“There is Only One Truth”
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
September 13 – 14, 2025
Gospel: John 3:13-17
Years ago, I took a course taught by Father Buckley who was both an interesting and brilliant man. One day while he was doing academic counseling, a student came into Father Buckley’s office and asked him if he wanted some cake. The student had some chocolate cake left over from his birthday. Father Buckley said, “Cake bad,” and he opened a window and threw out the cake. The only problem was that directly below the window and two stories down was the department director’s car. Oops! I remember that while we were taking our final exam on the New Testament, and after we had said the opening prayers, Father Buckley fell to his knees and said, “Saint Jude!” Oh God, this is not going to be good! One of the questions on the exam was: “What does this mean? Jesus was a stumbling block to the Jews and a folly to the Gentiles.” What that means is that we do not want to suffer for the Savior even though He made suffering the way to salvation.
Many times, during Christ’s ministry, people reacted negatively to His teachings and left Him. When He said that marriage is between a man and a woman and that it is until death, what happened? Everybody left him. When He said, ““Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you,” what happened? Everybody left him. When He suffered and died on the Cross to open the gates of Heaven, what happened? Everybody left Him. Peter even asked Jesus to knock off all the talk about suffering because they were losing people. What was Jesus’ response? He called Peter satan.
At His crucifixion in Golgotha, the high priest said, “Come down from the Cross now, so that we may see and believe” (Mark 15:32). Anything but suffering or renunciation of self. Paul did not preach that while he was in Greece. How many people did he get after preaching in Greece? Two. After reviewing the after-action report, Paul decided to preach about Christ crucified and then what happened? Christianity was spread throughout the world. We preach Christ crucified, not social justice. We don’t need more civil laws. We need more moral people.
Jesus reaches down from the Cross and asks us to grasp His hand. When we grasp His hand, we have a choice to make. Will we pull Him down from the Cross to our level or will we allow Him to raise us up to the Cross so that we may have eternal life? That’s the choice. People say, “I love Christ, but not the Church.” That is impossible, because you cannot separate Christ from the Church. In Acts 9:4, when Saul was on the road to Damascus to persecute Christians, Jesus appeared before him and said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” We don’t need to change what the Church teaches. Every time it has been tried, it hasn’t worked. In Protestant churches, there are 10,000 different denominations all proclaiming their own versions of the truth. Now if you have studied Philosophy, you know that there cannot be 10,000 variations of the truth. The truth is the truth.
We are not called to change the Church. We are not called to change the Sacraments. We are called to change ourselves, and we should start by seeking the Savior to change us. People say, “Well, we need to change things because God wants us to be happy.” In the next life, yes, but not in this one. In this life, we will always have our difficulties. I can no longer eat bacon, so do not tell me about your problems! When I got out of my car the other day at the Breakfast Nook, the aroma of bacon was so thick that I teared up in the parking lot. We will all have troubles in this life, but Jesus is reaching down from the Cross and saying, “Come up to Me, and I will take you to Heaven.”
Father’s Reflections . . . Now, we do not celebrate 9/11, a day on which many people died. But we do honor the day. On the Sunday after 9/11, I went to my parish in Statesville and said to them:
“I will be leaving you very shortly. I am waiting for orders to be called back to active duty overseas. I realize that all of you want payback for this horrendous act of war against us. Give us your sons, daughters, grandsons, and granddaughters, and we will take care of business. Although, I must tell you that some of them will come home to you in a box. So be careful what you wish for. “
How will you apply this message to your life? ________________________________________
You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to AnnunciationCatholicAlbemarle.com, clicking on “Blog,” then “Categories,” and 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