Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 04/05/20 Un-Done: Unfinished

Episode Date: April 5, 2020

Homily from Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion. Jesus has not removed suffering from our lives, He has redeemed the suffering in our lives. Jesus accomplished the Father’s will in His passion, death, and resurrection. His mission of salvation is “finished.” And yet, Christ’s Body on earth still lives out the mission of Her Head: we are called to unite our sufferings to His for the salvation of the world. And this work — the work He has entrusted to us — remains unfinished. Mass Readings from April 5, 2020: Isaiah 50:4-7 Psalms 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24Philippians 2:6-11 Matthew 26:14-27:66 Download the Homily Study

So there's the line. It says, after he had received the wine, after drank the wine, Jesus said, cried out in a loud voice. And Matthew doesn't say what he cried out. Matthew doesn't say what he said, but John says what he said. And John points out that what Jesus says is it is finished. That it's finished. I've been thinking a lot about unfinished furniture. I don't know why. Actually, I know why, because it's a day. And like the concept of unfinished furniture became popular basically, I think, beginning in the 1980s somewhere in there. You go to the store or you order this, you know, there's a table, there's a chair, there is a dresser, and it's either, you know, it's not treated wood or it's not sained or it's not painted or it's not sanded down.

And you buy it like that, you buy it unfinished. So you can finish it, that's the idea. But the interesting thing I've been thinking about again is like, but that's a real chair. Like even though it's an unfinished chair, it's a full chair. You can't make it more chair later on. You don't add anything to it that makes it more chair. That table doesn't get any more table-y than that. And the dresser is a fully functional dresser.

So in some ways it's finished. It's actually what it's supposed to be. But the manufacturer has made room. The manufacturer has left room in the creation of this thing for your participation. The manufacturer, it's, again, it's done. He's the one who did it. But he's left room in that so that you could participate in the thing, so you could contribute to the whole thing.

You know, for the past six weeks, we've been talking about a world that's come undone. For the last six weeks, the whole of Lent, we've been talking about how our hearts have come undone, our relationships have come undone, that there's this thing called original sin in the world. And so because of that original sin, that there was a decision that broke the world. And every one of us is an inheritor of that original sin. that we're born into the world. Our default in the world is broken.

Our default in the world is undone. Our default in the world left to ourselves, our default is death. We talked about how Jesus came to undo what has been undone. Jesus came to undo what's been undone by sin. This is the message. Jesus came to destroy what destroys us. That Jesus came to conquer what conquers us. That Jesus has come to kill what kills us.

And today, today this is the part of the story. After all the miracles and all the healings and all the times he's undone what's been done. Today this is the part of the story we just heard that just where Jesus, God himself allows himself to enter so fully into our suffering and so fully into this world come undone that he allows what destroys us to destroy him. That he allows what conquers us to conquer him, that Jesus, today, this whole story, this reality, that he allows what kills us to kill him. He's like, why?

Like, why? Like, for what is the question? But I don't think that's the right question. For what is not the right question? The question is not for what? The question is for who? Jesus comes into this world that's undone and he lets it kill him.

He enters into suffering and he lets it defeat him. For who? This is really personal. He's for you. Again, there's a big story. The whole thing we read and just had it proclaimed so well that every step is for you. Like every step Jesus took was for you.

Every step Jesus took had a name assigned to it. Here's Jesus in the garden of Githemi. He's like, my heart's being torn out. He's sweating blood. And he's like, ah, this is for Alex. And then he gets up, and his disciples says, friends are coming to him, and he says, okay, here comes this other person who is a great friend of mine.

He comes to Petraeus, my accuser's at hand. And this is for Catherine. And they arrest him and he's betrayed. And think about this, every person he's ever loved, every person who's ever gotten close to, they either betray him or they deny him or they abandon him. In that moment, he's like, oh, this is for Mark. And Jesus spends the entire night in Caiaphas' house,

in Caiaphas' dungeon, and he can't sleep the entire night. Anderson, that suffering of not being able to sleep. He says it's for Allison. And next morning, he gets up and And the whole day he's accused and he's misunderstood. He's like, this is for Tim. And he gets scourged and he's like, this is for Marin. And he gets punched in the face and put a crown of thorns on his head.

He says, this is for Claire. With every nail, he's like, okay, this is for her. This is for him. If I haven't said your name yet, the reality is that he's on the cross. And the whole time, every breath, every breath that he's like squeezes to get out of his chest. He's like, for you. Next breath, for you. that the reality, of course, in this whole story

is that Jesus entered into the suffering and let it kill him and let it crush him. The whole time, it's personal. The whole time, he's like, Father, this is for her. Father, this is for him. He entered into suffering, and this is the crazy thing. It's like, what is it to enter into suffering? We've been talking about this the entire time.

A world undone is a world that is permeated by suffering. You know, I was reading, there's a friend of mine to me, Jeff Kavins, and he wrote this book on suffering. And in it he talks about, there's two ways we suffer. In fact, he got this from John Paul the second. There's two ways we suffer. We have physical suffering and we have moral suffering. His physical suffering is we're reading about.

