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Sermon Notes – March 5, 2023 – Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places?

Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places?

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

March 4 – 5, 2023

Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9

The last part of the Gospel says that the devil went away. In another part of the Gospel, it says that the devil will wait for another occasion. And that’s true. When we resist his temptations, he goes away and waits for another opportunity. The devil did it to our Lord, and he will do it to us. However, with the Lord, we can be victorious over our sins. But the devil is cunning, powerful, and patient. He will wait for another opportunity, and it will come. The prime opportunity for the devil’s temptations is when we are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. During those times, we tend to make poor decisions. Our will is already weakened by original and repeated sin. So, he just waits for us. He also waits for pride. “Hey, I’m not like those little people. I’m very, very good. I don’t do that anymore.” Really?

We have to be careful during those times when we are most vulnerable. When we are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, our will and our body are weakened. You can set that to a country music song by Johnny Lee: “Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places” which includes people, places, and things. “Oh, Father, computers and phones are great!” Yeah. They are a source of temptation for me. You should hear the words I say in my office about my computer. I have a backup phone which I also had words with this morning. I have no idea how to use it. Basically, I have a phone anchor.

Do you know where the biggest potential for sin is located? It sits on our shoulders. You can avoid certain things, but everything is inside our brains. We tend to forget what we’ve been taught in school but can remember every bad joke we’ve heard and every bad picture we’ve seen. It’s all in our brains. What goes in stays forever like all those electronic messages we send. They exist forever. You may wipe them off your phone, but they are out there.

We have to remember how weak we are. The devil plays on our pride just as he played on the pride of Adam and Eve. We feel very good about ourselves when we can drive all day without using any Italian hand gestures to people or commenting on someone’s ancestry who is driving erratically on the highway. “I didn’t flip that idiot off even though he needed it.” “I’ve done really good. I’ve avoided this and I’ve avoided that.” When I was a young soldier, I saw a World War II Army training film. The film was about broken shoelaces. It’s not the big things that will get you killed. . . it’s the small things. We do okay with major calamities but it’s the small things that trip us up. It’s our broken weakness. “Oh, I’m too old to commit that sin.” There are other sins. Trust me. There are a lot of sins out there, and you’d be surprised about the sins and depravity of old people. As Saint Peter recorded in his epistle on admonition, “Keep sober and alert, because your enemy the devil is on the prowl like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (Peter 5:8).

Our will and intellect have been weakened by original sin and sins committed since our baptism. However, the innocence we have lost can be regained, and that’s what we try to do every day and especially during this Lenten season. We can regain our innocence by fasting, abstinence, almsgiving, and prayer. What does almsgiving do? It covers a multitude of sins. Saint James said, “anyone who can bring back a sinner from his erring ways will be saving his soul from death and covering over many a sin” (James 5:20). Those are the things we are called to do. That’s how we grow in virtue and regain what we have lost through sin. Will our intellect be perfect again? No, not until Heaven. But we have to be vigilant about temptation because the devil is always out there and waiting. While you are pious by being here in church, he’s outside doing pushups and chin-ups. He’s waiting for us. Right now, he may be wondering when Father is going to shut up. And I agree with that. Sometimes I go on longer than usual.

Always be vigilant. And do not ever, ever think, “Oh my God! We are so unpowerful.” when we have the greatest Power in the world ready to help us. Remember, in the face of temptation, the first thing we should do is run away from it. Don’t walk into a mine field if you don’t have to. The second thing to do is retrace your steps and get the heck out of there. And the final and most important step is to pray.

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” then “Menu” and then “Categories.” Sermon Notes are also available on the church Facebook page at facebook.com/ola.catholic.church. Click on “Groups” and then “Sermon Notes.”

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Saint of the Day – March 8 – Saint John of God

Saint John of God’s Story (March 8, 1495 – March 8, 1550)

Having given up active Christian belief while a soldier, John was 40 before the depth of his sinfulness began to dawn on him. He decided to give the rest of his life to God’s service, and headed at once for Africa where he hoped to free captive Christians and, possibly, be martyred.

He was soon advised that his desire for martyrdom was not spiritually well based, and returned to Spain and the relatively prosaic activity of a religious goods store. Yet he was still not settled. Moved initially by a sermon of Saint John of Avila, he one day engaged in a public beating of himself, begging mercy and wildly repenting for his past life.

Committed to a mental hospital for these actions, John was visited by Saint John, who advised him to be more actively involved in tending to the needs of others rather than in enduring personal hardships. John gained peace of heart, and shortly after left the hospital to begin work among the poor.

He established a house where he wisely tended to the needs of the sick poor, at first doing his own begging. But, excited by the saint’s great work and inspired by his devotion, many people began to back him up with money and provisions. Among them were the archbishop and marquis of Tarifa.

Behind John’s outward acts of total concern and love for Christ’s sick poor was a deep interior prayer life which was reflected in his spirit of humility. These qualities attracted helpers who, 20 years after John’s death, formed the Brothers Hospitallers, now a worldwide religious order.

