Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 3/26/23 Prototype: Tears

Episode Date: March 25, 2023

Homily from the Fifth Sunday of Lent. Why does Jesus weep? Jesus wept. Why does Jesus weep in the face of the death of Lazarus? He weeps to silence the Great Lie. He weeps because He loves. He weeps in order to teach us to weep. Mass Readings from March 26, 2023:Ezra 37:12-14Psalm 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8Romans 8:8-11 John 11:1-45

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 and 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.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John. Chapter 11, verses 1 through 45. Now, a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair. It was her brother Lazarus who was ill. So the sisters sent word to Jesus saying, Master, the one you love is ill. When Jesus heard this, he said, this illness is not to end in death,

but is for the glory of God. so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained two days in the place where he was. Then after this, he said to his disciples, let us go back to Judea. The disciples said to him, Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you. You want to go back there. Jesus answered, are there not 12 hours in a day?

If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of the world. But if one walks at night, he stumbles because the light. is not in him. He said this, and then he told them, our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I'm going to awaken him. So the disciples said to a master, if he is asleep, he will be saved. But Jesus was talking about his death while they thought he meant ordinary sleep. So then Jesus said to them clearly, Lazarus has died. And for your sake, I'm glad that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him. So Thomas Calidimus said to his fellow disciples, let us also go and die. And with him. When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

No, Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away, and many of the Jews who had come to Mary and Martha to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise. Martha said to him, I know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, yes, Lord, I have

come to believe that you are the Christ, the son of God, the one who is coming into this world. When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly saying, the teacher is here and asking for you. As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went out to him, for Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him. So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply disturbed and said, wherever you lane him. They said to him, sir, come and see. And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, see how he loved him. But some of them said, could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?

So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the dead man's sister said to him, Lord, by now there will be a stench. He's been dead for four days. Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God? So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, Father, I thank you for hearing me.

I know that you always hear me. But because of the crowd here, I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me. And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. The dead man came out, tied-handed foot with burial bands, and his face, wrapped. in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, untie him and let him go. Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him. The gospel of the Lord. Invite you to have a seat. So I was, on another note I was thinking about the insults that kids give to each other. I had a, I had a book when I was a kid called Snappy Insults and Funny Put Downs. I thought it was the best thing ever. And it just so interesting like the insults that you

each other as kids like, there was the insult. You are as unsatisfying as an unsalted pretzel. I just thought like, that's so clever. Or like, if you're Mr. Rogers' neighbor, he would move. You are the gray sprinkle on a rainbow sprinkled cupcake. It's good. It's impossible to underestimate you. I like that one. That was it. But you know, a lot of kids, we don't do, we don't do like those insults. We just call people names. Like, I mean, maybe you didn't, but someone's a tattletail. You don't want to be a tattletail. You don't be called. You don't be called this hat-l-tel-tell. I know some of you here, four-eyes. I thank God for LASIC, no longer, two eyes, I'm getting older, going back to four, but you don't want to, you know, four-eyes,

or some teacher's pet, that's an insult. You don't want to be a teacher's pet. I think the one that is just so interesting, I don't know why it'd be an insult, but it is an insult. To call someone a copycat, I mean, just that was the worst, right? Like in second grade, someone said, you're a copycat, like, no, I'm not. He's so mad about this. And I've been thinking about that particular insult, because it is kind of insulting. And yet, what has this whole Lent been about? This whole Lent we've been talking about is that the whole goal of life

is the imitation of Christ. Like the whole goal of our Lent, the whole goal of, again, being a Christian is to be a copycat when it comes to Jesus. It's a look at Christ's life and say, I'm going to do exactly what he did. I'm going to live how he lived. I'm going to love how he loved.

So we talked about this from the very beginning, this series we've been going through the whole course of Lent called Prototype because Jesus is our prototype. He's our rabbi. And so if you remember this, remember there's three schools you go through it as a Jewish

kid. At six years old, you go to a Betz Affair. And Betz Affair, from six years old to 10 years old, you memorize the first five books of the Bible. And if you're out good, but not great, your teacher says, okay, now go learn the trade of your father. And you move on. But if you're the best of the best, you move on to the next school, which is Bet Talmud. And in Bet Talmud, from 10 years old to to 15 years old, you memorize the entire Old Testament. And 15 years old, if you're good, but not great, your rabbi, your teacher says, go learn the trade of your father. But if you're the best the best of the best, you move on to Bet Midrash. And Bet Midrash is where you find a rabbi.

