Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 04/17/22 Nothing

Episode Date: April 17, 2022

Homily from the Mass of Easter Day. What did he see? John ran to the tomb and looked in. He saw and believed. What did he see? Mass Readings from April 17, 2022: Acts 10:34, 37-43 Psalms 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23Colossians 3:1-4 John 20:1-9

So I think it's fascinating how we can see something. We can look at something and we can look at something and not see. Basically, there's no way to say it. Or we can look at the same thing and see completely different things. I imagine, like, here's someone, I see rain come down, and I think, like, oh, this is really good for farmers. And a farmer can look and remembers. Like, you know, actually, this is bad for us. This is too much rain.

I'm like, oh, okay, I saw this the wrong way, right? From different perspectives. You could look at this, like the setup here with all the flowers, and it looks amazing, looks beautiful, and you say, wow, it looks so gorgeous in there. And I'm like, yep, I have allergies. This is just like, I can hardly breathe right now, but it's that kind of situation where we can look and see the same thing. I have to remember in order to understand, in order to know what I'm seeing, I have to remember.

The farmer remembers that we've had enough rain already. I remember that I have allergies. I remember I used to bike a ton back in the day. And I remember getting up. I never paid more attention to the wind than when I was biking because it was like, oh, today's going to be a headwind day. Today's going to be a tailwind day. I was just, I was preoccupied all the time.

People would look out and say, oh, it's windy day. And then move on. I would look out and just see, where is the wind coming from? How fast is it? We can look at the same thing and not see the same thing. In fact, to really to understand what I'm looking at, I have to remember. We have in the gospel of John, when John ran to the tomb, he beat Peter. And it says he bent down and looked into the tomb.

And what did he see? This is the question. What did he see? When people see Christianity, what did they see? In fact, so I came across recently on the algorithm. It recommended a video for me, a little short clip of a comedian. And I don't know anything about the comedian, so I'm not recommending or not recommending. I'm not recommending or disrecommending the person.

But it was just a clip. And he said, you know, it's really funny. We love Jesus. And he started talking about Jesus. So he's like, we love Jesus. He says, we're obsessed with Jesus. We always talk about Jesus. If aliens came down and they studied us,

they would find out about this Jesus and say, who's this guy? Who's, you know, just Jesus with the beard and everything. And we would say that Jesus is special. Well, why is Jesus special? Because he told us, this is his bit, right? Because he told us to be nice to each other. And the aliens would be like, seriously?

You needed him to tell you to be nice to each other? Like, yeah, yeah, but it's really nice. But like, did he do this recently? Well, no, he did this like 2,000 years ago. Like, really? You're that bad that you need someone. The one person who told you to be nice to each other is the person you remember after all these years.

No, no, no, there was someone else. He was a black guy, a mustache. Martin Luther King, Jr. He also told us to me nice to each other. Really, you guys must be a bunch of jerks. Like, no, no, we're not that bad. We're not that bad at all. He said, yeah, well, what did you, the aliens would say,

what did you do to those two? Yeah, maybe we are jerks. But the whole thing, though, is this, if that's what Jesus is, that's what we see. We look at Jesus. It's just someone who told us to be nice to each other. We're looking, but we're seeing the wrong thing. We're looking, but we're not seeing the truth. Because Jesus didn't just come to tell us to be nice to each other.

He came to save us. In fact, what we've been doing, this whole Lent, what we've been talking about for the last seven weeks. And in fact, even the last three days on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, that crucifixion the central focus of Christianity is that Jesus came to save us and for those who don't realize that, it's just dumb. I mean, everything we do is stupid.

I mean, so Fult and Sheen back in the day, he actually used this example. He said, if you had two men sitting on a ledge over some running water in an icy river and they're completely calm and one turns the other one and says, I want to show you how much I love you.

To prove to you how much I love you, I'm going to jump into this river and then jumps into the river. We would say, that is foolish. That is stupid. That's idiotic. That's so dumb. And yet, for most people who don't understand Christianity, they could look at the crucifix.

They could look at Good Friday. We just celebrated. We look at the passion of Jesus. And say, that's so stupid. This person just came to teach us to be nice to each other. Why would you have to die? But when we look at this world, when we look at each other,

when we look at our own hearts, we realize that something's broken. When we look at this world, when we look at each other in our relationships, we look at our own hearts, we realize that things are not as they should be. So when you look at the world, when we look at the world, what do we see? When we look at our relationship with each other, what do we see? When we look at our own hearts, what do we see? I know for myself, I've shared this before,

but at some point, you know, I was raised Catholic. At some point, after not caring at all about Jesus, not caring at all about all of the things that Jesus offers, had this realization. The realization was, oh my gosh, the brokenness in this world doesn't just exist in this world out there and exists actually in myself.

I remember thinking so clearly, oh my goodness, I can't save myself. I need a savior. And it was like this light bulb, bing, kind of a moment where it was just like, oh, I have one. Because up until that point, I looked, but I didn't see, right?

I looked, but I didn't remember, I didn't realize what I was looking at. Because the truth is, left on our own, we're not okay. Left on our own, we're not okay. That's by the primary message of Christianity. I mean, think about the incarnation in Christmas. Think about Good Friday.

