Archbishop Sheen

2 more miners died in WV and I just can't help wondering why we can send crafts to Pluto and Mars, and hear the voices of men standing on the moon, but we "can't" get to trapped miners sooner than in 48 hours. The answer is that we very well CAN get to miners more quickly; but because they are "unimportant" people to our way of thinking, we simply don't. And that realization makes me sick.

Last night I saw a particularly enlightening episode of Archbishop Sheen's "Life is Worth Living." I learned 3 especially powerful things:

1) In this world there has been a divorce of Christ from His Cross, which is one reason why Christianity is not making the impact it should. For instance, if 10 people sit at a table, and 3 of them profess to be Christians, and all 10 discuss morals, politics, ethics, etc.--could an outsider tell which 3 were Christian? The Western World has chosen to keep a weak "nice teacher" concept of Christ: the Christ without His Cross. He does not say "hell," He does not drive illegitimate vendors from the Temple in anger, He just pats children on the head and gives us advice on par with Buddha or Confucius. This type of Christ will never, ever win the hearts of anyone. He is not a Savior or Redeemer. As Nietzsche once said in a rare moment of wisdom: "I will never believe in a Redeemer unless you act like you are redeemed." The only way for Christianity to impact the world is by being holy and saintly.

2) Instead of complaining about the imperfections in the Church, we should be grateful that the Church has those defects. For if the Church was not imperfect, we would not be in it.

3) Once upon a time, the youth had heroes who were above them, whom they aspired to be. But now, since we have debunked all these heroes and saints, the youth must turn to those on the same level as them, those who act like their peers, who are equal to them, not any better. In order to cause the youth to aspire to be better, we must restore heroes and saints to their rightful and respectable places.