And basically, you just follow him. That's your job becomes a professional copycat. Your job becomes, I am just watching my rabbi to see how he interacts with people, to see how he prays, to see how he lives, because I want to live how my rabbi lives. You become a professional copycat. You just basically fake it. I've been thinking about this, especially since, you know, here we are, almost at the end of Lent.

we ask the question, is that all we're doing? It's all we're doing just pretending. I don't know if you've heard of C.S. Lewis, but you will twice tonight. C.S. Lewis, he wrote about this, and he said, you know, to put it bluntly, this is his quote, he said, to put it bluntly, to be a Christian means you're dressing up as Christ. If you like, you are pretending. And we're pretending because he says, of course, the one you realize that you're supposed to act like a son of God, you realize you're not a son of God.

That the moment you realize, I'm supposed to have a heart like Jesus, I don't. don't have a heart like Jesus. So he goes on to say, he says, but the odd thing is, Jesus has ordered us to do it. Why? What's the good of pretending to be what you're not? Lewis goes on to say, he says, well, even on the human level, there are two kinds of pretending. There's good pretending and bad pretending. The bad pretending is where the pretense is there instead of the real thing. So like when someone pretends he's going to help you instead of actually helping you. That's the bad pretending. But there's also good pretending where the pretense leads up to the real thing. He gives a couple examples. And the two examples he gives is like beauty and the beast.

He says, Beauty and the Beast is a story of this girl who has to marry a monster. She has to love the monster as if he was a prince. She has to kiss him as if he was a prince. And it turns out that much to her relief, he really did become a prince. So she treated him as if he was a thing and he actually became the thing. That was pretending that led to the real thing. Another story he gives, Lewis gives, he says, there's another story about someone who had to wear a mask and the mask made him look a lot nicer than he actually was. And he had to wear this mask for years. And then when he took it off, he found that his face had grown to fit it. He really did become beautiful. When it had begun as a disguise became a reality. And this is kind of what Bet Midrash is. This is what Lent is supposed to be.

That we pretend and pretend to pretend to be like Jesus. And at some point, we actually become like Jesus because we realize, right, we can't just end with the surface. Like we can't just look like Jesus on the outside. The inside has to match the outside. And the outside has to match the inside. or else we're inauthentic. Well, another way to say it is, I can't just have the actions of Jesus. I have to have the heart of Jesus. Like, that's what it is to go through Bette Midrash.

That's what it is to do the imitation of Christ. It's one of the reasons I love today's gospel. Like today's gospel is incredible. To watch today's God, there's so much going on, you guys. In today's gospel, you have the courage of Thomas. Everyone talks about Thomas. I'm like doubting Thomas. This is like BA Thomas.

It's like, let's go to Jerusalem and die with Jesus. Jesus. I mean, this is courage. We have the grief of Mary and Martha. You have the miracle of Lazarus rising from the dead. But the thing I just want to focus on tonight is the shortest passage in the entire Bible. That here in John chapter 11 is the shortest passage in the entire Bible and it's only two words long. And it simply says Jesus wept. I don't know if you've ever wondered at that. Because it's kind of a mysterious thing. Like you think, okay, why did Jesus weep? Because I mean, he knows what's going to happen. He knows that he's going to overcome death.

He knows that he's going to restore Lazarus to his sisters. So the question is, why the tears? Like, why does Jesus cry? We can ask the question, why do we cry? We cry for a bunch of reasons, right? We cry from everything from the smallest thing, like, I have something in my eye, to, it's an emotional release. It's a signal that I'm in distress.

Like literally, it's a cry for help. We cry when we experience extreme emotion. right, when we're exceedingly happy or we're really, really tired, or when we're really nervous or stressed out or scared. You and I, we cry when we lose. You and I cry when we lose something that really matters to us. You and I cry when we lose someone who really matters to us. In the Acts of the Apostles, there's this moment where Paul is leaving Ephesus. And in Ephesus, he had met all these people there and they became Christians because of his fatherhood. They became Christians because of him.

And at one point, he's at the docks and he's going to sail away from Ephesus and never come back. And it says in the Acts of the Apostles that says that all those Christians gathered around and they threw their arms around his neck and they began to sob because they knew that they would never see him again. And we cry when that happens. And we know, like, I will never see you again. I'll never be able to come back to this place again.

And even no matter how much time we have had, we can have a whole lifetime with a person, or even it can be a broken relationship, we can still weep. You know, in Genesis, there's a story of Abraham and Sarah. If you know anything about Abraham and Sarah is they were married a really long time. Like they lived exceedingly a long time. Like they were married for over 100 years. That's a long time. And yet, when Sarah died, it said that Abraham would go to her tomb and he would just sit there and weep.

Because sometimes no matter how much time we've got with a person, to lose them is devastating. There's another story in Book of Samuel where he was David, King David. King David was a great king. King David was a really bad dad. David was a great king, but he didn't raise his kids well.

