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Sermon Notes – November 5, 2023 – “Love Is an Action, Not an Emotion”
“Love Is an Action, Not an Emotion”
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
November 4 – 5, 2023
Gospel: Matthew 23:1-12
In the Gospel last Sunday, the Pharisees asked our Lord, “What is the greatest Commandment?” Jesus answered, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Mark 12:30). The second greatest Commandment is, “You must love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:34-40). Our Lord knows that most people, when left to their own imaginations, will screw it up. So, in the Gospel, He tells us exactly what love is and how to manifest it. “If you love Me, take up your cross every day and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). “If you love Me keep My commandments” (John 14:15). By the way, there are many others.
Love is an action and not an emotion. It is an act of the will and not a feeling. Sometimes acts of love are very easy to do and enjoyable like giving your spouse a gift or making your children and grandchildren smile and laugh. Those are great gifts of love. But loving God can be difficult because He is not us. Often, I think I love myself more than God does. Some gifts of love are a little harder like taking up our daily crosses. Most people do not like their crosses. Do you think I enjoy walking around like a question mark? No. Do you think I enjoy eating fish twice a week? Heck no! Thank God for French dressing! Sometimes I do not like getting up in the morning. I’ve put a lot of mileage on this body, and getting up can be a very painful experience. But these are minor ways to love. Look at the Good Samaritan. He was on a trip when he came upon a man who had been beaten and robbed. The man was not lying on his side of the road so, legally, it was not his business, and he was not morally bound to help the man. But love is outside of oneself. So, even though it delayed his trip and traveling at night was very dangerous, the Good Samaritan went outside of himself to care for the man who had been beaten and robbed.
Sometimes we don’t like what God asks us to do. When someone is hurt or sick and needs our help, we think, “Nope. I’m not cut out for this.” That doesn’t matter. It’s not about you; it’s about that person. Acts of love may be very inconvenient. But we are called to not only show our love but also to grow in love. An act of love can be as small and mindless as eating fish. Some crosses are pretty easy like mine and others are much more difficult. Taking up our cross is not always pleasant to the senses. Changing diapers is not bad until the smell reaches you. That’s when you rise to a whole different occasion to love. This is what God calls us to do if we love Him. What do all these acts of love do? They take us away from ourselves.
When you work in medicine, you encounter things that are not pleasant, and the gag reflex kicks in. Sometimes acts of love can be rather repulsive. When a helicopter crashed, I showed Bubba, my staff assistant, how to bring patients in on gurneys just like on Mash. Bubba, who was on the verge of being sick, said, “Sir, [Bleurgh] what do you want me to do, Sir [Bleurgh]?” I said, “First, turn your head. Step outside, get some fresh air, and come back.” Bubba was doing acts of love while his organs were trying to leave his body in no particular order. The sounds and smells were traumatizing. Bubba was 19 years old and had never been exposed to anything like that. But he did what needed to be done, and that was an act of love. Bearing our crosses and those of other people including our family and friends is difficult, but they are crosses of love. People say, “I don’t feel comfortable doing that.” Ahh . . . I don’t care. I don’t like going to prisons even though they allow me to leave. As long as they don’t make me eat fish, I’m good. “I don’t feel comfortable with that.” Good! Our Lord never said anything about being comfortable. “I don’t get anything out of it.” Great! I’m not the world’s greatest spiritual director. I’m like to the right of Genghis Khan. “I don’t get anything out of it.” Don’t care. You aren’t supposed to. Spiritual direction is not about you. I don’t care how you feel. Not one bit. We are given the grace of comfort more often than we think, but not as much as we would like. It is not about us. Love is a gift to the other. When Jesus gives us these directions about how to love, it trains us to love like Him.
When you give gifts of love, you are dying to self so that you can feel what our good Lord felt. You are imitating what happened to our Lord on the Cross. People say, “But no one says thank you.” Many people in my priestly ministry don’t say thank you, and I’ve been doing this for a long time. Believe it or not, I have been cursed out, and not just by my family. In the Book of Acts, the apostles rejoiced because “they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the Name” (Acts 5:41). We get the strength to do that by prayer and through the Sacraments. When we fail in our acts of love, as we all do, we have the Sacrament of Penance to not only heal the wounds of our failures but also to heal the wounds that other people have inflicted upon us. This strengthens our resolve to pick up our cross and follow Him.
