Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was the most eloquent spokesperson for Catholicism in American history, and I would like to comment on what he said years ago.
Many people grumble when they are suffering, and criticize and say that the Lord should eliminate all the sin and suffering in the world — they are too judgmental. However, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said, “To destroy evil in the world, God would have to destroy our freedom.”
What a statement he just quoted, because I wrote an article on Nov. 22, 1992, where I stated that the doctrine of original sin teaches us that man has the ability to corrupt any system. Sins of lying, theft, selfishness, greed, covetousness, adultery, sinful desires, crime, bribery, political corruption, etc., etc., are all sins that originate in man himself. These are the crosses that people carry every day of their lives.
We have become so used to sin that we do not realize its horror, and we may even think that we are virtuous, ever denying our sinfulness, and never admitting any shame. Inevitably, sound judgments become subjective — what is good or bad for me is not necessarily good or bad for you —relativism.
The result is that standards of truths are no longer a value system for us to follow. We create our own rules and our own morality. Truth becomes our opinion. Our nature tells us in essence, Go, and sin some more. However, when Pilate asks, “Are you a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king, I was born and came into the world for this one purpose, to speak the truth. Whoever belongs to the truth listens to me.”
Today, how many of us try to bury the truth, for truth can be denied, but it never stays buried, Easter attests to that. It is easier to follow Jesus in prayer, than to acknowledge our crosses because of the sins we have committed against our friends and neighbors. We must confess our sins and seek out those we have maligned, going on bended knee to ask forgiveness, mercy and love.
Archbishop Sheen was correct when he said, “The worst thing in the world is not sin, it is denying that we are sinners. Sinners who deny that there is sin, deny thereby the remedy of sin, and thus cut themselves off forever from him who came to redeem.”
The crosses (sins) are the only obstacles to knowing the truth. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Truth is truth, it is a standard that we must live by. To get back to what Archbishop Sheen said, “To destroy evil (sin), God would have to destroy our freedom.” If there was no evil in the world, then everyone of us would go to heaven, but he wants us to make the right decision based on our freedom to choose, as to whether we go to heaven or hell.
It’s our choice: not to sin and to get to heaven, or to sin and to end up in hell.
Carlo Olivero
Dalzell