Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 03/20/22 Last Words: Behold, Your Mother

Episode Date: March 21, 2022

Homily from the Third Sunday of Lent. The best gifts can be given in the worst of circumstances. When He had virtually nothing left to give, Jesus still gave. He gave His own mother to be our mother. The one person who knew Him most and loved Him best, Jesus entrusted to all of His beloved disciples. Mass Readings from March 20, 2022: Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15 Psalm 103: 1-4, 6-8, 111 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12 Luke 13:1-9

So a while back there was this young man, his name was Pierre Giorgio. He grew up in Italy, and like a lot of Italians, he was baptized Catholic. And like a lot of Italians, he wasn't really raised Catholic. He was Catholic in name only, his mom and dad. We kind of didn't really practice the faith. His mom would go to Mass occasionally, but his dad was not just indifferent to religion. His dad was pretty hostile to the Catholic Church. In fact, his dad ran a newspaper in Italy that was pro-communist and very much anti-Catholic church.

And at some point, though, Pierre Giorgio, like it worked. At some point, like, it kicked in. And he encountered Jesus in a way that, like, rerouted his entire life. Even as a teenager, what he would do? You know, his parents were kind of against him, like, living his faith out. So, but he wanted to go to Daily Mass. So this guy is such a boss. That's the word we use these days.

He was a boss. Like, he would sneak out of the house to go to Daily Mass. Like, Daily Mass was like 5.30 in the morning. And he would just, we sneak out of the house for a lot of things. I'm not sure anyone of us have ever snuck out of the house to go to daily Mass. That's what he would do on a daily basis. He had what was Pope Francis calls the Joy of the Gospel.

So he also loved mountain climbing. He was a big skier, so he lived in northern Italy, so the mountains are right there. On trips to go skiing or to go mountain climbing, if you didn't like the Rosary, don't be in the same train car as Pierreiorgio because basically he would always recruit everybody in the train car to pray the rosary.

You guys were going skiing, we're praying the rosary. If you want to, on a ski trip with Pierre Giorgio, you're praying the rosary at least once, if not more than once. But it was one of those things where he was infectious, right? He had this real joy. He met Jesus, and it changed his whole life. But it wasn't just about like his prayer life. He was so converted to Christ that every poor person in his hometown knew him.

On a regular basis, he would go to where they would live. And if they needed food, he'd bring food. If they needed medicine, he'd bring medicine. And he didn't just do this randomly. He did this multiple times a week. but every single Friday for sure he would make sure that he would be wherever the poor people were, wherever the hungry people were, that's where Pierre-Georgio would be,

until one day when he was visiting the poor and the sick and he contracted one of the diseases that was killing the people that he was serving. And in the space of five days, Pierre-Jorgio quickly became paralyzed, and then he was dead. At the age of 24, you know, pain and suffering is so real in this world. And we know this. We know that there can be genuinely good people and they still suffer. We know that like Pierre-Georgia, they can be genuinely holy people and they still end up dying. We also know the opposite is true, right? There can be

like bad people and they still are healthy. There can be people who actually actively hurt other people and they still prosper. And so it's one of those questions we're like, man, God, why isn't it like when someone does something bad, something bad happens to them? But it's It doesn't work that way. In fact, in the gospel today, that's the story, right? The beginning of the gospel tonight was people coming to Jesus and asking him, it's like, wait a second, there's all these Galileans, these Jews, that pilot had killed, and then to add insult to injury, he mixed their blood with the blood of the pagan sacrifices, and Jesus asked that question, right? He asks, do you think that they were worse? Do you think that this happened to them because they were worse people?

The answer is no. Or when that tower in Jerusalem fell on those 18 people, like, this is the news of the day, right? And people were asking, like, what did they do wrong that the tower fell on them. And Jesus said, nothing. And one of the things he makes clear is that evil choices and bad consequences are not necessarily a one-to-one thing. But in a world that's good, but broken, bad things happen for no obvious reason. But also in a world that is broken but still good, good things can happen for no obvious reason. That there's a lot of darkness in this world. And there's a lot of pain. And even if you try to be good, darkness is going to find. you and pain is going to find you. And so what do we do in this moment? Like, you know, with our temptation,

I think, when we know that we're living in an uncertain world, we know when we're living in a world where, you know, even if we really tried to be so good, such bad things can happen to us, I think in a world like this, what we end up doing is we try to keep something for ourselves. Like in a world like that, you protect yourself. In a world like that, you're like, whatever you have, you hold on to and you do not let it go. You do not give it up. You do not care about anyone other than yourself, which is why it's so startling. I think it's so remarkable when you find a person going through the most agonizing, the most personally devastating moment in their life, and they're thinking of someone else.

