 you might be aware, even myself were from Jamaica. Liturgy seems to go very long in Jamaica on a Sunday. And I recalled after ordination, I was sent to an inner city parish in Kingston, very poor neighborhood, very simple people. But I like, I love to worship the Lord. I love to sing, and I love to be in church for long hours. And I recall where the parish council retreat, and part of the retreat was to do evaluation of the members of the council to see how well they are performing. And I thought being a good pastor, they would spare me. So it was time for my evaluation. And I was very attentive to hear what they were going to say about me. And one lady got up and she said, Father, you have one big sin. And I said, only one you recognize? And I said, what is that big sin? And she emphasized the word big. She said, on Sundays, you preach too long. And I thought it was a grace to preach long. And ever since I've been coming to the States to preach, every time I go to a parish, I have its inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The pastor always said to me, please don't preach long. Well, I'm very thrilled to know this morning nobody said that to me here. So I think we can spend the rest of the afternoon here worshiping my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. We're here today to partake of the Holy Eucharist. Partake of the Holy Eucharist, we must leave there with life. We must leave there feeling good. We must leave there with a message because we partake of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. And I find it very strange that some of the ones who partake of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, they are the first to say the church is dead. And I'm saying, if we partake of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, we should have life. Amen? We should have life. So we're not bench warmers anymore. I noticed during the meeting here prison worship was excellent. Some people want to raise their hands. They're afraid. They give you a little salute like this because they might be thinking somebody else is watching them. They're afraid to say thank you Jesus in the name of Jesus because they don't want their next door neighbor there to hear what they are saying. But when we partake of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, we're not afraid to glorify the name of the Lord. We should never be afraid to tell others about Jesus and what he has been doing in my life and in your life because he has called us by name. We have responded to that calling. And every week we come to the table of the Lord Jesus Christ for our journey. So when we leave here today, someone should see Christ in us. Or see we should go and proclaim the name of Jesus. But we cannot go and proclaim the name of Jesus and tell others that Jesus lives within us if we're not too sure. If we're afraid to call upon the name of Jesus, what happened? We can't tell anybody about Jesus Christ. Stay by virtue of our baptism because remember baptism. These words are spoken. I baptize you in the name of the Father. And of the? And of the? And we're responding by saying what? Amen. I wish you would say that like a lively and louder. Amen. And thank you very much. As our Satan is going to stop us from proclaiming the name of Jesus. So even if your friend is going to laugh at you, even if your friend is going to criticize you, don't stop. And I go back to what I started off by saying that so many Christians are saying the church is dead. But I want to say to you this morning if you have dead pastors, you're going to have dead church. You heard what I said? I'm not saying these are dead or no. So don't think it's them I'm throwing stone at. I'm saying if you have dead pastors, you're going to have dead church. Amen. If you have dead bishops, you're going to have what? Dead diocese. If you have dead congregation, nothing will happen. So each day we are called to be on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ. Each day to stop being bench warmers. There are too many. There's an organization in Jamaica called Food for the Poor. Many of you probably heard about Food for the Poor. Here I was in Kingston. A group of visitors came to Mass. And after Mass, one lady came over and said, Mother, the liturgy was so good. I really enjoyed it. But I'm a bit concerned. Because as I look around the church I don't see much statues. And I turn to her as a darling. And a Sunday I have so many in front of me. So I don't think right now the focus is on putting more in. My focus is to get them to come alive and to acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Savior and their Redeemer. So right now we're comfortable. What happened when we come to worship the Lord on Sundays or during the week? We can be like the statues. We can't move. Although we partake of the body and blood of Jesus Christ we still cannot move. So it's so easy for me to go and criticize the deacons, the priests, the musicians, the counters, everybody. It's easy for me to go and criticize them. Jesus Christ, we don't let those things get into our mind. Because we know that we're on a mission for Jesus Christ to stop until we complete or fulfill our mission. And that is why we come to the table of the Lord week after week. Because we want to be sustained for the journey. We want to partake of that precious meal that is going to remove our fears and our doubts. Come to church and if we want to say amen we're going to say amen. If we're going to say thank you Jesus we're going to say thank you Jesus we don't care who wants to hear. Amen. If we want to say that Jesus Christ is Lord we have to know who he is first. We must be under the influence of the Holy Spirit to go and tell somebody that Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen. And what is destroying the church? That we have too many lukewarm Christians. It's in Christian. It's like winter. You know what winter is like. We don't know winter in Jamaica. It's cold. But I want to say to you today my brothers and sisters the spirit is moving through the church. It can stop the spirit from moving. It's not us. But it's the spirit that lives within us. You cannot do it alone. You have to ask the spirit for guidance. So when we come to mass on Sundays for God's sake let us stop watching the clock. I don't believe that you put a clock in the church. That is destruction. Because some of the same ones will run through the door so fast. If you go to the mall you'll find them in the