Fr. Richard Heilman
After 31 years of priesthood, it has become crystal clear to me that my primary mission is to do everything I can to bring people to the point in which they cry out, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus told Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (John 20:29). This place of “True Belief” is the “ultimate” or “pinnacle” for every soul. This is the place that brings “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). This is the place that calms the restless soul, bringing them to nestle in the loving arms of God. This is the place of “Sublime Blessedness.”
In a previous article, I wrote:
Surveys by Gallup, the National Opinion Research Center, and the Pew Organization conclude that spiritually devout people are twice as likely to report being “very happy” than the least religious people. Secular analysts seem to be doing back flips trying to explain away the simple reality that there is no other authentic and fulfilling way to live other than a supernatural life; the Divine Life.
I went on to outline the four levels of happiness drawn from Greek and later Christian writers, culminating in the fourth level of happiness: Sublime Beatitudo (Sublime Blessedness). This level is not reserved for the saints alone, but is offered to every child of God. In fact, it is referred to as the unum necessarium, the one thing necessary.
Humans are pulled by their desire for the sublime, something beyond their imagination, beyond their complete understanding. To be sure, they desire love, goodness, truth, beauty, and being as they experience them in the world; but they also desire these in their perfected and unlimited form. St. Augustine describes this quest as fides quaerens intellectus: “faith in search of understanding.” Those of faith recognize this as their desire for God.
Last week, I was complimenting my altar servers in their military level attention to precision. I went on to tell them that this is helping everyone “truly believe that is God on the altar.” In fact, I told them, you are helping them to pray, “My Lord and my God!”
This is also why I have poured myself into such things as offering Confession 24/7 with my rectory Confessional. Without grace, “The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14). I simply MUST do all I can to help people get back into and stay in a “State of Grace” … to be the “spiritual man” who can now discern spiritual things.
