Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 11/24/19 A King Who Remembers

Episode Date: November 24, 2019

Homily from the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Jesus loves you and He hasn’t forgotten you. It is easy to feel forgotten and forsaken…even by God. But God notices, loves, and remembers you. Mass Readings from November 24, 2019: 2 Samuel 5:1-3 Psalms 122:1-5Colossians 1:12-20 Luke 23:35-43 Download the Homily Study

So yesterday we hosted a all-day lockout, we called it, all-day lockout for junior high students. So basically, you know, lock-in is usually overnight, and usually a lock-in is where you keep them all in one place. But the lock-out was not only not overnight, it was we just kept them all over the city. We have a couple buses and we drove about 180, 200 junior high students like to the bowling alley, to the arcade, to the trampoline park, all over the place. And I think, I think that at the end of the day we had the same number of kids we started out with, which is the goal. It's really the goal when it comes down to it. And it's actually a personal goal for me. So when I was 10 years old, I was in the YMCA swim team in my hometown Brainer.

And at the end of the year, at the end of the season, there's always the state swim meets. So one of the things we would all do is we'd all, the whole team, like hundreds of kids, would go down to the state swim meet. Except my parents, that state swim meet for Minnesota, YMCA, was the same weekend every year as the Berkey Biner, cross-cundry ski race, right? That one that happens in Wisconsin. So my parents would always go and choose the race in their own ski race, and they'd pawn us off to some other family who would take us to the state swim meet,

which I think explains my animosity towards Wisconsin. It makes so much more sense now. It's like, I know why. I understand my heart a little more. Anyways, so one year, I was 10 years old, as I said, like third or fourth grade. I go down, race on Friday, race all day, Saturday. And that night, we're all done with the whole meat. Everything's done.

It's super fun. We're all going to Chuck E Cheese. And we're going to play video games and eat pizza. So much fun. My parents, though, didn't, like, really believe in video games. So, before we had left, they gave every one of my brothers and sisters and myself a dollar each for the night. Just go wild, kids. So, obviously, as a 10-year-old, it did not take me too long to spend my four quarters, about 30 seconds.

And so then the rest of the night, I just walked around Chuck E. Cheese, kind of like just pretending to play video games. Do you ever do that? If you're one of the kids, they didn't get quarters either. So I get into, like, one, they sit down, like, steering the car game, just to pretend. Press the gas pedal, steer the thing. Moon Patrol. I was not there very long, but I got done. I was like, it seems quieter now. So I get it out of the game, and I'm looking around, and I don't recognize any of the kids who are there.

I don't recognize any of the parents are there, but I wanted to be keep it cool, like just, it's okay, it's fine. Like, I'm not from the Twin Cities. Like, I don't know what's going to happen to me. So I'm like, okay, maybe they're outside waiting at the cars, like, you know, they're going to be upset with me. I go outside. All of the cars are gone. The parking lot almost empty. And I was like, okay, what do I do? So I walk back inside. And tell the guy behind the counter, like, my group, they left me. And he's like, now these days be like, OK, lockdown.

Like, did you help? He was like, oh. Like, want a quarter to make a phone call or something? Like, yeah, I guess. Because I don't have any. Now, the big question, do I play a video game with that quarter? Or do I? No.

I was desperate. I was still like, I need to find my group. So I knew we were saying at the holiday. And so I went to the yellow pages. I realized that all the things I'm referring to are things that no longer exist. Like, I went to a pay phone. Superman changed his clothes, right?

The yellow pages. Anyways, I knew we were at the holiday inn, so I'm like, no problem. Look for age. I don't know if you guys know this. In the Twin Cities, there's more than one holiday in. It's like, I don't. There's dozens. I'm like, ah, I'm the worst when it comes to directions,

the worst when it comes to details, remembering anything. I thank the Lord Jesus. For whatever reason, that night, I remembered the exact name of that holiday in. So put the cord in, dial the number. And I'm asking, you know, like, I need to ask one of these parents, get one of these parents' rooms. So they say, yeah, whose room do you want to reach? And I said, the Andersons in Minnesota.

And the person was like, well, what's first name? Mrs. or Mr. either way. There's so many. We don't know. So how about this? The Kineskes. There's to be one Kineskiy. And so they'd ring me to the Knesski's room.