mall walking all over the place. Are they having big breakfasts? But they cannot spend time with the Lord. So you ask the question and I'm not judging them who are they? Who are they going to grow spiritually? But we have said yes. Hoping ourselves for the spirit to pour on us. We cannot stop praying. We cannot stop giving God thanks. We cannot deny the Eucharist because that is where we're going to get our spiritual food to go and proclaim. And as I said go and proclaim many of us sit in your field within ourselves. The only person must be out there proclaiming it's the priests, the deacons, the religious sisters and brothers, and the bishop. My virtue for baptism we are all called to go and proclaim the good news. But we first have to live it. We have to live what the good news is saying to us. There's a little chorus and I think Deacon is going to help me to sing it for you. I'm not a good singer. And the chorus said I feel good, good, good. And I can't tell the musician what key to use neither because I don't know anything about music. I feel good, good, good. Every time I talk about Jesus I feel good, good, good. I'll repeat it again. I feel good, good, good. I feel good, wonderful, good. Every time I talk... So Deacon is going to come and lead us singing for us now. Feel good, wonderful, good. Every time I talk about Jesus I feel good, good, good. I feel good, good, good. I feel good, wonderful, good. Every time I talk about Jesus I feel good, good, good. Now that you know it, we're going to stand and our musicians can help us. Put that little reggae beat to it. We love reggae music in Jamaica. And you're all going to stand and we're going to sing I feel good, good, good. We're going to use D. When I talk about Jesus I feel good. Every time I partake of the Holy Eucharist part of my life I was not a Catholic. I was a Methodist. And the reason why I went to the Methodist Church is that my parents, they were very religious. Especially my mother. She was a Pentecostal. And she always looked at us and she said once you don't have a key to get into the house and you have to be using my key and Sunday's you must go to church. We don't hear those words anymore toward grandchildren and children. So on Sunday's we had to go to church but I didn't like my mother's church. It was too long. And it was like everybody was talking at the same time. So I opted to go to the Methodist Church until I was able to get out of the house and be on my own. Then after that I stopped going to church. I said no more church for me. I have had enough church. But I recalled during my early days my mother was a very strong disciplinarian. I'm going to school. One of my favorite hobbies was to fight. I love to fight. Stop that now. No more. I'm fighting the devil each day. And that's the one who I'm fighting. And so my friends would pay me to fight for them because I was a stronger one. But after the fight the parents would come and complain to my mother. Not my father. My father would say you are a good boy. So my mother would try and call me to give me a good spanking but I would never go. And she always said to me you wretch, the word wretch I'm going to catch up with you. So the more she said wretch the more I fight. Because she gave me the impression that Jesus had no use for me because I loved to fight too much. And she always said to me the Lord sits on his throne and he's watching you. And every move you move the Lord is there putting your name in red ink. You know what is a red ink. So I said to myself if every day the Lord has my name in red I'm not going to change. So then I abandoned church. Then I was shipped off to the city to live with my aunt who lost her husband in a strong seventh-day Adventist. And she was trying very hard to get me. And I recall one evening she invited me to her service and it was time for baptism. And she came and she started to nudge me. Go and baptize, go and baptize, go and get baptized. And I said why? And I said to her I have no clothes. She said no I brought you some clothes so I refused. And that went on for a long time and then she gave up. But one Sunday morning I got up, got a shower, got dressed, got the bus. No one invited me and I went straight into a Catholic church. And that was the spirit at work. I went to the church and did not understood that thing. No one said the exercise was good. So I went home and my aunt said to me where you went? I said I went to church. She said with church I said the Roman Catholic church. She said you're crazy. I said why am I crazy? She said you should never go into the door. I said it's not me it's the spirit. The spirit has called me to go there. And so my spiritual journey started. I got, I was received into the church. I started to attend the charismatic prayer meeting. The first one I went to I didn't like it because I thought it was my mother's church. I heard her speaking in tongues and I was singing and I was carrying on. I heard this one. So the following week I had to pass the church to get to my house and I deliberately stayed at work late because I wanted the prayer meeting to finish and then I would go home. So I ran the bus going home and as soon as the bus reached the entrance of the church the bus shut down. I heard her singing so I went back in and the Lord spoke to me that night and the Lord said to me that night bloom where you are planted and I said yes Lord I'm going to remain. And so I started the renewal but what I liked about the church is that every Sunday you could partake of the Holy Eucharist. And I said Lord if I'm going to follow I need that strength from you. And so I started to get involved. But the journey continued because I think people kept saying to me you'll be a wonderful priest I said not me. I'm not priest material. This is over the years. People kept saying you will be a wonderful priest. I went off to Toronto for a retreat. It was 30 days I had to spend in this retreat and I got two free days to talk out of 30 and I loved to chat. And the purpose of the retreat was for me to discern what the Lord wants of me. And so I went 29 days gone the priest kept saying to me have you made up your mind. I said no father I don't know what I want to do with my life. But I remember the Saturday afternoon I was in the chapel and this song let all who first come to the water I started to play the CD and immediately I started to cry and I don't like to cry. And I was trying to wipe my eyes very fast. Because I said I want nobody to come in this chapel