Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 8/6/23 Identity Precedes Mission

Episode Date: August 5, 2023

Homily from the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord Claimed. Respected. Trusted. Jesus Transfigured on the top of Mount Tabor precedes His journey to Mount Calvary. On Tabor, He is not merely transfigured...He is Claimed, Respected, and Trusted as the beloved Son. We too need the Father's voice to voice His claim over us, His respecting us, and His entrusting a mission to us.Mass Readings from August 6, 2023:Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 92 Peter 1:16-19 Matthew 17:1-9

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 Matthew. Chapter 17 verses 1 through 9 Jesus took Peter James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain by themselves and he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,

Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.

When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid, but Jesus came and touched them saying, Rise, and do not be afraid. And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone. As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, charge them, do not tell the vision to anyone until the son of man has been raised from the dead. The gospel of the Lord. So one of the things that I get to experience a lot when it comes

to working on campus, working with a lot of college students, is not only their transition when they come here, but also their transition away from here. In fact, it's the transition from having a mission to having different missions. I mean, think about it like this, you have people who will say, like, yeah, in high school, this was my thing. You know, whatever that thing was. In high school, I was all about crochet. I was all about karate. I was all about something else that starts with a cut sound like. I was all about sports or music or whatever the thing was, all about my friends.

And then they come to campus and they have a new mission. And sometimes that mission is, yeah, it's my major. Sometimes the mission is my fine arts. Sometimes the mission is being a missionary, actually. In fact, today, August 6th, Emmeline, who read today for the last two years on our campus. She's been a focused missionary, full-time focused missionary. And this last week was her first week. as being non-focused missionary, but as a nurse here in town.

And it's just been that shift of mission, that shift of mission can oftentimes like shake us, right? When we transition from one mission to the next mission, sometimes we begin to ask the question, well, am I just, am I really more than my mission? In fact, in fact, when it comes to a really big thing, for exactly, I don't mean to pick an M-Line at all, but when it comes to someone who is a missionary, right? So my mission is wrapped up so deeply, so closely with my relationship with God. And the mission is so wrapped up so profoundly in who I am, that the temptation, again, is to say that, no, that's who I am.

I'm a missionary. The temptation can be, like, no, if your work is so important to you, then, yeah, no, what I am, who I am, is I am a teacher. That's my mission. That's my call. And yet we still have to come back to this question. Is that it? Am I nothing more than my mission?

Yeah, I think this is fascinating because today, the thesis of transfiguration, this marks a pivot point in Jesus' life. This marks a pivot point in actually the mission of Jesus. Like up to this point, the first half, you might say there's two parts in Matthew's Gospel of Jesus' mission. The first part starts with his baptism by John and the Jordan, right?

So he gets anointed by the Holy Spirit. He gets baptized by the Holy Spirit, and then he goes out, and he goes out into the wilderness for 40 days, 40 nights, he fasts, he battles the devil. then he begins proclaiming the kingdom of God. And he starts, I mean, just think about this, he declares repentance, he declares the kingdom of God, he declares the great good news, that God is here for you.

He begins freeing captives. He begins healing those who are sick. He begins delivering those who are possessed. And he collects around him these disciples. In fact, these 12 apostles. Matthew 16 is when Jesus even says to Peter that you're Peter, your rock, and upon this rock, I'll build my church. And so everything from the very baptism of Jesus,

in the Jordan in Matthew chapter 3 to Matthew 16 is like the first act. And then here the Transfiguration, Matthew 17, is the beginning of the second act. Jesus' mission, it's the same mission, but it's the second act of his mission. The first part is proclamation of the kingdom, right? Establishing of the church, gathering the disciples, here's Peter, you are the rock upon which I'll blame my church. And now, after this moment of the transfiguration, this is the beginning of the end. Everything Jesus does from this moment, when he walks down this mountain, will be leading him to Jerusalem, will be leading him to Galgotha, will be leading to his crucifixion

and resurrection. So the first half, proclamation of the kingdom. Yes, you know, building up the church. The second half is a process of Jesus laying down his life. Everything that happens from Matthew 17 till the end of the gospel is directed towards his crucifixion, to sacrificing himself to the Father for the salvation of the world. Now, here's the question. Is that all he is? I mean, Jesus, His mission is pretty important, right? The salvation of the world, the glorification of the Father. The first act, really important. Establishing the kingdom of God on earth, building the church.