In fact, so much brokenness. One of his kids, he raised so poorly that he actually formed a coup against his father trying to actively kill his father. Broken relationships, you know, troubled family. At one point, though, Absalom, the man who was trying to kill his dad, David, was killed himself. And what happens is that even in this broken relationship, David heard

that his son Absalom had died and he went to the gate over the city and he just began to weep and cry out, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom, my son. Would that I had died instead of you because that's what happens, right? When we weep, when we lose. So the question is, why did Jesus weep? I think that Jesus weeps today, in the gospel today, for at least three reasons. At first, I think the first reason Jesus weeps is he weeps to kill the great fear. I think he's there with Mary and Martha, and he weeps because he needs to kill this great fear. We know Mary and Martha, right? We know that previously, when Jesus comes up on the scene, Martha says, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

And then later on, Mary says the exact same thing to Jesus. Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Which is incredibly different than what they say earlier in the gospel. earlier in the gospel you know the story that Jesus is visiting Mary and Martha and Mary's sitting at the feet of Jesus and she's listening to Jesus and Martha's doing all the work right and what is it that Martha says to Jesus there she says Lord do you not care that my sister's left me to do all the work tell her to help me and in that moment Martha's not lazy right she's not a tattletale in that moment Martha is expressing the great fear that every one of us has it's it's the fear

that everyone who ever has ever felt forgotten everyone who is who is who is who is ever experienced the pain of being unnoticed? Every person who has done all the things, like I've done all the things for the Lord, does it matter to him? I've done all the things for my family, do they even care? I've done all the things for the people around me, and it seems like they don't even notice. The question that Martha asks at the heart is, Lord, do you not care? This is the great fear every one of us has, that I'm doing all these things. And do you not even care? Like, do they not even matter? Do I not even matter? Did you notice that in the gospel today. Neither Martha nor Mary say, Jesus, do you not even care that my brother died? They don't say that.

Why? Because they know the answer. They know the truth. That question has already been settled. Yes, Jesus delayed, but he was not indifferent. Jesus weeps. Why? Because he's not indifferent. Jesus weeps because he's not unmoved. Now we have to pause on this. This is so important. Right? This is Bet Midrash. We're following our rabbi. We're studying our rabbi. We're looking at everything is doing because we need to live like this. The disciples who watched Jesus, They knew the back story. They knew that Jesus had heard that Lazarus was sick. They knew that Jesus knew that Lazarus was sick before Lazarus had died.

And they also knew that Jesus knew and waited. They knew that Jesus waited and then he wept. And in those tears, Mary and Martha knew that they mattered. In those tears, Mary Martha knew that their brother mattered. In those tears, Mary and Martha knew that their loss mattered, that they mattered to Jesus. And they knew something even more. They knew it was for the glory of God. Right, that's what Jesus said.

This is not going to end to death. This is for the glory of God. We know this. God can be glorified in the miracle. Whenever there's a miracle, God can be glorified. He often is. But I will say this, that God can be even more glorified in the faith and the trust and the love of the person who doesn't get the miracle and still keeps walking in faith.

the person who doesn't get the miracle and still keeps walking in trust. The person who doesn't get the miracle and still keeps walking in love. Some of you know this, every fall we have a thing called Alpha on campus. Alva was like a basic introduction to Christianity. And the leader of the whole thing is an Anglican vicar named Nikki Gumble. And he told the story about a man he knows, a friend of his name Patrick Pearson Miles. Patrick Pearson Miles is a man who belongs to the Lord. Like he's a Christian.

He's a kind of guy who is actually, he is prayed. over people and they've been healed. Like he's he's laid hands on people and they've recovered from devastating sickness. Patrick Pearson Miles is someone that God is used to do miracles in this world. And yet, for the past 25 plus years, Patrick Pearson Miles has had total kidney failure. He had a kidney transplant. It was rejected. And every day for the last 25 plus years, he's been on dialysis. And he's had many people pray over him. He's many people pray for him for healing and he's never been healed. And this is the crazy thing. He's never been healed and yet he still trusts and he still loves. He actually even said this. He said, you know the real gift,

it'd be nice to be healed. But he said the real gift is I get eternal life. He said it'd be great to be healed, but the real gift is I get Jesus forever. He says, if I'm healed physically, that's just a bonus. Why? Because he trusts. And there's something powerful about someone who can trust the Lord even when they're not healed, even though it hurts. What did they say? When Jesus wept, they looked at him and said, see how he loved him. How many times?

How many times in the scripture today does it say? The very beginning of chapter 11, it says, when Jesus, the one you love is ill. Then it goes on to say that now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. But did you ever notice the way it says after that? It says, no, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. so when he heard that he was ill, he waited for two days. That's one of the most confusing scriptures I've ever seen in my life.

