Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 06/08/25 Pillar and Foundation: Infallible Teacher

Episode Date: June 7, 2025

Homily from Pentecost Sunday. Without an infallible Teacher, an infallible Book is a worthless book. The Church is messy. But it is also holy. And has been given the ability and the authority of Jesus to teach. Even in the midst of the brokenness of the human element of the Church, the Church is still the Infallible Teacher of Divine Revelation. Mass Readings from June 7, 2025: Acts 2:1-11 Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 341 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13 John 20:19-23

Welcome to Sunday homilies with me, Father Mike Schmitz. I hope today's homily inspires and motivates you, and I also hope that it leaves you hungry for the one who gave everything to feed you. If you want to get this in other Sunday Mass resources sent straight to your inbox, sign up at ascensionpress.com slash Sunday, or by texting Sunday to 33777. You can also follow or subscribe on your podcast app for weekly notifications. God bless. The Lord be with you.

with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John. Lord. Chapter 20, verses 19 through 23. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, Peace be with you.

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. as the Father has sent me, so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.

The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. You should have a seat. So when I was a kid, my mom had this news clipping. Have you guys, you don't, okay, interaction. Have you guys known who Dear Abby is? So, okay, one person. So they used to be like,

they used to be these things called newspapers. And in newspapers, people would write in to a columnist. Her name is Abigail Van Buren, so Dear Abby. And they'd write in with all of their problems, their questions. And it was kind of one of those, I'm having a tough time at work, they're gossiping, what should I do? Or having a tough time with my husband, what should I do? At one point, and she'd, Dear Abby, she'd write back.

At one point, someone wrote in and asked, Dear Abby, Dear Abby, who founded the world's religion? and when. And so, do you have you went through the whole list? And my mom had cut this out because she thought it was pretty important and pinned it up on the cork board,

like on the little thing, and it'll pin in it. So growing up, I saw this with my own eyes almost every day. And it was like, you know, so Confucius founded Confucianism and Buddha founded Buddhism, etc. Moses founded Abraham, founded Judaism.

And then it said, the Roman Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ, 33 AD. And I'm like, yeah, that's nice. And Martin Luther, I found a Lutheranism, and John Calvin. And it was one of those situations where even actually, so Dear Abby was back in the day, now you can ask Siri. And you ask Syria who founded the Catholic Church.

And Siri will tell you, if it's still accurate, it will tell you that Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church. And this is one of the things, you know, we just started a couple weeks ago. We started this summer series. It's kind of like a, as I mentioned last week, it's kind of like a teaching series more than anything else, just wanting to get this content. Because one of the realities is the big question we come back to again and again. with people, maybe even in our own hearts, we have that question that says, okay, wait,

does the Bible teach that or is that just the church? And we can see sometimes the church as if it's optional. We all love the Bible, hopefully every one of us loves the Bible and recognize that the Bible is the Word of God, absolutely, totally. But we sometimes can think that the church is merely optional. Or, maybe even worse, that the church is just another example of man-made religion. And yet, we're going to talk about this in maybe two weeks for now. The opposite of man-made religion is what Dear Abbey said and what Siri says,

which is, no, actually Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, founded the Catholic Church. So just to reiterate this, virtually every other world religion is exactly that. It is a man-made religion. The only religion that can claim that it is the opposite of man-made religion. but actually God divinely instituted is the Catholic Church. Jesus in Matthew chapter 16. We're going to talk about this. I think in three weeks.

He says, you're Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church. And today, the Feast of Pentecost, this is known as the birthday of the church. I think it's safe to say this. Again, we hold up the Bible and we honor the Bible. The Bible is the word of God. It's infallible. The infallible word of God. This Bible is true and it's given to us, we talked about last week.

It's been given to us by the church. We have to understand this. It's safe to say that Jesus didn't give us a Bible. Jesus gave us a church. And through the power working of the Holy Spirit, the church gave us the Bible. And we need both. We absolutely need both because without both, I would say this, without both this Bible, this book,

could potentially end up becoming a worthless book. We need the church. No, but at the same time, I understand the attraction. I understand the attraction of just having just the Bible. I understand the attraction of just, like, I guess we realize that you have the Bible's power. The Bible is able, the Word of God is able to pierce through joints and marrow. The Word of God comes forth from the Lord and doesn't return to him without bearing some kind of fruit. We know that the Bible, the Word of God has the power to convict, has the power to reprove,

has the power to lead to truth. But also, let's just be honest, in a certain sense, if you just have the Bible, it's kind of safe. There's, I mean, just in the sense of this, in the sense that, okay, the Bible says what it says. And you can study it, you can handle it. And if you want to, you can put it back on the shelf. If you want to, you could say, well, you know, I think X about this topic because the Bible doesn't say anything about it. And in a certain sense, the Bible's safe.