The second act, incredibly important, salvation of the world. But you can imagine that if Jesus were like you or like me, he could stop and ask, is that it? Is that all the only reason the Father sent me here? Just to live my mission, just to sacrifice myself. Now, he wouldn't ask that question because he knows who he is. because he is one with the Father. But we also don't have to ask that question

because the Father speaks in two distinct points at the beginning of the first act and today, the beginning of the second act. And what the Father says in the beginning of both acts is something so profound where he declares so clearly over Jesus that, no, no, no, you are more than your mission. What does he say?

When Jesus has baptized by John and the Jordan, the Father speaks and says, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. And today, as Jesus begins this journey to Jerusalem, this beginning of the end, the Father once again speaks. And he says, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased, listen to him. And this is what we need to hear too. This is, of course, the Father declaring over the Son, these three pieces.

this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased, listen to them. These three things are things that we need to hear too, because why? Because especially if we belong to Jesus, we can, especially if we have a mission, if you've been living on mission as a mom or as a dad, as a grandma now, as a grandpa, whatever, however you've been living as a disciple of Jesus, we can ask that question, am I more than my mission? And the father speaks today and says very clearly, absolutely. You know, I will always remind our students that ever since the beginning,

ever since the fall, in the Garden of Eden, There's a one lie that's come against every woman, and there's one lie that's come against every man. And this is this lie that makes us ask the question, am I nothing more than my mission? Am I nothing more than what I can do? And the lie that comes against every woman is this lie that simply says, you are not worth loving as you are right now. And this is the lie that's coming as every woman. You are not worth loving as you are right now. The lie that comes against every man that you've ever met in your entire life is

you are not competent. You don't have what it takes. You're not a man. These are the two lies, right? And I want to emphasize this. That lie comes against every woman you know. From your wife to your sister,

to your mom, to your daughter, to your grandma. The lie that says you are not worth loving as you are right now. What does the father do in response to that lie? In response to this lie, here's what the father does. he claims you. This is the power of the father's claiming.

What does the Father declare over Jesus? And these are the words that echo in our lives. Jesus is, by nature, the Son of God, we are sons and daughters of God by adoption. And the Father declares over every daughter. This is my beloved daughter. Now, something so powerful about being claimed. Everyone, if we're going to be healed from this lie

that says, you're not worth loving as you are right now, we need to be claimed. Because there's the pain of not being claimed, right? There's the pain of, like, maybe you're tolerated but not loved. You know, there's a story in Second Samuel about King David. If you go back to David's life, David has a lot of good qualities. He says a lot of flaws. David has some incredibly egregious sins in his life.

But overall, David's a pretty good king. He unites the 12 tribes of Israel. He establishes the kingdom for the first time ever. And yet, David's not a very good dad. At one point in Second Samuel, he has some kids that there's horrible brokenness in his family among his children. At one point, one of his sons, names Absalom, has a revolt against his father. Basically, he gathers a bunch of people, and he tries to kill his father. He tries to usurp his throne, fights against him actually in battle.

Now, the entire time, if you've ever paid attention to this, the entire time, David doesn't want his son to die. He cares about Absalom. But if you notice this, the whole time, whenever David refers to Abyssalam, for the entire story, he never calls him his son. He says he calls him Absalom. He calls him the youth. He calls him the young man. He calls him the boy Absalom.

But he never claims him. In fact, it's only in 2nd Samuel chapter 19 when the news that Absalom is dead. David asks, is young Absalom safe? is the boy safe? And they say, no, he's dead. And in 2nd, Samuel, chapter 19, David goes up over the gates to the city of Jerusalem. And for the first time in the entire Bible,

David cries out, my son, my son, my son, my son, my son. Absalom is finally claimed as a son, but he's only claimed as a son in death. And you can imagine the incredible power of the wound of that, that wound of like, okay, yeah, you're tolerated. here, yeah, I care about you, but don't claim you. It's kind of like the idea of, what do I have to do to get claimed? There's this movie's from back in the 80s and 90s that would have like, you know, kids like,

I don't know, Little Giants is an example of one of these. They're kind of like the sandlot. The rag tag group of athletes are, and I remember there's so many times where there's these sports movies, right, with kids. And there's the distant, the non-presence, the absentee father who's not there for their child. And I remember there's this one scene in one of these movies where, you know, you know, Yeah, the dad goes and he's standing on the sidelines and he's on his phone while his daughter's playing out on the field.

