“Peace is Found in ‘Who’ and Not ‘What’”
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
January 18 – 19, 2020
Scripture : John 1:29-34
We all want peace in the world. Saint John the Baptist made an epiphany by pointing the way to peace: “Behold the Lamb of God…the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.” That’s the way to peace. Always point the way to the Lord; not to some individual priest, but to the One in the Tabernacle. Priests come and go. Someday, I will take a dirt nap, okay? I might drive up onto a telephone guide wire and flip my car like what happened over on Montgomery Avenue the other day. I could get sick, and they’ll bring another guy in here. Also, contrary to popular belief, peace is not gotten by taking away someone’s stuff and giving it to somebody else. That has never worked in the history of the world. “Oh, if they only had more stuff they wouldn’t be bad.” Yeah, they would be…police lock up rich people too. It is not about stuff. It is sin that causes division in the soul and the self. Sin causes violence. Remember, in scripture, the three marks of the demonic or sin in the soul are: nudity/sex, self-mutilation, and violence. When a soul is in torment what does it do? It takes the torment out on everybody else. People say that criminals are misunderstood. No. It’s violence, an evil. “I’ll fight you all”…that’s evil in the soul.
God wants us to have peace, that’s why He sent His Son. Peace is a “Who” not a “what”. You’ve heard the line, “No justice, no peace.” Nah, justice is a virtue. Justice is a step toward the primary virtue which is possession by the All Mighty God. Peace means possessing and being possessed by Christ and having no sin in our soul. I just talked to a guy, a “Methhead,” in the ER over at the VA. He lied to me, and I expect that, so I don’t take it personally. In 12-step programs, reestablishing a relationship with the Creator is one of the first steps in releasing people from their addictions. Through sobriety, you can have peace in your soul. Where do they get this? They get it from the Church which points out the way to Christ. People say, “Father, there are a lot of unholy people in the Church.” That’s why they’re here…trying to work on it, okay? You are trying too, because you are here. We are all here trying to work on holiness. I say my prayers in my sweet little voice, because, I am a great sinner and need prayer. We all strive and struggle.to follow Him. As I said last week, if you have no sin, you don’t need to be here. People say, “Father, some priests aren’t perfect.” Well, nobody in the Church is perfect. But, Father, “people are always going to be that way.” I have never read anything about Mother Teresa going in and starting a bar fight. Have you? She could probably clear the place out…I’ll give her that. She was a tough little woman. But she never started a bar fight. Amazing! Mother Teresa possessed and was possessed with Christ in her soul. Jesus was her peace. Saint John didn’t go downtown to the Hells Angels’ clubhouse and beat up on clubhouse members, did he? No! Look at the saints; they did violence on themselves.
There’s no problem with what we believe, but in how we live. I work in a hospital a few days a week and have seen doctors with pot bellies. You would think they’d know that being overweight is not good for them, right? A couple of times, I have seen the doctors and nurses getting their lunch out of a vending machine….popcorn, candy, soda pop. Now, near as I can tell, there are no vegetables and salads in those vending machines! They know better. They have forgotten more things than I ever learned on their first day of school. It’s not that they don’t know it, but knowing and doing are two entirely separate things. It’s tough to live it. It might take me out of my comfort zone whatever that is; or I might have to give up a bad habit. We all struggle with the knowledge, but our Good Lord gives us the means to live it. He said, “Come and follow Me.” Do you know what “follow me” means in the New Testament? It’s not like little ducks and geese following their mother across the road. “Follow Me” means imitate Christ; imitate Me in My sufferings; join Me in My sufferings; imitate Me in My sacrifices; imitate Me in My teaching, imitate Me in My prayer, follow Me, do what I say. Do what I did, and you’ll get what I got. Follow Me to the cross. He teaches us exactly what we must do to be like Him and to have His peace. He gave us the means to peace in the Sacraments. No, there’s nothing wrong with the Faith, it’s just how we live it.
People say, “You are Catholic.” Yes, I am. They say, “Well you don’t do this, and you don’t do that.” I say, ”You know, you’re right…I’m working on it though, but thank you for reminding me.” Am I perfect? Not even my mother thought I was perfect. I have a lot of people reminding me of my imperfections. And that’s alright, they only see the visible ones, I have a lot more they don’t see. But, I know the Person who can help me change, and I can point you to that Person. That Person takes away my sins, absolutely, and He feeds me with the most precious body and blood. At every Mass, the Church uses these words when the priest lifts up the host and says, “Behold the Lamb of God; behold Him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to suffer of the Lamb.” Everybody is called to that suffering. Everyone.
Down here, a lot of people read John 3:16. Okay, how about John 6:53? Didn’t read that far down in the book, did ya? You have to read the whole book…not just part of the book…take the whole book. Christ said, “If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” That means real meat and real drink. Don’t forget that part! This is the way to feast, and our Good Lord couldn’t be any clearer. I mean, when you are hungry, do you eat or just read a cookbook?
Our problem is that we aren’t perfect. We fall down a whole lot, but we get up again. Part of our baptismal promise is that we will always go back and follow Him. We know how to achieve peace, our Good Lord told us, and we’ve been doing it for the last 2,000 years. Peace is found in a “Who” and not a “what.” All we have to do is follow in His footsteps.
How will you apply this message to your life? When you fall, will you get back up and follow Him? If you need more peace, do you seek it in Him? Do you follow in His footsteps?