Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 03/13/22 Last Words: The Missing Last Word

Episode Date: March 14, 2022

Homily from the Second Sunday of Lent. Both men were loved. They weren't both saved. The second Last Word of Jesus from the Cross is missing something. Jesus has begged for mercy for all...including the two criminals who were crucified with Him. But they did not both receive mercy. One received mercy and one rejected mercy. Mass Readings from March 13, 2022: Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18 Psalms 27:1, 7-9, 13-14Philippians 3:17—4:1 Luke 9:28-36

So I mentioned that last week, you weren't here because we didn't have mass, but we still recorded a homily because it was like, we need to start this series because we have seven weeks of Lent. And, you know, two weeks ago, we talked about the power of words. If you remember that at all, two weeks ago, we talked about how words have this ability, words have this power to disclose what's in our hearts. In fact, that's what words do. They reveal what we really think.

They reveal what we really believe. Words have the ability to disclose what actually is in our hearts. And I would say this. I made this point last week. You might not have been here. I wasn't. But last week we talked about how the last words have even greater power, right? Last words have the even greater ability to disclose what's most important to us. That the great last word, the greatest last words are the ones that here's what someone lived during the course of their life and they get summed up. They get basically communicated in this very powerful way with their last breath.

someone says exactly this is the most important thing that you can know about me. The most important thing I have to say with my entire life are these last words. And so we, last week, again, last time I'll reference it. We talked about a bunch of different last words, from profound last words to like funny last words. If you want to look it up, it's online. This week, I've been thinking about like just other people's last words, that kind of really profound ones.

So we know Harriet Tubman. We all know who Harriet Tubman is, right? She ran the underground railroad of escaped slaves from the south to the north. over the course of like 15 years, she helped over 300 people escape slavery and come to the north. And on her deathbed, she was surrounded by family. She was surrounded by friends. And they were singing. They were singing gospel songs.

And one of the songs she was singing was swing low, sweet chariot. This is all about that whole notion of like, as I take this last breath, here's the Lord is coming for me. And her last words were just that. Her last words as she was on this earth were simply swing low, sweet chariot. St. John Paul II when he was dying not too long ago. He was in Rome and people were praying outside of his window and he was praying and people were praying around him on his deathbed. And his words were, his words were,

let me go to the house of the father. The last words of this man who was a father to so many, the last words he spoke on this earth, let me go to the house of my father. St. Kateri Tekigwitha, she's the first Native American saint ever. Her last words are so simple but so profound. Her last words were simply, Jesus, I love you. And then she died.

St. Mother Teresa, those were her very last words as well. People who said that when they were with Mother Teresa as she died, that's all she kept saying. She just kept saying, Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love you, until she had no more breath left. And she saw him face to face. There's another woman.

Her name is St. Teresa Bavila, this massive St. Doctor of the Church. She was more eloquent as she was dying. Apparently she had created a speech. St. Teresa of Avala, as she is dying, she said this so profound, she said, My lord, it is time to move on. May your will be done, oh, my lord and my spouse. The hour that I have longed for has come. It is time for us to meet one another face to face.

Just imagine that, Teresa of Avala, on her deathbed. The hour that I have longed for has come, it is time for us to meet one another face to face. You can contrast all those with, there was an American actress. her name was Joan Crawford. Some of you know who Joan Crawford is, but Joan Crawford on her deathbed. The only person in her room, I think at the time, was her housekeeper. And her housekeeper was just praying silently over in the corner, over this woman who had employed her. And Joan saw her praying. And she looked at her and she snapped out, damn it, don't you dare ask God to help me.

And then she died. And just look at the, think of, consider the difference between these last words of like, Jesus, I love you. The hour I long for has come. And damn it, don't you dare ask God to help me at this moment. Different words spoken to the exact same God. Different words spoken about the exact same God. And that's why last words are so important because last words convey the depth of our heart. Last words have the ability to reveal, to disclose what it is we think is most important. And so Jesus, on the cross, there are the famous seven last words of Jesus. Last week we talked about, his first last word was, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they're doing.

