Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 03/27/22 Last Words: The Central Last Word

Episode Date: March 28, 2022

Homily from the Fourth Sunday of Lent. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This central Last Word of Jesus from the Cross is possibly the most important. He not only expresses the depths to which He enters into the consequences of sin, but the depth of His trust in the Father and the power of His sacrifice. Mass Readings from March 27, 2022: Joshua 5:9, 10-12 Psalms 34:2-72 Corinthians 5:17-21 Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

So one of the most famous movies of all time is a movie that a lot of people have heard of, but not everyone has seen. It's a movie Citizen Kane. Have you heard of the movie Citizen Kane? So it's really, as I said, it's really popular. It was directed by a man named Orson Wells. Orson Wells, he produced it, he directed it, he starred in it. He was only 25 years old when he made one of the most monumental movies of all time. So the whole story is this. The opening scene is this man, Charles Foster Kane. He's on his deathbed. He's all alone. As he's dying, The camera pans this close-up on his mouth, and he utters this one word, his last word, his dying word is just this mysterious word. He says, Rosebud. And then he dies. And then the

ticker, like the story goes out, Charles Foster Kane, this man who went from obscurity to incredible wealth. He owned a bunch of newspapers at one point. He ran for office. He had to not run for office because of scandal. He had multiple marriages. He died in bankruptcy and died basically alone and isolated. And so this is the story. Everyone knows about this man, but they don't know the details of his life. And they don't know what this word, his last word, they don't know what his last word meant. And so this head of the newspaper tells a reporter, your job is to find out what does the last word of Charles Kane mean? And so the whole rest of the movie is this reporter interviewing one of his ex-wives, this reporter talking to, or reading the memoirs of a man named Walter Thatcher. At one point

when Charles Kane was just a child, he was with his mom and dad, and they came into a bunch of money, and so what they did is, is they said, we're going to trust you to Walter Thatcher, because he's going to raise you and teach you how to basically live with the elite.

And even there's this flashback to this scene where here's Charles Kane as a child, and he's out playing with his sled, and his mom says, this is the man who's going to raise you. And this child, Charles Kane, he takes the sled and he hits Walter Thatcher in the stomach with it and runs off. The rest of the movie tells the story,

story of the rise and fall of this man, Charles Kane, and they get to the end, and they have no idea, they have no clue what the word Rosebud means. They have no idea what the last word of this man is. And so it ends with the reporter saying, this line, he says, I don't think that one word can explain a man's life. As he walks off, there's a shot of this massive warehouse with all these artifacts that Charles Kane had collected over the course of his life, these statues and these antiques and all knick-knacks and all these things. And the camera pans over this massive warehouse and comes to rest on this little sled. The sled that Charles Kane was playing with the day he was taken from his mom and his dad by this man, Walter Thatcher. And written on the top of

the sled is the word rosebud. And then someone comes along, picks up the sled, and throws it into an incinerator, and turns it to ash and smoke. So Roger Ebert, right? I don't know if you know who Roger Ebert. Ciskel and Ebert, if you ever, if there were these two movie reviewers. They used to have a TV show on Sunday afternoons, I think, when I was a kid. And if you've ever heard the phrase,

I give it two thumbs up. That comes from Siskel and Ebert. So Roger Ebert at one point, he says, okay, so at the end of the movie, we know what Rosebud is. It's a sled, but we don't know what it means. So here's the last word of this dying man. And we know his last word.

We know what it is, but we don't know what it means. Maybe it doesn't matter. but if we've been doing anything, we know for the last three, four weeks we've been talking about last words, and we're talking about the fact that our words disclose something, our words reveal what's in our hearts.

In fact, the words that we utter in our extreme moment or even someone's last words, they have the power to sum up. They actually do, unlike what this reporter said at the end of this movie, those words actually do have the power sometimes to explain a person's entire life. So what we've been walking with

is we've been walking with the last words of Jesus. As he hung on the cross, we talked about the first three last words. So the first last word of Jesus was, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. The second last word was he turned to the criminal, and he said, truly, truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise. Last week, we have Jesus, right, turning to his mom and saying, woman, behold your son, and then turning to the disciple he loves and says,

behold your mother. So today we have the fourth last word. Actually, out of seven, it's the central last word. It's the middle last word. And I would make this argument, while all seven last words are incredibly important, This last word today is the most important. This central last word is the most crucial last word. And one of the reasons I'm going to say this is because in Matthew's gospel and in Mark's gospel,

the thing, this word that Jesus says from the cross are the only things that Matthew and Mark record Jesus saying. That on the cross, these are the only words both Matthew and Mark record Jesus saying. The other six words come from Luke and from John. That's not a problem for us. what it basically means is that Matthew and Mark are highlighting these last words. They're putting them in bold, underlining them. Here they are. This comes from Matthew chapter 27.

