Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 3/5/23 Prototype: Prayer

Episode Date: March 4, 2023

Homily from the Second Sunday of Lent. In teaching about prayer, Jesus offered something no other rabbi could give. Jesus, the Prototype, reveals His prayer to the Apostles. Every rabbi would teach his disciples how to pray, but Jesus is able to give His disciples something that no other rabbi could offer. Jesus prays as the Beloved Son...Jesus teaches His disciples to pray as beloved children who have been claimed by their Father. Mass Readings from March 5, 2023: Genesis 12:1-4 Psalms 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22.2 Timothy 1:8-10 Matthew 17:1-9

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.

And with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel, according to Matthew. Word to you, Lord. Chapter 17, verses 1 through 9. Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun,

and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you. One for Moses and one for Elijah.

While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid, but Jesus came and touched them saying, Rise and do not be afraid.

And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone. As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them. Do not tell the vision to anyone until the son of man has been raised from the dead. The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. So one of my favorite aspects of the wedding ceremony is one of those things that it's very common. It's the exchange of rings. I don't know why it is. I love the exchange of rings. Actually, I do know why it is.

Because I think a lot of it, a lot of times we don't get like the ring part. We get part of the ring part. And here's what I mean. Here's the part we get. It's the scene from the old movie or the TV show where there's this guy in a bar and he's married and some girl tries to hit on him and he's like, oh, sorry, you know, this ring means I love my wife. And like, yes, that's great. That's the right answer.

100% right answer in that kind of situation. But that's actually not what it means, but it's not what it means. Here's what I mean. Here's what I mean. In the wedding ceremony, in the wedding right, as Jack and Jill, they just got married. They just take you as my wife, I take you as my husband. And then they exchange rings. Jack will say to Jill, he'll say,

Jill, receive this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity in the name of the Father and of the Son of Holy Spirit. And then Jill will say, Jack, receive this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. So the ring that they're wearing is not actually the sign of their love. It's not the sign of their own fidelity. Like, I'm wearing this ring.

It's not like my love for my wife or my love for my husband. The ring you'll be wearing on your hand is actually a sign of their love for you. Have you ever thought about that? I don't know, you've heard that before. But this, it's just, if you see this ring, as a sound of my love, as a sound of my fidelity, the fact that this is a sign, to everyone who sees that ring, well, that person's been claimed. Like, that someone has declared over that person, like, I love you.

I am faithful and will be faithful to you. That's this declaration that the person's spoken for. That's the sign of the fidelity. That's the sign of love. It's kind of like in the Old Testament where here's the Lord God who, you know, destroys the earth with a flood and then he puts a rainbow in the sky. And he says, that rainbow, that's a sign of now. That's now a sign of my fidelity.

That's a sign of my dedication to no long, to never again destroy the earth by flood. It's just that when you see that sign, you know that, you know the declaration. Here's someone who's been claimed. Here's someone that's been spoken for. So last week we started this series prototype and we talked about how at the very beginning of a young Jewish person's life at the six years old, they'd go to the first school, Betsefer. And Betzafer, six years old to ten years old, learn the first five books of the Bible. If they moved on, if they didn't move on, they would say, go learn your father's trade.

If they were invited to move on, they would go to Bet Talmud, right? And so they would learn the rest of the Bible. So they'd memorize all the prayers, all the books of the Bible, all the words, the whole thing, whole Bible, and that 15 or 16 years old, that's the end of the line for them. They would say, go learn your father's trade, but those who were the best of the best of the best would go on to bet Midrash, that school where they would find a rabbi. And the goal of that school, right, wasn't just to learn more because there's no more. You just, you already have the Bible.

You have all of the words of the Bible memorized. The goal of that school is to find a rabbi that you could follow, a rabbi that you could observe, the rabbi you basically could imitate. And that was the goal. The goal was the imitation of the rabbi. The goal was to become like the rabbi. So we started the series called prototype because we recognize that here we are in Lent,

this is like bed midrash for us, that we know our prayers, we know the Bible, we know the stories. But the big question is, can I become like Jesus? Is there a way in which I can become like the prototype where I can become like the rabbi? You know, St. Paul even writes,

about this. In the book, Letter of the Ephesians, chapter 5, verse one, he says, to be imitators of God as beloved children. To be imitators of God as beloved children. And this has been the pattern that every Christian has taken upon themselves since that, since the very, very beginning, is how do I imitate Christ? How do I imitate Jesus? To how do I become, that's the goal, right? To know, like, what Jesus knows, to do what Jesus does, to be like Jesus. And so we're spending this time asking this question, okay, how does Jesus speak to others? How does Jesus grieve? How does Jesus suffer?

