Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 5/7/23 Spiritual Houses

Episode Date: May 6, 2023

Homily from the Fifth Sunday of Easter The Temple is the place of sacrifice. Peter notes that we are built into a spiritual house. We know what kind of building it is based on the purpose of the building. And the purpose of the Temple is to be the Presence of God and the place of worship and sacrifice. If we are temples of the Holy Spirit, then this is true for us as well. Mass Readings from May 7, 2023:Acts 6:1-7Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-191 Peter 2:4-9 John 14:1-12

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 in your podcast app for weekly notifications. God bless. The Lord be with you.

Are you reading from the Holy Gospel according to John? Chapter 14 verses 1 through 12. Jesus said to his disciples, Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God, have faith also in me. In my father's house, there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself

so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going, you know the way. Thomas said to him, Master, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you also know my father.

From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us. Jesus said to him, have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on my own. The Father, who dwells in me, is doing His works. Believe me, that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. Or else believe because of the works themselves. Amen. And then I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and we'll do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father, the Gospel of the Lord.

So as I mentioned, I've been thinking a lot about architecture. We've been talking a lot about, like, building a church, you know, where Newman is and building a student center. And so I've been thinking about buildings a lot. And I just, you know when you start thinking about, like, the actual practical buildings, you start thinking, like, abstract, like, what is a building? I don't know if you've ever asked that question. Like, what is it? I just, the idea of this, that the kind of building, the kind of building is based off

off of the purpose of the building. These are the thoughts that occurred to me. I don't know if they agree to you. These kind of things that basically all buildings are built on purpose. I know. Shocking. But all buildings, no building just accidentally happens. That all buildings are built with a purpose.

And the kind of building is based off the purpose of the building. Like basically, say it like this, that if you know the purpose of the building, you know what kind of building it is. So like a building that's built for education. That's the purpose. The kind of building, it's a school. You know, a building that's built for healing, the kind of building that is a hospital. The kind of building that's built for manufacturing, that building is a factory, right? So the kind of building that's meant to be lived in. The kind of building, that's a house or that's a home. That's an apartment building. It's a home. That when you know that, this idea keeps going back to me. When you know the purpose of the building, you know what kind of building it is. And vice versa.

when you know the kind of building, you know the purpose of the building. So here's St. Peter in the second reading today. And he says to all Christians, he says, here's what you are. Here's what you need to know by yourselves. You're living stones being built into spiritual houses. And you're a spiritual house. You know, Paul also uses the image in 1 Corinthians. He uses it in Ephesians.

And we know that in our day and age, there are a bunch of different kinds of spiritual houses. Right? We have churches. We have synagogues. We have mosques. But when St. Peter was taught. talking about this when he said, okay, but you guys, you are built into a spiritual house. He was thinking of a very particular kind of spiritual house. It's the same thing that St. Paul

was writing about. What did Paul say? When Paul said, you Christian are a spiritual house, what is the term he used? He said, you're a temple of the Holy Spirit. You're a temple of the Lord. St. Paul is saying, you're a temple of the living God. Some of us are like, I know, right? But like, the rest of us are like, what does that mean? Like, what is it, what is it to be a temple? because I think, again, 21st century Americans, but even 21st century Christians, we think, oh, the temple, it's like a synagogue. Yes and no, not at all.

When we think, like, where did Jews go on Sabbath? Well, they go to the temple. They don't. The temple doesn't exist anymore. They go to synagogues. Synagogues are great, right? A synagogue is a place of prayer. Synagogue is a place where gathering.

A synagogue is a place where you study. But the temple is completely unique. So when Peter says you're a temple, when Paul says you're a temple, he's meaning something completely different than what typically what we think. What was the temple for? If we go all the way back to the beginning

in the book of Exodus, you have, here's God, and his presence is there. His presence came down upon the tent of meeting, came upon the early edition of the tabernacle, the early edition of the temple. In fact, Exodus chapter 25 says this. It says, they're to make a sanctuary for me. They're to make like a temple, right?

A tent of meeting. A temple for me so that I may dwell among them. See, the temple was completely unique on all places on the world because God was going to be there in a very particular way, that the presence of God would be in the temple in a way that the presence of God wasn't anywhere else, so much so that, again, at the end of Exodus chapter 40, it described what that looked like. It actually even looked, the building itself looked differently. It said,

the cloud, the Sheckinac, the glory cloud of God, it covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the of the Lord filled the tabernacle. The glory of the Lord filled the temple. So here's what we know about the temple. Number one, the purpose of this building reveals what kind of building is, and what's the first purpose. The first purpose of this building is this is where the presence of God would abide in a completely unique way. And as long as the presence of God was there, no matter what Israel was called to do, whether that's wander through the wilderness for 40 years, whether that was cross the Jordan into the promised land, whether that was to fight the people who were there, whether that was to live in Jerusalem. I mean, it's all these people all around

them who want to conquer them, the presence of God would reveal, the temple would reveal that the presence of God is here. That God has to have. not abandoned us. That's what the purpose of the temple was. First, here is the presence of God that declares God has not abandoned us, that God is here and he fights for us. And here's Peter who says, you know what? You are a temple. Here's St. Paul who says, and now you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? That means, first of all, that the presence of God exists and abides in you as a sign to the world that God has not abandoned this world. As a sign to the world that God is here with us.

