Matthew 5:17-37 2-12-2023 (As built, Amite #532)
- Last penny… Very last penny… careful careful when you open your mouth… you’re going to be responsible for what comes from it… careful careful of what leaves your mouth for you will be responsible for it…
- It’s nineteen seventy and it’s an absolute beautiful day… in Louisiana… I mean it’s September October… I mean the humidity is next to nothing… I know it happens twice a year I get that… it is absolutely a beautiful day… the sky is beautifully blue with a little whisp of clouds here and there… it’s got a slight breeze… and I am working for my family… we build sewer plants… easy does it… we build sewer plants for people… communities up and down the west coast and we’re just getting started… and I am working at a plant that has about I don’t know… let’s just say over a couple of days or whatever… a million gallons… of sewage… and I’m telling you it’s about the size of our church… as a matter of fact I’m about this much high up off the water as I am to you… and my father is out there we only have a few people working with us… and we’re doing some test… and we’ve got to get the sewage from the tank that we’re in to the big sandbox so that we can work on our equipment… he puts one man next to the brush rotor which is like a big aerator which is a big paddle wheel… keeps the sewage moving and gives it air… he said no matter what happens… any mistake happens you kill that switch… somebody falls in you kill it because otherwise man they’re going to fall in the ditch and there’s only one way to go towards the paddle wheel… he tells the other guy anything happens you make sure to pull our equipment out… so make sure and tie it off… he tells my brother you make sure that if anything happens while your brother is up on that platform… you pull the plug… don’t let that pump run… everybody’s got their job… he said son you’re the youngest I want you to walk out on that beam… you’ve seen them… he said I want you to go out there… I want you to pick that pump up… I want you to start moving it… and as it pumps out of there within the hour we will get it all cleaned out… fair enough… did I tell you it was a beautiful day… the wind’s blowing… it’s got that breeze and you can actually feel a little bit of the water form the paddle wheel… well kind of water stuff… and man I am moving it up and pumping and life is good… and then for some reason out of nowhere the top of the pump comes off… it is an oil derrick of sewage… it’s forty feet in the air… it’s about this wide… and I’m telling you I’m on top of it… it is raining stuff… it is filling up my boots… my pants then my pockets… it is now in my shirt… it is coming out my collar… it is going everywhere… it is raining so hard in this little ten foot area… I can’t even see out to yell… and man my ears are vibrating because there’s so much sewage packed in my ear that I cannot hear… I’m telling you I’ve got things on me I’ve never even seen before… we got tomato seeds, watermelon seeds, cantaloupe seeds I’ve got hygiene products… what are you getting all upset with it was me… man I’m telling you I don’t know what to do… and I see the rotor get’s killed and I look at my brother… he’s so busy laughing he is rolled over… he ain’t pulling the plug… I decided… I begin to yell… I opened my mouth… so when somebody tells you it taste like… I know… you may not but I do… and I can tell you… man as soon as my mouth opened to curse him from the very beginning of creation… man I realized the biggest mistake in my life… could you have just shut up… man I just start running it’s the WWF all over again… my dad’s got to pull me and my brother apart… the pump is still running because my brother is still laughing… my dad finally gets everything settled down… my brother in Christ I’ve got more pharmaceuticals on my than I have ever seen in my life… there is hygiene products I couldn’t define… there’s seeds I’ve never seen… my hair is already dried and it looks like a little planet… my dad looks at me and I decide to walk off… he said where are you going son… I said well… he said you’re not going to get any dirtier… and I’m thinking why… and he says the good news… and I’m thinking what possible good can be of this… he said you got a tan that will last all summer… and dang if he wasn’t right…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ careful careful what leaves your mouth because you’re going to pay until the last penny… that is that gospel… my brothers and sisters in Christ now you’ve got to remember this where Christ is in the world… okay no he’s not at a sewer plant… he’s saying you remember the big Ten Commandments… well now I’m telling you it’s a little tougher… you heard it said that you shall not commit adultery… it begins with lust… you heard it said do not bare false oath… I’m telling you it’s better that you don’t even curse… your yes means yes and your no means no… any other adjective is a sin hence cursing is a sin… he’s saying you’ve heard it said you need to keep the commandments and I’m telling you it’s better you don’t even get angry and lose control… he said because at some point you’re going to pay for it… so it’s better you say absolutely nothing… now stop… you’re a first century Jew these are the things that you need to understand… when he said I’m going to turn you over to your opponent… in their language he says I’m going to turn you over to the devil… and then I’m going to try to get you to settle up with your brother… so it’s better you settle up with him before the devil shows up with you in front of me to accuse you of all the wrongdoings… which he’s going to do… he said and then I’m going to throw you into prison… and I’m not going to let you out… the only place that can be is Purgatory… because hell isn’t a prison you’ll never get out more importantly it can’t be heaven because why would you describe it that way… the Jews believed in Abraham’s bosom… where do you go before the good Lord opens the gates… Moses, Elijah, John the baptist and Jeremiah… there’s Purgatory… oh yes they do believe in it… and it is scriptural… begin with Philippians 2… and then all of a sudden there’s Hell itself… now to a Jew… Gehenna is what they call genome…. It’s an area just south of Jerusalem this is how it works in their day if you worship pagans and pagan gods… like we do a lot today… and you offer up your children for sacrifice… you would go down to this place and it would be always smoldering… it would be like a big lava pit of sorts… like volcanic ash