Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 11/12/23 Based On a True Story: Kakangelion

Episode Date: November 11, 2023

To join in the mission of bulldogCatholic through this year's Give to the Max campaign, please donate here: https://www.givemn.org/organization/Newman-Catholic-Campus-Ministries-At-Umd Homily from the Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time. There's good news and there's bad news. We have heard the first part (Act One) of the Good News. But before we can move forward, we need to be aware of and understand why things are so broken. Before anything else, we need the bad news. Mass Readings from November 12, 2023: Wisdom 6:12-16 Psalms 63:2-81 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Matthew 25:1-13

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz. You know, years ago, back in 2007, we started this homily podcast every single week as an opportunity to extend the ministry that we do up here at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, the Newman Center, Bulldog Catholic, were called to our students who had graduated, our students over summer break, over Christmas break. And then, now since then, here we are in 2023 to the world or to whoever, whoever wants to listen to these homilies. We are so grateful that I'm so grateful that you have,

listen to these homilies. Hopefully they're a blessing to you. And they are truly an extension of our ministry up here at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, at the Newman Center, Bulldog Catholic. If you're interested, I'd say this, if you've been blessed by these homilies, if they have touched your life, if they've offered you some kind of support, some kind of solace, some kind of direction in your life, if they've helped you get closer to the Lord, or maybe they're the kind of thing that you've passed them on to your children or your grandchildren, maybe you pass them on to siblings or your parents, and they've helped them, if this ministry has blessed you, in any way, I would just ask you, invite you, to consider blessing this ministry.

On November 16th, that's this upcoming November 16th, it's a Thursday. There's a thing here in Minnesota called give it to the max day. And basically what that is is an opportunity. It's kind of the one day of the year that we ask people who have been blessed by our ministry to, I don't want to say return the favor, but to consider a financial offering. Now, yes, we have other things going on and bigger projects that are going to be happening in the next couple months and years. but this is kind of for the ongoing ministry of reaching out to evangelize college students on the campus up here in Duluth, actually multiple campuses up here in Duluth.

If you're interested at all, you can follow the link in the notes. You can go to bold dot catholic.org. You could go to givemn.org, that's give minnesota.org. And you can just find Newman Catholic Campus Ministries at UMD and you could donate. It would be an incredible blessing for us. Again, go to bulldogcatholic.org or go to givemn.org. Either place has a link to donate. It would be incredible.

We also have, we'll have a live streaming kind of situation on November 16th that Thursday at 7 p.m. Central Time. If you want to go online, you can go to like Ascension Presents. I believe that's where it's going to be hosted. Go online at 7 o'clock Central Standard Time on November 16th. There will be an opportunity for Q&A.

If you have any questions, maybe it's a Bible in a year question, maybe it's a Catechism in your question. Maybe it's a homily question. Maybe it's just a you question. Just feel free. You are invited to join us. on November 16th at 7 p.m.

All that day, though, we will have the opportunity to not only give, but also we have, once again, I think this might be the third year in a row, we have someone who's willing to match your gift up to a quarter of a million dollars, $250,000, which again, gets us reaching out to as many college students as we possibly can, and by extension, reaching out to people across the country and around the world. Please keep us in your prayers, and please consider supporting us Thursday, November 16th. God bless. The Lord be with you.

He reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Chapter 25, verses 1 through 13. Jesus told his disciples this parable. The kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The foolish ones when taking their lamps brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps. Since the bridegroom was long delayed, they all became drowsy and fell as sleep.

