Out of print Lucile Hasley books fell into my lap years ago after my conversion. She herself a convert and married to a Notre Dame professor, fell into writing short humorous snippets after being diagnosed with a terrible heart condition that left her bedridden for over a month and having nothing better to do, found herself writing in prose about life as a new convert. Quite humorous writing to which one of her spiritual mentors said anyone would be crazy to print her stories, found it's way into Catholic periodicals and eventually compiled into books. God has a funny way of getting us to do His bidding...seems her heart was fine all along. Good for me as her self-deprecating stories found their way to me and in turn inspired me to write for all that's worth.
Enough about that. Recently I've been feeling the need to sit with good books again as I've spent way too much time with other less inspiring media. Grabbing one of my favorites of Lucile's (I'd like to think I'm on a first name basis with her), Saints and Snapdragons, published in 1958 by Sheed and Ward, I sat down to read a few shorts, one of which is called 'What's Your Line'. Here I learned that not only could my friend Lucile make me laugh, but laugh even more at how unwittingly prophetic she was.
Back in the '50's was a great show (you can watch old episodes on youtube) called What's My Line. A celebrity panel, through questions with 'yes' or 'no' answers was challenged to guess a contestants line of work. The last contestant of each show was a celebrity. The panel would put on blindfolds and try to guess who the mystery person was. In Lucile's rabbit hole imagination she wrote her own version with a celebrity guest...St. Francis of Assisi. Some of the questions are as follows...
"Well, Sir, are you in a profit-making organization?"
"...Our guest feels his work is most profitable, and I must concur, but in our terms of reference the answer must be no."
"Sir, would you be self-employed?"
"Our guest insists he isn't, that someone is over him. However, in our terms of reference...I must say that he is, in a fashion, self-employed."
"I'm going to give you one last clue, just for fun. In the popular mind, our mystery guest is commonly associated with the care and feeding of birds..."
"I'm afraid I'm not very good in the Audubon department, John. Heavens, all I can think of is St. Francis of..."
"That's it..!"
"I know it sounds ridiculous for we've never before had a saint on any network..."
And so my friend Lucile wrote...until What's My Line actually DID have a saint on the show...at least a saint in the making. In fact, two years before her book was published, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen made his appearance as the celebrity guest for indeed he was a well known celebrity with better ratings than Milton Berle! Sheen's show, Life is Worth Living, was the only show to go up in ratings over Berle's show at the time. And, as we now know, Fulton J. Sheen is on the road to official sainthood. So, whether by just an attempt to make us laugh or Divine inspiration...truly I don't know but with great joy I offer you a true saint on What's My Line. Enjoy the show!
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