the more it laments. If a cry of joy and ravishment interrupts this plea, it is only for a moment, as it falls back again into the immensity of desires. You are right in filling the earth with the chant of your heart’s great longing for you were made for love. No earthly beauty satiates you either, for, when beauty fades from your eyes, you revive it, more beautiful still in your imagination. Even when you go blind, your mind still presents its image before you, without fault, without limits, and without shadow. Where is that ideal beauty of which you dream? Is not all earthly loveliness the shadow of something infinitely greater? No wonder Virgil wished to burn his Aeneid and Phidias cast his chisel into the fire. The closer they got to beauty, the more it seemed to fly from them, for ideal beauty is not in time but in the infinite.”
I don't know what your experience has been, but I can attest to the fact that any satisfactions derived from accomplishments in this world don't last very long. And yet we pick up the pursuit and press forward. Bishop Sheen's explanation elevates our pursuit from a merely selfish desire to succeed, to win, to prevail; rather, we find God behind our pursuit. He beckons to us throughout our lives with the promise of eternal happiness. Let's head to work today with this in mind. It's a beautiful way to start the New Year, don't you think?
“Having discovered why you are disappointed, namely, because of the distance between an ideal conceived in the mind and its actualization in flesh or matter, you do not become a cynic. Rather, you take the next step of trying to avoid disappointments entirely. There is nothing abnormal about your wanting to live, not for two more years, but always; there is nothing queer about your desiring truth, not the truths of economics to the exclusion of history, but all truth; there is nothing inhuman about your craving for love, not until death do you part, not until satiety sets in or betrayal kills, but always. Certainly you would never want this Perfect Life, Perfect Truth and Perfect Love unless it existed? The very fact that you enjoy their fractions means there must be a whole. You would never know their arc unless there were a circumference; you would never walk in their shadows unless there were light. Would a duck have the instinct to swim if there were no water? Would a baby cry for nourishment if there were no such thing as food? Would there be an ear unless there were harmonies to hear? And would there be in you a craving for unending life, perfect truth and ecstatic love unless Perfect Life and Truth and Love existed? In other words, you were made for God. Nothing short of the infinite satisfies you, and to ask you to be satisfied with less would be to destroy your nature. As great vessels, when launched, move uneasily on the shallow waters between the narrow banks of the river, so you are restless within the confines of space and time and at peace only on the sea of infinity."
Consider here our pursuit of excellence in our work. Such a pursuit frequently involves an "ideal," e.g., defining an "ideal" customer or client, scheduling your time according to "model day," eliminating defects in a manufacturing process, carefully tailoring your professional services to meet individual client needs and preferences. Bishop Sheen notes why that pursuit never can be, nor should it be, fully satisfied.
“Your mind, it would seem, should be satisfied to know one leaf, one tree, or one rose; but it never cries: ‘Enough.’ Your craving for love is never satisfied. All the poetry of love is a cry, a moan and a weeping. The more pure it is, the more it pleads; the more it is lifted above the earth, the more it laments. If a cry of joy and ravishment interrupts this plea, it is only for a moment, as it falls back again into the immensity of desires. You are right in filling the earth with the chant of your heart’s great longing for you were made for love. No earthly beauty satiates you either, for, when beauty fades from your eyes, you revive it, more beautiful still in your imagination. Even when you go blind, your mind still presents its image before you, without fault, without limits, and without shadow. Where is that ideal beauty of which you dream? Is not all earthly loveliness the shadow of something infinitely greater? No wonder Virgil wished to burn his Aeneid and Phidias cast his chisel into the fire. The closer they got to beauty, the more it seemed to fly from them, for ideal beauty is not in time but in the infinite.”
I don't know what your experience has been, but I can attest to the fact that any satisfactions derived from accomplishments in this world don't last very long. And yet we pick up the pursuit and press forward. Bishop Sheen's explanation elevates our pursuit from a merely selfish desire to succeed, to win, to prevail; rather, we find God behind our pursuit. He beckons to us throughout our lives with the promise of eternal happiness. Let's head to work today with this in mind. It's a beautiful way to start the New Year, don't you think?
Happy New Year!
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