As a sign to the world, the God is fighting for us. Peter, that's you. That's every Christian. You are that sign. You're that evidence. In fact, you know, next week, St. Peter, he's going to keep talking to us. He's going to say, always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you a reason for your hope.

Always be ready. Always be ready to answer an explanation to anyone who asks for a reason for your hope. You know, Peter's assuming what's going to happen. Peter's assuming that people are going to look at you in your life in the way you live and say, they're hopeful. Peter's assuming that just the way Christians live in this world, that everyone else will look at and say,

that's different. Not different, different, but like, that's different. That's powerful. That's joyful. They have a joy, they have a love, they have a life, they have a hope different than anyone else. He's assuming that's just what it is to be a Christian. Why?

Because every Christian is a certain kind of building. Every Christian is a certain kind of house. Every Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit that means that we live differently and we love differently and we hope differently. After all, remember, the type of building reveals the purpose of the building. So knowing that you're a temple reveals the purpose. You and I are meant to be a sign to the world that God has not abandoned this world. You and I are meant to be a sign to the world that God continues to fight for people in this world.

That you and I are actually meant to be a walking, living tabernacle. And as amazing as it is that the temple was the place of the presence of God, the temple wasn't merely the place of the presence of God. In fact, remember, the temple's a unique building, and it's built for a specific purpose. That purpose isn't just as a sign to the world that God's here. The primary, I don't know if you know this, you know what the primary action of the temple was.

Like the primary thing or activity of the temple, it wasn't just prayer, it wasn't just gathering, it wasn't just teaching, that the primary activity of the temple was worship. Now, if you've ever come to Mass here, you probably know, or we heard me say this before, that the heart of religion is worship, right? The heart of religion isn't just the creed,

although the creed's important, what we believe is important. Heart of religion isn't just morality, like how we live, although that's important. The heart of religion is worship. Like if you go to any religion and the whole course of the entire history of humanity, the heart of religion, the most important part of religion, is worship.

And the heart of worship is sacrifice. So here's the temple. What kind of a building? It's a building built for worship. It's the place of sacrifice. In fact, in the Jewish world, the only place you could worship, the only place you could offer sacrifice was the temple. That was, again, I'll say this again, that was the primary activity of that

kind of building, is sacrifice. And St. Peter and St. Paul, look at you and look at me and say, and you are a spiritual house. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit, which means that you are the place of worship, that your life is actually meant to be the place of sacrifice. That's, in fact, That's why St. Paul writing to the Romans, he says this. He says, I beg you to offer your bodies to God as a living sacrifice. Why? Because you're the temple. Everything you do, everything you offer in your body, that's actually meant to be an act of worship. Not only are you that sign to God, sign to the world, that God is not abandoned his people, that he's present, that he's here, but also everywhere you go, and this is crazy, everything you touch as a Christian is meant to be

transformed into worship. What St. Peter says, well, the rest, he keeps going on. He says, because why? Because you offer the sacrifice. Question, who offers the sacrifice in the New Testament, Old Testament? Priests. What did St. Peter call you today? You've been built up into a spiritual priesthood. Every Christian, every baptized Christian is a priest. And what's the main job of the priest? Is to offer the sacrifice. Where does the priest offer the sacrifice? In the temple. You are both priest and temple. That's like that's your identity now. That's what you are. That's who you are. And we do this at the Mass, every single Mass, that Christians are invited to be here, that we're invited to be here, and not simply watch the priest pray at the altar.

But if you are a kingdom priest, if you are someone who's been baptized, that means you're meant to actually offer worship with the priest. You're actually meant to exercise your kingdom priesthood because St. Peter says today, you're a priest. You have this kingdom priesthood. And yet too many of us, what do we do? For Mass, we show up, we watch the ministerial priest pray as opposed to utilizing and exercising your kingdom priesthood.

saying, I'm going to actually, I'm going to actually offer up the sacrifice with the priest. And this isn't crazy. This isn't just like, Father, I thought you were more of those conservative priests. Now you're sounding a little liberal. It's what the church teaches. It's literally, at every mass, what does a priest say to us? I'm going to say it in just a little bit. He says, pray my brothers and sisters that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God,

the Almighty Father. What he's saying is what you were hearing, you've been hearing at every mass is a priest saying, I'm going to offer a sacrifice. It's my sacrifice and yours. I'm the priest, you're a priest, as priests, we are offering up the sacrifice. Not only that, he goes on to pray. May he make of us an eternal offering to you, O Lord. Because yes, you're the priest offering the sacrifice, but you are also the place of sacrifice.

