Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 03/29/24 The Man of Sorrows

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

Homily from Good Friday. Jesus won the world in His weakness. We would like for our Lord to be triumphant in His conquering of sin and death. But the people around Him as He saved the world were largely ignorant, indifferent, or antagonistic. Yet, Jesus won the world through His wounds. Mass Readings from March 29, 2024: Isaiah 52:13—53:12 Psalms 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 John 18:1—19:42

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 last November, I was invited to go out to New York City to be part of a procession,

to say mass, a St. Patrick's Cathedral, and then to be part of a Eucharistic procession, downtown New York City. And when I told people about it, they were very excited about this whole thing and just like really, like, that's so cool. You're going to process with our Lord in the Eucharist all through time square, this whole thing. And I remember thinking, I don't want to do this. Like, people even ask, like, how'd you come up with this idea? Like, is that my idea?

In fact, I don't like the idea of this. I like the idea of having mass. I don't like the idea. Here's how I saw it, though. I see it as like ambushing people with Jesus. Right? So you just walk into work or you're just kind of walking down the streets of New York City and all of a sudden it's like, boof, there's Jesus.

And you're like, what do I do? Because there's a piece there that's like, again, it's a good thing. Aeration, Our Lord, processions, great things. But I think there's a problem because a lot of us are ignorant. Like we just, we don't know what's going on. Like, how many people would be, here we are, processing with our Lord, and here we are kind of in this trance. There were 5,000 people who were part of this procession.

And so, and they were singing, and there was all a ton of sisters, a ton of lay people, a bunch of priests, comes to bishops, kind of what looked like kind of a trampant procession. And at the same time, a lot of people had no idea what was going on. So they responded, they just didn't know, ignorant. Or indifferent. I mean, even if you were Catholic, you're like, what do I do? Do I kneel here?

Do I mean, do I bow? Do I make the sign of the, like, there's this ignorance. I don't know what to do. there's indifference, like, what is that? I just, it doesn't matter to me. Or there even kind of was some antagonism, right? There's some people who were mad that we were there. And I thought of all these things, and I thought,

why would we have this kind of triumphant procession of Jesus and the Eucharist on the streets of New York City? And that I realized kind of quickly that that's not even close to what it was. There was, there was, it was joyful. It was prayerful. That's all it was. It was humbly and joyfully walking with Jesus. There was no triumph there.

We basically was the invitation, okay, we're going to humbly walk where Jesus would go. We're going to take Jesus in the Eucharist where Jesus would want to be. That he would want to be among the people on this planet, the people that he came to Earth for. So we would walk where Jesus would walk. We would go where Jesus would go.

even though so many people would be ignorant and indifferent and even hostile. And I thought about this because one of my favorite places to go in the world is the Holy Land. And one of my favorite things to do in the Holy Land is do the Via Dolorosa, right? So the way of the cross through the streets of Jerusalem. And it's amazing to be able to go and carry the cross through these windy streets. But it's kind of one of the things I found out the very first time we ever did it is that it was really difficult to pray. because in the way of the cross, you're often just in people's way. Because they're just trying to go to work.

They're just trying to do their things. They're trying to live their lives. And you're these Christians or carrying these crosses and praying and blocking traffic and getting in people's way. And I realized, oh my gosh, this is probably how it would have been for the original way of the cross, for the original Villarosa. So I always used to think that here is Jesus. He's doing the event that changed the world.

He's in the midst of doing the event that is, saving the world. He's carrying his cross all the way to Golgatha, where he's going to lay down his life for the redemption of the whole, all of humanity. You would think that it's kind of a big deal. It is a big deal. But most of the, for most of the people, maybe for every person, they were either ignorant. I have no idea what was going on. I mean, even those who were his closest friends, maybe even those who were with him at the foot of the cross. Would have said, this just looks like he's dying, just looks like failure, just looks like defeat. just looks like death, and they'll be ignorant of what's actually happening,

or would be completely indifferent. I sometimes I imagine that the whole city came out, and just everyone's yelling at Jesus, everyone's spitting at Jesus, everyone's throwing stuff at Jesus. There were some people who did that. There were the ones who hated, right? So you have ignorance, you have hate, but also you probably just have a lot of people

who are really, really, really just indifferent. Because, and this is the thing, there would be nothing impressive while Jesus carrying his cross. this whole passion we just read, we just heard. There would be nothing impressive about Jesus' crucifixion. In fact, so just a couple weeks ago, a bunch of our students and our missionaries and in Lauren, we all went to Poland on this pilgrimage to Poland.

And one of the places we went to was the John Paul II shrine. And it was this really massive church, this really massive shrine. But the thing that struck me the most out of this entire place with all this beautiful art and all this kind of eccentric art was this crucifix that was you walk in, right off to the left, in a side chapel, there's this crucifix that just struck me. And it did strike me because it was really beautiful.

