Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 4/23/23 Homestretch: Hope

Episode Date: April 22, 2023

Homily from the Third Sunday of Easter Christian hope does not trust that all will be well if I get what I want, but that all will be well even when I don't. Sometimes the hardest part of the race is the last lap...and sometimes the hardest part of the race is the second to last lap. When the finish line is so far off that you can't see the end. In those moments, when all seems lost, hope declares that God can bring life out of death.Mass Readings from April 23, 2023:Acts 2:14, 22-33Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 111 Peter 1:17-21 Luke 24:13-35

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 33777.7. 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 Luke. Chapter 24, verses 13 through 35. That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus' disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred, and it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, what are you discussing as you walk along?

They stopped, looking downcast. and one of them named Cleopas said to him in reply, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days? And he replied to them, what sort of things? They said to him, the things that happened to Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel.

Besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body. They came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see. And he said to them,

oh, how foolish you are. How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? Then, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther, but they urged him, stay with us. For it is nearly evening and the day is almost over. So he went in to stay with them, and it happened that while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to them. With that, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.

Then they said to each other, We're not our hearts burning within us While he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us. So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the 11 And those who were with them who were saying The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon. Then the two recounted would have taken place on the way

And how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Wait you to have a seat. So last week we started talking about home stretch and here's this kind of the last leg of the race. And I was thinking about just finishes, you know what it comes to go online and just even the course of my life, just you see these incredible finishes. Like they come back from behind finish. Like sometimes it happens like in track meet where the person like falls to the ground and they get back up and they chase everyone down.

It's just it's awesome. It's so incredible. It's those kind of come back from behind races are, they're awesome. They are like basically Rocky 2 through 12 is the, it's the, the, idea of like the underdog, he comes, has the comeback, has the finish. And, and I was thinking about this. Even though I love those, I love those comebacks. I love that finish where the person comes behind and the win. None of them, I don't think any of them have ever brought me to tears. Like, I'm excited about them, but they've never, like, I've never shed a tear over them.

But there are some races that have brought me to tears. I remember when I was seven years old, it's crazy, I was seven years old. And I saw on NBC Wild World World of Sports, something like this. It was a recap of the Ironman Trathlon in Kona, Hawaii. And the Airman Trathlon is a 2.6-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run, so marathon at the end, it's 140.6 miles. And I remember as a 7-year-old kid is watching this with my family, and there was this one girl, she's 23 years old, her name was Julie Moss. And Julie Moss was running this race, and she was doing well.

And she was leading the race, even on the run, at mile 140.5. Actually, 140.1, maybe even. Her body just started shutting down. And she started kind of wandering all over the course. The sun had already set. It was dark out. And she just kept going. And in the last couple hundred feet, Julie Moss, she kept falling to the ground.

She'd get back up. She'd follow the ground, get back up. Her legs refused it to work. And then second place, pastor became first place. And here's Julie Moss in second place. She's lost the race. But the coolest, the most amazing thing was that she didn't quit. She didn't give up.

She just, she kept fighting to get back to her feet because she just needed to get to that finish line. Remember, as a seven-year-old, I don't remember who the woman who was who won. I don't remember anyone else who won, but I remember the name of Julie Moss, and this woman who not only did not win, had no chance of winning,

but just kept moving, kept going. That was when I was seven, when I was 22 years later. Same thing, Iron Man Traathlon. I was watching this on a Sunday afternoon or something like this, and there are these two women, again, and they were racing down this home stretch, And Sean Welsh was in the lead. And at one point, Sean Welsh, she, again, her legs once again, just gave out.

She kept falling to the ground. Get back up, keep going. Get back up, kept going. Get back up, kept going. And then another woman, Wendy Ingram was coming from behind. And it was, again, it was within maybe 50 feet of the finish line. Sean Welsh falls to the ground. Wendy Ingram tries to step out of the way.

She falls to the ground. And they both try to get up. And it's one of those incredible moments where it's just like they couldn't get neither of them, could get to their feet. And so in the last 20, maybe 25 feet of this race, Wendy Ingram just starts crawling. And then Sean Wals, Caesar, crawling, starts crawling after her. They both crossed the finish line, crawling to basically, you know,

they crawled not to win. They crawled across the finish line to get fourth and fifth. Like this battle, the race was already won. The race was, for them, the race was already lost. Because they're professionals, right. They're elite athletes. You want to get first, or at least on the podium. They were doing all of this for fourth place.

