Living The Worthy Life: Why Are We Here?

Are you lost?

Do you find it difficult to get up every day and face your job?

Do you think that Sunday is a day to relax and forget about everything else so that you can charge up for the week to come?

 If you do, this article is for you.  This article was written to help us understand why we are here.

Bishop Fulton Sheen explained it very well with these two stories.  They are stories from others but they could also apply to you.  Dostoevsky, the distinguished Russian novelist, tells the story about an old woman in Hell. The angel came to her and said, "Have you ever in your life done anything good?" And she said, "Yes...once I gave a carrot to a beggar. " The angel said, "All right. I'm going to let a carrot down to Hell and I want you to take hold of that carrot and I will pull you out." So, naturally, when the thousands of souls that were around the old woman saw her being pulled out hanging on to the carrot, they hung on to her. And there were thousands and thousands. And she turned around to them and said, "Get off. I'm the one who's being pulled out." Then they all fell down; the carrot and the old woman. Yet we're saved simply because we're conscious of being human with everyone else in all of the world.

Are we like this woman?  Are we asking for the impossible while at the same time not willing to face the facts of this folly?  Are we allowing others to pull us down and then curse them?  

 If this is the case, do not wait for the next world to change what you can only change in this world.  You must change today.  

In another story, Bishop Fulton Sheen liked to tell, he spoke about what is taking place today all over this once great country.  There is a large sense of self-pride.  Pride in things we should not take pride in.  Giving to others is not like a bank account.  We should not give to others so we would get something for ourselves. We should give because it was the right thing to do not because it was a tax deduction or something else.

 Bishop Fulton Sheen explained it this way, “ I am thinking now of the story of a man who was asked to give to charity, and when he went to Heaven, St. Peter asked him, "Have you really ever done anything? "He said, "Yes, I gave a dollar once to the Community Chest. St. Peter said to the angel in charge of the IBM cards, "Look up and see if he ever gave a dollar to the Community Chest. He has a lot of money." The angel said, "Yes, he gave a dollar." And St. Peter said to the angel, "Give him back his dollar. Tell him to go to Hell."

This is a common problem.  We have a real overinflated opinion of ourselves.  Bishop Sheen hit a responsive chord on this aspect of our lives when he explained. “Too many people get credit for being good, when they are only being passive. They are too often praised for being broadminded when they are so broadminded they can never make up their minds about anything.”

Are you living that type of life right here and right now?

Are you the type of person who is lost, needs to find an eternal perspective on life?  If you do remember the Old Baltimore Catechism- Our Purpose is to: Love, Serve and Obey.  The ideas are not new- but the concepts will get us through anything in this life.  Amen.