Turning Wait Time into Prayer Time

Dear Theophilous,

The biggest complaint seems to always be about the walk-in clinic… The wait can seem endless! Not only are you not usually feeling your best, and when you add in the crying child (sometimes your own), it can take what feels like forever to be invited into the blessed silence of the examination room. The excitement of hearing your name called is short-lived, however, as you soon realize the second stage of the long wait has only just begun.

Unfortunately, the long wait is not solely the domain of the doctor’s office. In our consumer driven society, where every experience is supposed to be geared to customer convenience, we tend to spend more and more time waiting… at the bank, in the drive-thru, at the supermarket, at the restaurant… even for the bathroom in our own home.

We cannot choose whether or not we find ourselves with this unexpected downtime, but what we can choose is what we do with it. Of course, some waits happening are more predictable than others. We know when we head to the doctor’s office that we will more than likely be in for a lengthy wait. However, when we’re only behind one other car at the drive-thru, we don’t expect to be sitting there for up to 10 minutes (yes, this has happened on occasion). Either way, the question remains – what to do with the (un)expected downtime?

A quick glance around the waiting room at the doctor’s office tells me that most people have come to the realization that they will have to hunker down for an extended period of time. Most adults have either a novel or the newspaper in hand, while their children are mercifully plugged into an electronic device watching cartoons or playing a game (Thanks be to God for earphones). I’ll often do this as well, bringing my current spiritual reading to take advantage of the forced quiet.

Venerable Fulton J. Sheen gives us another option… we should turn our wait time into prayer time:

All the idle moments of one’s life can be sanctified, thanks to the Rosary. As we walk the streets, we pray with the Rosary hidden in our hand in our pocket; as we are driving, the little knobs under most steering wheels can serve as counters for the decades. While waiting to be served at the lunchroom, or waiting for a train, or in a store, or while playing the dummy at bridge, or when a conversation or a lecture lags – all these moments can be sanctified and made to serve inner peace, thanks to a prayer that enables one to pray at all times and under all circumstances.

So before I break out my book, I’ll pull my Rosary beads out of my pocket, make the Sign of the Cross, and slowly, rhythmically begin to pray. Although I may have already prayed the Rosary once that day (it’s a part of my morning routine), I relish this opportunity to meditate quietly once more on the daily mysteries. Without the other distractions of home around me, I actually find that I’m able to better concentrate on my prayers when I don’t feel guilty about tuning out the world around me. Since the Rosary usually takes about 20 minutes to pray properly, I’ll only begin this prayer if I know I’m in for a lengthy wait.

But what about the other times when the waiting has been thrust on us unexpectedly, or we know it will only be a few moments? What if you know you won’t have time to say even a decade of the Rosary, let alone all 5. Depending on the time, location and what you’re waiting for, your quick prayer can take on different forms…

If you know you’re only going to be a few minutes, perhaps you’re behind a few cars at the drive-thru, a decade of the Divine Mercy Chaplet to remind you of God’s saving grace is what’s in order. In line at the grocery store, instead of getting frustrated at all the price-checks or reading the tabloid magazines, a prayer of thanksgiving that you are able to put food on the table is in order.

When the wait comes completely unexpected and my frustration level boiling over, I find it helpful to think of a favourite saint, quickly asking them to pray for me to get through the moment with God’s grace. Once the initial surge in blood pressure subsides, I am then able to approach the unexpected pause in a prayerful manner.

We cannot choose whether or not we find ourselves with these moments of unexpected downtime, but what we can choose is what we do with it. And like in all suffering, big or small, prayer helps make our Cross bearable.

Why Jesus Had to Die

Dear Theophilous,

Like most of us who grew up going to a Catholic school, I could easily answer the question: Why did Christ die on the Cross? Like every child from preschool on, I would easily parrot back – To forgive our sins. It was an answer I knew by heart, but never really understood.

Until recently, when I read Venerable Fulton J. Sheen’s TheDivine Romance.

Originally published in 1930, Sheen’s work is timeless, and there are many ideas about the Church in Western Culture that one would think were prophetic, as they seem to address the trials She is currently going through in the early Twenty-First Century. Although thought provoking and worthy of much discussion, this will have to wait for another day.

As we approached Holy Week, what really struck my heart was how Sheen explained why it had to be Christ, and only Christ who could pay the debt of humanity’s sins on the Cross. Venerable Sheen based his explanation on the two-fold notion of a sin’s gravity being based on the one sinned against, while the honour of the repayment must be tied to the one make the atonement.

Let me explain…

Sin’s Weight

Any insult is offensive, but the severity of the insult lies with the one who is insulted. Let’s take the insult of pie-ing someone in the face for example. If I were to pie my boss in the face, I may get a few days off without pay, or possibly even fired. If I were to pie the mayor in the face, I may spend a night in jail and receive a fine. If a Member of Parliament (or Congressman) were my target, the jail time and fine would probably be a bit higher, while if it were the Prime Minister (or President), I could expect to cool my heels in a jail cell for a longer stretch, and when I got out, I’d spend a few years working to pay back whatever fine the judge found fitting.

