“And Then What?” Fulton Sheen on Contentment Contingencies

“If I could move into that neighborhood, then I would be content.”

“If I could become friends with that person, then I would be content.”

“If I could travel to that place and eat at that restaurant, then I would be content.”

“If I could get that job and make that much money, then I would be content.”

“If I could be in a position of influence where people listen to me, then I would be content.”

“If my kids would listen to me or my neighbor would respect me, then I would be content.”

These are contingencies of contentment, statements we make thinking of the possibility of happiness and joy. For most of our lives, so far as we can remember, a seemingly infinite litany of these statements infiltrates our thoughts and desires. Many, if not most, of us exhibit a proclivity to not being or remaining content, because, you know, “the grass is always greener.” But how do these contingencies affect our interior spiritual lives, our families, our broader communities, our jobs?

In the post-World War II era, Venerable Fulton Sheen noticed the lack of contentment was spreading across the American cultural landscape (and across western culture more broadly, perhaps), and he began addressing it in his writing and preaching. Specifically, he laid out the broad contours of his message, which he would deepen in other places, in a couple of his earliest newspaper columns. One was titled “Joy From The Inside” (July 2, 1950) and the other, simply, “Contentment” (Sept. 9, 1951).

In both columns, Sheen identified the phenomena at the center of all discontentment: egotism. In “Contentment,” he defined it as the belief that all else should revolve around one’s self. In “Joy From The Inside,” he provided a stark description of egotism as a spiritual parasite. “The ego is always insatiable, if it is in command,” he wrote, “no indulgences and no honors quiet its craving.”

The pastor listed other causes of discontentment that are inextricably tethered to egotism. Envy, covetousness, and jealousy were the three he listed specifically. All of these work together insidiously to create in us “an inordinate desire to have more, in order to compensate for the emptiness of our heart” (“Contentment”). Any person’s quest to amass more things, experiences, influence, or wealth would have a deleterious effect out of these egotistic motives. “Occasions for despondency and sadness are thus multiplied,” he wrote, “for all of us are bound to be denied some of the things we want…the more things a man needs in order to be happy, the more he has increased his chances of disappointment and despair” (“Joy From The Inside”).

Rather than dwell on the problem at length, however, Sheen quickly turned to identifying the solution, which had two prominent parts. First, he identified a different source of contentment: “One of the greatest mistakes is to think that contentment comes from something outside us rather than from a quality of the soul.” Beyond that, he sought to impress upon his audience that cultivating contentment within one’s soul requires excising at least some of the lesser goods we frequently seek. “The condition of our contentment is to be contained, to recognize limits. … Contented man, limited and bound by circumstances, makes those very limits the cure of his restlessness.” Boundaries, limits, he wrote, are an essential part of the cultivation of “a quiet spirit and a happy heart” (“Contentment”).

In essence, Sheen was asking his readers, including us, to consider a perennial psychological and spiritual question: “And then what?” What will happen when the contingencies of contentment—the natural and social pleasures we seek—come to pass? Or, more to the point, when they do not come to pass? When any of us experience the loss and sadness of being denied something we want, something we think we ought to have, the bishop noted that “it is our choice whether this loss shall be accepted with a cheerful good grace or taken as an outrage and an affront to us” (“Joy From The Inside”).

As we ponder Sheen’s words, though, we realize he was merely echoing a much more ancient tradition. He was not the first to identify these concepts or preach the antidote. No, the contentment complex is a problem of fallen human nature that the Incarnate Lord came to heal and redeem. Beyond Jesus, the earliest Christians of New Testament-era exhorted the citizens of that era to give up the “If…then…” mentality that would rob them of contentment and peace.

Jesus Himself included the principle in His foundational moral teaching, the Sermon on the Mount. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself” (Mt. 6:33-34). Our Lord meant that chasing inordinate desires and fleeting pleasures as the source of contentment would always lead to a poisonous anxiety. Rather, one was to seek right relationship with God first and let the other pieces fall into place according to the Lord’s will.

The great teachers of the Apostolic Age, specifically St. Paul, added to Jesus’ direction. First, the Apostle wrote to the Church at Corinth about having been afflicted by the Lord and being denied his petitions: “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities” (2 Cor. 12:9-10). To the Christians in Philippi, he wrote that he had learned to be content.

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Phil. 4:11-13)

And, to his spiritual son, St. Timothy, Paul wrote that “godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world.” The desire to be wealthy and influential, he continued, were “senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” It is through inordinate cravings—both physical and emotional—that people stray from right relationship with God (1 Tim. 6:6-10).

More than nineteen centuries later, Sheen echoed these basic truths about contingent happiness mistaken for truly blessed joy. He concluded “Joy From The Inside” with an exhortation to exchange “legitimate pleasures” for “deferred joys” and “full happiness.”

The Saviour of the world Himself told us that the best joys come only after we have purchased them by prayer and fasting: we must give up our copper pennies first, out of love for Him, and He will pay us back in pieces of gold, in joy and ecstasy.

The “copper pennies” for which Jesus asks are the constant cravings we think will bring contentment. He asks us to give up our own expectations in favor of allowing Him to provide happiness—blessedness—within the set of circumstances He has already arranged in our lives. We will do well in our own day to heed the instruction of Our Blessed Lord, the first Christian teachers, and Venerable Fulton Sheen.

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