Tag: Commandments

Posted on

Sermon Notes – October 10 – “Because I Like Skittles”

“Because I Like Skittles”

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

 October 9 – 10, 2021

Gospel:  Mark 10:17-30

One day when I was at Fort Campbell, I went into the First Sergeant’s office to say, “good morning.”   The First Sergeant said, “Good morning.  Hey Sir, you know your chaplain’s assistant is graduating from air assault school.  His road march is on Friday.”   Oh, goodie!  Thanks for reminding me.  I appreciate it!   I left his office, but I didn’t appreciate it.  It meant that on Friday at 0-dark-30, I would be out there for graduation and the final test:  a 12-mile march in full field gear through gently rolling hills similar to the Alps.  The custom at Fort Campbell and the 101st is that if there is one person in your section doing push-ups or a road march, you all do it.  The only saving grace is that I didn’t have to wear the field gear.  Oh, there is nothing I’d rather do first thing in the morning than go on a 12-mile march at 44 years old.  Thank you, First Sergeant!  I probably could have gotten out of it, but I sucked it up and went anyway.  I was looking forward to the relaxation and being one with Mother Nature.   Um…No.   I would be running with children who basically had to run all the time.  Why did we do it?  We sacrificed to build and reinforce the bond of trust we have with our fellow soldiers…the band of brothers.  Is it pleasant?  Oh, heck no!  But it was the right thing to do.  They are works of love.  The bond with your fellow soldier is that he would die for you and you for him.  Works of love don’t always have to be enjoyed.  Why do we perform works of love?  We do them because it pleases the beloved. 

Our Lord said, “If you love Me keep my Commandments.”  Nowhere did our Lord say, “if you would like to” or “if it’s convenient” or “if you aren’t too busy” or “if you’re in the mood.”  He never said those things.  He said, “If you love Me keep my Commandments.”  The Commandments are not just draconian measures that our Lord has given us to ruin our fun.  The works of love teach us how to go outside of ourselves, to renounce our fallen nature, and to do something for Him.  It may manifest itself in someone or through someone else.  Everything we do with love; we do for Christ.  Doing works of love is not always pleasant.  Do you know why some people find the works of love unpleasant?  Because we are too much in love with ourselves.  The works of love are always focused on the beloved and not on self.   The Gift of the Magi is a short love story written by O. Henry.   Love is always focused on the other, and when we find the works of love inconvenient, unpleasant, or distasteful, that is the time we grow most in love by dying to ourselves and living more for our good Lord.  “Father, I had a game and couldn’t come to Mass.”  Really?  Saint Augustine wrote that “if there is any work involved in love, the work itself is love.”  And that is true.  The young man who approached our good Lord was unwilling to leave everything and follow Him.  Our Lord was testing him.  How much do you love Me?  The young man kept the Commandments and that was wonderful; however, he did not learn the lesson from them.  What is the lesson from the Ten Commandments?   It is total renunciation of oneself to the Beloved.   That’s the lesson.  Go sell everything you have.  Give to the poor.  Your possessions are a representation of yourself.  Give everything you have into service for our good Lord to use as He sees fit.  All the fruits of your talents and labors when used to support your family are works of justice and love.  So don’t feel bad about that.   People say you cannot earn a lot of money from the job you’ve worked at for 30 or 40 years.  You can’t enjoy it because you didn’t earn it.  It’s a work of justice and moral obligation to support yourself and your family and ultimately to pay taxes.  Put yourself and all your talents and abilities in God’s hands.  Renounce yourself and give yourself to Him.  The young man did not see that.  Hopefully, he eventually got it right. 

You’ve heard the phrase “follow the science.”  Who says that?  People who want you to follow their version of “science.”  You know what the science is for people recovering from any addiction?  No matter how much medicine is involved, make sure they come back from Opioids, Meth, or booze, and that they don’t die from detox.  That’s a big drawback.  In all the twelve-step programs, what’s the key to renewal and freedom from addictions and obsessions?  It begins with Step 1 which is perhaps the most important step – admitting that we are powerless.  The final step is to have a spiritual awakening.  There is a Seventh Step prayer…I’ll let you look that up too.  It’s a prayer of total renunciation.  In all the groups that started these types of programs what was the first prayer?  It wasn’t the “Our Father” but the “Peace Prayer” by Saint Francis.  “Lord make me an instrument of Your peace.  Where there is hatred, let me sow love.” That’s a renunciation of self.  Take me and use me as you will with all my talents especially where it is most helpful for people who know my faults.  It’s through your faults that shows people what God has done for you and the mercy he has shown to us all.  We do works of love not for ourselves because it pleases us…that’s selfishness.   The Commandments aren’t legal checkmarks you have to do like driving the speed limit when the police are around.  The Commandments are works of love.  They teach us renunciation of self. They are only burdensome when we want what we want when we want it, or we find them to be inconvenient because we love ourselves more.  They are not always convenient.  They are not always pleasant.  I’m sure changing diapers is not always pleasant.  I’ve been in hospitals.  Believe me, there are far worse smells in a hospital than in a diaper.  Trust me on this one.   Sometimes I leave patients’ rooms and have Skittles.  Know why I have Skittles?  Because I like Skittles. 