John became ill after 10 years of service, but tried to disguise his ill health. He began to put the hospital’s administrative work into order and appointed a leader for his helpers. He died under the care of a spiritual friend and admirer, Lady Ana Ossorio.

Reflection

The utter humility of John of God, which led to a totally selfless dedication to others, is most impressive. Here is a man who realized his nothingness in the face of God. The Lord blessed him with the gifts of prudence, patience, courage, enthusiasm, and the ability to influence and inspire others. He saw that in his early life he had turned away from the Lord, and, moved to receive his mercy, John began his new commitment to love others in openness to God’s love.

Saint John of God is the Patron Saint of:

Booksellers
Firefighters
Heart Patients
Hospitals
Nurses
Printers
Sick

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Saint of the Day – March 5 – Saint John Joseph of the Cross

Saint John Joseph’s Story (August 15, 1654 – March 5, 1734)

Self-denial is never an end in itself but is only a help toward greater charity—as the life of Saint John Joseph shows.

John Joseph was very ascetic even as a young man. At 16, he joined the Franciscans in Naples; he was the first Italian to follow the reform movement of Saint Peter Alcantara. John Joseph’s reputation for holiness prompted his superiors to put him in charge of establishing a new friary even before he was ordained.

Obedience moved John Joseph to accept appointments as novice master, guardian and, finally, provincial. His years of mortification enabled him to offer these services to the friars with great charity. As guardian he was not above working in the kitchen or carrying the wood and water needed by the friars.

When his term as provincial expired, John Joseph dedicated himself to hearing confessions and practicing mortification, two concerns contrary to the spirit of the dawning Age of Enlightenment. John Joseph of the Cross was canonized in 1839.

Reflection

John Joseph’s mortification allowed him to be the kind of forgiving superior intended by Saint Francis. Self-denial should lead us to charity—not to bitterness; it should help us clarify our priorities and make us more loving. John Joseph is living proof of Chesterton’s observation: “It is always easy to let the age have its head; the difficult thing is to keep one’s own” (G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, page 101).

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Saint of the Day – March 4 – Saint Casimir

Saint Casimir’s Story (1458 – 1483)

Casimir, born of kings and in line to be a king himself, was filled with exceptional values and learning by a great teacher, John Dlugosz. Even his critics could not say that his conscientious objection indicated softness. As a teenager, Casimir lived a highly disciplined, even severe life, sleeping on the ground, spending a great part of the night in prayer and dedicating himself to lifelong celibacy.

When nobles in Hungary became dissatisfied with their king, they prevailed upon Casimir’s father, the king of Poland, to send his son to take over the country. Casimir obeyed his father, as many young men over the centuries have obeyed their governments. The army he was supposed to lead was clearly outnumbered by the “enemy”; some of his troops were deserting because they were not paid. At the advice of his officers, Casimir decided to return home.

His father was irked at the failure of his plans, and confined his 15-year-old son for three months. The lad made up his mind never again to become involved in the wars of his day, and no amount of persuasion could change his mind. He returned to prayer and study, maintaining his decision to remain celibate even under pressure to marry the emperor’s daughter.

He reigned briefly as king of Poland during his father’s absence. He died of lung trouble at 25 while visiting Lithuania, of which he was also Grand Duke. He was buried in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Reflection

For many years, Poland and Lithuania faded into the gray prison on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Despite repression, the Poles and Lithuanians remained firm in the faith which has become synonymous with their name. Their youthful patron reminds us: Peace is not won by war; sometimes a comfortable peace is not even won by virtue, but Christ’s peace can penetrate every government repression of religion.

Saint Casimir is the Patron Saint of:

Lithuania
Poland
Russia

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Saint of the Day – March 3 – Saint Katharine Drexel

Saint Katharine Drexel’s Story (November 26, 1858 – March 3, 1955)

If your father is an international banker and you ride in a private railroad car, you are not likely to be drawn into a life of voluntary poverty. But if your mother opens your home to the poor three days each week and your father spends half an hour each evening in prayer, it is not impossible that you will devote your life to the poor and give away millions of dollars. Katharine Drexel did that.

Born in Philadelphia in 1858, she had an excellent education and traveled widely. As a rich girl, Katharine also had a grand debut into society. But when she nursed her stepmother through a three-year terminal illness, she saw that all the Drexel money could not buy safety from pain or death, and her life took a profound turn.

Katharine had always been interested in the plight of the Indians, having been appalled by what she read in Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor. While on a European tour, she met Pope Leo XIII and asked him to send more missionaries to Wyoming for her friend Bishop James O’Connor. The pope replied, “Why don’t you become a missionary?” His answer shocked her into considering new possibilities.

Back home, Katharine visited the Dakotas, met the Sioux leader Red Cloud and began her systematic aid to Indian missions.

