Matthew 26:14 – 27:66 4-2-2023 (As built, Amite #538)
- Complaining…
- It’s the middle of the eighteen hundreds closer to the nineteen hundreds… and Napoleon the third has a problem… he is about to embark on a Great War but the problem is food is in short supply… preservatives of food is in short supply… dressings if you will for food is in extremely short supply… so he issues a proclamation to all… saying if anybody can come up with a preservative of sorts… if somebody could come up with a dressing of sorts… if somebody can come up with something that you could add to food or to sandwiches or to meals that would make it taste a little better or make it a little more enticing man my kingdom and my reward upon you will be great… there’s a guy by the name of Mège-Mouriès a pharmacist by trade… and he does what most pharmacists do man they’re in it… man he comes up with a test… he retested it… he reapplies it… he goes back and fixes it… he does it again he comes up with the ideal dressing… the ideal spread if you will… as a result man Napoleon is beside himself and he offers it to him… and he tells him… man you get everything… whatever you want a kings ransom will be paid upon you… as a result of such man can I tell you… he thinks it great in France he says man I can’t wait to get this to the United States… huge mistake… he gets to the United States and man complaint after complaint after complaint… people started drawing up sides against him… competitors were saying there’s something wrong with it… it doesn’t taste good… it’s not good for you… it’s unhealthy… man we had farmers we had pharmacist… we had everybody complaining… as a matter of fact thirty-eight of the states have decided to tax his product… nobody else’s… it almost breaks him… as a matter of fact my brothers in Christ one state said we’re not going to tax you but it can’t be yellow it’s now go to be pink… and he said well I can’t make it pink… then you don’t sell it… did you know Mège-Mouriès dies broke… he dies broke because all people did was complain… even though you and I a hundred years later use it almost everyday… every sandwich every spread every cracker… every this every that… he invents margarine… no he invents margarine my brothers and sisters in Christ…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ it’s about complaining… that is exactly what you did not hear in the Gospel… not one time does Christ complain… I have no sin… I could have come any way I wanted… I surely didn’t deserve this… not one time do I hear his mother complain… what did he do… what did I do… I mean all we did was bring the Messiah into the world… the blind see the lame walk the dead rise… no good deed goes uncrucified… even John’s got the argument… look I just know him but more importantly what did he do that’s so blasphemous… proclaim he’s God… did anybody else cure the blind… the lame walk… the dead rise… you know what’s amazing my brothers and sisters in Christ… he carries a cross twelve foot tall… eight foot wide… now according to Saint Elizabeth… Saint Matilda… Saint Bridget… Saint Catherine Emmerich… they actually got to see the crucifixion play out… so he carries a cross twelve foot tall… eight foot wide… he carries the entire cross… my brothers in Christ that’s a massive structure… he carries it one mile… for three hours… my brothers and sisters in Christ do you understand what he went through… according to the Saints let me explain… they said that they punched him in the head over one hundred and fifty times… they spit in his face according to the Saints over one hundred and eighty times… somebody spits in your face one time… I bet I know where you’re at for the next twenty-four to thirty-six hours… right up the street… they offered over one thousand insults… one thousand… in about six hours time… you and I get one insult one bad comment… email… text message… we’re about to take a hostage… we’ve done called six friends… we talked to our spouse… we talk to our family… we have vented in and out constantly… one thousand insults… and he never responds… do you know the way it works in the Roman days… is they have what they call the town crier… his job is to walk roughly a hundred or fifty feet in front… holding the INRI letting everybody know your crime… he is circled with about six hundred soldiers that were part of the procession… of the six hundred soldiers eighty were responsible for protecting him… or mocking him… or insulting him or spitting on him… or pushing him… imagine if eighty-three people followed you everywhere you went for just an hour… much less six… I mean imagine if they pushed you and cursed you and spit on you… and beat on you… my brothers in Christ did you know the crown of thorns alone has over one hundred wounds to his head… the crown of thorns… he had twenty legitimate holes from the crown of thorns… of which three are fatal… if they never touch him he will die form the crown of thorns alone… my brothers and sisters in Christ not counting the six inch spikes that went through his hands… and just so you know we do believe they dislocated both shoulders… not to mention the sixteen in spike that went through both feet… and according to the saints… they didn’t get it right the first time so they had to back it out and do it again… it’s hard to find good help these days… do you know they dropped the crucifix twice…with him on it… my brothers and sisters in Christ not one complaint… not one iota of man what does this got to do with me… all I’m here for is for you… my brothers and sisters in Christ how many times during the day do you and I complain… according to statistics… I’m just telling you the statistics… that the average person… complains three times every fifteen minutes… that’s an old survey… let’s be honest… my brothers in Christ how many of you have already complained that it’s too cold in church… I digress… I find it quite comfortable thank you very much… my brothers and sisters in Christ how many of us complain because of the amount of time we spend doing this that and the other… we complain that’s it’s too hot… and we live in south Louisiana… we complain that it’s too humid… We only have two seasons it’s either humid or less humid… we complain it’s too cold and then we complain we can’t wait for summer and then summer comes and we wish it was cooler…man we complain about the weather… just wait a couple minutes it will change… my brothers and sisters in Christ if it is true that we complain every fifteen minutes at least three or four times… yet a man carries a cross for three hours he’s on it for another three and not one time do we hear a complaint… not one sin is committed but him or his mother… or Saint John… even Mary Magdalene for that matter…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ here you and I sit… the problem is you and I are too quick to complain… we’re too quick to judge and we justify it… well you know I’m just saying… well I’m just a realist Father… well no Father you don’t understand I’m just telling you the facts… let’s cut to the core you’re complaining… you’re just justifying the grounds at which you make the complaint… my brothers and sisters in Christ I’m telling you… sometimes it’s better for you and I just to suck it up and say nothing… whenever the good Lord gives you a challenge… whenever the good Lord gives you a cross to carry… remember this… imagine that this is a valve it’s a jar full of grace… and then for every cross that he gives you… for every challenge that he gives you for every consequence that you’ve got to go through that has nothing to do with you… he gives you this full of grace… and at the very bottom is a little valve and every time you and I complain he just opens it… as the grace begins to temper… and when it’s all said and done by the time we get finished complaining there’s no grace left because all we did was complain the whole time he gave us the cross… if he doesn’t give you and I the cross we will never grow… this is why he gives you and I the cross because we’re too complacent… we’re too lazy… he knows we like object mediocrity… so if you want to expand your ability to love him… then you’re going to have to grow… and the only way to get you and I to grow is through challenge… the only way you and I get better at something is that we’ve got to work harder at it… what you put into the mass is what you get out of it… so at the end of the day if you want to grow in love of Christ then you’ve got to be willing to pick up you’re cross and follow him… Saint Paul’s words not mine… we follow a crucified Christ … my brothers in Christ you and I need to sometimes just stop complaining… just peel it like a grape and eat it and be done with it…
- I leave you with the words of Lou Holtz… when you go to complain to somebody… twenty percent of the people aren’t listening… eighty percent of the people are glad it’s happening to you and not them…
- Amen…
