Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 3/12/23 Prototype: Vision

Episode Date: March 11, 2023

Homily from the Third Sunday of Lent. Jesus taught the world how to see the person. We are constantly facing the temptation to define people by their group or by their shame. Jesus reveals that, while He knows the group or by their shame, He sees the person...the individual...and calls them by their name. Mass Readings from March 12, 2023: Exodus 17:3-7 Psalms 95:1-2, 6-9Romans 5:1-2, 5-8 John 4:5-42

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. A reading from the Holy Gospel, according to John. Chapter 4, verses 5 through 42. Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son, Joseph. Jacob's well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. His disciples had gone into town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, how can you, a Jew, ask me a Samaritan woman, for a drink? For Jews used nothing in common with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God,

and who is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, Sir, you do not even have a bucket, and this cistern is deep. Where, then, can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Joseph, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?

Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water that I shall give will never thirst. The water I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water. Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come back. The woman answered and said to him, I do not have a husband. Jesus answered her, you're right in saying I have no husband.

For you have had five husbands, and the one you are with now is not your husband. What you have said is true. The woman said to him, sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem. Jesus said to her, believe me, woman. The hour is coming when you will worship the Father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand, while we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews.

But the hour is coming and is now here when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. And indeed the Father seeks such people to worship Him. God is Spirit. And those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. The woman said to him, I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ. When he comes, he will tell us everything. Jesus said to her, I am He, the one speaking with you now. At that moment his disciples returned and were amazed that.

he was talking with a woman, but still no one asked, what are you looking for, or why are you talking with her? The woman left her water jar and went into town and said to the people, come and see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ? They went out of town and came to him. Meanwhile, his disciples urged him, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat, which you do not know. So the disciples said to one another, could someone have brought him something to eat? Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of the will of the world. I have to do the will the one who sent me, and to finish his work. Do you not say, in four months, the harvest will be here? I tell you, look up and see the fields right for the harvest. The reaper is already receiving his

payment and gathering crops for eternal life so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. For here, the saying is verified that one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruit of their work. many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman who testified he told me everything I have done. When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them and he stayed there two days. Many more came to believe in him because of his word, and they said to the woman, we no longer believe because of your word, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world. the gospel of the Lord.

So a few weeks ago, when we started Lent, we started this series called Prototype, right? And the idea behind this whole thing is that here is the school, the schools that you would, if you were a Jewish kid growing up in Israel in the first century, you'd first go to the school, the school would be called Betzaffair, right? Betz-Fair from six years old to 10 years old, you'd learn the first five books of the Bible, first of five books of Moses. If that was enough school for you, they would say,

go learn the trade of your father and you'd be dismissed and you go back home. If you were the best of the best, you'd go on to Bet Talmud and from 10 years old to 15 years old, you'd learn the entire rest of the Bible, you'd memorize it a whole thing. And then if you were the best of the best, if you weren't, you'd go learn the trade of your father. If you were the best of the best of the best, you'd be invited to find a rabbi. And that was Bet Midrash. If you're part of the school of Bet Midrash, the goal was to become like your rabbi.

You'd find a rabbi. And not just learn the Bible from him, but learn how to live from him. And so as we're in this season of Lent, we're in this, again, series called Prototype, we're in bed midrash. We're in this place of just watching a rabbi, watching Jesus and Sam Cui. How does he do these things? You know, there's this moment in the gospel, not today's gospel, but a moment in the gospel when Jesus says, come to me, basically.

He says, all you who are labor and are burdened, and I'll give you rest. He says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Now that phrase, take my yoke upon you and learn from me is very, really important. I mean, not only because Jesus said it, but also because of the image that it gives, what is a yoke? Well, a yoke is this, you know, farming implement. It's made of wood or of metal of some sort, and it goes around the shoulders of a beast of burden. And there's such a thing as a single yoke, right? There's the one here you have one cow or something. You put that yoke around that cow's shoulders. But most often time, there would be a dual yoke. And so you'd have one beast of burden

that would have its head through the yoke and another beast of burden that would have its head through the adjoining, the next yoke. When Jesus is saying, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, one of the things he could be saying is, yep, do what I'm doing, right? They work the way I'm working. 100%. Yes, absolutely, that's what it is to follow the rabbi. But an aspect of that is, here is Jesus, with his head through this yoke.

