Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 03/24/24 He Leadeth Me: Enter the Story

Episode Date: March 23, 2024

Homily from Palm Sunday. You are meant to be a part of the story. As Christians, we know the Story and we believe the Story. We know how God has saved the world by entering into suffering and death. But we are called to more; we are called to participate in the Story. Our apostolate is marked by Acceptance, Access, and Action. Mass Readings from March 24, 2024: Isaiah 50:4-7 Psalms 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24Philippians 2:6-11 Mark 14:1—15:47

Welcome to Sunday homilies with me, Father Mike Schmitz. I hope today's homily inspires and motivates you, and I also hope that it leaves you hungry for the one who gave everything to feed you. If you want to get this in other Sunday Mass resources sent straight to your inbox, sign up at ascensionpress.com slash Sunday, or by texting Sunday to 33777. You can also follow or subscribe on your podcast app for weekly notifications. God bless. So I think one of the thoughts that can again occur to us when we hear the passion when we hear this story is just

what a waste that this reality right here is this story, this reality that here is Jesus who is sent by the Father and it just leads here. It leads to this place of rejection and betrayal and humiliation and abuse and pain and torture and death failure. And it can seem like such a waste, right? And of course, we know there's more to the story. We know that this actually did something. Again, let's highlight this.

On the surface, the story we just proclaimed, the story we just received that we just heard, it looks like a waste. But what we see with the eyes of faith is we know that it actually did something. And this is one of those mysteries of faith that if we miss it, we miss everything. This mystery of faith that here is Jesus Christ, not only his life, but his suffering, his death,

and his resurrection, those aren't just facts of history. It is the fact of history that has changed everything. Once again, on the surface, it's senseless. On the surface, it's a waste. On the surface, it does nothing. In fact, that's one of the reasons why Father Walter Chiswick, right, the author of He Leitheth Me, following him for the last six weeks.

He was an American priest, a Jesuit missionary, to Russia. He suffered in the Soviet gulag. He suffered in solitary confinement. When he said, when he was a kid, he used to hear sermons about the passion, he used to hear sermons about Christ's suffering, and he said, he disliked them.

He said, it all seemed so vivid and yet so useless. There seemed to be no sense in it. And that could be us. This all seems so vivid, he has a very clear picture of Christ's suffering, but it all seems so useless. There seemed to be no sense in it.

And yet, at the same time, we know that what seems senseless, this appears to be mere failure, is the historical moment that changed the world. And so what we do as Christians is, we hear the story and we say, okay, I believe in that story, which is true, right?

It's, I believe that that thing, that suffering, and just how remarkable is this, that the suffering wasn't senseless. that the suffering actually was powerful, that the suffering did something. In fact, that his failure was fruitful. That's what we believe. And again, if you're a Christian, you believe that story. But a lot of times here's what we do.

A lot of times we say, okay, I believe that story. So I know the story, I believe the story. And we miss out on, I don't know if I don't know if I want to say this is the most important part. We sometimes think the story's done. I mean, here we are. We're just commemorating. we're commemorating what Jesus has done for us. We're commemorating the fact that he saved the world.

We're commemorating the fact that, again, his failure was actually fruitful. We're commemorating the fact that this suffering, this death, this future resurrection, that it did something, but the story isn't over. In fact, the invitation for all Christians is not merely to believe the story and to receive the gift of grace from the story. Our invitation as Christians is to enter the story. This is the incredible mystery of being a Christian is, yes, Christ's seemingly senseless death and suffering redeem the world, but it's not over yet.

It's not over yet. You and I are invited to enter into the story. Why? Because we've been sent into the world. What I mean by that is, here, the father sends his son into this world. You know what it is to be sent? The term in Greek in the New Testament, one who sent is called an apostle. So one who's sent on a mission has what they call an apostolate, right?

So it's very technical terms, but just think about it like this. The father sent the son. That means the son is in some ways the father's apostle. He had an apostolate. He was sent on a mission. Jesus then said, as a father sent me, so I also send you. So that's why he called them apostles because they were those who were sent. That apostolate, what did the apostolate look like?

Well, for Jesus, the apostolate looked like he taught. It looks like he healed. It looks like he did miracles. It was awesome. To the apostle, apostolate for the apostles. What are that? Well, they taught, they healed, they did miracles? Awesome. But what saved the world? Was it Jesus' healing that saved the world? Was it Jesus' teaching that saved the world? When he sent the apostles out, when they write their apostolate, did there... Was it the power of their apostolate in their healing? Was the power of their apostolate in their preaching? What was the power of their apostolate in? The power of their apostolate was in the exact same power that Jesus' power apostolate was in. What saved the world?

His suffering and death. His resurrection. What blessed the world with the church? Yes, the apostles preaching, but possibly more than anything else, the fact that the apostles entered into the story and that their suffering became sanctifying. That their pain became powerful. that their failure was not fruitless. And now we have to understand this again.