It doesn't invade my life and say, okay, yeah, but right now, in this year, in this moment, in this big question of life, you have to do X. It doesn't do that always. In some ways, it's non-invasive. in some ways you can keep it at arm's length. And the problem is this. The problem is the church is too close. I think the problem is the church is too invasive.

I think that in some ways the church is too dynamic, meaning it continues to grow, it continues to interact with life. And in some ways, if we're going to be honest, the church is too messy. And just look at the history of the church, 2,000 years of here is Pentecost. And so you know the church has, born out of the Holy Spirit, but also we realize that in the history of the church, people

have done bad things. In the history of the church, people even with positions of authority in the church, have done horrible things, not just ancient past, even in the recent past. I think I have some friends who are from Ireland and some friends who now are living in Ireland, and they just told me about what it's like to be a Catholic in Ireland right now. It's really, really difficult. That's something like 10 to 15 years ago. 90 plus percent of people went to Mass on Sunday. And now that number is completely flipped, or only 10% of the population in Ireland,

in a decade or more, goes to mass. And they do that, why? They do that because of the actions of some priests in the country of Ireland and in our country, in other countries around the world, who hurt people. I mean, even think about right now with the scandals of the...

the church in our day and age, in this country. I mean, anytime you want to try to make a moral stance, anytime, like I find myself trying to say, okay, but here's what the church teaches, people will bring up the recent past, and that's real. They'll bring up scandals, and that's real. Those are real. But I think this is interesting, and this is not trying to make an excuse for anything, not at all. But I would say this, I would say that virtually all of the charges leveled against the church, all the charges leveled against those people who have done horrible, horrible things, you could also say that virtually all of them, maybe even every one of them, at the time they were doing those horrible things, they were failing to live up to the teachings of the church.

What I mean by that is the church continued to be on the path towards holiness. The church continued to be on the path towards the truth. Remember, we talked about this last week, this whole series is called pillar and foundation. Because why? Because the church is the pillar and foundation of truth. It was certain members in the church. that failed to live up to the truth, that failed to live out the truth. And in doing so, in a devastating way, hurt so many people. And yet here we are. I mean, this is the crazy thing.

Here we are still called to trust the church. Here we are still called to trust the church that's both holy and human. And it's really, really tough, but we're still called to this. And I say, again, sometimes we look and think, well, man, it would have been much easier. here's Pentecost, the birthday of the church. It would have been much easier to trust those folks back then. I don't know if you've read this. You know, we spent all Easter reading Acts of the Apostles.

And there was one moment we were reading Acts of the Apostles here in this chapel a bunch of weeks ago. Is Acts Chapter 4. And something just struck me by this. And I was like, wow, this is interesting. Because how many people want to go back to the early church? I want to just have that purity of belief. It says in Acts chapter 4, verse 34 and 35, it says this.

It says, the community of believers was of one heart and one mind. No one claimed any of his possessions as his own. They had everything in common. Said with great power, the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded to all of them. Now, here's the next line that I was like, this is weird, not weird, this is challenging. It said this, there was no needy person among them. For those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale,

and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need. And again, I've read that, I don't know how many times. but at one point I just thought like wait that's a lot of trust now imagine selling your property and saying okay here's sell the money here apostles do whatever you want with it and I would say maybe I trust John with that maybe I trust Matthew he seems pretty like you know orderly but you'd be able to be one of those early believers and say wait a day wasn't wasn't the person who used to manage your finances what was his name again oh Judas that's right so are you guys really trustworthy when it comes to like, I'm really going to sell all my property, give you all the money,

just trusting that you're going to do what's right with it? Didn't, like, the whole leader of the whole deal, Peter, didn't he like crack under pressure at the night when Jesus was denied and betrayed and abandoned? Like, the reality, of course, the church has always been messy. And the call has always been and yet trust the church. Not because the church. Not because the church, church is the smartest, not just the church is the best, but because the Holy Spirit has been given to the church. So the church is holy. And at the same time, of course, the church is also human. But we have to understand. We remember, but if you want to get close to Jesus, we need his church. We mentioned last week, we mentioned that it was a church that gave us the Bible, right?

That Jesus didn't give us the Bible. He gave us the church and the church gave us the Bible. So what do people do in the meantime? Well, I think it's fascinating because we have 1st Corinthians chapter 12 today as the second reading and talks about the body. Now, when he's talking about the body, he's talking about the church. But 1st Corinthians chapter 12 later on, verses 27-29, it says this, now you are Christ's body and individually parts of it. So you're part of the church.