I don't know if you've ever met anyone like that. In the moment of their greatest agony, moment of their greatest suffering, they weren't thinking about their agony, they weren't thinking about their suffering, they were thinking about someone else. So Pierre Giorgio, at 24 years old, as this young man, his body is wasting away

as he's quickly becoming paralyzed and unable to breathe, his last words, the last words he ever wrote, it was a Friday, and he realized, Fridays normally when I'd go to be with those people who need me, the people who need medicine, and he realized that they didn't have medicine for one of the men he wanted to help, so he asked for a piece of paper and for a pencil to write with, and he wrote his last words, he wrote, where here are the injections for a guy named Converso. The pawn tickets belongs to Sapa, I'd forgotten about it, renew it on my behalf. In the worst moment of his life,

He was thinking of someone else. Those are the last words he ever wrote, but the last words he ever spoke were interesting too because a priest came to visit him, given last rites, he'd know anything to sick, the whole thing. And his grandma had just died right before this, like days before Pierre Josio died.

His grandma died. And the priest said, what if your grandma were to call you to heaven? Peter Joshua said, I would be so happy. Because I can't wait to get to heaven. But then he had this look of fear on his face, and he said, but what about my mom and dad?

Because he knew how they lived, right? He knew that they were far from Jesus. What about my mom and my dad? And the priest said, Pierre Giorgio, you will not abandon them, even in death. You will live in spirit with them from heaven, and you will give them your faith and your self-denial,

and you will continue to be one family. And when Pierre Giorgio heard those words, his last word, did he ever spoke on this earth? He just smiled, and he said, yes. In a world that's so broken, we want to keep something for ourselves.

which is why someone like Pierrejojo proves that light can shine even in the darkest of times. So a person like Pierrejo shows that even the best gifts can be given in the worst circumstances. So we've been doing the series, right, since the beginning of Lent on the last words. We know that words have power. Words have the ability to disclose. Words have the ability to reveal what's in our hearts, to reveal what we really care about. And so we've been looking at the seven last words of Jesus from the cross. And that first weekend, the first last word of Jesus from the cross was, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing.

And then last weekend, we talked about the second last word of Jesus, where he turned to that criminal, crucified next to him. And he said, truly, I tell you today, you'll be with me in paradise. And we saw in those first two weeks is mercy offered and mercy received. But this third last word of Jesus for this third Sunday in Lent comes from John's Gospel, Chapter 19. And it says this, John wrote this. He said, standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopis, and Mary of Magdalah. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother,

woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. This third last word of Jesus, you know, the first two weeks, mercy offered and mercy received. This week we have a mother offered and a mother received. And I just, we have to like pause on this and realize what has gone on, what has led up to this moment where on the cross Jesus is giving this.

At this point in Jesus' life, everything he has has been taken from him. Like at this point in Jesus' life, everything he has been given. He has no more possessions. The night before, he gave away his body and blood. He's given away his freedom. In fact, you know, St. Paul writes about this

in letters to the Philippians. He says, even though he was in the form of God, Jesus didn't deem equality with God, something to be grasped at. But he emptied himself and humbled himself to be crucified, even death. on a cross. He gave away his dignity. He gave away his pride. He gave away his clothing. I don't know if you know this, but, you know, we have a crucifix in front of us. That loincloth on Jesus,

that's for us. Romans crucified people absolutely naked. So imagine, here's Jesus. Nothing left hanging their naked on a cross in front of all these people passing by, people reviling him, people indifferent to him, in front of his mom and his best friend. And what does he do? In that moment, he could have clung to the one gift. He could have clung to the one consolation. He could have clung. He could have held on to the one person who knew him most and loved him best. But in that moment, he gave away his own mom.

When he had nothing else to give. In that moment, he gave away his own mom. Imagine the temptation that we would experience. Like to be able to just say, listen, listen, I've lost everything else. I'm going to say mine to at least my own mom. But with these last words, woman, behold your son. behold your mother Jesus proves what's in his heart

he proves that light can shine even in the darkest times of times he proves that the best gifts can be given in the worst circumstances the night before he gave away the best gift ever the Eucharist at the moment of his betrayal in this moment he gives away his own mom in the moment of his death

you know last words they have the ability to disclose reality but here these last words have the ability to change reality. You know, when Jesus, when Jesus says to his mom, he says, woman, that's not an insult. Just keep, we keep that in mind. When Jesus calls his mom, woman, like, if I call my mom woman, that would be, I would be in trouble. Even at 47 years old, that would we'd have, I'd be grounded. When Jesus calls his mom, woman, he's not insulting her. He's reminding the world of her role.