He's not saying, put your head in the yoke instead of me, but with me. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. So here's Jesus, picture this, with his head through this. the yoke, inviting us to put our heads in that adjoining yoke. The invitation here is to look at the world the way I look at the world. Like Jesus is inviting us to have his perspective, to see things the way he sees things. And again, this is, remember, the whole goal of being in that midrash is to not just know what your rabbi knows, also to do what your rabbi does, to see how your rabbi sees.

to be like your rabbi. This is the imitation of Christ. This is why we're doing this whole Lent based off of this command we have to be imitators of Christ. And we do that in many ways by seeing the way Jesus sees. Last week, it was,

how does Jesus see the Father? How does he see himself? He's one who's been claimed by the Father. And this weekend, we get to ask the question, how does Jesus see others? So if Jesus has invited us, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Okay, how does he see his father? How does he see this world?

How does he see other people? And we have this incredible story today of Jesus with this woman at the well, the Samaritan woman at the well. And it's so important, I think, to understand this, because if we're going to look at others, the way Jesus wants us to look at others, if we're going to take his yoke upon us and see the way he sees, and we're going to become like him. We're going to be imitators of Jesus.

We have to know more about the story. You probably maybe know some of these things. already these elements. Here's Jesus, and he gets to the well. The disciples leave him. They go into town to get some food. Now, here's the interesting thing about Jews and Samaritans is they do not get along. In fact, we have this idea of like the Good Samaritan. There was a guy in seminary with me, a couple years ahead of me. They used to do a study abroad in Jerusalem program. And at one point, he was living in Israel for this, you know, three months. And he came back and he told this story. He said, at one point, there's this woman in a shop. And she was helping

him out with something. And one of his buddies came up and said, hey, do you need any help? He's like, oh, no, no, no, this Good Samaritan helped me out. and this woman, who was a Jewish woman, got so mad. She was so incredibly offended. He meant it as a compliment by calling me a good Samaritan. She took it as a massive offense. Like, I'm not a Samaritan. I am a Jewish woman who belongs, who worships the Lord God.

Like this is a people who did not get along. Here's Jesus. Now, most people, most Jews, if they were going from the north of Israel to Judea, to Jerusalem, they would go out of the way, days out of the way to avoid going through Samaria. But here's Jesus, walking through Samaria. And here's a Samaritan woman. So first of all, the fact that he's talking with Samaritan in the first place is pushing the boundaries. Then he's talking with a woman.

Now, there are stories that abound in Judaism about how a Jewish man would not talk to any woman who is not his direct relative in public. In fact, there are stories of back in the first century of Jewish men who wouldn't even talk with their own family in public. They wouldn't talk to their own daughter in public or their own wife in public. There is this sense of propriety, right? So here's this Samaritan who don't talk to Samaritans, don't have anything to do with Samaritans. John gives a little allusion to that. Here's a woman that Jesus shouldn't that be talking to. But here's the ultimate point is that here's a woman who is coming to the well at noon.

Now, if you're coming to a well at noon, either you've planned your day really, really poorly, or there's a reason why you have to come at noon. because the time to draw water is in the morning. The time to draw water is in the cool of the day or the cool of the evening. You would not draw water because it's, it is cumbersome to carry a massive bucket or cistern or to get a bucket from the cistern back to the city in the middle of the day where it's blazing hot. So either she planned this poorly or there's a reason. And we learn that there's a reason that all the other women, they would come.

to the cistern in the morning. That's when they would get their water. That's when they'd have their time with friends, time with family, time with, you know, other sisters. But this woman was not welcomed there. We find out why. We find out because she has a broken story. She hasn't just been married five. She's been married five times and the man she's with right now is not even her husband. So you have this this triple dilemma here where here is this person who shouldn't be talked to because she's a Samaritan. She's part of this one group. She's a woman. So propriety would say she would say she would she shouldn't be talked to, and she also has a broken story. So Jesus shouldn't talk to her.

