Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 09/15/24 The Most Important Question

Episode Date: September 14, 2024

Homily from the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Our answer makes a difference. We are presented today with the single most important question any of us will be asked and all of us will have to answer: who do you say that Jesus is? Mass Readings from September 15, 2024: Isaiah 50:5-9 Psalms 116:1-9James 2:14-18 Mark 8:27-35

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 Mark, chapter 8 verses 27 through 35. Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi, along the way he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am? They said in reply, John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others, one of the prophets. And he asked them, but who do you say that I am? Peter said to him in reply, you are the Christ. Then he warned them,

not to tell anyone about him. He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this, Jesus turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan.

You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do. He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it. The gospel of the Lord. I should have a seat. So this last weekend we had a comedian named Shane Smith, who is a recent Catholic convert.

I'll come to campus. It was hilarious. It was great. It was fun. But, not but. There's no but. And Shane is known not only for his comedy, he's known for his, like, tattoos. He has a lot of tattoos all over himself.

A number of those, he has covered up now because of his conversion to Jesus Christ. But it kind of got me thinking about tattoos and just that question of, here's the question. It's the question that we ask our students. We always have an icebreaker kind of question before mass starts. So the question this weekend is, if you could have one tattoo, what would it be? Only one. Now, typically when you ask the question like that, there's a bunch of different answers, but sometimes they fall into three categories.

The first one is, I don't want one. I don't, I'm never going to have a tattoo. I'm not interested in it. I will not ever have a tattoo. Fine. But the other two categories are this. Either someone who's thought of all of the different kinds of tattoos they could possibly get, that they really have dived into it.

They care about this. And they say, I can't choose just one. In fact, I know a guy like this, not just Shane, but I have a guy I've worked with in various conferences in kind of like youth events. And he is a guy who, I remember one night after, one of the youth events. He needed to go out to a place. We're like, why are we going to this place? Because we went to this place because there was that tattoo parlor next door and he just needed a

tattoo that night. And I thought, was this like something that you've always been dreaming of for years? Nope. It looked, I mean, no offense to him, but it looked kind of like clip art. They just put it himself. And I was like, that's so strange. He's the kind of person who would say, I can't choose just one. The other kind of person is the kind of person who, when you ask him that question, they would say, like, I don't know. I just, I've never thought about it. because it's not even on my radar. Again, I think there's two categories, right? Either those who said, I can't choose us one,

or those, like, I haven't even thought about it. I have no idea. I haven't put any thought into it. Recently, there's this man who, one of his hobbies is he collects people's philosophies of life. And so he has a pretty good, big collection. He's actually shared some of it with me. And these are people from all over the world

and all over, like, different life demographics, from presidents. I think he has a couple from, he has Jimmy, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, maybe more even more of the recent presidents. He has a bunch of entertainers. He has Pope Francis. He actually wrote to Pope Francis, and Pope Francis responded with his philosophy of life.

And he asked me to write mine because clearly his collection is incomplete without my contribution. You can imagine the tragic shallowness of his collection if I don't contribute. Anyways, I sat down and I thought about it, and of course I'm honored that he. even asked. But I have no idea. I've thought about it many, many times.

And I don't even know where to start. Like, if you had to choose a philosophy of life or to write out a philosophy of life and just pick one, I don't know where to begin. I can't, I can't, not just can't choose one. I don't, I don't know how to, how do you start getting to a place of this? That's a good, but it's a good question. What is your philosophy of life? So there's another question, though, because you can never get a tattoo and that's fine, and you might not ever find your philosophy of life.

But there is a question that every one of us has been answered and every one of us needs to answer. And that question is in the gospel. In the gospel, there's two questions. One is, who do people say that I am? Jesus asks the question, who do people say son of man is? That's an important question, but it's not that important. It's like taking a poll. What do people think?

The important question, and I would maintain that this is, the most important question in the world is, who do you say that Jesus is? This is a question that we can't avoid. In fact, we might say, well, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to answer the question. But you have to. We have to. Life forces us and death forces us to answer the question, who do you say that Jesus is? And again, we can fall into two camps. One is, well, I can't choose. Do I have to choose just Jesus? Can I choose a bunch of different people? Can I choose a bunch of different religious systems? I appreciate Jesus, but do I have to choose just one?

The other question, or the other category we could fall into, is, I don't know. If you want to ask the question, who do you say Jesus is? I haven't really thought about it. And that's understandable. That makes sense up to a point, because at some point each of us has to actually answer that question. Who do you say that Jesus is? And as I said, I would maintain that this is the most important question any of us will ever be asked and the most important question any of us can ever possibly answer.

