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Sermon Notes – Leprechauns Are Not Real

“Leprechauns Are Not Real“

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

April 3 – 4, 2021

Gospel:  John 20: 1-9

How do you know someone is alive if you don’t see them?  I’ve taken a clue from the sheriff detective…there is fresh evidence.  For instance, you may not see a family member for a day, but you know they are alive, right?  You see dirty plates right where they left them. You see your husband’s dirty socks right where he left them.  I guess he figured the Molly Maid Service would come by and pick them up. You may not see the person, but you see fresh evidence that they’ve been there and that they are alive.  They may have left a note for you.  They may have cooked dinner for you.  You know they are alive even though you may not have touched them or laid eyes on them.  Likewise, we have not touched the resurrected Christ, but we know that He is alive.  We see the evidence. 

From the very beginning, the Chief Priests bribed Roman soldiers to lie and say that disciples stole the body of Christ.  That must have been one big bribe.  The Romans knew quite well what betrayal meant.  It meant instant death. The Romans did not refer anyone to defense counsel.  If you failed in doing your duty, you were duly executed in a very brutal way.  The Roman army did not play. No bail. No defense attorney.  You were executed.  So, it had to be a pretty big bribe.  Even back then, there was fake news.  “Christ wasn’t resurrected.”  “His body was stolen.”   You don’t steal a body after a couple days in Palestine.  Trust me on this one.  Ask any police officer or nurse.  Nobody steals a body after that length of time.  That’s fake news.  Sound familiar?  As scripture says, there’s nothing new under the sun.  All through the centuries, people have claimed that Christ is dead or He was just a nice guy or He was the same as Muhammad and Buddha.  None of them claimed that He was God.  They try to relegate religion to just old wives tales.  But, as much as they tried, the Chief Priests couldn’t keep a lid on the news of Christ’s resurrection even with the use of armies and the threat of persecution.  That’s because it’s true.  If it wasn’t, why would they spend all the time, money, and energy to say it’s not?

Why do people complain about the Catholic Church and its teachings?  It’s the message of Christ.  If it’s not true, why do they bother?  If it’s not true, why do they care?  They can go live their lives and do other stuff.  They complain, because they know it is true.  Our Lord proved Himself to all those detractors.  They are gone, but we are still here.  We have evidence through the centuries that Christ is still alive.  Look at what our Catholic Church has done.  We have built universities and hospitals.  These are the things we do best.  What was the cause of all those centuries of good works?  It was the love of Christ in us.  The living love of Christ is still evident today.  You know it’s true, because you are here today.  You have faith in the resurrection, and you have faith in Jesus Christ. You are here to be touched by the love of God and to draw closer to Him.  Is there some fear in all of us?  Of course there is, just as there was for the women at the tomb.  But, you overcome your fear through your faith.  That’s why you are here today.  By your presence, you proclaim the resurrection of Christ, and that He is not dead.  He’s not a footnote in history.  He wasn’t just some really nice guy.  By your faithful attendance at Mass and participation in the Sacraments, you are making your profession and belief in the resurrection and that Christ lives.  One day you will share His life.  Most of us won’t be around for the end of the world; as far as I know.. I haven’t gotten any phone calls.  On that day, we too will go to the tomb just like Mary Magdalene and the women did on Good Friday morning.

As you look through the history of the Church, God has never been unfaithful to His followers.  Never…not once. In seminary I learned a lot of stuff, well they think I did, but I was supposed to learn a lot of stuff.  We studied Thomas Aquinas and the five proofs of God.   I will prove to you that God exists and also how faithful He is.  I guarantee that if you pray for this it will happen on your way home.  Guaranteed.  Pray for patience. “Lord, I want to grow in patience, I want to be meek, humble, and understanding,”  Pray that prayer, and I guarantee that you will find five nitwits who will irritate the living heck out of you and try your patience on the way home.  Patience is an acquired virtue that you get by practice.  Ask for patience, and our good Lord will say, “Great!  You got it.”  He will send all those nitwits to help you grow in that virtue.  That’s the quickest way to prove that God exists.  The quickest proof that God listens to your prayers and answers them.  God is alive and active. We have 2,000 years of proof.  We see His results.  Do we see them as often as we’d like?  No.  He hides in our human nature. 