Now, here's what had happened. Everyone had left Chucky Cheese. They had gone back to the hotel. They all went back to the swimsuits. All the kids are in the pool, like running around hundreds of them. All the adults are around. the pool, just having a fun time. No one's remembering Mike, just FYI. Mrs. Kineski just happened to walk into her hotel room at the exact moment they ran her hotel room. She

answered the phone and I'm like, Mrs. Kineski, this is Mike Schmitz. You guys love me at Chucky Cheats. She's like, oh my gosh, what the heck? Stay right there, don't talk to anybody. Don't go anywhere. And so, you know, I'm like, okay, relief. You know, I'm standing in that entryway between the outside doors, the inside doors, just, my eyes fixed on like the parking lot road. And finally, this car pulls in, and it's the dad of the family I was traveling with. one of his buddies, they pull up and I'm running out, like, hi, I'm alive, and I'm here, you're here. And they're like, get in the back of the car.

Like, you are not excited to see me like I thought you'd be, or even like, apologize for forgetting me here. I get back to the hotel. And again, I thought like, it'd be a welcome like, you're here. We can't believe that. That's crazy. Nobody even knew I was gone. I traveled with my siblings who were like, where were you?

I'm like, you left me at Chuck E. Like, well, you're fine now. I mean, honestly, it is one thing. to be left behind is one thing to be forgotten. It's a whole other thing for no one to notice. Like honestly, they didn't even, like, it's one thing to be left behind, and it's another thing that no one even remembered.

And there's something about that, that's, you know, when something's worth remembering, what do you do? Like, you ever do that where you're right on the back of your hand? You're like, I don't want to forget this, right, it's not going to my hand. Never. Test answers, something like this.

I just like, there's that pain of a like, what, No one even noticed if you were gone. Would anyone even, like, remember you? Because I think there's something in every one of us that's like, I want to be the kind of person that someone, like, wants to write my name on the back of their hand because they don't want to forget you.

You know, someone who gets up every morning that's write down, you know, you're worth remembering. I'm just going to write your name because I carry you on my hand, like all day. Look down, oh, Mike, yeah. But so often we go through life and, like, people don't remember us. Like, we tend to forget. We tend to be forgotten. be overlooked. And I think there's something about this. There's that fear in us that's like,

okay, am I not important enough to notice? And that question is like, am I not important enough to remember? I think about this in the gospel today. There's that thief who's with Jesus, right? And this thief, he makes this prayer at the end of his life. And it's just the shortest prayer. It's basically, it's three words. But before we get to those three words, it's important. to put into context who this person is, who this guy is. Like I would maintain that the thief that speaks in the gospel today, that he's one of the worst human beings Jesus ever meets in the Bible. That yes, we know Jesus meets, he meets the tax collectors, meets the prostitutes, meets Pontius, meets Pontius, meets Judas. I would say that this guy who's hanging next to him on

the cross is probably the most horrible person Jesus has ever recorded having met. And why do I say this? I say this because what the guy himself says. Because there's the one thief who revival, is Jesus, right? But then this guy, he says, have you no fear of God? We're subject to the same condemnation. And he says this line. He says, and we have been condemned justly for the sentence we receive corresponds to our crimes. Here's a man who's being crucified, right? Here's a man who's experiencing the worst torture, the worst punishment, the worst kind of consequence to a crime that the Roman Empire could come up within hundreds of years. And this man is hanging from a cross, crucified saying, yep, I deserve this. I'm like, dude, what did you do? Like,

What was your crime that you're hanging from the cross? Crucified, saying, this is what I deserved. This is not a good guy. Again, it is possibly the worst person Jesus has ever met in the Gospels, in the worst moment his entire life, in the worst place a person could be. And it is a horrible end to a worthless life. That's what we see in the gospel today.

A horrible end to a worthless life. a horrible human being. But he has one prayer. He says three words. He says, Jesus, remember me. That's all he can say is in his whole life. Here's a throwaway human being. His whole life is a mess.

His whole life is shambles. His whole life is crumbled. It's destroyed. And all he can say is these three words, just Jesus, remember me. You know, it's so interesting in the Old Testament, it's a number of times when it's ascribed that God remembers his people.

So there's a flood happening. and then God remembered Noah. Here's Hannah, and she has her husband, and she's longing for a child that she doesn't have any children, but then God remembered Hannah. Here's Joseph, who's a prisoner in Egypt, and then God remembered Joseph. Now, we have to understand that God didn't forget Noah,

and God didn't forget Hannah, he didn't forget Joseph. But when the Bible says that God remembered them, what it means is he took action in their lives, like he did something in their lives. So here's this man on the cross next to Jesus, and he says, Jesus, do that remember me? even when things seem like they're absolutely over. My story is done.