And in that, Jesus reveals what's in his heart, right? Jesus, in that moment, in that first last word, Jesus revealed his mission. He revealed the entire point of his life, because the entire point of Jesus' life was to beg for our forgiveness. His whole point of his life was to be on mission to save us from our sins. So his first last word is a summary of that. Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they're doing. Mercy begged for.

Forgiveness offered. So this week we're taking that next step, and we're talking about the second last word of Jesus. But not only the second last word of Jesus, what we might even say is that what's missing? What's the missing word in the second thing Jesus said from the cross? Because we know what happens next. What happens next is Jesus turns to one of the criminals.

We know that he was crucified between two criminals, between two people who were condemned to death. And to one of them, he says, Truly, I tell you, amen, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise. This is the second last word of Jesus, but there's something profound. There's something missing from the last words of Jesus when he says, Amen, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise. I think it's worth noting that these words that Jesus says are a response.

You know the story, right? In the Gospel of Luke, he talks about this. The second of the last words of Jesus are a response. Why? Because the one criminal looks at Jesus. as he's dying, and he says, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And it's to this, that Jesus says, amen, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise. I think to understand this, we have to go to the first reading today.

So Genesis 15, that's the first reading today, where we have the story of Abram, whose name we all know gets changed to. Abraham, exactly, Bible scholars, well done, A plus for the day. So Abram, whose name gets changed to Abraham, at some point God says to him, here's the thing. I promise you. I guarantee you three things. One, massive dynasty, many children. Secondly, land. Thirdly, through you, the entire world will be blessed. And in Genesis 15, we have Abraham saying, like, yeah, but God, like, how do I know? And I think, like, Abram, that's bold. God just spoke to you. Yeah, but like, prove it, God. And so God says, fine, let's go. I will prove it to

you. He goes, go outside, count the stars if you possibly can. That's the, how many descendants you're going to have. I don't know if you've noticed this. Abram goes out. You might notice because later on it says the sun then set. So Abraham went outside when it was daytime. So it was this big act of faith where Abram goes and you can't see the stars at night. Actually it would be really easy. He says it's one star. Like, okay, one. I have one descendant. But it's an act of faith that Abram steps out into the daytime. He can't see the stars. But he says, okay, I will prove it to you, God says to Abram. Here's what I need from you. Go and get a three-year-old ram, a three-year-old Heifer, three-year-old she-goat, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.

So Abram's like, okay, God, you want a barbecue. Let's go. Or a petting zoo. One of the two. That's not what Abraham. That's not what God wants, right? Abram knows, wait a second. If you want a three-year-old ram, three-old heifer, three-old she-goat, turtlove, young pigeon, what God is doing is going to enter into a covenant with Abram, because that's what you would do in the ancient world. If you wanted to have, you had two families coming together to make one family, two tribes coming together to make one tribe, two clans to make one tribe, two people, to make one people. What you would do is you'd have a covenant, and what you would do in the covenant is you'd take a three-year-old ram, three-old heifer, three-old she-goat, turtle-love, young pigeon, and do exactly what it is that Abram does. What's he

do? He cuts them in two. He literally splits them in two. And then he lays the halves of the animals opposite each other, making kind of an aisle in between them. And the idea, what you would do in the ancient world then is then both parties would walk through the, what was inside the animals, on the outside, you'd walk through the guts and everything of the animals, basically saying with your body, if I'm false to this covenant, let what happened to those animals happen to me. That's what it was. You called it a cutting a covenant because that's what you do. You'd cut the animals into, then walk through their pieces saying, if I'm false to this, that what happened to those animals happened to me. And then it says what?

