Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 4/6/23 Priesthood

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

Homily from Holy Thursday The only gifts the first priests had to offer the world was what God had given them. Holy Thursday marks the beginning of the final stages of Christ's Passion. But it also marks the institution of the Eucharist and the Priesthood.Mass Readings from April 6, 2023:Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-181 Corinthians 11:23-26 John 13:1-15

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.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John. Chapter 13, verses 1 through 15. Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world, and he loved them to the end. The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Ascariot, to hand him over. So during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer guard. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash

the disciples' feet and dry them with the towel at his waist. He came to Simon Peter who said to him, Master, are you going to wash my feet? Jesus answered and said to him, what I am doing, you do not understand now. But you will understand later. Peter said to him, you will never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me. Simon Peter said to him, master, then not only my feet, but my hands and my head as well. Jesus said to him, whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over.

So you are clean, but not all. For he knew who would betray him. For this reason, he said, not all of you are clean. So when he had washed their feet, he put and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, do you realize what I have done for you? You call me teacher and master, and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, teacher and master, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. I have given you a model to follow so that as I have done for you, you should also do.

The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. We should have a seat. So one of the things I was reflecting on just the thinking about, especially when it comes to Holy Week, the Holy Land, I've been blessed to be able to travel to the Holy Land. One of the things, put it out there, there's a number of trips coming up. They're pretty expensive, though, the kind of things that you have to kind of save for a while to go on. But I really think that when it comes down to it, though, they're kind of worth it. Anyways, they're very much worth it.

The point is this. The point is very clear. We'll travel all over the place. One of the places we'll travel is Kena. And at Kana, one of the things we'll do is that is the place where Jesus multiplied, it turned the water into wine. And so it's at a wedding feast. And so there's this opportunity that if there are any married couples to renew their vows.

and I might have mentioned this before. It is, it's just, it's fascinating because I'll do a lot of weddings in the course of, you know, the years. And it's funny because at every wedding you have the bride and groom here they are staring into each other's eyes saying, you know, I bill take you sue to be my wife.

I promise to be faithful to you good times a bad. I sue take you bill to be my husband. I promise a faithful to you good time. It's just beautiful and they're just like locked in and their tears sometimes. It's really powerful. When couples go to Kana and renew their vows, it is it's also powerful but a common experience is they'll hold each other's hands and repeat after me

you're renewing their vows it's also painful because they'll notice that here's couples and they as they're saying their vows they can't look at each other as they're saying their vows they're kind of looking down they're looking at their hands rather than looking in the other person in the eye and it's his recognition of um when i said this the first time when we went at our wedding when i said this. I had hopes. I had hopes that I would be able to live this. I had hopes that I would be a better husband. I had hopes that I'd be a better wife. And here now, I'm looking at you and you're looking at me. You're watching me. You're listening to me. Say these exact words that I said to you 20 years ago, 30 years ago. And now you know the truth. Like now you know, this is the person you married. Back then, you didn't know

who you'd have to marry. You didn't know really the person that you'd have to choose to love every single day. You didn't know the way in which I would fail. You didn't know the ways in which I wouldn't be that wife. I wouldn't be that husband that I promised on our wedding day. Now, here we are. And I can't even look you in the eyes as I'm saying this because you know now. You know who it is. It's making these promises to you.

I kind of know what that's like. A little bit. I know what that's like. This last Monday, in our Diocese in Duluth, we have our chrism Mass. And our chrism mass, I love it. It's awesome. For two things. One is the bishop blesses the chrism oil that will be used at the confirmation.

And then for the rest of the year, Easter vigil and the rest of the year. but also that's the mass where the priests renewed their vows. And again, it's, I look forward to it every single year because I love this moment, but also it's kind of a painful moment because people ask sometimes afterwards, they'll say like, you know, how was it? Was it great to renew your vows? And the answer is yes and no. Yes, because I want to.

And there's no other life I want than to be a priest. Like that is 100%. That is it. But also, it's renewing vows in front of people who like, no. I remember the day of my ordination. There's like this, all this promise, like, here's the thing. It's like, I'm going to be a great priest. I want to be like Jesus in many ways.

And then here I am standing with a bunch of my other brother priests in the diocese. And I'm like, man, I'm a schmuck. Like, really, there's a, it's just like all I can think of when I'm making those promises again is all the ways I fail. Like, all I can think of is, well, here's the person I wasn't there for. And here's the way in which I shouldn't have said that. Here's all the ways out of cowardice I didn't say that. Here's all the places I didn't go. Here's all the people that I didn't, you know, wasn't there for.

All these voices just like cram in over my head and just realize, man, I want this. I hate failing at it. And I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Like, I mean, what I mean by that is back in seminary, my best friends in seminary and we had this thing where whenever before a class, before a test, I mean, or for our paper, we'd ask, you know, knocking the guy's door, hey, are you ready for this test? And the answer was always the same. Like, I got nothing.