We all have fallen natures.  Just this morning I was here, long before you, saying my prayers.  And I really wanted some coffee.  I mean I REALLY wanted coffee.  The coffee had already been brewed.  But what was more important… my cup of coffee or my prayers?   You know the answer, but darn it, I wanted some coffee.  Today, the good side of my nature won, but it’s always a fight.  So, when difficulties come, always remember Who the works of love are for.

Father’s Afterthoughts:

·       I want to thank the Daughters of Mary for the marvelous meal they provided after the funeral Mass  for Elaine Gibbs.  The funeral luncheons they do is something to die for.  

·         When I was in the Army, I always loved those eight mile runs in the rain.  It was so refreshing and cleansing.  Thank you, sir.  Could you make this suck any more?

How will you apply this message to your life? 


You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to https://annunciationcatholicalbemarle.com/ and clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” and then “Sermon Notes.”   Sermon notes can also be found on the church Facebook page by searching for “Facebook Our Lady of the Annunciation Albemarle”

Posted on

Sermon Notes – Rules? There Are Rules?

“Rules? There Are Rules?”

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

May 8 – 9, 2021

Gospel:  John 15:9-17

Now, when I was in seminary we had to study…a lot.  “So, Father, you learned a lot of rules.”  Maybe.  We had a semester in Moral Theology.  Then there was the Canon Law course which we took twice, because there are two different versions…the one we were living under at the time and the one that would be in effect five years down the road.  The funny thing about that is the first part was the one we had to study and were tested on, but it was only written in Latin.  It could not be translated into English, because there wasn’t a precise translation, and Canon Law is very precise.  So, you sit there in class with a Latin dictionary.  Great!  One year of Latin in high school just didn’t quite cut it.  So, yeah, there are a lot of rules, if you want to look at it that way.  If you look at them without love, then they are RULES.  But, if you at them with love, they are the way God gives us His healing power and keeps us from harm.  So, they aren’t really RULES. 

You know what else has RULES?  Flight school.  Anybody can take a plane up, and everybody can land it…but, landing the plane safely is the tricky part.  You know who else has RULES?  Doctors.  Medicine has lots of RULES.  You can’t do this and you can’t do that…well, you could, but a good outcome would be doubtful.  What’s the first rule in. Medicine?  Do no harm.  Great idea!  That philosophy almost applies to military doctors.  Doctors study all these RULES so they can bring God’s healing gift to you.  Otherwise, there are a lot of people who wouldn’t be here today.  What are the RULES for?  Through the actions of our health providers, the RULES are there so that God’s healing gifts may be granted to heal us, to console us, and to comfort our families.   It’s the same with God’s Commandments.  If you follow them, you get what He promised.  The RULES of medicine are acts of love.  The emptying of oneself, because you don’t know everything, allows God’s healing power to flow from you to the other person. 

The same thing is true with the Church.  The RULES are set in the Gospel as Commandments.  What are they?  They are works of love.  “If you love me, keep My Commandments.” So, the Commandments are works of love.  They are not RULES.  What makes people look at the Church and say, “There are a lot of RULES” is ego.  We call that “king baby.”  “I want what I want when I want it.”  Now, I am blessed to have a wonderful cardiologist.  He’s a very, very gifted man and a wonderful healer, except he lacks something in his education.  Maybe, he was sick that day in medical school.  Apparently, he doesn’t know that bacon is heart healthy, and I can’t quite convince him that it is.  I want what I want when I want it.  Those are people’s RULES. 

God loves us unconditionally, because God is love itself.  He created us out of love, and He saved us out of love. God continues to loves us even when we tick him off by sinning.  We have to accept His love and give that love back.  But, we put conditions on receiving Him as if we are the ones making the RULES.  Is anybody here perfect?  Bea, don’t put your hand up.  So, no one.  That’s why we need a Savior, and that’s why we are here.  This is a hospital for sinners – not hotel for saints.  We do not set conditions on His love; instead, we seek it.   He wants to give Himself to us, but not if we aren’t prepared to receive Him.  These are the RULES so that the gift of His love will not be insulted, mocked, or held up for ridicule.  We take His love and make a mockery of it. 

Even though God’s love is unconditional, we cannot do whatever we want just because God will love us anyway.  “I can do this because God loves me unconditionally.”  “I’m going to do that because God will love me anyway.”   No…you cannot.  In the Gospel, our Lord said, “Whoever does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple” (Matthew 10:38) and everybody left Him.   When He declared that marriage is between one man and one woman (Matthew 19:4-7), everybody left Him.  When our Lord told His disciples, “…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53), everybody left Him.  Christ said, “If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love” (John 15:10). These are the RULES.  We have RULES to guide us so that we understand what acts of love are and what they are not. 

