Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 1/8/23 Here to Give

Episode Date: January 7, 2023

Homily from the Mass of the Epiphany of the Lord. The best thing we can do. While we are certainly human "beings", we are also meant to "do". The most important thing we can do is LOVE. And the most important One we can love is God. We love God in a number of ways, the principle of which is through worship. Mass Readings from January 8, 2023: Isaiah 60:1-6 Psalms 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-13Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6 Matthew 2:1-12

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.

with your spirit. I'm reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Glory to you, Lord. Chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw a star at its rising and have come to do him homage.

When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, in all Jerusalem with him. Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They said to him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet, and you Bethlehem, land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, since from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star's appearance. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word,

that I too may go and do him on. After their audience with the king, they set out, and behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures, and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country

by another way. The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. So one of the things I've kind of noticed just about us as human beings, you know, kind of people, is a lot of times you want to just, want to be somewhere? Here's what I mean by that.

I mean, the number of people who just, like, I want to go to the ocean and just look at it. It's just kind of striking to me. It's like, or people who I want to go to the Grand Canyon. I just want to see it. I take it all in. I was thinking about this because a couple weeks ago before the semester ended, We had a party with some of our alumni, and a couple of them got Taylor Swift tickets.

And that was, I don't know if you know this, but there was this, like, massive thing about, like, people all day. In fact, they did this. They had their computers going all day in order to get these tickets. They had, like, a team of three, both of them did. So six people trying to get these tickets and they did it. It was like this massive thing because they just wanted, the idea was, I just want to be there. And I, because I was asking them, like, yeah, you know, you know all of her songs already. you could just press play.

You just listen online. You could just, why, it wasn't like making fun. I'm just kind of like, what's the thing? And they said, I just want to be there, which makes sense. You know, you go to the ocean. I just want to be there. I just want to see the Grand Canyon and see mountains. I just want to be in the mountains.

I just want to be at a concert or be at the game. Which makes sense because as human beings, that's what we are, right? We're human beings. So it makes sense that there's sometimes just the valuable thing is that we're there. The valuable thing is that here I am. I'm just being here. At the same time, I struggle with that because if I go to the ocean, I think I want to get in that. Like I want to do something.

If I, Grand Canyon, literally, I went to Grand Canyon one time. I remember thinking, do I have enough time to do the rim to rim? Because, you know, you can hike down one rim to the other rim and then rim to rim and back again. Like I just, I don't want to just, it was impressive. I'll say that. Grand Canyon, amazing. but I want to do something there. Same thing.

When it comes to the mountains, I love the mountains. They're just gorgeous. But every time I see a mountain peak, I think, can I get up there? I want to do something. And so, again, I know that I'll say this too, every concert I've ever been to. I always think, like, what if, like, one of their singers drops out? Like, they'll need some help, and I'll be the person to help them. It could because it's one thing I also have a highly inflated sense of self.

You know what I'm talking about. But there's that sense of I don't just want to be here. I want to do something. Okay, both are good. We need to understand this. Because the error falls in when we emphasize one to the exclusion of the other. There are people who are overworked, right? They're people who just like, it's all about doing, doing, doing.

And they have to be reminded that we're not human doings. We're human beings. Yes, 100%. At the same time, while we are human beings, we're made to do. Like we're literally the way that God made us is to do, to do a lot of things, to where he made us to create. He made us to build. He made us to fix things. He made us to work.

He made us for so many things. The biggest thing God ever made us for is at the heart of our identity. It's actually the heart of his identity. The biggest thing God ever made us to do is to love. I can be in love 100% gift. But to choose to love. It also is a gift. And so while we have a beings, we're called to do many things.

And the primary thing we're called to do is we're called to love. And so we've said this many, many times. The church has defined love as love is willing the good of the other. And so whether I love a stranger or whether I love my mom or if spouses love each other, it's not just romantic feelings, not just feelings of affection. It's choosing to do something. It's choosing to will the good of that person. So that's massive.