Here is Nick, remember the man born without arms or without legs. Here's physical suffering. The man born blind. Physical suffering of Lazarus dying. But then there's also moral suffering. And that's the suffering that touches our heart. The suffering that breaks our heart. So here's Nick.

And we're at 10 years old wants to die. That's the grief. moral suffering. Here is the man born blind who also went through this world being unseen and unknown and unc cared about. He didn't matter to anyone. His heart broken. Here's Mary and Martha. Their hearts broken out in pieces at the death of their brother. All these ways in which we suffer, physical suffering, moral suffering. And today in the gospel, Jesus allows physical suffering to break his body. And in today's gospel, Jesus allows moral suffering to break his heart. So he talks about

This is like two ways we suffer, but there's also two kinds of suffering. This is kind of like technical. I don't mean to get too much into this. Two kinds of suffering. One is definitive suffering. The other one is temporal suffering. Definitive suffering is, it's forever, right? Definitive suffering, it's definitive.

There is no end to it. It's basically definitive suffering is being cut off from the source of everything that's good. It's hell. Definitive suffering is hell. And the consequence of original sin is hell. Like the, right, the consequence of original sin, the result of original sin, is the fact that we're all born into this break in our relationship with God, and that if we stay in that break, then we end up with that definitive suffering, broken forever, cut

off from the source of everything that's good, undone. And that's the default. And today in the gospel, we hear this is where Jesus saves us from that. That by his suffering and death, Jesus saves us from definitive suffering. And he says, what's he said? What's he said? What's he's he cried out in John's Gospel? It is finished.

He's completed the work of salvation, he's completed the work of salvation, he's completed the work of conquering death, of conquering what can conquer us, of defeating what defeats us and the thing that defeats us more than anything else is the possibility, the reality, that we could be forever separated from God. It's finished. And that's the thing, because we have to assert this, that Jesus on the cross has completed the work of salvation. It's finished. And yet, it's unfinished. Again, there's no more he can do. He has completed the work of salvation. And yet it's unfinished.

So what's left? What's left is your part. Like what's left is your yes. I remember heard it said that there's no such thing as unconditional love. There's always at least one condition. And that's, will you let yourself be loved? So God has unconditional love for us. But whether that makes a difference in our lives

is based off of the condition, the one condition that will I say yes to that? Will I accept his love? It's so personal. Because, yes, it's finished, but it's unfinished. And what's lacking there is my yes. Because Jesus has conquered definitive suffering. Like, he's finished it. The God who conquered definitive suffering is the Lord of Life.

The unfinished part is, does he have permission to be the Lord of My Life? So we see the paradox, it's finished. He's done it, it's completed, but it's unfinished. Will I say yes? Will I let him actually love me into life? And then, now this next piece, that's definitive suffering, right? The next piece is the main thing, because I'm so grateful to the Lord that he's delivered us, has a possibility of delivering us from eternal hell if we say yes to him.

But we still live in a world that's come and done. We still live in a world with temporal suffering. We still suffer it. He hasn't taken it. that we walk around this world and we realized Jesus hasn't removed it. But he's done something more powerful. Question, what could be more powerful than taking it away? What could be more powerful than removing suffering from our lives?

What's more powerful is that he's given it meaning? Because is there anything more difficult than senseless suffering? Is there anything more difficult than walking through this life being hurt again and again and again and saying this doesn't make any sense? But for the Christian, there is no such thing as senseless suffering. For the Christian, there's only wasted suffering. or there's meaningful suffering. For the Christian, there's no such thing as senseless suffering.

There's only wasted suffering or there's redemptive suffering. That's why, 1st Peter, chapter 4, verse 13. Peter says this. He says, talking to Christians, talking to people, ordinary people like you and me. He says, rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ. Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ. Not only tolerate it, not only embrace it, not only be okay with it, but rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ.

sufferings of Christ. We see suffering as a curse. We see suffering as the worst thing that could happen to us. And the apostles, the early Christians, they saw suffering as an opportunity to participate, to imitate, to be like Jesus. Because what was the mission of Jesus? The mission of Jesus was to love us and save us through his suffering. The mission of Jesus was to love us and to save us through his suffering and death and resurrection. And that's finished. And that's our head. That's the head church, right? Jesus is the head of the church. But we're the body. So if we're the body, if we're really actually Christians, if we're really actually share in his life, that we also share in his mission. And the whole goal of Christianity is not just to be good, not just being

nice, not just to be okay people, but to be like him. And that part is unfinished. How did Jesus save the world? In his body, by loving, in the midst of suffering, and handing himself over. And he hasn't taken that away from you. If you're a part of his life. body, that means his mission continues to exist in you on this earth. Jesus hasn't taken suffering, he's transformed it. He hasn't removed it. He's redeemed it. And so now there's no weakness, there is no pain, there's no grief, there's no loss,