So here's Father Walter Chisak, who he finds himself himself in Russia. He's an apostle to Russia, right? He said, the only reason I was in Russia is I believe I was sent by God to Russia. So here's my apostolate. And he asked the question, what was my apostolate? He said, I thought it was to bring God to these people

and bring them salvation, which, yes, he said, that's it. But how does God want me to do this? it turns out that God wanted Father Walter to do this, not by his amazing success, not by his amazing preaching, not by his amazing healing ministry, but by entering into suffering, by uniting his pain to the cross. Now, here's what Father Walter said. Because again, he was, as a kid even, he didn't like the passion.

He didn't like the notion of the crucifixion. and he asked the question, even as an adult, he says, why the passion? He said, why pain and suffering? He goes on, he says, is God so vindictive that he must inflict pain and suffering on those who follow him? Because that can be a question we can ask. Here's his son. Is God so vindictive he has to inflict pain and suffering?

He goes on to say, the answer lies not in God's will, but in the world in which we live and try to follow his will. He said, Christ's life and suffering were redemptive. His apostolate, remember he's an apostle, he's sent out, His Apostolate in the scheme of salvation was to restore the original order and harmony in all creation that had been destroyed by sin. His perfect obedience to the Father's will, redeemed man's first and continuing disobedience to that will.

We know the story, right? The story of the fall. In the fall, what happens is here's Adam and Eve, here's our first parents, and they're living and loving relationship with God the Father. What breaks the world? What breaks the world is their disobedience. so it's just because in just the way that we all share in Adam's sin his disobedience we're all called to share in Christ's obedience and his salvation so what heals the world

what heals the world is not pain this is Father Walter discovered this what heals the world is not suffering what heals the world is saying okay this is God's will for me and then saying yes to that he goes on to say the way we enter the story, not just believe the story that Jesus did this, but the way we enter the story, he says, basically, he says, Christ's redemptive act did not of its stealthy store all things. It simply made the work of redemption possible. It began our redemption.

And he says, just as all men sharing the disobedience of Adam, so all men must share in the obedience of Christ to the Father's will. Redemption will only be complete when all men share his obedience. So the world has not been changed overnight. and it's the world in which we seek to follow Christ's example that afflicts us as it afflicted Him. We wonder why as Christians sometimes life feels not as dramatic as it should. Sometimes we can think like, what am I missing in the Christian life? Sometimes we can think like, no, I believe the whole thing.

I've read the Bible. I've studied. I pray what's missing from my life. Because I believe that I'm invited not just to believe the story. I believe that I have been invited to enter into the story. What's missing? And what is missing is this insight that says your suffering is sanctifying. That your pain united to Christ's has power.

That we sometimes just think that, no, it's the teaching, it's the learning, it's the preaching, it's the healing, that that that changes the world. That's how we participate in God's salvation of the world. But Jesus has revealed something more powerful to us. He's revealed to us that we are called to enter into the story by uniting our sufferings to Christ. In fact, St. Paul writes about this. I think what that means is Palm Sunday, this whole Holy Week, this is where we get to enter. All of Lent. I mean, we did Lent. Why do we give up suffering Lent?

Well, for some self-discipline, sure. Why do we give up suffering for Lent to open our hearts to the Lord and to the poor? Yeah, great, all those things. But why do we give things up for Lent? Why do we voluntarily embrace suffering as Christians? because we know that suffering is not senseless. We know that when we say yes to God's will in this moment, it has power. When we surrender, we are participating in the salvation of the world.

And I would say this, because you've been given an apostolate, right? Jesus was sent. He's an apostle, has an apostolate. What saved the world? Not preaching, not healing, but suffering. The apostles were given an apostolate. What changed the world? What saved the world? Not just they're preaching, not just their healing, but they're suffering. Father Walter Chiswick, he was an apostle. He had an apostolate.

What was that? Where did the apostolate bear fruit? And not just in his teaching, not just in his serving, but in his suffering. And if you are an apostle, the way you and I enter into the story is we allow the Lord to have access to our suffering. So these are the three things. If you're going to be having an apostolate, there's three A's going to go through them kind of quickly.

Because here's the thing. Go back to the Colossians. And the letter to St. Paul to the Colossians, he says, I rejoice in my suffering. See, this is what we do we avoid suffering as much as possible? Father Walter talks about that, he said, I hate pain, I hate suffering. None of us like it. St. Paul says, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. And I make up in my body what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body

of the church. So again, if you're an apostle, you have an apostolate. Part of your apostolate, the way you're going to enter into the story is by allowing your suffering to be salvific. It's by allowing your failure to be fruitful. St. Paul, I rejoice in my suffering. for your sake. And in my body, I'm making up for what is lacking the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body, the church. To do this, three A's. The first is, I need to accept.

