Matthew 10:26-33 6-25-2023 (As built, Amite #549)
- Fear… Unadulterated fear… to the very marrow of his bones… to a point he would almost shake… he would almost have anxiety… he would break out in temperatures… he would break out in breakdowns… it was just tumultuous…
- It’s the nineteen twenties he lives in New York City… and his name is skinny… skinny was extremely tall for his young age… and he’s about this big around sopping wet… he’s decided that man you know grammar school was tough but high school oh my Lord… he is the poster child for being bullied… that’s the problem… he would go he would drop his dog off at the fire department… and then he would head out… man one of the firemen kind of befriended him and every day he would come back… man they would wear skinny out… to the point that it was starting to get ugly… man he’s been beaten pretty bad… finally this fireman pulls him to the side and said man skinny what’s going on… he said man I am bullied… when I walk to school the fear is already in me… he said man I’m going to tell you what… for the next two or three weeks when you come home from school you stay with me… we’re going to work out… I was a golden gloves boxer in my prior life and I’m going to teach you how to defend yourself… he said at the end of the day they just need to know that you will stand and finish what was started… as a result he starts training him… well pretty soon skinny’s going back and forth and on one day he sees skinny coming back… now look he took a couple hits… but man he said well skinny what happened… he said man look I took my hits… he said but so did he… he said I may not have won the fight but I didn’t lose it… and he said man that’s great… and he said I’ll tell you what you keep doing what you’re doing… but what’s your real name because we’ve got to change your name because skinny’s not it… and he said my name is Marion… and then he started thinking well maybe skinny ain’t so bad… you know… and then he said I’ll tell you what… I’m going to give you the dog’s nickname and we’re going to give the dog skinny… and you take Duke… Lord I didn’t even get halfway through the story… this is a miracle… as a result man he becomes one of the greatest actors of our day right… I mean he’s in the Sands of Iwo Jima… he’s in the Alamo… my brothers and sisters in Christ he is the icon of westerns… John Wayne… my brothers and sisters in Christ man talk about somebody that started out in fear and ended up where he is…
- That is that Gospel… that’s exactly what the good Lord is telling them… you’ve got to stop walking in trepidation all things come through me… nothing comes to you that I do not ordain… not a hair on your head can get touched… no one can approach you… no one can go around you… nobody can write about you… nobody can say this about you… nobody can do nothing until he ordains it… and if I bring you to it then I expect you to walk with me through it… have no fear of what others can do for you… what you need to have fear of is losing your soul to the devil… if you want to have fear it’s the fact that you don’t listen to me you don’t acknowledge me in public… my brothers and sisters in Christ listen to what i’m telling you… we’re going to take something as simple inside the confines of the church… where we should have the utmost confidence but yet we fall… inside the walls of the church… Communion… my brothers and sisters in Christ every mass of every hour of every day and every language Manna still falls… this is why Masses are scheduled as they are… so the Manna falls around the clock… as a result of it you and I come to receive… now listen to what I’m telling you…because somebody’s going to quote me… somebody’s going to call me… you can receive the Communion any way you choose… you can take it in the hand… you can take it on the tongue… you can stand… or you may kneel… but I at least want you to understand the theology behind it… so that you don’t walk in trepidation in fear… my brothers and sisters in Christ everybody who believed Christ to be the Messiah either knelt… bowed or lay prostrate on the ground every time they saw him… granted it was less of one percent but it doesn’t change the fact that’s how many people recognized him as a Messiah… that’s why you and I kneel during the consecration when we call down the Holy Spirit… so you can still stand but if you would kneel during the consecration… if you can wouldn’t it be logical that you would now kneel to receive him… now brothers and sisters in Christ the reason that we put the communion on your tongue is because back in the day when you were baptized we would bless your tongue… so that Communion would go from blessed hands to a blessed tongue… it would go from blessed surface here to a blessed surface here… see that’s why we still today bless your tongue at Saint Helena… why because it’s got to go if you will from blessed ground to blessed ground… if it is in your hand the problem is your hands may be clean but you don’t see what I see… I see phone numbers… instructions for the day… one two and three… the address of where you’re supposed to be going after mass… my brothers and sisters in Christ am I supposed to put the Body Blood Soul and Divinity in that… I mean you look like you just finished working on your car… oh I see… you think that’s the exception to the rule… you see but here’s the problem… we live in a world where I’m at which is 95% Protestant… so when I have a wedding or a funeral here… and people feel they are entitled… they will come up even though I make the proclamation if you’re not of our Faith outside the Church please come forward just put your hands over your heart… be honest with me as I am with you… and if I was in your place of worship I would respect your rules… but they’ll still come up and so you know how I know… because I won’t know as they come up… I find Communion in my song hymnals… I find the host in my bench… I find the Host where the prayer books are… oh yes my brothers and sisters in Christ absolutely… but you see if it was on your tongue then I wouldn’t have that problem… my brothers and sisters in Christ at the end of the day what is your fear… of taking it on the tongue… is it pride… is it lack of humility or maybe it’s you’re afraid that man I’m going to touch your tongue and then