Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 06/30/24 Raincoats and Umbrellas

Episode Date: June 29, 2024

Homily from the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Sacraments are God's presence and power...do we let them change us? We continually come into contact with the living God in the Sacraments. But we often leave our encounter with the Sacraments the same as when we arrived. If we are open to what God wants, we are surrendering to His will. Mass Readings from June 30, 2024: Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24 Psalms 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-132 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15 Mark 5:21-43

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 33777.7. You can also follow or subscribe on your podcast app for weekly notifications. God bless.

The Lord be with you. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark. Chapter 5, verses 21 through 43. When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him and he stayed close to the sea. One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him, he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, My daughter is at the point of death.

Please, come lay hands on her that she may get well and live. So he went off with him, and a large crowd followed him, pressed upon him. There was a woman suffering with hemorrhages for 12 years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped, but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured. Immediately, her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction, Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and said,

Who has touched my clothes? But his disciples said to Jesus, you see how the crowd is pressing around you, yet you ask who touched me. And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.

He said to her, Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction. While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official's house arrived and said, Your daughter has died. Why troubled the teacher any longer?

Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, Do not be afraid. Just have faith. He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.

So he went in and said to them, Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but a son. asleep, and they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child's father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. He took the child by the hand and said to her,

Thelitha Kumi, which means, little girl, I say to you, arise. The girl, a child of 12, arose immediately and walked around. At that they were utterly astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat. the gospel of the Lord. Wait to have a seat. So, I love this time for many, many reasons.

I love it because of green, because coming back to that in just a second, but also because I love this week. This week is one of my favorite weeks leading into Fourth of July, leading into Independence Day, because I would say this, I love a lot of things. I love that I'm from Minnesota.

I love that I'm part of my family. I love that I'm Catholic. I love that I'm an American. I just, there it is, I don't care. Because I love this country. I think this country is remarkable. In fact, one of the things I, and it's not perfect, doesn't have to be perfect. My family's not perfect.

I still love them. Minnesota is perfect, though. That's another thing. But, no, I love this country. And one of the things I love about our country is the way it was founded was from all these people who came from places around the world or they were subjects. Right? They came from Spain.

They were subjects of the crown. They came from England. They were subjects of the crown. They came from all these other parts of the globe. and there were subjects in a kingdom. And they came to this country and they said, okay, we're no longer the king's subjects. We're now something else.

We're now completely different. We're not subjects. And also this other thing, we're not simply residents. We don't simply reside in this geographical region. We're not subjects. We're not really residents. We're citizens.

And there's something about that that just is captivating, I think. Because as a subject, yep, king tells you what to do, do what the queen tells you to do? You do. What the parliament says you? Fine, whatever. As a resident, you're just like, yeah, I happen to live here. I have no real rights.

I have no real responsibilities. I just, I'm a resident. But to be a citizen means that not only do I live here, but I have rights here. Not only do I live here and have rights here, it means I also have responsibilities here. That something is owed to me in some ways, but also something's expected of me.

And I think that's so remarkable because I don't know about you, but I think one of the big temptations for so many of us is I want the title without the responsibility. Like, right, I want the honor without having to do anything about this. I don't know if you've ever been in this place where you wanted to make the team, whatever the team was, because that was the place to be. Or you wanted the letter jacket, and that was a big thing.

I'm not sure if letter jackets are, okay. I want to be able to wear the letter jacket. I don't really care if I get in on the game. I don't really care if where I'm at and the team. I just want to be on the team. Now, I was never like that. I've just heard about people like that. I was way too competitive.

But there's a sense of, I want to have made it. In fact, I just recently heard his podcast where this man, he was a great educator taught at the university. And he loved it. He did really, really well at it. And at one point, they nominated him to be the president of the university. And he almost took the job. But one of his friends was saying, okay, wait, so do you want to be the president?

He's like, I think so. Wait, don't you like teaching? I love teaching. Don't you like being in the classroom? I love being in the classroom. Do you really want to go to all these? meetings? I hate meetings. Do you really want to make all these, I hate these decisions. So they asked him, so why do you want to be the president of the university if you don't like

doing the work of the president? And he said, actually, I just really envisioned my face in the paper and underneath it. It says so-and-so, president. I want the title without the responsibility. I want the honor without having to do anything about it. And again, so often this can be us. that could be where we find ourselves in our country that almost might be, could be where we find ourselves in the church. That's why I said, I love this season. I love this season not only because it's Fourth of July.

I love the green, not because I like the color itself, but green reminds of its ordinary time, right? So I love Lent, of course, preparation for Easter. I love Easter. Celebration of Easter. I love Advent, getting ready for Christmas and I love Christmas, but I love ordinary time because when the priest or the deacon, whoever it is puts on green,

it always reminds me. In ordinary time, green means grow, which basically ultimately means like we don't just show up our temptation so often is to show up to mass and just like I'm punching the card I did it I made it if you made it in the summertime awesome well well done but green means grow which means that I don't just show up to mass and I expect to leave the same way I came here that's that's the thing so often we're here because yeah no it's good to be Catholic we have why fullness of truth

subsisting the Catholic Church I'm Catholic it's amazing but we're not meant to be be residents of the Catholic Church. In many ways, we're not even citizens of the Catholic Church. We are members of the Catholic Church. It means we're members of the body of Christ. And that body, if it's not going to be a dead body, is going to be an alive body. And if that body's in a live body, that means that body has to keep growing. So green means grow. The problem is this. I think too many of us come to Mass. I think too many of us show up for prayer. Maybe some of us go to the other sacraments,

anointing of the sick or confession. And we actually don't expect to be any different after than we were before. And so we don't happen? We walk away, no different than we were after than we were before. I mean, here's the gospel today. Incredible story, two stories about here's Jairus, his wife and their daughter, 12-year-old daughter.

