Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 06/15/25 Pillar and Foundation: Necessary Teacher

Episode Date: June 14, 2025

Homily from the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. Even when the Bible seems clear, earnest Christians can get it wrong. We need a Church to tell us when we are wrong. The most important revelation of God is His own identity. From the beginning, Christians have needed more than the words of Sacred Scripture to guide them into all truth. We have needed the Holy Spirit leading the Church through error to know the depths of God's identity. Mass Readings from June 15, 2025: Proverbs 8:22-31 Psalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9Romans 5:1-5 John 16:12-15

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.

He reading from the Holy Gospel according to John, chapter 16 verses 12 through 15. Jesus said to his disciples, I have much more to tell you that you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. everything that the Father has is mine. For this reason, I told you,

he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. The gospel of the Lord. You should have a seat. So we're in the midst of this summer series. I call it a summer teaching series in the sense that it is an opportunity to just kind of learn something

that we believe as Catholics about the world and about, well, about the church. Because one of the problems we have, I think it's a problem that we all have is that we hear people say things like, okay, you just said something, you just taught something, you believe something as Catholics, like, is that in the Bible or is that just the church? Like, who teaches that? Is you find that in the Bible or is it just the church?

And that notion of like, oh, just the church is one of those notions that hold us back, who we realize this, we realize the truth is not that the church is optional. It's not that Bible is essential and the church is optional. It's actually both are essential, that both the Bible and the church, are necessary. Another way to say it is we hold fast to both scripture and tradition. And yet, people once again will say things like, well, is that in the Bible? I would say this. Let's make it clear. Every Catholic doctrine, every Catholic dogma has its, it's either implicit or it's explicit in the scriptures. But every Catholic dog, everything Christians believe, we actually need the church

to know exactly what to believe. I mean, people, let's go back, go back, say purgatory. People say, well, the word purgatory isn't in the Bible. Yes, and I would say, you're right. The word purgatory is not in the Bible, but the truth, the reality of purgatory is. Not only in a place like Second Maccabees, chapter 12, where you have Judas Maccabias who says it is a good and righteous thing, a holy thing to pray for the dead.

We realize that if someone's in hell, prayers are no use to them. If they're in heaven, they don't need prayers. There must be some kind of thing that happens to a person where if they're not quite ready for heaven, prayers can help them. And then you go to 1st Corinthians chapter 3. And St. Paul says, be careful how you build.

We all build on the foundation of Jesus, right? None of us earns our way to heaven. We all build on the foundation of Jesus. He says, but be careful how you build because some people will build with wood, straw and hay, other with precious stones, precious metals. And he says, the day of the Lord, that day, what we stand before Jesus,

the day of the Lord will reveal how you've built. And if you have built with wood, wood, straw, hay, it will be burned up. And he even says very killer things. This is 1st, Corinthians chapter 3. He says, it says very clearly, that person will be saved, but only as through fire. So we realize that, yeah, the word purgatory is not in the Bible,

but the truth of purgatory is in the Bible, and we needed the church to be able to explain that to us. Now, okay, that's a, you might say that's a little fringe. What about something all Christians believe? I say, yeah, here's something all Christians believe. In fact, if you don't believe in this thing, you're not a Christian. It's the whole reason we're celebrating today. the Trinity.

I don't know if you know this, but the word Trinity is not in the Bible. No, this is something that every Christian believes, in fact, if you don't believe in the Trinity, you're not a Christian. Every Christian believes in the Trinity, even though the word Trinity is not in the Bible, but the reality, right?

The truth of the Trinity is in the Bible. How do we get this? Well, we get this because we know this. We know that God has revealed himself. That God has revealed, he's revealed himself to everybody in these three ways, right? God revealed himself to us in nature. That you can look at the natural world and you can conclude, if you pay attention, you can conclude that God exists. I mean, it's a simple question, but it's a very powerful question just to ask the question, why is there

something rather than nothing? You can deduce, you can conclude that there must be some kind of creator. You can also deduce that God is one. I think Socrates did that. Here's this pre-Christian, totally pagan philosopher who concluded that looking at the world and using his brain, he concluded not only does God exist, but God is one, but even more. We're so grateful because at some point God does reveal himself. In the Old Testament, God reveals that he's not just, doesn't just exist. He isn't just one. He's also a person, like personal.

