Tag: Mother Teresa

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Sermon Notes – July 21, 2024 – “The Greatest Sermon is One People Can See”

“The Greatest Sermon is One People Can See”

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

July 20 – 21, 2024

Gospel:  Mark 6:30-34

Why did so many people come to hear Jesus?  Because He told them about God’s love, and He told the Apostles to go out and do the same.  They performed acts of God’s love.  People heard about the love of God, and they saw the love of God in action when He healed the sick and exorcised demons.  When people saw the love of God, they wanted it because only He could heal the hole in the soul.  That’s what attracted so many people, and that’s how we can bring people into the Church.  We don’t have to be smarter than the average bear.  Saint Paul tried that and it didn’t turn out so well.  So, he began to preach about Christ crucified which is God’s love.  After that, he began to attract a lot of people.  That is also how we should preach to others . . . by talking about the love of God.

I get these emails from the diocese: “You have to preach on stewardship and tithing.”  Have I, in 22 years, ever preached about money?  No, and I never will.   An old Monsignor once told me, “Be a good priest and you won’t have to worry about money.”  When you preach about God’s love, nowhere should there be anything about tithing or a stewardship campaign.  Instead, we should preach about the goodness and love of God.  The Apostles didn’t have a church where someone played Mitch Miller music.  No.  They talked about the love of God.  How do we do that?  The greatest expression of God’s love is His mercy, and we experience His mercy through the Sacraments.  To preach about the love of God, which is manifested in His forgiveness, we have to experience it in the Sacrament of Penance.  We also need to experience His great love in the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  God freely gives Himself to us so that we may have life and have it to the fullest.  It is God’s great love that enables us to receive that gift. 

Now I love the folks who evangelize outside the courthouse.  They are well-intentioned, and I appreciate their zeal.  But I have to wonder if they are taking their meds.  “You’re going to hell!!”  Really?  “If you don’t follow my particular brand of Christianity, you aren’t going to Heaven.”  Really?  How do you know?  If you really knew, you could pick winning lottery numbers, and I don’t see you riding around in a Bentley.  God sees what man doesn’t.  Only God sees the heart, and He judges accordingly.  So, you have no idea.  To say you do is a sin against charity and slanderous.  Never mind that our Lord said, “Judge not lest ye be judged” (Matthew 7:1).  The Curé d’Ars (the parish priest of Ars, France) was talking to a woman whose husband fell off a bridge and drowned.  The woman said, “You can see everything, Father.”  The priest said, “Yes.  God sometimes gives me that gift.”  The woman said, “My husband was a bad man.  He beat me and he was a drunk.  He drowned, so he’s in hell, isn’t he?”  The priest said, “I don’t know.  There was a long time from when he fell from the bridge and hit the water.”  That’s enough time (to express sorrow) for imperfect contrition and to save his soul.  We don’t know, so we entrust everyone to the mercy of God. 

Mother Teresa preached the Gospel by taking care of lepers.  Those people saw God’s love in action.   While I was in Cuba, I had the privilege of offering Mass to Mother Theresa’s Sisters.  Besides Mass, they spent two hours a day in prayer in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.  That’s where they got the strength to do the kind of work that would make most people want to retch.  Have you ever smelled leprosy?  It is not pleasant.  By the way, the Sisters did not wear masks, but they bathed the lepers and helped them with their bodily functions because they couldn’t.  The Sisters showed God’s love by taking care of the very sick and dying.  There was no money exchanged; the Sisters did it out of love for God. 

We preach the love of God by our works of mercy.  The greatest sermon is one that people can see.  Saint Francis said, “Preach the Gospel at all times; use words when necessary.”

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.”