We talked about this again and again. We need acceptance. Now, so often, so often, we spend so much energy, so much time, we spend so much of our lives wishing things were different. We spend so much energy saying, I just, I wish things were otherwise. And yet, if we're going to be Christians, if we're going to belong to Jesus, the first move we have to have is acceptance, that sense of, like, in fact, if we're going to grow in the spiritual life in any way, shape, or form, radical acceptance of reality is necessary, but not just radical acceptance of reality. The Christian acceptance that this moment and these circumstances are God's will for me, that to receive every day and every moment as from God's hands,

and to be able to, this is the challenge, because it tests our faith, to be able to say, God, is it true? Is it true that this moment, these circumstances, that what I'm going through right now is actually been given to me by your hands. To accept that is the first step. Father Walter says it like this. He says it's tough. He says no matter how close to God the soul felt, no matter how close I felt to God, how blessed it was by an awareness of his presence on any occasion, the realities of life were always at hand, always demanding recognition. And he said, they're always demanding acceptance. And I had continuously to learn to accept God's will, not as I wish to be, not as I might have been, but as it actually was at the moment. And it was the struggle to do this,

that spiritual power and a greater appreciation as well took place. This first step of acceptance. I was saying, okay, God, this is your will for me. Leads us to then, okay, now what? But we need to have that first. Again, this has been the secret. that Father Walter has been revealing to us in order to allow your life to enter the story. The first step, I need to accept. Okay, this is God's will for me. And then the second step is surrender. Now, we've been talking about surrender for the last five weeks, and I've gotten so many

people ask me, like, what does it? See, surrender seems so impossible. It seems so difficult to surrender. Like, surrender seems like because we look at surrender, we think it's like quitting. Right? So, okay, I'm going to accept God's will and then just quit. Like, I'm going to accept God's will, and then I'm just going to stop trying. This is, we get it all wrong.

We think that surrender is giving up. Surrender is not giving up. Surrender is giving access. The second A. First A is acceptance. The second A is giving God access because that's what we do. We surrender. We're not giving something away.

We're not trying. We're not quitting. We're not giving up. We're saying is, okay, God, you have access. If this is your moment, if this is your will for me in this moment, this person in front of me, this pain in my heart, this reality that I'm facing, this sadness even in my soul. If this is your will for me, I surrender. Meaning, I give you access to me in my pain.

I give you access to me in my sadness. God, I give you access to my whole heart. Whatever you just cracked open, Lord, you have access to. That's what surrender is. It's not quitting. It's not passivity. It's this act of trust of, okay, God, I'll, I'll let you examine my heart in this deep way.

Not only will I let you see my heart and examine my heart, I will let you have my heart in this way. He goes on to say, Mother Walter, he said, day by day, I learned to experience in some measure the power of God that's manifested in the mystery of the passion, that pain and suffering comprise the sacrifice needed in the passion for saving souls.

And a similar sacrifice had to be undertaken by all of those called to the apostolate. This surrender, this surrender, that's basically saying, God, you have access. We don't like it. And again, our hero here of Lent, Father Walter, did not like it either because what do you say? He said, your tendency will be to avoid as much of it as you can.

For pain in itself is never pleasant. It's so real, so good. He says, but you can learn to see the role of pain and suffering in relation to God's redemptive plan for the universe and each individual soul. If you want to do that, your attitude must change. that you don't shun it when it comes upon you, but you bear it in the measure grace is giving you.

You see it as putting on Christ in the truest sense of the word. You know, that phrase, to put on Christ, to become another Christ, even to be Christian means to be another Christ. So often we think, yes, I want to be another Christ, we want to put on Christ, I'm being clothed in Christ, and that means in His righteousness, that means in His glory, that means in His holiness, that means in His goodness, all those things.

it does, but it also, for us Christians who are walking through this world, it also means pointing on Christ in his passion. But with the confidence that it does something, God, this is your will for me, I accept it. Now I surrender my heart to you, meaning I give you access to this pain, I give you access to this sadness, I give you access to this sorrow, I give you access to my heart. And then the third thing is, so often people would think, like,

would seem so passive, you're like you're letting yourself, blown around like a feather on a wind. The third A is to take action because this is the reality. None of us are called to passivity. Even in the life of Christ, even in life of the Christian, who's called to enter into the story and to accept God's will and to give him access to our lives. But then what we have to do, what we have to do is take action. Why? Because as Father Walter Chazek said, he said, no man's life or no person's life, no man's suffering is lost from the eyes of God. that no matter how big or how small your suffering is, no matter how known or unknown your life is,

no one's is lost from the eyes of God. He goes on to say, for each of us has been created to praise, reverence, and serve God, and by this means to save our souls and help in the salvation of others. So that means taking action. It means saying, God, I accept this as your will, and I give you access to my heart. And now, what do you want me to do with it?

