Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 11/18/18 Come to the Altar: Learning to Worship

Episode Date: November 19, 2018

Homily from the Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time. Not merely witnessing the miracle, but offering the sacrifice. We have to learn the worship of God in a similar way that we need to learn the Word of God. The more we know What we are doing, Who we are offering, Why it is crucial, and When to focus, the more we will be able to do more than watch…we will be able to worship. Mass Readings from November 18, 2018: Daniel 12:1-3 Psalms 16:5, 8, 9-10, 11Hebrews 10:11-14, 18 Mark 13:24-32 Download the Homily Study

Hi, this is Father Mike. I know I said I wouldn't do one of these intros again after the give to the max, but I forgot that I would want to thank every single person who did this this last week. Oh my gosh, who supported us is amazing. And sometimes I'm so humbled by this. I'm like, I don't want to say anything because I just, I am so moved by the generosity of those of you who donated to support Bold-Ey Catholic, to support this UMD Newman over the course of years and over the course of the course of this last week, it's humbling. And so it's really hard to be like, I know that thanks are not enough. And we're going to send out, you know, cards to people and say, thank you. And I know those cards are not enough. In fact, even I have, even have siblings in my, you know, a family who have donated. And I'm like, you guys, I cannot put into words how grateful I am. And so then what happens, my default then is I hide and I kind of kind of shyly say, oh, gosh, and be all dismissive, not dismissive of what other people have done, but dismissive of like how much it means to me and how much means to these students that we're going to be able to continue to do our ministry this year and

into the future because of your generosity. Thank you so much. I know that you all, everyone who donates, you're trusting me and trusting the folks that I'm working with that we're going to do absolutely everything we possibly can to honor your gift, to use it for the advancement of the kingdom. And so I just thank you for trusting and thank you for sacrificing so that so that we can we can continue to sacrifice for these students. Thank you so much. I invite you after this third part of the series here, come to the altar. Just stay hang out a little bit for one last little note that I just added. I was reflecting on this during Mass. I'll talk about it later on. I'll talk about it at the end of this homily. So I hope that this has been meaningful to you and I'll be praying

for you. Thank you so much for your generosity. Please keep us in your prayers. So over the course of this last week, I've had this song stuck in my head. You have to have that experience? I'm not unusual. Well, I'm unusual, but not unusual in that. That song is stuck in your head, and it's because, well, I'll tell you what the song is. It was from the 90s, early 90s, so you may never have heard of it. It's by a woman named Bonnie Raitt, whom you also may never have heard of.

But in the early 90s, she kind of was a big deal. She had a couple of hits. And one of the hits that she had was what some people called the saddest love song ever written. It's debatable, but that's what it's called. and the name of the song is, I can't make you love me. And like the lyric of the song that gets stuck in the head,

and it's been in my head, it's been going kind of nonstop ever since last Sunday ended and it's been really starting to prepare for tonight and for next weekend. The lyric is, I can't make you love me if you don't. You can't make a heart feel something that it won't.

And that's the lyric just kept coming back and back. Again, I can't make you love me. me if you don't. You can't make a heart feel something it won't. And the reason why that lyric was in my head is because, you know, we're in the third part of this four-part series. It's called Come to the Altars. It's all about worship. And tonight and next weekend, I honestly can tell you, I don't think, I truly do not believe there's anything that I will ever tell you or ever be able to tell anyone that's more important than what I have to say tonight and what I have to say next Sunday.

Like there's literally, I can't think of one thing that's more important that I'll ever share the rest of my life than what I have to say tonight and what I have to say next Sunday. And as part of this series, come to the altar about this whole idea, this whole reality of worship. And yet, and so all week, I was just like, how do I, how do I put into words like this thing? Because the cry of my heart was like, I just want them to, I want this to matter to everyone who comes here. It's like, I want to be able to put it in such a way that you're like, oh my gosh, my heart is broken. It's something back together, made new, and I feel joy, and I'm going to cry at the same. time, like, I want to make that happen and I realize I can't, I can't make you care about worship.

I can't make this important to you. I can't make this, I can be all clever with like the diamond cartel last week and like that'll hook them, you know, but tonight it's just, I just want to tell you what this is all about. But the agony in my gut right now is this, I know the truth and that is if you don't care, I can't make you care. Like if you just came to check off the box and say, no, I go to Mass because I'm Catholic and that's it. So keep it short. it and let's go. I can't make you care if you don't care, but that kills me. Because to be honest, we talked about this before, the heart of religion is worship. It is the heart of everything we do. Heart of religion is worship, and the heart of worship is sacrifice. And honestly, there is no greater

human act we can do than worship God. I mean, just to sit there and reflect on that for a second. There's no greater human act that we could ever do for the rest of our lives than to worship God. Say, well, what about, you know, save a busload of kids from the river? Like, okay, fine, do that. That's a good thing to do. If you have the opportunity to save a bus a lot of kids, do that. Wonderful. That's good.

