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Welcome to Sunday Homilies with me, Fr. 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@ascensionpress.com 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. A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to John Glory to you, o Lord. Chapter 20, verses 1 through 9 on the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning while it was still dark and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and told them, they have taken the Lord from the tomb and we don't know where they put him. So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first. He bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there and the cloth that had covered his head not with the burial cloths, but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed, for they did not yet understand the Scripture, that he had to rise from the dead. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Invite you to have a seat. So on Holy Thursday, we talked about how everything was given, that Jesus gave everything. On Good Friday, we talked about how everything was taken. So we have these two Everything is given, everything is taken. The question is, what happens next? What happens after everything is given? What happens after everything is taken? So years ago, there's a man, his name is Lee, Lee Strobel. He. He was a journalist, investigative journalist in Chicago, and he was an atheist. And he was fine being an atheist. He and his wife, they had a decent life. Not great. There were some rocks in their marriage, there were some pains in their lives, but he thought they were doing just fine. At one point she went to church and he was like, that's fine as long as you don't bring your church home. Unfortunately, she brought church home and she kept asking him, inviting him to come with her to Mass or not to Mass, but to church. And he said No. I said no. And then finally he said this, he said, okay, listen, if I can prove to you that this isn't true, if I can prove to you that Christianity isn't true, if I can prove to you that Jesus didn't rise from the dead, will you stop going to church in kind of this agreement? So he sets out and he does this. He's an investigative journalist, and so he does what investigative journalists do, he investigates the evidence. And he talked to historians, he talked to theologians, he talked to scholars, medical doctors. And it all came down to this big question when it comes to the teaching of Jesus. Because everyone would say teaching of Jesus is incredible, he's brilliant. He's so insightful. The guy was really good. But the question is this, not just was his teaching brilliant or not just was the man Jesus good? The question was, is the resurrection real? The question is, did Jesus really rise from the dead? Because Lee Strobel knew this, that if Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, then none of it matters. But if he did, then it all matters. And after two years of investigating and two years of trying to disprove Christianity, Lee Strobel came to a conclusion he did not want to arrive at. It's true that the resurrection is true. He was mad. He set out to disprove the resurrection and he became a Christian because of it. Not only did he become a Christian, but it was this reality that, that, that had defined, that shaped his life when he came to the conclusion that, oh my gosh, after investigating the evidence, I can't just be a Christian who kind of sort of goes to church on Sundays. I have to be someone who lets this truth define my whole life. So he wrote multiple books on, on Jesus. He's, he preaches on Christ. In fact, in some of Lee Strobel's preaching and some of his teaching, I, I came across another man's story. In fact, it's a story that kind of mirrors Lee Strobel's story. It's the story of a man named Sir Lionel Lucku. Sir Lionel Lucku died in 1997, so died relatively recently. But he was a lawyer and he was a criminal defense attorney. In fact, he is, some people say in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most consecutive wins in murder trials. He has something like 245 consecutive murder acquittals when it comes to his work. So this is the man who knows the law, this man who knows evidence. This is a man who knows what cross examination is. And at one point someone Asked Sir Lionel that he later on became a judge and a diplomat. But at one point in his life, people asked Sir Lionel, Sir Lionel, are you a Christian? And he said, not really. And they said, why not? And he didn't have an answer. He didn't know why not. He just kind of assumed that it wasn't true or he assumed that it didn't matter. And so just like with Lee Strobel, someone challenged Sir Lionel to find out, to look at the evidence again. LEE STROBEL Investigative JOURNALIST look at the evidence. Sir Lionel LUCKU Defense ATTORNEY Judge look at the evidence. And he, just like Lee Strobel, took time and he investigated the evidence and the cross examination. And at one point, he looked at the gospel accounts. He looked at the lives of the apostles, completely transforming the Gospel today. We heard about them, right, James, or, sorry, John and Peter, who had to run to the tomb and their lives changed when they saw something happen. The eyewitness testimonies that testified to the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, in fact, the historical claims, all of those things, the evidence pointing to the truth of the resurrection, led Sir Lionel to this conclusion. Applying his legal standards, Sir Lionel said this. He said, the evidence of the resurrection is so overwhelming that it leaves no room for reasonable doubt. The evidence of the resurrection is so overwhelming that it leaves no room for reasonable doubt. What does that mean for us? That means that the resurrection is an historical fact, that this is something that we don't just kind of believe in or like a Myth. In fact, St. Peter in Second Peter, he writes about this Second Peter, he writes, he says, he says we did not follow