And it was one of those things. I remember as a seven-year-old, that's what sparked this boom. It wasn't the winner of the race, the sparked the boom of people wanting to do that kind of race. When I was 22, it was the same kind of thing of like, I want to get to a place where I can just train to do this race as well. I have no idea, no clue who won the race that year. But I remember those three names of Julie Moss when I was seven years old, Sean Welch, and winning when I was 22 years old, because there's something about this. when there's no chance of winning, when everything's all lost, and you're still in the home stretch, and you keep going.

You know, last week you talked about how the hardest part of the race is, the home stretch is great, right? The home stretch is like you're almost there, but the hardest part of the race is the home stretch. It's that last leg. And I was thinking about this all week on how, like, I think that's true, but I think maybe it's not. Maybe there's another harder part of the race,

and it's not the last lap. Maybe it's the second to last lap. Like the hardest part of the event is not the last round, but the hardest part of the race might be, or the event, might be the second to last round, where there's so much still to do that the end isn't really even in sight. Or maybe it's that sense of like, you start asking the question, can I even finish this? You start doubting yourself and saying, like, you know, can I even do this? And also, they start asking the question, does it even matter?

Like, why should I even try? Why should I even care? Why should I even keep caring? Because the race seems like it's over. Why keep going? The finish is so far in the future. You know, we talked about this how good times are good, but they don't last. And bad times are bad, but they don't last either.

That St. Paul says there are three things that last. There are three things that remain. Faith, hope, and love. And last week we talked about faith, not like a technical definition of faith, but just the kind of faith that still moves, the kind of faith that still works, the kind of faith that actually changes their life, that I believe in Jesus and actually makes a difference in my life, that actually gets us through those good times and gets us through the bad times. but today I want to talk about this other thing that lasts.

And it's when the end is so far off, when the race seems completely lost, what do we need? We need another one of those things that remain. What we need is we need hope. The gospel today is, I think it's striking. You have these two disciples, right? And they're on the road to Emmaus from Jerusalem. They're leaving Jerusalem.

And what it says in scripture is says, it's East or Sunday. But for them, they don't know what's Easter Sunday. For them it's just Sunday, right? For them it's just the day after the Sabbath. For them it's just the third day after their rabbi. has been executed. And they had lost.

So they were leaving. Even as they're walking, Luke describes them. He says, they stopped looking downcast. And what do they say? When Jesus asks them, what are you talking about on the way? Are you the only person who doesn't know about this? Here's Jesus, who's a prophet, mighty, and deed, and word.

And then they say these words, they say, but we had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel. They say, we had hoped. And what that means is they had hoped, but they stopped hoping. Like the thing that remains, they stopped doing. The thing that lasts, they lost. And of course that makes sense, right?

Because I think it's one thing to have hope in the face of the prospect of losing, right? It's one thing to have hope when there's still a chance. But what happens when you've already lost? To have hope even when you've lost it. Or even I have hope when you're like, okay, I have no idea what the next step is. I have no idea how this is going to turn out. Like I thought I knew how this would work. it looks nothing like I planned.

You know, I think about this because we have, again, one or two weeks left of class, and then we have a bunch of students who are going to graduate. And I always reflect on this. The idea is that when you start school, as a kid, right, you start school, you get on a track. And they have this image of like a railroad track or whatever it is, but you get on a track. And the idea is you just stay on the tracks, right? So you're a certain age, you go to kindergarten. And then at the end of that, it's not like, what do I do next?

It's, okay, you go to first grade. And after that, it's not like, what do I do next? It's just you stay on the track. In fact, I remember if you guys remember this at all, maybe I'm too old. But like in fourth grade, I remember, or whatever elementary school, you look at your port card at the end of the year. And on the back would say, you know, next year, Michael will be attending fifth grade. And I'm like, yes, we're doing it. I'd show all my friends like, are you doing it too?

Are you going to next step? Because you knew the track. The way you're supposed to do is this fifth, the sixth, the seventh. And then, of course, as you get in middle school or high school, you have some electives. So you have some options, right? So it's not the same track for everybody. But it's still kind of the same track for everybody. Just some variety in there.