There's nothing higher. There's no higher thing we can do as human beings than the worship of God as he asks us to do. And the reality is we might be here tonight and not care. And I can't make you love him if you don't. I think, but those of us who are here and care, which is probably I'm assuming a lot of you because it's 8 o'clock on the Sunday night, and here you are. I'm guessing you do care, but one of the problems with caring is then you're like, okay, I want to do this.

I know the heart of religion is worship, and I won't know the heart of worship is sacrifice. And yes, I've been coming to the altar because I do want to do this thing. I just don't know how. Maybe that's been part of your experience. I just don't know how. And you might even think it should be simpler. Like maybe growing up, you're like, I don't know, the mass is a mystery to me. I just, I don't, it's kind of genuflect, and then I don't know what that means.

cross yourself and it can seem like a mystery. You might think it should be easier. It should be simpler. It should be more natural. In fact, my best friend is named Nick and his wife is named Jaislin. And their whole life, they were raised evangelical Christians. Some ways of God. And at one point, they went to their first mass.

And then they went to their second mass and they became Catholic. And at one point, Jaislin was saying, she was kind of lamenting. She said, you know, the mass, it's so complex. It shouldn't be confusing. She said, my experience with worship is it's more natural. It just flows out of your heart. That it should be simple. it should be clear, it should be easy to be understood.

That was, you know, a genuine experience, and maybe that's your experience too. Like, mass should be easy to be understood. If it's real worship, it should just come from my heart. And I'm so grateful for her husband because he pointed out, he said, Jaislin, before we were Catholic, how many Bible studies were we part of? And they went to Bible college.

They spent their whole lives studying the Bible. He says, if this is God's Word, it should be simple. If this is God's Word, you'd be able to pick it up and understand it completely right away. But it's not simple and it's not easily understood. That's why we have Bible studies. Because it's not automatically clear. So if the Word of God is not automatically clear,

then why would we think that the worship of God would be automatically clear? If I need someone to teach me about the Word of God, wouldn't I need someone to teach me about the worship of God? That just makes sense. So what I want to do tonight is that. I want to just, I want to reveal to you what I think are some of the most incredible things about worship.

And there are four questions. The questions are what, who, why, and when. Really, really simple. I want to tell you what worship is, who it is, why it is, why we do this. And also when, when to focus, when to be able to say, okay, here's what we're dialing in, here's what we're zeroing in. Okay, the first question is what? Okay, so this is come to the altar, right? Heart of religion is worship?

What is it that we're doing in the Mass? What? We are offering up the sacrifice of the son to the Father and the Power of the Holy Spirit. Very, very simple if you want to write that down, there you go. But we are worshipping God by offering up the sacrifice of the Son to the Father and the Power of Holy Spirit. In the letters of the Hebrews, it says, he offered himself up once for all. So we're not re-sacrificing Jesus. What we are doing is a representing to the Father that sacrifice of the Son.

We're representing to the Father the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus at the altar. So that's the what, that's the what, that's the what, that's the what, that's the what we're doing. But the big question is, wait, who are we offering? Because you might think at the Mass, like, yeah, it's kind of boring, it's kind of empty, it feels hollow we talked about last week, but it seems like, okay, we're offering up the sun. No, we're offering up bread. We're offering up bread and wine. We're offering up a symbol of Jesus. I don't know if you've ever had anyone ever say that to you before. When it comes to the Mass, they're like, yeah, fine, that's Eucharist. You Catholics talk about Jesus present. That's just a symbol of Jesus. It's not really him. If that's the case, then we need to go back to the scripture. Because what does Jesus say? At the last supper, he takes bread and says, what doesn't say, this is like my body. Takes wine and says, this is a symbol of my body. What does he say? He says, takes the bread and says, this is my body given up for you. Takes the wine and says, now this is no longer wine.

This is my blood poured out for you. That this is the sacrifice. And that it actually is. The who is it's him. Now the remarkable thing is that people can even say, but no, and then, no, you didn't really mean it like that. In which case, I say, okay, let's go to the Bible. Let's check the book. What's the book say?

