Tag: Protestant

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Sermon Notes – September 14, 2025 – There is Only One Truth

“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

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Sermon Notes – August 18, 2024 – “If You Believe Scripture, You Have to be Catholic”

“If You Believe Scripture, You Have to be Catholic”

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

August 17 – 18, 2024

Gospel:  John 6:51-58

6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

6:52 The Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

6:53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.

6:54 Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

6:55 For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.

6:56 He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him.

6:57 As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.

6:58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.


Do you know what the most common vocation in the Catholic Church is?  Ministers.  You wouldn’t think so.  If you are a minister at a Protestant church, you are making a 6-figure salary plus benefits.  Are you going to toss all that away?   The reason ministers come is because they read Scripture in the original language.   “Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53).   The original text means just that, “to chew, masticate and consume into your stomach.”   That’s exactly what the original text says.   Another meaning of the word “eat” is “to take within your very self.”  They realized from the Gospel of John that they had to become Catholic.  Read any part of scripture, and you have to become Catholic.  Read the Gospel of Matthew, and you have to become Catholic.  Read any parts of Scripture, and you have to become Catholic.  If you believe what Scripture says, you have to become Catholic.  Holy Communion in the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in which we receive His Most Precious Blood gives us eternal life.  This is the only way we can take our good Lord into ourselves, and it is how we can have life and have it to the fullest. 

This morning, I was talking to a couple in marriage preparation class, and I remembered this story from many years ago when Atrium was Stanly Memorial Hospital.  I used to see this young lady in the left wing at Bethany Woods.  She was a profoundly disabled woman.  Her room was caged off, and she had all her playthings.  They took such wonderful care of her.  When I visited people there, I would look in on her.  One day, I was making some calls over at Stanly Memorial, and I saw her in a room where the staff was working on her.  I got a chance to talk to her mother while the doctors were busy with her.  She told me her story.  They are from Mt. Gilead, the land that time forgot and where the Feds stash their witnesses.  That’s true.  She told me when she became pregnant, the doctors told her that the child would be profoundly disabled, and they advised her to have an abortion.  She said, “No.”  She gave birth and brought the child home. She, her friends, and her neighbors took care of that child.  Children with profound physical disabilities usually have internal problems too.  I looked for her after that, but I never saw her, and I assumed she had passed.  When I drive through Mt. Gilead, I think of that mother and daughter.  And in my mind, they have a special place in Heaven.  “Why, Father? Did they know Jesus?”  Maybe, although I’m not sure about that.  But this I am sure of . . . they took care of Jesus.

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.”