At midnight there was a cry. Behold the bridegroom. Come out to meet him. Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise ones replied, no, for there may not be enough for us and for you. Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves. Well, they went off to buy it. The bridegroom came, and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him. Then the door was locked. Afterwards, the other virgins came and said, Lord, Lord, open the door for us. But he said and replied, amen, I say to you, I do not know you. Therefore, stay awake. For you know neither the day nor the hour. The gospel of the Lord. Let you have a seat. So when it comes to things like good news or bad news,

there's that question like, you know, if someone has good news and they have bad news, they always ask the question, like, do you want the good news first or the bad news first? And I don't know. I don't know what I want. I think typically I would say, give me the bad news first because it's only going to get better. I don't know. People are different when it comes to like, sometimes people say I don't want the bad news at all. I just give me the good news, which actually gives rise to like a whole bunch of jokes, you know, there's good news, bad news jokes. Like there was one that was, you know, someone says, this man went to go skydiving and the guy ran the, ran the whole show. He had talked to this man's wife and he said, hey, I've got some bad news and some good news and some

news and then some worse news and some better news. And she's like, tell me what, what is it? And she, and he says, well, um, your husband went, went with us and, uh, he fell out of the plane. That's the bad news. The good news is he had a parachute on. The bad news is the parachute didn't open. And the good news is we hadn't taken off yet. It's like, okay, crickets over here. I just, I just, I, the better one, a better one is, is, I like this one. The doctor says the patient, like, I've got some good news and some bad news. He says, well, give me the, what What's the good news? The good news is you have 24 hours to live.

What's the bad news? I've been trying to get a hold of you since yesterday. Right? Okay. So then the third one is a doctor, good news and bad news, the patient. What's the good news? The good news is they're going to name the disease after you. Right.

So we have all these. I appreciate this. But we have this. We have the good news and bad news. You know, last week we started talking about the story, right? The good news, right? The gospel. the question, do we know the gospel? Like, do we know the good news? Because as St. Paul was writing

to the Thessalonians last week, he said, he said, you know, there's a story. There's good news. The Evangelion, right? Evangelion of Caesar, was that the Pachshramana was there. But that's not good news. The good news is that actually Jesus himself has conquered death. He's come to this earth. He suffered. He died. He rose from the dead. That's the good news. And that this is realized this is a true story. And because this is a true story, we get to base our lives, we get to base our decisions, we get to base our hopes, we get to base our fears, we get to base our celebrations on this true stories. That's the series we started last week, right?

The good news. We get to base our lives on this good news. And again, we're not the first. The Thessalonians here that St. Paul's writing to, he continues to write to them today. And I just want to put this in context. They had the good news. Preached them, the Evangelion, right? The Evangelion.

That means good news. They had this preach to them and they believed it. as Paul's writing to them today, they had a little tension here. The story they were basing their lives on, right? The true story they were basing their lives on is that Christ had conquered death, but then they actually experienced death.

So in what St. Paul's writing to them today, he's saying, okay, I know that some of you are troubled. Why? You're troubled because you had the good news preach to you, and the good news is that Jesus Christ has conquered death, but now you've experienced death. And you're afraid now.

You're afraid that, wait a second, And if those among us who have believed in Christ have died, does that mean that they won't be raised? That's why St. Paul's writing to them today because they've heard the good news. And they're wondering, is there more? Because others die and we die. So what's different? That's why St. Paul writes to them today and he says, what's different is you don't grieve like those who have no hope. That's the key.

that yeah we grieve as Christians as those who believe have based our lives on this true story we grieve when we encounter death but we don't grieve like those who don't know the good news and as he says it

we do not grieve like those who have no hope why because our lives are based on a true story and so what we heard last week and we heard act one act one of the true story is what is a couple things one that God is one and God is good that God cares that God loves

loves that God creates and he creates this world freely. He creates this world. He creates it completely good, right? He just speaks and there's light and it's good. He speaks and there's life and it's good. And then when he makes us so critical, he doesn't make us for slavery. He actually makes us for freedom. And this is, this is act one. This is part of the good news. It's a part of the Evangelion, right? He not really makes us for freedom. He goes on to say, he makes us on purpose, he makes us for purpose, and he makes us in his image and likeness. And I always think about that. Like, what's the purpose? What is it to be mandigants' adventure like this?

Well, I think if you go back and read Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2, the stories of creation, you realize pretty quickly that God makes us for three things. He makes human beings for labor, for leisure, and for love. Like, just pause on this for just a second, this act one. Act 1 is that God makes us for labor and recognition. Why? Because God creates, God works, and he wants us to create, he wants us to work. He wants us to be like him.