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Sermon Notes – October 15, 2023 – “Evil Must be Converted or Destroyed”

“Evil Must be Converted or Destroyed”

 Father Peter Fitzgibbons

 October 14 – 15, 2023

Gospel:  Matthew 22:1-14


I’ve been here with you for many years, so you know that I know a guy.  Actually, I know a couple of guys, and those guys know a couple of other guys.  So, I have sources of information that you may or may not have.  As the song goes, I have friends in low places. I know people on the dark side.  Over the years, I have queried my sources on several topics, and they have been most helpful.  There is one query in particular that all my sources gave me the same answer.  So, I have it on good authority that Mother Teresa was never a member of Hells Angels.  You can take that to the bank.  I heard she liked to ride, so why was Mother Teresa never a member of Hells Angels?  Because she didn’t want to be.  Why not?  She had the greatest of all things in her heart which is Jesus Christ.   Over the years, through many trials, tribulations, and great suffering, she survived with joy because she always kept Christ in her heart. No matter how great her difficulties were, she found peace in the person of Jesus.  The world will only find peace when they have Jesus in their hearts. 

Just this week, I received a phone call from the diocese.  They told me that I have to migrate my emails to another location.  Yeah, what are the odds of that happening.  I’ll give you a clue as to where they can migrate them.   Many years ago, the diocese called my former secretary and said, “Father’s email account is full.  He’d better delete some of them or we are going to close the account.”   My secretary said, “Father has been in Iraq for the last eight months.”   I tend to ignore these requests.  Let me put it this way; we built Catholic hospitals, Catholic orphanages, and Catholic universities.  We Christianized the world by bringing God’s love to it and all without computers or the internet.  When I was in seminary, I used an old-fashioned manual typewriter.  People actually wrote books using those things.

There are evil people in the world.  A small percentage are evil because they are mentally ill.   Some of them are over at FU (Felon University; i.e., the prison).   Most people are evil because they have satan in their hearts.  They are not evil because they don’t have fresh plumbing or a smartphone.  Do you realize that we have saints who didn’t have flush plumbing?  “Oh, people are bad because they don’t have stuff.  If they just had flush plumbing, a smartphone, or more bandwidth, they would be okay.”   It has been proven over the years that giving people stuff does not work.  My parents grew up poor, and they weren’t sociopaths.  My uncle did go to prison, but he was a correctional officer and got to go home at night.   It’s not the lack of stuff that makes people evil.  It’s what is lacking in the heart.  I’ve been with men all over the world, and we didn’t have stuff other than what we could carry.  None of us were sociopaths.  They would die for me, and I would die for them.  Sociopaths may not have had stuff, but they certainly didn’t have Christ in their hearts and so they are evil. 

There is no negotiating with evil.  It would be like negotiating with cancer.  “Hey, Cancer, we’ll let you have the gall bladder, but you cannot go anywhere else.”  “Okay, you can have the appendix, but don’t touch any of the survivors.”  No!  You have to eradicate cancer by putting pharmacies into people to kill every cancer cell in the body to make sure it doesn’t come back.  Would you be happy if your doctor told you that they got most of the cancer?  Would you be happy with that?   No, you wouldn’t.  Cancer is evil in the body.  Sin is evil in the soul.  You cannot make friends with evil, and you cannot negotiate with it.  It must be converted or destroyed.   

In the synod on synodality, they are promoting openness while people are being butchered and babies are being decapitated in the Holy Land.  They have no conception of reality.  “Well, we all believe in the same god.”  No, we don’t.  “But we are all Christians, so we believe in the same god.”  No, no, no!  I’m throwing the BS flag on that one too.  All religions are not equal.  So, you cannot say that we are all Christian.   My Christian God doesn’t think that killing babies in the womb is a really good idea.  Decapitating babies or making excuses for those who do is pure evil and satanic.  My Christian God also doesn’t think that washing our hands of mom and dad when they get a little too old to care for is a good idea.  “Sorry, Mom and Dad.  We need the bed.  Bye-bye!”  No!  Our God does not do that.  But the Nazis did.  Life unworthy of life was a Nazi designation for segments of the population which, according to the Nazi regime, had no right to live.  Know what happened after the war?  We tracked every one of them down and we hung them.   A little neck stretching exercise courtesy of the U.S. Army. 