It could not get any worse. In this moment, I just need... I need you to remember me. Because everyone else has forgotten me. No one even notices. You know, this man was likely a Jewish man. And so that would mean that he would know the story. So you know the story of the people of Israel.

Because the story of the people of Israel is a story of just being absolutely broken so many times. Like the Jewish people, their story is like, here's God who promises, like, I will be with you. I won't forget you. but then terrible things happened to them. At one point, the book of the Prophet Isaiah captures this really, really well.

Because especially chapter 49, it's written in a moment where Israel's been invaded by Babylon. When the Babylonians came in, they absolutely destroyed Jerusalem. Like all the walls surrounding Jerusalem, they knocked them all down because basically, no, you're exposed,

you're now vulnerable. Your home is no longer home. They took the homes and destroyed every single house. They went into the temple of God and they ransacked the temple and completely obliterated it. And here you are as a Jewish person looking at this going, wait a second, God, my home is destroyed.

Our city is the temple. We don't even get to talk to you anymore. Everything has been destroyed. And if they looked around in their lives, they'd realize it's all over. It's done. We just see rubble. And they even say this. In 49, Zion says, Israel says, the Lord has forsaken me.

The Lord has forgotten me. He doesn't notice us. We're forgotten. We're unlovable. You know, to be unnoticed and unlovable. Came across the story of a young woman named Harmony. When Harmony was three years old, she described this. She was three years old.

It was the first moment she was exposed to pornography. In the course of her young life, she was abused by both men and women. Through her early years and her teen years. She lived in such a violent neighborhood, she said, when she was 10, she was on the way home from school, walking home from school, and she saw a person being stabbed to death and didn't even bother telling her mom about it because she was like, no, the violence in my neighborhood is so normal

I didn't even think that I should tell my mom. At one point, to kind of escape this whole thing, she got hooked up with this guy, and this guy encouraged her to strip to get into the sex trafficking industry. And so that's what she did. She started stripping at about 18 years old, 19 years old. She did it for a number of years.

She was living this life that she was like, I was in such debt, I was such enslaved to this guy, I was enslaved to this work, and I thought I was worthless. And at one point, she decided to take ballet lessons, I don't know why, but she decided I want to dance in a beautiful way, not just in this way that I dance every night. And one of the other women who was in this ballet class just wanted to be a friend. And she's a Christian, so she kept inviting Harmony to church with her.

And Harmony's like, no, no, no, no, listen, I am not a Christian. I don't fit amongst Christians, and I have not belonged there. You know what I do? Yes, you do. You don't want me in church. But she said this friend just kept inviting her to coffee. It was so normal, even though she was Christian. Can you imagine?

She was so normal, so finally in harmony was like, yeah, I'll go to church with you. She said she walked into this church, and she immediately was like, I'm home. She walked into this church, and she was like, wait a second, I belong here. She started hearing about this God who actually loved her, even though her life had been broken from the start. He's like, but he hasn't forgotten me. He actually knows me. He notices me. He remembers me.

And she said, whenever the church doors were open, she was there. Whenever they had services, she said I was there. I love being there. But she kept stripping. This is the part I love about the story. I love that fact. You're like, what? You're weird. I am weird.

But here's why I love this story. Because she didn't get healed first and then realize she was loved. She didn't like get her life straight and then realized that God noticed her. She didn't like fix everything and then realize, wait a second, God remembers me. She learned that he loved her first before she was healed. She learned that he remembered her. See, there's the thing. So many of us come to church, and we think that's the opposite.

We think that we have to fix ourselves before God can love us. That is absolutely false. It's literally a lie from hell. The Harmony had this truth. She realized this truth. Wait a second, he already loves me. She would go to church in the morning and then she'd strip at night, and then finally she came to this point where she said, the more I learned the truth, the more I couldn't live in a way

that contradicted this truth. The more I learned my worth, the more I just knew I couldn't do that. See, she was loved into life. She wasn't guilted into life. She was remembered first. And that's the thing is, that's what he's like. That's what Jesus is like. Our God, the king we worship tonight.