Last week we looked at how does Jesus face temptation? And this week, we want to ask the question. So if our goal is to become like a rabbi, the prototype, how does Jesus pray? This is the question this week. How does our prototype pray? In Bet Midrash, how does your rabbi pray? Because if we think about this, if you were a Jewish person and you were looking at a for a rabbi, you already know how to pray.

Basically, you would have a whole Bible memorized, which includes all 150 Psalms, so you know all of the Jewish prayers. You don't need anyone to teach you any more prayers. In fact, not only that, but you'd be a prayer. In fact, if you were a faithful Jewish person, you would pray at least, at least three times a day. Just like Daniel did, we talked about that in the last series.

Daniel rose and he prayed three times a day. This is what every faithful Jewish person would do. so you know all your prayers and you know when to pray. This is basic. But at one point, Jesus' as disciples, those who want to be like him, they approach him and they ask him. They say, Lord, teach us to pray. It's important to know what they're asking, what they're not asking.

They're not asking Jesus. Lord, teach us some new prayers. Because they already know all the prayers. They weren't asking Jesus to teach them some. I can do prayers. What they're asking Jesus to teach them is they're asking Jesus to teach them a new way to pray. They looked at him. They watched their prayers.

and they recognized, okay, there is a way that he prays that is different. We all know our prayers. This is like Catholics. You know, I have a good friend who says that as Catholics, one of our problems is this. We weren't ever taught how to pray. We were taught how to repeat. So, you know, we know our prayers because we know, like, I know our father, who are in heaven.

I know Hail Mary, full of grace. I know I believe in God. We know all these prayers. We weren't taught really how to pray, though. We were taught how to repeat. And so Jesus is disciples. They go to Jesus. they weren't asking him to teach them new prayers.

They were asking him to teach them, how do you pray? To pray in a new way. And I bring this up because in the gospel, it says Jesus led Peter, James, and took Peter James and John and led them up a high mountain. Now, in today's gospel, just says, lit them up high mountain by themselves.

In Luke's gospel, it tells us why Jesus led them up the high mountain. In Luke's gospel, it says Jesus took Peter James and his brother John, led them a high mountain in order to pray. So actually the reason why they're on the mountain is they are there to pray. And how do they do it? Like how does Jesus teach the disciples to pray? I would say the first thing is this. First three things are really normal.

But Jesus teaches them exactly what any other rabbi would teach. And this is the things for us, right? So if we want to teach, learn how to pray like Jesus prays. There's three things. Super basic, super simple. Any rabbi would teach you this. Number one is be consistent. I think a lot of times what I want when it comes to prayer is I want intensity.

I want to have like incredible feeling. I want to have, even if it's not an incredible feeling, I want to have it. I want to have incredible focus, right? I just want to be dialed in and drilled in and just like, okay, I'm not wavering from this. I want intensity. And yet we recognize this. What any rabbi would teach you, what any prayer will teach you, is that consistency would beat intensity every time, every time.

And so one of the first aspects that Jesus can communicate to his disciples is, is consistency. In fact, it's one of the reasons why I've learned. is so good, oh my goodness, Lent is so good for us because probably, remember we had chose those three things, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, what, how to pray, what to give up and how to give, those are great because at the very beginning of Lent, you probably chose, here is how I'm going to pray over the course of Lent. And then what happens is it is really inconvenient. It is incredibly inconvenient to pray this way because we're not used to praying this way. It's the best because it's the worst. It's best because it's the worst. Because what it does is it forces us

to make this decision. I feel like, okay, will I pray even when it's inconvenient? If I've decided I'm going to show up before the Lord in this particular way, at this particular time, do I do that only on my best days, or can I also do it on my normal days? Do I do it when I feel like it? And do I do it when I don't feel like it.