We don’t negotiate with evil.  It is either converted or it must be destroyed.   You cannot negotiate with evil.  Jesus said, “Let your Yes mean Yes and your No mean No.  Anything else is from the Evil One.” (Matthew 5:37).   He didn’t say to negotiate.  The danger for us is that they use all these fancy words that actually mean nothing.  I have a degree in philosophy.  I hear all these fancy words, and it’s academic bravo sierra.   We would use all those big words to fill up a term paper, so it looked like we’d actually done some work.  It’s a game.  Congress said, “We’ve come to an agreement.”   Nah.  The only way to have peace in the world is to have Jesus constantly in our souls.  Evil is in the world because satan, and not Jesus, is in our hearts.

 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.”

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The Measure of Your Life Will Be the Measure of Your Courage – [Courage Series Part 3]

“Who are the people you most admire from history? Take a moment to wander through the pages of history— your family’s history, your nation’s history, human history—and extract from those pages the men and women you most admire. What would they be without courage?

Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Jane Austen, Ada Lovelace, Martin Luther King Jr., Christopher Columbus, Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, Oscar Schindler, Anne Frank, Mother Teresa, Henry Ford, Mark Twain, Shakespeare, DaVinci, Newton, Jobs, Churchill, Galileo, Mandela, Mozart, Edison, Van Gough, Gutenberg.

Who would they have been without courage? How would their lives have been different without courage? How would our lives be different if they had lacked the courage to embrace their destiny? How would the world be different?

Their lives can be measured in courage and yours will be too. The measure of your life will be the measure of your courage.

Nothing worthwhile in history has been achieved without courage. Courage is the father of every great moment and movement in history. And courage will give birth to the next great season of your life.”

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Sermon Notes – July 30, 2023 – The Most Important Thing

The Most Important Thing

 Father Peter Fitzgibbons

July 29 – 30, 2023

Gospel:  Matthew 13:44-52

The last time I took a vacation up north, I was listening to the radio to catch up on the local news, and there was a news item about Taylor Swift.  I have no idea who she is, but apparently, she’s a performer and a good one.   One father bought tickets for his daughter to go see Taylor Swift for $2,500.  Really?  Haven’t people heard of a thing called “radio”?  How many CDs would that buy?  I’m just saying!   People are paying $2,500, and that’s just for tickets, but they also have to pay for parking and food.  People like to go to Carolina Panthers games, paying hundreds of dollars for the privilege, and that’s usually in the “nosebleed” section.   Hmmm.  How much does it cost to come to see the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity, Christ Incarnate, present here in the Tabernacle?  Let’s do a cost/benefit analysis on that one, shall we?   God, Himself, is here in the Tabernacle – for free – but not many people show up.  You get to look at God and God gets to look at you.   And it’s better for you.   Now, if you have the money and want to spend it, that’s up to you.  Enjoy yourself . . . that’s your right.  But don’t forget Who is most important.   If you lose Christ, that is a price beyond measure.   

I had a baptism, a wedding, and a wedding preparation session yesterday . . . all in a foreign language – Spanglish.  My Saturdays are never dull.  “Don’t worry, Father – your Spanish is very good.”  Spanish is my fourth language.  Actually, it’s my fifth language – I speak Army proficiently.  So, it’s my fifth language, although I’m not very good at my first.  People think I’m bright – but I’m not.  People want to come in and decorate the church and have a big rehearsal.  And that’s wonderful.   Priests say that they would prefer ten funerals to one wedding.  Funerals are easier to manage, but they are even beginning to get out of hand with the nonnegotiable demands of families.  The decorations in the church are important, although I wish the brides would wear more modest dresses.  I’m a hospital chaplain.  I’ve seen more body parts in 40 years than you will ever have.  Believe me . . . it’s not a thrill.  The most important thing that happens at a wedding is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass . . . the presentation of our Lord’s constant sacrifice before the Father in Heaven.  His greatest act of love which will continue until the end of time for our salvation.  