Katharine Drexel could easily have married. But after much discussion with Bishop O’Connor, she wrote in 1889, “The feast of Saint Joseph brought me the grace to give the remainder of my life to the Indians and the Colored.” Newspaper headlines screamed “Gives Up Seven Million!”

After three and a half years of training, Mother Drexel and her first band of nuns—Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored—opened a boarding school in Santa Fe. A string of foundations followed. By 1942, she had a system of black Catholic schools in 13 states, plus 40 mission centers and 23 rural schools. Segregationists harassed her work, even burning a school in Pennsylvania. In all, she established 50 missions for Indians in 16 states.

Two saints met when Mother Drexel was advised by Mother Cabrini about the “politics” of getting her order’s Rule approved in Rome. Her crowning achievement was the founding of Xavier University in New Orleans, the first Catholic university in the United States for African Americans.

At 77, Mother Drexel suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire. Apparently her life was over. But now came almost 20 years of quiet, intense prayer from a small room overlooking the sanctuary. Small notebooks and slips of paper record her various prayers, ceaseless aspirations, and meditations. She died at 96 and was canonized in 2000.

Reflection

Saints have always said the same thing: Pray, be humble, accept the cross, love and forgive. But it is good to hear these things in the American idiom from one who, for instance, had her ears pierced as a teenager, who resolved to have “no cake, no preserves,” who wore a watch, was interviewed by the press, traveled by train, and could concern herself with the proper size of pipe for a new mission. These are obvious reminders that holiness can be lived in today’s culture as well as in that of Jerusalem or Rome.

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Saint of the Day – March 2 – Saint Agnes of Bohemia

Saint Agnes of Bohemia’s Story (1205 – March 6, 1282)

Agnes had no children of her own but was certainly life-giving for all who knew her.

Agnes was the daughter of Queen Constance and King Ottokar I of Bohemia. She was betrothed to the Duke of Silesia, who died three years later. As she grew up, she decided she wanted to enter the religious life.

After declining marriages to King Henry VII of Germany and King Henry III of England, Agnes was faced with a proposal from Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor. She appealed to Pope Gregory IX for help. The pope was persuasive; Frederick magnanimously said that he could not be offended if Agnes preferred the King of Heaven to him.

After Agnes built a hospital for the poor and a residence for the friars, she financed the construction of a Poor Clare monastery in Prague. In 1236, she and seven other noblewomen entered this monastery. Saint Clare sent five sisters from San Damiano to join them, and wrote Agnes four letters advising her on the beauty of her vocation and her duties as abbess.

Agnes became known for prayer, obedience and mortification. Papal pressure forced her to accept her election as abbess, nevertheless, the title she preferred was “senior sister.” Her position did not prevent her from cooking for the other sisters and mending the clothes of lepers. The sisters found her kind but very strict regarding the observance of poverty; she declined her royal brother’s offer to set up an endowment for the monastery.

Devotion to Agnes arose soon after her death on March 6, 1282. Canonized in 1989, her liturgical feast is celebrated on March 6.

Reflection

Agnes spent at least 45 years in a Poor Clare monastery. Such a life requires a great deal of patience and charity. The temptation to selfishness certainly didn’t vanish when Agnes walked into the monastery. It is perhaps easy for us to think that cloistered nuns “have it made” regarding holiness. Their route is the same as ours: gradual exchange of our standards—inclinations to selfishness—for God’s standard of generosity.

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Saint of the Day – March 1 – Saint David of Wales

Saint David of Wales’ Story (d. March 1, 589)

David is the patron saint of Wales and perhaps the most famous of British saints. Ironically, we have little reliable information about him.

It is known that he became a priest, engaged in missionary work, and founded many monasteries, including his principal abbey in southwestern Wales. Many stories and legends sprang up about David and his Welsh monks. Their austerity was extreme. They worked in silence without the help of animals to till the soil. Their food was limited to bread, vegetables and water.

In about the year 550, David attended a synod where his eloquence impressed his fellow monks to such a degree that he was elected primate of the region. The episcopal see was moved to Mynyw, where he had his monastery, now called St. David’s. He ruled his diocese until he had reached a very old age. His last words to his monks and subjects were: “Be joyful, brothers and sisters. Keep your faith, and do the little things that you have seen and heard with me.”

Saint David is pictured standing on a mound with a dove on his shoulder. The legend is that once while he was preaching a dove descended to his shoulder and the earth rose to lift him high above the people so that he could be heard. Over 50 churches in South Wales were dedicated to him in pre-Reformation days.

Reflection

Were we restricted to hard manual labor and a diet of bread, vegetables and water, most of us would find little reason to rejoice. Yet joy is what David urged on his brothers as he lay dying, Perhaps he could say that to them—and to us—because he lived in and nurtured a constant awareness of God’s nearness. For, as someone once said, “Joy is the infallible sign of God’s presence.” May his intercession bless us with the same awareness!

Saint David of Wales is the Patron Saint of:

Wales