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“A friend is more to be longed for than the light; I speak of a genuine one. And wonder not: for it were better for us that the sun should be extinguished, than that we should be deprived of friends; better to live in darkness, than to be without friends.”
— St. John Chrysostom
//Catholic Company//
I’m Sorry. . . So Sorry!
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
September 4 – 5, 2021
Gospel: Mark 7: 31-37
In the Gospel, our Lord healed the deaf man. Why? Read the story. . .He was asked. A lot of us do not ask for miracles. Why does Jesus do miracles? Well, for a couple of reasons. First, it is very revelatory. It reveals a number of things about God. But, let’s put that aside for a moment. Did the deaf man ask for a miracle? No, he couldn’t. His friends did through intercessory prayer, and that’s very important. Also, did our Lord say to the man and his friends, “I’d really like to help, but have you given to the DSA?” “Have you given very good stuff to the yard sale?” “How are your Sunday collections going?” “Are you helping out at the church?” “Have you brought Father food?” Good food…no cucumbers! No. He didn’t interrogate them. Our Lord restored the man’s hearing and his speech because He loved him. Our Lord never refused a miracle to anyone who asked or to anyone who didn’t ask. He knew that the woman would touch His garment, and He used that as an example.
Miracles are expressions of who and what our Lord is. He gives us favors and miracles because He loves us. They are gifts of His love. They are meant to draw our hearts to Him and to sustain us in being. Scripture tells us that our Lord lets the rain fall on the just and unjust. It revealed to the people of Israel who our Lord was. Our Lord is God. He can heal our infirmities. Do I have my physical limitations? Oh, heck yeah! My mind writes checks that my body cannot cash. I’m 68, and I still think I’m 18. Saint Paul said that if you ask for prayers of healing, sometimes it will happen and sometimes it won’t. But, the Lord told Saint Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God does miracles all the time over at Atrium Health. When people undergo bypass surgery, the healing is very slow. First, they get the surgery, then they wake up, and then they go to therapy. Everything moves at a slow pace, but they are our Lord’s miracles.
Miracles reveal God’s nature. Do you know what God’s nature is? God’s nature is love itself. Jesus was love incarnate. He came to give the gift of His love which is Himself. There are a number of miracles recorded in the Gospel, and there are more that are not as Saint John tells us at the end of his gospel. The Lord gives us these gifts to show His love and His awareness of our needs. What does God want in return? Our love. That is what gifts of love are. They are given freely. Our Lord gives us these gifts of love to help turn our hearts toward Him and away from ourselves.
Keep praying for His gifts. Sometimes He says “No.” However, when He says “no,” He gives us the grace to handle His answer and to bear whatever difficulties it brings. I will tell you that it doesn’t seem that way. I’m still not a Monsignor after 38 years, and I’m not happy about it. But I’m humble, and I can handle it. Our good Lord gives us the gift of Himself which is the greatest miracle of all. His miracles are not just for physical ailments. The greatest miracle is not the gift that someone gives you, it’s the gift of themselves. The physical aspects of the gift are signs of an invisible reality. As Catholics, we see the greatest gift of all here in church. . .the gift of Christ Himself in Holy Communion and the Sacrament of Penance. He gives it freely because He wants our love. He loves us so much that He allows Himself to be handled by an evil and sinful man such as myself. God gives us these gifts not because we deserve them. You cannot earn love. He gives these gifts because He loves us. He created us out of love. He gives us these gifts of love to draw us away from ourselves and back to Him. So, keep praying for miracles.
Father’s Afterthoughts:
I have been blessed with family and friends who point out my faults. Do I have my faults? “No, Father.” Yes, I do, but thank you for that. God gives me the grace to carry my crosses. One of the great graces that God gives us for carrying our crosses and our faults is humility. He gives us the humility to go back to someone and say you screwed up and ask for forgiveness. Even I make mistakes on occasion, and when I do, I ask for forgiveness. That’s how we show God’s love. You’d be surprised when you say to someone, “I’m sorry.” It is like the old Brenda Lee song, “I’m Sorry…So Sorry.” Say “I’m sorry” to someone, and they may say, “Whatever.” There’s a big difference between saying “I’m sorry” and “forgive me.” Have you ever heard a song with “forgive me” in the lyrics? Saying “forgive me” shows God’s power working in you.
How will you apply this message to your life? Are you praying for His gifts?
Email BeckyHraczo@gmail.com if you would like sermon notes emailed to you. Also, you can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to annunciationcatholicalbemarle.com/ and clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” and then “Sermon Notes.
“God is not an obligation or a burden. God is the joy of my life!” —Fr. Mychal Judge
On the bright fall morning of September 11, 2001, firefighters across New York were summoned to a scene of unimaginable horror: Two hijacked airliners had crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. As firefighters rushed into the burning buildings, they were accompanied by their chaplain, Fr. Mychal Judge. Hundreds of them would die that day, among the nearly three thousand fatalities in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Fr. Judge would be among them. There seemed to be special meaning in the fact that Fr. Mychal was listed as the first certified casualty of 9/11. A photograph of his fellow firemen carrying his body from the wreckage to a neighboring church became an icon of that day: an image of loving service and sacrifice, a hopeful answer to messages born of fear and fanaticism.