Here's Eve, right? Eve is the first woman. And Eve's name means mother of all the living. When Jesus calls his mom, woman, he's reminding the world of her role. In that moment, she becomes the mother of all the redeemed. You know, at Cana, later earlier on in John's Gospel, Jesus called her woman as well. When she reminded him that they had no wine, he says, woman, what is this to you and to me? My hour has not yet come, because he knew that once he revealed himself, the whole ball would be rolling, and it would lead to this moment on the cross. He realized that she was there in the beginning.

she was there from the first hour and now here she is at the ending now here she is at the final hour in that crazy in that first hour she was there and she was his in that first hour she was there and she was his mom and he was hers

her only child but with these words these last words change all of that because in giving her to the beloved disciple he gives her to every disciple I don't know if you know this but John's Gospel, he never refers to himself as John.

Whenever he refers to himself, he refers to himself as the beloved disciple, or as the disciple whom Jesus loved, which we might stop and go like, okay, bro, like high on yourself, like Jesus loved me the most. But he's not, he's not being humble by leaving his name out. What he's doing in that moment is he's saying that when Jesus said to the beloved disciple, that's your mom, he was saying that to every beloved disciple, and that's you. you're his beloved disciple that from the cross

what he was doing if he was giving you his mom to be your mom you know there's some theologians who say that because Mary was conceived without original sin that she never experienced the consequences of sin and one of the consequences of sin is pain and childbirth that when Mary gave birth to Jesus

some of the theories are that there was no labor pains I remember when my mom heard about this and she's like, I don't know, some priest told her, and so she called me up. She's like, is this true? She was so mad. Because she was, we talked about it some more, and she said, no, I just, I felt so close to Mary because, like, my labor pain, she has six kids, like my pains and Mary's pains, like, we get to share this kind of mother's heart.

We share this kind of mother's pain. She had a connection, and it might be true. It might be true that Mary became the mother of our Lord without pain. But in this moment, with these last words, Mary became our mom through more pain than you and I could ever imagine. It might be true that when she became the mother of Jesus, it didn't cost her anything, didn't hurt it all. But with these last words, to become your mom, to become my mom,

it cost her everything. Because with these last words, she became your mom and my mom, then, now, and forever. It's so crazy that there are so many Christians who don't understand this, It's painful, right, that the gift from the cross that Jesus with his last breaths is giving to us that so many Christians, we don't even, even Catholics, we don't really realize this. Yes, of course, Jesus gave God as our father, which is just bananas. That's bongers. That's crazy. But also with these last words, Jesus not, was, he wasn't merely providing for his mother by entrusting her to John.

She was, he was providing for his children by entrusting us to his mom. And what an honor. Like a gift given in the worst of circumstances. But too often, I know we ignore. We ignore her. This gift given in the darkness, this gift given in terrible circumstances, we just ignore this gift. It's kind of like the gospel today with Jesus' parable.

We're talking about the fig tree. They didn't have any fruit. And the guy begged, says, give me more time. And the landowner says, okay, I'll give you more time. But you know what you have to do? What you have to do is you have to use this time. I'm going to give you this time as a gift. I'm going to give you this time as an opportunity, but you have to use this gift.

You have to use this opportunity. Jesus has given us his mom as a gift. We have to do something with it. Because it's a powerful gift. She's a powerful mom. So I don't know if you know a guy named Father Don Calloway. Father Callow, he's a pretty remarkable guy. Father Don did not, he was not a pure Giorgio in high school.

He was, if you know his story at all, he at one point found himself working for the Yakuza, which is, if you know anything, the Japanese mafia, like he was, not a choir boy, not walking down the same path as Pier Giorgio. Father Don Calloway was he was involved in everything, not only gangs and drugs and everything you can imagine, but also everything you can imagine. And at one point, though, at one point, he encountered Jesus in a way that just like Pure Giorgio,

rerouted his entire life. And so he describes this moment when he realized, I have to make a break with how I've been living. And so he went to his bedroom, and he had a bunch of hefty bags. And he just started taking stuff off the wall, his paraphernalia, his drugs, everything he had. and just throwing him into these garbage bags.