Because yes, of course, there are other religions. There's other founders of religions. But Jesus is unique. Like every other founder of a religion either claims one of two things. Either they claim to have insight into God or they claim to have a revelation from God. But Jesus doesn't just claim to have insight into God or have a revelation from God. Jesus actually claims to be God. And so we can't just say that, oh, yeah, Jesus is one among many.

I'll choose a bunch of tattoos. In fact, C.S. Lewis, in a mere Christianity, he says it like this. He says, I'm trying. He says, basically you can't say that Jesus is not God and a good person. Here's this quote. He says, I'm trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus, that I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim as God.

That's the one thing we must not say. Why? Because he claimed to be God. and if he claimed to be God and wasn't God, either he didn't know he wasn't God, in which case he was detached from reality, he was insane, or he knew he wasn't God when he claimed to be God and he was lying. The only other option is that he is God. So again, this is the question of ultimate importance.

In fact, again, C.S. Lewis talking about this, said that when it comes to Christianity, when it comes to this question, who do you say that Jesus is? He says it like this. He says, Christianity, if false is of no importance, if true is of infinite importance, the only thing that cannot be, is moderately important. This question, and your answer and my answer, is of infinite importance. So here's the question.

What do we say? What do we say? What do we say? And I would say this, before we answer anything, before we say, well, I believe X, we have to be reminded that the only reason to believe anything is because it's true. Right?

The only real reason to believe anything is because it is true. Not because it makes me behave good or because it makes me feel good. If that was true, then we'd all still believe in Chris Kringle, but we don't. The only reason to believe anything is because it's true. And so the only reason to believe something is true is if there's evidence. And here's the crazy thing about Jesus. There is a massive amount of evidence that points to the belief that you and I could actually say in answer to the question, who do you say Jesus is? We could say Jesus is God. In fact,

the Catholic Church, points to two sources of evidence. There's others, but two sources. One is prophecies, the other is miracles. And we have one of those prophecies today. Right, the first reading today is Isaiah chapter 50. What does Isaiah chapter 50 say? It says, I gave my back to those who beat me. My cheeks to those who plucked my beard. My face I did not hide from insults and spitting. Therefore I'm not disgraced. It goes on. Chapter 50 goes into chapter 52 and 53. 52 goes on, it's remarkable. It says, many were amazed at him. So marred was his look beyond that of man. Verse, chapter 53, he grew up like a sapling before him, and there wasn't in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him. He was spurned and avoided

by men, a man of suffering accustomed to infirmity. Goes on, but it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole by his stripes, we were healed. This is a picture of Jesus, this suffering servant. Now, this picture of Jesus as being prophesied in the book of Isaiah in the year 600 BC was so critically clear, was so, so exact and precise, that modern theologians, who were kind of like off of center, not orthodox theologians, said, well, Isaiah must have been. been redacted. Isaiah must have been edited. This is too close of a description of Jesus,

the suffering servant, that Christians must have gotten a hold of these texts about the book of the prophet Isaiah and must have inserted these lines. Now, the amazing thing is in 1947, there was a big discovery in Israel. It was called the Dead Sea Scrolls. And the Dead Sea Scrolls date back to before the time of Jesus. And the Dead Sea Scrolls, if you go to Jerusalem, You can go to a museum called the Shrine of the Book. And you can actually see a replica of what they found in 1947, dating back to before the time of Jesus. They have the entire scroll of the book of the Prophet Isaiah.

I have a friend. He's an Israeli guide, and he speaks Jewish. He writes Jewish. He reads Hebrew and reads in Hebrew. And he says, yeah, I can walk around. I can see this entire scroll of the book of the Prophet Isaiah. And every single word that is in your Bible is in this scroll. dating back to before the time of Jesus.

So this was not added in later on. In fact, even look at all the other prophecies. Another one, in Psalm 22, it says, they have torn holes in my hands and in my feet. I can count all my bones. Almost a clear description of crucifixion. Well, crucifixion, Psalm 22 was written in 1000 BC. Crucifixion wasn't invented for another 400 years.

It didn't come to the Romans until another 700 years. And so there's these prophecies that are remarkable. In fact, if you go through the whole Old Testament, there's roughly about 33 prophecies of the Messiah. They're what they call 70 major prophecies. Jesus fulfills every single one of them, which is remarkable and blows the mind. Now, I've heard this, maybe you've shared this before,

but I've seen people do the math, and they've said, okay, there are 33 prophecies, 70 major prophecies that Jesus fulfills. What are the chances? What's the likelihood of one person fulfilling all 33 or even all 70? Well, so mathematicians have said, okay, what if he just fulfilled eight? What's the likelihood of one person fulfilling eight of these Old Testament prophecies that Jesus fulfills? Remember, he fulfills all 33. What if one person fulfilled just eight?

