The seventh word : the purpose of life


THE CATHOLIC HOUR

THE SEVENTH WORD — THE
PURPOSE OF LSFE
• BY

RT. REV. MSGR. FULTON J. SHEEN
Of The Catholic University Of America

The seventeenth in a series of eighteen addresses on “YOU”, delivered
in the Catholic Hour on March 25, 1945, by the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton
J. Sheen, of the Catholic University of America, and broadcast by the
National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with the National Coun-
cil of Catholic Men. After the series has been concluded on the radio
it will be made available in one pamphlet.

National Council of Catholic Men

Washington, D. C.



THE SEVENTH WORD—THE PURPOSE OF LIFE
There is no word more often

used in our modern world and

more often misunderstood tha^

the word freedom. Almost every-

one thinks of it as freedom from

something, but rarely as freedom

for something. Some think they

are free only because they have

no ball and chain on their feet,

without ever adverting to why
they want to be free, and what

is the purpose of life.

The root of all our trouble is

that freedom for God and in

God has been interpreted as free-

dom from God. Before we ask

what you do with your freedom,

let us turn to the life of Our

Lord and our Lady, for the su-

preme example of how freedom

is to be used.

The first word Our Lord is re-

corded as speaking in the Scrip-

ture is at the age of twelve: “I

must be about my Father’s busi-
ness” (Luke 2:49). During His

public life, He re-affirmed this
dedication to His Father’s Will:

“I do always the things that

please him” (John 8:29). Now
on the Cross, when He goes out
to meet death by freely surren-

dering His Life, His last words

are: “Father, into thy hands I

commend my spirit” (Luke
23:46).

Father—Note the word of

Eternal Parenthood. He did not
say Our Father as we do, for

the Father was not His and ours

in the same way. He is the Nat-
ural Son of the Father; we are

only the adopted sons.

Into thy haifds—These were
the hands the prophet called

“good”; the hands that guided

Israel to its historical fulfillment

of God’s Providence; the hands

that provided good things even

for the birds of the air and the

grass of the field.

I commend my spirit—Surren-
der! Consecration! Life is a

cycle. We come from God and we
go back again to God. Hence the

purpose of living is to do God’s

will.

When Our Blessed Mother saw
Him bow His head and deliver
His Spirit, she remembered the

last Word that she is recorded to
have spoken in Scripture. It was

to the wine steward at the mar-

riage feast of Cana; that day

when, in the language of Cra-

shaw, “the unconscious waters

saw their God and blushed.”

“Whatsoever he shall say to you,

do ye” (John 2 :5).

What a beautiful valedictory!
They are the most magnificent

words that ever came from the

lips of a woman. At the Trans-

figuration the Father spoke from

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the Heavens and said: “This is

my Beloved Son . . . hear ye
him” {Matthew 17:5); Now our
Blessed Mother speaks and says,

“Do His Will.” The sweet rela-

tionship of three decades in Naz-

areth now draws to a close, as
Mary is about to give Emmanuel

to us all. She does it by point-

ing out to us the one and only

way of salvation: complete con-
secration to her Divine Son. No-

where in the Scripture is it ever

said that Mary loved her Son.

Words do not prove love. True

love is surrender of the will and

such is her final injunction to

us: “Whatsoever he shall say to

you, do ye” {John 2:5).

Both the last recorded words

of Jesus and those of Mary were
words about freedom: a freedom

for something. For Jesus it was

the will of the Father, for Mary
the will of the Son. This is the

law of the universe: Nature is

for man, man is for Christ, and
Christ is God's.

What do you do with your
freedom? You can do one of

three things with it:

1) Keep it for your selfish de-

sires.

2) Break it up into tiny little

areas of trivial allegiance or

passing fancy.

3) Surrender it to God.

If you keep freedom only for

yourself, then, because it is ar-

bitrary and without standards,

you will find it deteriorating in-

to a defiant seff-affirmation. Once

all things become allowable, sim-

ply because you desire them, you

will become the slave of your

choices. If your self-will decides

to drink as much as you please,

you soon find not only that you

are no longer free not to drink,

but that you belong to drink; it

is your master, you are its slave.

Boundless liberty is boundless

tyranny. The abuse of freedom

ends in the destruction of free-

dom. This is what Our Lord

meant when He said: “Whoso-

ever committeth sin, is the ser-

vant of sin” {John 8:34).

The second way to use free-

dom is to become like a humming

bird, hovering first over this

flower, then over that, but liv-

ing for none and dying without

any. In that case, you desire

nothing with your whole heart,

because your heart is broken into

a thousand pieces. You thus be-

come divided against yourself;

a civil war rages within you,

because you are striking out in

contradictory directions. You

change your likes and desires

when dissatisfied, but you never

change yourself. You become

very much like the man who
complained to the cook at break-



fast that the egg was not fresh

and asked for another. She

brought in an egg a minute later,

but when he got to the bottom of
it, he found it was the same old

egg turned upside down. So it

is with human nature; what
has changed is the desire, not

the soul.