That's what he's talking about. And some people, God has designated in the church to be first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then mighty deeds, then gifts of healing, assistance, administration, and varieties of tongues. And one of the things that Paul is saying is like, okay, how do you get holy? You trust the church. God gave apostles and prophets and teachers and administrators and varieties of tongues and gifts to the church

so that as long as you stay in the church, you're going to get closer to the Lord. Because Jesus didn't give us a Bible. He gave us a church. And the church has given us the Bible. You know, it's fascinating. There's a man of Ignatius of Antioch. He was killed in the year 107.

But he's a number of letters, as he's on his way, being led through the Mediterranean area to Rome to be killed, he wrote a number of letters. And in those letters, it's so, it's fascinating because Ignatius of Antioch was a disciple of Polycarp, who's a disciple of St. John, the Beloved, right? So he's very, very closely connected to the apostles. And what he's teaching is remarkable. I at one point, especially when it comes to the church. At one point, Ignatius of Antioch said this, he said, he was talking about the structure

of the church. like Paul was talking about apostles and prophets, etc. Here's Ignatius, to the Smyrneans in year 107. He says, in like manner, let all reverence the deacons as an appointment of Jesus Christ and the bishop as Jesus Christ, who is the son of the father and the presbyters, like the priests as the Sanhedron of God, the assembly of the apostles. Apart from these, there is no church. So even already in the very, very beginning, here is St. Ignatius of Antioch,

who's saying that, okay, if you separate yourself from the bishop, you separate yourself from priests, you separate yourself from the deacons. Apart from these, there is no such thing as a church. That for the first thousand years, first 1,500 years of the church, there was no even idea that the church was this kind of invisible spiritual reality. But for the first 1,500 years of Christianity, the church was tangible, and the church had the authority to teach. It had the authority, this is the last thing,

the church had the authority and the power by the Holy Spirit to teach. Why? Because, think about this book. Think about all the time that went into, I mean, when I'm being, my time that went into giving us this book, you're God. Again, we believe this is the inspired word of God.

These are the words of God written in the words of men. Imagine your God. Some of you, you've already done that already today. Imagine your God. And you want people to know who you are. Like actually, it's a desire of your heart because you want the people on this earth that you love. You made it your image and likeness.

You want them to know your heart. You want them to know who they are. You want them to know how much you love them. You want them to know your plan for their life. And so what do you do? I mean, you start with Moses or Abraham, even back, way way back in the day. And you begin slowly revealing yourself.

And as people are starting writing things down, you're guiding that writing. You're inspiring it by your power. Your Holy Spirit's already working. In the fullness of time, you send your only son, Jesus. And he reveals the fullness of God. And people start writing about him. And this whole time, as they're writing,

you're making sure you're preserving that writing from all error. It is completely and totally true. And then when it comes to compiling the Bible, because you want people to know who you are. It's very, very important to you. And so the next 300-plus years, you guide your church to assemble these 73 books. Why?

because not only have you preserved them from all error, but because it's so important to you as God that your people know exactly who you are. So here is this infallible word, this infallible book. Here's the question. If you're God, and it's so important that people get your identity right, so much so that over the course of thousands of years, you put a lot of effort into creating this book

and preserving it from all error. What's the likelihood of saying, okay, I'm God, I made this infallible book, Now, here you go. Take a read and tell me what you think. Imagine going to all the trouble of making an infallible book, but the not giving an infallible interpreter. Because we realize this, we realized that the Bible is an infallible book.

It is without error. We also realize that an infallible book without an infallible interpreter is ultimately a useless book. Because you as God, you might have gone through all this trouble making sure that only those things that you wanted people to know about you were collected. But if then anyone could just read it and come to any different conclusion about you, well, then it'd be a pretty useless book. Once again, an infallible book without an infallible interpreter is a useless book.

But here's the great news. The great news of Pentecost, the great news is that this is the birthday of the church. And the great news is that God did not leave us abandoned. He did not leave us orphans. He not only gave us an infallible book. he gave us an infallible interpreter of the book called the church. And we need it. We need her. In fact, I think G. K. Chesterner is the one who said this. He said,

he said, I don't need a church that can tell me where I'm right. I need a church that will tell me where I'm wrong. And that's the Catholic Church that Jesus himself founded. It is messy, but it's also holy. It is human, but it also has the promise of Jesus. the promise that he would lead it into all truth. So that's what he gave us. He gave us the church as the pillar and foundation of truth.