And so he puts man in the garden, he says, I put you here to cultivate and to care for it. Not as a slave, though, but as I would do this. Here's what human beings are to be on this earth is we get to be an image and likeness of the God who creates, of the God who builds things, of the God who has this imagination and puts it into being. So God makes us to labor so we can be like him. And he gives us leisure, right?

That on the seventh day, God rested. And what does he do? He invites us into that rest as well. So God makes us for labor. makes us to rest, makes us for leisure, and makes us for love. I mean, how clear is that where here's the man by himself. What does God say? It's not good for the man to be alone.

Make a suitable help me for him so that these two will love each other. When the man wakes up from that deep sleep and he sees the woman for the first time, he's like, at last, this one is flush of my flesh and bone of my bones. This is the reason. Like, this is it. God makes us for labor, for leisure, and for love. And they had that. That's the remarkable thing.

They had that. Scripture goes on to say Genesis 2, it says, that they would walk in the garden with God. They had that relationship with Him. They're made for a relationship, but they got to love God. In fact, they got to love each other too. The very last line in Genesis chapter 2 is the man and his wife were naked, yet they felt no shame.

They were whole. They were free. And that's the good news. That's the first part of the story. That's Act 1. The bad news is, the Bible's longer than two chapters, right? The bad news is, chapter three came along.

And we move into Act 2. In Act 2 is where that good news, Evangelion, right? Where we have the bad news. And the bad news can be something like Kackengelion. It's another Greek word. Actually, a kind of Greek word is made up. There's not a Greek word for the bad news, but it would be the Kackengelion.

And what is that? In chapter 3 it says, well, the serpent was the most clever of all the animals the Lord God had made, and now it's the serpent representation of the devil's a representation of the devil. And the devil, remember this. Remember the devil's a fallen angel. God makes everything good. So all the angels, God makes good.

And he pours into them his beauty and his power. He pours into them, his intellect. He pours into them, his will. He pours into them all goodness. But at one point, one angel, Lucifer, use that goodness and that intellect and that power and that freedom to say no to God. And scripture says something like that he, then that Lucifer led a whole number of angels in rebellion against God.

So keep this in mind that the devil was an angel created for good, created for love, and created free with their freedom to say no, and then he did say no. That's why the book of wisdom says this that says that God did not make death. This is all important for us, that in the garden, Adam, they didn't have death, they didn't have, paper cut, they didn't have wounds. God did not make death. nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. The next line says,

but through the envy of the devil, death entered the world. And what does he do? The devil is a liar. He lies, he accuses, he deceives, and he discourages. We know this about Satan. That he lies and he deceives.

He accuses and he discourages. And I don't know about this. You've ever thought about the most powerful lies that we have in our lives. You know, most powerful lies, if you've ever paid attention, lies are always false, right? That's why they're lies.

But if there's a lie that's completely false, it can hurt, right? Someone says a lie and it's completely false. It can hurt, but it's kind of like a needle. Like, it just kind of pokes you and that hurts, but it goes right out, comes right out because it's just completely false. The worst lies, the most destructive kind of lies

are false, but they have a little bit of truth in them. And that truth is the barb, right? So it's more like the powerful lives are like hooks. again, if it's just a complete lie, it's a needle, hurts, comes right out, though. But a lot of times the lies that ruin our lives are the ones that have a little bit of truth in them, and that little truth is enough to get stuck in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives, and that have the destruction. See, that's the thing about Satan.

He will tell lies with some truth. That's why he's the deceiver. And so what happens in Genesis 3 is the liar, the deceiver, the accuser, the discourager, he comes in and he comes to the talk to the woman, and he asks the question. Did God really say you couldn't eat of any of the fruit of the trees in the garden? Think about that. That's partly true, mostly false. And Eve even knows that.

