Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 03/31/24 Necessary or Accessory

Episode Date: March 31, 2024

Homily from Easter Sunday. Are Jesus and the Mass merely optional...or essential? We have such full lives and such small hearts that we are relieved when things get cancelled. But, for the things that are neccesary, we would be devasted if we missed them. Who Jesus is to us will determine our response when we are not able to get to Mass or receive the Eucharist. Mass Readings from March 31, 2024: Acts 10:34a, 37-43 Psalms 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23Colossians 3:1-4 John 20:1-9

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. The Lord be with you.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John. Chapter 20 verses 1 through 9. On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdalah came to the tomb early in the morning while it was still dark and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and told them they have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they placed him. So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first.

He bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths, but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead. the gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Might you have a seat.

So I've come to this conclusion that I am currently at an age where I get happy when things get canceled. Like it's one of those situations where it's like, I don't know if when this kicked in, it might have been for a long time, might have been a long time coming,

but one of those situations where, like, I remember as a kid, like as a kid when things got canceled, it was like, you're just like devastated. by this. But as I keep getting older and older, the more things, I mean, even things, obviously, things that are burdens if they get canceled, it's like, whew, good, relief. But there's sometimes where it's like, I don't know if you experience this, but it's like, even things I like, like even good things, if they get canceled. Like, good, great. That is awesome. It's so nuts that

even things that I enjoy, I get relieved when they're canceled. And I think reason, obviously, because stuff takes energy, right? I feel tired all the time. I think somewhere of the reasons why, why as I'm getting older, maybe as we get older. When things get canceled, we get relieved is because our lives are too full. Like in so many ways, that can be just kind of the reality. Or another thing, our hearts could be too small. Because again, I go back to like, have you had this situation where something got canceled and it was devastating to you?

I remember a couple years ago, my oldest niece was getting married. And so all of us were going down to North Carolina to get to this wedding. and we're so excited looking forward to this. And then one of my siblings, one of their kids got COVID, and so that whole family couldn't go. And they, I mean, this is maybe three years ago or so, two years ago. I'm not sure. But they bring it up regularly that, oh, so-and-so is the one who made it so we couldn't

go because they were looking so forward to this. Sometimes things have our heart to such a degree that when they're canceled, it's not a relief. When they're canceled, it's not even just kind of like, oh, that's bummer. When they're canceled, it's devastating. Speaking of COVID, I guess, you know, this is the, it's four years since the Easter where we all had to do this online. It's been four years ago that, you know, the bishops in many dioceses around the country around the world had decided that in order to stop the spread, in order to protect whatever, that we had to stay home. And Mass was canceled.

And I know that for a lot of people, when Mass was canceled, the question we have to, to ask. Here's just, ask yourself, when Mass was canceled, what happened to your heart? I know some people were angry. I know some people really disturbed, like, how could you possibly cancel Mass? I know some people, they said they deeply longed for the Eucharist even more. And some people were deeply grieved. But the truth is, I think that some of us were relieved. Just let's be honest about this. I think at some level, like, oh, I'm like, oh, I I don't have to go to Mass. I have this obligation, this duty, even maybe, it's a good thing that I do. Again, maybe your experience of Mass is like it's a burden. The obligation I have

every single week I have to do this. Or maybe your experience of Mass is that, no, no, no, mass is a good thing. But if it's canceled, it's kind of a relief. And I think it's worth right now on this Easter Sunday to say, okay, four years ago, we weren't able to go to Mass. You weren't able to receive Holy Commun. You weren't able to receive the Eucharist. What's the difference? between those people who were grieved at mass being canceled and those of us who were relieved when mass was canceled. Again, it could be the same as everything else. Our lives are over full.

It could be just that we have a lot of good things going on in our lives. And God, you know, Jesus is the mass. The Eucharist is just another good thing. That could be the fact. It could be the reality that for many of us, the Eucharist isn't necessary. It's just an accessory. Like, again, it could be.

that for many of us, Jesus isn't a necessity, he's an option. Then you know, he's really good. It's really good to have him. But, I mean, if I really look at my life in the way I've created a life, Jesus is an accessory. That the mass, the Eucharist, that it's more an accessory than it is necessary. And that just could be the truth. Again, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's worth pausing and saying, okay, God, reveal my heart to me. Because I really think, I think when something gets canceled, it reveals our hearts. If my experience is this is a relief, that reveals something.

