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 and 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. And with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Glory to you, Lord. Chapter 4, verses 12 through 23. When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. That what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled. Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali. The way to the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light. On those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death, light has arisen. From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea. They were fishermen. He said to them, Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him. He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people. The Gospel of the Lord. praise to you lord jesus christ thank you to have a seat so in 1973 uh my grandma helen uh was was a nurse and in 73 my grandma helen was the head nurse in fact at uh sinai hospital down in the twin cities and she loved her job they kind of her dream for her life was she had always wanted to be a nurse and she became a nurse and was really great nurse As I said, she was the head nurse at Sinai Hospital. And she loved her nurses. She loved taking care of these nurses. She took care of the patients. And it was, in some ways, you could say it was like everything to her. It was not just her livelihood. It was her life. And then in 1973, what happened was the U.S. Supreme Court put into effect Roe v. Wade, right, the legalizing abortion. And so pretty quickly at her hospital, things began to change. They began performing abortions and she found, my grandma Helen found, that her nurses were being asked to participate in these abortions or they were being asked to dispose of the remains of these children who were the victims of these abortions. My grandma not only was Catholic but also was deeply convicted that life begins at conception. She knew the truth, the truth that these abortions, it's not a medical procedure it is killing human life so she went before her bosses she went to the board basically and said this is wrong what's going on not only that you're doing this thing but also that you're making my nurses participate in this you're making these innocent young women participate in this or disposing of the bodies of these innocent children and she said either you stop doing this or you lose me. Either you stop performing abortions or I walk and the hospital made their choice and they continued to do abortions. And so my grandma left and she was, she was devastated. Not only because of the abortions, again, because nursing was her life. And you'd ask the question, and she could have asked the question back in 73 and 74 and 75, the question that we so many of us have asked like how do you come back from something like this how do you come back from this i had my and i had my life's dream and now it is gone that she again she chose to sacrifice her entire livelihood her dreams her work for her faith and the question is what did that do like what did that accomplish also another question would would be what did god do she did this because she is convicted by her catholic faith this is wrong i have to do the right thing. And you can ask the question, what did God do? You could even ask the question, did God show up in any way? Because of what she did. And I'm guessing this. I'm guessing that all of us have either been in a place like this or we will be in a place like this. Not just a place where we have to make a big decision based off our convictions or sacrifice something because of our faith. But I mean this. I mean, we find ourselves in a place where we are asking, is God going to show up? We find ourselves asking things are so broken. Is there any coming back from this? Every one of us will find ourselves asking the question how could God ever fix this? Maybe even we come to the conclusion that there is no way that God could ever use this. There's no way God could ever use this to make it better. Again, that question, is God going to show up? Because there times real times in our real lives when we feel completely where everything actually is hopeless And we say how could he You know get to the gospel today and the context of this gospel today, in the beginning of Matthew, I don't think we can begin to realize how hopeless the Jewish people should have been feeling. Like when Jesus shows up, I don't know if we understand really how completely powerless they are. And not just powerless, be in that place where they're like, how could God ever fulfill his promises? Because here's his promises. 2,000 years before Jesus, God himself goes to Abraham, right? Abraham. And he promises Abraham three things. He promises him land. He promises him a worldwide dynasty or a kingdom. And he promises him that through you, Abraham, through your descendants, the whole world is going to be blessed. This land, a kingdom, and blessing. And then, yeah, you know, 1,000 years passes and you have King David. And you probably know this about, But, okay, finally, you can imagine after a thousand years, now there's a kingdom. What did David do? David united 12 tribes of Israel. So all 12 tribes that belong to you. So it's Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Jacob's name is Israel. He has 12 sons. Those 12 sons are the 12 tribes of Israel. David, a thousand years later, unites those 12 tribes and makes a kingdom. So you think, okay, finally, this is God fulfilling his promises. But what happens? Well, David has a son, Solomon. Solomon's fine. Solomon has a son, Rehoboam. And Rehoboam's not fine. And what happens is in like three generations after King David makes this incredible kingdom with 12 tribes united, Rehoboam is kind of such a jerk that 10 tribes in the north break off and they start their own kingdom. Two tribes in the south are Benjamin and Judah and there they are, the kingdom of Judah. And up north is the kingdom of Israel. You're like, wow, this is so broken. But maybe it can come back together. Maybe God can stitch it back together. But then what happens is 200 years later, the Assyrians, another country from the north, comes in, they just begin picking off those 10 tribes in the north and essentially, effectively obliterating them from the face of the earth. That those 10 