The second most beautiful thing in a wedding is a man and a woman responding to the love of God.  By saying their vows, they are saying “yes” to Almighty God, and they receive a new vocation.  Their love for God makes them confident enough to say “yes” to Him and to procreate according to the Law of Nature.  Then they are taken up into the Holy Sacrifice and offered to the Father.  That’s the most beautiful thing.  Uniting themselves to God gives meaning to everything.   By focusing on all the other stuff, you are missing what is truly beautiful – the Real Presence of Christ in the Tabernacle.  That’s the most beautiful thing and the one on which we should focus. 

There is a policy book on what to do and not to do regarding decorations in the church.   I had a wedding in a Quonset hut in Korea in the Demilitarized Zone with a broken-down organ.  The American soldier’s parents were there, and they looked worried.   Yeah, if something happens, we’re all dead.  Don’t worry about it.   When I arrived in Korea, I received a briefing from the base commander who said, “Gentlemen, our orders are to die in place.”   I have gone to bed with happier thoughts.   No female soldiers were allowed where we were.  One came by accident, and when it was discovered that the soldier was female, she was gone in less than an hour.  But I remember vividly that wedding and the couple exchanging their vows in a Quonset hut built by Marines in 1953.   Yet that moment was cosmic because the couple found the Pearl of Christ in their vocation . . . the vocation of God.  Everything else in life would take its proper place and have more meaning.  Their personal wants and desires were all sacrificed for one goal . . . building up the love between them by first building up the love of God. 

This is what I tell couples during marriage preparation, and it’s what I told the couple yesterday.  Pray together every day, especially the Rosary.  Bishop Sheen said that.  They didn’t teach that in seminary.  I went to seminary during a very bad time, but I also learned from the ancient masters.  Pray the Rosary every night out loud and not the way the French do.  They really need to take some Valium and slow down.  It’s French – not “mumble.”  Let God hear it.  Words have meaning. 

We are given the pearl of Christ at Baptism, and it can be disguised as all sorts of things we encounter in the world.   He becomes a part of us in Holy Communion and in all the Sacraments to give us purpose, to give us strength, to give us hope, and to give us consolation.  This is what He offers us.  Once our focus is on Him, everything else falls into line appropriately.  When the people we encounter, whether it’s on the highway or in the supermarket, aren’t exactly nice, we tend to go haywire.  “They don’t like me!  They were so mean to me!”  First, look at what Christ puts up with.  And second, those people who were mean to you may be having problems.  “I think everyone should be nice to me because I’m a really nice guy.  Oh wait, I’m supposed to forgive the faults of others out of love for Him.”  Right.  By the way, this lesson will be repeated over and over again.  Mother Teresa and the Sisters of Charity spend a minimum of two hours a day in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.  They get their strength through the Mass and prayer. 

The church is open every day.  God is waiting here for us.  I have plenty of room at Mass, and I am not overburdened with confessions.  I wish I were.  The pearl of Christ wants to come into your soul.

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.”

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Sermon Notes – February 5, 2023 – “We Are in Combat”

“We Are in Combat”

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

February 4 – 5, 2023

Gospel:   Matthew 5:13-16

13 ‘You are salt for the earth. But if salt loses its taste, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out to be trampled under people’s feet.  14 ‘You are light for the world. A city built on a hill-top cannot be hidden.  15 No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house.  16 In the same way your light must shine in people’s sight, so that, seeing your good works, they may give praise to your Father in heaven.