there's no sadness, there's no nothing that couldn't be a part of his redemptive work, not in you and not in this world. Because he's shared. He shared part of his cross with us. In fact, that's what Peter, Paul says as well. Colossians 1 verse 24. Paul in the Colossians he says again I rejoice in my sufferings like Peter says hey rejoice in your sufferings to the saint you're sharing the sufferings of Christ Paul says I rejoice in my sufferings for your

sake and in my body I make up for it is lacking in the sufferings of Christ and you have to pause at that moment he'd be like does that make any sense like I rejoice my suffering that doesn't make sense and in my body I make up for it is lacking in the sufferings of Christ so John Paul the second St. John Paul he looked at this in this document called Sylvivici Dolores like the Unhuman suffering. And he said, well, what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ? His answer was nothing, right? It's finished. It's done. But he goes on to say, but so that you might know the power of God, Jesus has extended to you a particle of his cross so you can be part of his mission. So you might

know what it's like to love like God. He's extended a particle of his cross. So you might be able to share in his mission of bringing salvation to the earth, to the world, to the people around you. Because Jesus doesn't need you, but he doesn't want to do this without you. He doesn't need your suffering, doesn't need your life, doesn't need my life, doesn't my suffering, but he doesn't want to do it without us. This is an actual table, that's an actual chair, that's an actual dresser, but the manufacturer has left room in it for your and my participation. He left it unfinished. And when it's unfinished, when it's unfinished, it can end up wasted. You might know this, um, Archbishop of Fulton

Sheen, much holier, wiser, better person than me. He said this, and I have a tough time saying this, but he said, I'll quote him. He said, the greatest places of wasted suffering are hospitals and nursing homes. The greatest places of wasted suffering are hospitals and nursing homes. People who are suffering, their bodies are being broken. They're abandoned, they're lonely. They're suffering. And it's being wasted.

So how do I not waste that? Like, how do we not waste this? That if this is the finished work of Jesus, but he's given part of us, part of it to us to complete it, to do what's unfinished, how do I do it? It's really not complicated. This is the question people ask all the time, like, how am I supposed to offer up my sacrifices?

How do I offer up anything to God? It's really not complicated. Just like Jesus. Jesus, every step of his life, what did he say? He said, ah, this is for Josh. Every step of his life, what did Jesus say? This is for Tom. This is what we do, too.

Every moment, with every pain, with every suffering, with every physical suffering, every moral suffering, every time our body breaks, breaks, every time our heart breaks, I get to say, Father, this is for them. Father, use this. That's all. That's all it takes. Because the Father hears you, right? God, you matter to God. And so whenever you say anything, Father, use this, we know nothing given to God is ever wasted.

Like nothing. not our physical suffering, not our moral suffering, not even our sins given to God are wasted. I have, there have been many times when I have been struck with so much grief over my own failures. So many times when I'm just like, I kind of feel debilitated in some ways by my own sins or by the people that I know I've hurt. Like I know that their lives aren't the same. Not in a good way, but in a bad way because of me. And I feel, in those moments, I feel so powerless.

You ever did you just feel powerless? I can't go back, I can't change it. Like, I have affected their lives in a way that they have to deal with. And now I can't go back and undo that. So what do you do with that? When in the midst of this powerlessness, like it's grief. All I can do, all we can do is say, Father, use this. I can't go back in time.

I can't change what I did. I can't change what's been done. but Father, use this. It's what you can do right now in every moment of our lives. He can just say, Lord, I have nothing to offer you except this brokenness, but use this for her. I have nothing to offer, but Lord, use this for him. With that confidence that nothing, nothing given to God has ever wasted, just take aim. Honestly, take aim.

God, this is for them. This is for that person. God, you've given me. a particle of your cross, let me not waste it. And this is the last thing, this last thing. I know that that is easier said than done. I know that that actually requires faith. What I mean by it requires faith is it means you have to trust.

You trust that in this world that has come undone, the Father sees you. It involves trust that in this world that's come undone, the Father knows you. It involves trust that in this world that's come undone, the Father loves you and that you matter. and that you're suffering even if it's really small. That that matters to him. But it also means that you realize, you know this is true, that he trusts you. Let's stop for a sec here.

St. Paul, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. In my body, I'm making up for what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. He goes on to say, for the sake of his body, the church. John Paul, nothing's lacking in the sufferings of Christ. but so that you might participate in his redemptive, his salvific, his saving work on earth. He's extended to you a particle of his cross. And as he gives you that particle of his cross, what he's saying is, I trust you with this.

Use this. And we hold onto it and say, okay, God, use this. Let it not be wasted on me. Every amount of suffering, every sliver of the cross that God has ever given you. Even it's stupid, even if it's silly, even it's one of the things like, I shouldn't be upset about this, but I am to be able to say, God, use this. Realize, Christian, you are the body of Christ here on earth. And what did Jesus do in his body? He suffered, he died, he rose, and he triumphed. It's finished. And you're the body of

Christ. And what does Jesus still do and wants to do in you? He will in you suffer. And in you, he will die and in you he will rise and in you he will triumph but that part's unfinished that part's undone that part can be wasted or that's the part also where we can say father i trust you use this