It reveals that maybe this was a burden, and maybe it was a good thing, but it reveals that this wasn't a necessity for me. If mass is canceled, then I can't go. If I'm unable to get to the Eucharist, if I'm unable to receive Jesus, is unable to worship God the way he's asked me to worship him. And I'm relieved. Maybe it just reveals that, yeah, God is good, but he's kind of a relative good, right?

Jesus is important, but he's of relative importance. That the Eucharist, yeah, very, very valuable, but valuable as an accessory. You know, I think maybe this has to do, again, with our own version of God, that God, again, super important. but he's kind of like, he's kind of like the second kidney. I mean, he's good, good to have, but you don't really need that second kidney. You can actually function without, like the Eucharist is like that second kidney.

It's like, no, no, no, it's really nice. I really value that. It's good to have, but I don't need it from my life. And I think that Easter Sunday reminds us of how do we see Jesus? Like, how do we actually see God? Because, again, if a lot of us say, you don't know, Jesus, very, very important. But is this resurrection of Jesus true? Like, is Catholicism true?

is Christianity true? C.S. Lewis, he had wrote about this years ago, and he said this, he said, we need to understand this. Christianity, if it's false, is of no importance. And if it's true, it is of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. The only thing Jesus can't be is one good among many goods. Again, if the resurrection is false, if the resurrection didn't actually happen,

then he's not even moderately important. He has of no importance. If the resurrection did happen, then Jesus is of infinite importance, and worship of him is of infinite importance. And this is one of those kind of great things we can ask ourselves about this. Because a lot of us have experienced pain in the church, maybe even experienced difficulty in following after Jesus. But here's the thing. If the resurrection of Jesus is false, then the good examples of Christians around us is worthless. that's no reason to be Christian.

If the resurrection of Jesus is false, then having good community is no reason to be Christian. If the resurrection of Jesus didn't actually happen, then no matter how easy it is to follow Jesus, you shouldn't follow Jesus. On the other hand, if the resurrection of Jesus is actually an historical fact and it actually did happen,

then the bad example of Christians is no reason to not be a Christian. That if Jesus truly conquer death and rose from the dead, then even horrible actions, evil actions of Christian leaders, is no reason to not be a Christian. And if Jesus actually truly rose from the dead, if this day, the fact that we celebrate on this day and commemorate on this day, if this is true that Jesus rose from the dead,

then no matter how hard or high his call is, that's the call for you. Right? Jesus said what? He said, if you want to be my disciple, deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me. If he rose from the dead, then that's what we're called to do. Even the hard teachings, even the burden sometimes are going to mass. Again, let's ask the question for myself, is mass essential or is it optional?

Is mass necessary or is an accessory? So all lent, we followed this guy named Father Walter Chisac. This is the last time I'm going to reference Father Walter for at least three weeks. But there's a chapter. If you got the book, I invite you to read this chapter. It's book on the mystery or the meaning of the mass. and in it, Father Walter talks about his relationship with the Eucharist, but not only his relationship with the Eucharist, let me go on.

So he said that celebrating Mass every day was the most important thing he could possibly do. That it was the number one thing, that here he is in Russia trying to serve. Here he is in Russia arrested. Here he is in Russia in a slave labor camp. Here he's in Russia in obscurity being tortured. And he said, but the number one thing, my preoccupation of every single, my obsceness, session of every single day was I needed to be able to say the Mass. And so there were things that he did. He said it was so painful in solitary confinement. It was the first time he ever had gone

that long without the Mass. Five years. In fact, he could hear the bells of the one place in Moscow that you actually could say Mass, but he couldn't have access. He said solitary confinement. So what he would do is he would actually just recite the prayers of the mass, knowing that he couldn't actually have Jesus in the Eucharist with him, but he would try to get close to Jesus by just simply praying those prayers that he had memorized alone by himself in that solitary confinement. When he finally got to the slave labor camp, it just blows my mind. He finally gets to the gulag in Siberia, right, north of the Arctic Circle. And that's when he said, my preoccupation, every single day, my obsession, the passion was,

I needed to be able to say mass every single day. And there were days when, back before 1964, you had, didn't just have a one hour Eucharistic fast? You would have to fast from the night before. And so he wouldn't eat. And again, they're feeding them these tiny, mini-stic, Rascual rations for Father Walter would fast from the night before, and if he could say mass and the next morning, great.