One of the things that Jesus teaches his disciples over the course of his life is how essential consistency is when it comes to prayer to be consistent. any rabbi could teach that. So teaches them to be consistent. The second is Jesus teaches them to be persistent. How does he do this? It says, I mean, look at Jesus praying in the garden of the Githemite. It says, he came back to his father repeatedly time after time saying, Father, let this cup pass from me, yet not my will be yours. And then he went back to his friends. And then went back to his father. Father, if it's your will, let this cup pass for me, but not my will, your will be

done. Jesus' prayer is persistent. Not only is it persistent that one night in the garden of the Semini, but it is consistently persistent because Jesus many times in the gospel, they've described Jesus as going up and spending all night in prayer. That's persistent prayer. But he does it a lot. So that's consistent, persistent prayer. So Jesus is not only consistent with his prayer, just regular, but he's also persistent that he does not easily give up on his prayer. But again, any rabbi can teach you that. Any rabbi will teach you, you need to be consistent in prayer, you need to be persistent in a prayer. You also, any rabbi will teach you this third thing,

is your prayer needs to be personal. Jesus' prayer is personal, right? Because every rabbi would pray, how? They pray to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They would, they know the God to whom they are praying. They memorize the Bible. They know the stories. They know the God who has revealed himself.

So every time a rabbi is going to teach one of his disciples how to pray, it's going to be personal. So that's all good. And that's what our prayer has to be too. We're not just showing up to repeat, we're showing up to truly pray so that our prayer must be, if we're going to be Catholic Christians, if we're going to be disciples of Jesus,

our prayer has to be consistent, persistent, and personal. That's just the baseline. But there's a unique aspect to Jesus' prayer that no one else could possibly have given. Last week, Jesus is in the wilderness, right? The tempter comes up to him and says, okay, if you are the son of God, then do these things, right?

Turn the stones into bread, throw yourself down for the temple, bowed on worshiping. If you are the son of God, today in the gospel, the father declares, this is my son. So if you are, and this is my son, the difference between if and is, is the difference between praying like any other rabbi and praying like Jesus. Because if is trying to do what? if it's trying to sow the seeds of doubt. This is what every one of us wrestles with at times.

If it's trying to sow the seeds of doubt, like, oh, really, does God really care about you? Do you really matter to the Lord? If he really cared, then what? If you really mattered, then what? But the word is, that's a declaration. I mean, what this changes is so important

because it changes the uncertainty. It changes the uncertainty of, does he hear, does he want me? Does it, do I matter? Who am I? and is changes not only the uncertainty, is changes the identity. This declaration in the gospel today is a declaration that Jesus is claimed by his father, and this is his deepest identity.

This is the most critical thing. I would say this, that the most distinctive aspect of Jesus' prayer, the thing that no other rabbi could ever teach or offer, is that Jesus prays as one who has been claimed by his father. That's the thing. Whenever his disciples would have seen Jesus pray, they would see that he prayed in different ways. Yes, of course he was consistent. He was persistent and he was personal. Of course, everyone is. Every prayer has to be that.

But Jesus could offer this distinctive and completely unique way of praying. It wasn't what he prayed. It was how he prayed. He prayed as one who had been claimed by his father. Again, any of us can say our prayers. Any of us can go to Mass. Any of us can pray the rosary. Any of us can read the Bible. But until you,

and I realize that we have been claimed by our Father, we won't be able to pray like our Rabbi. Until you and I realize that we have been claimed by our Father, we will not be able to pray like our prototype. The truth is, you have been claimed. This is a remarkable thing. If you're baptized, there's actually a right in baptism where you get, in the right of baptism, there's a part of that right where you're claimed. In fact, it's the very beginning of the right.

right where basically welcome everyone what have you named your child we've named her tori okay well then tory in the name of the Christian community I claim you for Jesus Christ and I trace the sign of the cross on your forehead with my thumb and invite your parents and godparents to do the same it's it's part of the right is to recognize that the father has declared over you mine that he said this is my daughter and he said he's declared this is my son. And then, and then what happens? When we get baptized, what do we become? We become. Because what Jesus can offer us. This is what Jesus gives to us. We become God's children in baptism. Remember what St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians. Chapter 5, verse one. The imitators of

God as what? As beloved children. This is the key. It changes everything about our prayer. No, your prayer can still be dry. Your prayer can still be distracted. Your prayer can be all over the place. you can even find yourself some days simply saying your prayers. But how you pray, how I pray, everything is changed. Because we pray as someone who has been claimed. You've been spoken for. And yes, there's that voice of the temperature that says, well, really, really? Like if?

If you are God's child, we silence the voice that says if, and we cling to the voice that says is. because this is who our rabbi is. And this is who you have become. You have become like our rabbi. We have become like our prototype. And because of that, we can pray like him. Because of that, we can pray as those who have been claimed by our father.