Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 04/02/21 Gallicantu

Episode Date: April 3, 2021

Homily from Good Friday of the Lord's Passion. Peter expected to fight in the Garden, not in the courtyard. Peter told Jesus that he would die for Him. And he meant it. He just wasn’t ready at the right time. Mass Readings from April 2, 2021: Isaiah 52:13—53:12 Psalms 116:12-13, 15-18Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 John 18:1—19:42

So just a brief thought on this Good Friday. So we had the chance a number of times to go to Israel, to go to the Holy Land. And there are churches commemorating all these spots all throughout Israel. And one of my favorite churches is the church they call Galakantu. It's the Church of the Cock Crow. That's a Galicantu means. And it's Caiaphas' house. And so it's an incredible place to be not only just to recognize in the dungeon there,

there, you can still go down into the basement of this place, and right down there, you can pray Psalm 88, which is this lament of God, you just abandoned me. It's the prayer that traditionally speaking, Christians have always believed that Jesus prayed that as he was held in that dungeon at Kuyves' house. And so one of the traditions is you go down to the dungeon there and you just pray Psalm 88. It's the one Psalm out of 150 Psalms. It's the one Psalm that doesn't end with a hope. It is the one Psalm that doesn't end with this kind of triumph. It ends the last words of that that Psalm are, my one companion is darkness. So you think about this, here's Jesus praying that prayer by himself all night,

my one companion is darkness. We talked last night about, here's Jesus who was betrayed. And here's Jesus who also is denied. And so the church is called the Church of Galacantu because this is also where Peter was outside, warming himself by the fire where he denies Jesus three times and where he, Here's the cockcrow. And it's just, whenever I get there, I think of this. I think of Peter.

I just want to just offer something about Peter tonight because there is, I think Peter's in a lot of us. Here's what I mean. Jesus predicts that Peter will not be faithful to him. And Peter says, Lord, I would fight, I will die for you. And my guess is that Peter believed himself. And I think about this. Like here's Jesus, who's saying,

Peter, you're going to betray me, you're going to deny me tonight. And Peter's saying, Lord, if anything, I would not, I would never deny you, I'm willing to die with you right now. And I have to believe that Peter was telling the truth. I have to completely believe that Peter was telling the truth. Why? Because when we heard the story, when Judas leads this band of armed guards into the garden, what does Peter do?

Peter doesn't just, he doesn't fall down on his face. He doesn't deny Jesus there. Right there, what does Peter do? He picks up a sword and starts to do. fighting and you think like, no, Peter is telling, he was telling the truth. When he said, Lord, it's time for a fight, I'm willing to fight. Like, when Peter said, Lord, I'm willing to die for you, he wasn't lying. When he said, I'm willing to die for you, he didn't underestimate himself.

He was telling the truth. And we know that because in the garden, here is Peter who starts fighting right away. He starts fighting for Jesus right away. And then what happens? This is the frustrating thing. Is Jesus that told Peter, you're going to deny me. Peter said, I won't. I'm going to fight for you.

I'll die for you. He starts fighting. And what does Jesus say? Put your sword away. And I just have to have to wonder, like, okay, be Peter in this moment. Like, you're so confused because, like, no, I want to be faithful. Actually, I do want to. I am willing to lay down my life for you.

I'm willing to give everything out of love for you. I'm willing to fight guards. I'm willing to fight professional soldiers for you. Here's Peter who is bold, who takes action. And he's like, he's told not to. So then later what happens? Later, here's Peter who's willing to fight guards. But then he's not ready.

He wasn't ready to watch Jesus hand himself over. He wasn't ready to be asked by a servant girl if he knew who Jesus was or if he was a follower of Jesus. Here is Peter who was willing to fight in the garden, but he wasn't ready to testify in the courtyard. He was willing to fight to the death in the garden, but he wasn't even willing to stand up for the life of his friend. And he realized something changed.

But what changed? Here's the same Peter. It's the same Jesus. My guess is that he just didn't expect that's where the fight would be. My guess is that he expected, yeah, I'm expecting to be, I'm expecting to fight here in the garden. And I'm not expecting to fight in a courtyard. And we're with this warm fire with all these people around here in the middle of the night. Here's Peter who was ready to fight, but he wasn't ready to be accused.

There's Peter who was ready to strike someone else, but he wasn't ready to be struck himself. Here's Peter who was ready to take charge, but he wasn't ready to be taken charge of. He didn't expect that this would be the battle. This is the thing for all of us. I think so often we hit like, no, Lord, I will fight in this area. I will do everything I can to possibly never be faithless to you, but always be faithful for you. And then something happens. It comes out of the left field, and we just like, I didn't expect, I didn't expect that this would be the thing.

And honestly, think about this, this is the thing that every Christian knows about Peter. We might disagree on a lot of things about Peter, but every one of us knows. was this, he was ready to fight in the garden and he did not expect a fight in the courtyard. And when that Galacantu, when that cock crowed, says he ran off, he broke down, wept bitterly, and went off into the dark, darkness of the night. And his weakness, in his frailty, in his cowardice, and I didn't expect that this is where I would fall. I didn't expect that this is where I would fall. I expected a bunch of other places I could fall.

I could fail over here, but I didn't expect that this is where I would fail. And yet, remember, whenever we refer to Peter, we know that he is St. Peter. Whenever we refer to Peter, we know he is St. Peter, not because he was always strong, but that in his weakness Christ died for him. Not because he was always courageous, but because even in his cowardice, Jesus Christ, on this Good Friday, died for him. Not because he always won every battle, but because when he got knocked down, Jesus Christ died for him.

And the same thing is true for us, especially every time when we are, ourselves are not at our strongest, but our weakest. Not at our most courageous, but at our most cowardly. Not when we win, but when we lose. Because this is the truth. Christ died not for our strength, but he died for our weakness. Christ died not for your courage, but for your cowardice. Christ died not for the battles that we can win,

but for every single time that we've been knocked down to the point where we could not get up on our own. Jesus did this for Peter, who is not expecting the fight, and Jesus did this for you.