that was still bubbling… they would offer their children up there… and so they believed it was twofold… Gehenna could either be the gates of Hell or the purging depending on what your sins was of Purgatory so they see it as both and… that’s why he’s referencing it… because they’ve got a visual of it… the same way you got a visual of what a sewer plant was like more or less… my brothers and sisters in Christ therein lies the point… careful careful what you say because you’ll pay the last penny… you will not enter my kingdom until you are perfectly clean… so when people say I’ve accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and I’m saved… present tense… that I can still break the commandments… I can still cheat and do what I want to do… caught up with pornography, drink too much alcohol, drugs, this addiction, treat people wrongly, dishonor my parents and not go to mass… it’s all a lie… for everyone of those commandments you break I’m telling you the Holy Spirit will be watching… I told you that back in the very first reading… right I told you again at St. Paul… and I’m telling you now… careful what leaves your mouth because I’m going to hold you accountable for it…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ look at our best players… our best players… for example in the Garden of Eden their names are man and woman… Adam means ground… and they don’t get their names per se until after they are kicked out of the garden… therefore Adam resumes his name and Eve picks up her name… she is woman in the garden… if God has given everybody a pass… once saved always saved then why didn’t Adam and Eve get to stay in the garden… why’d you kick them out… I mean Moses was in the desert for forty years… I mean oh my God… one million people… you think we complain look in their world… and you know of the one million people that got caught up in the desert… how many eventually make the promised land… two… they stay in the desert forty years for everybody who worshiped the golden calf has to die off… if they didn’t get a pass… if Moses doesn’t get to go to the promised land because he hits the rock if you will twice… if Adam and Eve don’t get a pass then why do you and I get one… we don’t therein lies the point… so what I’m asking you to do is to be guarded about what you say and what you do…
- So for example… you’re driving down the street and it’s a beautiful day I mean the birds are chirping… they got the right son on the radio… and the guy in front of you has now been turning for six blocks… I mean that blinker’s just been going and he’s driving like it’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon… the problem is it’s Monday… do you drive around him… and give him the look… that’s on you… my brothers and sisters in Christ do you drive around them and kind of give them a gesture… that’s on you and I… does somebody drive around and give you the gesture… and then you in turn tell them they’re number one… my brothers and sisters in Christ how do you respond when you get that email from that person that you never expected it from… what about when you get that text message… or you get that call… or you get that letter… how do you respond to that… just because somebody throws garbage at your feet nobody told you to pick it up… I don’t understand why would you want to sin with the same person that you don’t care for to begin with… and if you really don’t believe what other people think of you then why do you care what they think of you… why would you even commit a sin… to the person that you say it does not matter… the truth of the matter is what other people think of you and I is none of our business… there’s only one person that cares… Mother Teresa was right… people are unreasonable, illogical and self- centered… so why are we now talking council with them… when you go to work and they start asking you to do things that are not in your Job description… or not worth your money… then why are you complaining about it… you’re a good Catholic that’s what we do… you’re not defined by who you are my brothers and sisters in Christ… I mean as a professional… you’re defined by whether or not you’re true to the Catholic faith… I’m a good Catholic businessman… I’m a good Catholic teacher… I’m a good Catholic this… I’m a good Catholic that… at the end of the day the nanosecond… listen to what I’m telling you… the nanosecond you die… all of that goes away… nothing else matters… there’s only one thing on the plate now… judgment… mercy takes place from the day you came into the world to the day you came home… the only thing left is judgment… you’re not judged by your 401K which is probably a 201K… you’re not judged by your résumé… you’re not judged by your job… the camp… your gold clubs… your game whatever… you’re only judged by your actions so therefore why not take council with it now… my brothers and sisters in Christ when you get that phone call coming home to pick something up… man you just offer up the sacrifice… you get in the line at Walmart and there are five hundred people and two checkout people… why are you shocked you know that’s how it’s going to be anyway… you knew that walking into the door… my brothers and sisters in Christ why do you get sideways when the same people call and you keep thinking how can that person possibly be made king… does it matter… you already know they’ve been made king… why does it get you upset… when the president says something and you know he has not the capacity… you think he’s going to get better without praying for him… my brothers and sisters in Christ I’m telling you the only thing that matters is how you and I respond… be careful of what you say for tomorrow you may have to eat it… my brothers in Christ be careful of how you think and how you act… can I tell you just to pause… pump the brakes for just a second… so therefore you don’t say something that you’re going to spend the next two or three days regretting that you’d even said anything… now we spent three days over a twenty second issue… the fact of the matter is you may have some regrets… oh I wish I would have said this… oh I wish I would have done that… well don’t worry the devil will give you another chance to do it
- My brothers and sisters in Christ I leave you with he words… of all people… Captain Jack Sparrow… golly… Captain Jack Sparrow… he said you know the problem… you know I practiced that I just want to let you know that… the problem isn’t the problem… the problem is your attitude and reaction to the problem…
- Amen...