What kind of building are you? You are a spiritual house. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. And that means that your life and everything you do is a place of sacrifice. The purpose of the building reveals the kind of building it is. here's what, last two things. Here's what the catechism says about this. I've been reading a Catechism lately, into a microphone primarily,

but in Catechism, I think Catechism 901, it says this, says, hence the laity, basically, everyone, dedicated to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and prepared so that even richer fruits of the Spirit may be produced in them, like in you, that basically you've been anointed, you've been consecrated, you've been set apart so that God may be known in this world,

he goes on to say, for all their works, all their prayers, all their apostolic undertakings, all their family and married life, their daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they're accomplished in the spirit, it goes on to say, even indeed the individual hardships of life, if born patiently, all of these become a spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Now think about this. What part of life does that not touch? It's all of life. I don't know to read that again. What is it? All your work everything you do. School work, homework, work, work, yard work. All your prayers. Little old me, my prayers? Yes, little of you and your prayers. All your apostolic undertakings. What's an apostolic

undertaking? Well, I'm a greeter at Mass. Great, even that. Your family and married life. Your daily work, relaxation of mind and body, even your downtime, even your vacation. Even, it goes on to say, even the hardships of life, if patiently born, all of these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Why? Because you are a temple of the Holy Spirit and the kind of building it is reveals the purpose of the building. You're a temple, therefore, you're a place of sacrifice. You're a priest, therefore you offer the sacrifice. And here's the big question. The question is, that sounds complicated. How in the world am I going to do that? Here's the simple answer. How do I do this? It sounds so complex. How in the world could I go

through this world as a temple of the Holy Spirit, a place of sacrifice? How do I make everything and offering to God, super simple. There's a man's named St. Francis DeSales, and St. Francis de Sales has the key, the secret to holiness. The secret to holiness is three words. No matter what you do, three words. Ask, offer, accept.

You might know this already. It's ask, offer, accept. Basically, St. Francis de Sales says, okay, no matter what situation you're going into, whatever you do, first ask, meaning ask God to be present. Obviously, God's already present. God's already there.

But when we invite him to be present, he's there in a unique way. So whatever you do, God, I'm about to work out. God, I'm about to do homework. God, I'm about to go to sleep. Be present with me. Second, offer. Offer that time. God, this is for you. I'm going to go on and run right now. God, I ask you be present and I offer this run to you. I'm about to have a hard conversation with someone. God, I ask me to be present and I offer the pain of this conversation to you. I'm about to sit down and eat a steak. God, it's going to be present. And I offer this moment of joy to you. So I ask and I offer

then the third thing is accept. It's resolving to basically say, God, I resolve to accept whatever comes out of this. I resolve to accept whatever comes out of this homework. I resolve to accept whatever comes out of this night's sleep. I resolve to accept whatever it comes out. I'll be this commute on my way to work. God, I resolve to accept whatever it is

that comes out of this time playing with my kids on the living room floor. See, if we do this on a regular basis, so simple. We simply ask God to be present. That makes every moment a sacrament. I don't know if you know that. If we ask God to be present, every moment's a sacrament. There's not one moment that God isn't present to,

and everything you touch becomes a sacrament where God is there. And what's the key to the sacrament? The sacrament is a visible reality that conveys an invisible grace. Imagine if every moment of your life, you are living a sacrament. If we ask, if we offer, not only is every moment a sacrament, every moment becomes a sacrifice. If I just offer, God, here, this is yours, I give this to you. Every moment becomes a sacrifice,

which means your entire life can become an opportunity to worship. Why? Because you're a temple of the Holy Spirit. And the kind of building reveals the purpose of the building. And you're meant to be a sacrifice to the Lord. And thirdly, we accept. Basically, that means every moment is an act of trust. Every moment is an act of surrender. Every moment, you're a walking act of faith saying,

God, I know that you're here because I asked you to be present. God, I know that you accept this because I'm offering it to you. And God, I know that I can trust you, no matter what happens, you guys, if we were to just do this today, if to do this, I mean, in the most simple ways, do it before you go to bed tonight. I mean, it's in the prayer. Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord of my soul to keep.

If I should die before waking, place I'm my soul to take. That is, ask, God, you're present. It's offering. Take my soul, Lord. It's also accepting if I die, I'm yours. To be able to pray this tonight as you go to bed, God, I ask you to be present. I offer you this awesome night's sleep, or I offer you this awesome night's sleep, or I offer you this night where I'm just a rotisserie chicken spinning around in my bed, can't get to sleep.

I offer it to you, and I resolve to accept whatever it is comes out of this night's sleep. What that means is, for some of us, you will just have worship for eight hours in a row. For others of us, it'll be three and a half. But whatever it is, imagine your entire night being an opportunity where you exercise the fact that you are a certain kind of building. You are a certain kind of person. You are a spiritual house, a temple of the Holy Spirit, a place of worship. And you are a priest of the living God.

And everything you touch is a sacrifice. And every moment of your life is an act of worship.