Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 6/29/25 Pillar and Foundation: Upon this Rock

Episode Date: June 28, 2025

Homily from the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. Jesus came to establish a Church. The Church is an essential part of God's Kingdom on earth. Jesus is the King. Peter (and his successors) are the stewards of the King. This role has the authority to teach, guide, and govern. Mass Readings from June 29, 2025: Acts 12:1-11 Psalm 34:2-92 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18 Matthew 16:13-19

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. Chapter 16 verses 13 through 19. When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea of Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the son of man is? They replied, some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter said in reply, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus said to him in reply,

Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly father. And so I say to you, you are Peter. And upon this rock, I will build my church. And the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

The gospel of the Lord. May you have a seat. So we've been following this, doing this. series called Pillar and Foundation. And one of the things we've been trying to respond to is this challenge. The challenge is the question people have or the question is, okay, so is that in the Bible or is that just from the church? As if, again, we've talked about this for the last six weeks, as if the church is optional. I want to make a claim, and I think this claim is bold, but I think this claim is accurate. And it is this. That in spite of what people have said for the

last maybe 100 years, maybe 50 years, where they contrast the idea between religion and relationship, right? That Jesus didn't come to establish a religion. He came to give us a relationship. I would say that the reason why Jesus came to this earth was to give us the church. That's the reason. The reason Jesus came to this earth was to give us the church, right? He unlocked the gates of heaven. Yes, absolutely. That he gave us access to the Father. Yes, he brought us into a new covenant. Absolutely. He did all those things and those things have been communicated to us. How? They've been communicated to us through the church. I mean, stop it. Just one second and we're medited on this. The Jesus, yes, in saving us from our sins. Yes, Jesus in again, opening the gates of

heaven, Jesus, and making it possible for us to have access to God. Give us the Holy Spirit. How was that actually communicated to us? All of that, all of that grace, all of that new relationship that God gave us, all of it came to us through the church. So again, I'll make this claim. The church is not optional. The church is essential because the church is the whole point of Jesus' mission to earth. So here's what I mean. In 1990-something, there's a rabbi, Rabbi Jacob Neusner.

Rabbi Jacob Neusner, he wanted to ask the question. The question was, okay, so I'm a 21st century rabbi. If I was living at the time of Jesus, if I was a first century rabbi living in Israel, What I have believed that Jesus was the Messiah? Because he realized he was just being very, very honest. He said, I know that there's 2,000 years of baggage right now. And so, but what if I was there 2,000 years ago? And I saw this rabbi who was doing the things that Jesus did,

fulfilling all these Old Testament prophecies, what I follow after him? And so he wrote this book, documenting his honest look at what I have become a follower of Jesus. And it's pretty remarkable because he says, yeah, you know, actually Jesus fulfills all of these Old Testament prophecies, of what the Messiah would do, who the Messiah would be. Ultimately, though, Rabbi Nusner says that he doesn't believe he would have followed Jesus for essentially one reason.

And one reason is he said the Messiah was supposed to restore the kingdom to earth. And where's the kingdom of Israel? That Jesus didn't actually establish the kingdom on the earth, therefore he couldn't possibly be the Messiah. All the other things lined up. fulfills all these other prophecies. But this one, he doesn't, in Rabbi Neusner's perspective. And so he just says, I couldn't have followed Jesus.

Now, it's interesting, Pope Benedict, the 16th, was Cardinal Matzor at the time. He said, he just really admired Rabbi Neusner's honesty and his deep dive into looking at the claims of Jesus. But Pope Benedict, the future Pope Benedict made the argument. He said, actually, Jesus did establish a kingdom. Jesus did reconstitute the kingdom of Israel. We call that, and that kingdom has gone out throughout the whole world.