And in John chapter 6, there's this massive chapter, in John chapter 6, where Jesus actually talks about what he meant when he says, this is my body, this is my blood, especially for someone who says, like, no, it's not really him. It's just a symbol of him. So John chapter 6 begins with Jesus feeding 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. That night he walks on water. So big day for Jesus.

And the next day, what happens is a bunch of people come looking for him, not because they believe in him, not because they think, oh, he's the Messiah. They come looking for him because they want more food. Because, as I've said many, many times, because that's just smart. If you find Jesus, he's basically McDonald's on sandals. You just give him some food, and he's like, okay, brunch. for everyone. And so they're looking for Jesus because they want more food and he knows it. He's like, you're not coming to me because you believe in me. You're

coming because you want more food and they're like, yeah, so do you have any? And he says, I have food that if you eat it, you'll live forever. They're like, that sounds good, I'll have that. And Jesus says, well, I'm the bread of life. That's me. And the the scripture says, well, the Jews murmured about him because he said on the bread of life, on the bread that came down from heaven. So Jesus, doubles down. In verse 51 in chapter 6, he says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever, and here's the kicker. And the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. You know, Jesus says, I'm going to give you my flesh to eat,

I'm bread. Now, if everyone understood like, ah, no, no, he would get it. He's speaking figuratively. He's speaking symbolically. Like earlier he said he's the good shepherd, and we know he's a carpenter. That's bogus. Earlier he said he was the vine, and we know he's not a plant. What if they took him symbolically, they would be like, okay, check your like bread, Jesus. What the next line says, the Jews quarreled among themselves. They're fighting among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Question, for y'all. Does that sound like they're taking him literally or figuratively?

Literally, totally. It sounds like they're like, whoa, wait, what, what? Right? And Jesus, if he meant it figuratively, this is his perfect opportunity to say, guys, guys, no, no, no, no, no. That disgusting. This is Jesus a perfect opportunity to correct them. But instead of correcting him, here's what Jesus says.

They say, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? And Jesus says, not once, not twice, five times. He says, one, amen, amen, I say to you. A little caveat. Whenever you hear or read, amen, amen, I say to you. What comes after that is a solemn oath. Jesus says, amen, amen, solemn oath. I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of the man and drink his blood,

you don't have life within you. Number two, goes on, doesn't stop. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternity. in a life, I'll raise him on the last day. He goes on. Number three, for my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink. Number four, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I and him. The fifth time, he says, just as the living father sent me and I have life because of the father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. So when they think he's speaking literally, Jesus isn't to correct them, he says, actually times five, yeah, I'm speaking literally.

This is my body, this is my blood. Do you know this, that after this moment, many of his disciples that said left him. People who loved him, people who, this is the only time in the entire Bible where someone left Jesus over one of his teachings. And it was a teaching that in the Eucharist, I'm truly present. That in Eucharist, that really is me. It's not a symbol of me. It actually is me.

And they left him over that. You know, I got to tell you guys, when I was about 15 or 16 years old, I had a conversion. And I was in my parents' house, and I was reading a book that talked about this. I had gone to Sunday school. I went to Catholic school. Like, it went over my head.

I was like, okay, sure, that's Jesus. Okay, whatever. I was reading this book and I'm like, what the, are you kidding me? I was blown away. I was like, this is real. I remember running downstairs and my siblings were around and I'm like, you guys, did you know that at the mass that's really Jesus? I'm like, uh, yes.

Like, no, it's like really him. Like, dude, we went to Catholic school. I'm like, yeah, but I didn't know. Like, you're an idiot, Michael. I'm like, yeah, I know. I was so blown away. It changed everything. I used to hate going to the Mass.

Hated Mass so bad. That day changed everything. Because I realized, oh my gosh, God, you don't just want me to come and sing a song. You don't want just me to come and listen to some boring priests go on and on. Is that you don't just want me to come and be with people. You want me to come to the altar because that's you there. It changed everything.

That realizing that's truly him. The who, the what, offering the son of the father. The who is, that really is the son. And I don't know if you know this. After I, my godmother is awesome. She's wonderful. When she was in college, she left the Catholic Church. and after I got ordained, she wanted to help me leave the Catholic Church as well.

It didn't work. And we're meeting. We kept meeting, you know, I had a coffee shop and kind of talking about, like, Bible and Catholic teachings and stuff. And one day we got to this, we got to this teaching on the Eucharist. We went through the whole John 6, and she's like, well, I can see that that's a valid interpretation of John chapter 6. She could see that, yep, that you can interpret Jesus to mean that really is him.

