Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 04/11/20 Witnesses

Episode Date: April 13, 2020

Homily from Holy Saturday, the Easter Vigil. We profess the faith today so we can persevere in the faith tomorrow. Christianity is an historical religion that is not based on feelings, philosophies, or myths. It is based on a fact: the fact of the resurrection of Jesus. The one thing that changes everything.

The Lord be with you. And with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Glory to your Lord. Chapter 28, verses 1 through 10. After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb, and behold, there was a great earthquake.

For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled the stone back, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men. Then the angel said to the women in reply, Do not be afraid. I know that you are seeking Jesus, the crucified.

He is not here for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, he has been raised from the dead and is going before you to Galilee, and there you shall see him. Behold, I have told you. Then they went away, quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed and ran to announce this to his disciples.

And behold, Jesus met them on the way and greeted them. They approached him and braced his feet and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to go to Galilee. And there they will see me. The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. I'd invite you to be seated.

So I need to make a note of, as we like, gosh, the lights are on. That was some dark times. Broom, boom. There is, okay, so I'm joined tonight by our four focus missionaries. And so I know that people are like, hey, they're standing really close to each other. Well, they all live kind of in the same vicinity. We've been quarantined together for the last, literally four weeks.

We got back from Israel altogether. And so we've been keeping strict quarantine. I know people are nervous about that. People are fearful of that. And so we just want to let you know. We're all together. This is it. And I'm really grateful for them to help out.

I'm a little of embarrassed though because they pressured me. They said, I was like, I don't think I'm going to sing that opening thing and they're like, you got to sing the opening thing. And I was like, I think it sounds terrible. Like, it doesn't matter if it's terrible. You get through it and it's true. It was terrible and I got through it. So with both things, oh my gosh, you guys.

You know people say that the greatest fear, the number one fear people have is speaking in public. It's actually the number two greatest fear of people have is dying. You probably heard it said, like, people at a funeral would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy. I think, I don't know. I just, I don't if you're speaking in public. I think singing in public is kind of a thing. I'm not going to be on Gregorian Idol anytime soon. You guys, I thank you for that, because I needed to hear you laughing about that.

But there's that sense of, like, we are faced right now truly by real things that can really kill us. We are faced right now by things that should make us afraid or can make us afraid. Like our lives are permeated with things that can make us afraid, because our lives are permeated with things that can end our life. Like every one of us, I think we're becoming more and more aware that every one of us is living with an awareness that we're going to have to die. And not only that, we have this fear upon fear because what happens is so many people right now, because of viral infections, because of needing to keep distance,

so many people are not only dying, they're dying alone. It's like fear upon fear. Because of one of our greatest fears, maybe speaking in public, whatever, one of our greatest fears is dying. Another great fear so many of us have is being alone. And what many people are experiencing right now is they're experiencing what it is to die alone. And I think that we need to focus on this because what we're celebrating tonight, who we're worshiping tonight, what we're doing tonight makes all the difference. Because there's such a thing in this world as one thing that changes everything. And this is the thing. The resurrection is the one thing that changes everything.

It changes our fear into courage. to courage, it changes what we're hesitant of into boldness. This is the one thing that changes everything, the resurrection of Jesus. Because up until the resurrection, I mean, honestly, Jesus can be a healer, it can be a great teacher, great prophet, all those things. He can be up until this point, until the resurrection, Jesus can be interesting but still ignored. You can see what he does and go like, oh yeah, you know, you can have an opinion about him. You can have like your perspective.

You can have a thing where it's like, well, you know, I'm glad if you like him a lot, that's your truth. But the resurrection, the thing is, the resurrection either happened or it didn't happen. It's either a fact or it's fiction, it can't be both. And it's history, and that's one of the things I love. The only reason I would say, the only reason I'm a Catholic Christian is because Christianity is the only religion in the world that's historical. It's rooted in history. It's rooted in facts.

It's the only religion in the world that's not based off of myths, it's not based off of philosophies, it's not based off of opinions, it's not based on off of feelings, it's 100% based off of facts. I mean, even Peter in Acts chapter 10, when Peter on Pentecost morning, Peter goes out in Acts chapter 10, he begins after Pentecost, he goes out and proclaims this to be true. He says, we're witnesses of this. Like we saw this with our own eyes. That he claims, all the apostles claim to be witnesses.

That this happened not just like a long time ago in the galaxy far, far away. That's how myths happen. That's how legends get started. It's like in a place you've never been in the time you've never seen, what people you've never heard of. Peter stands up and he says, no, in this town, Jerusalem, you all saw him, you all saw him die, you know us. We, I saw this happen. And even more, we saw this happen. In fact, the earliest Christian creed of Jesus rising from the dead dates back to within months of the resurrection.