kingdom has embraced, just like scripture prophesied, that kingdom has embraced all peoples, all languages, all nationalities, all races. That kingdom has embraced the entire world, and that kingdom is the Catholic Church. If you actually want to take a look and what the Bible says about this, I would do this. I would say, let's look back at the Old Testament. Here's God who establishes his kingdom, right? The kingdom of, kingdom of Israel. And it is made up of how many tribes? Twelve, wow, scholars. Twelve tribes of Israel, right? They're constituted on one king. Originally, we have King Saul, kind of sort it, then it's King David, boom, he establishes this. There's King Solomon, then Solomon's son, under King Solomon's son, those 12 tribes

fractured into 10 tribes in the north and two tribes in the south. Unfortunately, as years go on, there's never a reunification of those 10 tribes and those two tribes. In fact, unfortunately, what happens is with those 10 tribes in the north, the Assyrians come in from the north, and they obliterate those ten tribes from the face of the earth. They're gone. They have never been seen again. They will never be seen again. And that if you look at the map of Israel, what you see is that right up there by the Sea of Galilee, just north of the Sea of Galilee, it's what's called the land of Zebulin and land of Naftali. Those two are two of the tribes. Zebulin and Naftali become the two tribes, there's a little history lesson. The first two tribes that the Assyrians decimate

and destroy. The promise of God was what? The promise of God was, there would be a kingdom that would last forever. So where is it? Well, if you go to Matthew's Gospel, the very first chapter of Matthew's Gospel, I remember when I first got my first Bible in high school. I was at the Crowing County Fair, and they gave me a little Gideon, New Testament with the Psalms and Proverbs. And I remember reading, oh my gosh, I'm going to read the Bible. In the first book in that Bible, that little small one, is the Gospel of Matthew. So I crack open Matthew chapter 1 and begin reading, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Then it goes on to say, Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac, the father of Jacob, the father of Judah, and his brothers.

keeps going on. I was like, wow, this is riveting, reading. Not. It is, I was so bored. I didn't realize what was happening. What Matthew was doing is he's saying, oh, no, no, no, listen, here's Abraham at the beginning here.

Then it goes all the way to David. And then from David, it goes all the way to Jesus. What Matthew is doing is Matthew's establishing a direct connection from the tribe of Judah through David to Jesus. Why? Because Matthew's whole gospel is making the case that Jesus established the kingdom and that he is the king.

So if he keep going, he keeps reading in the Gospel of Matthew, you get to Matthew chapter 4. In Matthew chapter 4, there's a strange thing that happens. John the Baptist, unfortunately, gets killed, and Jesus leaves the region of the Jordan River, leaves the desert, and he goes north to the Sea of Galilee. He's walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. And then Matthew even puts this quote in.

He says, Jesus went to Copernum, by the sea in the region of Zebulin and Naftali, so that what had been said to the prophet might be fulfilled, land of Zebulin, land of Naftali, the weight of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, people who sit in darkness have seen a great light. So Jesus knows this time is happening.

And before he does any public ministry, he goes to the land of Zebulin and the land of Naftali. Why? He has the land of Zebulin and the land of Naftali was where those 12 tribes, there was 10 tribes of the north, were first destroyed. he has come to restore the 12 tribes.

Where does he start this? Copernum by the sea, land of Zebulin, land of Naftali. And then his first words, his public words are this. From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew makes it very, very clear that Jesus' whole mission was to what,

to establish a kingdom, a, aka to establish a church. The very next thing he does after this, the very next verse, says, as he's walking by the Sea of Galilee, he sees two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter and his brother, Andrew, casting a net into the sea, they're fishermen. He says, to them, come after me, and I'll make you fish as the men. Gets James and John. He gets four. How many is he total does he get?

Twelve, exactly. He gets 12 total. Why? Because Jesus is the king. He's reconstituting the kingdom of Israel. And all along, every beat and almost virtually every gospel is maintaining this absolute truth that Jesus is establishing a kingdom, and he is the king. until we get to today's gospel. Today's gospel is Matthew chapter 16. So I don't know if you know this. If you're looking at a map of Israel, Jesus spends roughly 80% of his public ministry in a five-mile radius.