And I pointed out, I said, okay. for 1,500 years of Christianity, that was the interpretation of John 6. Like, if you were a Christian, for the first 1,500 years of being a Christian, 100% of Christians believe that. Not like some of them on the fringe. Like, everyone, if you're a Christian,

you believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. When the priest said, this is my body, this is my blood, that actually changed bread and wine into Jesus himself. And even here's the worst thing, if that's not true, if that's not true, us Catholics for 2,000 years, have been the worst idolaters that have ever existed on this planet. You know why?

Because we worship Jesus in the Eucharist. We go to our knees in front of Jesus and the Eucharist and say, that's you, and we worship him. No, here's a little, do this mental exercise. We'll move on in a second. Do this mental exercise. In the book of Exodus, there was a moment where the Jews worship the golden calf for like one day. And they, like, were destroyed. God, like, pretty quickly responded to that idolatry.

If the same God who responded to that kind of idolatry in one day with quick, quick, quick action, do you think that same God would tolerate his church to have, to be defined by idolatry for 2,000 years? Incredibly unlikely. What are we doing? We're offering up the sacrifice of the son to the father. Who is it? It truly is the son.

Now, I got to that place and I'm like, that's it. I'm done. I'll be Catholic rest of my life. I don't care. I don't care. I found out that Jesus is truly present. That's the noun. And so what happened was every time I went to Mass, I went to watch the miracle. Maybe if you've known this already, maybe that's why you come to come to to Mass too. Yeah, that's why I'm not anything else because I come to watch the miracle. I watch the priest say, this is my body. I'm like, bam, there it is. Watch him say, this is my blood and boom. And I'm just, that's why I come. I come to watch the miracle. This is where we take the next curve, you guys, and this blew my mind. I did not really

this for like the next 20 years of going to Mass. That that's not even the point. That the point of the mass isn't so God can transform bread and wine into his body of blood. That's not the point. That's just setting the stage. He's just, in that moment, he's just giving us

the sacrifice because the next question is I'm not just here to do the noun. I'm here to do the verb. There's Eucharist, that's the noun, and there's Eucharist that's the verb. I could be here to simply witness the miracle, or I could be here to offer the sacrifice. Jesus becomes truly present in what was bread and what was wine, so we can offer the sacrifice.

Not just to witness the miracle, but to offer the sacrifice. Why would we do that? What? Who? Why would we do this? Like what? There's two massive things that happen every time we celebrate the mass. Like the reasons why we celebrate the mass.

That happened whether you're in St. Peter's Basilica. whether you're in the garage chapel, whether you're in the ballroom, whether you're one person with the other priest, or whether you're at World Youth Day with 2 million people. There are two things that happen, two reasons why we celebrate the Mass every time, and you already know those reasons. This is the cool thing, is that I don't even, I'm going to tell you, but you will already know the reasons why we celebrate the Mass. And I'll let you answer me.

What are the two reasons why we celebrate the Mass? Please respond out loud in your appropriate response. pray my brothers and sisters that my sacrifice and yours would be acceptable to God, the Almighty Father. Why do we offer up the sacrifice of the Son to the Father for the praise and glory of the Father's name for our good and the good of all the Church? Like this is it. Every single Mass. When we lift up the sacrifice of the Son to the Father, what happens, the Father is glorified every stinking time. And every time we, no matter if we were in the garage, stupid garage chapel,

we offer the sacrifice and what happens, the world is redeemed. In the letters to Hebrews it says today, Jesus Rice offered himself and sins were taken away. Every time we offer up the sacrifice of the Son to the Father, the Father is glorified. Every time we offer it up, the world is redeemed once again. Not because we're re-sacrificing Jesus, but because we're representing that sacrifice, that one sacrifice, once for all, to the Father, and we get to be present to it. We get to be part of it. We get to offer it.

That's the what, offering the sacrifice. Who? It really Him. Why? For God's glory, salvation of the world. And here's the last piece. When? Like if you really want to not just witness the miracle but offer the sacrifice, when should you dial in and focus? Remember two weeks ago we talked about how if you were going

to this worship at Passover or what you would do, right? A couple steps. You take an unblemished lamb, right? The lamb that was precious to you. You carry it to the temple and you stood at that chest high wall, right? And at the chest high wall, you presented your sacrifice to the priests. And as we talked about with PETA, you cut the neck and they collect the blood of the lamb. The sacrifice isn't over it. You only presented your sacrifice. at the chest high wall, the blood is collected, and that sacrifice wasn't offered as a sacrifice until the blood was poured out onto the altar.

