Matthew 9:36- 10:8 6-18-2023 (As built, Amite #548)
- Hands… As In your hands… as in mine…
- It’s nineteen seventy but I’ve got to tell you… you know why I like Jeffery… is because what you see is what you get… and every time they do an interview… not every time but almost every time they do an interview with him he’s always telling you it’s because somebody offered him this helping hand… is why he sits where he is today… one person… makes or breaks the day for Jeffery… he said look I grew up in California my family did okay I was one of four children… he said I struggled our family struggled… he said man then our mom and dad get a divorce… he said it’s tumultuous… he said for the next ten years I lived in ten different little cities… little suburbs and houses… he said man high school it was nothing short of just diabolical… he said I wasn’t a good athlete so I didn’t fit in… he said then I’m not even a brainiac… he said man I can’t do anything… he said then I meet this guy names Mr Farnsworth who goes out of his way to give a helping hand… he said you know in the theater you can be whatever you want… he said I don’t know what he’s talking about… so he get’s me in a little play called the Pacific… he said man what I realized with acting… Jefferey said is I could be the greatest athlete of all time… I could be the most intellectual… he said I could play any role even though I’m neither… he said man I just knew it was for me… on a side note just so you know Jefferey is one of the ten greatest college dropouts ever… just so you know where he sits in the world… as a result of it he gets in a couple shows and he says man it’s not good… he said I get in a sitcom called Bosom Buddies… I get in another one called Turner and Hooch and then Dragnet… and he said man were struggling… and then all of a sudden man the world turns… he said I could just see Farnsworth reaching out and giving me his hand and next thing you know he said man the world becomes my oyster… he said imagine I can get you to fall in love with a soccer ball named Wilson… he said man I can come up with some of the greatest lines ever… not me the writers… that life is a box of chocolates… or there’s no crying in baseball… man I’m in movies like Apollo 13…. And I’m in Saving Private Ryan… you know what’s amazing is he did a movie called Road to Perdition which is actually I believe is his best movie… and you know him as Tom Jeffery Hanks… and it’s all because one person gives him a helping hand…
- That is that Gospel… the Good Lord is laying hands on those to ordain them… Peter can be whoever he thinks he can be… Paul can say whatever he wants… Simon, James, Bartholomew, Thomas, Simon and Matthias they can all do and think what they want but until the Good Lord lays hands on them they’re just your average Joe… now my brothers and sisters in Christ I bet you… you’re more scriptural versed than you think… let me prove it to you… I bet you I could describe somebody's hands in scripture and you can name them… don’t tell me hands aren’t important… they’re essential… especially since the good Lord uses our hands to reach others… so for example…. If I told you that his hands were perfectly manicured… there was not a bump bruise or callous anywhere to be found… it was adorned with jewelry and right next to it was a bowl and towel… you would know him as Pilate… if I told you my brothers and sisters in Christ that man in one hand he’s got thirty pieces of silver in a little sack… you’d say man that’s Judas… if I told you my brothers and sisters in Christ that she actually held up this veil with her two little hands of the image of Christ on the Crucifixion you would probably say man that’s Veronica… would you know who’s hands it was if you look at the last supper and seated next to a little salt shaker is a hand that’s knocked it over… that’s Judas’s hands… that’s why the good Lord makes the proclamation are you worth your salt… see because what you and I know is that the Romans often times were paid in salt… which is where we get the Latin term salarium… Salary… truth be told why may us in money if we’re going to battle… as a result we would use our money to purchase slaves… this is where we get the term are you worth your salt to carry our equipment so when battle comes we’d be ready… if I told you my brothers and sisters in Christ that his hands are often times holding keys you’d say oh man of course that’s Peter… my brothers and sisters in Christ here’s the irony… that because you identified two thousand years ago so can you and I be described that same way… if I were to go and take a picture of your hands and mix it up with a bunch of pictures and show it to your spouse or your family would they recognize your hands… well let’s see… would your hands have a prayer card in it… would your hands have a rosary… would your hands always have the Bible… oh your hands always have the cellphone in it… maybe it has that little computer mouse… maybe it has the remote control… maybe it has a syringe… maybe it has a drink… my brothers and sisters in Christ your hands foretell who you are… for whose hands are you working for… you know what’s amazing my brothers and sisters in Christ is the same is true for me as it is for you… and let me warn you… that sometimes your hands are in a ball of fury… woe to you who raise your hand to another person… woe to you… maybe your hands are always pointing out the obvious in others and not to yourself… you know what’s amazing brothers and sisters in Christ ever gesture the priest makes during the mass with his hands… are exactly how it’s done in scripture… if you notice when I come up to the