That's how we love. when it comes to God we're made to love God above everything above everyone we're made to love God but here is the question if love is willing the good of the other how do we love God

because God is goodness itself God doesn't need us at all I don't need to if I will God's good what it I can't add to his goodness so what is it to love God

well we can love God in three ways One is St. John talks about this, not today, but he talks about other places in the Bible. He says, we can know we love God if we take care of our brother and sister. If we love the people around us, we love the people that need our love our love our attention, they need our help. When we love them, we're loving God. That's one. We love God by loving the people we see, our brother that we see, our sister that we see. Second way, we love God.

We love God by obeying Him. Jesus said this. You can't claim to love God. and not obey His commandments. The way we love God is through obedience to His commandments. And so if I'm ever questioning, like, do I really love God enough? What I have to do is I don't just look at how I'm feeling. I have to look at how I'm acting.

Am I choosing to obey him? So I can love God by willing to go to the people around me who need love. I can love God by obeying Him. But the third way we love God, it's an extension, expansion, extension of obeying Him. We love God when we worship God. We love God when we worship God as he has asked us to worship him. And this is the key thing. We love God when we obey him by worshiping him as he's asked us to worship him.

Because we have to understand, you probably know this already. Said this many times. I'll say it again today on the Feast of the Epiphany. The heart of religion is not our creed, although our creed is really important. And the heart of religion is not the moral life, although the moral life is very important. The heart of religion, every religion, around the world, The heart of religion is worship. The heart of religion is worship.

That sense of what do we give to God? And that's why the key thing is this. The heart of worship is not feeling. The heart of worship is not simply doing anything. The heart of worship is going to be sacrifice. It's always going to be sacrifice. This is the heart of worship, which is the heart of religion, which is the heart of what it is to love God.

Sacrifice. Why am I bringing this up on a day like today? Well, I'm bringing up on a day like today because if he said the epiphany, what do you have? You have the first people who ever worshipped Jesus Christ incarnate on this on this earth. You have the magi, right? They journey from afar and they bring Jesus gifts and they offer those gifts. That's a sacrifice. And those gifts all mean something. Of course, you know, we have gold, frankincense, and mur. And so theologians have said many, many times that the gold is a symbol

of Jesus being worshipped as king, that the frankincense is a symbol of Jesus being worshipped as priest who offers incense. The mur is a sign of. of Jesus' inevitable death, and is being anointing at death, anointed at death, that he's ultimately going to be not just the priest who offers the sacrifice, he's going to be the victim who offers the sacrifice, who's being offered in the sacrifice.

These three magi, these three gifts that come before the Lord God incarnate, they worship him, they bow down, they prostrate themselves before him, and they offer a sacrifice. And this is absolutely going to be so essentially critical for every one of us because the heart of religion is worship and the heart of worship is sacrifice. You know, a little while ago I had an interview with a newspaper and the author of the newspaper is a Catholic. And great, great guy as far as I know. And he asked the question, he said, have you noticed that because of COVID, fewer people are returning to in-person mass?

And I talked about how super important that everyone gets back to mass if they can be at mass. at all, then they need to be at mass, obviously. And he said, I know that because he says, because the point is you need to receive the Eucharist. You can't just watch Mass online because the point is to receive the Eucharist. And I had to stop and say, actually, no, that's not true. One of the points, one of the gifts of the mass is we get to receive the Eucharist. Yes, 100%. I mean, Jesus made it very, very clear that unless we eat the flesh of the sun of man and drink his blood, we don't have life. So yes, very, very important to be able to receive the Eucharist. Absolutely. I'm not going to deny that.

but the point of the Mass is not to receive Holy Communion. The point of Mass is to offer the sacrifice of the Son of God to the Father. The point of the Mass is to have this sacrifice for the sacrifice of the Last Supper and the sacrifice of Calvary, which are brought into one here at every Mass, is to offer that sacrifice to the Father. The whole point is to love God, which means the whole point of our lives is to go to Mass. the point of our lives is to worship God by offering the greatest sacrifice

any of us could ever possibly hope or even imagine we could be part of and that's why we're, that's why this piece of the epiphany is all about worship and it's all about sacrifice it's all about what we do every single Sunday and every single day in so many Catholic churches we recognize us we recognize that