tribes, there's no trace of them anywhere on the planet. They're gone. 125 years later, after that happens, the Babylonians come in, they go to the tribe of Judah, right? The kingdom of Judah, Judah and Benjamin, and they exile them to Babylon. For almost 90 years, they're exiled. Now, of course, the story goes, they come back after 90 years they rebuild Jerusalem they rebuild the temple but there is no kingdom right the kingdom is Babylon then the kingdom was Persia they're dominating then the kingdom is is Greece right Alexander the Great comes in and he just rules it so you read first and second Maccabees and you hear the story about just oh my gosh them just holding on to their faith is is enough they there's no there's no kingdom and there's no 10 tribes we've got two left and that's it. Maybe Levi, if you want to count that too. Now the Roman, Roman Empire is in charge and there is no hope. And you ask the question, what could God possibly do with this? And what could God possibly do with this? His promise was that there would be a kingdom. is he going to show up and then we have today well first we have today it says when John the Baptist was arrested it's like okay more good news things are bad and then they get worse and then and then Matthew writes and then Jesus went to Galilee Why? Because just north of Galilee was what you heard in the gospel today, the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. What that is, those are the top two tribes of that 10 tribes in the north. So when there's no hope, when could God ever do anything? Is there any coming back from this? Is God going to show up? And then Jesus shows up and goes to the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. And then what's he do? And then he proclaims the kingdom of God is at hand. And then what does he do? He goes along the shore and he sees two guys, Simon and Andrew, calls them. And then he sees two other guys, James and John, calls them. And then later on, he sees eight other guys and calls them. How many in total? 12 people. What is Jesus doing? Jesus has gone to the place where the first two tribes experienced destruction to begin this restoration. And he announces the kingdom. And it's one of those situations where where it seemed like there was no hope. Where it seemed like there was no way. Where it seemed like God didn't care or God could do nothing. And then what happens? Then God shows up. And he establishes the kingdom. Now, this is kind of interesting. recently there were in the last number of years there was a Jewish rabbi who he said about asking the question maybe we've shared this before but he said about asking the question okay I'm a Jewish rabbi in in the 21st century if I was living at the time of Jesus would I have accepted him as Messiah so he said okay I'm going to try to get past all the you know 2,000 years of baggage I'll go back to would I have accepted Jesus as the Messiah if I was living in the time of Jesus And so he looked and he started researching Jesus and he was like, oh my gosh, Jesus like checks all of the boxes for the Messiah. He's checking every one of them. And he said, but at the conclusion of his book, he said, but I couldn't have accepted him as the Messiah for one reason. Because there's one box that Jesus, in his opinion, didn't check. And the box was that the Messiah was going to restore the kingdom And he said look around I don see the kingdom In response to this there a theologian named Pope Benedict XVI who wrote a book And he said, actually, here is the kingdom. The kingdom is the kingdom that Jesus founded, the kingdom that has encircled the entire globe, the kingdom that embraces all nationalities and all ethnicities and all races. The kingdom that embraces everyone is the Catholic Church. that Jesus established the kingdom. We just don't call it the kingdom of Israel. We call it the Catholic church. And we think about this, and this is the remarkable thing, that the church is the kingdom. The church is the kingdom where every person belongs. That the church is God's plan for the salvation of the world. Where not only every person belongs, but even this every kind of person belongs. And we just, last Monday, we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This declaration of this, the celebration of this man who is not just of the man, it's of the idea this man had communicated, which is what? Which we believe that every person should be judged by the content of the character, not the color of their skin. We recognize that the Catholic Church is the only institution that actually does this. It's a place where every kind of person belongs, regardless of ethnicity or race or nationality or male or female or wealthy or poor or sick or healthy or intelligent or lacking in intelligence. or strong, or weak, or powerful, or broken, or a saint, or a sinner. The Catholic Church is the kingdom of God where every kind of person belongs. And that kingdom extends throughout the entire world. The Pope Benedict pointed out to this rabbi, Jesus did establish a kingdom. and that kingdom, the church, is God's plan of salvation for the entire world. Here's the question. And when did it happen or when did it start? It happened when it seemed like all hope was gone. It started, Jesus did this, God did this when it seemed like there's no way that God could ever bring us back. God did this. When it seemed like an answer to the question is God going to show up? The answer was no. But we realize this. We know this truth. The question is not is God going to show up? The question is how is God going to show up? That's what we have to realize. If we belong to the Lord, if we belong to Christ, we're Christians, we know. The question is never is God going to show up? The question is only how is God going to show up? I was listening to Jonathan Rumi who plays Jesus in The Chosen telling a story about his life. I don't know if you know this but he was a struggling actor. Maybe you might even go like, you know, a working actor, a poor actor, a poor artist. And he told the story about, he said, you know, I got up on a Saturday morning in May and I looked at him, I was overdrawn by $100. So in debt. He said, I had $20 in my pocket, no work, no prospects. And I was so desperate. I got up on God. I said, I don't know how I'm gonna pay my rent in the next week or