Bishop Barron’s Homily Introduction
Vespers, September 23rd, St.Louis Cathedral
I consider it one of the signal privileges of my life to be able to preach this homily on the vigil of Fulton Sheen’s beatification. From the very beginning of my own work in evangelization, Sheen has been my model and inspiration. I do indeed consider him one of the pivotal players in the modern history of the Catholic Church, for he opened the door to the evangelization of the world through the electronic media.
There was an extraordinary intellectual, literary, and spiritual revival within Catholicism in the middle years of the last century. We think of such figures as Graham Greene, Dorothy Day, Jacques Maritain, Henri de Lubac, Thomas Merton, Evelyn Waugh, and many others. Sheen was very much a participant in that renaissance, and he was arguably the most famous and influential of that entire group of luminaries. Billy Graham referred to him simply as “the great communicator.” By common consensus, Archbishop Sheen was the premier preacher in the English language in the 20th century. At the height of his influence, Sheen had a television audience of 30 million every Tuesday night and received 25,000 letters a day from all over the country.
My purpose this evening is not to speak so much of this aspect of Sheen’s life and work, but rather of what made him blessed, a saintly man of God. My suspicion is that Sheen himself would have said that a blessed, holy person is someone who is a friend of Jesus Christ. Over and again throughout his career, he insisted Christianity is not an abstract philosophy or a set of moral convictions, but rather a relationship to a living person — indeed, to the One who said to His apostles the night before His death, “I no longer call you servants, but friends.”
So, what does friendship with the Son of God look like? There’s a very instructive passage in the third chapter of Sheen’s autobiography, Treasure in Clay, in which he speaks of his vocation to the priesthood. But his presentation, I think, provides a template for anyone’s relationship to the Lord. He uses the famous story of the prophet’s call from the sixth chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah.
The first stage in divine friendship — I’m quoting Sheen now — is “a sense of the holiness of God, of God’s awful transcendence, of His majesty, beauty, and power.” Isaiah had a vision of the Lord seated upon His throne and with the angels singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.” The authentic spiritual journey never begins — Sheen knew — with what I want, with my projects and plans and achievements, but rather always with the breakthrough of grace and the consequent surrender to what God wants to achieve in me and through me.
The second stage follows from the first. It is, in Sheen’s words — I’m quoting again — “a profound sense of one’s unworthiness.” Just as the smudges on the window appear fully only in the glare of direct light, so sin is more, not less, apparent in the light of grace. As Sheen puts it — I’m quoting again — “God is holy. I am not. Woe is me.” Isaiah expressed it this way: “I’m a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips.” So God does the long work of purification, and then the third stage commences. Here’s Sheen again: “After the purging, Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord asking, ‘Whom shall I send?’ And Isaiah answered, ‘Here I am. Send me.’” The third path in the spiritual journey is that of mission — of being sent as a bearer of grace to others.
The complete homily can be read here: https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/bishop-barron-vespers-fulton-sheen-beatified
