Fulton J. Sheen - Victory Over Vice

Victory Over Vice

Fulton J. Sheen

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS
Manchester, New Hampshire

Victory Over Vice was originally published in 1939 by Garden City Books, Garden City, New York. This 2004 edition by Sophia Institute Press contains minor editorial revisions.

Copyright 2004 Sophia Institute Press

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved

Cover design by Theodore Schluenderfritz

Cover image: Christ Carrying the Cross, by Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450-1516), Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent. Image courtesy of Scala.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

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Nihil obstat: Arthur J. Scanlan, S.T.D., Censor Librorum

Imprimatur: Stephen J. Donahue, D.D., Adm., New York New York, April 1, 1939

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sheen, Fulton J. (Fulton John), 1895-1979.
Victory over vice / Fulton J. Sheen.
p. cm.ISBN 1-928832-30-X (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Jesus Christ Seven last words Meditations. 2. Deadly sins Meditations. I. Title.BT457 .S54 2004
232.9635 dc22200302465504 05 06 07 08 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Also by Fulton J. Sheen from Sophia Institute Press:

Gods World and Our Place in It

Dedicated to the Mother of Sorrows in humble petition for victory over vice

Editors note: The biblical quotations in the following pages are taken from the Douay-Rheims edition of the Old and New Testaments. Where applicable, quotations have been cross-referenced with the differing names and enumeration in the Revised Standard Version, using the following symbol: (RSV =).

First Word

Anger

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Luke 23:34

The one passion in man that has deeper roots in his rational nature than any other is the passion of anger. Anger and reason are capable of great compatibility, because anger is based upon reason, which weighs the injury done and the satisfaction to be demanded. We are never angry unless someone has injured us in some way or we think he has.

But not all anger is sinful, for there is such a thing as just anger. The most perfect expression of just anger we find in our blessed Lords cleansing the Temple. Passing through its shadowed doorways at the festival of the Pasch, He found greedy traders, victimizing at every turn the worshipers who needed lambs and doves for the Temple sacrifices.

Making a scourge of little cords, He moved through their midst with a calm dignity and beautiful self-control even more compelling than the whip. The oxen and sheep He drove out with His scourge. With His hands, He upset the tables of the money-changers, who scrambled on the floor after their rolling coins. With His finger, He pointed to the vendors of doves and bade them leave the outer court. To all He said, Take these things hence, and make not the house of my Father a house of traffic.

Here was fulfilled the injunction of the Scriptures, Be angry, and sin not,

Here we are not concerned with just anger, but with unjust anger, namely, that which has no rightful cause anger that is excessive, revengeful, and enduring; the kind of anger and hatred against God that has destroyed religion on one-sixth of the earths surface; the kind of hatred that is not only directed against God, but also against fellowmen, and is fanned by the disciples of class conflict who talk peace but glory in war; the red anger that rushes the blood to the surface, and the white anger that pushes it to the depths and bleaches the face; the anger that seeks to get even, to repay in kind, bump for bump, punch for punch, eye for eye, lie for lie; the anger of the clenched fist prepared to strike, not in defense of that which is loved, but in offense against that which is hated; in a word, the kind of anger that will destroy our civilization unless we smother it by love.

Our blessed Lord came to make reparation for the sin of anger, first by teaching us a prayer: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and then by giving us a precept: Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you.

Revenge and retaliation were forbidden: You have heard that it has been said: an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, love your enemies. These precepts were made all the more striking because our Lord practiced them.

When the Gerasenes became angry at Him because He put a higher value on an afflicted man than on a herd of swine, Scripture records no retort: And entering into the boat, He passed over the water.

The perfect reparation for anger was made on Calvary. We might also say that anger and hate led our Lord up that hill. His own people hated Him, for they asked for His crucifixion; the law hated Him, for it forsook justice to condemn Justice; the Gentiles hated Him, for they consented to His death; the forests hated Him for one of its trees bore the burden of His weight; the flowers hated Him as they wove thorns for His brow; the bowels of the earth hated Him as it gave its steel as hammer and nails.

Then, as if to personalize all that hatred, the first generation of clenched fists in the history of the world stood beneath the Cross and shook them in the face of God. Even today, the hearts of their descendants freeze into fists.

As we contemplate those clenched fists, we cannot help but feel that if ever anger would have been justified, if ever Justice might have fittingly judged, if ever Power might have rightfully struck, if ever Innocence might have lawfully protested, if ever God might have justly revenged Himself against man it was at that moment.

And yet, just at that second when a sickle and a hammer combined to cut down the grass on Calvarys hill to erect a cross, and drive nails through hands to render impotent the blessings of Love incarnate, He, like a tree that bathes in perfume the axe that kills it, lets fall from His lips for the earths first hearing the perfect reparation for anger and hate: a prayer for the army of clenched fists, the first Word from the Cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

The greatest sinner may now be saved; the blackest sin may now be blotted out; the clenched fist may now be opened; the unforgivable may now be forgiven. While they were most certain that they knew what they were doing, He seizes upon the only possible palliation of their crime and urges it upon His heavenly Father with all the ardor of a merciful Heart: ignorance They know not what they do. If they did know what they were doing as they fastened Love to a tree, and still went on doing it, they would never be saved. They would be damned.

It is only because fists are clenched in ignorance that they may yet be opened into folded hands; it is only because tongues blaspheme in ignorance that they may yet speak in prayer. It is not their conscious wisdom that saves them; it is their unconscious ignorance.

This Word from the Cross teaches us two lessons: the reason for forgiving is ignorance; and there are no limits to forgiveness.

The reason for forgiving is ignorance. Divine Innocence found such a reason for pardon; certainly guilt can do no less. St. Peters first Pentecost sermon used this very excuse of ignorance for the Crucifixion so fresh in his mind: The author of life you killed... and now, brethren, I know that you did it through ignorance, as did also your rulers.

If there were full consciousness of the evil, perfect deliberation, perfect understanding of the consequences of acts, there would be no room for forgiveness. That is why there is no redemption for the fallen angels. They knew what they were doing. We do not. We are very ignorant ignorant of ourselves and ignorant of others.

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