They said, the likelihood, the odds of one person fulfilling all eight prophecies will be one in 10 to the 17th power. So we write, that's one in 10 with 17 zeros after this, which are our minds we have no idea what that means. I mean, I have no idea what that means. I have no idea. I can't calculate. I can't wrap my mind around the odds of that.

And so, again, people have described this. And it's just such a great visual. Imagine the state of Texas. The state of Texas, to drive across Texas, east-west, would take you about 14 hours. To drive across Texas, north to south, take you maybe 15 to 17 hours. So Texas is a very big state. If you were to take silver dollars and cover the entire state of Texas in silver dollars just completely, you can't see Texas anymore.

All you see is silver dollars, silver dollars. You were and you were to stack up those silver dollars across the entire state of Texas two feet high. Then you were to take one of those silver dollars at random and draw a little mark on it, little axe on it, and randomly throw it into the state of Texas and ask someone, blindfold them, and have them walk out into Texas, and then at random, pick one silver dollar for that silver dollar to actually be the one that they chose. Is the X? That would be, the chances are, one in 10 to the 17th power. That's the chances, that's the likelihood of one person fulfilling just eight of these prophecies. Jesus fulfills all 333 of these prophecies. It's incredible. We have

evidence to believe that Jesus is who he says he is, and Jesus says He's God. No, that's prophecies. There's so many more, but there's also miracles. And we can talk about all the miracles of Jesus that were tested to by people who saw him with their own eyes, but there's one great miracle that we can't get away from. And that's the fact that here is Jesus in the gospel today. And he says, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to go to Jerusalem.

I'll be handed over by the scribes and the Pharisees, the elders, chief priests. Be beaten, I'll be killed, and then rise on the three days. on the third day. And what happens? Obviously, we already know this. We know that Peter said, God forbid, Lord, that ever happened to you. He's definitely opposed to this because it is shocking, it is scandalous, it's horrible. But that's what happens.

That Jesus goes to Jerusalem and he is betrayed and he is denied and he's abandoned and he's arrested and he's falsely accused and he's killed. And then on the third day he rises from the third. the dead. Now, this is the resurrection. I've heard it said, and it's true, the resurrection is one of the most well attested to single events in ancient history. That we have records of people who said, no, I saw him die, and then I saw him alive. That's everyone from the group of the women who said, no, they saw him on Easter morning. They saw either saw the empty tomb or Mary Magdalene who actually saw Jesus face to face in the garden. You have the seven at the Sea of

Galilee, right? Remember Peter's like, I'm going fishing? And then the other six people say, we'll go with you. And Jesus on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, you have the 12 on Easter day and then the next day, and the next Sunday. Over the course of 40 days, Jesus appears not only to those 12 and other disciples, at one point, St. Paul writes about this. He says, at one point, Jesus appeared to over 500 people at once. These people who saw the resurrected Jesus were able to touch him with their own hands. And of course, even Paul. Paul would an incredible example of someone who said, he was a persecutor of Christians, right? He was someone who hated the very name of Christian, hated the name of Jesus. But then he met Jesus. He saw him risen and living after his death.

Again, that's just a small, small example of the fact that there is evidence. But as Josh McDowell says, that evidence demands a verdict. The question, who do you say that Jesus, is. Well, the evidence says that Jesus is who he says he is. The evidence points to the reality that Jesus is God. And so, there are reasons. The reasons to believe this. The reasons to say that my answer is Jesus is God. Now, I imagine a lot of us would say, like, well, I don't want to say. I'd rather not say. Why? Well, a lot of us here, because we're Minnesotans and we don't like to commit to a lot of things and we don't like to cause any, ruffle any feathers. We don't like to like stick out any very much. But if someone put you on the spot and said, but you, who do you say that Jesus is?

What would your answer be? There is evidence to say it's reasonable and justifiable and actually very intelligent to say that Jesus actually is who he says he is. But here's the crazy thing. your answer makes a difference. If I say that Jesus is not who he says he is, okay, that's your answer. No, I have to live like that. And if I say Jesus is who he says he is, Jesus is God,

that answer has to make a difference. I have to live like that. You know, we know, obviously there's times when our opinions or our answers of whatever question, it stays right there, just our opinion. But there are times when our belief makes a difference, when our answer changes things.

I mean, once again, let's go back to the Apostone. Here is Peter in the scene in the gospel today. Unable, incapable of imagining a Jesus in front of him, his friend, his rabbi, being killed, but that not being the end. And what happens? As Jesus is being killed, Peter runs away. He is afraid.

