Sermon Notes – September 3, 2023 – “A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down”

A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down”

 Father Peter Fitzgibbons

 September 2 – 3, 2023

Gospel:  Matthew 16: 21-27

From that time on, Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.  22 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”  23 He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to Me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”  24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after Me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.  25 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.  26 What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?  27 For the Son of Man will come with His angels in His Father’s glory, and then He will repay everyone according to his conduct.

Last Friday night I had dinner at Blue Bay, and I had a love/hate relationship with my dinner.   Guess what I had . . . fish.  Did I tell you I hate fish?  But my doctor said if I eat fish at least twice a week, I might live longer.  I guess that is so I can die of something else.  Thanks a lot, Doc!   Appreciate it!   I was thinking about a time when I liked fish.  I’d had a cardiac procedure and when I came back, one of the ladies in the parish brought me a salmon dinner.  I didn’t mind it.  Of course, I was still on medication at the time, and I felt much better!  Perhaps that’s the secret to liking fish.  But that’s just a little cross of mine. 

Whether you love Jesus or not, you will get a cross.  We both love and hate our crosses.  They are meant to help us, so embrace them.  When we carry our crosses, we are fulfilling the command of our Savior.  But we struggle with them, and that is good because it means you love God.  We also hate our crosses.  Nobody likes them.   Some crosses come and some go in accordance with the time of life.   Some we have from the beginning until the end.  And sometimes, we even get extra ones.  We all have our share, and they are heavy enough for us to carry.  We cannot refuse our crosses.  None of them.  Nor can we, like the Protestant churches, remove some of the Commandments because, you know . . .  they’re hard.   Jesus called those people satan.   They take away the redemptive nature of suffering that we are all called to endure like Christ to achieve Heaven. 

Our crosses, like all the Commandments, are not that difficult.  They are not pleasant . . . I’ll give you that.  That’s why God made French dressing.  When I get a slab of Moby Dick on my plate, out comes the French dressing.  Mary Poppins was right . . . a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.   I have tasted better stuff in the military.  That’s how much I hate fish.  By the way, monkey still tastes like monkey.  Yuck!  One of our crosses is to conform our lives to Christ.  It’s a gift.  How many of you think of their crosses as a gift?   Not many, just as I thought.   But our crosses are like a celestial choke chain so that we don’t wander too far off the reservation.   My evil twin brother, Paul, was very gifted and he had many crosses.  He had two doctorates and a file cabinet full of certifications he had earned.  Saint Teresa of Lisieux said, “Our crosses help keep us small, humble, and reliant on our Savior for there is power in His mercy.”    

Our crosses are redemptive.  As Saint Paul said, “I make up with my body what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.”   Now a final thought . . . Our crosses are abrasive and a beauty treatment for our soul.  Because I do all sorts of reading (I’m an eclectic reader), I once read about how to remove water marks from furniture.  You take some cigar ash, mix it with water, and rub the mixture onto the water stain.  Because cigar ash is abrasive, it will remove the water stain and bring back the richness and luster of the furniture.   And that’s what our crosses do.  They are abrasive to our souls.  They remove the stain of venial sin.  They also remove the remains of the stain of mortal sin on our souls.  And what do our crosses reveal especially when we are standing before God at our Particular Judgment?  They reveal the true beauty of our soul.  What is the true beauty of our soul?  The image and likeness of God from which we were created.  He will look at us and seek the image of His Son.

How will you apply this message to your life?  ______________________________________


You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to annunciationcatholicalbemarle.com and clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” then “Sermon Notes.”  On a cell phone: click on “Blog” and then “Menu.”  Scroll to the bottom and click on “Categories.”  Sermon Notes are also available on the Church’s Facebook page at ola.catholic.church.  Click on “Groups” and then “Sermon Notes.”