And at one point, she scores the goal. At one point, she accomplishes, right? At one point she succeeds. At one point she wins. And that's where the dad on the sidelines, he's all choked up. He's like, oh, that's my girl. That's my girl. And you're supposed to think, like, wow, that's amazing.

That's awesome. And I thought, that's horrible. I hate this guy. Because fine, yeah, he'll claim her, but I'll claim her when she wins. And that's the lie. You're not worth loving as you are now. Is that why I've talked to so many young women who will say, no, no, no, I know I'm worth loving.

Yeah, I didn't say worth loving. You're worth loving as you are right now. Like you don't have to win first. You don't have to do anything. You're just claimed by the father. That you're actually wanted to know that you're chosen. That's why it's so powerful that the father claims Jesus at the moment of his baptism.

He declares it out loud. I mean, he's already claimed him, but Jesus hasn't done anything. He hasn't lived mission yet, right? He hasn't been on mission. For 30 years, he's been living this silent life. And even then, the father says, this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. And this is the thing that we have to get into our hearts.

Are you more than your mission? Yes. What are you? You're claimed. The father speaks over you and says, this is my beloved daughter, this is my beloved son. And that's the only thing, that is the only thing that will kill that lie that says you're not worth loving as you are right now. But that goes on further, right? Because the father declares over Jesus at the Jordan River and at Mount Tabor,

says, with whom I'm well pleased. And this is the thing for every man, right? The lie that comes against every man is that you're not competent, you don't have what it takes, that you're not a man. And there's something great about being claimed, right? There's something incredibly powerful about being loved. But this is the remarkable thing. I think it's great that the The father doesn't gush over the son. He claims him. He loves him. But even more, he goes on to say,

with whom I am well pleased. And there's something so powerful. I think every man knows this, that yeah, to be beloved is good. But every one of us, we want something more. I want our father to be able to say, you have what it takes. We need our father to be able to say,

you're competent. to be respected. There's this incredible book by a man named Emerson Eggrick. It's called Love and Respect. And in the book, he has a number of theses. But one of his thesis in his book is that, well, both men and women, we both, we all need to be loved and respected. He says that if you were to ask men to rank,

like, would you rather be loved by your wives than respected? He says, the vast majority of men will say that, yes, I want to be loved by my wife, of course. But if you really came down to it, I'd rather be respected by my wife than loved. Of course, we all want both. And everyone's different. That's kind of really broad strokes. It's kind of a big generalization.

But I will share that with so many men. And they're like, yep, that's exactly it. Not that they don't want to be loved by their wives. Not that they don't love and respect their wives. But they say, there's something so powerful that when my wife looks at me and she says, I know you. Listen, I know your weaknesses. I know your strengths.

I know how great you are. I know you on your white horse. And I know you down in the ditch. And I got to tell you, you're a good man. Every man I've talked to, they'll say, that does something to my heart. When this woman that I love more than anything in the world looks at me and she says, you're a good man, I respect you. You have what it takes.

That makes me want to be that good man, even more. There's something to be claimed. Yes, we need to be claimed. But even more as human beings, men and women, to be respected is something that all of us need. And so here, what does the father do? The Father says, you're my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. I'm claiming you. And also, I need you to know this.

I need you to know that I respect you. And this is, it is one thing to be loved. Because so often, you know, how God loves us, God doesn't love us because we're good. He loves us because he's good. But to also say, with whom I'm well pleased means that the Father looks at you. he says, I see something in you that brings joy to my heart.

Think about that. What if you believed that? That when the Father looks at you, he says, I see something in you that brings joy to my heart. With you, I am well pleased. That you are not only claimed, you're respected, then you're not only loved. There's something more here.