But what does Jesus do? What does our rabbi do? What does our prototype do? He doesn't do what we would do. I think a lot of times we see someone's group. I mean, the two things we do typically is we see someone's group or we see someone's shame all the time. I mean, I do this when I don't even want to. I see someone's group. I mean, if someone's, you get mad at someone a little annoyed at someone, all of a sudden, the easiest thing in the world is to classify them, right? The easiest thing in the world is to put them into a group. Like, you know, driving along the road, this is where I get my most anger out. So driving along the road, someone's slow driving in the left lane and they're in a truck. I'm like, ah, truck drivers, what the heck? Or someone's driving in the left

lane and they're driving to Tesla? Oh, Tesla drivers, like, I don't know. Are people driving in left lane and they have their dog on their lap? Oh, people drive their dogs on their laps. Like, those people are stupid. Like this, we can easily group people. We just, that's what we tend to do. to identify people by their group. And what does Jesus reveal? Jesus reveals that ultimately, he cares about the person, not the group, that the person belongs.

Of course, our group is important. I mean, psychologists have demonstrated this, that at some point we need to be part of a group. We need to be part of a group and know that we're accepted. We know that we belong. That is absolutely necessary for proper human development to know that you're part of a group

and you're wanted there, like a family, but for proper human development, at some point, I have to differentiate myself from that group. I have to recognize, you know, this is the remarkable discovery of Jesus, the revelation of Jesus in the Gospels. The Judeo-Christianity not only reveals that we need to be part of a group, that's incredible, but that's known around the world. Almost every people knows that we need to be part of a group. What Jesus reveals is that we also need to discover the fact that we are an individual in the midst of the group. And the individual is even more important than the group. That Jesus, how he sees people, is he sees the person, not the group.

This image, this vision has transformed the world. Jesus sees the person and not the group. The impact this has made on our world is astounding. So in the 18th century, there was a man in England. His name was William Wilberforce. You might have known, might know the name William Wilberforce. At one point, he was the youngest person ever to be a elected to British Parliament. And he was kind of a waste of space in some ways. I mean, he was just kind of a waste of life. He got that place because he was really smart guy.

He was really driven. But also, he was kind of in the right position. At one point, after serving in parliament for a little while, he went on a trip. And he took a pilgrimage through Europe to Rome. He became a Christian on that pilgrimage. On that trip, he became a Christian. He came back to England. And he asked the question.

He was asking himself the question. And in prayer, asking God the question, okay, now what do I do? because, God, I realize this parliament is not for, like, they're not good people there. And so I want to be a good person. I want to be a saint. I want to be holy. Should I stay in parliament or not? So he took a lot of time and he just prayed.

He asked God's discernment, what should I do? And after this prayer, many, many weeks, he had two resolutions. He said, he's going to stand parliament. And what he was going to devote his life to was to two things. One was the reform of morals in England. And the second was the abolition of the European slave trade. Now, we might hear the second one, like, yeah, all right, you know, abolition of the European slave trade. And the first one, I think, well, the reform of morals, are you sure?

Well, what was happening at the time of 18th century England is it was not a good place. If you think like, oh, that was a puritanical time. No, it was the opposite of puritanical time. It was the time where what we met by reform of morals is basically reform of culture. In those ages, in that age, child labor was commonly accepted. kids working in factories at four years old. William Woodpour said, that's not right.

Just to lump, pour people together and say they have to serve this way, that's not right. At least he saw the person. At that time, alcoholism was rampant across the country. In fact, there were minutes where it talks about whole sessions of parliament, where everyone in parliament was completely drunk as they were serving, quote-to-quote, serving in parliament.

Alcoholism was rampant. And yeah, you could group people together and save just a bunch of drunks. but because William Wilberforce had taken the yoke of Jesus upon him, he saw the person, not the group. At that time, the dehumanizing of people was massive. At one point, they had bear baiting, basically, where they would either pit a bear up against a bunch of dogs

and just watch who survives, fight to the death. Then they would have, when they got bored with that, they would have public executions. Here's a criminal who was going to get executed. It's not enough for me to watch. a bear get killed or tortured to death by these dogs, I'm going to watch a human being get killed. And then after that, they would have public dissections of human bodies. This is like the culture that he's living in. In fact, not only that, prostitution in London was rampant.