In the spiritual life, love is not an emotion; it’s an action. We have to love. In the various stages of life, love takes on different forms. Sometimes when people will soon meet their Maker, and I’m preparing them for their passing, I’ll say, “On this bed is your cross imitating Christ. You are at the right hand of Christ like the Good Thief.” So, offer your sufferings up. You have much to offer through all the suffering you endure although we suffer much less than our grandparents because we have much better medicine now. Still, when you are going through it, it seems like a lot. I had a man who just passed away from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. He couldn’t breathe. When you can’t breathe, you tend to panic, so he was on a lot of antianxiety medicines. In that patient’s bed, you could see the suffering of Christ. By your suffering, you are imitating Christ’s sacrifice.
When I was a seminarian, I learned an important lesson. I was assigned to Saint John’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. As I was making rounds with a good Jesuit priest, all of a sudden, the door to a patient’s room opened. The smell was so, so bad. I went out into the stairwell retching while I tried to hold my stomach down where it should be. I did not go to medical school, but I knew my stomach should not be up in my throat. I told my father about it, and he said, “That’s good, son.” So basically, he didn’t care either. He was an Army medic before he became an officer. My father said, “You know, it’s not about you. You leave that room, get sick, and then go back in. It’s not about you.” That was one of the best spiritual directions I ever received. Just remember that there will be occasions when our gifts of love will make us feel bad. But there are two things we are learning: 1) It is not about us; and 2) When it’s really hard, when people are repulsive, abusive, and ungrateful, that’s when we grow in love. It is then that you have some conception, in a very minor way, of what Christ endured. His greatest act of love was on the Cross. What did His own chosen people do at the foot of the Cross? They jeered Him.
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.”
Sermon Notes – October 29, 2023 – “A Change Would Do You Good”
“A Change Would Do You Good”
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
October 28 – 29, 2023
Gospel: Matthew 22:34-40
I don’t know if today’s sermon will be as good as last week’s, but I’m going to give it a shot. What is the key element needed to grow in the spiritual life? It begins with a “C.” Change. We have to change. We are always changing. I can no longer bend steel with my bare hands, leap tall buildings, or run faster than a locomotive. Those days are over if they ever were. I can no longer do those things. My mind says, “Sure! You can keep up with that 18-year-old.” Yeah, like that’s going to happen. I made that mistake once while I was in the military. One of the officers said, “Father, let them do it. You are the senior officer present.” I said, “I am not going to let those twerps, those young soldiers, outwork me.” It’s a guy thing. When I went back to the hooch at the end of the day, I was in a world of hurt even after a hot shower and taking Motrin. But I wasn’t about to let someone outwork me – that wasn’t going to happen.
The key word is “change.” But the trouble with change is that we always try to change the wrong things. I’ve been a priest for over 30 years, and I have people come to me with addiction problems. Nobody gets to choose their crosses. “So, what can I do about it?” Well, you’ve got to change. “Well, I think if I move to Florida, Alaska, Rhode Island, or Oakboro, I would be better. Or maybe if I had a different spouse or a better job, things would be okay.” That’s plausible. But, in all that, there is one glaring fault. “What’s that?” Well, in all those scenarios, you are bringing you. You aren’t changing. You’re just taking the mess somewhere else.
We have to change. This is what our Lord said: “Leave all things behind and come follow Me.” He doesn’t mean physical things. He is referring to our attachment to self . . . our whole will. Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18:3). A child is dependent on their parents who are the source of life. We are called to change, but we always seek to change the wrong things even in the Church. People say to me, “Father, I sit in the back of the church, and I cannot hear you.” Well, move up to the front row. There’s plenty of room there. “Father, I do not like Latin or Latin hymns.” Well, I don’t hear you singing the English hymns either. “If we had reconciliation rooms where you could go in and talk to the priest like in a therapy session, it would be better.” So, thousands of dollars was spent on reconciliation rooms, and confessions continued to take a nosedive like a Kamikaze pilot. Then the Roman Rota, the highest court in the Church, said, “You know, that’s illegal because the priest and penitent must be separated by an immovable barrier.” Oops!
I was in a brand new church, a beautiful church, and I was talking to the pastor. I asked him if he had thought about installing an altar rail. He said, “Yes, I really wanted one, but I ran out of money.” Okay, I understand that. One of his parishioners, a staff member, said, “Oh I hate altar rails. It’s so old-school.” So, you are offended by an inanimate object? It’s not like you have to have one in your house. We change all the wrong things. During your lifetime, we have had Mass in every conceivable language. If you want to hear every language spoken on the planet, come to the 12:15 Mass. I speak Spanish with a French accent, and sometimes I break into Latin just for grips and grins. “We should have Mass in all these languages so that people will come.” They still don’t come! “Well, if we have the Vigil Mass at 5:00 on Saturday and Mass on Sunday night, people will come.” Mass attendance is still down.