He filled up, he said, he filled up three garbage bags of stuff that was not good. And he took him outside, threw him in the dumpster, went back into his room, and he put up a picture of Jesus, where his picture of Bar Marley had been. He said, I looked at this picture of Jesus, and the image of Jesus looking at me, he said, I thought that if God knew my heart, that he would be disgusted by me. But I looked at this image of Jesus, and where I saw in his eyes was I just saw this absolute love, this basically this voice of Jesus saying, I love you completely. And he said my heart broke and I just started sobbing and praying and saying, I need you, Jesus. And I want to live my whole

life for you. And he said he cried basically the entire day until he was exhausted and he curled up on this couch in his bedroom. And then something happened. He said something happened that's never happened before and it's never happened since. His eyes were open. He was fully awake. and underneath the crack in his door there was a presence that came into his room and he said the devil manifested himself in my bedroom

and I could see him like as clearly as I could see anyone in my room but wasn't it wasn't an hallucination it wasn't a dream it was really said and I didn't even believe in the devil all of a sudden he was like right there he said he describes it he says you've ever had like you know sleep paralysis he said I was completely paralyzed

I couldn't move a muscle he said I was absolutely terrified and I thought here is this image, this is living embodiment of evil. And he said, what do you do? I think, do I punch him? Can you punch the devil? He said, I squeezed my eyes tight shut. And all I could do from my soul, he said, I didn't even say it out loud.

All I could do is in my soul, in my heart, I just cried out one word, just one name. That moment I just cried out in my heart, Mary! And he said, instantly, the devil was gone. instantly the terror was gone and it was replaced with this absolute complete peace and as he was laying there in that piece he heard this voice and he said again i didn't hear it in my ears but it was like a voice like dripping over my soul and the voice said donnie i am so happy said this voice of the most the most feminine voice the most maternal voice he's ever heard He said, the only person ever calls me, Donnie's my mom, but she was not there.

This was my mom that Jesus had given to me from the cross. This gift that God doesn't want us to waste. You know, my priest growing up, he once told the story about he was called to the hospital. There's a man who was dying. He was really close to death. And the priest, my father, he showed up and gave the man confession, you know, an anointing of the sick and Holy Communion. man only had hours left. And he told my priest the story of his life

and he said, you know, I was raised Catholic. I haven't been in church in so many years. He says, I've wrecked every relationship I've ever known. I've ruined every relationship in my family. I've hurt more people than I can count. Basically, I've driven my life off a cliff. I have nothing to show for it. He said, but when I was a kid,

someone once told me that that if you just pray the Hail Mary three times a day then Mary would not let me die without the mercy of God if I just turn to Mary three times a day and just say he says that's what I've done my whole life just begging my mom to not let me die

even though I made a mess of my life to not let me die without the mercy of God and my priest said he stood there at his bedside and he just said, and here I am, and here I am, giving him reconciliation, giving him this anointing, giving him Jesus in the Eucharist in the last hour of this man's life. What a gift. This is the last thing. This is a gift. It's an honor.

It's a gift given in the worst of circumstances. You know, after Pierre-Jorjo died, his mom fully came alive in her faith. After he died, his father came back to the church and started returning to the sacraments of confession and Sunday Mass. And the priest was right that they'd be united as one family in heaven. But this is a gift,

this is an honor and an obligation. You know, after John wrote this, after he said that Jesus looked at his mother and said, woman, behold your son, then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. The very next line says, and from that hour,

the disciple took her into his home. Because this is a gift, this is an honor. Mary, as our mom, is an honor, but it's also an obligation. From that hour, he took her into his home. How do we take Mary into our home? Really, really simply.

I don't know if you know anything about marrying apparitions, like where Mary has appeared. They've been validated, like confirmed, like legit, like studied. And whenever Mary has appeared in the last 100 plus years, she's always had the same message. And one of those parts of the message has been pray the rosary. Now, I used to, I knew this. I knew about apparitions.

I knew that the message was pray the rosary every day. And I thought like, oh, thanks for the suggestion, Mary, you know. Peace, Mom. You know, I just didn't really. until someone pointed it out, they said, well, you know, if Mary's appearing somewhere, it's only because God has told her to appear somewhere. If Mary has a message, it's only because God has given her the message to give to all of us, which changes things. That ceases to become the recommendation of our mom, and all of a sudden becomes what we are called to do by God

himself. And that was so convicting that I was just like, okay, that's what I need to start doing. I need to start praying the rosary every single day, even if you can't, pray the whole rosary every day, at least a decade of the rosary. That's what it is to take our mom, this gift, this honor, this obligation into our homes. On his deathbed, peer Georgio provided for the poor with his last words by giving all he had to give from the cross. Jesus provided for the poor and spirit, us poor sinners, with his last words by giving everything he had to give. And what he had to give today is his mom. He gave us his mom, a gift. an honor, in obligation.

And from this hour, from this hour, you and I are invited to take her into our home.