Think about today, Easter Sunday. The message is we're not left on our own. I mean, the reality that Fulton Shee was talking about is, here's these two men sitting calmly on the ledge by the water and saying, I'm going to prove to you how much I love you, I'm jumping into the water. That's just dumb. But imagine that one of those men had fallen in to the icy river below.

And the other, man left his comfort and left his security, left his safety, and gave up his life to jump into this river, to save this other man's life. That would be completely different. In fact, the reality, when you look at humanity, when we look at ourselves, we're not just comfortably sitting next to our river. We are in the water and we are drowning. We're dead.

And what has Jesus done? He has come and died in our place. He has fought for us. because greater love has no man than this. They'll lay down one's life for one's friend. So let's go back to the gospel. He said when John bent down, he looked into the tomb. It says, and he saw and believed.

So he looked and he knew what he was looking at. He saw and he believed it. But let's back up. What did he see? Like honestly, ask the question, what did John see when he looked into the tomb? The answer basically is nothing. John saw nothing.

But it says he saw nothing and believed. Why? Because John saw nothing where there was supposed to be something. And that changed everything. And so he believed that it's not blind faith. This is a risky hope. This is not blind faith. Because John couldn't afford to have blind faith.

Why? Because John saw everything. John saw the whole story. John was there. In fact, he's the only apostle who was there the entire time. His hope, his risky hope, had to be based on fact. Because John was there at the foot of the cross. John saw the muscles of Jesus ripped out through his flesh.

John heard as Jesus gasped for breath. John heard every one of those seven last words of Jesus from the cross. John heard the strain on the cross every time Jesus lifted himself off the cross in order to gasp for breath one more time. John was there and held Mary at the foot of the cross. John was there and helped Jesus' body be taken down from the cross. John was there. John was there as he placed Jesus' lifeless body into the arms of Mary.

And also John has spent these last days, right, trying to make sense of this. Not knowing what was next, because how could this whole thing be over? Because here's the thing, not only did John see the crucifixion, not only did John see the death of Jesus. John was also there in the boat, right? When there was a massive storm and they all thought they were going to die and Jesus stood up and he said one word and that one word calm the storm. John was also there when there was that man outside the temple who's blind from birth.

And Jesus speaks to this man who's blind from birth. And a man who's blind from birth can now see perfectly. John was also there when there were 5,000 plus people next to the Sea of Galilee. And Jesus, with five loaves and two fish, fed them in abundance. John was there for all of the things. Even more than that, John was there on top of Mount Tabar, right? The Transfiguration with his brother James and with Peter. he saw Jesus' completely transformed body and his clothing became dazzling white.

John was there when that dad rushed up to Jesus and told them that his 12-year-old daughter was dying. John was in the room when they came upon this lifeless body of a 12-year-old girl. And Jesus simply took her by the hand and he said, Talitha Kum, little girl, I say to you, arise. John was there when she got out of bed. John was there outside the little town of Naim where there was this funeral procession of a woman whose husband had died

and her only son had died and they're carrying his coffin. John was there when Jesus walked up to that coffin and he touched it and he told them to stop and he raised that young man from the dead. John was there just a couple days before this when Jesus was at the house. of his friend Lazarus and Mary and Martha and Lazarus had been dead for four days. John was there when they came to the tomb and Jesus said roll away the stone and they all

said Jesus he's been dead for four days there's going to be a stench and Jesus says roll away the stone and then he says Lazarus come out John was there as Lazarus who had been dead for four days came out of the tomb bound hand and foot by the burial cloths John looked into the tomb and he saw and believed Again, this is not blind belief. This is a risky hope. Because John saw and believe, what did he see? He saw nothing.

Just the burial cloths. And that's the point. John had seen nothing before. I imagine that scene where that 12-year-old girl is now alive. And everyone in this room is rejoicing and celebrating. Imagine her parents embracing her. Thanking Jesus.

John off in the corner standing next to that little bed that she was lying there dead just a moment before looking down at the sheets just thinking, oh my gosh, she was dead now she's alive. Imagine that funeral procession after the young man is now alive and the coffin is now on the ground and everyone's celebrating off in the side. But John standing next to that coffin, looking down and seeing an empty coffin realizing this young man was dead and now he's alive. And Bethany, with Mary and Martha and everyone who, they're all friends, right, with Jesus and the apostles and Mary and Martha, and they're celebrating, gathering on Lazarus and just, you can imagine the joy. I imagine John off in the corner, looking down at the ground at the burial cloths that Lazarus had been buried in, just looking down at these cloths in wonder. See, John, John had seen nothing before.

Sometimes we don't know what we're looking at until we remember, and then we can see. Because in that darkest of moment, in that most dark of moments, John didn't see anything but empty cloths and an empty tomb. And I think that's the same thing that is true with us. In the moment, in the darkness, darkest of our times, we run to where Jesus was and we can see nothing. But even nothing proclaims something. Even that nothing reveals that something has happened.

And this is the last thing. I think it can be so hard for us when we look and don't see anything. I think it can be so hard for us when we look and we see nothing. And we can be so tempted to think that that means that God is not there, that he's not here, that he's not with us, that we can look and see nothing. But that's why we need to remember in order to look and know what we're looking at. To remember, to remember that there was once a man

who looked into a tomb and he saw nothing. Nothing where there was supposed to be something. And that nothing changed everything. John looked into the tomb and he saw nothing. And he realized that it was all true. John saw nothing. And he believed.