The whole story sounds like this. It says, and then he came to a place called Galgatha, which means place of the skull. They gave Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall. But when he had tasted, he refused to drink. After they had crucified him, they divided his garments by casting lots.

Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And they placed over his head and written. the written charge against him, this is Jesus, king of the Jews. Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and the other on his left. Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you are the son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise, the chief priest and the scribes and the elders mocked him and said,

he saved others. He cannot save himself. So he is the king of Israel. Let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe him then. He trusted in God, let him deliver him if he wants him, for he said, I'm the son of God. Then it says, from noon onward, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o'clock, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eli, Elie, La Maseabaktanin, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Some of the bystanders heard it, said, this one's calling for Elijah. Immediately, one of them, got a sponge, soaked it in one. and ran, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink. But the rest said, wait, let's see if Elijah comes to him. But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice and gave up his spirit. And behold, the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earthquake, rocks were split. Tumes were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

Going on, it says, the centurion and the men with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, feared greatly when they saw the earthquake and all that was happening. And they said, truly, this was the son of God. The one thing, the one last word that Matthew records Jesus saying on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Imagine this scene. Picture this scene. If you've never heard any of the other gospels, you have no idea what else happened. You have no idea that Jesus is going to the next week say, I thirst. He's not going to say, Father, into your hands, I command my spirit. Imagine the last words you knew. Jesus said, were on the cross. He just says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

and then he, Jesus, God himself dies. How devastating is this central last word. I don't know if you've noticed this, but in the entire Gospels, this is the only time when Jesus is talking to God, when he doesn't call God his father. The only time, every other time in the entire Gospels, when Jesus is talking to God, he always calls God his father. This is the one time he simply says,

my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I think this is one of two reasons. The first reason is the obvious reason. It's because this represents the depth of desolation Jesus experienced. That he experienced what it was to be forsaken. Because when we look at the crucifix, when you think about the passion, we can ask the question, what is Jesus doing? Why is it hurt so much?

It hurts because what he's doing right there is he's taking upon himself the consequences of sin. That's what Jesus is experiencing. He's experiencing the consequences of sin. I think we all know this. We all know that our choices. have consequences, right? I mean, this is kind of obvious for us. We all know that sin has consequences. We all know that. I think we all do a pretty good job of forgetting that when we want to.

But there's this hard truth, and that hard truth is, sin has consequences. Let's quick define sin. Just is helpful. The definition of sin I really like to use, I think it's really helpful, is sin is simply saying, God, I know what you want. I don't care. I want what I want. Doesn't have to be this rebellion against God and anger. Just like, God, I know what you want. I just, that's cool. I want what I want. And that stance, that action, that sin has a consequence. So there's this guy in his name's Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

He was a bishop back in the day. And he describes, he says, actually sin has three kinds of consequences. The first kind of consequence is as a physical consequence. Sin has a mental consequence and sin has a spiritual consequence. So he says that sin has its physical consequences. And these Jesus bore by having his hands and feet pierced. The physical consequence of sin is him being nailed to the cross. He says sin has its mental consequences, and Jesus experienced that in the garden of

the seminy, right? We know that whole story of Jesus entering the garden and weeping and actually getting to the point where he's literally sweating blood. He's in so much mental distress. So that's pretty intense. Those are pretty bad. But both of those pale in comparison to the third consequence. Like the spiritual consequence of sin, Fulton, she's. says, sin also has its spiritual consequence, such as a sense of abandonment, separation from God, and loneliness. I would say that this third kind of consequence is the worst. I mean, I realize this, this experience, we've experienced this, this experience of abandonment, the spirit of being forsaken. Here's the key of it. The experience of the loss of the father. I've lost the father.

That's why today's gospel is so fitting. We all know this parable, right? The parable in Luke chapter 15. Gosh, it's one of people's favorites. It's one of my favorite parables in the entire gospels. But here's the story. The young son goes to his father and says, listen, basically, I can't wait for you to die.

