My friend Greg and I were walking down 5th Avenue in Manhattan, I was nineteen years old. We were near St. Patrick’s Cathedral, when walking past us in the opposite direction was a clergyman wearing a violet zucchetto. Greg and I turned to each other and said simultaneously, “Was that”? Just then the clergyman turned the corner and we ran after him, pursued by a NYC policeman. We caught up with him, and I said, “Bishop Sheen”? He smiled, acknowledged it was him, and the cop backed off. I was immediately struck by his stature. On television he seemed like an imposing figure, I’m not tall but I seemed to tower over him. He also appeared remarkably slim and physically slight.
More striking was his benevolence. Immediately after we approached him, he asked us about our spiritual lives. Greg told him that he was in the seminary. Then I excitedly told him that I had begun to practice Yoga.
Just as the words left my mouth I thought, “What are you saying? This is Bishop Fulton J. Sheen and you’re telling him about Yoga? But instead of admonishing me, he challenged me into critically thinking about this by recommending three books by Catholic authors on Hinduism and Yoga – I was stunned, and have never forgotten that moment.
Some years after that encounter Bishop Sheen’s autobiography, Treasure In Clay, was published posthumously. I read the book over 40 years ago, but three things still stand out in my mind.
Although he seemed to preach effortlessly, like all masters he made the difficult look easy. In fact he spent hours in preparation before ever uttering a word. For instance, when preparing a homily, he would first hand write it in English, tear it up then write it in French, tear it up, and again write it in English. He would then be ready to deliver his homily with no notes, as if extemporaneously.
Another thing was his Holy Hour. Early on in his priesthood, he resolved to spend a continuous hour every day in the presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. He kept that resolution throughout his priesthood, recalling Jesus' words in Gethsemane, "Could you not watch one hour with Me? He saw this devotion as a personal encounter with Christ which gave him spiritual strength and nourished his preaching and writing.
I also remember how he described his open heart surgery at the age of 82. He wrote about the physical pain and weakness he endured during four months in hospital, but saw them as a means of uniting his suffering with the Passion of Christ. He died in 1979, two years and five months after the surgery, while praying before the Blessed Sacrament in his private chapel.
I have never forgotten meeting Bishop Sheen and the impact it had on me. Soon he will be Beatified, then one miracle awaits before Canonization. When that happens I can truly say that I actually met a Saint!
By Deacon Ben LoCasto
Art By Mark O'Niell