Not decades later, not centuries later, within months of the resurrection, the earliest Christian creed proclaiming that Jesus Christ was dead, but now he's risen. and saying, like, we've seen this. All the disciples saying, who are the we? Who are the disciples? You have people who aren't perfect. You have Thomas the Doubter. You have James and John, the ambitious. You have Peter, the denier, and the foot-in-mouth putter. You have the rest of the apostles who are arguers and who run away.

You have Mary Magdalene, who Jesus had to cast out demons from her. she was possessed. And even think about that. Think about the fact that Mary Magdalene, she's the first witness to the apostles. She's the first witness to the disciples of the resurrection. Now, if you probably know this, but back in that day, in first century Judaism, in that culture in the Roman Empire, if you're making up the story, you do not want the first witness of the key event of the story to be a woman. Because they didn't have any influence, didn't have any authority, they didn't have any power, they weren't believed. And so if it didn't happen this way, why would they put it in there? They won't always. They won't

put it in there if it happened that way, if that's exactly how it happened. Not to mention the Apostles, not to mention Mayor Magdalene, even Paul. Paul who persecuted the church, who arrested Christians, Paul who was a murderer, is one who was transformed when he met, when he encountered, when he witnessed the risen Jesus Christ. The resurrection is the one thing that changes everything. It's not based off of a feeling, it's not based on, it's a fact. And again, it's so important. This fact is so critical, it's so essential that even Paul makes this, makes the resurrection

the criterion for either accepting Jesus or rejecting Jesus. In 1 Corinthians, he says, if the resurrection didn't happen, if Christ is not raised, you're still dead in your sins. He says, if Christ isn't raised, then we're the most, of all people, to be pitied, the most to be pitied. if Christ did not raise from the dead, your faith is worth nothing. Your faith is in vain, he says. This is the one thing that changes everything. And that's why even Paul, he throws down the gauntlet.

He says, this is so important, but he says, listen, this is First Corinthians, chapter 15. He says, I've received as a first importance, what I handed on to you, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried. He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, that he appeared to Kefas, right, Peter. Then to the 12th, after that, for every reason he left up Mary Magdalene, sorry, Paul.

After that, he appeared to more than 500 brothers at once, most of whom are still living, although some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James and then to all the apostles, and then last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. Basically, you know, when Paul is saying this, he's saying, if you don't believe this, go ask them, they're still alive. The whole notion that he's saying, There's 500 people who saw this.

He says, most are still alive. Some have died, so you can't ask them all. But there's a bunch who are still living. And this is the one thing that if it's true, it changes everything. Because it means that Jesus is who he says he was. I mean, it's interesting. You know, the resurrection is such a historical fact that even those people who denied the resurrection in the first century, those people who denied the resurrection right away,

they even give it away. In Luke's Gospel, I think it was Luke's Gospel. The Roman soldiers were told by the Roman authorities, hey, tell people that they and his disciples stole the body. How is that giving it away? It's because it means there was an empty tomb. It means there was no body. So there was no body in the tomb.

And so the authorities had to say to the Roman guards, hey, when people ask you about this, tell them that his disciples just stole it. The tomb was empty. How did it get empty? Well, again, maybe the disciples stole Jesus' body. That's possible. It's reasonable.

It's reasonable except for this. Except for this fact, that every one of the disciples, all of them who ran away on Friday, every one of them were unanimous, they were unified, they were unequivocal about this central truth, about this central fact that Jesus was dead and now he's alive. And this is the faith they professed. This is the fact they professed. Were they lying? Because they could be lying. So there's a modern corollary to this. You might know Chuck Holson. You guys know Chuck Holson? So Chuck Colson used to work for Richard Nixon, and so he was in on the Watergate deal.

Later on he became a Christian and he talks about this, he says, March 173, I realized how reliable the apostles must have been. Because he says that there were a dozen men who were incredibly powerful, politically, politically, incredibly powerful, incredibly successful, the kind of people who made things happen. These 12 men knew about Watergate, and they covered it up. And when it started to leak, people started being able to get. People started being questioned, these 12 men who were sworn to secrecy, who had said with each other, we're not going to crack, we're not going to tell anybody about this.

Within days, one person, man named John Dean, had cracked. He turned state's evidence and told everything. In fact, he was asked about it later on and he said, basically did it to save his own skin. He basically did it to hop a plea. Within just a little over two weeks, every single one of those 12 men admitted to the Watergate cover-up. It took less than three weeks for this secret to unravel. Because these 10, 12 men just out to save their own skin. Because it's one thing to profess the faith.

It's another thing to persevere in the faith. The apostles, they profess this faith. They profess this fact of the resurrection. The one thing that changes everything. And what did they get for it? Well, Peter and his brother, Andrew, they got crucified for it. Paul got brutally told us. brutally tortured multiple times and then he got beheaded for it.