The point to all this is to understand that the penalty for an offence is directly linked to the one offended (a student once paid a 25-cents to pie me in the face, and they were heralded as a hero of the student body). If the penalty for the offence of pie-ing someone in the face grows according to their importance in society, how much greater when the one offended through sin is God.

The Honour of Atonement

The more distinguished the title one bears, the loftier the honour their gift can bestow. Traditionally, one will receive recognition from public dignitaries for achieving special milestones; for example a 50^th Wedding Anniversary or a 100^th Birthday. A certificate from the mayor may be framed and then lost in a drawer. The form letter from the Member of Parliament (or Congressman) could take pride of place on the mantle. A personally signed note from the Prime Minister (or President) will most likely hang proudly on the wall. The most cherished of all (at least in our home) would be a letter of Apostolic Blessing from the Holy Father in the Vatican.

The higher in stature the one giving the gift, the greater honour the gift bestows on the one receiving it. If we would give such pride of place to the gifts given to us by human dignitaries, how much greater is the gift given by our infinite God through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ?

Sin is offensive! Since sin offends God, and our God is infinite; then logically one realizes that gravity of sin’s weight is also infinite. If the weight of our sin is infinite, then it will require the honour of an infinite sacrifice to make atonement for this sin.

Out of pity for His creation, out of His love for humanity, God in His great mercy offered His Son to come down from heaven and pay the infinite price to forgive our infinite sinfulness. No one but the Messiah could make this payment; the price is too great. It is through Christ’s great sacrifice on the Cross and through His resurrection, that the death of sin could be conquered and the doors opened to eternal life in heaven.

This is why on Good Friday I weep, knowing that Jesus paid the price for the debt that I incurred.

Growing my Passion for the Eucharist by Growing in Understanding



Dear Theophilus,

 

Lately I’ve noticed that a lot of my reading has been on the theme of the Eucharist. Coming to this realization this weekend is quite appropriate, seeing that it is the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, and Eucharist means just that: Thanksgiving.

What I’ve also noticed is that with my growing understanding of the Eucharist, my love for Christ’s great Pascal sacrifice has also grown exponentially. As Cardinal George of Chicago points out so poignantly in his forward to Fr. Mitch Pacwa’s The Year of Faith: A Bible Study Guide for Catholics: “ But without a relationship to Christ, doctrine is just ideas and morality is only rules.” And we find this relationship with Christ through the Eucharist at the Mass each and every Sunday.

I recently had a conversation with the chaplain at the high school where I teach about my growing understanding of the Eucharist and how it has created a burning love in my heart to meet Christ in the Eucharist. I fessed up that, although I always believed the Eucharist to be the body, blood and divinity of our Lord, in hindsight it seemed almost like paying lip service to this most essential of Catholic beliefs. It was by really getting to know the Eucharist through my reading and attending workshops on the Eucharist that I came to actually know the Eucharist to be the body, blood and divinity of the Lord.

How did I get here? It wasn’t overnight. And I wanted to share some of my favourite titles that have led me to a passion for the Eucharist that I have read over the past couple of years. You’ll probably recognize some of the authors, as I’ve mentioned most of them here before:

Life of Christ by Fulton J. Sheen

Eucharist by Fr. Robert Barron
Supper of the Lamb by Dr. Scott Hahn
Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Dr. Brant Pitre
The Didache by the Twelve Apostles

If you truly want to experience the Eucharist in a bold way that will set your heart on fire, I urge you to deepen your understanding of Christ’s gift to us. The more you know about the Eucharist, the more you will yearn for the life it gives.

The Flesh of the Son of Man



Dear Theophilus,

Last Sunday’s Gospel and homily by Fr. Charles got me to thinking about the words of Fulton Sheen in his book Life of Christ. With his usual great insight, Fulton Sheen teaches us that if we are to truly listen to what Christ has to say in the Gospels, then we can really only draw one of three conclusions:

1. Christ was telling the truth;
2. Christ was a liar; or
3. Christ was a madman.

I’ve used this teaching in my World Religions while juxtaposing the religions of the world to Catholicism. I told my students that it was possible for anybody to start a religion. In fact, I told them that that morning I had decided to start a new religion called LeBlancism and that I was god. I then told them that they had to take this as truth because I am not a liar and that I am definitely not a madman (to which a voice from the back of the class chimed in to everyone’s amusement: “That’s a matter of perspective, sir.”)

To understand how Fulton Sheen’s three conclusions relate to Christ, we need to revisit the Gospel reading for the 20^th Sunday in Ordinary Time:

Jesus said to the people: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The people then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in them.

“Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” (Jn 6:51-58)

Jesus did not back down from this statement. He did not soften it by saying he was talking metaphorically or symbolically. He steadfastly repeated that salvation is to be had by eating His flesh and drinking His blood. In his Catholicism series, Fr. Robert Barron points out something that makes this statement even harder to swallow (pardon the pun); that if we return to the original Greek of John’s Gospel Jesus does not use the verb phagein (to eat) but instead he uses the verb trogein (to gnaw or devour), indicating the way we should approach the Eucharist. Since the Eucharist is the life giving bread of Christ’s flesh, we must devour it, relishing the sustenance it brings to our souls.

Keeping this in mind, it’s not surprising that many fell away from Jesus, refusing to follow him because they saw him as either a liar or a madman. The emphasis Christ put on this Eucharistic teaching, however, tells us that this cannot be a question of perspective – that there is only one conclusion that we can draw from Christ’s words:

He was telling the Truth!

The Cross and the Beatitudes

Dear Theophilus,

I recently finished reading Blessed Fulton Sheen’s The Cross and the Beatitudes. What the eloquent archbishop does in this short work is demonstrate the links between the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount and the final phrases Christ uttered from his Cross on Calvary. Once again I have found that Blessed Fulton Sheen’s wisdom has uncovered the fullness of the Christ’s narrative for me by showing the great symmetry of the Gospel that once it is pointed out, becomes so crystal clear.

Archbishop Sheen dedicates each of the book’s seven chapters to showing the parallels between the beginning of Christ’s ministry in the Beatitudes and its fulfillment on the Cross:

Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land.

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

This day you shall be with me in paradise.

Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.

(Son) behold your mother, Woman, behold your son.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.

I thirst.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

It is consummated.

Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.

Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.

In fact, Archbishop Sheen begins each chapter in the same way. The opening paragraph reads: Our Blessed Lord began his public life on the Mount of the Beatitudes by preaching: “(insert the beatitude here).” He finished his public life on the Hill of Calvary by practicing (this beatitude): “(insert words from the Cross here).” The second paragraph then outlines how Christ’s teaching is so at odds with the world and the third paragraph reminds us just how challenging it is to follow Christ’s teaching.

The amazing part of The Cross and the Beatitudes is that the work written in 1937 transcends the decades and is applicable to our society today. Aside from a few lines about the need to battle the atheistic evil of communism in the first chapter, the reader will immediately recognize today’s world in Blessed Fulton Sheen’s descriptions. For example in the chapter on The Lesson of Poverty he writes:

Both the Beatitude and the Word are foreign to the spirit of the world. Modern society is what might be characterized as acquisitive, for its primary concern is to acquire, to own, to possess; its aristocracy is not one of blood or virtue, but of money; it judges worth not by righteousness but in terms of possessions.

As my wife rightly pointed out – these are very high standards to try to live up to. As Sheen remarks time and again throughout the book – it’s not going to be easy, and you will be shunned by society for trying to live by these standards. In his final chapter, Blessed Fulton Sheen points asks his readers which road they would like to take: The first road is full of thorns, but if we traverse it far enough, we find it ends in a bed of roses; the other road is filled with roses, but if we traverse it far enough, it ends in a bed of thorns.

When you feel your path is nothing but thorns, remember that Christ was crowned with thorns. When people mock you because you stand for your principles, remember the throngs that jeered Christ at the foot of his Cross.

Fulton Sheen was Right

Dear Theophilus,

In trying to keep up to date with what’s going on in the world, I usually click to the websites of major daily newspapers. I’m often tempted to see what other interwebs have to say about a particular article, so after reading I’ll scroll down to the comments section. Sometimes I find these comments comical, and at other times I find them infuriating.

Recently, many of these articles have been focused on Catholic beliefs as they pertain to issues our society is currently facing: abortion, euthanasia or homosexuality. Reading the comments posted by other readers, I’ve come to realise how right Fulton Sheen was when he said:

“There are not a hundred people in America who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions of people who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church — which is, of course, quite a different thing.” (Foreword to Radio Replies Vol. 1, (1938) page ix)

It’s quite sad that most of the people taking issue with Catholic teachings can’t even tell you exactly what it is the Catholic Church teaches. In some ways it isn’t their fault, as the article will only allude to Catholic doctrine without actually stating what that doctrine is. Still, they find it is their place to attack a Catholic position that they know nothing about.

If these people really wanted to know what the Catholic Church teaches on these contentious issues, I think they would be surprised, not only with Catholic doctrine, but also with the ease with which they could find it. Any Catholic teaching can be found in under a minute, first by searching out an online searchable catechism (the Knights of Columbus catechism is my favourite) and then by searching the actual subject. The best part of the catechism is that it will also give scripture references to support Catholic teaching.

Do I bother to try to correct the misconceptions I come across. Regretfully: no. Frankly, there are too many of them, and I wonder if any comment I could make would do nothing more than create a knee-jerk reaction on their part. I think it’s probably best that they practice the free will God gave them to search out the Truth on their own.