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“Stop Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic”

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

September 1, 2024

Gospel:  Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

I’m a part-time hospital chaplain, so I deal with a lot of sick people.  Sometimes I come across patients in the emergency room who are hooked up to a banana bag.  That’s a yellow IV bag shaped like a banana.  I’ll say, “Coming off the booze, are we?”  And they’ll say, “How did you know?”  This is not my first rodeo.  From the drugs and alcohol, they smell like burnt cork.  People who are addicted and in the hospital are not at all happy.  I always ask them, “Have you had enough?  As much fun as this is, you are not going to be enjoying the next three days.  No matter how much stuff they give you, I guarantee it’s not going to be pleasant.”  Some will actually say, “Father, I don’t want to do this anymore.  How do I stop?”  That’s a great question, and I can give you an answer.  You have to change one thing.  “Oh, what’s that, Father?”  Everything. 

We are all addicted to something – alcohol, drugs, pizza, fish–no, cucumbers-probably not, chocolate cake, and sin – that’s why we are all here.  The first thing you have to do is change yourself.  “Do you mean I have to make new friends?”  Did I say that?  “Well, I was living in a really bad place, so I moved here.”  But you are still overdoing it with drinking, drugs, and pizza – if that’s even possible.  However, that’s a theological question I’ll work out later.  But you’re still doing it; the geographical cure isn’t working.  You have to change.  Saint John the Baptist said, “I must decrease; He must increase” (John 3:30).   “Well, I’ll move and get some new friends.”  That won’t work because you haven’t changed.  No, you’ll just move to another place and befriend the same type of people.  You are just substituting places and people.  You haven’t changed anything.  The change cannot happen by simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  The change must be in you.  Recovery happens when you establish a relationship with God.  We all have to change if we want to grow closer to Christ.  We must die to self by renouncing our opinions and ideas.  It’s a long, slow process, but it always works.  I’ve never known it to fail.  We have to listen to our Teacher and do what our Lord asks us to do. 

I think the Church is gravely, almost culpable, of spiritual malpractice because they do not tell people about the means for salvation.   Some of you may remember Monsignor Showfety.   He used to fill in for me when I did Reserve duty.   He once told me, “We need to make reconciliation rooms so people can talk to you face to face.”  No, that ain’t happening.  I don’t like them that much.  The Church spent a lot of money on them, and finally, Rome said “no” to reconciliation rooms.   The confessional is there for the protection of the priest and not the comfort of the penitent.  We deal with spiritual granola – fruits, flakes, and nuts.  That’s why there must be an impenetrable screen between the priest and the penitent.  That’s the rule.  “Oh, but if we had Mass on Saturday and Sunday nights, we’d have more people.”  Mass attendance has been going down.  “If we had Mass in all the languages of the world, we’d have more people.”  Uh no.   “Well, the Mass on Sundays at 12:15 is in Spanish, so I don’t go.”  Really?  It’s not in Spanish.  “What do you mean, Father?”  It’s in Spanglish.  I don’t speak Spanish, alright?  They tell me I speak Spanish with a French accent.  My second language is French, okay?  “Well, if we translated the Bible generally, people wouldn’t be offended by sexist words, and we’d have a lot more people.”   Well, the English language is sexist, and the translations, especially the new ones, are horrible.  They are not Scripture.  The transliteration is horrible.   If you want a non-sexist language, go back to the original Latin or Greek.  They are better translations and are absolutely correct. 

We try to change everything except what we are supposed to change – ourselves by using the tools God gave us.  “I don’t want any medical tests; they are degrading.”  Being degraded or winding up in Hartsell’s Funeral Home – it’s your choice.  I once had a patient in hospice who was dying of Colon Cancer.   He was from this area.  So, we were talking, and the guy said, “This is my own fault.”  I said, “Really?”  He said, “I didn’t follow directions. The doctor told me to go home and do certain things and then come back to see him.”  Well, he never did, and as a result, he cut his life shorter than was necessary.  By the way, if you are going for a colonoscopy, I don’t care how cute you think you are from that angle; you aren’t.  I’ve been doing hospital work for 40 years; nobody is that cute.  If you’ve got a body part I haven’t seen, I’ll pay you for the privilege of seeing it.  Nobody is that cute.  “But I don’t like it.”  What would you rather have – a little shame or a dirt nap?  What’s your choice?   

Instead of changing the Sacraments that our good Lord gave us, we can use them to change ourselves.  Otherwise, we are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  “Oh, if we just had (whatever),  things would be great!”  Really?  How has that been working out for the last 60 years?  Not well.  My parish growing up, which doesn’t exist anymore, is now a Catholic high school.  We had Mass in Latin, so I had to learn Latin to serve the Mass.  When we began doing Mass in English, it was really difficult.  Know why?  Our priest was French Canadian, and we had no idea what he was saying. “The Lord be with you, eh.”   Let’s use the faith to change us instead of commenting about it like a sports commentator.  “I don’t like this.”  You are just looking for reasons not to do it.  The real reason is we don’t want to.  Do you know which of the vows I took when I was ordained are the hardest?   Both obedience and chastity are difficult, but obedience is the most difficult.  The interior sins are the hardest part of spiritual life, but we must trust Him that everything will work out okay.  He must increase, and we must decrease.  And that’s hard.  We have to change ourselves.  Don’t worry about anything else.  “Oh, it’s really bad out there.”  Not really.  There are tons of good people and good things out there.  I see it all the time.  Once we change our perspective, the outside will change too.  We have to change instead of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.   

Father’s Reflections . . .

On Monday, September 2, our church will officially turn 90 years old.  Catholic churches are not dedicated; they are consecrated.  During the Mass at the consecration of the church, the bishop anoints the four walls of the church with sacred chrism.  Theoretically, those walls should be marked with candles, but in our case, the priests before me did not do that.  So, I put the candles where I thought they should be.  Only two days of the year are they lit – the day the church was consecrated, September 2, and on our feast day – Our Lady’s Annunciation, the patroness of this parish.  Just a bit of trivia about our history.

How will you apply this message to your life?  ____________________________________          

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