I’m going to touch somebody else’s tongue and then it’s just going to go on down the line… it’s either the Body Blood Soul and Divinity or it is not… I’ll tell you here it really plays out… is when you go to drink the blood… how many times have I heard people tell me oh no… Father this is covid I ain’t drinking after nobody else… so what you’re telling is that it’s not the Body Blood Soul and Divinity… first of all I want to meet the person that got sick from it… because I have yet now in the past fourteen years of being a priest… met anybody that got sick from drinking the blood of Christ… but yet you and I do it all the time… we say oh man I’m not drinking out of there because well the Blood is him but you know the Chalice is different… so the good Lord’s going to delineate it in that fashion… my brothers and sisters in Christ you’ve got to stop walking in fear and trepidation… because if you’re going to do it to receive Communion… and you can receive it any way you want I’ll meet you wherever you’re at… I’m just telling you what I see from my end of the world and what I have to deal with… because let me tell you… you know how bad it gets… I’m at a funeral… and if my brother priest doesn’t stand up and say if you’re not of our faith or outside the church please come up but don’t take the Communion… when they do not say that… and I give Communion out at a funeral and I see the person walk with it… I’ve got to stop what I’m doing in the middle of a funeral… and go get him… the Eucharist… how do you think that plays out at a funeral… I can assure not well… but therein lies the problem… my brothers and sisters in Christ you and I have got to stop walking in fear and trepidation… and if we’re not going to receive him in a reverent way… whatever that may be for you and me… doesn’t change the fact that if we’re not willing to drink of it because we’re worried about what’s going to happen… we don’t even have the faith of a mustard seed… my brothers and sisters in Christ I don’t care if you fake it till you make it at some point you’ve got to plant your flag… if you’re not willing to plant your flag to drink from the Chalice or to receive the Eucharist… how are you going to stand up to the Dodgers… how are you going to stand up to Target… how are you going to stand up to Bud Light… my brothers and sisters in Christ if you and I can’t win the fights on the little things we’re not going to win them on the big ones… the good Lord just told you if you do not acknowledge me in public in front of your family and friends… I am not going to acknowledge you before my Father my brothers and sisters in Christ as simple as it is to make the sign of the cross even when you’re not leading the prayer… why is there so much trepidation…
- You know yesterday Father David and I met with over three hundred kids… and David asked a remarkable question… he asked the kids what is your greatest fear… and in so many words… it came back showing or telling people we’re Catholic… wow… showing and telling people we’re Catholic… making this sign of the cross brings trouble… holding that rosary is even more trouble… and what Father David was trying to explain it them… he was trying to say it’s not what you think… it’s just a fear that’s come but to be honest with you if you know your faith and you know what we believe… you would do it anyway… because you’re acknowledging him before his Father… that when you do it in public… when you stand in front of him man he rewards you for a job well done… if you and I do not defend our faith now… at what point will we give it up… look your job and my job is to defend out Vineyard… my job is to defend this vineyard… you can choose to follow it or you can choose not to walk and you can choose to walk away… that’s not on me… at the end of the day you’ve got to choose your Vineyard… you’ve got to decide whether you’re going to partake of a certain beverage… or go to a certain ball game… or go and spend your money at a certain place… if you and I don’t start doing our jobs and defending our faith you’re going to run in fear of everything and you’re going to acquiesce to everything… my brothers and sisters in Christ I’m begging you to finish what we started…
- There is a great prayer and I’m going to leave you with this… written by Mother Teresa… It’s called deliver me O Jesus… Deliver me O Jesus from the fear of being humiliated… Deliver me from the fear O Lord of being deprived… Deliver me O Jesus from the fear of being rebuked or slandered… Deliver me O Lord from the fear of being forgotten or from the fear of being wrong… Deliver me O Lord from the fear of being treated unfairly… or from the fear of being suspected… Jesus grant me the desire… that others will be loved far more than me… that in opinion of the world others will increase and I will decrease… Deliver me O Lord so that others may be chosen as I get put on the side… that others may be preferred to me and everything… that others will be more Holier than I… provided that I can be as Holy as I can be…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ listen to me… if you do not acknowledge him in public and you do not acknowledge him within the confines of the church… you will now acknowledge him when you leave here… and then you’re going to acquiesce to everything because everybody’s doing it… my brothers and sisters in Christ you and I are going to hear one of two statements when we stand before Him… you’re going to hear Welcome home my child… job well done… I watched you I saw you stand up and make that sign of the cross when everybody else trashed you… I saw you lead with my mother in prayer and when everyone else disparaged you… I watched you walk in and out of church making the sign of the cross when you passed… and everybody threw things at you… I saw you get up and walk out of an event because you did not want to be a part of it… I am so proud of you… welcome… welcome to the table of all of my children… or you’re just going to get a dismissal of… depart from me… I do not know who you are… you knew me not in front of your family and friends because you acquiesce because of the pressure… and you had no problems with disparaging me… depart from me… have no fear you walk and you make that sign of the cross and stop apologizing for being Catholic…