it says, as the sun was about to set, a deep terrifying darkness came upon Abram. I just want to highlight this for a second, the deep terrifying darkness, because this is powerful. A deep terrifying darkness comes upon Abram at the moment of the covenant, but if you remember anything about the crucifixion of Jesus, that as he has been beaten, as he's been scourged, as he's carried his cross to Calgatha, as he's been nailed to the cross, what happens? It's scripture says that a darkness descended over the entire land. The same thing. As God was making a covenant of Abraham, this incredible.

incredible darkness, a deep terrifying darkness, as God was fulfilling the covenant on the cross. What happened, another deep and terrifying darkness came over the land. But even in the gospel today, what do we have? We have Peter, James, and John on the mountain. And what does it say? It says, this cloud cast a shadow over them. A darkness came upon them, and they became frightened as they entered the cloud. There's a terrifying darkness. You have Peter, James, and John who are terrified. You have the people around Jesus, who are terrified as he's on the cross, and this is so important for us, they became fully awake. When the terrifying darkness came upon Abram, he became fully awake.

When the apostles, Peter, James and John, had the terrifying darkness upon them on the mountain, they became fully awake. As Scripture even says that, becoming fully awake, Peter began to babble, like, let's make some tense. I don't know what to do here. They became fully awake because that's what fear can do. Fear can wake us up. We talked, we had a whole series on this, right?

That fear has power to keep us alive. Fear has the ability to wake us up and keep in to basically kind of shake us out of the just normal life where everything is just on autopilot when we become afraid. When we enter into the darkness, sometimes something happens that couldn't happen if we weren't afraid. And that thing is, we realize, I can't keep going the way I've been going. Go back to the moment on Galgatha. Remember, there's two people Jesus has crucified in between. And one of them, as the deep tail,

terrifying darkness descends over the whole place. One of them looks over at Jesus and he begins to mock him. Again, in Luke's gospel, it says this. One of them looks over at Jesus and begins to like, basically, say, are you not the Messiah? If you are, then save yourself and us. But the other criminal looks and says, the other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, have you no fear of God? for you are subject to the same condemnation, and indeed we have been condemned justly for the sentence we've received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing wrong.

This is so important. There's two people on those crosses next to Jesus. Both of them are on the cross. Both of them are guilty, and that's so important. Sometimes we talk about the guy as the good thief, like the good criminal. They're not. He's not a good criminal. He's not a nice guy.

You do not want to be his friend. You wouldn't have liked him. I promise you this. I don't know him, but I know I wouldn't have liked him. He is not, we call him the good thief, only because at the last moment of his life, he realized he was waking up. He was woken up by the fear of God,

where he says, have you no fear of God? The good thief, the good criminal, was not good. He even says he wasn't good. This is so important. He says, we are being punished justly for our crimes. What was he being punished? How was he being punished? He was being punished by being crucified.

And he's on the cross saying, yep, I deserve this. Listen, you've got to be bad. to be on a cross and say, this is about right. You have to have done something awful to be crucified and say, this is what I deserved. But he's on the cross and he's saying, this is what I deserved. He was not a good guy.

But then he looks at Jesus and he says, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. I mean, this is so important because this man on the cross, do you have no fear of God? He was afraid and he was awake. He was afraid and he was awake. He admitted he wasn't good. He admitted he wasn't innocent. He wasn't misunderstood.

Here's the thing. The crazy thing about the story is both men on the cross next to Jesus. Both of them were condemned justly. Both of them deserved it. Both of them were guilty. Both of them had nothing to offer Jesus. But here's the crazy thing. Both of them were loved.

Both of them were begged for. Both of them were fought for by Jesus. What did Jesus do? They both just heard Jesus say, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Jesus was begging for both of them, and they both heard it.

He loved them both. In a response to this love, one loved him back and one hated him. In response to mercy being offered, there was mercy received and there was mercy rejected. And I sometimes wonder which one I am. I sometimes wonder even now how close I am to being one or the other.

So years ago, I've told the story many times about how after I graduated college, I was a missionary in Central America. How do I say this? So I graduated from college. I went to this particular college, it was a Catholic college. I went there because I wanted to study theology.