We believe in the resurrection of Christ.  If it wasn’t true, why have so many people for over 2,000 years kept saying it’s not true?  You can see that God is alive.  We do not see Him directly, but He is alive.  He is working in us. He is working through you.  He took the humanity that He received from the Blessed Mother to His sacred Passion and resurrection and then to Heaven.  He uses His humanity to make His love present and known to the world.  He does that for us.  Each of us, in our own vocation, are to prove to the world that God’s love is alive.  The grave could not hold Him.  God promised that we will imitate His resurrection. So, for those who follow Him, the grave will not hold us.  We will be like Him. We will suffer probably, in one way or another, and we will rest in our graves until the day of our own resurrection.  That is not defeat…that is victory.

How will you apply this message to your life?  Will you help prove to the world that God’s love is alive?

Father’s Afterthoughts…

Now part of my Irish cultural heritage is the belief that leprechauns are real.  I think it’s because we drank a wee bit too much ale.  You never hear anyone complain about leprechauns.  But, they don’t exist.  If you see any, I can get you some help.  I know people.  You will feel much better.

You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to https://annunciationcatholicalbemarle.com/ and clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” and then “Sermon Notes.  From a cell phone, click on “Blog” then “Menu” and then “Categories” (located at the end of page).  There is also a search box if looking for a specific topic.

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Sermon Notes – The Angels May Come Before Sunrise

“Sometimes, the Angels Come for Us Before the Sun Rises“

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

January 25 – 26, 2020

Scripture: Matthew 4:12-23

During my formative years, I was blessed with good parents, priests, and sisters who passed on the gift of Faith. The patrimony of the Church…the heritage…the gift they had been given, they passed on to me. Part of that heritage is the great treasury of prayers of the Church…centuries and centuries worth. While we were getting those lessons in school, they knew what they were doing; we were getting Godly prayers. We had to memorize them like most things, but that’s how I learned the classic prayers of the Church, and they all have beautiful points.

We must repent of our sins in order to be followers of Christ, because He is the Savior. If we have no sins, we don’t need a Savior, and we don’t need Christ. So, we repent of our sins, and we acknowledge them. There is a beautiful prayer that I was taught by my parents and by the priests that is a classic – the Act of Contrition prayer. I was taught to say it every night before I went to bed, just in case the angels came before the sun rose:

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You,

and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven,

and the pains of hell; but most of all because they offend You, my God,

Who are all good and deserving of all my love.

I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace,

to confess my sins, to do penance,

and to amend my life. Amen.

We say the Act of Contrition prayer every Sunday during Faith Formation so that our students will learn it along with other common prayers. But, learning prayers is not just rote memorization. There are so many beautiful things about the Act of Contrition prayer…it contains so much. In that prayer, is a small summary of what I studied in theology for a semester…it’s sort of like the Reader’s Digest version of theology. It is a primer for the Sacrament of Penance and teaches us how to receive God’s grace and become one with Him, and, how we show repentance and sorrow for our sins. It’s in the first part of the prayer: “I am heartily sorry for having offended You, and I detest all my sins….because they offend You, my God, Who are all good and deserving of all my love.” I am sorry, because I have offended God who is the source of all love. That is perfect contrition.

The next line in the Act of Contrition prayer refers to imperfect contrition: “because I dread the loss of heaven, and the pains of hell.” We are sorry because we may be cut off from God forever – we are afraid of going to hell. Hell is the separation from God forever.

There are two conditions that must be present for absolution from sin:

  • First, we must have contrition (sorrow) for our sins. “I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace, to confess my sins….” We have to admit what we’ve done. We must say where we need God’s help and admit that we are sinners. For example, you cannot go before a judge, any judge, and just throw yourself on the mercy of the court. You have to say what you have done. You cannot just say, “I’m sorry, Mom.” What the heck did you do now! You have to say what you are sorry for. When you go to the doctor and say, “Doctor, I’m not feeling well, so give me some narcotics.” Uh, no, that’s not happening. You have to tell me what’s wrong so I can fix it…so I can apply a remedy to your problem. I’m not giving you anti-cancer meds if you have a headache; I’m not giving you morphine if you have a hangnail. I have to know what’s wrong. Likewise, we have to admit that which we need forgiveness. Another example is when you get caught by the cops speeding… women get away with this all the time by turning on the tear machine…except for highway patrolmen, they don’t care..they write a lot of tickets. But, you are sorry, because you got caught. That is imperfect contrition. However, it is sufficient for the Sacrament…it’s good enough.

