“It’s Sooo Hard!”
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
February 15 – 16, 2020
Scripture: Matthew 5:17-37
Throughout the gospels, anyone who came to our Lord and asked Him for something, it was always granted. He never refused. Our Lord gives us gifts when we ask and even when we don’t. Did the widow ask that her son be resurrected? No, she didn’t, but Christ raised him from the dead and gave him back to her. Also, nobody asked Him to feed the 5,000, but He did. Our Lord did this not just for the Jewish people, but also for the Ephesians, Samaritans, and Romans. He wants to give us His love. He doesn’t ask if we are worthy, if we tithe, or even if we have given our priest pizza. He doesn’t ask about any of that. His love is free. He tells us exactly how to experience His love and how to live in His love. He said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” He spelled it out quite clearly, so we would have no doubt. “Let your Yes mean Yes and your No mean No” (Matthew 5:37). This is how we live in His love…by keeping His commandments.
I was at Walmart waiting in line behind a woman who had lots of tattoos, and there was blue stuff running down her arm. I said, “Excuse me, mam, but you sprang a leak. She told me that she had just gotten a tattoo. I asked her if she minded telling me why she got tattoos. She said, “it makes me look beautiful.” But, who said you were ugly? Remember when God asked Adam and Eve who told you that you were naked?
I hear people say we need to update and change the Commandments, because they are just too hard to keep. Who told you that? Our Lord said “My yoke is easy, and My burden light.” (Matthew 11:28-30). When everyone had left Christ except the apostles, He asked them if they wanted to leave Him too. The apostles told Him that the teachings were hard, but that He had the words of eternal life (John 6:67-68). The commandments of the Lord are not hard, but they go against our human nature. We want what we want when we want it. Sometimes, it’s uncomfortable to keep God’s commandments, I will grant you that. For example, last night, while I was eating my spinach Stromboli, sitting across the table from me were people eating a pepperoni pizza. The fourth and fifth commandments require me to follow my doctor’s orders which tell me no pizza. Do I always like it? Nope, but that’s the way the dice roll. So, anyone who says you cannot do it is lying to you. Our fallen nature and our sins committed after baptism make it far more difficult than it has to be. It doesn’t help that we don’t use the means that God gave us through the Sacraments, prayer, and mortification. “Oh, this is tough.” You don’t know what tough is; don’t even go there. “This is so hard!” Please! Nobody is asking you for a kidney. During Lent, we cannot eat meat on Fridays. “It’s so hard!” Really? The hard part is eating fish. You should see all the ketchup I smother fish with….it’s like eating ketchup soup with fish.
We often hear people say that Church pastors need to be more pastoral. What do you mean by pastoral? I know the meaning I was taught, but what do you mean? “Well, we need to be accepting of everybody, because we understand these things better than we did 2,000 years ago.” So, in other words, we are supposed to embrace somebody’s doodoo. “Oh, it’s okay now, we understand; you don’t have to be like anybody else…you are special…God is going to give you an exception.” Well, you are special, because God died for you on the cross. You are that special, but there are no exceptions. Being pastoral does not mean cosigning somebody’s sin or watering down the commandments. The most pastoral thing to do is tell them the truth about Christ.
When I see soldiers in the emergency room hooked up to a banana bag with their head in a bucket, and headed up to ICU to detox from alcohol, do you think this could be a teachable moment? I could say, “If I had your problems, I’d drink like a fish too.” No, I wouldn’t. Or, I could say, “You know, life is tough; it’s tougher when you are stupid. Ever think about admitting you’re an alcoholic and getting some help?” I’m sure Phyllis has had people tell her they have a condition that fentanyl is good for. “Oh, do you have terminal cancer? Really?” Oh, but we have to be more pastoral. Being pastoral means not wanting people to live in sin. Being pastoral is trying to help relieve people from that sin. The most pastoral thing to do is to tell them about Christ.
Do you really think we could be more compassionate than our Savior who came down, became man, suffered, and died on the cross for our sins? Do you think we could be more caring than Him? Really? Instead of thinking it’s hard, we should thank our Lord, because at least we know what to do and the precise way in which to do it. We don’t have any questions. You told us exactly what we need to do, and we come to You for help. When I fall down, as I often do…I have a bad habit of using colorful language while I’m driving along with hand and arm gestures… but, I know exactly Who to go to for help with getting back up so that I can take up my cross and follow our Savior. When you say that the Church should be more pastoral and change the rules, God’s response is to ask for our love.
So, you think you know better than God how to take care of souls. What kind of hutzpah is that! I did not like it when my physician said bacon was no longer a part of my diet. I did not like it because I thought I was special. I was the only one in my family who could eat bacon like crazy and not have a heart problem. I always thought I was the exception. Wrong. Every alcoholic and drug addict think they know how to handle their condition; “Don’t worry, I’m the exception to the rule.” Or, the 3-pack a day smoker; “I’m not going to get lung cancer; there’s nothing wrong with me…I’m good.” No. Our Lord taught us out of love how to love. Is it hard? It often is. Know what it depends on? How much we love God and how much we love ourselves.
How will you apply this message to your life? When you fall, will you ask for His help?