Tag: Anger

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Sermon Notes – The Good Shepherd

“The Good Shepherd“

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

April 24 – 25, 2021

Gospel:  John 10:11-18

I have been meditating on the Gospel of the Good Shepherd.  Where in the Gospel do we first hear about the Good Shepherd?   You’ll find it in Genesis when God went looking for Adam and Eve.   They had sinned and were trying to hide, but God looked for them to bring them back.  Why did they run from God?  They were “necked.”  That’s naked for all you Yankees.  They hid because they had sinned.  They ran away from God, but God went after them.  God goes after sinners, because He does not want us to succumb to the evil one.  Adam and Eve were afraid, because sin causes fear.  They were afraid of the One who loves us.  Sin makes us stay away from the One who has the power to heal sin.  “We’re going to be punished!”  But, this is a great act of love as we see on the Crucifix.  He asks us to partake of His love by receiving and asking for His forgiveness.  If we run from God after we have sinned, it is an offense against God. 

I have heard this statement from a number of priests and others:  “I have to forgive myself.”  Excuse me..WHAT??  That’s a sin right there.  The sin wasn’t against you.  You egotistical jerk!  The sin was against God and no one else. That statement is blasphemous. It’s pop psychology, and it’s blasphemous.  It’s your own fertilizer excuse…you know the word.  It’s a fertilizer excuse justifying the act.  “I have to forgive myself.”  You cannot bring healing to yourself. That would require penance and divine forgiveness.  Only God can absolve sin, and only God can heal it.  Sin in this world is made manifest by fear.  What do people do when they are afraid?  They try to hide.  They lay down conditions for coming back.  “I’m not coming back to the Church until priests can get married.”  Do you ask any of the professionals in your life if they are married?  “I’m not coming back until Mass is in English, until Confession is face-to-face, or until people can marry whoever or whatever they want.”  Really? 

Sin causes fear and anger which distorts reality.  So, people try to deny that they did anything wrong.  “I didn’t do anything!”  “It wasn’t that bad.”  “You cops are all crooked.”  “You priests are all perverts.”   They try to deny what they’ve done by lashing out.  When a dog is afraid, it may snarl at you. People try to deny their sin and will do anything but say “I’ve done wrong, and I’m sorry.”  That fear changes your perspective and it changes your attitude.

I was driving up to the VA hospital the other day, and I always try to find the State Troopers and the Sheriff’s deputies.  It keeps you aware, and it’s kind of fun to see where they might be hiding.  I appreciate the art form.  But, I can always tell where they are just by watching people in front of me slam on their brakes.  Why are you afraid?  Just do the speed limit. Come on!  But, they are afraid.  What are they afraid of?  They are only afraid if they’ve done something wrong.  But, God’s love casts out all fear…not self-love… but God’s love. 

God is love itself.  We see His love when we look at the Crucifix.  We see that love portrayed at every altar, at every confession, at every hospital visit by a priest, at every marriage ceremony, and at every baptism and confirmation.  This is God’s great love manifested.  I’ll give you some homework for tonight.  Read the poem, “Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson.  Francis was a drug addict and alcoholic.  He had fear, and he kept running and running afraid a great beast was going to kill him.  Finally, he ran out of energy and said, “Fine, kill me.  I don’t care anymore.”   When he stopped, he saw that the beast was actually a puppy that wanted to kiss him.  The last part of the poem is:  “Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee, Save Me, save only Me?”

God is the Good Shepherd.  But, we have to be willing to be led.  Remember what the first sin was?  It wasn’t by Adam and Eve, but by Lucifer who would not serve.  It’s the same thing when we want to be led by God.  We have to say, “I will serve.” “I will follow.”  It is sinful to say, “I will not serve.”  “I will not listen to you.”  “I know what’s best.”  We are all sinners, that’s why we are all here.  He is the Good Shepherd and brings us home if we want to be led.

How will you apply this message to your life? Are you running from God?  Are you fearful and angry?  Stop running and let God lead you.

You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to https://annunciationcatholicalbemarle.com/ and clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” and then “Sermon Notes.  From a cell phone, click on “Blog” then “Menu” and then “Categories” (located at the end of page).  There is also a search box if you are looking for a specific topic.

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Meditation of the Day – Guard Against Anger

“Let anger be guarded against. But if it cannot be averted, let it be kept within bounds. For indignation is a terrible incentive to sin. It disorders the mind to such an extent as to leave no room for reason. The first thing, therefore, to aim at, if possible, is to make tranquility of character our natural disposition by constant practice, by desire for better things, by fixed determination.”— St. Ambrose, p.279

//The Catholic Company//

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Meditation of the Day – There is Good Reason to Be Astonished