— from The Franciscan Saints by Robert Ellsberg
//Franciscan Media//
St. Jean-Gabriel Perboyre (1802-1840) was one of eight children born to a farming family in France. He was a pious child and served as a model of virtue for his childhood companions. He discerned a call to the priesthood and joined the Vincentians along with a younger brother, with the full support of his parents. He served as a seminary professor for many years, and his sanctity impressed even his superiors. He longed to serve in the missions to China, but his poor health prevented him and his brother was sent instead. He prayed and begged to also be sent to preach in China and to suffer martyrdom there. After his brother died on the voyage to China, Jean-Gabriel was allowed to take his place in the mission. He arrived in China in 1835 and his labors there were met with great success. In 1839 persecutions broke out against the Christian missionaries, and Jean-Gabriel was one of the first to be arrested. The events leading to his death bear a striking resemblance to the Passion and Death of Christ. He was betrayed to the authorities by one of his new converts for thirty pieces of silver, stripped of his garments and clothed with rags, bound, and dragged from tribunal to tribunal. At each trial, he was brutally treated and tortured. He was finally condemned to death along with seven other criminals on September 11, 1840. He was martyred by being strangled to death as he hung on a cross. His feast day is September 11th.
//Catholic Company//
“Some people who think themselves naturally gifted don’t want to touch either philosophy or logic. They don’t even want to learn natural science. They demand bare faith alone—as if they wanted to harvest grapes right away without putting any work into the vine. We must prune, dig, trellis, and do all the other work. I think you’ll agree the pruning knife, the pickaxe, and the farmer’s tools are necessary for growing grapevines, so that they will produce edible fruit. And as in farming, so in medicine: the one who has learned something is the one who has practiced the various lessons, so that he can cultivate or heal. And here, too, I say you’re truly educated if you bring everything to bear on the truth. Taking what’s useful from geometry, music, grammar, and philosophy itself, you guard the Faith from assault.”— St. Clement of Alexandria, p. 13
//Catholic Company//
“When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.”— Pope Saint Gregory the Great
//Catholic Company//
St. Ambrose Edward Barlow (1585-1641) was born near Manchester, England, to a noble family. He was baptized Catholic at his birth, but was raised Protestant when Catholicism was outlawed by the reigning monarchy. His grandfather died while imprisoned for his Catholic faith, and his father had two-thirds of his estate confiscated for refusal to conform to the Church of England. Ambrose returned to Catholicism as an adult, recognized his vocation to the priesthood, and traveled to France to enter seminary. He was ordained in 1617 in the Order of St. Benedict. He returned to England to minister to underground Catholics in his native south Lancashire for 24 years, being financially supported with a pension arranged by his grandmother. Ambrose said Mass daily and administered the sacraments secretly to avoid detection by the authorities. He was arrested four times during his priesthood, each time being released without charge. When the king issued a decree that all Catholic priests should immediately flee the country or be arrested and condemned as traitors, St. Ambrose chose to stay, reasoning that he could not die a better death than to be martyred for being a Catholic priest. On April 25, 1631, just as he ended Easter Sunday Mass at Morley Hall near Manchester, he was arrested by a 400-strong armed mob led by the local Anglican vicar. He freely admitted to the charge of being a Catholic priest, and gave a defense of the true faith before his judge. He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, quartered, and boiled in oil on September 10, 1641. His dead body was publicly displayed on a pike as a warning to other Catholic priests. St. Ambrose Edward Barlow is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His feast day is September 10th.
//Catholic Company//
“In contemplating a beautiful work of creation consider that, in itself, it is nothing. Let your thoughts soar to the great Hand that produced it; place all your delight in Him saying: “O my God! Sole Object of my desires! Universal Source of all good things! How delightful it is to consider that the perfections of creatures are but a faint image of Thy glory!” When you behold the verdant trees or plants and the beauty of flowers, remember that they possess life only through the will of that Divine Wisdom that, unseen by all, gives life to all things. Say to Him: “O Living God! O Sovereign Life! Thou delight of my soul! From Thee, in Thee and through Thee all things on earth live and flourish!” The sight of animals should lift your mind and heart to the Author of sensibility and motion. Say with respect and love: “Great God, Unmoved Mover of all things, how I rejoice when I consider the eternity of Thy existence, incapable of the slightest change!” When the beauty of mankind impresses you, you should immediately distinguish what is apparent to the eye from what is seen only by the mind. You must remember that all corporeal beauty flows from an invisible principle, the uncreated beauty of God. You must discern in this an almost imperceptible drop issuing from an endless source, an immense ocean from which numberless perfections continually flow. How my soul is ravished when I consider that Eternal Beauty, the Source of every beautiful thing!”— Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, p.68
//Catholic Company//
“Heaven could not span its Creator, but the faithful soul, and only it, becomes its dwelling place and seat, and it becomes so in virtue of charity of which the impious lack.”
— St. Clare of Assisi
//Catholic Company//