As a result your interest in

others is not real. In your more

honest moments you discover

that you have dealt with them

on the basis of self-interest; you

let them speak when they agree

with you, but you silence them

when they disagree. Your mo-

ments of love, if you looked into

your soul, are nothing but a bar-

ren exchange of egotism—you
talk about yourself five minutes,

and your neighbor talks about

himself five minutes, but if he

takes longer you call him a

“bore.”

No wonder such people often
say: “I must pull myself togeth-

er.” Thus do they confess that

they are like broken mirrors,

each reflecting a different image.

In essence this is debauchery,

or the inability to choose one

among many attractions; the
soul is diffused, multiple, or

“legion,” as Satan called him-

self. And this is the sad state
of millions in the world; they

are free from something, but

free for nothing, because they

have no purpose in life.

Finally, you can use your free-

dom as Our Lord did on the
Cross, by surrendering His

Spirit to the Father, and as Mary
bade us at Cana, by doing His

Will in all things. This is per-

fect freedom: the displacement

of self as the center of motiva-

tion and the fixation of our

choices, decisions, and actions

in the words of Our Lord: “Thy

will be done on earth as it is in

heaven.” We are all like limpets
that can live only when they

cling to a rock. Our freedom

forces us to adhere to something.

Freedom is ours to surrender;

we are free to choose our servi-
tudes. To give that freedom to

anything less than the perfect

never brings ultimate peace. But

to surrender to Perfect Love is

to surrender to happiness and

thereby be perfectly free. Thus

to “serve God is to reign.”

But we are frightened to give

away our will. Like St.. Augus-

tine in his early life we say:

“I want to love you dear Lord,

a little later on, but not now.”

Fearful of One who comes to

us purple-robed and cypress-

crowned, we ask: “Must Thy

harvest fields be dunged with

rotten death?” Must gold be

purified by fire? Must hands that



beckon bear the red livid marks

of nails? Must I give up my can-
dle, if I have the sun? Must I

give up knocking if the door of

love is opened? Do we not act

toward God as a child who re-

sents the affectionate embrace of

his parents,. because it is not our

mood to love? Francis Thompson

so reflected when he heard these

words from the mouth of a child

:

"Why do you so clasp me,

And draw me to your knee?
Forsooth, you do but chafe me,

I pray you let me be:
I will be loved but now and then
When it liketh me!’

So I heard a young child,

A thwart child, a young child
Rebellious against love’s arms,

Make its peevish cry.

To the tender God I turn;

—

‘Pardon, Love most High!

For I think those arms were

even Thine,

And that child even I.’

There is hope for you if you

are dissatisfied with your pres-

ent choices, and you want the

Perfect: the very void you thus

create makes it possible for God

to fill it. I would rather hear

you say, “i am a sinner,” than
to hear you say, “I have no need

of religion.” If you admit you

are a sinner, you acknowledge

the need of a Redeemer; but if

you have no need of religion,

then you are your own god, and

if you are God, I am an atheist.

If you are empty, God can pour

in His waters of Life; if you

are self-intoxicated, there is no

room for anything else.

No man who has ever shed a

sincere tear before God for the

way he abused his freedom was

ever lost. Even in an earthly

way, have you ever noticed how

much more beautiful the hills

look when there are tears in

your eyes. You may even see

rainbows of hope. Our Lord

took St. Augustine to Himself

even though Augustine lament-

ed : “Too late, 0 ancient Beauty,

have I loved Thee.”

So He will take your freedom

to choose between good and evil

and make it a freedom in per-

fection and goodness if you but

surrender to that “love we fall

short of in all love” and to that

“Beauty that leaves all other

beauty pain.”

This is the week Divine Love

died for you. He makes His
final appeal as Love crucified.

When dictators want the wills
of men, they nail them to a

cross.

When God wants our wT ills, He
permits Himself to be nailed,

that He may never force and
that we may be uncaught cap-



tives in the hands of Love.

Do you know anyone else who

loves you enough to die for you?

You know your own mind, yes;

but do you know your own

heart? Your tears may be dried;
but your heart, never.

Only God can fill that. May
you then give Him an hour a
day in prayer and meditation al-

ways remembering that it does

not require much time to make

you a saint; it requires only

much Love.





THE CATHOLIC HOUR
1930—Sixteenth Yar—1945

The nationwide Catholic Hour was inaugurated
on March 2, 1930, by the National Council of Cath-
olic Men in cooperation with the National Broad-
casting Company and its associated stations. Radio
facilities are provided gratuitously by NBC and the
stations associated with it

;
the program is arranged

and produced by NCCM.
The Catholic Hour was begun on a network of

22 stations, and now carries its message of Catholic
truth on each Sunday of the year through a number
of stations varying from 90 to 110, situated in 40
states, the District of Columbia, and Hawaii. Con-
sisting usually of an address, mainly expository, by
one or another of America’s leading Catholic preach-
ers—though sometimes of talks by laymen, some-
times of dramatizations—and of sacred music pro-
vided by a volunteer choir, the Catholic Hour has
distinguished itself as one of the most popular and
extensive religious broadcasts in the world. An
average of 100,000 audience letters a year, about
twenty per cent of which come from listeners of
other faiths, gives some indication of its popularity
and influence.

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