Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 5/21/23 They Doubted

Episode Date: May 20, 2023

Homily from the The Ascension of the Lord Approach the Lord with open hearts. It has been said that "10,000 difficulties do not make one single doubt". When we approach God, we can be tempted to hesitate. We need to be able to ask the questions that need to be answered. This asking is not the same thing as doubting.Mass Readings from May 21, 2023Acts 1:1-11Psalm 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9Ephesians 1:17-23 Matthew 28:16-20

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 Matthew. Glory to you, Lord. Chapter 28 verses 16 through 20. The 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshipped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold, I am with you always until the end of the age. The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. I should have a seat. So we get to this place, right?

This is next weekend is Pentecost. And so this whole, but it's ultimately going to be 50 days of praying with the Lord. 50 days that commemorates basically Jesus appearing to the disciples. 50 days of Jesus, or 40 days really, and then the extra nine days for the Pentecost happens. But here we are. I don't know if you know this, but Jesus appears to his disciples 13 times.

He shows himself alive 13 times. He shows himself that death was not the end of him, that he conquered death. He rose from the grave, and he reveals himself to the disciples 13 times. In fact, in the first reading, it says that he presented himself alive to them with many proofs. And so when it came to the disciples and their faith, Jesus had demonstrated the truth.

about last weekend, that he is who he says he is. That Jesus had made it clear that there would be no doubt in their minds. Okay, Jesus is who he says he is. There's no discussion. There's no questions left to be answered. Jesus has proven, again, as it says, he presented himself alive to them by many proofs. And the disciples believe this. In fact, that's why in Acts chapter one, here they are.

Jesus walks up to Bethany and they're looking out over the city of Jerusalem. And they ask him the question. They know who he is. So they ask him the question, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? They know that he is the king. They know that he is the answer. They know that he is the one they've been longing for, praying for the promised Messiah. They know this.

That's why they ask him this question. Lord, are you going to, at this point, going to establish the kingdom on earth, essentially? So they know. They believe. They have faith. And I love this because Jesus, his answer is basically, No, I'm not. You are going to. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Then you'll be my witnesses throughout Judea, Samaria, at the end of the earth.

We're going to talk about that. Well, that's next weekend, essentially, when it comes to Pentecost, that being commissioned to be sent out, just like in the first, in the gospel today. But I think that we have the questions still. Like, as the disciples are there, they know the truth. They believe in Jesus. They have faith. Well, what might have been in their hearts as Jesus is telling them? go therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father's and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you. As Jesus is called the Great Commission, as Jesus is sending them out as they're there in that moment, what could be in their hearts? And I think Matthew 28 gives us a slight, just a glimpse into what might have been

in the disciples' hearts. Remember, they believe in Jesus. He's been proven himself to them. They have faith. And yet, Matthew 28 has this really remarkable line where it says, when they saw him, Remember, he's alive, he's risen from the dead. It's a proof. When they saw him, it says, they worshipped, but they doubted. And I don't know if you ever were, like, meditated on this. Like, how is it possible? Here are the disciples.

Jesus has demonstrated to them. They don't really need faith. They have proof to worship and still doubt. And I just wonder what that would look like. I don't know if you've ever doubted. A lot of times we have those doubts. in our minds. We have those doubts in our hearts. We have those moments where we just don't know. Now, here's the thing is I think most of us who would say, oh, yeah, I struggle with doubt.

I don't know if you do. I don't know if you're doing it right, which we might think, like, oh, shoot, I can't even doubt right. You might be right. Because I think a lot of times we look at what we're feeling, what we're going through, what we're wrestling with, we're struggling with, and we think, oh, that's doubting. It's not. Because let's ask the question, what's faith? Remember, we talked about this so many times. Faith is not a feeling. Faith is not having this kind of overwhelming warm fuzzy. Faith is not a feeling. That's so important for us to understand.