It was said at one point that one out of every four single women in London was a prostitute and the average age was 16 years old. So when William Wilberforce took on the yoke of Jesus and began to see like his rabbi, right? To see like Jesus saw, he learned that, no, we have to see the person, not the group. And then when it came to the British slave trade, right? Exactly the same kind of thing is here are these people who are being shipped across the ocean from Africa or to Europe or to America. He said, no, these are individuals, not just a group of people. And this is the massive and radical distinction that seeing like Jesus sees to be like our prototype has transformed the world. Two weeks before William Wilburne,

force died, British Parliament passed a bill eradicating, abolishing the British slave trade. Because why? Because this one individual was willing to see the way Jesus sees, the way Jesus sees this Samaritan woman, he saw the person and not the group. And this is our invitation as well. And everyone we're dealing with to not say, oh, you're one of those people. Just because I know this one thing about you means I know you. That's false. To see the way Jesus sees means I see the person, not the group. But also to see the way Jesus sees means I see the person, not the shame. Because here is this woman who's, she's disqualified. I mean, she's even disqualified from her own people. She's disqualified as a Samaritan. She's disqualified as the women in her own culture.

In her own group, she's disqualified. Why? Because too often we define a person, we label a person by their shame. We maybe say we call a person by their shame. But Jesus, he knows her shame. I mean, even tells her, you've been married five times. I already know this. The one you're with is not your husband. He knows her shame, but he calls her by her name. This is the massive distinction, massive difference between the way a Christian has to look at the world. We see the person, not their shame. We don't always do that. In fact, we probably fail more often than not. But when we do do it, it's incredible.

Like when we actually do succeed in this, it is remarkable. It can actually change people's lives. There's a story I always share. Whenever we talk about the theology of the body, there's a story that I heard Christopher West once share back in the day. It's about a bishop named, a bishop onus. And the story is that at one point, Bishop Nonas, this is way back in the first centuries of Christianity.

Bishop Nones is walking out of a church, and he's walking out with a bunch of other bishops. And as he and these other bishops are walking out of this church, in that exact moment, there's a woman who's crossing the street right in front of them, and it's a well-known prostitute in that town. And she, as I always to say, is like dressed for work. So basically her shame is on display. And the bishop, who's standing next to bishop, known as he immediately sees, oh, there's a prostitute there, he looks away.

And because he's averting his eyes, right? He's protecting his own sense of chastity, his own sense of purity. He doesn't want to use this woman. And so he looks away. And then he notices the bishop next to him, Bishop Nones, is actually not looking away. He's actually staring directly at this woman as she's walking by. And he corrects him, he scolds him.

He says, Bishop, what are you doing? Avert your eyes. And as Bishop Nones turns to his brother, Bishop, and looks at him, there are tears in his eyes. And he says the words, he says, what a tragedy it is, that such beauty has been used by the lusts of men.

What a tragedy it is, that such beauty has been sold to the lusts of men. Because he saw this woman walk by, but he saw her, not her shame.

He saw her, not her sin. He saw, he did not find her by her story. He just saw her. And to be able to look that way, right? The other bishop, he had looked away. He had to look away. Sometimes we all have to look away.

to look away in that sense that, okay, if I don't, I'll be tempted to use this person because that's our broken hearts. But that's not the point. The point is to have the yoke of Jesus, right, to be like our rabbi, to be in this bed midrash where we actually see the person and not the shame. Now, the story goes on that the woman, the prostitute, she actually noticed that a bunch of bishops walked out and the one of them stared at her. But the way he stared at her, the way he looked at her, she recognized was different than

the way any other man has ever stared at her before. And so she actually made some inquiries and asked the question, who was this person, bishop, Phonathus Bishop, known us, and she went to visit him. In that visit, he told her about Jesus Christ and how Jesus loves her, that Jesus knows her name, calls her by her name, even though he knows her shame, that he could give her a new life, that she became a Christian. In fact, she didn't just be a Christian. Her name is Pelasia, and she's now known in the church as Saint Palaisia, this woman who was seen by another... Bishop, Saint Bishop Nones, who had looked at her the way Jesus looked at the woman at the well.