My grandfather was a police officer for 38 years in the city of Taunton, MA. Family history has it that he never drew his side-arm. I also have it from someone who had a close encounter with my grandfather that he did use his foot. Those are the old days when you could provide guidance without the cameras rolling. This guy said, “You know something? I deserved it.” He never did that again. My grandfather never missed a Mass. “Oh, we can’t have the dreaded Latin Mass.” Oh, my goodness! It would make it so easy for me. I would only need to have one Mass for the entire United Nations in this church.
I have a book in my office entitled “Chaplains of WWII.” In the book, there are stories about two priests one of which was an Army chaplain. He followed the same Mass during the Battle of the Bulge, in the snow, with the soldiers kneeling. “That was in the war?” Yes, a big one. The Germans and Americans were negotiating real estate. It was pretty brutal, but they held Mass, and the soldiers were all on their knees. Another story from the book that I thought was moving happened in Iwo Jima. A Navy priest was saying Mass with the Marines, and the Marines held up ponchos so that the wind wouldn’t blow everything over. You know what? They were all kneeling during the Mass. The average age of a Marine there was 19 years old. We don’t send old men to fight wars. Jim Dawson was 19 years old and disarmed bombs in Vietnam which is a zero-defect kind of job.
We need to change ourselves. That’s what Jesus said, “Leave everything behind you, and come follow Me.” Come to Him like a little child. Change is not always pleasant. The day I had to stop eating bacon and start eating Moby Dick was very traumatic. I still whine and moan about it. That’s alright because it extends my warranty a little. We must change if we want peace in our souls and all the joy possible in this life. Do not try to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. Do not work on the peripheral stuff; instead, work on the hole in the soul.
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.”
Saint of the Day – October 30 – Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez
Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez’s Story (1533 – October 30, 1617)
Tragedy and challenge beset today’s saint early in life, but Alphonsus Rodriguez found happiness and contentment through simple service and prayer.
Born in Spain in 1533, Alphonsus inherited the family textile business at 23. Within the space of three years, his wife, daughter, and mother died; meanwhile, business was poor. Alphonsus stepped back and reassessed his life. He sold the business, and with his young son, moved into his sister’s home. There he learned the discipline of prayer and meditation.
At the death of his son years later, Alphonsus, almost 40 by then, sought to join the Jesuits. He was not helped by his poor education. He applied twice before being admitted. For 45 years he served as doorkeeper at the Jesuits’ college in Majorca. When not at his post, he was almost always at prayer, though he often encountered difficulties and temptations.
His holiness and prayerfulness attracted many to him, including Saint Peter Claver, then a Jesuit seminarian. Alphonsus’ life as doorkeeper may have been humdrum, but centuries later he caught the attention of poet and fellow-Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins, who made him the subject of one of his poems.
Alphonsus died in 1617. He is the patron saint of Majorca.
Reflection
We like to think that God rewards the good, even in this life. But Alphonsus knew business losses, painful bereavement, and periods when God seemed very distant. None of his suffering made him withdraw into a shell of self-pity or bitterness. Rather, he reached out to others who lived with pain, including enslaved Africans. Among the many notables at his funeral were the sick and poor people whose lives he had touched. May they find such a friend in us!
Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez is the Patron Saint of:
Majorca
Saint of the Day – October 29 – Saint Narcissus of Jerusalem
Saint Narcissus of Jerusalem’s Story (d. c. 216)
Life in second- and third-century Jerusalem couldn’t have been easy, but Saint Narcissus managed to live well beyond 100. Some even speculate he lived to 160.
Details of his life are sketchy, but there are many reports of his miracles. The miracle for which Narcissus is most remembered was turning water into oil for use in the church lamps on Holy Saturday when the deacons had forgotten to provide any.
We do know that Narcissus became bishop of Jerusalem in the late second century. He was known for his holiness, but there are hints that many people found him harsh and rigid in his efforts to impose Church discipline. One of his many detractors accused Narcissus of a serious crime at one point. Though the charges against him did not hold up, he used the occasion to retire from his role as bishop and live in solitude. His disappearance was so sudden and convincing that many people assumed he had actually died.
Several successors were appointed during his years in isolation. Finally, Narcissus reappeared in Jerusalem and was persuaded to resume his duties. By then he had reached an advanced age, so a younger bishop was brought in to assist him until his death.
Reflection
As our life spans increase and we face the bodily problems of aging, we might keep Saint Narcissus in mind and ask him to help us face our developing issues.