Also, we recognize that faith is not merely an intellectual assent. It's not merely saying, okay, no, no, no, I believe this. A list of items, like I believe the creed. That's not, strictly speaking, faith. So we realize this. Hate is not a feeling, and faith is not merely intellectual assent. Therefore, doubt is not a feeling. For all this truth, that faith is not a feeling,

but sometimes you're like, but I just don't know sometimes. I sometimes wonder, I sometimes am uncertain. That feeling of doubt is not doubt. Faith is not a feeling, doubt is not a feeling. Faith is not merely intellectual assent, and doubt is not having intellectual questions. It's not the same thing.

In fact, hopefully that's consoling because you might find yourself in wondering, am I doubting? But you might just have questions. Or maybe you don't feel anything. That's not doubt. That's okay. It's likely what the apostles were going through because this is just fascinating. I was doing some research on Matthew 28

and exactly what it was, that word, they worshipped, but they doubted. What is that word? That word actually is used only one other time in the Gospels. And the word essentially ultimately means that they didn't necessarily doubt in the sense that they denied the Lord. It means they hesitated.

Remember, faith, not a feeling. Faith, not intellectual assent. Faith is when we get to this place of, okay, I understand what the proposal is. I'm going to now make the act of the will. I'm going to make the decision to surrender to this proposition. I'm going to make the decision to surrender, to submit my intellect and my will. I'm making this decision to surrender my life to the Lord.

That's faith. I'm making the decision to surrender my life to God. Doubt, not a feeling, not a question. Doubt is, oh, I know what's being taught. I've asked all the questions. and now I refuse to submit my intellect and my will. I refuse to submit myself to the Lord. It's basically, it's rebellion.

What the disciples were going through is not bad. They're not refusing to submit their lives to the Lord. What they're doing is they worshipped, but they hesitated. And to hesitate is not the same thing as doubt. In fact, John Henry Cardinal Newman, right? The guy we named the Newman Center after. At one point, he said this. At one point he pointed this out, he said,

10,000 difficulties do not add up to one single doubt. 10,000 difficulties do not add up to one single doubt. You and I, we can come before the Lord in worship and prayer. We can come before the Lord as we're, you know, reading scripture. And we can say, no, I believe this, but I have questions. Realize this. This is so important. The disciples worshipped, but they hesitated.

Maybe they had questions. We have to understand this. The church is not afraid of your questions. This is so important for us to understand. The church is not afraid of your questions. The church is not saying don't question. Now, you might have had someone who questions because I talk to people all the time who say, you know, I went to religious ed classes or I went to Catholic school or whatever.

And my teachers, my nuns, my whoever they were, they told me like stop asking questions. Now, here's the reason. I would say this. Maybe, yeah, you had a bad teacher who might have just said, you know, I don't like questions in my class, whatever. But let's be honest with ourselves at this point. when you were in religious ed class or maybe in like faith formation or even at catholic school if you went to catholic school and you were asking questions were you asking questions because

you wanted to know the answer or were you asking questions because you want to distract the teacher now here's me i'm only saying this because i know that i've done it i can smell we can smell our own like that that sense of i know what it's like to say i wonder how far i feel i can get this professor or this teacher we didn't i did in a seminary for crown out loud i'm the worst but that sense of asking questions to the point where your teacher says stop asking questions might not be their fault. It might actually be the fact that I was asking questions, distract them. I know you might have been asking questions like a four-year-old. Like what's the favorite question of a four-year-old? Like, why? Time to go to bed. Why?

Because it's late. Why? Because it's somewhat down. Why? Because we're spinning around the sun and why? Like, the four-year-old doesn't want an answer to the question. The four-year-old just doesn't want to do what they're supposed to do. Sometimes, and this is sometimes, you and I might have been told to stop asking questions, not because the questions were bad, not because questions are bad, but because we weren't asking the questions to know the answer.