He looked at her the way that we're all supposed to look at every person. How does Jesus look at people? He sees the person, not their group. He sees the person and not their shame. And this is our invitation. It's to fight against that temptation to group someone together. To fight the temptation to say, I know everything I need to know about you.

I know your worst moment. How often do we define someone by their worst choices? How often do we define someone by the worst thing they've done as opposed to being like Jesus? Who says, I know, I know the story, but I see you.

This is what it is to be in Bed Midrash. This is what it is to let Jesus be our prototype. This is the last thing. I back in here in the diocese of Duluth we had a bishop when I was growing up we pray for him at every mass pray for Bishop Brom our Bishop Bram our Bishop

At one point after Bishop Brom left Duluth he went to become the bishop of San Diego and a friend of mine he writes a bunch of books His name was Jason Everett Jason Everett at one point he was talking about his Bishop Bishop Brom and I was like Whoa wait wait no no you mean my bishop Bishop Bishop Brom He's like well

Our Bishop Bishop Brom that he recounted the story. It's actually he wrote about it in his book about John Paul II, his five loves. At one point, Bishop Brom, when he became in the Diocese of Duluth, he had to go on a visit to the Holy Father,

the Pope John Paul II, who had, you know, named him Bishop. And he walks into a pretty big day, you get to meet the Pope, and he walks into the Pope's office, and he says, Holy Father, it's an honor to meet you. And John Paul II stands up, and he comes across his desk,

and he says, no, Bishop Brom, We've met before. It's good to see you again. He's like, no, no, no, Holy Father. I'm so sorry, but we've never met before. I remember meeting you. I remember meeting the Pope. He's like, no, no, we've met before.

And Bishop Brahms was like, I'm really sorry. You must have me confused with someone else. Holy Father, we've never met. And John Paul the second says, well, no, we have. This is the second time we've met. And Bishop Brom, it doubles down. It's like, no, we haven't met. Anyways, John Paul, lets it go.

They have the rest of their meeting. At the end of the meeting, Bishop Brom leaves the office. And Colonel Jivish, who was the Pope's personal secretary, Follow us him out into the hallway, and he stops him, and he looks him in the eyes and he says, never argue with the Holy Father. He says, were you here in Rome back in, he gave him the date when such and such? He said, yes. He said at one point when Brom Chambal II was the Archbishop of Krakow, Karwai Tiwa,

was walking out of the Jesu, which is the Jesuit church in Rome, walking out of the Jsu with three other Polish seminarians. And you met on the stairs outside there. This is how many years ago before the Pope was even the Pope. And you met on the stairs right there. At that point, Bishop Brom was just a priest. That's where you first met. He remembers that you've met twice now.

And he was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this. But that's what people say about John Paul II. Is that he would see the person. Whenever he met them, he would meet them. He wouldn't be concerned or preoccupied, distracted by their group, their shame, don't be distracted by any of the things that we're distracted by. He would see the person.

he would see like Jesus. Now the story goes on where Pope Bishop Brom actually went back to meet the Holy Father years after this, for another one of those papal visits. And as he walked in, John Paul looks up and he says, Bishop Bram, it's good to see you again. How many times have you and I met? And Bishop Brom says, we have met three times. The first time was on this steps outside the J-Soo, and John Paul looks up and goes, you remember, great.

He didn't remember. He was reminded. This reality, of course, is the last thing. thing, this reminder, of course, is that we will fail at this, but we're called to this. Our temptation is going to be to see people's groups. Our temptation is to know people by their shame. But the way our rabbi sees people around us is, yes, he knows the shame. And yes, he knows those small things like groups, but he also knows our name. He also sees us. He also sees us. And for us to be like our rabbi, for us to be like our prototype,

means we have taken his yoke upon our shoulders. And we see others the way he sees them.