And then when you get to the end of high school, the track kind of diverges a bunch, right? But there's still tracks like we could go on the college track or the work track or the military track or the Votech track or the whatever kind of trade school track. And those are big choices, but it's a choice to go on a different track. At the end of college, a lot of times people look up

and they're like, okay, there's no more track. Unless they get an extension to go to grad school. But other than that, like there's, There's just this, okay, the track is worn out, now there's just these trails and I have no idea where this is going to lead. Or even sometimes there's not even a trail. I'm just bushwhacking. What I've spent my life on a track where it's just very clear, here's the next step,

here's the next step, here's the next step, and all of a sudden it's that sense of like, this looks nothing like I thought. Or even the, oh, here's what summer is like, and then fall is going to be like this. And you realize, this looks nothing like I had planned. And now what do I do? What do we do when life looks nothing like we planned?

Well, we have hope. You know, there's a Hebrew word for hope. There's actually a couple Hebrew words for hope, but the one I want to emphasize today is the Hebrew word yachal. Yajal means, it doesn't just mean hope, it actually means to wait. Actually, to y'ahal means to be patient. It means to wait patiently.

To have hope is the same thing as to wait patiently. And what is the definition of patience? Definition of patience is the quality of being able to bear adversities. That's what it is to be patient. the quality of being able to bear adversities or even this, a calm endurance of misfortune, long suffering. That's what it is to wait patiently, is the ability, the capacity to bear adversities and the calm endurance of misfortune. And so that's why, you know, the first reading today, St. Peter, he quotes David in the Psalms and he says, when everything looks bleakest,

I'm going to still have patience. When everything looks bleakest, I'm going to have this long suffering. And when everything looks bleakest, I'm going to bear adversities. In fact, he's what he says. He says, my flesh will dwell in hope because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld. Basically, my flesh, even in death, I will wait patiently. Even in death, I will be able to bear adversities. Because why? We need this, right?

We need this ability to bear adversities. We need this ability to wait patiently because how many times in our lives when we look around and say, I didn't think it would be like this. Like this is not what I planned. I thought I'd be winning. I thought life would be a little bit more full of success than it is full of this failure. And the battle we're all going to face is maybe the hardest battle,

which is discouragement. I thought I'd win, but I didn't win. I thought I had success, but I didn't have success. I thought I'd have this relationship and I don't have it. I thought I'd have a life like this and I don't have a life like. Because we have to remember as Christians, those who follow Jesus, we have to remember that there are more important things than winning.

that as Christians we have to remember that they're more important things than success. As Christians, we have to remember, they're more important things than grades, right? They're more important things as Christians than getting the life we want even. We have to remember that as Christians there are more important things even than life.

And that most important thing is not getting what I want, but becoming who God wants. The most important thing is who we become in the process, not winning, not successful, not having the life I wanted, but who we become in the process because we realize Christian hope is not rooted in getting what I want or it's not rooted in any particular set of outcomes. It's not waiting patiently until I get what I asked for.

In fact, Christian hope might mean waiting patiently in the opposite. It might actually mean failing. Christian hope actually might even mean failing publicly. This might even be necessary for those who are used to winning. In fact, it might be necessary for those who are used to winning publicly. that we might need to actually fail publicly. Because if I'm used to winning publicly, then there's so much tied up in perception, right? So much of my worth is tied up in an image. So much of our worth is tied up in,

I'm loved as long as I win. Even how we see ourselves, like, okay, I believe I'm worth loving myself as long as I win. And so we might need, in God's mercy, we might need to not just win publicly. We might need to fail publicly. And in the midst of that, though, not to be discouraged,

not in the midst of that, to be just experienced this appointment or experience crushing, but to hold on to hope in the middle of that. That's why patiently waiting is so important. You know, I've never shed a tear at someone's comeback story. But those who have endured, even when they've already lost, they're the ones who give us a glimpse into greatness. Because you and I know that the person who chooses to hope,

chooses to endure, chooses to continue to wait patiently, even when they lost, They face his appointment. They face discouragement. And they faced it with courage. Because it takes courage to hope, right? It takes courage to wait patiently. Then when the voices start saying, like, we've already lost.

Why keep going? You've already tried and failed. Why try again? Listen, this mattered a lot to you and it all collapsed. So why should you even care? That's a great question. Why? Why choose to hope?