He's not the force. And the Old Testament God reveals that he is good. He reveals that he is just. He reveals that he's rational. And then, of course, the third way, God, in the fullness of time, he reveals himself in Jesus. And through the Holy Spirit, he reveals himself through the church. I mean, in fact, we would say this. We say that Jesus is the fullness of God's self-revelation.

In fact, the catechism says like this, the catechism says, Jesus reveals the innermost secret of God. And think about this, God's deepest, brightest secret. Jesus reveals the innermost secret of God. identity of God, and that is that God is in the eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now think about how powerful this is. This is the very nature and identity of God. It's kind of a big deal. And how does Jesus reveal this? Remember, Jesus did not give us a Bible. He gave us the church. And the church gave us the Bible. Even more than that, the church has to,

this church, this church, this Jesus founded, has to have the ability and the authority to infallibly interpret this Bible. Right? Because we talked about this last weekend. that if the church doesn't have the ability and the authority to infallibly interpret this infallible book, then the Bible becomes a worthless book because we can get it wrong, especially when it comes to who God is. Now, I think, let's back up. When it comes to who God is, on the surface, it seems kind of straightforward. And when it comes to who Jesus is, you read the Bible, like, it's so clear. We talked about this at the resurrection, right? Talked about this on Divine Mercy Sunday. What happens? Here's Jesus. He lives. He heals. He teaches. He's amazing.

but then he also suffers and he dies and he arises from the dead. Remember the story of Thomas, that second Sunday after Jesus rose from the dead and he sees Jesus risen, standing right before him and he utters those five words, those five words that can change your life. He says so clearly, my Lord and my God, Jesus is God. Scripture declares that Jesus is God. Done. The question is answered.

Who is Jesus? God. But then, I don't know. if you know anything about church history, then what happens is people start arguing about what that means. If scripture is really, really clear, Jesus is God. But you know, you know the first heresy? The first heresy, one of the first heresies in Christianity was called dosatism.

Docetism completely accepted that Jesus is God, but it denied that he was actually human. In fact, the docitist would believe that he only appeared to have human body. that Jesus only had the illusion of living, of eating, of breathing, of dying. And so what do you mean? What do you do with that? Well, the church had to say, no, Jesus really truly had a human body. Jesus, who is God, had a human body. And the church even pointed to the scripture and said, look, he ate, he drank, he slept,

he grew tired, he said, I thirst, he actually died. The dosatists said, no, no, no. He only appeared to do those things. So here you have two groups of Christians, right? The church and these groups of Christians in the church who are saying two different things. Question, who's the tiebreaker? Because anything you brought, any evidence you brought forth in Scripture

that said, no, Jesus did these things. They would just say, well, he only appeared to do those things. It takes a church with the authority and the ability to infallibly correct error to be able to say, Docetists, in this case, you are wrong. No, scripture's clear. Jesus is God. But yeah, what's that mean?

Doses has got it wrong. The next one was Arianism. There's a guy named Arias, and Arias said, listen, I'm looking at the Bible. And I'm seeing things like where Jesus says, and John's Gospel, he says, the Father's greater than I. Like, oh, that's troubling.

And he says, wait, in the Garden of Githemeny, Jesus says, Father, not my will, but your will be done. So Arias came up with his solution. Aarius's solution was that Jesus is kind of elevated, kind of God-ish, but not really God. And so many people said, Aria seems right. It seems kind of rational looking at what we're looking at the scripture. Okay, Jesus is kind of like a demi-God, but not like God-God, like God, like God is. Who did it take?

It took the church to be able to say, okay, Arias, yes, there are times when Jesus says, the Father is greater than I. but also Jesus in the exact same space says the Father and I are one and so what happened is the church had to say areas you're wrong here's the thing every Christian not just Catholics every Christian who believes that Jesus is fully God and fully man believes that on the authority of the church's interpretation of the word of God now beyond there another one was Apolline the last heresy of the day Apollinarianism Apollinarianus

had this idea that, okay, Jesus is fully God, fully man, but he only had a divine mind. You might think, well, that, what's, who cares? That's splitting hairs. That Jesus would get fully God, fully man, but only had a divine mind, didn't have a human mind. And the church wrestled with that and said, wait, Paulinarians, you have to realize that Luke's gospel said

that Jesus grew in wisdom and grace before God and men. So he had a grow in wisdom, which means he must have had a human mind. The letters to the Hebrews says that Jesus was a high priest who can sympathize with us in every way. So you must have had all the same things that we have. In fact, the Catholic Church had to say that, no, no, wait, stop. Jesus had a human mind, a human body, and a human soul. I mean, again, this could be one of those situations where you think, why would anyone argue about this?