When I was overseas, every day felt like Ground Hog Day.   I was the Catholic priest for the Logistical Command and the area around it.  It was a large area.  We were in the rear with the gear.  A couple of times a w eek, I would do a daytrip up to the war front.  I had to drive up there, do my thing, and drive back.  So don’t complain to me about your commute to Charlotte.  Anyway, I was in my office and a soldier walked in.  He was rather filthy as most soldiers are.  The soldier said, “I was told to report to the chaplain.”  Well, you found him.  Good for you!  Come on in and let’s have a chat.  So, he was telling me about what had happened.  He was infantry, and he and his friends had to take care of business up in the north.  He was upset that he had been sent back to be a convoy guard.  He wanted to stay with his buddies.   I told him that I would feel the same way.  But they want one of the best to be one of their guards.  They are driving around and trying to avoid IED’s and all sorts of other nasty stuff on the road.  They want one of the best to keep an eye out for them so that they can go home too when this is all over.   The soldier said, “Yeah, okay . . . sir.”   I asked him how long he would be here, and he said three days.   Okay . . .for the next three days, I want you to sleep, get some ice cream and pizza, see a movie, and go to the pool.  And those are not suggestions.  “Yes sir.”  Before you leave come back to see me.  Three days later, the soldier came back to see me, and he looked totally different. . .so much better.  I asked him if he was ready to go back, and he said, “Yes, sir.”  I told him he had done a good job and to keep his eyes open so we could all make it home.  The soldiers said, “Yes, sir” and thanked me for talking to him.  The change in him was phenomenal.  A smart officer where he had been saw that this soldier had combat stress or fatigue and sent him back to the rear.   A classic way to deal with combat stress is to take three days of rest and refresh (R & R) and go back.   He would have less problems in theater, be able to keep his mind in the game, and have less problems when he returned home.   The Army would take soldiers out of the field so that they could rest.  No matter how hard we trained them, they had to come out of the game to rest. 

We are all in combat.  We are fighting the devil constantly.  We all need to take time out for our ourselves and to pray.  That’s the most important thing.   Jesus took His disciples aside and said, “Come away and pray.”  We all need time to be alone with our Lord.  We pray to refresh.  The priest who preached at my first Mass said, “You will spend more time on your toes like a boxer, if you spend more time on your knees.”  You cannot give what you do not have.”   Mother Teresa’s sisters, who I had the pleasure of working with in Guantanimo Bay, spent at least two hours a day in prayer plus Mass.   That’s how you keep your Savior near.   It’s how people will see Christ in you.  “Well, I work on Sundays.”  “If I do a good deed on Sunday, do i still have to go to Mass?”   If you are on your way to Mass and get called to an emergency, you have an excuse.  But you cannot use that excuse every week.  And I’m sure that people don’t have a health crisis every Saturday at 5:00 and Sunday at 9:30 and 12:15.  No.  “Well, I watch Mass on television.”  Well, I watch cooking shows on television and I’m still hungry.  I watch golf shows on television and I still stink at the game.  

During marriage preparation, I give couples the key to a happy marriage.  “What’s that, Father?”  Pray the Rosary together each night before you go to bed.  I didn’t get that on my own. . .I’m not that holy or bright.  I got it from Bishop Sheen.   I also advise couples to practice their faith.  When couples come to me with marital problems, the first question I ask is, “Do you pray together?”   “Do you go to church together?”   Yeah, that’s the same reaction I get.  You are carrying a cross that is heavy, and you can become weary.   We think we are a lot tougher than we really are.    

All of us have our crosses, and we all get weary.  We need to spend time in prayer. . .lots and lots of time.  Your work is not your prayer.  Believe it or not, I have a degree in Philosophy.   I learned in Philosophy 101 that work is not a prayer.  Know why?  They are different words with different letters.  Work is not prayer.   Work is a vocation.  Work can be part of your prayer life, but prayer is different.  Prayer is an act of love.  Work is an act of love too, but it’s different.   I know a priest who once said, “My work is my prayer.”   Well, say goodbye to your vocation.  I cannot give what I do not have, so I need to spend a lot of time in prayer. 

We look for comfort in things that are not of God.  Maybe it’s in a bottle, a pill, people, places, or things.   It is important to spend time in prayer.   I don’t care how busy we think we are or how important.  One day I’m going to be heavy into real estate in a tiny house and another priest will be here.  I won’t be cold in my grave, and another priest will be here to take my place. 

