Christ In The Creed

EWTN, Global Catholic Radio, and St. Joseph Communications proudly present Life is Worth Living with Archbishop Fulton Sheen. This 50-part series was recorded on phonograph records in the 1960s, and the sound quality is sometimes limited, but the word of God spoken by Archbishop Sheen is timeless. And now, here is Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Peace be to you. These next few lessons will be treating the creed. It is to be noted that the creed almost summarizes a life, how quickly it passes over the public life of our Lord. He was born, He suffered, He was buried, He rose, and then He sat at the right hand of the Father in glory. This is destined to be the summary of every human life. Note, too, how it was divided, the life of our Lord. Thirty years obeying, three years teaching, three hours redeeming. First, we begin with His birth. Caesar Augustus, the master bookkeeper of the world, was seated at his desk at the Tiber in Rome, and before him was a map. It was labeled Orbis Terrarum Imperium Romanum. Because he was master of the world, he was going to take offenses of the world, for all the civilized nations of the world were subject to Rome. There was only one capital in the world, that was Rome, there was only one official language, Latin, and there was one ruler, Caesar. So to every outpost, to every satrap, to every governor, the order went out, every Roman must be enrolled in his own city. On the fringe of the empire, in the little village of Nazareth, soldiers tacked up on the wall the order for all citizens to register in the towns of their family origins. Joseph a carpenter, a very obscure descendant of the great king David, was obliged by that very fact to register in Bethlehem, which was the city of David. And in accordance with the edict, Mary and Joseph set out from the village of Nazareth for the village of Bethlehem, which lies about five miles on the other side of Jerusalem, that is to say, after they had made the journey from Nazareth. Five hundred years earlier, it had been prophesied by the great prophet Michael, that our blessed Lord would be born in the city of Bethlehem. He dies in the great city of Jerusalem. The dignity of his crucifixion may be known to all, but the glory of his birth is hidden in the least of the cities. Mary is now with child, awaiting birth, and Joseph is full of expectancy as he enters the city of his own family. He searched for a place where he, to whom heaven and earth belonged, might be born. Could it be that the Creator would not find room in his own creation? Certainly, thought Joseph, there would be room in the village inn. There was room for the rich, there was room for those who were clothed in soft garments, there was room for everyone who had a tip to give to the innkeeper, but when finally the scrolls of history are completed down to the last words of time, the saddest lines of all will be, there was no room in the inn. No room in the inn, but there was room in his table. The inn is a gathering place of public opinion, the focal point of the world's moods, the rendezvous of the worldly, the rallying place of the popular and the successful, but there is no room in the place where the world gathers. The table, ah, that is a place for outcasts, the ignored and the forgotten. The world might have expected the Son of God to be born in an inn. The table would certainly be the last place in the world where one would look for him. The lesson is, divinity is always where you least expect to find it. For the Son of God made man is invited to enter into his own world through a back door. Exiled from the earth, he is born under the earth. For this table was a cave. He was the first caveman of recorded history. And there he shook the earth to its very foundations. And because he is born in a cave, all who wish to see him must bend, must stoop. And the stoop is the mark of humility. The proud refuse to stoop. Therefore they miss divinity. Those, however, who are willing to bend their egos and go into that cave, find that they are not in a cave at all. That they are in a universe where sits a babe on his mother's lap. The babe who made the world. Shepherds and wise men came to visit him. Shepherds, they who know they know nothing. Wise men, they who know they do not know everything. Never the man with one book. Never the man who think that he knows. Time passes and then there comes the flight into Egypt. After which our blessed Lord is brought back by his mother and foster father to Nazareth. Which was to be his hometown. Where he was to spend his time until he began his public life. Seemed like a very long preparation. One wonders why it was so long. Practically thirty years or three years ministry. One can only guess. This is our guess. The reason might very well be that he waited until the human nature which he had assumed had grown in age to a full perfection. So that he might offer a perfect sacrifice to his heavenly father. Does not the farmer wait until the wheat is ripe before cutting it and subjecting it to the mill? So he would wait until his human nature had reached its most perfect proportions and its peak of loveliness before surrendering it to the hammer of the crucifiers and the sickle of those who would cut down the living bread of heaven. The newborn lamb was never offered in sacrifice by the Jews. Now is the first blush of the rose cut to pay tribute to a friend? Each thing has its hour of