She says, no, God, so we could eat of any of the trees. And that one tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because if we eat it, will die. And then here's where the accuser, the tempter comes out, the deceiver, the liar, and says, you'll certainly not die. No, God knows full well that the moment you eat of it, you'll be like him. And the inference here is that God doesn't want you to be like him, which is completely ironic, because why?

because here Adam and Eve, and they're already created in God's image and likeness. God has already poured his love into their lives. He's already made them like him. And here is the accuser, the deceiver who says, God doesn't want you to be like him. And that kind of a lie can get into our hearts. God doesn't love you. He just wants to use you.

And turns out that our first parents were easy to deceive. And they sinned. And for a lot of us were like, yeah, but like they ate a piece of fruit. I mean, that's the scriptural way to represent this. No one was hurt. I don't know if you've ever thought of this. I remember thinking about this when I was younger. I was like, well, are you kidding me?

They ate a piece of fruit. Like, no one was hurt. How can this be a sin if no one was hurt? Well, first thing, we need to define sin. The definition of a sin is not when someone gets hurt. The definition of a sin is a breaking of a relationship, right? It's that sense of saying, God, I know what you want is my definition for sin. God, I know what you want.

I don't care. I want what I want. God, I know what you want. There's not an accident. It's not a mistake. I know what you want, but I want what I want. And then the second thing is we say, like, define hurt. No one was hurt.

Define hurt. This choice broke the world. This choice broke the world. It broke our relationship with God. This choice broke our relationship with each other. And immediately they cover themselves up, the man and the woman. And even breaks our own hearts. I mean, think about this.

Every good thing that you've been made for. Every good thing that we've been made for has become twisted now. So remember, in the garden, Genesis 1 and 2, the good news before this cackengelion, before this bad news, before this evil news, it also becomes twisted, made for labor, for leisure, for love. What's our experience of labor now? Our experience of labor is either one of two extremes, right? Our experience of labor is either drudgery or it's everything.

It's either just this work that is pointless and fruitless. I think about how often I talk to students who are like, as they graduate, who often do the workforce. It's like, we'll have this job, but it's just kind of like, It's kind of pointless. It doesn't do anything. Or it's fruitless. It doesn't make anything.

It's either pointless or fruitless. It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't do anything. Or the opposite extreme of the distortion. And it's my identity. It's everything to me. And I talk to so many people not only who are starting out their work, but in their midlife or at the end of their careers,

they're saying, okay, I gave my whole life to this career. I gave my whole life to this work. And I realized that was my identity. That's a twisting. So God made us for labor, but not for drudgery. God made us for labor, but not to give us our identity. But that's how we experience it in the Cochengelion. That's how we experience it in the bad news.

And same thing with leisure. I mean, oh my gosh, when it comes to leisure, how many of us are in a place where we just can't stop? Like you're invited into leisure, we're invited into rest. I can't stop. I can't stop working. Can't stop scrolling. Can't stop drinking? Can't stop eating?

I just need to have more and more. And then we flip up from that. and just can't stop, to crash. These are the two extremes that we experience now in the bad news. We're made for rest, we're made for this leisure that gives more life, but I can't stop. If I do stop, I collapse. We're made for labor, for leisure. We're made for love, and yet, what's our experience of love right now?

In the bad news, after this fall, after everything gets broken, our experience of love is either we're indifferent. I can't be bothered. You know, there's actually a movement. It's around the world, but in places like Japan, you know in Japan right now, there are 1.5 million people, maybe even more, who belong to this category that they call Hikikomori, which is people who are basically, they've kind of given up on civilization.

They don't go out and meet friends. They don't go out and date. They don't even pursue another person to use them. They're simply indifferent to relationships, not just romantic relationships, but all relationships. And indifferent to friendship. They're indifferent to friendship. to just even spending time with others.

And because of this, there's this reclusiveness. Again, I'm not saying that's their fault. It's saying it's part of the fault. It's part of what got broken with that first sin. So either we're indifferent. I can't be bothered by relationship. I can't be bothered by other people. Or we want to use other people,

that lust that gets into our hearts. There's a term, I don't know if you know this at home, but they know this on campus. Last couple of years, instead of having relationships, People are having situationships, that kind of idea that I don't want to commit to you, but I'm willing to use you and I'm willing to let you use me, that's completely fine. It's a situation ship, just as long as this is happening, this is okay. And so again, we're made for love because of this twisting.