That's what he's like. He's the kind of king who loves you first. He's the kind of king who actually remembers you first. He's a kind of king who, when I say, all I can see is the rubble in my life, he notices me. When all you can look at your life, you say, all I can see is the walls that have been torn.

down, he sees you. Look, my past is, all I can remember from my past is just brokenness and destruction. He remembers you. And he says, I can't, I can't forget you. So Isaiah 49, what do they say? They say, no, God has forgotten me. The Lord has forsaken me.

And then here's a God response. God gets to say something too. He has mistakenness. He says, really, can a mother forget her infant? Can she be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Of course, we know the answer is yes, right? That painful answer. that that's actually possible. A mom can forget her infant. A mom can be neglectful of the child of her womb.

Even if you have good moms, sometimes they fail us. Even great dads, they fail us. That's why God keeps talking. And he says, but even if she should forget, I will never forget you. And then God offers proof. He basically says, do you want proof? Look, upon the palms of my hands, I have engraved your name. Your walls are ever before me. Just pause on that for a second. Your walls are ever before me. You look around the rubble and say,

God, do you even notice that my life has fallen apart? Yes, it says, your walls are... I see that. I know. I know your pain. But your name is literal, another translation, is carved into the palms of my hands. I want to be someone who someone thinks it's worth writing your name

on the back of their hand because they don't want to forget you all day. And here's God who says, says, I did not just write your name in ballpoint pen on the back of my hand. I have carved your name. I have engraved your name into my hands because I will never forget you. And this friend his name is Jeff. Jeff's older than me. He was raised Catholic at one point. Jeff left the Catholic Church. He became a Protestant pastor for about 12 years. He's now back in the Catholic Church. He just teaches the Bible all over the place. And when he was a Protestant pastor in Ohio,

he told me the story, he told Robert him the story because it's an awesome thing. He said he He was at the end of the week, and it was a Friday, and he was driving home from the church he worked at. But on the way home, he had a plan. The plan was, listen, I worked all week. I worked really hard. I'm going to Dairy Queen. And I'm going to get a dip cone because I worked. And so he's on his way.

He's driving on the highway. And on the radio, there's the news. And the news says, 13-year-old Tabitha was found guilty of murder, and she awaits sentencing. Now, in the story, in Ohio at that point was there was a story. Everyone knew about 13-year-old Tabitha. The Tabith's story was she grew up in a rough neighborhood as well. And there was this girl on her neighborhood in her block who would pick on her all the time. Like pull her hair, throw rocks at her.

Tabitha didn't know what to do. And so her older sister said, listen, if you want this girl to stop bothering you, the next time she bullies you, the next time she picks on you, run into the house, grab one of mom's steak knives. And then come outside and just scare, like, wave it in the air, like you're going to scare. Make it like you're going to look to stab her, but like don't do that, but just do that. So this girl starts throwing rocks at Tabitha, so she runs into the house, gets a steak knife, comes out, And she just waves to kind of like scare the girl, but the girl is so struck by this, startled by this,

that she ducks, but she ducks into the blade. And this blade goes into this girl's throat. She runs halfway down the block and then drops dead. Here's this 13-year-old girl who's holding this knife in her hand, not realizing what the heck, what is going on. She gets arrested, and everyone knew about it. The 13-year-old Tabitha is accused of murder. 13-year-old Tabitha is in the jail downtown.

on 13-year-old Tabitha is waiting trial, all this kind of things. And here's Jeff in his car, and 13-year-old Tabitha has been found guilty and is awaiting sentencing. Jeff pulled over his car to the side of the road. He's like, man, he just started praying to Jesus. And he's like, Jesus, this girl, like, what would you do? He asked the question, Jesus, if you were here right now in this city, what would you do? As he prayed in his car on the side of the road, he heard the Lord's to say, you know,

I would go to her. And I would hold her in my arms. and I would tell her that I love her and I haven't forgotten about her. So Jeff is sitting in this car and he's like, hmm, that's good. Oh, that's really good. That wrote my sermon for the weekend. That's exactly it. I'm going to show up to my church on Sunday and say, you guys, this is what Jesus would do.

But then the Lord convicted his heart even more and he was like, no, no, I'm not there though. That's what you have to do. And Jeff's like, but Jesus, I'm on my way to Dairy Queen. I need the dip cone. And Jesus is like, no, that's what I would do. So that's where you have to go. So Jeff pulls onto the highway again. He's like, well, I don't even know where the jail is.