Like, when Jesus heard that the person he loved was in distress, he took a siesta. I don't get it. Because why would Jesus wait? Here's why. The second reason why Jesus wept is so simple. Jesus wept because he loves. He wept because he loves. But this moment is a pivotal turning point.

Jesus could have stayed home, right? Jesus could have stayed away. what happens after Jesus goes to Bethany? What happens after this moment? I don't know if you've ever read the scripture. Jesus goes to Bethany to wake Lazarus and it costs him everything. He had left this region because they were trying to kill him.

When he came back, they actually succeeded. This is so important for us to understand because Jesus walks up to the tomb, roll away the stone. He says three words, that's all. Piece of cake. He doesn't even do CPR. He just cries out loudly, says Lazarus, come out.

The dead man comes out, but those three words cost Jesus everything. Those three words came at the price of Jesus as very life because his love for Martha and Mary and Lazarus came with a price. It brought him back to Jerusalem. And the very next thing that happens after this, the very next thing that happens after this healing is Palm Sunday. The love that Jesus had for Mary and Martha and Lazarus led to his death. The very last line we have in the gospel today,

It says many came to believe in him. A couple verses later, it says, and others, from this moment on, others plotted to kill him. And this is what these disciples saw. Remember, they're in Bette Midrash. They're watching their master. They're watching their rabbi.

They're watching their prototype. And they're realizing that if I'm going to have the heart of my rabbi, if I'm going to have the heart of my prototype, I have to be willing to love even when it costs. This is true for us. Loving Martha and Mary and Lazarus, raising Lazarus, cost Jesus his life. And if we're going to be his disciples,

love is going to cost us something, which is nothing new. I mean, again, here's a second, C.S. Lewis quote. It's one of my all-time favorites. It's about love. It's about the price of love. C.S. Lewis says this. He says, when it comes to life, when it comes to love, there's no safe investment.

To love at all is to be vulnerable. He said, love anything, and your heart will certainly be rung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping your heart intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries, avoid all entanglements, lock it up safe in a casket or a coffin of your own selfishness.

But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will not be broken. It will become unbreakable. Impenetrable. Irredeemable. It will change. The alternative to tragedy, or at least the risk of tragedy, is damnation. And the only place outside heaven where you can perfectly be safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is hell.

Jesus teaches his disciples that love costs something. Jesus, why does he weep? He weeps because he loves. He weeps because he's not indifferent. He weeps because he loves. And the last thing, the last third reason why Jesus weeps, he weeps because he's teaching us something. He weeps because he's teaching.

Remember, this is Bed Midrash. St. Augustine, he said this. He said, why does Jesus weep except to teach us to weep? Jesus allows his heart to be broken for what breaks our hearts. And that's the kind of heart he wants. That's the kind of heart that Jesus wants us to have. He wants us to have the kind of hearts that actually are able to be broken.

So that's the rabbi we're imitating, right? That's the Jesus we're imitating. Not a heart that's numb, not a heart that's indifferent. Not a heart that only loves when it's convenient, but a heart that's willing to love even when it costs us. And also, not a heart that allows the grief to stop us from moving forward. Have you ever been in that place where, like, you lose that person? That you've been in that place where the grief is so overwhelming that you look at everyone else and you're like, how are you still going to school?

Like, everyone around you're like, how are you still going to work? My world just ended. How are you still moving forward? If you've ever lost someone, you absolutely know what that feels like. You allowed your heart to break. Why? Because you're not indifferent. Why?

Because you actually love. And also, because you've been taught by Jesus. You look around and people are still. living their lives and you say, how can you still live your life when my life is over? Jesus teaches us how to weep and still walk forward. Jesus teaches us to have a heart that's broken, but still beating. That's the reality about Christians, right?

For Christians, we grieve. Christians, we get to mourn. Christians, we get to weep because we're like a rabbi. But we don't weep like those who have no hope. We don't mourn like those who have no hope. We mourn like Jesus. Yes, our hearts are broken, but they keep beating. And yes, we we keep on walking.

And this is the last thing. All of life, even the worst parts of life, all of life, even the tears. It all gets to be bit, Midrash. Why does Jesus weep? He weeps because he loves. Why do we weep? We weep because we love. And we keep on going because we love.

And we keep on going because we trust. And we keep on walking because our roots. road is not over yet because our story is not over yet. We still have life to live. We still have to move forward. There's more. And that's what it is to be a disciple. That's what it is to have the heart of Jesus. Because our prototype, our rabbi, let his heart be broken and he wept and he kept walking. So we do the same. We love and we let our hearts be broken and we we weep and we keep walking.