And it did strike me because it was very, like, had like a lot of wounds. Sometimes you have those kind of crucifixes. It struck me because it was too realistic. What I mean by that is, well, it had actual hair, which was kind of weird. That was just weird. But also, the hair was like just kind of gross. And even just the shirt. shape of Jesus' body and as it hung on the cross on the crucifix there was just kind of like

really gross and not explicit like with wounds all over the place just kind of like you know all the crucifixes we have a lot of the ones we have are very aesthetic right there they're even if Jesus is dying on the cross and areas hanging by those nail marks it's still kind of like still kind of impressive right it still has a sense of beauty to it this was like no this is just a guy who's dying on the cross and his life is slowly being taken from him. And it reminds me of what we just heard in Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 says that there will be nothing in him that would make us look at him. In fact, I'm talking to some of the students about this crucifix and the John Paul 2 shrine.

It was like it was, I mean, the word that came up was repulsive. Like, yeah, that's exactly what Isaiah 53 says. It says, it says there was in him no stately bearing nor appearance to make us look at him. His appearance, no appearance that would attract us to him. He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity. One of those from whom men hide their faces spurned and he, we held him in no esteem. This is maybe my favorite crucifix I've ever seen in my life because I hated it. But I didn't want to leave it.

Because I realized this. In our world, what do we love? In our world, we love power, right? We love strength. In our world, we love health. And we love youth. We love beauty. in our world we love success.

But Jesus draws us to himself, how? By his defeat. Jesus draws us to himself involuntarily embracing ugliness that on the cross he's beaten. I don't just mean he's been beat up. I mean, he is beaten. He has nothing left.

In fact, that's the whole process of crucifixion, right? They take so much, the Romans would take so much from you so that you literally, stopped living because there was no life left. They took every little ounce of life, every piece of strength. They took every amount of beauty and just twisted it and destroyed it and took it away. And that is what won the world. The Jesus in his weakness is what won the world. Jesus and his wounds is what won the world. And we can see this. In the worst and weakest moment, Jesus wins the world. And we can see this in the gospel even. I mean, we all know the story of Simon

of Cyrene. Right? Simon of Sireen who carries Jesus as cross. Why does he carry Jesus as cross? Because Jesus cannot carry his own cross. Again, it's not this glamorous moment, not this triumphant moment where Jesus is like, you know, I can do this, I can carry this thing myself. He's like, no, he was incapable of lifting this thing.

And so they asked Simon of Sirene, and he carries the cross of Jesus. Have you ever paused to wonder why we know Simon's name? Not only that, but in Mark's Gospel, it tells us that Simon was the father of two other people. He was the father of Alexander and Rufus. Like, have you ever paused and thought, wait? The Bible talks about a lot of anonymous people

and just says, you know, there was a woman there. There was a guy right there. Why, when Jesus was carrying his cross, does it name Simon, where he's from, and his sons, Alexander and Rufus? The theory is that Mark names Simon and Alexander and Rufus because Mark would know Alexander and Simon and Rufus. Because why?

Because Simon and Alexander and Rufus became Christians. Imagine this. Imagine the first encounter that this man, Simon and his two sons, Alexander and Rufus, had with Jesus, was a beaten Jesus, was a defeated Jesus, was not a beautiful, was not a preaching, healing, not a miracle-working Jesus. Not a successful Jesus, but a defeated failure, Jesus. And somehow, somehow, they recognize the Messiah.

Somehow in the midst of what a bunch of people who are ignorant, have no idea what's going on, or indifferent or even hostile, these three men, their first encounter with Jesus was with the defeated Christ, with God who, yes, is fully God and is truly the God of joy, but also is a man of someone of someone.

is the man of sorrows. So here's the question, this last thing. How many of us, even though Jesus is right there, we miss the hidden Jesus. We're ignorant. How many of us are indifferent to the suffering Jesus? How many of us actually hate the defeated Jesus? I don't want him like that.

How many of us are willing to walk with a rejected Jesus? How many of us are willing to choose the abandoning? and Jesus. How many of us are willing to love the only real Jesus? Again, truly God, man of joy, but also the man of sorrows. Who in his defeat, what does he do? Lazaia 53 goes on. He says, if he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life and the will of the Lord will be accomplished through him. That's what happened in his defeat. Because of his affliction, he shall see the light and fullness of days. Through his suffering, my servant will justify many

and their guilt he shall bear. Therefore I will give him his portion among the great and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked. Remember, all the things we love, health and youth and power and strength and success, but he surrendered himself to death.

Counted among the wicked, he shall take away the sins of many and win pardon for their sins. Jesus failed. But in the worst and weakest and most wounded moment He won the world and he won the ignorant and he won the indifferent. And he even won those who hated him. And maybe, maybe by his wounds, he can even win you.

Maybe in his weakness, in this worst moment, he can even win your heart.