He is timid. After Christ has died, he's broken. But then what happens? After the resurrection and Jesus' proves that he is who he says he is, not only is Peter changed. Not only does it make a difference in Peter's life. It makes a difference in the lives of all of the apostles. They were, they were afraid, and now they're courageous. They were timid and now they're bold. They were broken and now they're restored. Every single one of them is restored. Because why? Because our answer makes a

difference. Your answer, if you were to say, I believe Jesus is God that actually makes a difference. James talks about that in the second meeting today. James says, what good is it? If your answer is Jesus is God, but it doesn't make a difference in your life. What good is it if you say that Jesus is Lord? That's my answer. But you don't live like Jesus is Lord. Because we know this, right? There has to be a connection between what I say and what I do.

There has to be a connection between what I believe and how I act. We all know this. We all know that Christians are accused of being hypocrites, right? We're accused of saying one thing but acting another way. We're accused of being the kind of people who are two-faced in that sense that we claim to believe something, but we don't live that out. and that makes sense. No, there's a big difference between being a hypocrite and being weak.

I mean, I think a lot of us are just weak, right? A lot of us are like, no, I really do believe Jesus is Lord. I do believe that he has a claim on my life. And sometimes in my weakness, I don't live like that. That's not the same thing as being a hypocrite. That's just being weak. Being a human is, being a hypocrite is, I'll say I believe.

From only giving lip service to that belief, faith, as James says, is I believe and so I live. Faith truly is belief that makes a difference. So here's the question, does your faith make a difference? What's your answer, right? That's the question. Who do you say that I am? And the next question is, does that make a difference?

I think a lot of us, we already have kind of like written off choosing Christ because, well, it doesn't seem reasonable, doesn't seem reasonable, doesn't seem, true. You know, what G. K. Chesterton once said, he said this, he said, the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried. Which makes sense. We heard the rest of the gospel today, right? Jesus didn't say that if you believe that I am Lord, you have an easy life. He said, if you want to be my disciple, if your answer to the question, who do you say that I am is you are the Lord, you have a claim on my life, then what do we do? Well, we'll do three things.

as disciples to deny ourselves, to pick up our cross, and to follow after Jesus. If Jesus was trying to get as many followers as possible, he's a very bad salesman for what it is to be his disciple. He's a very bad salesman of what it is to be his friend. But he's not just trying to get as many as possible. He's trying to be as honest as possible. And so we have to be as well. Who do you say that Jesus is? What is your answer? and then to live out that answer is to do nothing less than take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Jesus. And that, you guys, that is not a recipe for unhappiness.

We realize this, that this is the last thing. That when we know this and we do this, yes, it is difficult. In fact, we might even say it's impossible without grace. I would say it's impossible without grace. But it's necessary. It's not just necessary for salvation. It's necessary for happiness. And what I mean about that is, if you have an answer and I have an answer, I know Jesus is God.

And I don't live like that. That is a recipe for unhappiness. There's a man named Arthur Brooks. He is an author and a professor at Harvard. He goes around and teaches all over the place. But in his work on happiness, he said this. He said, the basis of unhappiness, this is Arthur Brooks. He said, the basis of unhappiness is not living in accord with your own morals.

basically saying, oh, I know my answer, here's my answer. I'm not going to live like that. Here's my answer, but it doesn't make a difference in my life. He says, the basis of unhappiness is not living in accord with your morals. He says, it's so incredibly empowering when I talk to a young man or a young woman. And I say, what do you think is a decent way to treat a member of the opposite sex? And they'll tell me. And then I'll say, are you acting according to that?

And they're like, no. And I say, that's why you're unhappy. He was on to say that the concept of sin in almost every religious tradition is not merely offending God, but it's also hurting yourself. That sin is self-destructive behavior. That you're doing something not in accord with the way you want to live, and so in doing that, you're weakening yourself. So, there was a important question.

Who do you say that Jesus is? There is evidence. There's a reason to be able to say he is who he says he is. but saying that has to make a difference. Last question. It has to make a difference. Where? And when?

And I would say it has to make a difference here and Monday. Meaning that if I say my answer is Jesus is the Lord, Jesus is God, then it doesn't make a difference. Yep, when I graduate, that's when it's going to make a difference. It doesn't make a difference. Okay, now I have the kids that get baptized. so that now it makes a difference. Or now I retire, now I'm getting ready for death,

now it has to make a difference. It makes a difference Monday. Because that's what life is, right? Life is just a bunch of Mondays strung together. And if Jesus being God can make a difference in my Monday, that he'll make a difference in my entire life. If your answer to the question, who do you say that Jesus is,

makes a difference on any normal day, then it'll make all the difference. for all of your days.