Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 04/26/20 Insecure: Not Home

Episode Date: April 27, 2020

Homily from the Third Sunday of Easter. Back to normal might not be what we think. Our lives can be spent wishing for certain outcomes. But a security built on specific outcomes is a conditional and temporary security. We need true hope to walk in confidence. Mass Readings from April 26, 2020: Acts 2:14, 22-33 Psalms 16:1-2, 5, 7-111 Peter 1:17-21 Luke 24:13-35 Download the Homily Study

The Lord be with you. And with your spirit. You're reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke, chapter 24, verses 13 through 35. That very day, in the first day of the week, two of Jesus' disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus. And they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,

Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, What are you discussing as you walk along? They stopped looking downcast, and one of them named Cleopas, said to him in reply, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?

He replied to them, what sorts of things? They said to him, the things that happened to Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and in word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. We had hoped that he would be the one to redeem us. Israel. Besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and they did not find his body.

They came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of us, who, some of those with us, went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see. And he said to them, oh, how foolish you are, how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on further. But they urged him, stay with us.

For it is nearly evening and the day is almost over. So he went in to stay with him. and it happened that while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them. With that, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, were not our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures for us. So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the 11, and those with them who were saying, the Lord truly has been raised and has appeared to Simon. Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way.

And now he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread, the gospel of the Lord. So I totally understand that this point in 2020, referencing the Lord of the Rings is only, it's a hack thing, right? Because all the priests used to do this. And that makes sense because there were a bunch of nerds. But also we do it because it was voted the best novel or best work of fiction in English. literature in the last hundred years, so like, I'm going to reference it. It's not just I'm a nerd. I'm also cultured. But I was thinking about, like, here's the setup for the Lord of the Rings, right? It starts with in the Shire, which is where these hobbits live. And these

hobbits, what are they devoted to? They're devoted to peace and they have the sense of contentment. They're absolutely comfortable, right? They're completely safe. They're incredibly secure. And then this one key figure steps into their lives. And he has news. And the news is they're not as safe as they imagined. That their lives are not as secure as they had imagined. That the world, their way of life, their peace, and their very lives were insecure. And so the consequence of this is there's two characters, two main characters of the Hobbits like Frodo and Sam. They have to leave home. In fact, they both spend the rest, almost the entirety of the rest of this massive novel, not home. Just walking.

And these two people, these two hobbits, the whole story is them walking through this world that was not home. They're walking through this world that is completely and utterly insecure. And I was thinking about those two, Frodo and Sam, when I was reading the gospel today, you have this other couple, right, and they're walking, this couple, Cleopas, and who knows his companion is, some scripture scholars say that it's Mrs. Cleopas, right? So it's Mary the wife of Clopis. That would make sense, though, if they're leaving Jerusalem, they were disciples of Jesus and they're just going home. it makes sense that they'd go home together.

That would make sense to me, at least, I don't know. But you can imagine, like, imagine their discussion that day, that here they are on Sunday, and just like talking to the other disciples and just making the decision, we're going to walk away, making the decision, you know what, you guys, imagine announcing to the other disciples. You know, you guys, we're just going to head home. Like, we're kind of done. And we're really tired of, we're really tired of being not home.

You know, you have that sense, right? You're just like, I just want to get back home. I want to get back to normal. And you sometimes have that sense that when you're away for a long time, you're just tired of being not home. And you just want to get back to normal. I was thinking about those three words, back to normal. That's a lot of what a lot of us are going through right now.

This is all we want, all we want. Just things to get back to, I want to go back to work. I just want to go back to my schedule. I just want to back to my routine. I want to go back to where I can see my family. I want to go back to be able to see friends. I want to go back to be able to go out. I want to be able to go back to not having to wear a mask.

I want to just get back to normal. And that is, for so many of us, that's like the goal right now. It's just to get back to normal. Maybe even it's this. Maybe even back to normal means I want to go back to the illusion. I want to go back to the illusion of security. I want to go back to the illusion that normal is secure. So last week we started this series called Insecure.

Because there comes a time in every one of our lives where we have have to be reminded that security is an illusion and certainty is a mirage, that normal, normal is insecure, that normal is danger. The normal can get us tired and imagine we can identify with Sam and Frodo. I just want to go back home. I just want to go back to the Shire. I just want to pretend that there isn't so much evil in the world. I want to pretend that there isn't so much death in the world, there's much violence in the world.

