“That’s All I can Stands, I can Stands No More”
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
July 13 – 14, 2024
Gospel: Mark 6:7-13
On Thursdays, if I remember, I go to the IDT (Inter-disciplinary Team) meetings. Doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, physical therapists, dieticians, and chaplains attend this meeting to discuss Hospice patients. We were discussing this one patient who is 47 years old and who is refusing treatment. With treatment, he could be cured, so his doctor wasn’t sure what to do. To complicate matters, this patient is also schizophrenic. He was trying alternative holistic medicine, such as crystals, which was not working, and he was getting progressively worse. The staff was trying to get him to talk to the oncologist. I asked the psychologist, “Do you think that perhaps he is afraid?” Nobody hears anything after doctors say “cancer.” They shut down, and the conversation is over. Although it could be stage 1, after they hear the “C” word, they stop listening. That is especially true if you have another condition like schizophrenia. He was afraid and stopped taking his medicine. He could only control what he could control. When you are a patient in the hospital, everything is out of your control, and privacy is a joke. That is the nature of the business.
We have to be careful about what we say. Paul said, “Only speak of what builds people up.” Be good to people. The sin of slander is akin to murder in Scripture. In the hierarchy of sins, slander and murder are equal. We have to be very careful about what we say because we have no idea of the fragility of people. They could be a lot more fragile than we think they are. Sometimes they have the “Popeye” syndrome. Do you know what that is? “That’s all I can stands, I can stands no more.” Someday, when they’ve had just one thing too many happen, they go postal. We don’t know, so say good things that will help people and not evil things. All that evil speech comes from inside the person saying it. Speak words of kindness and love, not evil.
In the Gospel, our Lord sent the Apostles out without any money, food, or anything, and all I could think was, “Are You kidding me? Lord, do You have any idea what you are asking them to do?” People who went to college and studied the dictionary would call that counterintuitive. No – it’s stupid! But our Lord wouldn’t tell us to do things that are impossible. That goes against His nature. The Apostles did what the Lord asked them to do. Our Lord gives us these things to do so that we can show our love for Him. “If you love Me, you will keep my Commandments. My Commandments are not burdensome.” Oh, I don’t think so. My lack of faith in eating fish is just terrible. What a terrible cross I have! I have to obey my doctors. That’s the Fourth and Fifth Commandments, by the way. “I know the commandments.” I don’t think so . . . but keep learning. Remember what John Wayne said, “Life is tough; it is tougher when you’re stupid.” “The Commandments are too hard.” Not really. Otherwise, our Lord wouldn’t have said, “My yoke is easy and My burden light.” It may be unpleasant, but when we start saying the Commandments are hard, how are the young supposed to remain pure? How are the old supposed to remain pure? Have you ever heard about the Villages? Do some research on that. Ask any police officer, and they will tell you there is a lot of stupid out there manifesting itself. We have the King Baby Syndrome; “I want what I want when I want it. So, I will change the Word of God to justify what I want to do.” Our Lord tells us what to do and gives us the means to do it. He does not tell me to do Misfit work because I’m incompetent. I don’t fly airplanes for a reason – because I don’t have the ability. But God doesn’t require that of me. God gives me the means to do what He requires of me for my vocation as He does for us all. He offers that to us all.
So, the hardship of keeping God’s Commandments is negligible. “Oh! Do you mean I have to go to Mass every Sunday?” Well, you catch all the Panthers games, don’t you? Oh yeah. Keeping His Commandments is not as hard as we think because He gives us the tools to do so. The devil on our shoulders tells us how hard it is and how much we will miss the great side of life. No, you won’t. You will not miss the Four Horseman: guilt, fear, shame, and remorse.
I see people all the time who walk in misery and sadness. We don’t always have to like what our Lord asks us to do. I never saw a time in which He asked for someone’s opinion about one of His Commandments. He said to keep His Commandments. You don’t have to like them. Just do what you are told, and it will work out well. It worked out for the Apostles, and it will work out for us. We are not the newest kids on the block or the brightest bulb in the box, but our Lord told us exactly what we need to do to have the greatest amount of happiness possible in this life and eternal happiness in the next. All we have to do is what He tells us to do and to use the means He gave us. Our lives would be so much better. Perfect? No. I always have to pay for my pizza. So, perfect? No. But it would be so much more hopeful, joyful, and peaceful.
How will you apply this message to your life? _______________________________________
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