But if he couldn't say it until noon, he would fast to noon. And you say, well, of course he did. He's a priest, you know, it's very important for him. Father Walter said that he was surrounded by these Catholics in a Soviet gulag. Again, a slave labor camp who would regularly, would do anything they could to be able to receive the Eucharist every day, not just on Sundays. They would do everything they could to be able to receive the Eucharist every single day, even if that meant fasting from the night before all through that day, if they could have mass at noon,

they would fast all the way through noon. They work all morning on an empty stomach. Now, think of how quickly we are to like kind of dismiss the Eucharistic fast or even just how quickly we are to say, well, you know, it's snowing outside. I can't really get to church. These men didn't give themselves a pass. These men lived day to day knowing that the next day could be their last day. But he said regularly, This is the thing that just blew my mind. Because I'm thinking like fasting for the night before to the next morning, that's one thing, all the way to noon. That's another thing. But Father Walter said there are many days when we weren't able to say mass until the end of the workday.

They would come back to the labor camps and whatever rations they were given were stuck in their pockets and they didn't even touch them so that they could receive Jesus Christ in the Eucharist at the end of the day still holding on to that fast. for those men in that gulag, in that slave labor camp, not just for the priest, but for ordinary Catholics, the Eucharist was not an accessory. The Eucharist was necessary. It was not optional. Jesus in the Eucharist was absolutely essential.

And that remains the question for us. If the resurrection of Jesus is true, and he truly did say, take this all of you and eat of it, Take this all of you and drink of it. This is my body. Do this, and this is my blood, do this in a memory of me. And this is how he wants us to worship him.

That means this is essential. But the question remains, is it essential for you and for me? Or is it simply optional? Is it necessary or is it an accessory? How do you, this is the last thing? How do you and I get to the place where the Eucharist is not optional?

that Eucharist is necessary. Well, I think one thing is, again, could be true that our lives are over full. Again, it could just be the fact. Our lives are over full. We have so many good things in our lives that there's no room for the ultimate thing. And maybe that's the case.

Maybe this case on this Sunday, this Sunday, this Resurrection Sunday, I know during Lent, we prune our lives and purify our lives, try to get close to the Lord. We say, what do I need to say no to? It could be the case that during the season of Easter,

your invitation and my invitation is to look at how full your life is with good things, so much so that it's pushed to the outside, push to the fringe, push to the sidelines, the ultimate thing. Does my room, does my life have any room for Jesus at the center of it? Does my life have any room for the Eucharist? If the Eucharist was actually necessary, if the Eucharist was essential and not merely optional, not merely an accessory, whether it be any room, or do I need to make more room? What do I do with my heart?

Like sometimes we feel like we can't control our hearts, right? Just like hearts want what the heart wants. And we realize that what we love we spend our time on. That's just true. That's just to be able to look at ourselves and think like, what we love is what we dream about in our free time. What we love is what we think about in off times. What we love is what we are preoccupied with.

What we love, we spend our time on. I believe that's true. But I also believe that what we spend our time on, we end up loving. The invitation would be this. Not only is my life overcrowded, is my life over full, am I so full of good things that the ultimate thing doesn't have any space, but the next is to say, can I actually make a sacrifice

to spend time with Jesus in the Mass? So what I mean by that is this Easter season, can I not just go to Mass on Sundays? Can I actually go to Mass during the week? Just for this Easter season, to be able to actually make the commitment to say, okay, I go on Sunday and I also go Tuesday and Thursday. Or I go on Sunday, I also go on Wednesday and Friday, whatever that is. But be able to be able to say, I go on Sunday and two other days of the week, two other weekdays.

To be able to embrace that, not just because it's something I have to do, not to be a burden, not to be just another good thing, but to recognize that if, for me, the Eucharist isn't necessary. If for me, the Eucharist isn't essential, then maybe what I need to do is I need to make the Eucharist essential. What I need to do is maybe I need to make the Eucharist necessary. What I might need to do is I might need to rearrange my life in such a way, in a dramatic way over the course of this Easter season. So that if there's any trace in my heart that the Eucharist is an accessory, that's gone. There's any trace in my heart that the Eucharist is optional?

Then I've done away with that. You've killed that because you've made room in an over full life. And then you've made time for the Lord Jesus and worship of Him in the Mass. What we love, we spend our time on. But what we spend our time on, we grow to love more and more. And that's the invitation. That's the challenge today. Here's the thing. If this day isn't true, if Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, don't do this. He is of no importance. The Eucharist is of no importance. It's not true. It's not real.

The Mass doesn't do anything. but if Jesus really conquered death, if Jesus really rose from the dead, then this is of infinite importance and it is worth your very life. It's worth your very life and my very life. It's worth your eternity and my eternity to let him be essential. To let the Eucharist be necessary. And to stop, stop, stop treating Jesus, treating the Mass, treating the Eucharism.

wrist as an accessory.