Husbands, wives, mothers, and fathers take the crosses of everyone upon them besides their own.  It’s called transference.  In Scripture, when our Lord healed what did He do?  He sighed and groaned as He took their pain upon Himself.  You see the pain of everyone and their sins there on the Cross.  You do that with your family and friends.  You do that with the crosses people place upon you.  This is why prayer is so necessary.  It’s why the Sacraments are so necessary.  We cannot do it by ourselves.  We will fall and we will destroy ourselves.   You must take the time, and that time is the best investment in yourself and those you love.  It’s how you keep your edge.  It’s how people will see Christ’s light in you.  And by taking that time out, you will keep the flame alive.   

We are the salt of the earth, and we can lose our Savior very quickly.  Sometimes it happens slowly and more quickly at other times.  That time away in prayer is so important.  Never minimize it.  Never say, “I have to go to work.”   If you pray and become holy, your work will go much better and faster.  So, tune out all the distractions to pray and to be alone with God.

Father’s Reflections. . .

I heard from reliable sources, and I have authenticated the message, that next Sunday is the Super Bowl.  I’m thrilled about it. . . actually, I don’t care.  I don’t want to watch millionaires play for millions of dollars.  That really doesn’t excite me.  “These guys are great!  They are stars!”  Really?  If you were not at Terri Campbell’s funeral yesterday and you didn’t talk to the family, you wouldn’t know that Terri’s brother-in-law was a hero in the true sense of the word.  Now you probably wouldn’t give this guy a second look.  He has white hair and is beginning to get a stoop.  But he was an F-4 fighter pilot in Vietnam.  That alone is quite impressive.  However, he was shot down over Vietnam and spent six years in the Hanoi Hilton.  There is a real hero. 

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” then “Menu” and then “Categories.”  Sermon Notes are also available on the church Facebook page at facebook.com/ola.catholic.church.  Click on “Groups” and then “Sermon Notes.”

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Sermon Notes – January 29, 2023 – You May Be Canceled

“You May Be Canceled”

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

January 28-29, 2023

Gospel:  Matthew 5:1-12

1 Seeing the crowds, He went onto the mountain. And when He was seated His disciples came to Him.  2 Then He began to speak. This is what He taught them:  3 How blessed are the poor in spirit: the kingdom of Heaven is theirs. 4 Blessed are the gentle: they shall have the earth as inheritance. 5 Blessed are those who mourn: they shall be comforted. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for uprightness: they shall have their fill. 7 Blessed are the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart: they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers: they shall be recognised as children of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness: the kingdom of Heaven is theirs. 11 ‘Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you falsely on my account.  12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you.

I love our good Lord’s Sermon on the Mount.  The interesting part for priests is that our Lord spoke eight sentences and only seven from the Cross.  Multitudes heard Him from the mountain side.  He didn’t have a microphone, but He sat down and talked to them in eight sentences.  It’s a textbook for preaching.  Our Lord gave the fruits of holiness.  If you live a holy life, you will be blessed, and the Kingdom of Heaven will be yours. 

Our Lord spoke about virtues, and if you have these virtues, you are blessed.  There are two kinds of virtues:  acquired or habitual and infused virtues.  Acquired virtues you receive by doing.  There are three types of infused virtues:  faith, hope, and charity.  They are infused because you receive them in the Sacraments.   Infused virtues become operative when you cooperate with them.  It’s just like some of the medicine we take.  I have a pill that I take 30 minutes before I eat.  But if I don’t wait 30 minutes and eat right after taking the pill, the medicine doesn’t work and does me no good.  I have to cooperate with the medicine in order to benefit from its good effects.   It’s the same thing with the grace in your soul.  You have to cooperate by doing the right thing, staying away from sin, and doing acts of virtue.  When you do acts of virtue by prayer, mortification, and corporal/spiritual works of mercy, you acquire these virtues as long as you don’t lose them by sinning.  The virtues come with a blessing. . .a promise of divine favor.  And that’s pretty wonderful.  “Hey, this is cool. . . I’ve got a road map, and I’m going to make it.”  Well, yes and no.  Yes, you will make it.  But one of the blessings we receive is not really one that we want.  What is one of the blessings we will receive?  We will be crucified with Him because this world does not accept a life of virtue.  As much as the world doesn’t want to hear His message, they don’t want to hear ours. 