Why choose to wait patiently? So, first Peter, he gives us the answer. He's writing to Christians. And these are Christians whose lives have been turned upside down by Jesus. These are Christians who have suffered a lot because of their faith in Jesus. So he first reminds them of their worth. And he says, listen,

he says, you are ransomed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. This is your worth. This is how much you matter. That God himself literally bled for you. This is how much your worth. And he goes on to say that Jesus was known before in the foundation of the world, but he's revealed in the final time for you. Yeah, as God's been known,

always, just look around. But he's finally revealed for you. And he goes on to say, through him we believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory. Why? So that your faith and hope are in God.

Now, he highlights this. We believe that this one died and it all seemed lost. And it seemed like it was completely over. And God raised him from the dead so that now your faith and hope are not in your strength. They're not in your plans. They're not in your talents.

So now, because Jesus has conquered death, because when everything was lost, he redeemed everything. You can have confidence, you can have hope, you can wait patiently because your faith and hope are in God. This is the crazy thing is we don't, as Christians, we don't hope that things will work out the way we want them to. We trust that regardless of how things work out, God will be there. Regardless of where the tracks lead or where the bushwhacking leads,

God will be there. We trust that even when all is lost, and we look around and say life looks nothing like I thought it would look, God will be there. Because Christian hope is not thinking that all will be well because I'll get my way. Christian hope is trusting that all will be well even when I don't. So here's these two disciples on the road to Emmaus. And even when things had turned out in such a way that there was no way forward,

we might as well leave and might as go back to Emmaus. There's no chance of winning. there seemed in the moment to be nothing to hope in. There was nothing to be patiently waiting for. What happened? Well, God opened a tomb. When it seemed like there was nothing else to look forward to, God emptied a grave.

That when there was nothing to wait patiently for, God took what was dead, he took what was lost, he took what was over, and he brought it to life. and he found it and it's a new beginning. And it was right in front of them. This is the crazy thing. It was right in front of them. And they didn't see it.

And this is the key for us for hope. This is the last thing. This is the key for us and hope. Hope is a gift. But it's also a choice. Hope is rooted in more than a wish because we realize this. If all they had, if all they knew was, yeah, Jesus was a prophet and then he died, there wouldn't be any reason for them to hope.

But remember what the story says. They're walking. They're downcast. had hope, they lost hope, and even tell Jesus, who's disguised in this moment, right in front of them, they tell them, yeah, but even some members of our party went to the tomb this morning, and the tomb was empty. Not only that, there were angels who said that he rose from the dead. Not only that, but two other people, Peter and John were assuming, had gone to the tomb, and they found it just like the apostles, just like the women had said, not only that,

that Jesus had said this was what's going to happen, I'm going to die, I'll rise from the dead on the third day when it was happening. They had, see, this is the thing. They had a reason to hope, and it was right in front of them and they didn't see it. This is true for us too. We have a reason to hope, but so often we don't see it, that our minds, our vision is so captivated by the loss, our minds and vision is so captivated by the lay so much further to go, we failed to realize that God is here right now. He's not just there at the finish line. He's there on the second to last lap. He's there on the second to last round. He's there right now. But we can miss it. What's right in front of us,

just like the two disciples, Miss Jesus, who was right in front of them. So what do we do? This is, as I said, it's the last thing. But it's a practice that I think is going to be so helpful for all of us. And the practice is something we recommend to every person who's ever tuned in to this virtual front few Mass. Every person who ever gone to University of Minnesota, Duluth, St. Scholastica, is like when you pray in the morning or even the evening, which what we need to do is we need to see what's right in front of us.

What I mean by that is, where is God right in front of us? Where is God in our lives right now? Like, what are the gifts? What am I grateful for today? Just even to list on a regular basis in the morning and the evening. What are three things that I'm grateful for this morning? What are three things that I'm grateful for this evening? Because you can look at that and say, oh my gosh, God, you are here.

That in when all seems lost, you're present. That when I'm tired of waiting patiently and it seems like I should quit, you haven't quit. and you haven't abandoned and the race actually isn't over. We've got to stop and note, hey, this is what God has done today? Well, that gives us a reason to hope today. And we stop and write those things down and say, this is what God has done today

that also gives us a reason to hope tomorrow.