They were like, hey, how's your paper coming? And, oh, Schmitz, I got nothing. Or then when we got ordained deacons and we had to, like, preach on the weekends and you knocking someone's door on Saturday morning, Friday night, like, what are you doing this weekend? What are you preaching on? Like, oh, man, I got nothing. This was like the refrain that, like, defined our friendship was this, the three guys,

the three of us was just like constantly when it comes to anything that a priest needed to do, just like, man, I got nothing. And so it would make sense then. It's for me to say, okay, 20 years later, after I've been under a priest for almost for 20 years now. It's like, it's still true. I got nothing, which actually is the reality of the priesthood. Pope Benedict, the 16th, he wrote about this. There's an article he wrote called the nothingness of the 12. And in this article about the nothingness of the 12, he highlights the fact that they got nothing. What I mean by that is, here's these 12 men. They changed the world. These first

priests in the new covenant, these first new covenant priests, they changed the world. The world before they went out with Jesus Christ. They went out with the Holy Spirit. And the world that was after they went out with the Holy Spirit were two different worlds. But what Benedict highlights is he highlights the fact that the only thing that changed the world from the apostles was the stuff that wasn't them. Like the only thing that changed the world that came through the apostles was the stuff that wasn't them. The only thing that changed the apostles, the only thing they had to offer the world was what God had given them.

They're just incredibly ordinary people. I don't know if we've ever stopped and just reflected on how unremarkable, unspectacular the first priests were. And yet, through their priesthood, God changed the world. And the only difference was what God had given them. I mean, think about this for us right now, right? Whenever you and I, we need a priest. Whenever you and I need a priest, here's what I want. I may prove what you want to.

I want a priest who's nice, but just at the minimum, right? I want a priest who's kind. I want a priest who's holy. I want a priest who knows what he's talking about. I want a priest to make sense. Like all of these things. Like I want all... And I want them all together.

Like, I want that's what I want. But at the end of the day, I want all of those. When I need a priest, I just need a priest. I actually don't need him to be nice. When I was here, here's the here as me, I remember just recognizing this need I had for the Eucharist. This need I had for Jesus. You know, the gift that Jesus gives us tonight.

and Holy Thursday, and just like, oh my gosh, that's what I need and realize, okay, I need a priest. Or the first time I ever realized truly, truly, that I needed God's mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation or any time since that time when I've realized I need God's mercy through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This is how Jesus has given us his mercy, given us his forgiveness through the ministry of the priest. Like, again, I want a nice priest and a kind priest to be gentle. But at the end of the day, I just need a priest. Why? Because I just need someone who Jesus has given the ability to give me the Eucharist. I just need someone that Jesus has given the Holy Spirit to be able to, when he says, I absolve you of all of your sins, that actually that changes reality.

That's all I need. In fact, the church even says that. The church says at him the day, you don't even need a holy priest for the sacraments to be real. because Jesus is the minister. In fact, the catechism says this. It says when anyone baptizes, it's actually Jesus who baptizes. Behind the altar, when the priest infects the Eucharist, it's actually Jesus who convecks the Eucharist.

When you go to confession, it's not Father Joe who absolves you. It is Jesus who absolves you. He is working through that ministry of the priest. Why? Because think about just Joe is sitting there saying, I absolve you. Like, okay, thanks a lot.

I appreciate that, but it doesn't help anything. That was the big joke too back in the seminary. when we'd be wearing clerics sometimes, and so we'd go out in public and like, hey, can you hear my confession? And the joke was, well, I can hear it, but I can't do anything about it. Because here, if I'm just an unordained person, I'm just Mike, maybe I have some level of intelligence, maybe I have some level of compassion, maybe I have some level of thoughtfulness or some level of advice I could give. But I can't give God's mercy, and I can't give the Eucharist, and I can't give absolution,

and I can't give all those other things. The priesthood is all about giving what a person could never give on their own. But Jesus keeps calling these people, right? He keeps calling ordinary people to stand in the place of our extraordinary God. It's one of the reasons why St. John Vieni, he once said, he said, if we truly understood what the priesthood was,

we would die. Not out of fear, we die out of joy. Now, at this moment, I imagine people would say like, okay, Father, you're going on and on about priests a lot. I imagine this because you think pretty highly of yourself. It's actually the opposite. It's the opposite. Because I realize this is the truth. Like, right, 20 years ago, 25 years ago, in seminary, it was, I got nothing. And that is more apparent than ever. In fact, one of the fears, I think every priest has, especially if they have people in their parish or here on campus,

one of the big fears is that, not that they'll be forgotten. That's not a fear. That's just a reality. That's a hope in so many ways. Like, my hope is that after students leave in 20, 30 years, they're like, I think, I don't know, I don't know what the priest's name was on campus. I just, here's the thing. I don't care if anyone says, I remember the priest's name on campus. The only hope is that people remember Jesus. That's it.

The fear is that, oh, yeah, yeah, no, totally. Father Mike was our priest on campus, loved it, it was so great. But they forget Jesus. that I think is every honest priest's deepest fear is that people will remember them and forget Jesus. Because what is this whole thing? The whole thing is about just about Jesus, about Jesus' priest. Jesus is the one great high priest, and it's Jesus that we encounter in the sacraments. I mean, this is the crazy thing, is tonight Jesus gives us not only a priesthood, he gives us the Eucharist.