We're either indifferent to each other, can't be bothered, or we just use each other. The reality of course is say, well, that's bad. That's bad news. but it gets worse. Because if it was only twisted, if it was just broken, that'd be one thing. But we realize this, that by this choice,

by this, by having been deceived, and having chosen against God, the reality is our first parents sold us into slavery. That's the bad news. It was bad without twisting. It gets even worse. The worst news is that we've been sold into slavery.

This is the cacchangelion. Catechism chapter 407, paragraph 407, says this. It says, by our first parent's sin, the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though he remains free. Think about that, we were sold into slavery. In that moment, with that choice,

Satan, the devil, acquires a certain domination. And that word domination means control, or lowercase L, lordship. So we're born into this world, and Satan has a certain kind of lordship over us, his certain control over us, his certain kind of domination over us, even though we're free.

You know, the reality is, you're still you. We're still us. But we're born into this world, not our own. I have this image about this. And the image is kind of disturbing. I apologize for that, but just kind of came to me as I was praying about this, like, okay, you're still you, but you're not free.

I've ever heard of hobbling? So what happened is, like, if you had a horse, but you didn't have like a fence to tie it to or a post to tie the horse to, what you do is you'd hobble the horse. And it doesn't hurt the horse. It's just you basically tie the hooves of the horse together. So the horse can still walk around, walk around. It can still kind of graze a little bit and eat some grass or whatever it needs to eat.

But it can't run off. It's not free. In the history of humanity, there have been times when people have hobbled other people. And times when maybe they just shackle their feet together, but there's evidence of there being a number of times in history. where people would take others and they would crush the bones in their feet and in their ankles so that they couldn't run off. Okay, now you're free. Go wherever you could go, but you can't go anywhere then you want to walk away, but you can't. You're powerless and I think about this too. I think about this

every time I go through an airport every time I'm in a truck stop and so in the airport a lot of times they have signs up there like hey if you see something say something because we know this right now in our modern day and human trafficking is at an all-time high. We have never had more human slaves in the world than we do at this moment. Both people who are economically trafficked and people who are sexually trafficked. And so in those airports, there's signs up all over the place saying, if you see something, say something, or in the bathrooms, you've been in a truck stop and in the stalls, there's like, hey, are you right now being held against your will?

Call this number. And yet, so they're walking among us. And they want to walk away. but they're powerless. It's trapped. I've been sold into slavery. Hobbled, like, I want this to be different, but I'm powerless. This is the cacchengelion.

And again, we all know this is a true story. And so too many of us have based our lives on this true story. We know it's true because, I mean, if you go back to St. Paul, St. Paul's letter to the Romans chapter 7, he says this. He's true. St. Paul even says it about himself. He says, he says, he says, I've been sold into slavery is a sin. He says, what I do, I do not understand.

for I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil that I do not want. I'm a slave. So the Satan, the evil one, right? What does he do? He lies, he deceives. He tempts and he discourages. Because, okay, you're free, but you're not free.

And so it's easy to be in a place where, like, I have no hope. That's one of the reasons why the last enemy to be destroyed. in two weeks we hear that scripture from St. Paul, the last enemy to be destroyed is death because we realize there's not one of us. Every one of us is under the power of sin, right? Every one of us is because of our parents' first sin, we have a certain domination by the evil one. But every one of us is going to die. It reminds me of a...

When I was a kid, there was a T-shirt and it was also bumper sticker. I think I saw it on a hat. And it was a saying, and it's kind of crass, but it said, life sucks, then you die. and for many people that's their true story that's the story they base their lives on. Life sucks then you die. St. Paul writes about that in Romans chapter 5 where he says,

just as through one person, sin invaded the world, right? Just as through the sin of Adameneve, sin invaded the world and through sin, death. Thus death came to all. Some people based their lives on this story. Life sucks, then you die.

because I'm hopeless and I'm helpless. I'm going to base my life on that true story. I'm going to base my life on that cackengelian. I'm going to base my life on the bad news. That's why St. Paul's writing to the Thessalonians today. Because there are people who base their lives on that story. There are people who base their lives on that bad news. They're those who grieve with no hope.

