“Where is the Love?”
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
March 5-6, 2022
Gospel: Luke 4:1-13
One of the great temptations that snares a lot of people because it sounds really good, besides bacon, is to do things for other people out of compassion. There is a lot of false compassion out there. “If you love me, you will do this for me.” “Oh, doctor, I hurt really bad. May I have some OxyContin?” That’s false compassion. Saint Luke recounts our Lord’s first three temptations. There are others, but these are the first three. With the first temptation of Christ, which happens to us in one form or another, the devil used false compassion. “People are bad because they lack stuff. They lack food. They lack education. They lack computers. They don’t have Facebook. They are poor, and they need stuff. If they had stuff, they wouldn’t be bad.” None of that is true. How many rich people have had abortions? In my own life, my mother’s family was very poor, and none of them went to prison. I take that back – my uncle went to prison, but he worked there. He was a Correctional Officer. The State of Massachusetts had him on work release for thirty years and finally told him he was too old and gave him his pension. He was from the Joe Cutrone School of Correctional Officers. He was a nice guy, and the murderers liked him. Give them some cigarettes, and they were happy. My cousin Philip was murdered, and they sent his murderer to the prison my uncle retired from. The inmate state employees there knew who he was. “We’ll take care of it as a favor.” They were going to take care of some business for him. My uncle told them, “No, no. Don’t do that.” That’s false compassion. Now, I go out to our local FU (Felon University), and there are doctors there, people with medical degrees, and lawyers. There are people there with advanced degrees and people with no degrees. There are rich people and poor people. People choose evil. If they don’t have a choice, they are put into a state hospital. They choose evil because they choose satan over Christ. It’s not a lack of anything. It’s a choice. Fat people go to prison. And believe it or not, inmates get fat in prison. So, it’s not a lack of anything. People are using false compassion when they say, “Let’s give all this charity to poor people, and they won’t be bad.” We have spent nine trillion dollars on various charities, but we don’t tell them about Jesus. Instead, we tell them how to work on a computer. I don’t have much computer knowledge, so I’m lucky that I know people.
The next temptation was all about power. Do you know who the most powerful person in the Church was? Saint Theresa of Calcutta. She wasn’t zealous for power, nor did she flaunt it. But look at the power of this little nun. She weighed about 120 pounds soaking wet with lead weights in her pocket. Which of our cardinals ever went up to the sitting president and vice president wagging their finger about abortion? Which one? Which one could have an audience with the Pope anytime she wanted? Which one spoke at the United Nations? Which one taught us how to love by living that love? Saint Theresa was the most powerful person in the Church. It’s not about getting into office, being ordained, having big titles after your name, or anything like that. I have titles after my name and some before my name. Whoopee! They mean nothing. They don’t even get me out of tickets anymore with these atheist cops down here.
There is power in love. It’s not political power, and it’s not power in the Church. “Oh, I have a position in the Church. I’m so and so!” Shut-up! Where is your love? When you are sitting with a sick person about to die, where is your love? “I’m in charge of programming.” You come with me, and we’ll see how that love in action does. I’ll have you throwing up in about an hour. That’s love in action. Come and take care of the sick. Sometimes, they’ll make it just inside the door before they catch a whiff of the smell. Ugh! What? Love is action. It’s not a position.
We don’t need to change any laws. We have more laws than we know what to do with. We can’t even incarcerate people because there’s no room for them. People want to change the Mass. They want to change the Sacraments. If you can do it better than Jesus, let me know. Now, husbands and wives . . . has your spouse ever told you they love you? I would hope so. Does that ever get old? Does it need to be changed? Does it need to be updated? Does it need to be made more relevant? Do you need a praise band going on there? Do you want some dancing down the hallway? We don’t need to change the Mass or the Sacraments. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a divine act of love, and it doesn’t get old. What gets old is our pride when we think we can make it better. During the Sacrifice of the Mass, what is Jesus saying? He is saying, “I love you. This is how much I love you.” That never gets old. It only gets old if you don’t have room in your heart to say to Jesus, “I love you too.”
How will you apply this message to your life?
You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to http://AnnunciationCatholicAlbemarle.com/ and clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” and then “Sermon Notes.” Sermon notes can also be found on the church Facebook page by searching for “Facebook Our Lady of the Annunciation Albemarle”