He will ultimately give us confession. He'll give us anointing of the sick. all of these gifts, he says, gives us so that you and I can actually come into contact with Jesus, not so we can come in contact with other Joe or Father Mike. We're supposed to walk away from those encounters saying, I know Jesus' love more. And that's the one I remember. I know I've shared the story so many times about how I was raised Catholic. I didn't really like going to Mass, all these kind of things, but I had this moment of like conviction on my own personal sin. I went off about 15 years old. And so I always told the story about going across town to the

priest's house, because I knew where the priest lived, I rode my bike over there. knocked on his door and he was at home and I said, Father, can I go to confession? He's like, sure, come on in. I went to confession, give me absolution. I walked out the front of his house with three deep convictions. One, I was so grateful. God, thank you. You saved me of all my sins. You've forgiven me. Second conviction was, Jesus, if you ever want me to be a priest, I will hear anyone's confession anytime they ask. I never thought about being a priest before that day. But that was the day that set my life in a decisive direction and gave my life a new horizon. My third thought was, well, she's really cute, but like other than that, like it was, it was,

it was that conviction. Here's the crazy thing. And there's something that I don't really take a lot of time to think about, and I rarely say this, but that priest who heard my confession, like now we're brother priests in the same diocese, I don't really like him. Like it's, I'm sorry, he probably doesn't like me either. It's one of those situations where it's like, I don't dislike him, but like, I've tried talk, we've tried talking to each other. We just kind of like, just by past each other. There's one of those kind of situations where it's like, I'm sure, I'm sure there's plenty of people who like really enjoy him. I'm sure that maybe there's some people enjoy me. But we just don't really. The crazy thing is not about father. He was there in a moment

where I needed a priest. That's all I needed. I didn't need father whoever. I just needed a priest. And he was there because I needed Jesus. And this is the world we live in. We live in a world that needs Jesus. And so because of that, we live in a world that needs priests. Again, it's not about the guy. Quote Benedict. Fer went on to say, He said, the sacrament means, I give what I myself cannot give. That's what the sacrament means. I give what I myself cannot give, and I do something that is not my work. Jesus wants to win this world.

He wants to win our hearts again and again and again. No matter how much we fail, no matter how many times we fall, no matter how many times we don't live up to the promises that we've made. And this is the last thing. This is just, I mentioned how couples, you know, when they renew their vows, sometimes they're all over the place. Their eyes are looking anywhere. but at their spouse.

A couple, I guess, months ago now, I was here in this chapel. We had a couple that came, they drove a long, long way. They joined us for a Sunday Mass, and they had written ahead and said, hey, can we renew our vows? It's our wedding anniversary on that Sunday. Can we renew our vows somewhere? I'm like, sure, you know? So they came here to the house, and it was the opposite of what I described

at the beginning of this homily. Like, as they were standing right here in front of the altar, and they were repeating their vows, their eyes were locked in on each other. And I thought it was almost disturbing. I was like, what is happening here? Like they are, like they're acting as if they, it was, it was not as if it was their wedding day. It was deeper.

It was as if their wedding day, but they knew, right? It was as if it was their wedding day, but they knew the life they would be, the storms they would be facing, the trials they'd be going through. I just remember thinking like, wow, this is amazing. It was incredible. It was beautiful. And then we finished the prayer and everything. And afterwards, I just, I kind of noted, and they said, yeah, we had in our, I don't know, 10, 20, whatever it was years, we faced a lot.

They said, we have faced addiction. We've faced betrayal. We faced, and then they listed a whole other host of just the kinds of things that when we, you and I hear about them, we think, well, that's the end of a marriage. They listed all of them. And they said, and because of Jesus, he is, he's saved us. He's saved us individually. He's saved our marriage. Because the reality, of course, is that what's true for me and my seminarian buddies,

we got nothing, is true for all of us. To be able to look at Jesus and say, God, I want to, I want to live up to the Eucharist, I want to live up to the other sacraments, I want to live up to what you have done for me. Tomorrow, we're going to walk with Jesus in his passion on Good Friday. And we're going to be able to look at the cross and say, Jesus, I want to live up to that. I give you my whole life, and yet we know. We know that I will say this, these words, and I will. mean these words and I will fall again. That I will give you my whole life and I will mean it. You have

my whole life and I will fail again. But just like this couple, just like every marriage that says, okay, let's get back up, let's figure a way out to trust each other, let's love each other, let's walk forward. And every priest, every religious sister or religious brother, every person in their vocation who falls and says, okay, Jesus, let's get back up, let's walk forward, let's love again, let's figure our way to live my life for you, just like every single person, every Christian who says, Jesus, you have my whole life. I've fallen, but you can pick me up. Because I am not faithful, but you are faithful.

And a night like tonight where Jesus gathers these ordinary men around him, and he promises to do something extraordinary through them, Jesus does the same to us tonight. Here we are just ordinary people. but we are loved by an extraordinary God. And we look at ourselves and say, gosh, Lord, I wish I had more. But I got nothing. That's the moment where Jesus said,

okay, here at the Last Supper, you're at every mass. I give you myself. And now you have everything that you need.