Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 04/14/22 Last Words: The Final Last Word

Episode Date: April 15, 2022

Homily from the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper. All of Jesus’ words are summed up in one word. On the cross, Jesus’ life ends with the same perspective He has had from the beginning: He trusts His Father. Mass Readings from April 14, 2022: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14 Psalms 116:12-13, 15-181 Corinthians 11:23-26 John 13:1-15

So for the last number of weeks, this whole Lent, we've been talking about the power of words and how words have the ability. They have the ability to disclose. They have the ability to define a person's life. They have the ability to reveal what's in a person's heart, what they really care about the most. In fact, one of the things that words have the ability to disclose or reveal is the state of one's mind, especially at the end of one's life.

Those last words, a person has, had the ability to reveal. the state of our person's soul. Like are they at peace? Are they in distress? Are they in a place of torment? Are they in a place of rest? It kind of, those words, they give us insight into the perspective of a person.

Here's what I mean. We've gone through a bunch of last words in the last number of weeks. One of my favorites was from Charlie Chaplin. At one point, as Charlie Chaplin is dying, his last words. A priest came to visit him. and as he was received Holy Communion and received Dointhe and Sick,

Charlie Chaplin was Catholic, as far as I understand it, at least, the priest said to Charlie Chaplin, in these words of peace, he said, may God have mercy on your soul, which is just, what a great word. We got to mercy on your soul. And Charlie Chaplin's response was, his last words were, why wouldn't he? It already belongs to him. Just that those words of confidence.

That last word of, that's my perspective. So the word perspective is so remarkable. Perspective means to see through, to look through, is to have a perspective. And so one's perspective is the lens, right? One's perspective is the lens to look at everything, look in the entire world. In fact, here's Charlie Chaplin, and his last words, the last moment of his life, make a diversity on your soul, why wouldn't he? It already belongs to him.

That was his perspective. That was his lens. In fact, our lens, our perspective, the way we see the world, it changes the way we see everything, right? It changes the way we see events. It changes the way we see victories in our lives, the way we see defeats. Our perspective, our lens changes the way we see our gifts. They're just accidental or they own.

It changes the way we see struggle. It changes the way we see love. It changes the way our lens changes the way we see suffering. In fact, our lens changes the way we see even death, even the quick or the slow process of sickness and aging and dying. Our perspective will tell us everything, reveal everything, and it comes out in those last words. So yesterday on Wednesday, this movie came out.

It's starring Mark Wahlberg and Mel Gibson. It's called Father Stewart's about this man named Stuart Long. It went to becoming a priest. But in Stewart's, I got to watch this movie last week. And in Stewart's early life, he was raised without any religion at all, basically. So his whole family, it was him, his older brother, his mom and his dad, and they were relatively pretty indifferent to God. So in fact, he tells the story about how when he went to college,

he went to a Catholic college, and he played football for them. At one point, the coach said, you have to go to, you know, what we have to do. If you're on this team, you're going to go to chapel. And so he didn't even know, he didn't know what a chapel was. He had no, I mean, no idea. He said he walked into the chapel, and he saw an image of a man with wings and a sword standing over a man on the ground with horns. It literally didn't even know the concept of,

here's angels and devils had no concept of God. He was indifferent to God. But at some point what happened was when he was still young, I think six years old, his older brother died in his sleep. What that did to his family in so many ways is it broke his family. So they were largely indifferent to the Lord. But whenever God, the topic of God came up, they were filled with hatred. I mean, just like in the movie it captures this.

And also, by the way, just kind of a public service announcement, there's a lot of F-bombs, a lot of language in the movie. It's rated R for a reason because it's trying to capture this absolute anger, this absolute hostility that Stu and his father and his mother had not only for each other, but have for God. Because that was their two lenses where either I'm indifferent to God or I'm angry, like have a rage against God. And so in his life, a number of things happened.

Not only did his brother die, at some point he was going to be a boxer. And then he had a problem with his jaw. he had to give up that dream. And then at one point he was like, I'm going to be an actor. And at some point, Edward, give up that dream. And at one point, even actually, he was following this girl to date her, basically, and she said, well, I'm baptized, so you won't date me unless you're baptized. So he joins RCI.

In the process of this, maybe he gets baptized, gets in this motorcycle accident, and gets run over by a car after hitting. It's just one bad thing after another happens to him. And again, whatever he approached God was either indifference or hatred. But then at some point, something changes. He has a new lens. And that new lens reveals that there's another option besides indifference.