We are in a gradual degradation of Christianity, and it’s called the “woke” culture.  “How do you identify, Mr. Fitzgibbons?”  Really?  My father isn’t here, but you can call me “Father.”  That’s how I identify.  My personal pronouns are “Father,” but “Monsignor” is my personal favorite.   If the “woke” culture doesn’t like you, they will try to cancel you.  It’s all threats.  It’s all evil.  And they aren’t very good at it.  They will try to intimidate you.  The people I used to work with went to places where we almost had our birth certificates canceled.  That’s very different from getting your feelings hurt.  Do you know why the woke culture is evil?  “Oh, it’s justice!”  No, it’s not. . .it’s evil because of the belligerence.  It’s like a drunk:   “I only drink because you treat me terribly!”   No, you drink because you want to; don’t give me that line.  They put the blame on somebody else because they know deep down inside that they are living against moral law.  That’s why they are so belligerent, evil, and mean to everyone.   “You all have to conform.  If everybody would just conform, they would be happy.”   That’s not true.  They will crucify you in the name of goodness, righteousness, and justice.  It has been the same since the beginning.  Look at our Lord’s cousin, John the Baptist.  What happened to him?   He was beheaded because he told Herod, “You cannot live with your brother’s wife.”  

The world does not like truth.  What is truth?  Truth is not a “what.”  Truth is a “Who.”   Truth is Jesus.  Pilot looked at our good Lord and asked, “What is truth?”  He got it wrong.  “Who is truth” would have been a better question.  The Truth was right in front of him.  The Truth resides in the Most Blessed Sacrament and in our souls when we partake of the Sacraments and as long as we don’t commit mortal sin or repeated venial sin. 

We try to live a life of holiness because of God’s promised rewards.   One of the rewards is to suffer with Him.  He cried over Jerusalem because they did not accept Him.  Remember Saint Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa)?   Everybody loved her because she took care of the sick.   So what?  Bad people are good to the sick.  The Nazis took care of their own sick during World War II.   But Saint Teresa did it with Christ’s love, and she taught the Catholic message.  You cannot call it “Christian Ministries” anymore, because with 50,000 branches of Christianity, they all have different moral standards.  I still remember that day on television when Mother Teresa came to the United States and met with the most powerful man in the world, President Bill Clinton, his wife, and Vice-President Al Gore and his wife.  What a nice, cute photo op with Mother Teresa wearing her habit.  But this 4-foot-nothing woman started lecturing them about abortion and wagging her finger.   Now, every man knows when that finger starts wagging, nothing good happens after that.   Mother Teresa said, “If you don’t want your babies, give them to me.”  You never hear that incident talked about anymore, do you?  The “woke” culture canceled her.  She was a cute little woman, and that’s all the world remembers. 

When you try to live a life of virtue in your ordinary vocations, it will be obvious to others.  And you will be persecuted just like Christ was.  “They don’t like me on Facebook!”  You know what?  I’m not on Facebook, and I sleep very well at night.  Social media is a disease.  If you are so dependent on electronics to make you feel good, you need to see someone professionally.  The one Person you need to make feel good is the One who resides in the Blessed Sacrament.  That’s the only Person who needs to feel good.  With Him, we can stand anything.  So be stout-hearted.  Do not be afraid of a life of virtue.  It’s far easier than you think.  The devil always tempts us by saying that the virtuous life is hard and no fun; both of which are lies.  Remember when you are suffering by following a virtuous life, your suffering is with Christ.  Be glad and rejoice.  Your reward in Heaven is kept safe with Him.

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” then “Menu” and then “Categories.”  Sermon Notes are also available on the church Facebook page at facebook.com/ola.catholic.church.  Click on “Groups” and then “Sermon Notes.”