Or maybe like Clopas and Mrs. Cleopasus, like here they are, disciples. and what do the disciples do? The disciples let go on purpose of their sources of security. And here's Clopis and this is Clopis. We just want to get back to the source of our security. You just want to get back to all those sources in our lives of security. I can imagine them even, like on the way talking just like, you know what, I'll be happy when we just get home. I'll be happy when you have that sense, right, when you're away from home for a long time, that like sense of I'll be happy when I can sleep at my own bed. I'll be happy when I have this certain outcome.

thing right here is when we say I'll be happy when I have this certain outcome. So often our security is tied up with outcomes. Maybe too often our sense of security is tied up with outcomes. So we'll say things like that. We'll say things like, yeah, oh my gosh, I'll be happy when this test is over. I'll be happy when I can get back to work. I'll be happy when I can see my parents, I'll be happy when and that sense of like I'll be at peace when and that's not a lie, right?

That's probably true. In fact, here on campus, not on campus. been online through this campus. This is the last week of classes for our students. And then the week after this is finals week. And I imagine that they're like, no, I'll be at peace when I get done with that test. Like that makes sense.

It's not a bad thing to say. The only problem comes when we say, not just I'll be happy when, but when we say, I can only be happy if. We say I can only have peace if. Like I'll only have joy if. Because then we realized that, um, As long as I need certain outcomes, as long as I need certain outcomes, my life remains insecure. As long as I need certain outcomes, joy remains insecure.

As long as I need a certain outcome, then my happiness and my peace and my life, again, remains insecure because everything is conditional. So my happiness is based off of a condition. It's based off an outcome. And my joy is based off a condition. It's always going to be fragile. My faith is always going to be fragile. is always going to be destructible as long as it's based on outcomes.

And if my outcome, if our outcome, like, showing up to Mass today is, I can't wait to get back home or back to normal, not home because you're probably home, but like that sense of like I can't wait to get back to normal. If that's the outcome, if that's the condition, I want to get back to normal, our lives will always be insecure. So we have to ask the question, like, but at the same time there is a normal. What's the normal for Christians? Christians. Like what is it to, what is it normal for the Catholic? St. Peter says it in

the second reading today. It's 1 Peter chapter 1. He has this line and he says, conduct yourselves reverently during your sojourn. Which is like, use these words that we never use reverently sojourn. That word sojourn, I like the New American Bible translation, that's what we use at Mass. But sometimes it just kind of gets, it doesn't get it wrong, it's just there's more powerful words. What St. Peter is saying is that That word sojourn is actually the word exile. It says, conduct yourselves reverently during your time of exile. In fact, the word exile comes from a Greek word, I'm not going to be able to say it right.

Parochia. There it is. Nailed it, first try. So the word parochia. Oikios means home or house or home. And par is like basically not home. So parrychia is not home. In St. Peter is saying, conduct yourself.

self reverently during this time of being not home because that's what that's what life is for the Christian is a life spent not home and so Peter's like absolutely reminding these Christians like remember remember this truth is that you're not home this isn't home and so what do you have to do we have to he says live this life well that's what he means when he says conduct yourselves reverently because we don't I hear the word reverently and I'm like oh he's just you know folded hands like I'm very solemn very no reverently means thoughtfully reverently means intentionally

It means not carelessly. So here's St. Peter is saying, do not live carelessly. As you live this life well, but listen, this life that you're living, you're not home. Remember this. Normal for the Christian is not home. And you have to live this life well, not carelessly, but without conditions. With the security, that's not based on outcomes. that without saying something like this,

without saying something has to change in order for me to have joy. We can't say that as Christians. We can't say something has to change for me to have peace. We can't say something has to, we find ourselves saying that sometimes, right? Something has to change for me to have happiness. And I guess, okay, pause, caveat. We can say that. We can say that as long as we add two words.

We can say something has to change in order for me to have joy. We can say something has to change for me to have happiness. We have to add two words, and those two words are in me. So we can say something has to change in me for me to have joy. Something has to change in me for me to have peace. Because we realize we can be clinging to things that steal our peace. We can hold on to stuff that actually strips us of joy, makes it impossible for us to be close to God.

So there are some things that might have to change in me to have joy. That peace. And that's why St. Peter is saying, live thoughtfully, live intentionally, do not live carelessly because you are not home. But that doesn't mean you have to be insecure. You can actually still live powerfully. And this is the crazy thing. Just because we are not home does not mean we have to live in this way that's insecure.

