Life is worth living

The Olympic parody showcased the opposite of what love is in its attention-seeking self-indulgence.

Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger

If you go back in years as far as I do, you might associate the title of this article with the theme of a popular TV program — so named and popularized by its host, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. His Tuesday night slot in the ’50s put him in direct competition with comedian Milton Berle on another channel and with whom he maintained a friendly rivalry, even as his program frequently attracted more viewers than “Uncle Miltie.” Conceding to “Uncle Fultie,” as Bishop Sheen once even quipped about himself, Berle magnanimously acknowledged the advantage his rival had, to wit, “He has better script writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.”

Bishop Sheen would edify his viewers every week with inspiring talks on how to live a holy and a happy life, and showing persuasively how both were intimately connected. While he could be entertaining, his prime goal was to lead people to Jesus, who alone is the way, the truth and the life, to help all find and know the source of true holiness and happiness. 

Witnessing the sad and tawdry events that marred the opening of the Olympics in Paris last week, which featured a patently crude and, frankly, ugly parody of da Vinci’s beautiful Last Supper painting, we have seen the appropriate uproar. Not just people of faith, but many others are understandably excoriating the insensitivity and blatant mockery of a holy icon, the artistic depiction of sacrificial love by the very author of life itself. The ephemeral stunt was a mockery of what eternal love really is by a band of exhibitionists put up by their impresarios who succeeded only in displaying their own folly and myopia.

Nothing is ever all that new or particularly original about the latest blasphemy nor is it surprising that most, if not all of it, is directed toward the Christian faith. If it was all meant as some kind of a joke, it flopped miserably. Thomas Griffin, an experienced catechist and skilled writer, offers an excellent analysis of what is likely really going on here, which you can read here.

I could not help but wonder what Bishop Sheen might have said about this spectacle. It actually takes very little to imagine since, unlike the many masters of deceit seeking to gaslight us these days, luring us to disbelieve what our own eyes clearly see, he always spoke truth, boldly and clearly. It is a strange paradox that today many people who claim to be seeking experiences that will make them “feel good” choose forms of entertainment and diversion that only lead to misery and grave disappointment. The equation of sex with pleasure and recreation alone, lacking in any purpose but to bring instant gratification, has led many into various addictions and perversions and, ultimately, sheer boredom as so many other forms of sensual self-indulgence do. The attraction ends up consuming and enslaving the user.

Bishop Sheen often spoke of the joy and beauty of the truly human worth of sexuality as lived in the gift of married life and its great purpose in bringing out the best of our humanity. In the title “life is worth living,” the real stress is on the word living. Life is not just something to be coped with and endured but really to be lived and enjoyed to the full. Often the challenges and uncertainties in life are seen as obstacles to our happiness, especially when they frustrate “the best laid plans of mice and men.” None of us like to endure pain and suffering, but true love often demands just that, living our lives for the good of others, our friends, our loved ones and, yes, the common good — that which serves our communities. 

Marriage is, in a most exemplary way, a school of love, of living for something larger than oneself. We are aware these days how many have chosen to avoid the costs and inconvenience of a permanent commitment to another person that is open to what happens when a man and woman take those mutual conjugal vows. The natural course, if they are healthy and generous, will result in the procreation of other human beings. It is a sacramental modeling of the Trinitarian life, which our faith reveals to us as the very essence of the divine: three persons crazy about each other (“pazzo d’amore” as St. Catherine of Siena would phrase it), revolving about each other for all eternity. The Father and Son are equally divine, yet different Persons, and the love between them eternally generates the third Person we call the Holy Spirit. 

Sheen offered a very direct, almost shocking commentary on marital life only focused on one “other,” which does not include the ultimate Other, who is God. Ready to hear it? In his book, “Three to Get Married,” he writes, “It takes three to make love, not two: you, your spouse and God. Without God, people only succeed in bringing out the worst in one another. Lovers who have nothing else to do but love each other soon find there is nothing else. Without a central loyalty, life is unfinished.” And we might conclude, life will not seem very “worth living” unless it is lived for something, someone outside oneself. 

The Last Supper was anything but a show, a party to entertain, or a theatrical act to attract attention to the celebrant and the participants. It was an invitation to receive the love of a divine Person who took on our human flesh to live and die in it, shedding his blood for each and every one of us. A supreme sacrifice of love. It was in this way that Jesus wanted us to remember what he was to do on Calvary on the following day. As Bishop Sheen said, every time we look at a cross, Christ seems to be saying “I love you.”

The Olympic parody showcased the opposite of what love is in its attention-seeking self-indulgence. Authentic love looks rather to others, not the self, and in the self-giving receives the true joy and fulfillment of living for a greater purpose than mere survival. Love lives by giving life.

 @AlbanyDiocese