Chasing mirages

“Perhaps it was marriage you thought which would bring you perfect happiness. Even though it did bring a measure of happiness, you admit that you now take your companion’s love for granted. One is never thirsty at the border of the well. Maybe it was a desire to be well-known that you craved. You did become well-known, only to find that reputation is like a ball; as soon as it starts rolling, men begin to kick it around. How have you reacted to your disappointments? Either you became cynical or else you became religious. If you became cynical, you blamed things rather than yourself. If you were married, you said: If I had another husband, or another wife, I would be happy. Or you said: If I had another job, or If I visited another nightclub, or If I were in another city, I would be happy. In every instance, you made happiness extrinsic to yourself. No wonder you are never happy. You are chasing mirages until death overtakes you.”

-Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Facebook Fulton Sheen

Bonus from Good Jesuit Bad Jesuit:

Fr. John Hardon, S.J. On Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

During the Tre Ore sermon which he preached on Good Friday some years ago, Fulton J. Sheen asked his audience:  

"If Jesus Christ thirsted for souls, must not a Christian also thirst? If He came to cast fire on the earth, must not a Christian be enkindled? Has he not called us to be His apostles and His ambassadors, in order that His Incarnation might be prolonged through the continued dispensation of the divine through the human?" 

He answered his own question by declaring that, "A Catholic who does not strive to spread his Faith is a parasite on the life of the Church."

Link (here) to the full essay by Fr. John Hardon, S.J. entitled Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen - Author, Orator and Missionary.