Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen, Part 1

Back in September/October, the Catholic Thought Book Club read Bishop Fulton Sheen’s autobiography, Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen.  Let me present my chapter by chapter summaries, my thoughts, and my comments in the discussion of that book.  I estimate this will take about five or six posts.  I’ll spread them out here in the next few weeks.

Summary, Chapters 1 thru 4

Chapter 1, “It All Depends on How You Look at It”:

As an introduction to his autobiography, Bishop Sheen makes it clear that any record of a life is seen in three ways: (1) As I see it, (2) As others see it, and (3) as God sees it.  He can only tell of his life as he sees it.

Chapter 2, “The Molding of the Clay”:

Here Sheen speaks of his being born in El Paso Illinois, how he acquired the name “Fulton,” and of the most important decision of his early life, his parents resolve that each of their children be well educated.

Chapter 3, “The Gift of the Treasure”:

How he had always wanted to be a priest, how that was the most formative decision of his life, and he provides adice on how to determine if one has a vocation to the religious life.

Chapter 4, “After University Studies”:

His intellectual development, his development as a priest, and his assignment to the Catholic University of America as a theology and philosophy professor.

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I found the first chapter profound. Surely many people have pointed out that a life of a person can be seen from multiple points of view, how the individual sees his own life verses the ways other people see him, and if you sum total all those other people into an outside view then there are two views. That wouldn’t be original, but then Sheen adds a third view, a view from God as the true view. The other two views have a subjective quality to them. But God sees us as we really are, and while that may seem like it’s been said, I don’t think it’s ever been said in the context of a biography. That seems like a very original thought to me. Here he speaks about that God written biography:

That autobiography is the crucifix —the inside story of my life not in the way it walks the stage of time, but how it was recorded, taped and written in the Book of Life.

And Sheen goes on to peak into that book of life:

It is not the autobiography that I tell you, but the autobiography I read to myself. In the crown of thorns, I see my pride, my grasping for earthly toys in the pierced Hands, my flight from shepherding care in the pierced Feet, my wasted love in the wounded heart, and prurient desires in the flesh hanging from Him like purple rags. Almost every time I turn a page of that book, my heart weeps at what eros has done to agape, what the “I” has done to the “Thou,” what the professed friend has done to the Beloved.

He goes on with this thought experiment to delineate some of the joys of pleasing his Beloved. But what a fascinating way to start an autobiography. And then he gives an apology for this work:

What you read is truth nevertheless, but on a lower level: the narrative of a jewel and its setting, the treasure and its wrapping, the lily and its pond.

I guess one of the pitfalls of an autobiography is to come across as too self-oriented. This is about as humble a way to start as I could imagine.

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My response to Gerri on his TV show:

Well said Gerri. I was too young to be conscious of his TV shows, but I have watched several now and his communication skills are superb. I was surprised to learn he had a PhD and that he taught at universities. I find his communication techniques so nonacademic. He talks to the common man, and yet doesn't compromise intellectual substance. And he's got such charisma that you want to stay and listen. He may have been the greatest evangelist of them all.

A General Comment:

Out of curiosity, did any of you reading know before reading the book he had a PhD and taught in universities?

A Reply to Nikita on Sheen’s Obedience:

This too is very profound. "Obedience is better than sacrifice." It doesn't say we are not to sacrifice. It doesn't say that obedience is not sacrifice. But sacrifice can have an element of ego in it that obedience doesn't have. For instance I know a person who goes to great lengths to fast, and not just on Fridays. There's a sense of self-satisfaction there. [Perhaps that's presumptuous on my part. Perhaps she feels she's being called to it, and so it would be an act of obedience.] Anyway my point is that sacrifice is not necessarily an unwelcomed act. Obedience is always an act of following someone else's will over yours.

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I really enjoyed the vignettes of his growing up in Illinois.  Obviously it was such a different time from today.  Here’s a little paragraph of the rudiments of his family life:

The molding of the clay was done by great sacrifices on the part of my father and my mother, who would deny themselves every personal comfort and luxury in order that their sons might be well clothed and well cared for. Our family life was simple and the atmosphere of our home Christian. Grace was said before and after each meal; when we had visitors none of us was permitted to sit at table without wearing a coat and tie; the Rosary was said every evening; the priests of the cathedral visited the home once every week; and visits of old-country cousins were very frequent.

Can you imagine having to wear a jacket and tie when visitors arrived.  We don’t even wear jacket and tie for church now.

I also appreciated the driving principle of what motivated him in his education.  This was a fantastic answer when a professor asked him,

“What would you like to have in education?” I said: “I should like to know two things— first, what the modern world is thinking about; second, how to answer the errors of modern philosophy in the light of the philosophy of St. Thomas.” He said: “You will never get it here, but you will get it at the University of Louvain in Belgium.”

And that’s where he went.  I think Bishop Sheen was a Dominican at heart.  Scholarly, contemplative, great preacher and evangelizer. 

My Highlight of a Quote:

Great quote from the book:

"I can never remember a time in my life when I did not want to be a priest."