Thomas was speared by four different human beings to death. Matthew was stabbed to death. James, the Apostle was beaten to death with clubs. Matthias, the replacement of Judas, he was burned alive. In fact, the only apostle who didn't die as a martyr with John, the beloved disciple, but he was burned in oil by the Romans. He just happened to live after that. So these men didn't crack.

There's no such thing as a deathbed confession of the apostles or those 500 or any of the other people who saw Jesus rise from the dead and say we made it all up, even at the cost of their lives. And this is our faith what they said. This fact, it's what we profess. And this is the thing is it's the way you and I is what we declare regularly. We say, no, I believe that Jesus Christ is raised from the dead. He is who he says he is. He has conquered death. This is the one thing that changes everything.

And it's a phone funny. C.S. Lewis, author C.S. Lewis, for years he was an atheist before we became a Christian. And he said this. He said, before I became a Christian, people used to talk about faith being a virtue, the thing we profess, about faith we profess, being a virtue. But he said, how is that possible that believing something that's true would be a virtue? How could believing something to be true be either moral or immoral? Because if it's a fact, you just believe it. If it's a fact, you just profess it. There's nothing moral or immoral about believing a fact. and then he became a Christian.

And he realized that it's one thing to profess the faith, and it's another thing to persevere in the faith. And this is where it gets really personal tonight because, again, if Jesus rose from the dead, it doesn't just change what we do with late Saturday night on Easter, doesn't just change what we do on Sunday morning. It changes their whole life. Because it's one thing to profess the faith,

another thing to persevere in the faith, because the day's going to come when I don't want it to be true. be true. Right? The day's going to come when I don't want the resurrection to be true. Because it changes too much. You know, we have our college students here. And they can be raised as Christians, be raised as Catholics. And then what happens is I'm from, I'm far from home now and I have this opportunity to live however I want. I don't have to go to church. I don't have to pray. I don't have to live in any particular good way. I can live however. I have this license. I don't want this to be true. Doesn't make it not true. But it's one thing to profess the faith.

It's another thing to persevere in the faith. Because the day comes when it's inconvenient. And I've talked to so many high school students who they know the truth about Jesus. They know he's conquered that. They know this is a fact. But then what happens is, well, their friends think that's ridiculous. Their friends think that's absurd

and they think the church is narrow-minded and hateful. And it's believing this truth, believing this fact, professing it is inconvenient. because there are some truths that make no difference in my life and there are some truths that make all the difference in my life. And I have so many of you as you're out in the world, you just have to work so hard. And there's so much to do. You have so many burdens that you carry, so many things you're responsible for.

And sometimes it's like, man, I just, I don't want it to make a difference in my life. I have too much to do. But there are some truths that demand something of me. And the resurrection is one of those truths. The resurrection is one of those facts. It's that one thing that changes everything. And even now, even now in a time of pain for so many people. A time of uncertainty for so many people.

A time of fear and time of loss for so many people. Real suffering. The resurrection is still true. They've lost your job. The resurrection is still true. You're living isolated and so alone, the resurrection is still true. that you're sick, someone you love has died, and you haven't been able to be with them. The resurrection is still true.

And so we profess this faith. That's why we persevere in this faith. That's why we witness to this faith. You know, the apostles, those witnesses. Again, they all had time to recant if it wasn't true. None of them did. They were unanimous, unified, and unequivocal about proclaiming, professing, persevering in this truth.

They all died. You know what's one thing about this? I've been praying about this recently. It just struck me. Every single one of them died alone. Every one of the apostles. Every one of them died alone. And right now that might be your story.

Right now that might be your reality. Right now, that might be someone you love desperately. That's what they're going through. And it is absolutely overwhelmingly painful. And that's why we profess tonight. so we can persevere tomorrow. That's why in a few moments we're going to bless this holy water and profess our faith.

Do you believe in this? I do. We profess this fact tonight so we can persevere in this fact tomorrow. We profess this faith tonight so we can persevere in this faith tomorrow because if this is true, then all of it's true. This is the one thing that changes everything. If the resurrection is true, then what else is true is that God knows your name. If the resurrection is true, what also is true is God has not forgotten you.

If the resurrection is true, that also means that Jesus established a church for you to be home, for you to have a family, for you to have people, even when you are alone. If the resurrection is true, then Jesus has given us his body and blood, his soul and divinity in the Eucharist. Even if you can't reach the Eucharist right now, it's still true. The resurrection is true. And Jesus has given his apostles and their followers,

their bishops and priests the ability to forgive sins in his name and you don't have to be bond you don't have to be stuck you don't have to be alone because if the resurrection is true it's all true and even your greatest fear death even the greatest fear upon fear dying alone that's been changed too because if jesus conquered death he can conquer death he can conquer death in you. And if Jesus promised to never abandon or forsake, then no one who belongs to him dies alone. And he has promised not to abandon and not to forsake. There is no longer anything to fear, but simply a faith to profess and a faith in which we continue to persevere. Jesus Christ has conquered death. This is the one thing that changes everything.