We can still live powerfully as long as we have one thing. If we have this one thing, then we actually get to walk through this world where we're not home, this world that actually is insecure, but we can absolutely walk securely. And it's the one thing that Clopis and Mrs. Cleopas don't have. They're walking away because they don't have this thing. They're not home and they're trying to get home, but they're walking weekly. And they're walking away and they're walking alone because they don't have this one thing. And even talk about it.

So Jesus shows up and, right, we recount the story. So Jesus shows up and he's walking with them. And what are you talking about on the way? And they say, are you the only one who doesn't know about these things? What things? Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet mighty indeed and word before. forgotten all the people, how our chief priests and elders handed them over to be crucified. And then they say these words that reveal the condition of their hearts.

And they say, but we had hoped. But we had hoped. It's past tense. And we don't hope anymore that they reveal in that moment that their faith was fragile and their hope was destructible because it was based on outcomes. They even say it was based on an outcome. We had hoped that he would be the one to be the one to be. redeem Israel. We had hoped that he would redeem Israel in a very specific way. We had a

very specific outcome that we wanted and when we didn't get that outcome, now we're done. Now we're going to walk away and they lost hope. We had hoped. I think it's really important in this moment right now to also realize that they could have chosen hope. Like that was still an option, it was still on the table for them. I mean, because they go on to say, besides all this, some women from our group went to the the tomb and the tomb was rolled back, but the body they did not find. In fact, they saw a vision of angels telling us that he was alive, wasn't dead. Other people went and verified this.

Like, it was, hope was an option. It wouldn't have been unreasonable for them to actually trust and have hope. That wouldn't it just been a wish for them. That wouldn't it just been like a, I really want. That's what we use the word hope though, right? We just, it's usually a wish. We're like something I really, really want, something I really desire. I hope it's a nice day today.

I hope that we can get back to work soon. That's just a vague wish. That's being optimistic. Here's the thing, Christians are not optimists. Christians are not optimists. Being an optimist is someone who just has this vague wish for life. I have this idea of positive thinking, and that's not what Christians are. In fact, optimism can kill you.

So you might know the story of Admiral James Stockdale. James Stockdale. He was a Navy Admiral. He was a pilot in Vietnam War. He had gone over, flown over. He had gone over, flown over 200 fighter missions before his plane was shot down in Vietnam, and he was taken a prisoner. And he was a prisoner of war, one of the longest people who lived in a prison of war camp in Vietnam, or actually in U.S. military history during wartime.

He was in the Hanoi Hilton, which is just a devastatingly torturous prison camp for almost eight years. Like when he was brought to the prison camp, his bones were already, his body was already broken, fractured from his plane crash. And then they just, they saw him, gays. He was a high-ranking official officer, obviously, right? So he was the target of so many of his captors tortures. He was in solitary confinement for over four years, tortured almost daily. And he survived. And so did so many men with him.

But so many men didn't survive. And there was this very famous interview with Admiral Stockdale after he got back to the United States and was in the last maybe 10, 15 years, where someone asked him, like, you survived. and so many survived, but so many didn't survive. And he was asked the question, what was the difference? Like, who didn't survive? And Admiral Stockdale looked at the guy and said, that's easy, the optimists. And the interviewer was kind of puzzled by that.

Like, wait a second, you think that people who had positive thinking would survive anything. And he said, no, no, no. The optimists, they're the first ones to die because we got captured and they thought, okay, we'll be home by Christmas. We're positive thinking. We'll be home like Christmas. And then Christmas would come and Christmas would go and they'd still be there.

there. Okay, we'll be home by Easter. And then Easter would come, and Easter would go, and they'll be home by next fall. Okay, fall would come, fall would go. Thanksgiving. And then another Christmas would roll around, and he said, and these men would die of a broken heart. Because optimism is not hope. Hope is not based on outcomes. Hope is not positivity. And it's not based on positivity. Hope is based on a person. That's why St. Peter says in this First Peter, he says, you have faith and hope, not in outcomes. He says, you have faith and hope in God now. Peter, again, in the first reading, a lot of Peter this weekend. Peter in the first reading, he's quoting David.

And David says these words, he says, he says, the Lord ever will be at my right hand. He's with me. And therefore, I shall dwell in hope. Again, our hope is based not on positivity. It's based on a person. In fact, my definition for hope that I always like to share with people is hope is trust in another extended into the future.