This just blows their mind. The most influential, significant person who ever lived, spends 80% of his public ministry, his public work, within a five-mile radius. But at one point here in Matthew chapter 16, we just heard today, it says Jesus went to his disciples, took the apostles, right? Well, they went up to a place called Caesarea Philippi. It's about 29 miles north of where Jesus,

Jesus' home base was, about 29 miles north at Copernum. He's like, why would Jesus walk 29 miles north? Because north is uphill, everything. Why would he go that far and ask them one question? We heard the question today in the gospel. The question is, who do people say the son of man is? All these answers. And this is a great example, great snapshot of what we have right now.

I mean, anybody could go down to Barnes & Noble, and they could pick up a Bible, or go to Amazon and order a Bible, and they could read it, and they could come to a bunch of different conclusions about who Jesus is. So Jesus asked, what are people saying? Well, Elijah John the Baptist, one of the prophets, Jeremiah. And then Jesus asks, who do you say that I am? And Peter, apparently, revealed to him by the Father, says, you're the Christ.

What's Christ? That means the Messiah. That means the one, the anointed one. Peter is saying, Jesus, you're the king. In response to Simon Peter saying, Jesus, you're the king, Jesus says what? Jesus says, Simon, your name's no longer Simon. His name is now Peter. Now, I don't know if you know this.

Up to this point, the name Peter. wasn't a name. Did you know this? Do you know that up until like 1984, the name Madison didn't actually exist as a first name? It was, there's a movie, this is a side point. There's a movie starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hanna called Splash and where Daryl Hanna plays a mermaid and she gets legs and she meets Tom Hanks because they're walking downtown Manhattan and she wants a name and she points up Madison Avenue. She says, how about that? And he says in the movie, that's not really a name, but okay. Ever since then, every girl named Madison is named after a fish. They're a name. They're after the mermaid, Darryl Hannah in Splash.

Anyways, just like, this is why this matters. Because of the Bible. Up until this moment in Matthew chapter 16, that name Peter wasn't a name. It literally just means rock. In Aramaic, it would be the word khaefa. That's all it is. So Jesus is saying to Simon,

okay, from now your name is rock. Why? For the same reason that Jesus took all the disciples up to this place called Caesar Rea Philippi. ever have a chance to go to Caesarea Philippi, you will see this remarkable rock formation. It's this massive, massive cliff, hundreds of feet high, and built into this massive rock at the time of Jesus were all of these temples, essentially all of these churches. So Jesus did not have PowerPoint.

So what he did was, okay, so essentially not a PowerPoint, you have to walk 29 miles north. And at this place, I will say, oh, no, no, Simon, your name is now rock. and you see these churches built on this rock behind me? Peter, on this rock, you, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. This is a massive moment. You know, in the Bible, only God can change someone's name. And when he changes their name,

he also changes their mission. He changes their identity. He changes their role. In this moment, Simon goes from another one of the disciples, another one of the apostles, to being unique. what's that unique role? What's in the next line? He says, I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

Remember, the keys the king of the kingdom. I'll give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. What you open, no one shall shut. What you shut, no one shall open. When you bond on earth, bound in heaven, loose on earth is loose in heaven. Now, we hear that and like, wow, that seems like a big, big deal. If you're one of the disciples, you'd have been like, oh my gosh.

Jesus is referencing Isaiah 22. You wouldn't have known that because they didn't number Isaiah until later on. But you'd been like, he's referencing that first third of Isaiah, And you'd be absolutely right, because in the first third of Isaiah, there's this moment where here is a guy named Eliakim. And Eliakim is the al-Habait, right? He's the prime minister of the kingdom. The al-habaheat was this. Al-ha, it means over. Ha is the and bet or ba'it is house. So this is the person over the house. This is basically the prime minister of the kingdom. Now, the king is the kingdom. The king is the king of the kingdom. But the al-habait is the prime

minister, which means what? It means when the king is away, the al-habait has the authority of the king. It's much like when you think if you ever know Lord of the Rings, if you have Gondor, right? The king of Gondor is Erdog. While Erdogan is gone, you have the steward of Gondor, who has all the authority of the king, but he's not the king. And so as Jesus is saying, I'll give you the keys to the kingdom, which you bind on earth, bound in heaven, loose on earth, loose on heaven. those disciples who knew the Bible would have said, oh my gosh, Isaiah 22. Because in Isaiah 22, here's what it says. It says, I will give you, because he's getting it from my life and giving it to a guy named Shabna.

