BLESSED FULTON SHEEN AND THE HOUR THAT MAKES MY DAY

Fr Billy Swan

I write these words on the day of the Beatification ceremony of the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen, that takes place in St. Louis, Missouri. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle will preside at the Beatification Mass. Many of us may not know much about this newly blessed and here I would like to share how I got to learn about him and the impact his life and witness had on me.

I first went to the United States in the summer of 1995, spending ten weeks in the parish of St Matthew’s Catedral in South-Bend, Indiana. On the outskirts of the city is the famous Catholic University of Notre Dame and within a few days of my arrival, I took a trip out to see the campus. Everything was impressive about the place including the book-store in which I spent hours browsing. One of the books I bought that day was a book entitled ‘Treasure in Clay’ – inspired by the St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians where he describes the paradox of his own human condition containing something precious and beautiful (cf. 2 Cor. 4:7). It was the autobiography of Archbishop Fulton Sheen who I later discovered was a famous TV evangelist in the last century, the first Catholic to have such a high public profile in the US and to first to have his own TV show called ‘Life is Worth Living’ for which he won a Emmy award in 1952.

There were a number of wonderful chapters of the book that intrigued me. As he described his own vocation story, I began to recognise something of my own story in his, which was reassuring at the time. He described the evolvement of his vocation in early chapters called “The Moulding of the Clay” and “The Gift of the Tresure”. I recall one chapter on “The Woman I Love” as he beautifully described the place of Our Lady in his life as a Christian, priest and Bishop.

‘The Lighter Side’ was a chapter on the humorous episodes of his life including one from Ireland. On one occasion he happened to be in Killarney and asked a local man to take him up the Gap of Dunloe with his horse and trap. At the end of the trip, the Archbishop asked the owner of the horse how much he owed him. “Its up to yourself Father” he replied. The Archbishop offered him what he thought was a generous donation for his time. The man’s reaction was to pull a hood down on the head of the horse. “What are you doing?” asked Archbishop Sheen? “I am hoping the horse didn’t see what you offered for his hard work, in case he’s insulted!”

The most influential chapter of the book was called “The Hour that Makes my Day” in which Sheen speaks of his commitment to a daily holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament – a practise he began as a seminarian and continued until the day he died. For every Christian and especially for a priest, the Eucharist is central to our lives being its source from which everything flows and the summit to which everything returns. It is the time when we do precisely what Jesus asked us to do on the night before he died, to “Do this in memory of me”. For us Catholics, celebrating the Eucharist is more than a memorial. When we gather together for the Eucharist, we remember the saving events of Jesus life from the past but in such a way that they become effective in the present and anticipate the future. In the Eucharist we believe that Jesus’ saving death and resurrection are re-presented and the fruits of his sacrifice made once and for all, are shared with us who participate and with the whole Church.

Of special significance is our faith in the Real Presence of our crucified and Risen Lord in the consecrated bread and wine that we receive at the Eucharist as the fullest expression of our share in the life of God. Our faith assures us that in some mysterious way, the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the risen Christ is truly and substantially present in the bread and wine that we receive in Holy Communion and that this remains the case when the Mass has ended and when the consecrated hosts that remain at the end of Mass, are reserved in the tabernacle. That’s why in every Catholic Church around the world, there is a sanctuary lamp that is lit 24/7 to indicate the Eucharistic presence of Christ and as a visible reminder of the promise of Jesus that “I will be with you always, yes until the end of time”.

When Fulton Sheen prayed for an hour every day before the Blessed Sacrament, it was a time of communion and intimacy with his friend and Lord. Archbishop Sheen emphasised that Christ’s sole request during His agony was not for activity, but for an hour of companionship. He urged the faithful to commit to a daily hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, describing the tiny white Host as the centre of the greatest love story ever told. He also taught that theological knowledge and social action must be rooted in personal adoration to sustain our love for Christ, and that spending this time in the divine presence transforms how we interact with the world, leaving others to recognise that we have been with Him.

For Fulton Sheen, doing a Holy Hour was also a time to rest in his presence and to just be still. As an apple ripens with exposure to the sun, so our lives are refreshed by just being in his presence. It is during that time that the Lord Jesus promises to refresh us in a way that no entertainment, no diversion and no other means can do. It is at those times of exhaustion of body and spirit that the Lord invites us to come to him when we are weary and lonely. There before Him, he promises to be our rest and our dearest companion.

To adore Him in the Eucharist is to demonstrate that all our hope is in Him. To adore Him is to show Him that we count not on ourselves nor on others but on Him alone. To adore Him is to give Him the freedom to act within us and upon us in such a way as to unite us wholly to Himself: His heart to our hearts, His soul to our souls, His body to our bodies, His blood to our blood.

For these reasons and many more, the beatification of Fulton Sheen is an opportunity to learn from his example and to ask for the grace to renew our faith in the Eucharist. We might not be able to do a Holy Hour each day but perhaps we can manage twenty minutes or even ten. The number of minutes we spend before the Blessed Sacrament isn’t as important as our desire to come before Lord truly present in the Eucharist. Of course, there is room for other forms of prayer, but the Eucharist has been a central prayer of the Church from the very beginning.

Can I encourage all of us, laity, religious and priests alike to renew our devotion to Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament. If you have gotten out of the habit of partaking in the Mass, think about coming back. If you come to Mass less often than you would like, make a new beginning to come every Sunday. If you pass by a Church every day and never go in, take the time once in a while to enter and be still there. Light a candle and just be still for a while. The time we spend in his presence is more about His time with us as it is our time with Him. If you enter once in a while, make a resolution to enter every time you can.

In the words of Fulton Sheen: “The purpose of the Holy Hour is to encourage a deep personal encounter with Christ. The holy and glorious God is constantly inviting us to come to Him, to converse with Him, to ask for such things as we need and to experience what a blessing there is in fellowship with Him. Sitting before the Presence is like a body exposing itself before the sun to absorb its rays. Silence in the Hour is a tete-a-tete with the Lord. In those moments one does not so much pour out written prayers, but listening takes its place. We do not say: “Listen, Lord, for Thy servant is speaking”, but “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant is listening”.

The Beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen is an occasion of joy for the whole Church. As an outstanding preacher and teacher of the Catholic faith, he shared much of the fruits of his daily habit of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. His teaching and preaching inspired so many because they drew from a deep well of a life of intimate prayer and communion with the Eucharistic Lord. May Blessed Fulton Sheen intercede so that our lives as disciples of the Lord may be fruitful because of the regular celebration, reception and adoration of the Eucharist.