I'm not loving God if I know that he has asked me, commanded me in fact, to do this in memory of him, to offer this sacrifice in memory of him, to offer himself united with the ministerial priest to the father and I stay away. We're made to love. The biggest thing, the best thing, the primary thing we're called to do, made to do is to love. The one we're called to love beyond anyone else is God himself and the way he has asked us to

love him yes serving our brothers and sisters yes obeying his commandments but this particular commandment of do this in memory of me is the critical thing that makes all of the difference in the world makes all the difference in the world but the question is does it make the difference in my life here's what I mean I think a lot of times we show up to Mass and we leave unchanged we show up to Mass and we leave the same as we walked into Mass it's this is supposed to make all the difference in the world but it doesn't even make a difference in my life because again and again it might not be my fault, might not be your fault, but it might be that we just didn't expect that

anything would happen. It didn't expect that anything should change. I went to Mass, checked the box, now I'm leaving. But how could we possibly come into contact, to encounter the true and living God and not be somewhat changed? In fact, the Magi, what does it say? It says they offered their gifts, gold, franks, and summer, and they were warned in a dream. So they departed for their home by another way. And I got to tell you, saints and people in the the church for years have read that, for 2,000 years, have read that and said, yes, that's what's supposed to happen. I came to the Lord one way, but when I worshipped him, it changed me and I had to go home a different way. I couldn't go home the same way. I couldn't return the same person I was when I

walked into the Lord's presence. So why do we? Like, why is it the case that so often we come to Mass and we leave unchanged? When the whole point of it is, I've loved the Lord of the such a way that I'm not the same anymore. I think part of it is because we're missing two things. A, we're missing out on the reality that we're here to sacrifice. We're here to unite our prayers as kingdom priests, right, with the prayers of the ministerial priest at the altar. Who he is united to the great high priest, Jesus.

We forget, or we never knew that what we're supposed to be doing here is worshiping. We're supposed to be offering the sacrifice. We're supposed to be uniting our hearts. When the priest is praying those words, it's not like, okay, get done, get done. Okay, amen. That was my part. No, your part, our part together is to be saying, okay, Lord, Father in heaven, receive this sacrifice. May you be glorified. May this world be sanctified. May this world be changed and transformed. But if we just show up and we sit and watch, of course we're unchanged. That's why, you know, go look at the Grand Canyon. It's neat.

To hike the Grand Canyon, you're different. You don't look at the ocean. It's cool. You get in the ocean and swim around. Okay, you're going to be different. Go to the concert. Awesome. Take it in. You called up on stage. Your life is different from then on and on out.

And same thing is supposed to be true when it comes to the mass. We're not here to watch. We're not here to just be here. We're here to do something. We're here to offer up the sacrifice of the son to the Father and the Power of the Holy Spirit. We're also called to do the other thing. And this is the last thing. Remember the gold and the frankincense and the mur.

Gold for a king. frankincense for a priest and mur for the one who died Jesus is not just the priest who offers the sacrifice he is the sacrifice that's offered and so are you at every mass so are you in fact we even pray it in the Eucharistic prayer say Lord make of us an eternal offering to you

make of us an eternal oblation to you let us be our lives be a gift If I go to Mass and I return unchanged, it's probably because I didn't offer anything. Let's say that again. If I go to Mass and I leave the same way I walked in is because I didn't offer anything. I didn't give him anything. What do you mean? What do you mean?

What do you mean? I didn't give him what I was afraid of. I didn't give him what I love. I didn't give God access to my hope. I didn't give God access to my weaknesses. I didn't give God anything. I just showed up and watched. But you were not baptized to show up and watch.

Jesus Christ did not come to this earth so you could show up and watch. He didn't give us the gift of the Eucharist so you could show up to watch. He didn't die and rise from the dead and send His Holy Spirit into your life and my life so we could show up to Mass and watch. He did those things so that we could be part of the sacrifice, so we could unite our lives and I'm not. and our sacrifices to his life and to his sacrifice. He did this so that every time we approached him, we would be changed.

So that every time we walked into the church and offered the sacrifice with the priest, with Jesus himself, we would be different. We would be more like him. And we could never return to our home in the same way. We go back home, but every time you go back home by a different way.