“Are We There Yet?”
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
March 19 – 20, 2022
Gospel: Luke 13:1-9
If a tree does not bear fruit, it shall be cut down. Our Lord wants to see fruitfulness. What sort of fruit is He looking for? Our love. He comes and gives us His love and the fruits of His love. When we love Him in return and keep His Commandments, that is love in action. His Commandments are not an obligation. They are works of love. He said, “If you love Me, keep My Commandments.” He tells us how to love. But He tells us that our time to love and seeing love in return is not infinite. Our Lord tells us in the Gospel that He is coming back for us. In case you haven’t heard, we are all going to die. So, is that good news or bad news? It’s good news. Those who love Him will find fulfillment in Him. We will possess and be possessed by the One we have longed for. . .the One we have struggled to grow in love with while carrying our daily crosses. We will reach complete fulfillment in the Beloved.
Where we reside in the next life is solely up to us. Everyone in hell is a self-made man. It is our choice. He is coming for us soon. “Oh, He is trying to threaten us!” No, it’s a promise. We look forward to His coming like kids at Christmas. “How many days until Christmas?” And at Thanksgiving . . . “When is dinner?” We can smell all the good food. I smell SpaghettiOs while others may smell turkey. Each to his own. I look forward to Theresa Cutrone coming by with some Uber-eats and with pies being dropped off. Oh yeah. I’m also that way with the collection. But anyway. We all look forward to certain things.
When you are in love, you cannot wait to be reunited with your loved one. When I was sending my soldiers home, the hardest part for them was sitting around and waiting for 10 days for the aircraft to take off. I could keep them occupied with my jokes for just so long. They got really antsy. “I’ve got to get home.” Don’t worry. We haven’t failed you yet. We’ll get you home. “Is the flight coming early?” Can you name one thing in the military that came early? No. They couldn’t wait to get home and to be reunited with their loved ones. Their love would be complete inasmuch as it could be.
The same goes for our Lord. We look forward to being united with Him. Not perfectly because we all have sins. We have grievous sins and sins committed since our baptism. You heard in the Collect, the first prayer of the Mass, about fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. By the way, almsgiving covers a multitude of sins. It says so in scripture in the black part. When we have that little Tete-À-Tete with our good Lord, with that face-to-face, He will go over our personnel file. If He says, “Hmm, you didn’t love Me did you?” you will be separated from Him. But you have time. The Lord is giving us time. More time to turn and embrace love.
God wants everyone to come and be with Him. Why did He make us? Because He loves us. That’s the first question in the Catechism. The second part of that answer is that He made us to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to reign with Him in the next. When someone chooses not to love Him in return, His divine heart is broken. Just as if it were pierced by a lance, it is pierced by the unrequited love of our Lord. But there is still time.
Father’s Afterthoughts:
I have some encouraging news to share. At the VA on Thursday, I was asked to stop and see a patient who is a new admission to Hospice. So, I went down there and talked to the young lady. She’s 62, has COPD, lung cancer next to the bone which has caused several fractures, and gangrene on her big toe. So, I was sitting there talking with her, and I could see that she was in some distress. I told her that she looked like she was in pain. “Oh, no, no. I’m fine.” I love it when they lie to me! I talked to the staff about her, and she won’t be with us for very long. So, I asked the men and women who came to daily Mass to pray for her. I went in on Friday and saw her. She was having a ham sandwich for lunch. She finished all her soup. She had French fries and apples or whatever they were. She said, “Oh, this is really good!” She was really upbeat and not in pain. I could tell she was better because her foot was covered whereas before they couldn’t cover it because of the pain. That is the power of prayer. You never know if it works., but this time I found out. To all of those who prayed for her, I want to thank you. So, keep up your prayers!
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”