“St.
John tells us that if he recorded all the miracles Our Blessed Lord had worked,
the world would not be large enough to contain the books thereof. There was only one time in His life that He
ever cursed a thing, and that was the day He saw the barren fig-tree which was
not producing its fruit in due season, and therefore was not enjoying the
thrill of monotony. There is necessarily
bound to be a thrill in working toward any goal or fixed purpose, and therein
is the final reason for the romance of repetition. There, too, is the line of division between
genuine Christianity and modern paganism.
The Christian finds a thrill in repetition because he has a fixed goal; the
modern pagan finds repetition monotonous because he never decided for himself
the purpose of living. Instead of
passing the test, the modern mind changes the test; instead of working toward an ideal, it
changes the ideal; it is not marvel that
existence is drab, if one has never discussed the reason for existence. How
dull, for example, golf would be if there were never a green; how monotonous
would be a sea voyage, if there were never a port; or a journey if there were
never a destination. Since the modern
mind has never decided the goal of life, nor the purpose of living, nor the
reason of existing, but like a weathercock has changed with every wind of
doctrine and suggestion, it is necessarily bound to find life dull, drab, and
monotonous.”
Archbishop Fulton Sheen - Moods and Truths