This is the last question, last eight. is the question we ask, God, what do you want me to do with this? Goes on to say, no action, however insignificant, if accepted and performed as from God's hand and in conformity with His will, is anything other than redemptive and a sharing in the great work of salvation begun by Christ's passion.

You realize this? No action, no little suffering. You're just a little bit hungry right now. Okay, unite that to Jesus. You're lonely right now. Unite that to Jesus. You experience failure right now. Unite that to Jesus.

What does he say? No action. insignificant, if accepted, remember acceptance, and performed as from God's hand, received us from God's and conformity with His will, is anything other than redemptive. That's why St. Paul wrote to the Colossians, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, not because the pain made him happy, because he knew that that suffering was not senseless, and he knew that his failure was fruitful. I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my body I'm making him up. for what is lacking in his body,

for the sake of Christ's body of the church. Now, here's a big question. The last thing. The question we ask is, what's lacking in the sufferings of Christ? John Paul II wrote a document on human suffering. And he asked that question.

As St. Paul's right into the Colossians here, what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ? And John Paul II's answer is very clear, very simple. Nothing. There's nothing lacking in the sufferings of Christ. But he goes on to say, but that you and I might know the joy

of being part of the story, I'm paraphrasing, you and I would know the joy being part of the story, that we actually get to be part of God's redemption of this world. Jesus Christ, in His mercy and his love for you, has extended to each of us a particle of his cross so that it's not just your victories that bring about a transformation. It's not just the wins that win over the world, but is that your suffering is no longer senseless? That you're now your failure can be fruitful. your life, even if it's a hidden life, has power.

We know this. We know that pain on its own is just painful. That suffering on its own just hurts. We know that on its own, the cross simply crushes. Without Jesus, pain is just pain. But united with Jesus Christ, your cross and my cross has a new power. united with Christ, pain has power. It has the power to transform the world, and that's the conclusion that Father Walter comes to. He said, he looked out at the world.

He looked out at Russia. He looked out at all of his suffering. And he realized, he said, oh, this suffering actually will not end here. This suffering is my entering into the story. And the sufferings of all the people around him in the gulag, in solitary confinement, throughout the whole country of Russia. He said, our suffering will pave. a way for a new future. And this is the invitation. I was talking to a priest this last thing. I was talking to a priest just the other day. And he said, he said, nursing homes need to become the

new convents. I was like, what are you talking about? And he said, for centuries in the, in the history, the life of the church, there are monks and nuns who have entered into the convents and to the monasteries. and they have prayed and they have offered up their ordinary daily sufferings. And that has been the fuel for the conversion of the world. That those hidden monks, those hidden nuns who have lived these hidden lives of ordinary suffering, but united to the cross of Jesus Christ has transformed the world. It has been the fuel for the gospel to go out into all corners of the world. But now there are fewer monasteries, now there are fewer convents,

and there are more nursing homes. And he said, what we need is to allow these nursing homes to become the new convents and the new monasteries. Because if you are listening to this and you're stuck in at home, this is the new convent, this is the new monastery, this is the new opportunity. It's the new moment for all of us to discover what Father Walter discovered. As he said, I looked out, he said, oh my gosh, he said,

he said, reflecting in all these truths was consoling. the truth that my pain is powerful, united with Jesus, that my suffering is not senseless when it's united to the cross. He said it was consoling, but it was more than consoling. It opened up to me a whole new vision of Siberia and the pain and suffering that went on around me. This is true about your situation as well. You might find yourself stuck in a bed,

unable to get out of bed, to unite that suffering with the sufferings of Jesus Christ. Literally will save lives. You might experience a great and powerful, in this moment, to unite your loneliness, to the loneliness of Jesus Christ has the capacity to transform this world. You might experience a great physical pain, mental pain, you might experience physical illness or mental illness to be able to say, okay, God, I accept this. This is your will for me. I am willing to surrender this to you and give you access to it.

And now I'm going to take action. And I'm going to unite whatever pain I have to your cross, that's how we enter the story. That's how as Christians, we live a fully Christian life. That doesn't mean everything goes our way. It means that we get to participate in the very salvation of the world. And you and I don't have to wait to start because you've already been sent. You already are an apostolate and you already have, you already are an apostle and you already have an apostolate. and an essential part of your apostolate is the essential part of Christ's apostolate.

Take your suffering and bring it to the cross. Take your pain and unite it to Christ. Take your failure and hand it to the Lord. To accept every moment as from God's hand. To surrender and give him access to every aspect of your life. And to take action, knowing that you're suffering, is salvific, that your pain does have power, and that your failure is fruitful. And part of that fruit is the salvation of the world.