He knows what the exit was to downtown. Never been to the jail before. Pulls off the exit to downtown. Well, there's the jail. Okay. But I'm not going to find a parking spot. Well, there's a parking spot. And he walks into the jail.

He's like, they're not going to let me in. I'm nobody. They have no idea. I have no credentials. I have no pass. He walks up to the plexiglass where there's a little intercom and there's a guard. And he doesn't even look up.

He's just writing down some papers. And Jeff knocks on the glass. And he says, my name is Jeff Kavins. I'm here to see Tabitha, and the guard doesn't he look up. He just says, listen, no one's here to visit. We have no visitors. Wait, he looks up. He says, what did you say your name was?

So my name's Jeff Kavins? The guy puts down his pens and says, did you just run a retreat for women last weekend? He says, uh-huh. My wife was on that retreat. She loved it. It was incredible. Listen, sign this piece of paper. Come right in.

And he's like, 30 seconds later, the gates are being opened. He walks in. They're being closed behind him. And he's being escorted down this hallway with all these prison cells. And this guard opens up a prison cell empty, and he lets us. him in, shuts the door and says, wait here, I'll be back with Tabitha as soon as I can. And so he's like, wow, Jesus, five minutes ago, I was on my way to get a dip cone at Dairy Queen, and now here I am. He's just praying there, and pretty soon he hears footsteps come down. And in front

of this huge guard, there's this little girl who's led into a cell, and she looks so small, and she's shivering. And all she has in her hand is this, this crumpled up piece of paper, and Jeff stands up and he gets on his knees in front of this girl Tabitha and he says, Tabitha, my name is Jeff and I'm a Christian and Jesus wants you to know something. Jesus wants you to know that he still loves you and that he hasn't forgotten about you. And as he said those words, she just like fell into his arms and he just held her. And he just said those words again, Jesus loves you and he hasn't forgotten about you. And they prayed together. and as I prayed together, Tabitha, she didn't say much, she's so scared still. But she held out this piece of paper in her hands to Jeff to give it to him for him to read,

and he said, want me to read this? Yes, she nods her head, and he opens it up. And it was a prayer that she had written that morning in her cell when she was found guilty of murder, a 13-year-old kid. And the prayer was, Jesus, do you still love me? Or have you forgotten about me? It's one thing to be left behind, and it's another thing for no one to notice. It's one thing to have your life in shambles,

and it's another thing entirely not to be remembered. It's another thing to be able to say, my life is over. It's one thing, and then it's another thing to realize, wait a second, I'm not forgotten. So let's go back to the thief, is the last thing. This man who's on the cross, you know, again, raised Jewish, most likely. He knew the Bible.

You imagine, imagine. He looked at the man next to him, and he's thinking of Isaiah 50. Isaiah 50 says this. Isaiah 50 says, I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard. My face I did not shield from buffets and spitting. See that. Is this the same guy? Isaiah 52 says,

So marred was his look beyond that of any man. His appearance beyond that of mortals. Isaiah 53 says, he was a man of suffering. accustomed to infirmity, we held him in no esteem. He's hearing those people reviled Jesus on the cross, like, wait a second, is that the guy? I say, 53, but he was pierced for our offenses. He was crushed for our sins. Upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and by his stripes we were healed.

I imagine that he's looking at this man and saying, wait a second, is this the guy that they told me about like when I was a kid? Isaiah 50, Isaiah 52, Isaiah 53, because maybe he also is Isaiah 59. So imagine this thief looking over at Jesus' hands. In seeing this, on Jesus' hands, seeing Isaiah 59, where it says, look, you want proof that you're not forgotten. I have carved your name into the palms of my hands. And I imagine he looked up and in those wounds carved by nails. He saw his name because he saw his name.

He could pray that one prayer. To the king who has not forgotten him, he could say, Jesus, remember me. To the king who already loved him, he didn't have to fix his life first. Jesus remember me. In the face of like all his whole life, which is just a mess, a worthless human being,

a throwaway person, but wait, my name is written in this king's hands. So Jesus remember me. See, that's the king we worship tonight. That's the king who wants you here. A king who notices you, a king who loves you. We're tonight worshiping a king who remembers you. And it will never forget you, no matter how dark your life gets,

no matter how shambles it falls into, a king who has written your name into the palms of his hands so that you and I can pray in their darkest moment. Jesus, remember me.