Hope is when you know a person is trustworthy, and you know they're going to be trustworthy. For the Christian, for us, for all of us praying this morning, those who are called to have hope who are walking through a world of insecurity, who are not home, you have hope. Because your hope is trust in Jesus extended into the future. Like David, I know he walks with me, and so I dwell with hope. And again, hope is not.

It's not a wish that things will change, but it's trust in the one who will never change. Hope is trust in that one extended into the future. And that's one of the reasons why I love, and the next thing Jesus does is he then opens up the scriptures to Cleopas, Mrs. Cleopis, right? And he tells them, he shows them everything in the Bible that was about him. Probably did that for so many reasons. But one of the reasons I think he did it for is because he's basically saying, remember, remember where he was, Because when you remember where he was, it reveals where he is. And looking back in the scripture, he's thinking, remember what he's done.

Because when you remember what he's done, it reveals what he's doing. He says, remember who he is. Because when you remember who he is, it reveals who he is now. What he's saying is, remember what I've done? I've been faithful. So you don't walk alone. Remember where I was? Here I am now, and you don't walk alone.

Remember who I was. Well, I am with you now and you do not walk alone. You're not home, but you're not alone. And this is one of the reasons why those who hope are those who walk. This is the reason why those who hope are the ones who act. Those who hope is a virtue that moves. Hope is a virtue that acts. Hope is the virtue that guides.

Hope is not the wish is like, I'll sit back and wait. Optimism is I'll sit back and hopefully things get better. true hope is the virtue that guides your feet. Because hope states acting matters, moving matters, the how you live matters. And it matters no matter the outcome. Why? Because hope is trust in Jesus extended into the future. I remember what he's done. I know what he's doing. I remember who he was. I know who he is. And you're not alone. In this world of insecurity, when you're not home, You do not walk alone. Even when all seems lost, hope is not lost.

Going back to Frodo and Sam, there's a scene in the book and in the movie where it's just this devastating scene where, you know, Frodo is the ring bearer. He's been given this task. Here's Sam, who's the helper of the ring bear, right? Come as a sign of the Simons of Cyrene to Frodo's Jesus carrying the cross.

And Frodo is absolutely beaten. down, right? Just tired, tired of being not home. And he looks at Sam and he says this. This is the quote from the movie, from the book. He says, I can't do this, Sam. And Sam looks at him and he's the source of encouragement. He says, I know. He doesn't argue and say, no, no, it's fine. He says, no, I know it. It's all wrong. He says, we shouldn't even be here. And you might feel like that. Maybe not just in this moment, but in those great moments of grief in your life. There's great moments where you're just like,

I just, I want to go back to normal. I want to go back to before they got sick. I want to go back to before I lost them. I want to go back before they walked away. I want to go back to normal. You just hear that Sam saying, I know, we shouldn't even be here. But he was on to say, he says, it's like in the great stories, Mr. Froe.

He said, the ones that really mattered, they were full of darkness and danger. And sometimes you, you didn't want to know how they would end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back? The way that it was, when so much bad had happened. How can things go back to normal?

Is there even a home? When so much bad it happened. And he says, but in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it'll shine out all the clearer. Those are the stories that stayed with you. That meant something,

even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now that the folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something. And then defeated, Frodo says, what are we holding on to?

Sam. Sam looks at his friend and he says that there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and that it's worth fighting for. So even when we're not home, hope is the virtue that moves us, that we can keep walking, that we can keep fighting. Because here's the thing, J.R. Tolkien, Catholic man, he says the Lord of the Rings is a Catholic book. So Tolkien, even though he says, he says, there is some good. And even though he didn't put it in this book and put it in this scene, Tolkien knew. Tolkien knows the good has a name. There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for. Tolkien knew the name of this good. His name is Jesus.

The only one who is good. The one was entered into suffering, entered into death, the one who left his home to be with us so we wouldn't walk alone. And there is some good in this world. And it's worth fighting for because you do not walk alone. You trust in him. that he's here now and he will be there at the end. That he is here now and he will be here at the end. And this is the last thing.

We have hope until the end. We have hope until the end. Because there's going to come a moment where... There's going to come a moment in every one of our lives when hope is no longer an option and hope is no longer necessary. That moment will come for every one of us. when we will no longer have hope because in that moment

seeing him face to face in that moment and for all eternity we won't have hope because we'll have him we won't have hope because he'll have us and after all this insecurity after all this not home

after all this walking and living and moving to become the time when hope is gone and all that's left is him and then we can rest because then we will be secure.