And I wanted to study theology because 1st Peter 315 says, always be ready to give a reason for the faith that's within you. So I'm like, I'll go to a Catholic college and I'll learn why I believe what I believe. I'll learn all the whys about the what's. I'll learn how to live this.

I went to a Catholic. Catholic College because I wanted, I wanted to have an answer. I wanted to know the truth and I wanted to be able to live the truth. And I always say it like this. I say that four years later, I graduated with a degree in theology. I was a Catholic missionary at a Catholic college, or Catholic high school teaching religion, I'm going to daily Mass and I hated the Catholic Church. And there are a number of reasons for that, but one of the reasons is my own pride. It's my own fault. but the missionary I was at

was really like it was like Catholic with the capital C it was like fully Catholic and so I remember getting down there and these two priests were like there also were Catholic priests like capital C Catholic priests and I was still going to daily mass

and these guys on the old priest and the young priest just like the exorcist like they were super holy guys but I would go to daily mass and they'd say something from the pulpit and I'd be like whatever roll in my eyes

I'd make noises you know and I would think that they couldn't see? You guys, I can see everything. They could see everything. I can right now, I see that you're getting sleep. I know. Like, listen. And I was thinking, like, they can't tell. And I was a jerk to them and they knew I was a jerk to them. So like maybe six weeks, two months into being down there, I got really sick. It's like so sick they thought I was going to die. So sick, I thought I was going to die. And at the end of one of these really long days, here I am on this, on this, on my bed, just, you know, sweating and kind of delirious. And the end of this long day that all the priests

had long days down there, like 7.45 p.m. Father Tony was crossing the little dirt alleyway between the church and some rice and beans for supper. And they ran up to him and said, Father Tony, Mike's really sick. Like, I don't know, does he need a priest? I think he might need a priest. And so Father Tony, who I'd been a horrible, I've been a jerk to the entire time I knew him. From the first moment I knew him, I was horrible. Without hesitating for a second, he ran back into the church. He got Holy Communion. He got the Holy Oils. And he ran over to where I was, thinking I was down my deathbed. And he said, yeah, he offered me confession. He offered me anointing of the sick. He offered me Holy Communion. To the first, to confession,

I was like, nah, I'm fine. I'll take the other two, though. Eventually, I got better. Obviously. And after that, had a pretty significant conversion. I remember lying there as Father Tony came to my bedside thinking, like, maybe Father Tony does know Jesus. I mean, I was a jerk to him, and now here he is. That really helped a lot. But years later, after I, again, this conversion, after I'd been ordained, I was meeting with my spiritual director, who's a hermit in northern Minnesota. And I shared with him this story, just like, well, here's part of my story. You know, I was on my deathbed, I thought, and the priest came and told him the story. And a couple of years after that, he brought it up again.

He said, hey, can I, can I say something about that moment where you waved off confession when you thought you were dying? I was like, yeah, sure, go ahead. He said, do you realize that if you were, you? would have died then, you would have been lost to God forever. I was like, oh, I said, I said, no, I did not. He said, when you told me that, my blood ran cold. And I realized, I realized so clearly, oh my gosh, that's exactly what I had done. That's exactly what would have happened. Because I thought I was dying. I thought I was on my deathbed. And when confession was offered to me, I was like, no, no, no,

it's fine, it's fine. I'll take the other two things. Give me anointing, give me holy communion. I don't need the mercy. Now, whenever I tell that to people, they're really quick to be like, well, you know, you don't know that for sure. Like, okay, you got me. I don't know that for sure. Or they say things like, well, no, Father, like, God's really merciful in which I say, yes, he's very merciful, which is why he brought a priest to my bedside when I thought that I was dying and offered me confession. And I said, no, that's the crazy thing. I thought I was dying.