“There is good reason to be astonished that men should sin so boldly in the sight of Heaven and earth and show so little fear of the most high God. Yet it is a much greater cause of astonishment that while we multiply our iniquities beyond the sands of the sea and have so great a need for God to be kind and indulgent, we are nevertheless so demanding ourselves. Such indignity and such injustice! We want God to suffer everything from us, and we are not able to suffer anything from anyone. We exaggerate beyond measure the faults committed against us; worms that we are, we take the slightest pressure exerted on us to be an enormous attack. Meanwhile, we count as nothing what we undertake proudly against the sovereign majesty of God and the rights of his empire! Blind and wretched mortals: will we always be so sensitive and delicate? Will we never open our eyes to the truth? Will we never understand that the one who does injury to us is always much more to be pitied than are we who receive the injury? . . . Since those who do evil to us are unhealthy in mind, why do we embitter them by our cruel vengeance? Why do we not rather seek to bring them back to reason by our patience and mildness? Yet we are far removed from these charitable dispositions. Far from making the effort at self-command that would enable us to endure an injury, we think that we are lowering ourselves if we do not take pride in being delicate in points of honor. We even think well of ourselves for our extreme sensitivity. And we carry our resentment beyond all measure . . . All of this must stop . . . We must take care of what we say and bridle our malicious anger and unruly tongues. For there is a God in Heaven who has told us that he will demand a reckoning of our ‘careless words’ (Matt. 12:36): what recompense shall he exact for those which are harmful and malicious? We ought, therefore, to revere his eyes and his presence. Let us ponder the fact that he will judge us as we have judged our neighbor.”— Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet, p. 49-51

//The Catholic Company//

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Minute Meditation – Trusting God’s Justice

“I entrust myself to you because you do not disappoint; I do not understand, but even without understanding, I entrust myself to your hands.—Pope Francis

The plight of Susanna in today’s first reading from the Book of Daniel (13:1-62) is familiar to anyone who has been abused by someone with greater power, more authority, a high reputation in the community. The judges used their position to take advantage of someone with no power, no voice, seemingly no defense. In a similar way, the woman in our Gospel reading is brought before Jesus by those who are more interested in defending their authority than in treating her as a fellow human being. In each case, someone steps forward to defend the innocent, to raise up the oppressed, to speak for justice and righteousness. But we know all too well that this doesn’t always happen. Even in the Gospel, those who drifted away at Jesus’s challenge returned to kill him and so reject his law of compassion. And so we come to the pope’s words. Trusting God when we are suffering, when we are being treated unjustly, when we are abused goes against everything our human instincts tell us is right. We long for a Daniel to swoop in to vanquish the villains and save the day. We want a super hero. But the Gospel reminds us that what we have is in fact a savior, an advocate. But sometimes we have to wait for the plan to unfold fully. 

Call to mind an experience of injustice from your own life or the life of someone you love. Recall your response to the situation, your anger, your hopes, your fears. Take all of those feelings and offer them to God. Let your heart struggle to feel the faith and the trust that all will be well.

— from the book The Hope of Lent: Daily Reflections from Pope Francis 

by Diane M. Houdek

//Franciscan Media//

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Minute Meditation – God Loves Even Those Unlike Us

“ O almighty and merciful God, Lord of the universe and of history. All that You have created is good and your compassion for the mistakes of mankind knows no limits. We come to You today to ask You to keep in peace the world and its people, to keep far away from it the devastating wave of terrorism, to restore friendship and instill in the hearts of your creatures the gift of trust and of readiness to forgive.”—Pope Francis

Pope Francis never hesitates to turn the light of truth inward as well as outward. The Gospel, especially as John tells it, reminds us that Jesus suffered as much at the hands of those who shared his religious faith as he did at the hands of outsiders. Persecution happens because of misguided power, anger at perceived injustice, fear of those who are not like us, who don’t share our beliefs and sometimes even our opinions. What begins as a disagreement over ideas can be magnified and escalated into rejection, ostracism, violence, and even death. And it can—and does—happen among Catholics of different philosophies, between Catholics and other Christians, between Christians and those of other faiths. In today’s Gospel the Pharisees sneer at Nicodemus when they ask if he, too, is from Galilee, a rural region that the residents of Jerusalem considered backward and inferior. We do this even today. We think we know how people will behave based on what part of the country they’re from. We divide our own cities and towns into good areas and bad areas. We absorb the prejudices of lifelong citizens even when we’re new to an area. Often we wouldn’t think of going to another part of town because of what we think we know about it, often based only on what we hear from others. Spend some time today learning about another faith, another culture, another set of beliefs. Set aside as much as is humanly possible the division of us and them, me and other. Look at the world from someone else’s perspective. 

— from the book The Hope of Lent: Daily Reflections from Pope Francis

by Diane M. Houdek

//Franciscan Media//

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Morning Offering

“The fast of Lent has no advantage to us unless it brings about our spiritual renewal. It is necessary while fasting to change our whole life and practice virtue. Turning away from all wickedness means keeping our tongue in check, restraining our anger, avoiding all gossip, lying and swearing. To abstain from these things—herein lies the true value of the fast.” — St. John Chrysostom

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Morning Offering – Poison For The Soul

“Put aside your hatred and animosity. Take pains to refrain from sharp words. If they escape your lips, do not be ashamed to let your lips produce the remedy, since they have caused the wounds. Pardon one another so that later on you will not remember the injury. The recollection of an injury is itself wrong. It adds to our anger, nurtures our sin and hates what is good. It is a rusty arrow and poison for the soul. It puts all virtue to flight.”
— St. Francis of Paola