There are people who live with no hope. People who have based their lives on the true story of the cackengelion. but the great news is this, even in the midst of Act 2, right, even in the midst of this fall, even in the midst of this brokenness, even in the midst of this distortion and domination and desperation, God hasn't abandoned us. In paragraph 410 of the catechism says this, it says after his fall, man was not abandoned by God.

So even in this cackengelian, right, even in the midst of the bad news, God didn't abandon us. In fact, in the midst of the bad news, as has God comes on the scene, and he sees, okay, there's what the woman did, here's what the man did, here's the serpent did. In the midst of all of that consequence of everything just being twisted and all of it being sold into slavery, God speaks in its Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. It's a thing called the proto-evangelion, right? The first trace of the good news, that even in the middle of the cacengelion,

there's this proto-evangeline. Genesis 3, chapter 15, where God declares to the evil one. He says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between her offspring and yours. He will crush your head and you'll bruise his heel. This is even in the midst of the darkest moment. There's this first trace, this first promise of the good news, that there was good news and there's bad news, but there's good news to come. And I want to highlight this.

What did God say? I'll put enmity between you and the woman. Who's the woman? We get to the Gospels. Some people get disturbed when Jesus calls his mom. woman, he's not insulting her. He's highlighting her role. He's not insulting her.

He's highlighting her role and his role. That here is this person. My mom, Mary, she is the woman who is promised in that first hint of the good news. Because I, Jesus, am the one who was promised that first hint of the good news. And what did he do? I mean, think about this.

He announced that, the domination that Satan has over all of our lives, that domination is at an end. That's one of the reasons why, as Jesus comes on the scene, what does he do? Everywhere he goes, he does exorcisms. Everywhere he goes, he is driving out and demonstrating, I can't, not only can I heal people,

not only can I bring people back from the dead, demonstrating that there is no evil. There is no death that can hold people when I get a hold of them. But he also drives out demons, declaring definitively that the beginning of the end has begun. And this is one of the reasons. This is the last thing.

I read a book by an exorcist, and he's the first person, I think, in the world who ever have a PhD in Exorcism. So he's read, he said he's read everything that the church has ever written on Exorcism. And he said, at the beginning of the church, not only when Jesus went out, when the apostles went out, whenever the church was a missionary church,

whenever the church was encountering new cultures, exorcisms abounded. Why? Because here are Christians with the power of the Holy Spirit, with Jesus Christ, entering into areas that are dominated by the evil one. All these people who have been made good, had made on purpose, made for a purpose, made for labor and leisure and love, made for God himself.

But what happened is they lived under the domination of the evil one. They lived under the slavery to sin. And so whenever the gospel is proclaimed, remember the gospel is the power of God for freedom, for life, whenever that gospel was proclaimed, they had to have exorcisms. And then what happened is because then exorcisms kind of dipped. They didn't have a ton during what you call Christendom. And he was asked, he was asked the question, how come?

And he's like, because everyone was baptized. And so even though, yes, we were born under the dominion, domination of Satan, our Lord Jesus has already begun setting them free. Now he says there's another rise in exorcism. Because people aren't getting baptized. because Christians who are baptized aren't choosing to allow Jesus to be the one who fights for them.

Even after we were sold into slavery, God did not abandon us to the power of death, but helped us to seek and to find him. That's why St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians. We don't grieve like those who have no hope. It says we believe that Jesus died and rose and so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

things are broken. That's the bad news. That's the reality of life in this world right now. That's the cackengelion. And that is part of the story. But the story isn't over. Yeah, we live in a world where we've been sold into slavery. But we live in a world that God has invaded.

That in Jesus Christ, God fights for us. And because he fights for us, We have hope and that hope is based on a true story.