The Catechism in a Year – Day 304 – Male and Female
Why did God create us male and female? We begin our journey through the sixth commandment by learning about the meaning of human sexuality and the complementarity between men and women. Fr. Mike underscores the significance of the body in revealing our sexuality and our vocation to love. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2331-2336.
Click on link: https://youtu.be/BFlceECtkxw?si=JSywCYKab_E3Xpsa
The Catechism in a Year – Day 303 – Summary of the Fifth Commandment
The Church offers us a consistent ethic of life from the moment of conception until death. In today’s “Nugget Day,” we review the main takeaways from our readings about the fifth commandment. Fr. Mike reiterates that the Church’s teachings on the value of human life stem from the truth that every human life is sacred; God wills each person for his own sake. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2318-2330.
Click on link: https://youtu.be/svI75YxiLyw?si=Z6OwIKnFvf9Z5Z79
The Catechism in a Year – Day 302 – War
The Church urges us to pray and work for peace to avoid the evils and injustices of war. Because we live in a broken world, the Church also offers guidance on approaching war. Fr. Mike breaks down just war theory and the criteria of legitimate defense by military force under principles of moral law. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2307-2317.
Click on link: https://youtu.be/mFVXXjnIcYQ?si=en8sj_TFMJF6R3Zo
Saint of the Day – October 28 – Saints Simon and Jude
Saints Simon and Jude’s Story (1st Century)
Jude is so named by Luke and Acts. Matthew and Mark call him Thaddeus. He is not mentioned elsewhere in the Gospels, except of course where all the apostles are mentioned. Scholars hold that he is not the author of the Letter of Jude. Actually, Jude had the same name as Judas Iscariot. Evidently because of the disgrace of that name, it was shortened to “Jude” in English.
Simon is mentioned on all four lists of the apostles. On two of them he is called “the Zealot.” The Zealots were a Jewish sect that represented an extreme of Jewish nationalism. For them, the messianic promise of the Old Testament meant that the Jews were to be a free and independent nation. God alone was their king, and any payment of taxes to the Romans—the very domination of the Romans—was a blasphemy against God. No doubt some of the Zealots were the spiritual heirs of the Maccabees, carrying on their ideals of religion and independence. But many were the counterparts of modern terrorists. They raided and killed, attacking both foreigners and “collaborating” Jews. They were chiefly responsible for the rebellion against Rome which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
Reflection
As in the case of all the apostles except for Peter, James and John, we are faced with men who are really unknown, and we are struck by the fact that their holiness is simply taken to be a gift of Christ. He chose some unlikely people: a former Zealot, a former (crooked) tax collector, an impetuous fisherman, two “sons of thunder,” and a man named Judas Iscariot.
It is a reminder that we cannot receive too often. Holiness does not depend on human merit, culture, personality, effort, or achievement. It is entirely God’s creation and gift. God needs no Zealots to bring about the kingdom by force. Jude, like all the saints, is the saint of the impossible: Only God can create his divine life in human beings. And God wills to do so, for all of us.
Saint Jude is the Patron Saint of:
Desperate Situations
Saint of the Day – October 27 – Blessed Bartholomew of Vicenza
Blessed Bartholomew of Vicenza’s Story (c. 1200 – 1271)
Dominicans honor one of their own today, Blessed Bartholomew of Vicenza. This was a man who used his skills as a preacher to challenge the heresies of his day.
Bartholomew was born in Vicenza around 1200. At 20, he entered the Dominicans. Following his ordination, he served in various leadership positions. As a young priest, he founded a military order whose purpose was to keep civil peace in towns throughout Italy.
In 1248, Bartholomew was appointed a bishop. For most men, such an appointment is an honor and a tribute to their holiness and their demonstrated leadership skills. But for Bartholomew, it was a form of exile that had been urged by an antipapal group that was only too happy to see him leave for Cyprus. Not many years later, however, Bartholomew was transferred back to Vicenza. Despite the antipapal feelings that were still evident, he worked diligently—especially through his preaching—to rebuild his diocese and strengthen the people’s loyalty to Rome.
During his years as bishop in Cyprus, Bartholomew befriended King Louis IX of France, who is said to have given the holy bishop a relic of Christ’s Crown of Thorns.
Bartholomew died in 1271, and was beatified in 1793.
Reflection
Despite oppositions and obstacles, Bartholomew remained faithful to his ministry to God’s People. We face daily challenges to our faithfulness and duties as well. Perhaps Bartholomew could serve as an inspiration in our darker moments.