I mean, look very, very clearly at the opening words of John's gospel. What does John say? He says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Later on in that same chapter, he says, and then the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It seems so, so clear, but it needed the Church to be able to tell us that, yes, here's Jesus, who is God and is with God. and in some mysterious way, right, the son is with the father. And he did have a human body.

He did have a human mind. It did have a human soul. St. Gregory of Nazanzus, he said it like this. He said, why is that important? He said, because whatever is not assumed is not redeemed. That if Jesus doesn't have a human body, then our human body is not redeemed. If Jesus doesn't have a human mind, then our minds are not redeemed. And if Jesus doesn't have a human soul, then our souls are not redeemed.

Whatever was not assumed was not redeemed. So it's so important for every one of us to get the identity of Jesus right. And without the church, people got it wrong. Now, this is the crazy thing. Today is Trinity Sunday. Remember, the innermost secret of God. God is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And you can say, like, you can look at the Bible and see all these hints at the Trinity.

You can even see explicit, explain the Trinity. Genesis chapter 1. The first page of the Bible, the first lines of the Bible have what, has, we hear's the spirit hovering over the waters. Then you have God speaking and the word that's spoken. And people look back after the Noah about Jesus. They say, oh my gosh, that's like the Trinity in the first two lines of scripture. The spirit, God, the Father speaking, the word, the son being spoken.

Incredible. Then you have today's gospel, John 16, where Jesus says, Jesus, who is God, says, I'm going to send you the Spirit of Truth. He'll guide you to all truth. He also references the Father. Everything the Father has is mine. I'm giving it to you. Trinity, once again, second reading today, Romans chapter 5, where Jesus get, or St. Paul makes it clear,

the love of God is importing into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. I think one of the most clear moments in Scripture where the Holy Trinity is named is at the very end of Matthew's Gospel, Matthew chapter 28, where Jesus says, all power in heaven and earth has been given to me, go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. you could look at the Bible and say, this is so clear. And yet, when it comes to the Trinity, when it comes to the very nature of God,

when it comes to the most important question about who God is, so many people got it so, so wrong. So how do we know that God is an eternal exchange of devil? How do we know that what Jesus revealed is that God is one being yet three persons? Well, we know this because in the Council of Nicaa in the year 325, the Catholic Church came together and said, oh, listen, Jesus is fully God and fully man. Didn't just appear to be man. He is fully man. He didn't just have a human, human body.

He had a human soul and human mind. And then in 381, the Council of Constantinople, the church made it very, very clear. No, no. Listen, Jesus is God from God, light from light, true God from true God. It talks about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and with the Son. It says, with the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified. You guys, every time we stand up, we're doing it in just a second, every time we stand up and say the Nicene Creed, that is the Nicaeo-Constatian-Napolitan Creed, is from the Council of Nicaea in 325 and Council of Constance-O'Lopla, 3-81, where the church came together and said, no, this is the proper and only interpretation of Scripture when it comes to God's very

identity. The God is one. He is one divine being and three divine persons. Another way to say it is, He is one what and three who's. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God. At the same time, the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. You know, I think this is so important for us. On Trinity Sunday, it's so important for us to remember the Church is not optional. It's not, is that in the Bible or is that just the Church? Remember, Jesus did not give us a Bible.

Jesus gave us the Church. and through the church you've been given the Bible. And then Jesus further gave the spirit to the church who will lead the church and guide the church into all truth, gave the church the authority and the ability to teach to interpret the Bible and not just in what we might consider small things, but in this most important of things, this biggest thing, to know the very identity of God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to know the very heart of God, that these three persons and one divine being. And in order to know that, the most important thing any of us could ever know, we don't just need the Bible. We need the church. To know that truth, we need what is called the pillar and the foundation of truth.