“The Language of Love”
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
May 18 – 19, 2024
Gospel: John 20:19-23
Last week we celebrated the Ascension of our Lord and 10 days after that we have Pentecost. At the Ascension, Jesus took the body and human nature He received from the Blessed Mother to Heaven. The human nature He suffered with, taught, healed, died, and rose with was taken up to Heaven. So, He needed a new body because the one He took from Mary was in Heaven. He uses the human nature we received at our Baptism to teach, to heal, and to console down through the ages to make His love known to all the world. Whatever your vocation, He uses your human nature as a part of His new Body. Sometimes people call the Church an “it.” No. The Church is a “Who.” Scripture says that. In the book of Acts, when Saul was persecuting Christians, Jesus asked him, “Why are you persecuting me?” He did not say, “Why are you persecuting an organization, club, community gathering, or Christian group.” He said, “Why are you persecuting Me?” It is His Body that people persecute.
Now, we are our Lord’s human nature. We are His arms and legs depending on what part of the mystical body we occupy because of our vocations and the Sacraments. Throughout the ages, He has used our human nature to bring His love to everyone. He takes our human natures and uses them as His own to proclaim His message, to teach, and to heal. We are the Body of Christ in Stanly County. People heard the Apostles speaking in every tongue. Now, if you come to the 12:15 Spanish Mass, you can listen to me speak in every tongue. It’s very charismatic. You will hear me speaking Spanglish with a French accent. I can order in a Mexican restaurant and the people I’m with are usually very impressed, “Oh wow! You speak Spanish.” But the wait staff just shake their heads. I’m not great with languages. I barely made it through Canon Law because you needed to know Latin. Latin was pretty easy for me since I always had a dictionary.
At Pentecost, our Lord sends the Holy Spirit Who gives the gift of tongue to proclaim His love. How do we proclaim His love? Do we have to learn every language on the planet? What is the universal language? How do we reach all these people? That’s easy. God gives us the ability to do that. “Oh wow. You speak in other tongues?” Yes, and no. That’s part of the lawyer in me. I speak, or try to speak, one language. “What’s that?” I’ll give you an example. When I was the pastor in Statesville, I received a call from a Hospice nurse who said, “Father, so and so has died. Would you go speak to the family?” I said, “Sure!” I went, and I got there before the Hospice nurse and funeral director. So, I talked to the family and said a prayer over the body. When the funeral director and the nurse arrived, I helped them take the body to the car. Then the nurse and I stripped the room and put everything back in its place. The one thing you don’t want is for the family to come into the room and see the bed linens where their loved one had been. So, we stripped the room and put it back to how it was originally before their loved one got sick. The nurse took some of the medication and flushed them. However, some of the drugs were unopened and OTC (over the counter). Technically, the nurse was supposed to take them back to Hospice, but she said, “Father, do you know anybody who could use them?” She wasn’t supposed to do that. I told some priests that story and they said, “Well, we’d never do that!” Yeah, I know. Chumps. But because I helped that nurse, I got to help other people with the medicine. That’s the universal language and how you reach people by acts of love. When I helped that nurse, it was spontaneous and not a part of my job, but I did it because it had to be done. Show that love. It can be understood in any language. Here’s another example: Years ago, I was going through the hospice unit making my rounds. Two paramedics came in with a stretcher and a new patient. The nurses were busy as they always are. One of the paramedics said, “Where do you want him?” Not “Hello” but “Where do you want him?” I said, “Room 3.” I went with them, and one took the side sheet, another one had the head, and I had the legs. 1 – 2 – 3, and we got the patient onto his bed. And because I did not have gloves on and had touched the patient’s skin, I went to the sink and washed my hands. One of the paramedics approached me and said, “Thank you, Father.” When we do what is right, other people see it. You don’t do it because you will be noticed or thanked; you do it because it shows God’s love.
The third and last point I’ll make is that the Holy Spirit comes to unite all human natures into one body. Not different bodies but one body to reverse what sin has done. What does sin do? Sin divides. Remember the Tower of Babel? They all spoke different languages and could not communicate with one another. It separated humanity. The Holy Spirit calls us to unite in one faith. In the military, Protestant chaplains were in awe of Catholic chaplains because they looked at our congregation which was similar to what I see here, and they saw people from almost every continent in the world. There were some whose English was not that good. It worked out great for me because there were these Korean ladies who would make vegetable Yaki Mandu. Oh yeah! It was killer. I didn’t realize it was fried, but it was wonderful. When I was sent to Gitmo for my Spanish lessons – it didn’t work out well, but I went – and other chaplains were amazed at how much the people there loved me. First, they didn’t know me; give them credit for that. But they loved me because I was their priest. “Do they understand what you are saying?” Some did because they were very educated. The chairman of my “parish council” was a brain surgeon who trained in Russia. I asked our doctors if the Cuban doctors were any good and if I should let them touch me. “Oh, they are very good. They trained in Russia.”
We are all one. In the last 30 – 40 years, there has been a tendency to separate the Church to make it more relevant and meaningful. You cannot make Christ more meaningful, okay? You cannot make the Mass more meaningful; that’s blasphemy. We have a bad habit of hyphenating people. “I am Spanish-Catholic.” “I am Irish-Catholic.” Really. Did you come from the Old Sod (Ireland)? “No.“ Do you like ‘Danny Boy’? “Oh yeah.” Well, first of all, you haven’t been in church for 50 years so shut up. And second, I hate that song!! People wanted to play it at funerals and the bishop said, “No!” We are not of different faiths only country of origin. There is no different faith for Vietnamese-Catholics. They are Catholic. “I am Canadian-Catholic.” It’s colder there; I’ll give you that, but you are still Catholic. Are we Albemarlian-Catholics? Are we Stanly County-Catholics? Are we Oakboro-Catholics? No! We are all Catholic. They seek to break up the Faith. We have to have a different Mass for each language. That’s why Latin was good because it united everybody which is why we should go back to it. We are all one faith; there is no such thing as hyphenated-Catholics. That’s a sin and it’s blasphemy. The Holy Spirit came to do the exact opposite . . . to unite us all. It’s like soldiers – there are no hyphenated soldiers – we are all soldiers. I remember one chaplain who got up and said, “We need more black chaplains.” I said, “Excuse me. When did the Army go color-coded with chaplains?” He couldn’t answer. He was a colonel but not my colonel so I couldn’t have cared less. Little bigot.
We are not color-coded or area-coded. We are all Catholic by the grace of the Holy Spirit Who unifies the Church and by that unification, Christ continues His teaching and ministry. We have one Faith, one Church, and one Lord. To say otherwise is denying the gift of the Holy Spirit. What evidence do we have of the Holy Spirit? By babbling, “I have the gift of the Spirit”? No. The fruits of the Spirit are works of love.
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.”