perfection. Since he was the lamb that could set the hour for his own sacrifice. Since he was the rose that could choose the moment of its own cutting. He waited patiently, humbly, obediently. While he grew in age and grace and wisdom before God and man. Then he would say, this is your hour. Thus the choicest wheat and the reddest wine would become the worthiest elements of sacrifice. That perhaps is why he waited. He already said something about his temptation. Namely the reversal of the temptation of Adam and Eve. Satan, you will recall, tried three short cuts. He solicited our blessed Lord to forego the cross. To give people bread to work some kind of wonders. Or to do anything except treat with human guilt and sin. Then after the temptation, our Lord begins his public life. He goes beyond Jordan. There John the Baptist is preaching. It was about the season of the Passover. Now the Passover, you will recall, takes its name from the fact that when the Jews were in bondage in Egypt. In order to release the Jews, God punished the Egyptians. They were to lose their firstborn. But in order that the destroying angel would not touch the firstborn of the Jews. The Jews were asked to sacrifice the lamb. And to sprinkle the blood of the lamb above the doorpost. Not on the earth where it could be trampled upon. The destroying angel seeing that blood as a promise and sign of redemption from slavery. Would pass over that house. The sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb became known as the Passover. The Jews continued to offer the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb at the season of Passover. And in the course of centuries, hundreds of thousands of lambs must have been sacrificed. Remember that even before Moses, Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac. And he loaded his son Isaac with wood and told him to carry the wood. Which was preparatory and necessary for the sacrifice up the mountain. It was the symbol of God the Father offering his son. As Isaac was the only son of Abraham. So our Lord, the son of the Heavenly Father. When finally Abraham and Isaac got to the top of the mountain. Isaac asked, where is the lamb? What are we going to sacrifice? God provided a substitute for Isaac. That too typified the fact that our blessed Lord would in some way substitute himself for our sin. But the point is that Isaac asked, where is the lamb? Abraham said, my son, God will see to it that there is a lamb to be sacrificed. Deus providebit. God will provide a lamb. With this memory of the sacrifice of Abraham and Isaac. With a memory of the Passover season. And all of the lambs that had been sacrificed. The Jews were now at this Passover season going up to Jerusalem. Every family was to have its own Paschal Lamb. One can therefore imagine the banks of the Jordan almost being wiped. With the fleece of the lambs that were being brought up to the city in order to be sacrificed. The Jews understood the meaning. It was a recall and a memory. Of how they were rescued from political slavery. They were also told by the prophets that it was to be a symbol of being rescued from spiritual slavery. In fact their prophet Isaiah had told them that when the true Lamb of God would come. That he would be a man. Isaiah had written, God laid on his shoulders our guilt. The guilt of us all. A victim? Yes, he himself bows to this stroke. No words come from him. Now as John the Baptist was preaching. He sees all of these lambs before him. But he also sees our blessed Lord in the crowd. And looking over all of these lambs that were only types and symbols. Of the Lamb that was to come. The Lamb that God would provide. The Lamb who would take away the guilt of us all. John the Baptist let his voice ring out. And pointing to our blessed Lord he said. Behold the Lamb of God. Who taketh away the sins of the world. All through the centuries those words and that inquiry of Isaac had been repeated. Where is the Lamb? Where is the Lamb? Where is the Lamb? John the Baptist gives the answer. Behold the Lamb of God. The Lamb was the sacrifice. And Christ would be the sacrifice. Notice John the Baptist called him the Lamb of God. He was not the people's Lamb. Nor the Lamb of the Jews. Nor the Lamb of any human owner. But the Lamb of God. And when the time came for that Lamb to be sacrificed. He would not be a victim of those who were stronger than himself. But rather he would be fulfilling his own willing duty of love for sinners. It was not man who offered this sacrifice. Although it was man who slew the victim. It would be God himself. Thus at the very beginning of the public life of our Lord. We have a foretelling of the sacrifice. The cross is no afterthought in the life of our Lord. John the Evangelist in the Apocalypse speaks of the Lamb slain in sacrifice. Ever since the world was made. Or even before the world was made. This means that the Lamb was slain as it were by divine decree from all eternity. Though the temporal fulfillment of that sacrifice would only be on the hill of Calvary. If we had time to go into every single detail of the life of our blessed Lord. We would see how the cross was dominant in everything that he said and did. And yet the cross is not final. Our Lord never once spoke of the cross without speaking also of the resurrection. Taking one other incident. In a very long conversation our blessed Lord had one night with Nicodemus. Our Lord told him that he did not know as much