Here's this woman with a hemorrhage for 12 years. And obviously, the scripture is making this connection between these two cases, a 12-year-old girl and a woman who's been suffering for 12 years. But also, this dad, who didn't just know about Jesus, he had faith in Jesus. And this woman with the flow of blood who didn't just hear about Jesus, she had faith in Jesus. And that's what set them apart. Again, go back to the story of the woman with the hemorrhage. Jesus is on his way with Gyrus and said the apostles to go to Gyrus's house to heal

this little girl. And what happens? Scripture says that all the people are jostling around them. They're all grabbing at them. They're all touching him. And yet there's one person who touches him in a unique way. One person doesn't even touch him. She touches the tassel on his cloak. And immediately power flows from him. Pause on this for a second. Everyone in the room, everyone on that street. They're all touching Jesus. He is God for everyone, right? Because he is the Lord of everything. And they're all touching him. Only one person touches him and gets healed. Only one person touches him and is changed. How come? Why?

For the exact same reason that we can go to Mass every Sunday. We can go to Mass every day. It actually received the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus. We could receive the Eucharist. We could go to confession and receive his mercy in a walk away unchanged. What does that mean? Well, why would that happen? Does that mean God's grace wasn't there?

Is that mean that this Eucharist wasn't really as powerful as of the Eucharist? Like, no, that's not what it means. no more than here is Jesus walking through the streets of Copernum and they didn't really touch the real Jesus it wasn't until this woman touched the tassel on this cloak that was the real Jesus no it's the same Jesus how can some people touch Jesus and power flows from and changes their lives

and others touch Jesus the same Lord and they remain unchanged we realize this the sacraments are how God gives us grace these little sacraments 101 right sacraments are a visible sign that gives us, the God communicates to us, invisible grace. But they are not magic. So every time the sacrament is celebrated, God's grace is there.

In the Eucharist, God is truly present. He is there. His very life is poured out in abundance. So if every sacrament works every time, it's a visible sign that communicates invisible grace, but they're not magic, then what's happening? How can you and I touch Jesus and remain unchanged?

Well, I believe that the missing ingredients is faith. That's what it says in scripture. The missing ingredient is faith. Why, Gyrus acts with faith and says, Jesus, come, touch my little girl, heal her. The woman reaches out, touches the tassel of Jesus as cloak with faith, saying, I know if I just touch the tassel of this cloak, I will be healed.

They both acted in faith. Everyone else acted out of interest. Everyone else acted out. I want kind of something. But Jairus and this woman had this trust in the Lord basically saying, God, do whatever it is you want to do with me.

Yes, you guys, here's what we need to know. At every sacrament, as I said before, God's grace is abundant, God's grace is there, he is there. But we remain unchanged. The analogy of the image that comes to my mind is like, how is that possible? How can we actually come into contact with God

remain unchanged? It's a lot like this. You step into your shower and you turn on the faucet. My guess is the water starts running. I don't know if that's how your shower works, but that's how my shower works. That you turn on the faucet and the shower,

the water's coming down. The water is there. That's like God's grace. God's grace is there. Now you can get into that shower and take a shower. Get clean. So you come into contact with the water and you're changed, you're transformed.

You're now new. You're clean. What if you got into the shower wearing a raincoat holding an umbrella? Same water's there. Soap's there. Shampoo's there. But the water can't get access to you.

Why? because you're wearing a raincoat, because you're holding onto an umbrella. The grace is there, the water is there, but it's not able to change you because why? Because the water doesn't have, quote-unquote, permission to change you. How many of us come to the mass? And Christ is truly present. The God who made the universe is placed on our tongue or in our hands, and we walk away unchanged. Not because he wasn't there, but because we have these spiritual raincoats.

We're holding on to these spiritual umbrellas where we say, okay, God, I'm here, but I'm not yours. That's the key. God, I'm here. I'm a resident. But I'm not yours. I'm not a citizen. I'm not a member. The missing ingredient, let's go back to this, the missing ingredient is faith. Here's my invitation for all of us. The invitation is, when we approach the sacraments,

to be able to approach the sacraments with faith. What I mean by that is, like we talked about last weekend, surrender. God, whatever you want to do with me in this moment, you have my permission to do it. God, I know you want to change me. However you want to change me, go ahead and do it. Now, it might be dramatic.

It might be subtle. It might be powerful. It might be almost unnoticeable. But the reality is, every sacrament communicates the grace of God. The sacrament of the Eucharist is unique because it actually communicates he himself. When you guys, when we get to approach,

when we all get to approach our Lord in the Eucharist, how many of us have spiritual raincoats on, how many of us have spiritual umbrellas, where we say, okay, God, I will accept you on my terms. In that case, we are just like the people of the crowds who touched Jesus. They got to touch Jesus. but they were untouched by Jesus today.

The next time you get to go to Mass to resolve, Lord God, I'm not merely going to reach out my hands or open my mouth to touch you. I'm going to give you permission to touch me. I'm going to give you permission to change me. Because green means grow. This is the time to be alive. As a member of Christ, you're a member of a living body

which means you and I have to grow, which means we must never come into contact with the Lord God himself and walk away unchanged. And we will never come into contact with the Lord Jesus Christ and walk away unchanged. If we simply say, as we say amen, God, do with me what you will.

God, change me however you want. God, grow in me or prune in me whatever it is that needs to be grown or pruned. because I'm not merely and you're not merely a resident of the church. You're not even a citizen of the church. You are a member of the body of Christ and that means you're alive. To be alive means we grow and to grow means we must be changed.