Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 01/10/21 You Are My Son

Episode Date: January 11, 2021

Homily from the Baptism of the Lord. At the Incarnation, God joined His divinity to humanity...at the Baptism of Jesus, God identifies with our brokenness. What difference does the Baptism of Jesus make? It means that God doesn't stay away from our sins, but that He takes them upon Himself. Mass Readings from January 10, 2021: Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7 Psalms 29:1-4, 9-10Acts 10:34-38 Mark 1:7-11

So I've just been really captivated by all my entire life with all the underdog stories, like the underdog movies, the underdog songs, like all the songs that are like, basically I want, I'm going to be somebody someday. You know those movies where like at the end of it like Rocky, they're all like going Rocky, Rocky, or like at the end of Rudy, Rudy, or they're all like Rudy, or the end of like Mulan or they're all like, Mulan, they don't do that in Milan. But like that kind of that movie where it's like everyone sees what you've done. you've not just accomplished something, but you've done something else.

Because a lot of times the underdog story, right, or like the rags to riches story is you want success or the person's looking for some kind of like they're looking for the win or they're looking for something. And almost every time they're looking for the same ultimate thing. And that same ultimate thing is I want to make them proud of me. And I think that's not bad, right? Like that sense of like, I'm going for this thing. I want to get out of this crummy town and, you know, knock the dirt off my feet because I want to make them proud of me. and people can do some really incredible things with that at being the goal.

It's not a bad thing, right? I mean, there are some incredible, incredible lives that have been lived with that motivation, like to live the kind of life that I can be proud of, to live the kind of life you can be proud of, or even become the kind of person that the people you respect are proud of. That's not bad. I think it's powerful and it can be really good. The only problem with it is it can also be a trap.

Because we have to ask the question, where does it end? Because we can say, I want to make them proud of me, but you say, well, who's them? Like, I don't know, all of them. Like, that's impossible. Like, at some point, like, everyone in my hometown and want them to be part of me, or everyone from my family want them to be proud of me.

And you say, well, do you know, there are some people, there's some people who will never be satisfied. You might even have people in your life who they seem physically, emotionally, just incapable of giving approval. There are some people who just, like, they can't ever praise. They can never, like, look up to someone and say, you did well.

And all of us have someone like that in our lives. And so if my goal is I want to make them proud of me, I have to let go of that because it can be a trap. And also it can be a trap not only with who we want to make part of us, but like why? Why do I want, why would they be proud of me? And it could be because, I don't know, because I was a success because like I won.

Because I accomplished something because I did the thing. I got the trophy. And that's wonderful. That's great. But you know what happens after that? now you have to win another thing. Now you have to get another trophy. And that's this, it can start us on this cycle of performance.

It's like this cycle of always living to perform. And that's, I'm going to make them proud of me. And I do that by performing. And I'm thinking about that cycle of performance where it's just like everything we do, everything we are, we're striving after that. Like, I want to make them proud of me. I was thinking about that in relation to today's gospel.

Because, I mean, today's gospel is so dramatic. Right. Here's Jesus is being baptized by John in the Jordan River. and how Mark describes it is very dramatic. I mean, there are so many pieces in there are so incredible and beautiful. Like, Jesus goes into the water and says that the heavens were torn open.

Like, when that indicates to us, is when Jesus does this thing that we don't even, like, what is that all about? The universe has changed. Like, the heavens are torn open. It's not a small thing. The cosmos is changed at this moment. The Holy Spirit descends him like a dove,

like all these things. But the thing that always strikes out to me so, stands out to me so powerfully, is what the Father says. the father declares over Jesus, he says, you are my son. With you, I am well pleased. Basically, the father says, you are mine and I'm proud of you.

Can you imagine that? I mean, just try to imagine what that would be like. Because I think a lot of us, that we long to hear our parents say something like that. Like, you're mine and I'm proud of you. And there's this author, he's also works at a college, and he's a psychologist. and he was talking to some college students because that age is in a particular age where we really, really, we try not to think that what our parents think matters and at the same time it really, really matters.

And he asked the question. He said, I want you to know. He says, I want you to ask yourself the question. Why do you care so much about your parents' opinion of you? Because a lot of people care a lot about their parents' opinions of them. He says, he asked the question. He says, do you care as much about your parents' friends' opinion of you? How about your parents' coworkers?