We all make mistakes, and we are judged on them.  “My conscious is my guide.”   Well, it shouldn’t be.  The judgement of the Church should be your guide, because it is infallible in matters of faith and morals.  My own judgement is not too good.  Remember bacon?  There are rules about Holy Communion.  Non-Catholics and non-practicing Catholics cannot receive.  Saint Paul wrote that whoever receives the Eucharist unworthily “will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:27-30).  They are not guilty of being impolite – they are guilty of His death.  Instead of loving Christ, those who receive unworthily are taking His gift and throwing it in His face.  “I don’t care what You want, this is what I want.”   Be sure to read the black part of Scripture, and leave the white part alone.  These are not RULES.  There are no RULES in the Church…only acts of love.  If we find His Commandments and the Church’s rules to be odious and burdensome, that’s our ego from the first sin.  Remember, it was not committed by Adam and Eve, but by Lucifer who said, “I will not serve.”   

The next time you hear someone say, “Catholics have a lot of RULES,” just say, ‘”You know, if you read the Gospels, Jesus had a lot of RULES.  But, those RULES tell us how to die to ourselves so that He can live within us.”  Yes, we have RULES, but they are acts of love.  If we have a problem with the RULES, then we have a problem with our love of God. 

How will you apply this message to your life? Are you making a mockery of His love by following your own set of rules instead of His Commandments?    

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.

Posted on

Sermon Notes – There’s No Apple Pie in Heaven (Darn It)

“There’s No Apple Pie in Heaven (Darn It!)“

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

April 10 – 11, 2021

Gospel:  John 20:19-31

You may remember my sermon on Holy Thursday that was so wonderfully entitled “When a one man band gets hit in the butt with a beer truck, the music stops.”  Our Lord gave the apostles and their successors the ability to carry on with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the ages so that the fruits He won through His death could be passed on.  He told the apostles if you forgive their sins, they are forgiven.  That happens every generation with every priest.  Any priest who says the Mass has the power to give these gifts and to forgive sins.  We have to hear the sins by the way.  Jesus told the apostles, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven, if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”  So, how do we know?  Because people tell us.  The sins we hold bound and do not offer forgiveness for are those you are not sorry for and those you are not going to try to stop.  If you come in and say you are living with two girlfriends as husband and wife, and you are not going to stop, I cannot forgive you because you are attached to the sin.  So, you have now heard part of the penance course. 

Also in the gospel, and the main point I want to get at, is that the transfiguration took place about ten days before the Passion.  Our Lord showed us what the saints are like in Heaven.  They are recognizable, and they know the future because Heaven is the eternal now.  We are in time, but Heaven is not.  Our good Lord shows us what the saints would be like after the resurrection of the body and the General Judgement should we pass that final exam.  The questions come from Matthew Chapter 25… I’ll give you a heads-up so you can prepare for it.  He shows us what it will be like and how to get there.  He shows us that we will have a body and that it will be recognizable and that it can move through walls.  “It’s a ghost!”  No, it’s not.  It has physicality to it.  Touch my hand.  Touch my feet.  In the gospel, Jesus asks for food, and He ate it.  Now, we won’t need food in heaven, which I find quite disappointing. My mother has been gone for several decades, and I was looking forward to her apple pie.  Even her sisters say they can’t bake like my mother did.  Thanks, a lot!  So, there will be no food in heaven, but we know that we will have our body with us.

Heaven is a place.  A physical body needs a place in paradise to be in the presence of God.  Our Lord also teaches us how we can get there.  Probe the nail prints in My hands and the spear marks in My side.  Bishop Sheen said that God will judge us by the resemblance of His Son in us.  He will look at us.  He will look at the three parts of man having suffered with My Son for the admission of sin for the sake of others.  He will look at the body, soul, and spirit.  Not everybody will have physical suffering to the extent Christ had, but everyone will have emotional or spiritual sufferings.  Some suffer greatly depending upon the time, the place, and the person.  This is what our God the Father will look for – to see the marks of His Son.  This is how we become like Jesus, God’s resurrected Child. 

We will have our body reunited to our soul.  Remember, the soul and the body cooperated with Christ, therefore they both will receive the reward.  The soul and body cooperated in sin, so they both need to do the punishment.  Our Lord not only showed us what Heaven would be like, He also showed us how to get there.  As Saint John said in his epistle, “If we love Him, keep His commandments.”   A lot of people forget that one part.   If you love Him, keep His commandments.  After all, His commandments are not burdensome.

How will you apply this message to your life?  Do you love Him?  Are you keeping His commandments?

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.