So let's just pretend you're dead so I can have my inheritance. You're like, okay, rude. That's not the hard part. That's not the worst part. It's hard, but it's not the worst part. The worst part is what happens in the next verse. not only does this young son say, I can't wait for you to die, just give me my inheritance,

says after a few days he went off to a distant country. Which means what? It means something even worse. It means basically he's saying to his father, I want nothing to do with you. He's saying to his father, essentially, I don't want to be associated with you. What he's saying is, I want to create a life without you in it. And as the parable goes on,

we realize the son gets exactly what he tries. chose. He gets to experience the physical consequences of his sin. He is hungry, he is thirsty, he is homeless. He experiences the mental consequences of his sin. He has no friends. His life has no meaning. He has the lowest work a Jewish person can do. Imagine being a Jew and being forced to work with pigs. But both of those pale in comparison to the spiritual consequence that he got what he chose. He has a life without the father. He has a life he's crafted. I want to have a life without you, dad, in it. And he gets exactly that, a life without his father in it. I think that abandonment, I think that desolation is probably the worst, the worst thing a person can experience,

knowing that I'm without my father, and it's my choice. I've been forsaken, and it was what I chose. Mother Teresa, you know, when she was starting out, you know, fresh face, Mother Teresa, year one. She describes this walking through the streets of Calcutta at one point and she heard a sound coming from a dumpster. And she looked in the dumpster and there was a woman there that someone had literally thrown her away.

And Mother Teresa says, here's this woman. She describes it. She said she was burning with fever. She was actually near dying at this moment. But all she kept saying was my son did this to me. My son did this. to me. Mother Teresa said that she didn't even think of her sickness or her pain or her burning fever. All she could think of was that the reason I'm in a dumpster is because my son put me here.

This one who was supposed to love me literally threw me away. The pain of being forsaken, vastly outweighing this burning fever, the pain of being abandoned, completely outweighing, the pain of being near death. Mother Teresa said she picked her up and she carried her to the home for the dying and they shared with her about Jesus and she said ultimately at last this woman was able to say I forgive my son but that pain of abandonment we realize right what sin is it's not just saying god I know what you want I want what I want sin is the abandonment of God by us sin is when we say to God you know what it'd be better if I had a life without you sin is when we say to God hey aren't you climb into that dumpster and we get what we've chosen and we get what we choose.

This brings us back to the last words of Jesus. When Jesus on the cross says, my God, my God, why would you forsaken me? It's important to note this. Jesus doesn't say why because he's asking a question and waiting for an answer. Jesus says why because that why is an expression of the depth of the agony that he's going through. You know, the younger son in the parable, when out of rebellion, out of rebelling, he puts himself into a position where he has lost sight of the father.

but Jesus on the cross, out of love, he puts himself in a position where he has lost sight of the Father as well. And why does he do it? Honestly, just ask the question. This central, this essential word of Jesus, when he cries from the cross, why have you forsaken me? Why has he put himself in this place where he's lost sight of the Father? The reason is because he's done it for you. The reason is because he's done it for me. Now what he's proving is there's no depth, there is no pain, there's no suffering, there's no darkness, that Jesus will not enter in order to prove his love for you. That he is willing to go as far as it is possible to go. That Jesus chose the consequence of sin.

The one who never chose sin, he chose to experience the consequences of sin. That's why the second reading today in 2nd of Corinthians, it says he was made to be sin, meaning he's made to experience the consequences of sin who never actually sinned. Why? So that you and I might become the righteousness of God.

And how bad did it get? Well, Matthew says, how bad at God? He says, it says, they divided his garment. by casting lots. It said everyone walking by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying, you would destroy the temple and rebuilt it in three days. Save yourself. It got so bad that it said, he saved others, he can't save himself. It got so bad that they're mocking him saying,

he trusted God, let him deliver him if he wants him. It got so bad that from the cross Jesus cried out these central words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This is the rosebud moment. And if we don't understand the meaning of these words, we don't understand the meaning of what Jesus is doing. If we don't understand the meaning of these words, we don't understand what's happening. So go back to the parable for one last time.

When the son is forsaken, where's the father? He's not back home on the farm doing his chores. He's not in his house and the lazy boy recliner. When the son is forsaken, where is the father? The father is out on the road. The father is as close to the son as he possibly can be. That's why when the son turns back home, what happens? His father sees him.

Why? Because he's been scanning the horizon. He's been searching the horizon. He's been looking for his son. The father's heart is where the son is. But the son doesn't know that until it begins to come back home. And this is why it's so important that we realize that our choices have consequences and that we get what we've chosen.