mass I kiss the alter and then I put my hands on the alter… you see my hands are consecrated which means I’m the only one supposed to be putting my hands on the alter… that’s why the Deacon should kiss the alter and not put their hands on it… their hands are not consecrated… you see when I got ordained the bishop made me put my hands together with oil and he put his hands around mine and then he ordained me… he laid hands on me just as He did the apostles… so I can tie myself to Bishop Munch who can tie himself to John Paul who can tie himself all the way back to Peter… if I can’t get back to the boys… Peter and the boys… then I’m just another Joe making a pitch… my brothers and sisters in Christ when he put his hands around mine you can feel the heat… temperature wise it was noticeably different almost to the point of being uncomfortable… my brothers and sisters in Christ you know what’s amazing is at the mass is you see me come over here and you see me raise my hands but yet you see it so often you don’t know why I do it… the Jewish people believed that when you raised your hands like this because before the golden calf you dads were the priest… you would raise your hands like this making the offering to God… and your family would follow suit… once the golden calf incident comes… you no longer can raise your hands I have to do it for you… this is why I ask you humbly ask you… not to raise your hands up… and allow me to do it because ever since the golden calf incident this is why I keep my hands raised the whole mass… and if you ever notice sometimes they call it the Orons position but the truth of the matter is it’s more in line with the crucifixion… hence why I keep my hands out the whole way… did you ever notice at mass my brothers and sisters in Christ I call down the Holy Spirit… it’s three thousand years old… the Jews believed that divine intervention would come when they called down God… using that same moniker that’s why I do it… do you ever notice that with my hands I actually raise the host because at the last supper we believed he raised it so John would recognize… you’re raising the host and then I see you raise the crucifix… they’re one in the same… you ever notice that I raise the chalice… do you notice that I actually put the host together and I crucify him I raise him because he was raised up on the cross… you ever notice I put the host together and I raise him because he raised on the third day… you ever recognize when I give you communion here that I actually raise it a little bit before I give it to you… Body of Christ and then I give it to you… body of Christ and not Body of Jesus… because I’m raising his glorified body… dead men don’t bleed… the fact that he’s bleeding after he’s been crucified is telling you he’s divine hence why I say Body of Christ and not Body of Jesus… Christ is his divine essence Jesus is his given… my brothers and sisters in Christ everything that we do in the mass is exactly for a reason… you know what’s amazing and nobody ever speaks to you about is but since my mother is not here when I put my hands together and the bishop puts his around mine he gives me a cloth to wipe the oils immediately… I give that cloth after the mass to my mom… I take my first confession I hear one confession I take the stole off and I give it to my dad… so when they pass away and when my dad passed he wore my first stole for confession… so Peter will know he’s the father of a priest… and when my mother passes she will be holding the garment the cloth that I wiped my hands with so Peter will know she’s the mother of a priest… my brothers and sisters in Christ everything we do with our hands in a mass is for a reason…
- And just on a lighter note in the seminary they film your masses… you have to do ten masses… eight of which you’ve got to pass reasonably well… but every once in a while somebody comes through the Seminary that just simply didn’t get it… I’m praying the mass… it’s me and my buddy who’s behind the camera… I’m praying the mass and I’m following the rule book… I don’t know if you know this but that book you read the black… do the red… so there’s two sentences… you’ve got to read the black that you hear and then I’ve got to read the red to where my hands go… so if you watched me in mass you would’ve seen something like this… okay I missed a prayer… I don’t know I missed the prayer… my buddy is behind the camera and all of a sudden you see waving going on behind the camera… and he’s doing the letters… in the film you see me trying to understand… I forgot the Our Father… I drop in the middle of the mass and pray the Our Father… had no business being there… wasn’t supposed to go there I pray the mass I turn my paper in and I see the priest coming the next day… he doesn’t even stop he just gives it to me… here…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ the greatest symbol you can make with your hands there’s none greater than the sign of the cross… I’m telling you right now our faith is true it’s not even a close second… the sign of the cross is one of the most powerful signs that you could send out to anybody… you want to do a quick prayer then make the sign of the cross… you want the good Lord to know you’re not a fence walker then make the sign of the cross… you want to let your family know that you love them make the sign of the cross before and after every meal… when you wake up and when you go to bed… it was so common in the first two hundred years it would’ve been uncommon for you not to see the greatest sign of all… with your hands let the good Lord know… that you are indeed part of his church… for all eternity…
