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Sermon Notes – March 24, 2024 – “The Sound and Smell of Love”

“The Sound and Smell of Love”

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

March 23 – 24, 2024

Gospel: Mark 14:1 – 15:47

We have a young man in our parish who is in his fourth week at Paris Island, and you know, I may be enjoying it a bit too much!  “Oh, Father, it’s so hard there!”  No, not really.  It’s unpleasant, but it’s not that hard.  Your worst day at Paris Island is infinitely better than your best day in Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan.  It’s not that bad.  You won’t get hurt unless you do something extremely stupid.  However, never underestimate the power of people to be stupid.  We can become, what one writer says, overly sensitive, which is a grave character defect.  We are sensitive about some things but not sensitive about others.  I get these emails at the Veterans Hospital (VA) about proper pronoun usage.  “Oh!  You called me by the wrong pronoun!”   Well, I thought ‘jerk’ fit you pretty well.  Do you know what I’ve been called in my life?  In the military anything soldiers said that was prefaced with ‘sir’ and that ended with ‘sir’ was appropriate, and I would take it.  “Sir, you are a bleeping idiot, Sir.”  Understood.  Very good.  Carry on. 

“Oh, oh, the opera of anxiety!”  Really?  All that drama with the psychiatric condition you have.   Really?   We are highly sensitive about the wrong things.   Today you heard a short recitation of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.   For the Roman soldiers, this was just another day at the office.  They did this all the time.  They were trained professionals, just ask Saint John.  There was nothing special about Jesus’ death except that the Roman soldiers recognized it at the end.  Until then, Jesus was just another schmuck who had been sentenced to death, and they were just doing their job.  They did three that day; it wasn’t a big deal.  But we are here, and we are sensitive to His Passion. 

Now, I’m old, and I’m lucky to be so because a lot of people have wanted to kill me during my life and not just my family.   Go to YouTube and watch “Jesus Christ Superstar.”  One part of the story is about Pilot counting the lashes that were inflicted on our Lord during the scourging at the pillar.   One thing about lashing – when you are hit with a belt, it stings.  However, the Romans used a flagellum that had nail spikes attached to each cord which would dig into and rip away the flesh.  As a result, the wounds would not coagulate with the blood, so the bleeding would continue.  Eventually, you would die of suffocation because you lacked the strength to hold yourself upright.  That was one of the things the Romans inflicted upon people, and it was not a fun way to go.  That is suffering.  It’s not when someone hurts our feelings, “Oh, my goodness!  I’m so hurt!  They didn’t call me by my proper pronoun!”  Grow up!   You have no idea about hurt and about pain.  If you read the Passion, and I especially like ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, you get an idea of what happened and begin to understand the pain that Christ endured.  After our Lord’s Passion, we cannot say, “My sin only hurts me.  I don’t hurt anyone else, just me.”  Uh no.  “I have no sin.”  Then you don’t need to come to church.  Don’t anybody start running for the doors! 

Love has a sound.  Think about the Passion and meditate on it.  The sound of love is the drip, drip, drip of blood that flowed from the sacred wounds of our Lord on the Cross and onto the ground.   That is the sound of love being poured out for us.  Mary was the first one to be washed in the blood.  Love also has a smell.  It is the smell of blood.  At our Lord’s Passion, they smelled, they heard, and they saw divine love.  This is the price of sin that we try to minimize so much.  Not only the white lies – the color coded sins which I never studied – but any sin.  This is how much God loves us. 

Look at the Passion, and you will see the price of love.  All that misery translates into what we need . . . His love for us, and the love to restore us to God’s friendship.  Do you have any idea of the agony He endured?  The Romans were pretty good at their jobs and intentionally prolonged death.  Think about the agony our good Lord endured when He didn’t have to, but He did so out of love for us.  Look at the Crucifix and that is how much God loves us.  It’s what our sins have caused.  That’s the price of sin that our Lord paid for us because we could not.  Think about how much we have taken for granted the depth of our sins and the magnitude of His love. 

How will you apply this message to your life?_________________________________________

You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to annunciationcatholicalbemarle.com and clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” then “Sermon Notes.”  On a cell phone: click on “Blog” and then “Menu.”  Scroll to the bottom and click on “Categories.”  Sermon Notes are also available on the Church’s Facebook page at ola.catholic.church.  Click on “Groups” and then “Sermon Notes.”