Because here's the younger son who says, I want to create a life without you in it. And that's us. Maybe not because we're like choosing big sins and stuff, but just because we're like, okay, God, here's the deal. I give you an hour or so on Sunday. and then Monday through Saturday, that's me time. It's me crafting a life.

And I want to create a life without you in it too much. And then we get what we've chosen. That's why I think this is the Rosebud moment. You know, in the movie, there's so much debate over what Rosebud means. From people who say, it doesn't mean anything. It's kind of a riddle without an answer. People who say, well, it means a loss of innocence. It means a loss of childhood.

But Orson Wells, the guy who made the movie himself, he actually told us what it means. He said, the cheap sled that he was playing on, that Kane was playing on, that he was taken away from his home and from his mother. In his subconscious, it represented the simplicity and the loss of the simplicity, the comfort and the loss of comfort, and above all, the lack of responsibility that he used to have in his home. Then he goes on to say, that sled, that word, that last word, also stood for his mother's love, which Kane never lost.

even though he never saw her again, the word that was on his lips, his last word stood for his mother's love that he actually never lost. And that's why I believe that these words of Jesus are the most essential words of Jesus. Because not only did they reveal that Jesus entered into the consequences of sin, not only did they reveal that he entered the depth of his trust, it not only reveals that Jesus entered into desolation, but he never despaired. These last words of Jesus reveal that he never lost the father's love. He never lost the father's love. He says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Not just to express the truth of how dark it got, but he was quote, I don't know if you know this, he was quoting the Bible. When Jesus says, the exact words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He's quoting Psalm 22. Because Psalm 22 opens up with those exact words. That's exactly how it starts. But you know how it keeps going. Psalm 22 keeps on going. It's actually in your bulletin today. Psalm 22 keeps on going. It says,

what? It says, they pierced my hands and my feet. Does that sound kind of familiar? Psalm 22 goes on to say, I can count all my bones. Like, just look at Jesus on the cross. Psalm 22 says, they stare at me and gloat over me. They mock me and they shake their heads. Does that sound like something we just heard in Matthew's Gospel? Psalm 22 says, they divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots. Jesus is not merely quoting Psalm 22. Jesus is fulfilling Psalm 22. But Psalm 22 doesn't end there.

It goes on, and this is the craziest thing. It goes on to say, not only am I experiencing desolation, not only am I crying out to God, but it goes on to say, but He has not. God has not despised me. And God has not abhorred the affliction of the afflicted.

God has not hit his face from me, but he has heard me when I cried out to him. Again, from the cross, Jesus not only is entering into the depths, not only is he experiencing what it's like to lose the face of the Father, he's also conveying to all of us that even in the darkness there's light, that even in times of brokenness, that there's healing, that even in close to death, he can bring forth life. This is the crazy thing, because Psalm 22 ends with these words.

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before him. All the ends of the earth will come to know God's love. And everyone, not just Jews, everyone will come to worship before him. Guys, how does Matthew conclude this whole story? At the foot of the cross, what happens after Jesus dies? There's a Roman centurion and there's other Roman guards standing next to him. What do they say?

They say, oh, that man died in desolation. They look up and they say, oh, he really gave up at the end. They look up and say, he was forsaken. No, what did they say? This Roman, this non-Jew, the nations of the world, look up and they say, truly, this man was God's son. Once again, Jesus doesn't simply quote Psalm 22. Jesus fulfills Psalm 22.

And he does it for you. And if we miss the meaning of these words, if we miss this rosebud, if we miss the entire reason why we're spending time with Jesus on the cross. This is the last thing. The catechism talks about this, and it says these words, I think, are so powerful,

it says, all the troubles, all time of humanity, enslaved by sin and death, all the petitions, every single prayer, all the intercessions of salvation history are summed up in this one cry of Jesus on the cross. Every person's prayer, every person's brokenness, every person's cry out to God, does he hear me, are summed up in Jesus' cry from the cross. And here, the Father accepts them. And beyond all hope answers them by raising his son and demonstrates and proves to us.

that no matter how dark it gets, there's light. No matter how forsaken one feels, God is close. No matter how broken things get, he can make them whole. No matter how dark things get and dead things are, Christ's cry from the cross, this central cry from the cross, proves to us that all is never lost because God is near

and he's the God who can even bring back from the dead