A priest came and said, do you want the mercy of Jesus? And I was like, nah, I'll pass. I wasn't raging against God. I just wasn't willing to let him actually love me. Yes, God is merciful. That's why he let me live for crying out loud to get me to the point where he was able to break through my heart and I actually did go to confession to Father Tony eventually

and it changed my life. Forgiveness was offered and forgiveness was rejected by a normal 22-year-old. And if I would have died in that moment, in that state, I would have been lost to God forever. because I don't need confession. You know, it's one of those things. This is one of the sidebar.

This is one of the reasons why James chapter 3, he says this. He says, not many of you should aspire to be teachers, my brothers and sisters. Because teachers will be liable to a stricter judgment. It's one of the reasons why I have so little patience for Catholic schools that are not Catholic. So little patience for Catholic colleges that are not Catholic, that just take the Catholic faith and distort it and water it down and twist it so you don't even recognize it because it doesn't just twist their souls it twists the souls of the people who are going to school there that's what happened to me and it's not just about like branding or false

advertising it is about the potential to deceive one's mind and deadened one's heart all the way to hell so the criminals looks at the other one and says do you not fear god you guys i have to beg every one of us Please do not consider yourself above the fear of God. Because the fear of God has done more to sober people up than maybe anything. And most people think. Because for that one thief, that one criminal on Jesus' side, what began with fear, he then spoke in hope. What began in fear, he spoke in hope and said,

Jesus, I hope, please remember me when you come into your kingdom. What began with fear was spoken hope and he died in love. It didn't end in fear. It began in fear. He spoke in hope and he died in love. And this is the story every one of us actually we get to live out as well. And we can encounter the reality of our brokenness. We get to have what can begin in fear.

We can then speak in hope. And then we can actually not just die in love. We can actually live in love. And the only reason we can do this is because go back to Abram and God in Genesis chapter 15. Abram sits down between these pieces that are cut up and a deep terrifying darkness comes upon him. And then what happens?

the next thing that happens, we heard it earlier. It says there's a smoking brazier and a flaming torch, and it appears at the opposite end of these animals. That's the presence of God. And what happens is then that presence of God walks through those pieces or passes through those pieces. And it's the next thing, Scripture says, it was on that occasion that God made a covenant with Abram.

Do you notice what didn't happen? What didn't happen is Abram didn't walk through the pieces. If you're going to make a covenant, you walk through, then I walk through. If you're going to make a covenant, your family walks through, then my family walks through. If you're going to make a covenant, your people walk through, then my people walk through.

In this time, they don't both walk through. Only God walks through. And you ask the question, why? And I think this is the answer. I think the reason is because God knew, Abram, I'm entering into this covenant with you, but you are going to be false to it. Abram, I'm entering into this covenant with you. I'm yours and your mind, but you're going to fail.

Abram, we're entering into this relationship, this, we're going to be family. and you're going to be unfaithful. But when that day comes, rather than you being torn apart, I will let myself be torn apart. When the day comes that you fail, I'll let myself be ripped to shreds, not you. When the day that comes when you fall,

it's my hands, in my feet, that will be pierced. Here is the mercy and the unending love of God. who says, when that day happens, I'll pay the price for you. On the cross, both men were loved. On the cross, both men were fought for. Both heard the offer of mercy. Both heard Jesus beg for mercy. Both were offered mercy.

But that's the missing word. The missing last word is Jesus could have looked at them, and he could have said, Amen, I say to you today, you both will be with me in paradise. because they were both loved, but they didn't both let themselves be loved. They were both offered mercy, but they didn't both receive mercy. They were both being fought for by God himself, but they didn't both let God win.

And this is every single one of us. This moment, not just our last moment, but this moment, God longs to be able to say, Amen, I say to you today, you both will be with me. You all will be with me. Because he loves you all. He loves us all. But he won't be able to say the word all. Just like he wasn't able to say the word both.

Because mercy is offered. And mercy was received. But mercy was rejected. The question for every one of us we have to answer is which one will we be?