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Sermon Notes – March 17, 2024 – “We Want What We Want When We Want It”

“We Want What We Want When We Want It”

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

March 16 – 17, 2024

Gospel: John  12:20-33

Our Good Lord said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit” (John 12:24).  He calls us to be grains of wheat.  But why must we die?  I’m glad you are interested, otherwise the sermon would be over.  It’s so that we may bring forth life.  The means to do it is really easy; it’s right in front of us.  Keep the Commandments.  By keeping the Commandments, we die to ourselves.  Dying to ourselves is the resignation of the will.  De-egotazation is the basis of every 12-Step group.  De-egotazation steps are the keys to recovering from whatever addictions people have.  However, it’s not just obeying the Commandments – there are more than 10, and those 10 have a lot of other things in them.   

There are two ways in which to obey the Commandments.  One way is objectively by obeying the law.  For example, if you are driving to Misenheimer you will go through Richfield.  Near the VFW, there is usually a highway patrol officer or deputy sheriff sitting there.   So, you reduce your speed, and once the coast is clear, you kick your speed back up to 65.  But when you get to the university, you slow back down in case a Misenheimer police officer is hiding behind the bushes.  Once you are on the other side of the university, you floor it again to Salisbury.  When you don’t want to get into trouble or get caught, that is objective obedience.   But that is only the beginning of de-egotazation. 

People say, “We are studying scripture.  What do you think this means?”  Every time our Lord asked the Apostles a question, they always got it wrong.  Peter got it right once, but Jesus said, “My heavenly Father revealed it to you” (Matthew 16:13-19).  So, we cannot say we know what ‘this’ means.  Jesus said only male and female were created and for that reason, a man and a woman shall leave their families and the two shall be as one.   During the first week in Latin class, we learned the words male and female.  It’s really easy!  Yet now, in principle, people say, “Well, I think that means this, and we can change it.”  No!  He said it.  That’s like telling Christ, “You were wrong.”  How is that for ego?  “You were wrong.”   Really? 

The second part of obedience is when you truly die to self.  Spiritual growth really takes over with interior ascent.  This is not just the objective obedience of simply following the law but the interior ascent.  “I do it because of my love of the Lord.  I resign my will to Him.”  That is the hardest part of all.  Soon, I will have been a priest for 40 years, and because I can take tests, I’ve got some letters after my name and some titles before it.  I’m a really big guy.  Sometimes the bishop will say, “I want this done.”  Are you kidding me?  Granted, his Excellency has more information than I do.  But sometimes I think, “Is he telling me how to do my job?”   That is the ego speaking.  It’s like pastors who don’t take suggestions or even listen to people.    Look at the history of this place, and you realize that previous pastors never took any advice from anybody.  That’s why we have had to fix everything in the past few years – because they built it wrong.  They wouldn’t listen. 

Subjective obedience is the most difficult because it’s when we truly die to self.  The first one, the objective part, is tough enough.  I can handle driving 65 in a 55 . . . I really can.  However, in North Carolina, law enforcement can give you a ticket for driving 56 in a 55.  I don’t think a judge would hear it, but according to the law, there is no grey area.  It’s the ego – not just the objective ego but also the subjective.  And that is the hardest part of dying to oneself.  The objective is hard enough, but the subjective is worse.   That’s where real spiritual growth exists. 

We bristle at rules.  “Oh, the Church has too many rules!”  Well, flying has a lot of rules too.  I suggest you follow them, otherwise we will be coming by with a squeegee to clean up your body parts.  There are a lot of rules in a lot of things.  Pharmacology has a lot of rules.  Trying it on your own usually doesn’t work out well.  Rules are there to keep us from doing stupid stuff.  They are there to warn us that something will hurt really bad, and we won’t be able to fix it on this Earth.  Rules are there to keep us safe and to point us in the right direction.  But we don’t like the rules because of our egos.  I want what I want when I want it!  Our daily dying to self: “Yes, Lord.  I will try to do what you ask of me not only because it’s for my own good, but it will also enable me to love You even more.” 


How will you apply this message to your life?_________________________________________

You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to annunciationcatholicalbemarle.com and clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” then “Sermon Notes.”  On a cell phone: click on “Blog” and then “Menu.”  Scroll to the bottom and click on “Categories.”  Sermon Notes are also available on the Church’s Facebook page at ola.catholic.church.  Click on “Groups” and then “Sermon Notes.”