“The Buck Stops Here…With Me”
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
July 7 – 8, 2018
Scripture: Mark 6: 1-6
We often find excuses for our bad behavior just as Adam and Eve did after they disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam blamed Eve for eating the forbidden fruit, and Eve blamed the serpent. We, like Adam and Eve, tend to avoid accepting responsibility for our own blunders; instead, we search for others to throw under the bus.
For example, if we were to ask those who drink too much about the reason for their excessive drinking, we might get the following response: “If you had my [spouse/boss/children/life] you would drink too!
Christ wants to give us the greatest gift of all…the gift of Himself through the sacraments. But, we can find a thousand excuses for not accepting His invitation. We turn our backs on Him for the silliest reasons. Judas traded Jesus’ life for 30 pieces of silver. But we are not so different. We look for reasons to reject His gift too.
Why don’t you participate in Mass?
– It’s in Latin or it’s NOT in Latin
– I’m too busy.
– I’m too tired.
– I believe priests should be married.
– The scheduled Mass times are inconvenient.
Why don’t you go to confession?
– I don’t like going into the confessional booth
– The times for confession are inconvenient
The truth is NOT that we are unable to accept God’s gift because it’s too difficult. God would not set us up to fail. The reality is that we do not want to change. Everything He asks of us is achievable if we love Him enough.
Do we ask our doctors if they are married, to speak in our preferred language, or to expand their office hours to fit our schedules? No.
Furthermore, even though we think we don’t have time to participate in Mass or go to confession, we are able to find the time to watch television, surf the internet, or play video games.
God created us to be joyous; but we will never be happy by getting everything we think we want or need; it is only when we are given what He wants for us will we find true joy.
