Going Up, please

.

“A feverish brow 

that never throbs in unison with 
a Head crowned with thorns,

or an aching hand 

never borne in patience 
with a Hand on the Cross,

is sheer waste.

The world is worse for that pain 

when it might have been so much the better.

All the sick-beds in the world 

are either on the right side of the Cross

or on the left; 

their position is determined by whether,

like the thief on the left, 

they ask to be taken down,

or, like the thief on the right, 

they ask to be taken up.”

Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen 

(Justice and Charity 1938)

.