about the Mosaic Law as he thought. Then telling Nicodemus that he was not only the son of man but the son of God. He said what will you make of it? If you see the son of man ascending to the place where he was before. In other words, in heaven. He came down from heaven to this world. Our blessed Lord then used a figure. It was very well known to Nicodemus and to the Jews. What our Lord said that night to Nicodemus was this. And this son of man must be lifted up in the wilderness. So that those who believe in him may not perish. But have everlasting life. As the serpent was lifted up by Moses. What did our Lord mean by that the serpent lifted up by Moses? If you go back to the book of Numbers. You will see there that when the people rebelled against God. In the desert. They were punished with the plague of fiery serpents. Many of them lost their lives. Moses was then told by God to make a brazen serpent. That is to say a serpent of brass. And set it up in the crotch of a tree. Then God told Moses that everyone who would look at that serpent of brass. In the crotch of that tree. Would be healed of the bite of the poisonous serpent. Now certainly there was nothing in a poisonous serpent. Or rather in a serpent of brass. That could cure any of those who were suffering from the bite of a serpent. No intrinsic relationship between the two. And yet everyone who looked upon it was healed. And those who refused to look upon that serpent of brass were not healed. Now after hundreds of years have passed. Our blessed Lord comes to this earth. Goes back. To that symbol. And gives it real meaning. Our Lord now said. He is the serpent of brass. Just as Moses. Lifted up that serpent of brass on a tree. So he. Our blessed Lord will be lifted up on the tree of the cross. And all who look upon him. Will be saved. The connection is this. That brass serpent in the desert. Looked exactly like the fiery serpent that had stung the Jews. But. It did not have venom inside of it. It looked as if it were poisonous. But it was not poisonous. Our blessed Lord now implied. That he too would be lifted up on a tree. He would look as if he were a sinner. He would look as if he were full of the venom of guilt. Would not judges condemn him? And if he were condemned would it not seem as if he were a sinner himself? And yet. He would be without sin. And all who would look upon him. Would be healed. That was the symbol to which our Lord now appealed. Once more our Lord was saying that he was not just a teacher but a redeemer. He was coming to redeem man in the likeness of human flesh. Teachers change men by their lives. Our blessed Lord would change men by his death. And that poison of hate and sensuality and envy. Which is in the hearts of men could not be healed simply by wild exhortations of social reform. The wages of sin is death. And therefore it was to be by death that sin would be atoned for. As in the ancient sacrifices the fire symbolically burned up the imputed sin along with the victim. So on the cross the world's sin would be put away in Christ's suffering. For he would be upright as a priest and prostrate as a victim. If there's anything that every good teacher wants. It is a long life. Which will make his teaching known. Death is always a great tragedy to a teacher. When Socrates was given a hemlock juice his message was cut off once and for all. Death was a stumbling block to Buddha. Stood in the way of all of the teachings of the eastern mystics. But here our blessed Lord was always proclaiming his death. Which he takes upon himself the sins of the world. Which he would appear himself as if he were a sinner. And our blessed Lord now this night that he talks with Nicodemus proclaimed himself the light of the world. The most astounding part of it was that he said no one would understand his teaching until after his death and resurrection. No other teacher in the world ever said that it would take a violent death to clarify his teaching. Here was a teacher who made his teaching so secondary that he could say that the only way that he would ever draw men to himself would be not by his doctrine, not by what he said, but by his crucifixion. As our blessed Lord put it, when you have lifted up the Son of Man you will recognize that it is myself you look for. He did not say that it would even be by his teaching that they would understand. It would rather be by his personality that they would grasp the meaning of his coming. Only then would they know after they had put him to death that he spoke the truth. His death then instead of being the last of a series of failures would be a glorious success in the climax of his mission on earth. And that's the great difference than the statues or the pictures of Buddha and Christ as we mentioned. Buddha's always seated, eyes closed, hands folded across his fat, sleek body, intently looking inwards. Christ is not seated on this earth. He's lifted up, he's enthroned. His person and his death are the heart and soul of his teaching. The cross and all that it implies is the very center of his life. Now it remains only to tell you about his cross, his death, and his burial. God love you. This has been Life is Worth Living with Archbishop Fulton Sheen. For more information about this series, contact St. Joseph Communications at 1-800-526-2151. Outside the U.S., call 818-331-3549. And please join us again next time for Life is Worth Living with Archbishop Fulton Sheen on EWTN Global Catholic Radio.