We have to avoid what we call in theology the “near occasion of sin.” Unfortunately, we cannot avoid them all. The biggest cage for sin is in the brain. It’s tough to avoid sin, because the devil is working all around us. We can try to avoid people, places and things that can lead us to sin, but if you stay in the barbershop long enough, you’re going to get a haircut.

People come to confession, “Bless me Father for I have sinned; it has been however long since my last confession.” I’ve been hearing confessions for 36 years, so, sometimes, you just know what to ask. Are you living with your girlfriend/boyfriend? “Yeah.” Well, I can’t give you absolution. “Why not?” Unless you are living like brother and sister, which I doubt…call me jaded, you are living in a state of mortal sin. It would be a sacrilege on your part and a sacrilege on mine if I gave you absolution. “Father, I have a problem watching bad movies on T.V.” Well, football or the Golf channel are options. I like watching it, but sometimes I have to turn down the volume because it just goes too fast for me.

  • The other condition needed for absolution is making amends. We have to make amends, an amendment of life, for our sins. Christ makes that amendment for us to God. We cannot fix it ourselves…Christ fixes that for us. However, we have to fix what we’ve done here in what we call the temporal order. For instance, if you steal my portion of Mexican food…”Father, I stole your pizza.” I forgive you, but you have to give the pizza back. You cannot just run off with my pizza. By the way, I would have given it to you if you had only asked. If you break a window while playing football, you have to replace the window unless the homeowner says it’s okay and they will fix it. You have to repair what you damage. You cannot just say, “Father I stole a $100.” Okay, but you have to give it back. “Really?” Yeah, you do. You cannot profit from your sin. If you stole my Stromboli, and you say, “I’m sorry,” well, you still have to give back my Stromboli. If I scrape your car, I have to make it right…as much as I can. We need to repay, give back, and try to right the wrong.

One thing about prayer…if we rush through our prayers, get distracted, or our mind wanders, just bring it back. My French ancestors in Canada, who we called “Kanooks”, said the rosary like greased lightning. I mean, when they said the rosary, there was smoke coming from the beads. For us, prayers may be coming from our mouth, but our mind is somewhere around the block. That’s alright, just bring it all back. We are men not angels.

We have such treasures as a part of our Catholic Faith, especially in its prayers. In the Act of Contrition prayer, we are saying that we have committed sin and we are sorry. We love God, and will try to avoid the irritations of sin, and try to right all the things we’ve done wrong. That is a great expression of your love for God and a great expression of your need for God. So, I would ask you to say the Act of Contrition prayer tonight before you go to bed. What a wonderful way to end the day; because, sometimes, the angels will come for us before the sun rises.

How will you apply this message to your life? Will you say the Act of Contrition prayer before bed? Will you repay, give back, and try to right any wrongs you’ve committed?

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Sermon Notes – An Angry Heart

“Everybody’s Got A Hungry Heart”

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

September 21-22, 2019

Scripture: Luke 16:1-13

Our lives are orderly when everything is in it’s proper place. Likewise, most things are good if they are used for their proper purpose. For example, both gravel and wood are useful; however, it is painful if you get a piece of gravel in your eye or a splinter in your finger. Money is a good thing to have, but if used in the wrong way, it can act like a cancer, bringing desperation, hurt, anger, and bitterness. If used to support your family or a charity, having money can be wonderful. But, many people try to fill the hole in their souls with the things that money can buy. Money cannot bring anything that lasts. I previously served at a rich parish, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that having money does not automatically give you lasting hope and peace. Only a “Who” can heal the hole in your soul. Only God can heal a hungry heart.

We try to fill the hole in our hearts with all kinds of things. If I could drink more or eat lots of chocolate cake, my life would be great. If I could just marry my girlfriend, I’d be happy. However, once we get what we crave, the thrill often fades and we want something – or someone – new. Money, people, and objects will never fill the hole in our hearts. In fact, they can cause more pain. Only God can heal our hearts. 12-Step programs help people with addiction. The first step in all

12-step programs is to admit defeat of self-will. We must surrender ourselves to Him. And, when we do, we gain everything. Who wants us more than God? Who understands us more than God? Who knows us better than God? Who loves us in spite of ourselves more than God? Who can guide, love, and protect us better than God? Nobody! He is the source of hope and peace in our souls. Will we still have troubles? Yes! But, once we surrender our pride and lose ourselves in God, we will find ourselves.

How will you apply this message to your life? Will you stop trying to fill the hole in your heart with people, money, and things? Will you keep God at the center of your life so that He can heal your soul?