There's another option besides hatred. And it's this final last word that Jesus utters from the cross. In Luke's gospel, he says it like this. This is Luke chapter 23. Luke says, it was now about noon. And darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. Then the bale of the temple was torn down the middle. Jesus cried out in a loud voice.

Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit. And when he had said this, he breathed his last. You know, Matthew and Mark, they both say that Jesus cried out. I think John even says that Jesus cried out. But Luke's the only one who says what Jesus said when he cried out. Jesus says last words. We had the first last word. We had the next five last words.

This is the final last word of Jesus himself. And the final last word is this loud cry, Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit. We have to ask the question. Like, what is being said? What is Jesus actually saying this? Because all six leading up to this moment, all six last words leading up to this moment,

have been important. They've been so critical for us. But this last word, this final last word, reveals the posture of Jesus. It reveals the perspective of Jesus. It reveals how Jesus, not only approached this last moment where he gave up his spirit,

it reveals how Jesus approached everything? Because we could ask the question, how could have Jesus approached this moment? What could Jesus' perspective have been? He could have been looking at this reality and said, like, I did everything right. Jesus could have looked at himself on the cross and all these people abandoning and betraying,

and he could have said, I did everything right, I served the father just exactly the way he asked me to do. This is not fair. He could have railed against this. He could have claimed that it wasn't fair. He could have claimed that it was injustice. He would have been right. He would have been the only,

only person in history who could have said this shouldn't be happening to me and he would actually be telling the truth. He could be railing against heaven. He could be crying out against God. Or he could even be the opposite. He could be the opposite. He could be indifferent. He could be like some of those like stoic heroes who just say, no, I'm going to accept my fate without a word, without a whimper, with no emotion, just strong. like cold. Again, apathetic. But he doesn't. He doesn't do either of those things. He's not indifferent to his own death.

He's also not raging against his death. He speaks to God with his last breath. And in that last breath, how does he talk to God? Once again, just like that first last word, where Father, forgive them, Jesus says, Father. And to your hands I commend my spirit. Basically, that word, he says, is Abba, the final last word of Jesus.

He's talking to his dad. If you've followed the Bible in the year, you probably know this. You know that the very first month of the whole Bible. We go through Genesis, of course, because that's where if the Bible starts, it makes sense. But at some point someone decided, they were really smart and they decided, you know, we also need to start with Job. So we begin those first 30 days reading Genesis and Job together. And so people who are just being introduced to the Bible in a comprehensive way, their first introduction is the story of this man, Job.

Which is so important because why, because what's Job's story? Job's story is that he was a righteous man. He did everything right. He did nothing wrong. In fact, God even says this in Chapter 1, that Job didn't do anything wrong. Look at how righteous Job is. But then, God allows Job to experience incredible loss. First, he loses his wealth.

Then he loses the people he loves the most. He loses his children. They all die. And then Job loses his health. And at first, Job is patient with it. At first, Job says, yeah, blessed be the Lord. He gives and he takes away. Blessed it be the name of the Lord.

But after a bit, Job wants to know why. After a bit, Job wants to know why. And so these three friends come along, and they start trying to tell Job why, plus a fourth friend who's not really a friend. And they're not really, they're trying to tell Job, here's the reason why these things are happening to you. But all those answers are impartial. None of them are accurate and none of them are helpful until God shows.

up. And it's really interesting. So I read the book of Job, my first, the first time ever I think I was in high school or college somewhere in there. Someone told me that if you want to, if you ever struggle with the problem of evil, the reality of suffering in this life, here is God's answer to the reality of suffering. So I remember reading the book of Job and being incredibly disappointed because when God does show up, what he basically says is, Job, were you there when I created the stars? Job, were you there when I created the depth of the ocean? Job, do you even know all of the animals? You don't even know half the animals that live on the face of the earth. Also, did you know why I put the planets in motion?

Like all these kind of things. And basically, I'm thinking, God, when are you going to give, when are you going to tell Job why he's going through all this? Because God doesn't do that. But at the end of it all, God doesn't tell Job why. He doesn't give Job a why. I think I know the reason why. I think I know the reason why God doesn't give Job a why

is because he knows that that wouldn't actually be the answer. It might be a answer. It might be a temporary answer. It might be the answer to Job's suffering today. It might be an answer to Job's suffering right now. But then what happens tomorrow? What happens with tomorrow's suffering? What happens with tomorrow's pain?