He says, I will clothe him with your robe and gird him with your sash. That sash, that robe is the sign of authority. And confer on him your authority. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. He'll be a father to the members of the kingdom. You know what we call the Pope? Because Pope is the English or Anglicized version of the Italian Papa, which is Father. We call the Pope the Holy Father. Why? Because I've had 22.

He'll be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah. And here's the kicker. Here's the line. I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder. What he opens, no one shall shut. What he shuts, no one shall open. I will shall fix him as a peg in a firm place in a seat of honor for his ancestral house, on him shall hang all the glory of his father's house. When Jesus is saying to Simon, okay, now you're the rock upon which I will build my church. Remember why Jesus come to earth? To build a church, to establish a church. And then he says,

to Simon, the rock, now Peter, I will give you the keys. What he's saying is, you're right, I am the Messiah. You're right, I am the king. And now you have a new role. Your new role is to be the al-habite, to be the one who's over the household, that when I'm gone, you have a job to do. Now, we might think, like, yeah, but the next line he says, is get behind me, Satan. Well, that's a challenge, but it does take away his role. He also think, well, yeah, but also Peter was false to Jesus. That doesn't take away his role. In fact, there's this one, there's one section in the gospel of Luke.

I kind of want to end here. The section of the gospel of Luke chapter 22 is just fascinating. It's Jesus at the Last Supper. At the Last Supper, what happens is a number of the disciples. disciples, picture this. It's Luke 22. It says, then an argument, Jesus had just done the last supper. He had just foretold his betrayal. And the next line in Isaiah 22, verse 24, says, then an argument broke out among them about which of them should be regarded as the greatest, which is just like so inappropriate. Jesus just gave them the Eucharist. He also just said that

basically, yep, I'm going to be betrayed. Well, who's the greatest? And then Jesus takes this opportunity to once again remind them about servant leadership. He says, Among you shall not be so. Rather let the greatest among you be as the youngest, the leader as the servant. He goes on to say in verse 28, he says, it is you who have stood by me in my trials. And I have conferred a kingdom on you, just as my father has conferred one on me. Then you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and you will sit on the thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Jesus makes it so clear, I'm establishing a kingdom, and he will sit on the thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

And the very next line he says is he turns to Simon Peter and he says these words, he says, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat. It's plural. He demanded to sift all of you like wheat. But I prayed for you, singular. I prayed for you, Peter, that your own faith may not fail. and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers. Pause for a moment on this.

Jesus has just said, yep, you all have authority. In my kingdom, you all have authority. These are the first apostles. These are the first bishops. And then he says, and Simon Simon, Satan has demanded to sift all of you, all of you apostles like wheat. But Simon Peter, I prayed specifically for you that after you've fallen, that your own faith may not fail, that after you come back to me, after denying me,

after you come back, you may strengthen your brother. and what is the context of this? Jesus has just said, the greatest must be the least. The greatest must be the one who serves. And he now is said to Simon Peter, remember your role as the al-habite, is not to lord it or over anyone,

but to be the servants of the servants of God. You know the Pope's role? Pope's title? Yes, Holy Father. It's the Holy Pontiff. The Pope's title has always been the servant of the servants. Here is Jesus,

knowing that Peter himself is a broken and wounded and weak man. But he has a job to do. That when he has fallen, his own faith doesn't fail and he can come back and strengthen his brethren. This is the great gift, one of the great gifts that God has given us.

He has given us the Holy Father. He's given us the role of Pope. He's given us, as it says in Isaiah 22, that sure peg fixed in a solid place. And we know that if we stay close to the Holy Father, we are staying close to the church. And we know this. The church is not optional.

That Jesus Christ came to this earth to establish a kingdom. Jesus came to this earth to give us the church. And the church he gave us, the Holy Roman Catholic Church is, as Scripture says, the pillar and foundation of truth.