Or maybe, here's another one. I talked to some students over the course of the last few years have said, like, you know, my grandma, you know, she's really faithful, but she tells me, just stop asking questions, just believe. Because my grandma's super faithful, so I ask her questions, and she says, stop asking any questions, just believe. And I would say, okay, maybe. That could mean that she's never struggled, right?

It could mean that she's never asked the questions. It also could mean that she wrestled and she struggled and she struggled and she asked those questions so long ago that she wrestles her way to a victory. Like she wrestled her way so successfully that she's like, oh yeah, on the other side of this, I realize that's not that important of a question. Or maybe it's so long ago that she forgot what it's like to wrestle. but chances are if you meet someone in their old age who has that place of just peace when it comes to their faith and like they don't wrestle anymore it's probably not because they never cared or never questioned it's probably

because they wrestled their way into a victory they didn't stop asking questions until their heart was at peace again the church is not afraid of your questions in fact some of the greatest saints that have ever been canonized in the church are the ones who asked the hardest questions you've heard of st thomas aquinas And Thomas Aquinas in his book, the Summa, Theologica, right? In that book the Summa, he asks questions that make, like, the modern-day atheists look like they're in second grade because he asks the hardest questions, and he asks them in the most articulate and challenging way that he doesn't straw man the argument. He steel man's the argument.

He asks the hardest questions. In fact, it even says St. Thomas Quinez, when it comes to, say, one of the biggest questions, like, how can God be good and all-powerful and there still be evil in the world? Thomas Quinas looks at that question. and he addresses it unblinkingly because it's super important. And he takes it seriously. Because that's what it is to take God seriously. So the disciples, they get to this place and they see the Lord Jesus.

They know he's there. They believe in him. They have faith. They worship. But they doubted. They hesitated. It might be because they needed to ask them questions. Just like you and just like me.

I think there's three kinds of questions that we need to ask. Sometimes three kind of questions that come up in the Christian's life as we're disciples, as we have faith in the Lord, right? We're surrendering our lives to them, but we still have these questions. And one of the first questions is what? Meaning, okay, I have a struggle like St. Carnal John Henry Newman would say. I have a struggle. I have a difficulty.

I don't know what the church teaches. Sometimes our problem is we think we know what the church teaches, but we really don't. In fact, there was a poll that came out maybe about 10 years ago that was asking non-Christians what they thought about Christians. and they first ask Christians what they think about themselves. How do you think the world sees you? And they use words like mercy, grace, peace, reconciliation, like, you know, just like a light among the nations.

And some of the non-Christians, their words to describe Christians were things like hypocritical, elitist, bigoted, homophobic, like all these words. And so recognize that there's a massive portion of our world that doesn't see what we believe in the same way that we understand we believe. So one of the first questions we have to ask is, what is it the church teaches? One of the things we realize that Fulton Sheen said this maybe 50 or 60 years ago, he claimed, he said there's not 100 people in America who hate the Catholic Church. But there are thousands upon thousands who hate what they mistakenly think the Catholic Church is. Now that might be true or they might not be true.

But the fact is, the first question we have to ask, if we're wrestling with the right, if we're struggling, if we're worshipping but doubting, worshiping but hesitating, we have to ask, okay, So before I go any further, what does the church actually teach? That's a very important question. The second question was the one question that I wrestle with so much. The question is why? As I went to college, I majored in theology. I mentioned this, I think last week the week before. I majored in theology.

And it was one of those situations where I'm like, okay, I kind of know now what the church teaches, but I need to know why. I need to know where this comes from. I need to know what is the church oriented towards. Why in the world is the church oriented towards? the world, does the church teach this when the world teaches that? Why in the world does the Catholic church teach this when other Christian churches don't teach that? I need to know why. And we get to ask the question. What? We get to ask the question, why? But I would say that,

one of the hardest question. The hardest question when it comes to faith, I think it's maybe the question that the disciples had in their hearts. Wasn't just what, wasn't just why. But here is Jesus who is telling them, I'm going to send you into the whole world. I'm going to send you out and you are going to be cheap in the midst of wolves. You're going to be a sign to the world. You're going to be a light of the world. You're going to be a salt of the earth. You are going to be my disciples, my apostles in the world.