two. I don't know how I'm gonna pay all the other bills. I have no money. so he said he knelt down in his apartment small apartment in front of his crucifix and he just prayed he said god for years i've been asking if there is something else i should be doing if there is just please tell me what it is because this is extremely difficult said but god you haven't given me any indication that i should be doing something else and so he He said he knelt there in front of the crucifix and said, okay, but I trust you. And I surrendered everything to you. I surrender to you how I live. I surrender to you my work. I surrender to you how I can eat. And he said, okay, God, you said my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So here it is, you've got it. It's yours now because I can't. And here's this moment of hopelessness, How in the world is God going to move forward? He said, I got up and went out with my 20 bucks and had a big breakfast. Whenever that worry would come up, he'd say, nope, God, it's not my problem. You said you'd take it. I'll wait. It's been all day. I was just wondering. I was curious. I was curious to see how God would show up, if God would show up. And then he says, not if God show up. I knew he would show up. But I was curious to know how God would show up. He said, I got home back to my apartment that afternoon. There were four checks in the mail. I was like, no. He said, oh, it kept opening the checks. And every check was bigger than the one beforehand. He said, at the end of the day, I had like $1,100. Enough to pay my bills for the next couple of weeks. And it's that recognition of, okay, God. It's not a matter of if you will show up. It's a matter of how you will show up. A couple months later, Dallas Jenkins calls him and asks him if he wants to be part of this role portraying Jesus in a crowdfunded show. Once again, the question is not if God will show up. We know he will. What we don't know is how he will show up. What we don't know is how is God going to use this? Let's go back to my grandma. You know, when my grandma quit her job in defense of life, when she quit her job, making a statement against abortion The hospital didn change their policies and the US didn change their laws and she didn change any culture In fact my uncle at once told me that afterwards she was so devastated that he thought her life might end. He said if it wasn't for her faith in Jesus and her faith in the Lord's church that it might have killed her. but when did God show up? What changed? What did God do with this? Nothing on the surface. My grandma just kept living and had my three uncles and my mom. I always say to my mom, growing up, it was hard not to be pro-life with my mom around because she didn't talk about it all the time, but just kind of a little insight into the Schmitz family kitchen is on a refrigerator. There were three images One was an image of a baby, an embryo basically, in a just ectopic pregnancy essentially. And there's this formed human being, so small but didn't survive the womb. So ever since I was a kid, I saw this image of like a child in the womb is a child. This recognition of this is true, this is a human being, this is a life inside the womb. there's another like you know political cartoon about about uh inconsistency in the in the pro abortion camp and then the third was always unsettling to my friends when they came over which was there was a trash bag that had been opened in the alley behind a hospital where they performed abortions where they would do the abortions put these babies remains in the trash bag and then throw it away someone had found the trash bag opened it up took a picture of it infants that had been killed in the womb. And that was in our fridge growing up. So my mom made it really difficult to pretend that the life in the womb wasn't life. That babies in the womb weren't really babies. I remember it's happened 16 years ago. So 16 years ago, there was a young woman here on campus, and she found herself in a crisis pregnancy. She found herself, she's in just a really broken relationship, and she got pregnant. You know, three years ago, she reminded me of this. She said, because you knew I was going to give a talk on Pro-Life, This last Wednesday, we celebrated or commemorated the anniversary of O vs. Wade. She knew I was giving a talk, and so she texted me, and she said, Hey, remember 13 years before this? I got pregnant, and I was so afraid, and I was so scared, and it seemed like there was no hope. And I was just asking the question, What in the world could God do with this? I'm too far gone. this is too broken. Everyone in her family was saying, hey, just get an abortion, just take care of it, and you'll be free. She said, I remember coming to the Newman house. I remember coming here, and I was crying, and I was like, Father Mike, I'm just, I'm not ready to be a mom. And she texted me this. I forgot this. She texted me this three years ago, and she said, I said, Father Mike, I'm not ready to be a mom. And she said, you looked at me, and you said, you already are a mom. that that's your baby in your womb. She said, that was enough for me to carry my baby to term. She was able to entrust her child, her son, to a couple that had been struggling with infertility and just have loved that son. Two weeks ago, I saw him. Two weeks ago, this 16-year-old came to one of our retreats And just to see him racing, joking, laughing, praying in adoration. To see this young man who's alive right now. Because of what? Because of my grandma Helen. Who in 1973 made a choice. And no policies changed and no laws changed and no culture changed. But she passed it on to my mom. My mom became pro-life. No culture changed, no policy changed, no laws changed. She passed it on to me, and I haven't changed any culture or policy or laws. But there is a young man who is alive right now because of something my grandma did in 1973. So we know this. We know that when we get to that place where it seems like, what could God possibly do with this? How could God possibly use this? What hope is there? The question is not, is God gonna show up? The question is, how is he gonna show up? Because God is the God who can work when there's no, hope. He is the God and when we feel like there is no coming back from this, he is the God who has even conquered the grave.