Do you care what your parents' coworkers, what their opinion is of you? How are your parents' peers? Do you think you care as much about your parents' peers' opinion of you? And the answer is probably like, no. So we ask the question, so why do your parents' opinion of you? Why does it matter so much? And I think that's a really good question for us to ask, especially for a person who's like really trapped by this paralyzing need to please, especially needing to please unpleasable

parents. But I believe the answer to the question is that our parents represent, for good and for bad, they represent God the Father and for good and for ill. And I think that every one of us is born with this longing to hear those words from him ultimately, but then we want to hear them from our parents. And I think that's one of the reasons why people turn away from God. I wonder if this is in the case. Do we have this longing? inside of us to hear those words. And I think that maybe this is one of the reasons why so many people turn away from the Father.

We have this distorted image of God the Father. That in God's fatherhood, we see a tyrant. And in God's rules, we see someone who will never be pleased. And in God's not being seen as invisibility, we see a distance. We see someone who doesn't care. We see someone who's indifferent to us. And even in His holiness, in His goodness, we see a demand for impossible perfection. So it's like, why even try?

And I wonder if this isn't why Jesus is baptized. Did they ever ask the question, like, why does Jesus have to get baptized? Jesus is the sinless son of God. And in fact, in all the Gospels that talk about the baptism of John, they describe it very clearly. John's baptism is a baptism of repentance. So you have all these people from all over the place going into the waters as they confess their sins. So as John is baptizing them, they're declaring, like, this is everything that's wrong with me, this is everything that's broken in me, these are all my sins.

I am a total screw-up as John brings him into the water. And Jesus has the same baptism. In fact, Pope Benedict in his book Jesus of Nazareth, he says that among this crowd, it says that Jesus stands among the gray mass of sinners along the Jordan River, waiting with them. That he doesn't distinguish himself among them. He actually joins them. This gray mass of sinners that are waiting to be baptized by John and the Jordan.

Why? Because baptism is the one thing that connects Christmas and the cross. Let's say that again. Baptism is the one thing that connects Christmas and the cross. So at the moment of the incarnation, God joined himself to humanity in an unprecedented way. At Christmas, we just celebrated two weeks ago. Jesus is revealed as the word-made flesh who dwells among us. And he's like us in all things except sin. And at the Jordan, this God who became like us in all things. but sin is what Pope Benedict says.

He says, he loaded the burden of mankind's guilt upon his shoulders, and he carried it down into the depths of the Jordan. So here's Jesus, sinless, right? But he doesn't distinguish himself from the gray mass of sinners along the Jordan River, but he joins them. And what's he says, he loads the burdens of mankind's guilt upon his shoulders, and he carries it down into the depths of the Jordan. Think about this.

At Christmas, Jesus joins his divinity to huge. humanity and at his baptism, he takes on himself everything that is the worst in humanity. Pope Benedict notes, he says, Jesus begins his public ministry by stepping into the place of sinners. That's how he starts, that's how the king, that's how the one who's come to fight for us, that's the one who comes to rescue us, how he begins his public ministry by standing in the place of sinners. And he says, his inaugural gesture is an anticipation of the cross. this baptism is that's what connects Christmas in the cross this baptism why because we asked the

question why baptism why baptism why the cross is the same answer because Jesus has made himself and taken upon himself the sins of humanity because he himself isn't guilty but he's allowed himself actually he's chosen to be counted among sinners and this day this baptism at the Jordan is this is where it began because baptism is an acceptance of death for the sins of humanity. You remember that that's one of the images of baptism. Yes, the image of baptism is washing, it's rebirth, but it's rebirth after you've drowned.

It's rebirth after you've died. And when Jesus counts himself among sinners and he's brought into that water, that's a symbol of this is what I'm doing to sin and this is what's going to happen to me. He's declaring his yes to the Father at the same time, he's identifying himself with everything that is most broken and most shameful in me.

Jesus is identifying himself with everything that is most broken and most shameful in you. Now, let's pause in this for a second. Jesus has identified himself with everything that is most broken in our hearts. And that's the moment that the Father chooses to declare and you are my son. With you, I am well pleased.

Again, just let's stay here. And Jesus is public yes to the Father begins his mission, his yes of obedience, where he identifies himself with our guilt and our shame is the moment that the Father declares you're mine. And I'm proud of you. One of the things that's happening here is the Father is healing that distorted image of him

as this impossible to please dad. You know, that Dad is always demanding the next thing, the next win, the next thing to be proud of. I don't know if you ever seen those movies from like the 90s, 80s, 90s, like the kids sports movies where the mighty ducks or bad news bears or whatever those. And there's always that dad who's super distant or maybe like even like, you know, the kid wants to be in choir or in the play and drama.