I imagine the question is, I wonder if, as the apostles are seeing the Lord, they have faith in him, they worship him. but they hesitated because how. How in the world am I going to do this? And I mentioned there's one other place in the Gospels where that word is used, that word to doubt or to hesitate is used. And it comes from Luke's gospel, where in the middle of the night, the disciples are out in the boat, in the Sea of Galilee,

in the midst of a storm, and all of a sudden Jesus comes to them walking on the sea. You even know what Peter says. Peter says, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. And Jesus says, come. And so here is Peter, he gets out of the boat, begins walking on the water.

This is Matthew's Gospel. He begins walking on the water toward Jesus. He's doing something impossible. Then it says, but when he saw how strong the wind and the waves were, he became afraid and began to sink. And he cried out, Lord, save me. And Jesus immediately stretched out his arm, picked him up, carried him back to the boat.

And he said, oh, you of little faith, Why did you doubt? The word there that Jesus used was you of little faith. Why did you hesitate? You know that I'm here. Yes, you're doing something impossible. You're doing something that is way beyond your capabilities. You're wondering how am I doing this?

And so you hesitated. This is for us, I mean, so many of us, we can look at the faith and we say, I don't know what the church teaches, or I don't know why the church teaches it, but sometimes we know what, we know why, but we look at ourselves, me say, how in the world can I live this out? Because I know my weaknesses, I know my wounds, I know my brokenness, I know how limited I am.

I don't know how in the world am I going to be able to be faithful to the Lord in the midst of this what I've got here? How am I going to be faithful to the Lord in the mess of my family, in the mess of my relationships, in the mess of this world? How am I going to do it? How am I going to walk on water? How am I going to bring a gospel of light and truth and peace to a world? of darkness and lies and violence.

I would say, you start. This is the last thing. There's a quote that's attributed, at least, to St. Francis Vassisi. You know, the call that Jesus had for him and his life, he said, go and rebuild my church, which I'm like, man, if someone were to say that to one individual, just this kid from the small town in Italy,

just go rebuild my church. Like, where in the world? That's impossible. It is literally is impossible. Just like Jesus saying to the disciples, the apostles, go and make disciples of all nations. That's impossible. Just like saying to Peter, come and walk to me on the water.

That's impossible. So apparently, St. Francis, at one point, he said, okay, how do you do that? He said, we'll start by doing what's necessary. Then do what's possible. And soon you will be doing the impossible. Start with what's necessary. Then do what's possible.

and soon you will be doing the impossible. Not because of your own strength, not because you become more and more courageous, it's because when we start doing, by doing what's necessary, just what's in front of me? Like, what is Jesus calling me to do today? What's necessary? I need to get up and need to go back to work.

I need to get up and take care of my family. I need to get up and I need to do that thing. Whatever that is, you're keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus. Remember that when Peter was walking on water, he was doing the impossible. What was it that made him hesitate? It's when he took his eyes off Jesus and focused on the wind and the waves,

the disciples. Why would they worship and yet doubt, yet worship, yet hesitate? When they take their eyes off of Jesus and focus on here's what he's calling us to, which is why I believe in both cases when Peter walked in the water and when Jesus is sending them out into the world,

He reminded them, you're not doing this alone. Jesus says, Behold, I am with you, always until the end of the age. Because of that, you know what to do. Go out to all nations. Bring the gospel to them. You know why you're doing it. Because God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

They're all those who believe in him. Might not perish but have eternal life. And God wants all to be saved and how to do it. How can you do it? How can I do it? We can do it, but keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus. And knowing that even when we worship and hesitate, when we walk and we fall, when we try and we fail, we can hear the voice of Jesus reminding us, behold, I am with you always. Until the very end.