see me as a man crying. And the more I wipe my eyes the more the tears were flowing. And I remember well somebody came in the chapel and the person touched me in my back and the person said hoping up to the Holy Spirit stop resisting the Holy Spirit and she gave me an anky and kerchief and it was unknown. She said I was in my room praying and the Holy Spirit said to me go to the chapel there somebody needs you right now and go now and she ministered to me and there I said to the Lord whatever you will let it be done for me and I was able to let go and said Lord whatever you want me to do I'm going to do it so the evening the priest said to me what's your intention I said I want to become a deacon and he said only a deacon I said yes full stop so he accepted and I went home back to Jamaica and when I got back to Jamaica priest bishop started to say to me what is your intention I said I deacon so I entered the archinic program finished got ordained but people kept saying to me you'll be a wonderful priest I said I don't see that one I look in the mirror every time they say they look in the mirror so after a while one of my favorite archbishop kept saying to me you must become a priest so I went back to studies because serving the people of God is my calling and I always sit and watch a priest say in the Eucharistic prayer transforming the bread and the wine into the body and daughter of Jesus Christ and that is something I wanted to do but because of my inner fear I didn't want to do it so I went back to studies became a priest and this year next year I'll be 25 years I said full stop there is nothing else for me to do within the church and being a priest and a good priest I committed a priest a faithful priest a priest who will celebrate the Eucharist with my brothers and sisters I didn't know it stopped there one day I was in Kingston and I saw Deacon this Deacon here we met at a restaurant and Deacon looked at me and he said to me we are waiting on you to come to be our bishop in Montego Bay and I thought Deacon was drunk I thought he was drinking and I think I just said not me two weeks after that I knew nothing one Saturday morning just after Easter I got a call at five o'clock and I'm not the morning person and especially on Saturday when the parish mass is at eight o'clock so I picked up the phone with a really sad tone in my voice and I said to the person and I wish you people know what time to call a priest rectory and I started the morning and it was the nuns here calling me and I think he heard what I said because he was so happy to pass on the news and he said to me is this Father Bergel I said I think so and he said I have good news I said you're sure it's for me he said how many Father Bergel have gone it says for you then the Holy Father just appointed a bishop for the Diocese of Montague my dear brothers and sisters when that news came to me I did not know what to do I was confused but there was a retired archbishop living with me in the rectory so I went and I pounded on his door and he said to me what happened you're sick I said no he said somebody died I said yes who is that person and he said to me what happened I said I got a call from the nuns here that they want me to their Holy Father's appointment Bishop for the Diocese of Montague he said what did you say I said I told him I'll call him back I need to pray and the archbishop looked at me and said no no no go and call him and tell him yes I said life not yours so I went back to my room and the nuns are called within 10 minutes and I said yes your excellency I've accepted and if you ask me how it happened all I can say does the Holy Spirit at work in my life because I can be very stubborn if I wanted to but the Holy Spirit was able to bring me down down and to lose me that I said yes. And many of us sitting here today listening, they are tired because of our inner fear. Although we partake of the body and blood of Jesus Christ that is going to give, that gives us the strength, we are afraid to say yes because people might laugh at us. People are going to criticize us. People are going to condemn us. But I say to you this afternoon, let no one steal your joy. No one tell you you make too much noise when you come to church and Sunday. The church need to wake up. And we are the ones who have to wake up the church. Say to you come to church and be still and keep quiet. The church can wake up. We have to get up and we have to say that Jesus is Lord. We have to say amen and say it loud. We have to give God thanks. It's us whom the Spirit has called for this great renewal that is going to do it. Let no one tell you it's impossible. Because with God on our side nothing can be impossible for us. When we say no, Jesus is there saying yes, you can make it. And so if the church is going to come alive, we have to go and light the fire. And I mean to burn on the church. We have to allow the Holy Spirit to move us. There's a chorus that we sing in Jamaica. We're not going to sing it here. It's when God gets ready, we've got to move. My dear brothers and sisters, I want to come back. So let me finish here now. We have to understand that the Lord is depending on us. We have to understand that the Lord is calling us to help to move the church. And as I said and I was close by saying it again, it's our responsibility to wake up the church. And if your parish priest is not moving, always say our spirit will move him out and bring him back in. Renew him and bring him back in. Follow what I said? Not to run him away, blow him out, renew him and bring him back right here. Because the church must move. The church must grow. And we're on a mission. And we are going to accomplish the mission. But you cannot allow your inner fear to say it's impossible. Because with God, nothing is impossible. And so today I pray that the Holy Spirit, our Blessed Mother Mary, will continue to intercede for us that our faith will grow. We will be inspired by the Holy Spirit, will be threatened by the Eucharist, and that we will continue to be light and salt. Because the word of God says, if we become saltless, we can't flavor the earth. If we are walking in darkness, we cannot see. And I want to close again by saying to you, the devil wants to destroy the church. But we today, as believers, can say in the name of Jesus, we claim that victory over the evil one. We claim victory over the evil one. And he's not going to stop us. He's not going to dump our spirit. Because Jesus lives. And he lives with us.