And the kid, dad doesn't care at all. Dad's completely absent from the picture. It's indifferent. And then there's the big game. Then there's the big play. Then there's the big scene where here's the dad on the sidelines and here she goes and she kicks the scoring goal. he goes against the final tackle. And then the dad's on the, yeah, they pan the camera over to the dad.

And he's like crying. He's like, oh, that's my boy. You know, that's my girl. And that's when he claims her. That's when he claims him in the moment of the win. And here's what the father's saying. It's like, no, no, no. I claim you at your worst. When Jesus identifies himself with the worst in us is when the father says, you are mine. And I am proud of you. And that's what he invites us to do. That's what he, Jesus, his baptism is in invitation. So last Benedict the 16th quote. It's just phenomenal though. This guy is brilliant. Benendix the 16th says, he says, to accept the invitation to be baptized now means to go to the place of Jesus as baptism. Because you're invited to be baptized. If you haven't yet, if you have been, you were invited

to be baptized. That means to go to the place of Jesus' baptism. It is to go to where he identified himself with us and to receive there our identification with him. That's what baptism is, to go to the place or he's identified with us so that we can be identified with him, that he identifies with our guilt so that now we can identify with His holiness. He identifies with our orphan spirit, feeling of fatherlessness so that we can identify with his knowledge, you are my son, and I am your father. That's what happened at your baptism.

You became a son of God. You became a daughter of God. He is not ashamed of you. Your letter to the Hebrews chapter 2 says this. It says that Jesus, for a little while, he made himself lower than the angels. Yeah, I don't know if you know this about the Jordan River. The Jordan River is literally the Dead Sea, right where Jesus entered. Jordan River goes into the Dead Sea.

That is literally the lowest spot on the face of the earth. You can't get any lower on land than this moment where Jesus gets baptized by John and the Jordan. He has descended to the lowest spot possible. And the letter to the Hebrew says, he's made himself lower than the angels for a little while. And he is not ashamed to call you his brother. He is not ashamed to call you his sister. And God the Father is not ashamed to say,

you are my beloved son. You are my beloved daughter. And I am proud of you. You know, something I wish, I wish people knew about concerns. confession, something that maybe your baptism was a long time ago. You're like, okay, fine, when I was baptized, then little baby I'd done anything wrong. And yet the father could say, you're my beloved, I'm proud of you.

But look at my life. Look what I've done now. That's why. The confession is what we renew our baptism, right? Where God reinstates that relationship with us. He makes us new again. But what I wish people knew about baptism or about confession is how God sees all those people standing in line as they wait to go to confession.

because it's, I don't know if you feel like this is sinners row, right? Just like, you feel ashamed to yourself, like, here I am in the line, because I've screwed up again. How God sees you at that moment. How God hears your voice as you lay down your sins. How God hears your voice as you surrender your pride, as you confess that this is my brokenness. This is what I'm ashamed of. I wish people knew the truth about that moment. Not only in that moment God is giving you mercy, not only in that moment is God giving you love,

but in that moment, the Father is so. so proud of you. I don't know of anything a person can do. Then take all their brokenness and all their shame and go to the place of confession and say, here's what I've chosen, but I've been chosen. Here's what I've chosen to do. But here's who Jesus has chosen to make me. Not because you're performing, but because you're letting yourself be his. Just like right now. literally just like right now this is the last thing this is a former Archbishop of St. Paul

Minneapolis, his name is Archbishop of Harry Flynn and he used to invite people to do this at beginning every Mass and say I want you to close your eyes and if you're joining right now I just want you to feel free to close your eyes and in this moment of your eyes being closed here you are

worshiping God here you are at Mass in the virtual front pew here are at Mass in this place picture the Father looking at you right now. Here is God the Father who sees you. He knows you. He knows your brokenness and he knows your shame. He knows your strengths.

He knows your beauty. He knows the joy that you are. He knows your sorrow. But the Father is looking at you right now and he is smiling. The Father sees you. He knows you. And he is smiling not because you're perfect, but because you are. Not because you're perfect, but because you're here.

Not because you're perfect. Because your, because his son went into the depths so that you could be his.