And then what you would do is you'd take the lamb home, you'd roast it and consume it. Okay, in a few moments we're going to have the offeratory. And what are you going to do with your first fruits? You're going to take what's precious to you, and you're going to present what's precious to you at the temple. But then there's a key moment in the mass. where we present the lamb, where we present the lamb.

Here's the moment. The moment the priest says, this is my body given for you. You know what he does? He elevates the host. This is not him lifting up the host of the father. This is him showing you the old sacrifice. He's saying, this is what's going to be sacrificed.

This is the lamb that was sacrificed, just so you can see it. Just like you go to the chest high wall. He say, this is the lamb we're sacrificing. He holds up the chalice with wine. Now it's his blood. Say, this is the lamb we're sacrificing. And then what happens? at the end of this prayer

where we'll pray for God's glory and for the salvation of the world, it's what they call the great amen. Although for most Catholic parishes, it's called the lame amen, because it's just awful. We don't understand what we're doing, right?

We came to watch the miracle. We didn't come to offer the worship. And what happens is the priest then takes the lamb, takes Jesus himself, lifting up to the Father, and he says these powerful words, he says, through him, wait, question, who's him? Jesus, yeah, through him, who's in my hands right here?

Who's him? through him, with him, in him. In the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever. Because every time we offer the sacrifice, that is the moment where the blood is poured out on the altar, but fulfilled in Christianity.

That's the moment where the sacrifice is offered up, and most of us are like, oh, now it gets at the time I get to stand up and my knees are hurt. But that's the moment we say, through him, with him, and him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever. And then the great amen is supposed to sound out. Now, you don't have to shout.

We once told this to a bunch of junior high kids years ago. And there was a guy who had just become Catholic, like, a couple months before this. And he was in the band. He was like electric guitar player, one of those guys. And after we told everyone this, at the great amen, like we were going to all sing, amen. And from the corner, all of a sudden I hear this like, amen. This guy. I'm like, okay, well, Lord, you heard that one.

Because he meant it. You know, in the early church they said during the great amen, the Christians would cry out so powerfully. Because, yes, Father, we want to glory. you when they offer the sacrifice they said they cried out so powerfully that the walls in the room they were in would shake and then what happens then we come forward and we consume the lamb see this is this is amazing you guys this is what I'm telling you think to be able to imagine for the rest of your life being able to come to Mass and not watch but worship imagine for the rest of your life until you step into the heavenly banquet of the Mass that every time you go to Mass

is like, no, no, no, I'm not just here to watch the miracle. That's awesome. I'm here to offer this sacrifice. Why? So every time I show up, even if I'm distracted, even if I'm a bunch of kids are crawling all over me, even if whatever, I'm sick, whatever the deal is, every time I do this, the Father's glorified. Every time I do this, the world's redeemed.

Every time you show up from this moment until the moment you step into heaven, the Father will be glorified. Because you're not just here to watch. You are here to worship. Every time. You and I come to the altar. So tonight after Holy Communion, as we were praying and I was purifying the vessels,

I wanted to share with our students what I want to share with you right now. That in the ancient world, in temple, the worship in the temple, there was, you know, there's the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was, but then there was a room right outside there called the Holy Place. And in the Holy Place, there were three objects.

There was the altar of incense. There was the menorah or the gold lamp stand, you know, with the candles burning. And there was a table upon which was what they called the bread of the presence. And there were 12 loaves of bread. And they refer to them as the bread of the presence. The bread of the presence of God. In fact, Dr. Brandt Petrie points out that the translation of the word presence is also the word face. So the bread of the face, the bread of the very presence of God.

At the end of some of the high holy days, the priest would go into the holy place. and he'd come out with the bread of the presence, and he'd hold it aloft over the people, and he would declare to them these words, behold the love of God for you. And they would look up and they would see the bread of the face. They would look up and they'd see the bread of the presence. Behold the love of God for you.

And that recognition of in the Eucharist, this is the fulfillment of the bread of the presence, because it truly is Him. And that we hold up the Eucharist. Behold, Lamb of God. just as easily say, behold the love of God for you. And here's something to meditate on the next time you go to Mass.

As you're praying there, post-communion, is that you just got to eat the very love of God. You were just able to consume the love of God in this incredible new way. Imagine what it would be like to live, having consumed the love of God, every mass. Behold the love of God for you. And then to receive the very love of God into your body as you receive his body, blood, soul, and divinity.

You consume his love.