Sheen on the Church part 2 - The Trouble With Christians

  This is Part 2, of an introduction by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, to the  "Radio Replies" series of Catholic religion questions and answers. 
    Fulton Sheen was the first electronic evengelist of national prominance, and more popular than Milton Ble, at a time when "Uncle Milty" ruled the airwaves. He was a familiar voice to tens of millions through across half of the 20th Century.
    Archbishop Sheen's style is both compelling, educated - and uncompromising. This feels blunt to the modern ear, since today's reader expects a sugar-coated reality. But the intention of the series was, and still is, to explain the truths of the Church to people with many notions ABOUT that Church - but very little fact or understanding.
    A link to part 3, the stunning Conclusion," is found at the bottom, along with a link to the entire 'Radio Replies' series - all five volumes and 5,000+ questions and answers! 

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 The Trouble With Christians

    If then, the hatred of the Church is founded on erroneous beliefs, it follows that the basic need of the day is instruction. Love DEPENDS on knowledge, for we cannot aspire nor desire what is unknown.

    Our great country is filled with what might be called marginal Christians, i.e., those who live on the fringe of religion. They are descendants of Christian-living parents, yes, but are today Christians mostly in name. They retain a few of its ideals out of indolence and force of habit. But they know the glorious history of Christianity only through certain emasculated forms of it, which marry the spirit of the age with themselves and, sadly, must eventually die with it.
    Of Catholicism and its sacraments, its pardon, its grace, its certitude and its peace, they know nothing except some inherited prejudices. Indeed, they prefer NOT to know much else about it, but their errors.
    And yet they are good people who want to do the right thing, but who have no definite philosophy concerning it.
    They educate their children without religion, and yet they resent and howl when they are hit in the face with the compromising, laissez-faire morals of their children.
    They would be angry if you told them they were not Christian, and yet an increasing number give only lip-service to the reality that Christ is God. They like eating out after church, as much as anything, for which being Christian offers an opportunity.
    They vehemently resent being called pagans, and yet they don't take a real, practical cognizance of the existence of God on a daily, even momentary, level.

    There is only one thing of which they are certain, one thing that nags at them constantly - and that is that things are not right as they are. They hunt long and hard for a church that makes them "feel" like it has the answers they want to hear. And it is that single certitude of unease, of searching for the "feel good moment," that makes them what might be called the great "potentials."
    That may sound mercenary, but it is for their benefit to acknowledge it. Because they may call themselves, "Christians," but they are really primed to be pulled in either of two directions.
    Within a short time they must take sides; they must either gather with Christ or they must scatter; they must either be with Him, or against Him; they must either be fully on the cross as other Christs, or under it, as other executioners. 

    Which way will these marginal Christians lean? The answer depends upon those who have an abiding, consuming faith. Like the multitudes who followed Our Lord into the desert, they are as sheep without a shepherd. They are waiting to be shepherded either with the sheep or goats. Only this much is certain.
    Being human and having hearts, they want more than class struggle and economics; they want Life, they want Truth, and they want Love.
    In a word, they want to encounter Christ. Not to have some modernistic vision of a "relationship" with Him, which normally means how they wish to see Him...but to meet Him as He IS, to adhere to all His commands, and to become His supplicant, as he was THEIR victim. 

    So it is to these two groups of people - the millions who believe wrong things about the Church, and those partial Christians - that this little book is sent.
    It is not to prove that they are "wrong"; it is not to prove that we are "right"; it is merely to present the truth in order that the truth may conquer through the grace of God.
    When men are starving, one need not go to them and tell them to avoid poison; nor to eat bread because there are vitamins in bread. One need only go to them and tell them that they are starving and here is bread, and the laws of nature will do the rest.

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Links

Part Three, The Shocking Conclusion of Archbishop Sheens Introduction, HERE:
The Conclusion

Radio Replies - The Series, in its entirety, HERE: Radio Replies

    

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