You're trusted. And that's the third thing, the Father says. I love this. Because, you know, the father doesn't say this at the Jordan River. The father says this, I'm Aunt Tabor, this third piece. He claims him, yes, you're more than your mission. This is my beloved son, with whom I'm well pleased. Yes, you're respected.

But then he says, listen to him. And in that, I just think this is something so powerful where the father looks at his son and he trusts him. That he points to his son, hey, listen to him. And there's something again so healing for our hearts to realize that what would it be like if the person you respected the most, you loved the most, that you thought was, yeah, this is the person, this is the being, this is my mom, maybe my dad, whoever the person is this teacher, this coach, this person who means so much to me that they were to say, actually, I trust you.

So, hey, you guys, listen to this person because I trust them. I remember talking with a Protestant pastor a number of years ago, and he talked about how he had led a mission trip into a dangerous, kind of violent third world country. and he was talking about all of the ways he had to keep all the people safe and the ways in which they were doing a lot of really, really important missionary work. And at one point, he mentioned that his father was on his trip with him. His mom and his dad was there. We're both there.

And I said, wow, what was that like to have your dad on a mission trip with you where, like, you get to tell him what to do? And he said, it was so incredible because my dad kept coming to me and saying, hey, Ryan, what do you want me to do next? And in a place of danger, my dad would come to me and say, Ryan, how can I help? And he would take directions for me. In this sense of it, he was like, no, I still know he's my dad.

Like my dad is really competent, my dad, he knows he has what it takes. I respect my dad. But my dad was pointing to me, all the other people who were journeying with us, my dad was saying essentially with his actions with his words, hey, listen to my son. Because I trust him. This is incredible. This happened in a couple of different ways. I remember the first time it happened with my own father.

It was kind of accidental. I was in college and at one point in the basement of our college chapel there was a book called Secrets of the Rosary by St. Louis de Montfort. And I picked it up and read it and I thought it was great. It was book on the rosary and I don't know how it worked but it was my dad's birthday. My dad's just turned 82 days ago. It's my dad's birthday a long time ago I was in college and I forgot to give him something but I had this book and so like oh hey dad, happy birthday. I'm so bad. I'm a bad son, horrible son. Bad gift giver but I gave him this book. The Secret to the Rosary. Forgot about it.

Then in September, went off to college, back to college, and I think it came home for Thanksgiving or something like this. And he said, hey, thanks for that book for you gave me for my birthday. I read it and I've been praying the rosary every day since. And I remember not knowing what to do. Like I remember not knowing where to look. It was one of those situations where for me, in my own heart, I was like, okay, wait, I taught my dad something.

I gave my dad this thing. And now he's been praying the rosary. He's like, I'm really glad you did that for me. Thank you so much. I've been praying the rosary every day. And I thought, wait, I don't. I don't lead him. He leads me.

But in this moment, it was like, no, no, I trust you. Because you said I should read this book, I read it, because the books that I should pray the rosary, I'm praying it, I'm doing it. And it was this incredible experience of, yeah, just being trusted by my father. See, we need these three things. Every one of us. We need to be claimed. We need to be respected and we need to be trusted.

And the incredible news is what the father declared over the son that this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased, listen to him. He declares over you. That when we find ourselves, this is the last thing, we find ourselves in this place of fear wondering,

am I just my mission? Am I more than my mission? Am I just here because the father needs me to get a bunch of stuff done. We need to hear these words from our father. Now, you are my beloved child, with whom I'm well pleased. And then pointing to you is saying,

actually, I trust you. So listen to her. Listen to him. We have to know this. And if we're wondering how deep this goes, again, this is the beginning of the second act. Where does the second act end? It ends on the cross.

And on the cross, what does Jesus say? Jesus says, essentially, every time you look at the crucifix, you hear Jesus saying, this is what you're worth. You are worth loving right now. Every time you look at the crucifix, you hear St. Paul echoing and say, hey, husbands, love your wives like Jesus does right now on the cross. Respected. Every time you look at the crucifix and see where this moment led,

You recognize that Jesus says, now go and do what I've done. Go and love the way I've loved. Go into all the world and share this news, this incredible news, that you are more than your mission, that you are claimed, that you are respected, that you're trusted, that you belong to the Father.