What happens with the question that comes up again tomorrow? Guy would have to just be waiting in the wings always for Job when he has this next pain, when he has his next question, when he has his next trial, say, oh, this is why you're going through this now. And the same thing is true for all of us. God doesn't give Job a why. When he shows up, God gives Job a who.

And that changes Job's lens. That changes Job's perspective completely. In fact, at the end of the book of Job, after God ceases to speak, Job says, I had heard of you before. People had told me about you in the past. But now I've seen you. Now I've met you, essentially. And I take back my words.

I repent in dust and ashes. Because, again, God doesn't give Job a why, he gives Job a who. And so Job can basically say, no matter what happens now, I know you. My perspective is not, I'm indifferent to pain. My perspective is not I'm angry at pain.

My perspective is now I trust you in my pain. And that's the final last word. That has been Jesus' word ever since the moment of the incarnation until this last moment, this final moment, of his life and the ultimate moment of his loss, Jesus turns to God and he says, Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.

He says, Dad, I trust you. Imagine this. In the moment of loss, this is the end of the story with betrayal and denial and abandonment and humiliation and suffering and pain. And the only thing left is this last breath. With that last breath, Jesus, simply says, dad, I trust you.

You know, so, so, this is crazy. The business is necessary for every one of us. Why? Because I've said this before, but I'm going to say it again. Pope Benedict pointed out, Pope Benedict pointed out the fact that for ancient man, for centuries of Christianity, human beings, we realized that we were guilty.

We realized that we had failed to love God the way He's called us to love. We failed to love each other the way God has called us to love each other. And so we're guilty. And so the perspective is we're in a courtroom. and we're on trial. And what happens is God steps into the courtroom

and he answers our guilt with the cross. That the cross becomes the price for our sin. The cross becomes God's answer for our sin. But something happened. In the last not very long,

decades to a century, what's happened is modern man, what we do is we bring into the courtyard, come into the courtroom, we come into the courtroom with God and we say, God, you're guilty. Why?

Because you're you. You made this world and you let it break. And now you're making us live in this world where they're suffering and there's evil and there's pain and there's death. And so God, what modern man says is, God, you're on trial. It's still a courtroom. But now God's on trial. This is the crazy thing. Pope Benedict highlighted this.

He pointed this out. He said, just like in the ancient, for an ancient world, for an ancient man, the cross was God's answer for man's sin. The cross was God's price that he paid for our sin. The cross is still the answer. The cross is the price that God pays. paid for our doubt. The cross is God's answer for our lack of trust. It's the same answer. It's the same cross. It's the same Jesus with his last breath says, Father, I trust you,

even when I'm losing everything. So I'm giving everything. I trust you. And the question we have to ask ourselves is, what more does God have to do before you'll begin to trust him to? what more does God have to do before we can look at any situation and any season and any suffering in our lives and still say this hurts and this is painful and I don't like it and Dad, I trust you

because that's the lens that changes everything I'm not indifferent to suffering I'm not raging against God in my suffering but I'm like Father Stu and this is the last thing one of Father Stu's messages not just in the movie but in his life what happened was after Father Stu got ordained, actually before he got ordained,

he was diagnosed with what has the symptoms of ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. And he could be the kind of person who would say, God, I did everything right, but he didn't. He could have said, I'm indifferent to it, I'm a tough guy, but he didn't. What he said is, you understand, death comes to all of us.

This comes to all of us. This pain is real, of our lives. But no matter what happens, the lens, the perspective is going to be trust. And that's one of the, I think that's the reason why they made a movie about this man's life. Not because he died, this heroic life strong and incredible and doing heroic things. It's because even as his perspective was changed, his lens was changed from indifference to God

to anger to God, at some point he realized I can trust God. And then when all these things happened to him, all these things came upon him and his life was being drained away day by day. and he became weaker and weaker and unable to move, unable to feed himself, unable to use the bathroom on his own, unable to do all these things. He consistently said, but I know that I can trust my father in heaven.

I know that God is my dad. And just like Jesus, I can trust him. And this is the power of the final last word. That the final last word of Jesus is meant to actually be our first word. The final last word of Jesus, this act of trust, is meant to actually be the very first word that you and I can utter every time we get out of bed in the morning. Every time we go to sleep at night, we get to say the final last word of Jesus as our first word.

And that word not only will disclose the reality of our heart and the reality of the truth of life will also define our lives. with Jesus, we can say, Father, no matter what happens to me, into your hands, I commend my spirit. That we can say, Dad, no matter what happens to me, I trust you.