cleverly devised myths. We made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of His Majesty. He's talking about this morning, he's talking about today when they see Jesus risen from the dead. This is not a myth. It's actually true. And that's our Ocia people. We tell them this again and again and again. The only reason to believe anything is because it's true. But if it's true, what does it mean? You know, C.S. lewis had once said, he had said, Christianity, if false, is of no importance. If Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, it's of no importance. Christianity, if true, is of absolute importance. He said the only thing Christianity cannot be is marginally or relatively important. It is either unimportant if Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, or it's absolutely important if he did. And it's True. That Jesus really is who he says he is. Now, here's the. That's amazing. That's amazing on its own. But we have to realize there's more. Why? Because Jesus did not merely walk out of the tomb to win an argument, right? Jesus didn't rise from the dead to prove a point. Jesus rose from the dead to do something. Why? Because we know this. We know that death has touched everything. That's our experience of life. Death has touched everything. Go back to Genesis, chapter two and three. Here's God who makes this world. And God is so good. He makes this world good. He makes us good. And he says, don't eat of that tree. Why? Or else you'll die. In fact, Hebrew, it says, if you eat of this tree, you will die the death. I have a friend, Mike Gormley. He says, actually, the Hebrew literally is, if you eat of the tree, you'll die. Die. Like you'll die die. Which means you don't. Your body. Not just that your bodies will die. Not just that you'll come to the end of your life and you'll cease to exist. But like the logic of death, death touches everything. Broken relationships that we know this trust dies and sometimes never comes back. Death touches shame. Where a person carries a past and feels like that absolutely defines them. Discouragement. Someone who used to walk with hope, or you'll walk with someone, had dreams, someone had an imagined future. And then that future, those hopes, those dreams are just quieter even in sin. Not just the act of sin, but the aftermath of sin, like the fracture, the damage, the distance. Death touches everything. And not just even bad things like this death. We know this death even touches joyful things. Like, even joyful things in our lives have an outline of sadness. I mean, our students are graduating in just over a month. We. Which is exciting. It's joyful. But you're also like, okay, here's where the real work starts. Or weddings. Weddings are incredible opportunities, incredible moments of joy. But everyone in that congregation that has lived a life knows like, okay, guys, we have no idea what you're. We don't know what's coming down the road from you. For you, even joyful moments are just. They haven't outlined it. Ordinations, they said, we're excited, we're grateful, praise the Lord that this person's getting ordained. But, okay, here's where you really start carrying that cross. Because we know, right? We know this. We don't just suffer death at the end of our lives. We live in a world where death is at work. Where things break and they stay broken. Where things end and they stay ended. Where things that were beautiful and full of life decay. So the question is this, what do we need? Like, do we just need advice or do we just need something inspirational? I think we need something more. We don't. This is so good. Jesus is the greatest teacher who ever lived. But we don't just need his teaching. And Jesus brings forgiveness, but we don't just need forgiveness. If death is the problem, then we need something stronger than death. If everything is given and everything is taken, then we need everything to be restored. That's the resurrection that is today. Here's Jesus, God himself, not escaping death, not ignoring death, not avoiding death. But Jesus enters into death and he undoes it from the inside. Jesus doesn't go around it. He lets death do its worst to him. And then what? Everything is given, everything is taken, and then everything is restored. Jesus allows death do its worst to him and then he rises. And that doesn't just prove something, doesn't just win an argument. It introduces a new reality. It's a life that death cannot touch. It's a life not defined by decay, not defined by shame, and not defined by loss. This is our students. Last night we had so many. So many students. Estimate about 55 are students. About 10 or or so were baptized. The rest had their made a profession of faith. They were. They were confirmed first Holy Communion. In addition to the cathedrals, they had like 40 people. It was incredible. It was amazing. Last night, what did they do, those who got baptized, they. They said, okay, Lord, I'm going to give you. I'm going to give you everything. God, I'm going to let you take everything so that everything I give you and everything that you take can be restored. This is what it looks like when they place themselves under that water. The bishop, as he baptized them and poured water over them, they're placing themselves, God, here. Everything is given God, everything is taken so that everything can be restored. If you went to confession over the last week, that's the same thing. We just come to the Lord to say, okay, God, everything, Everything I know that is holding me back from you, I give it to you. And what do you do? God? What does God do? He takes everything. Why? So that everything can be restored. Every one of those people who were baptized last night, who were confirmed or received Holy Communion last night, all of us. What. What does St. Paul say? St. Paul's letter to the Romans. He says, do you not realize that the spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead also lives in you. We don't just believe a true thing. We live the truth. We don't just believe in the resurrection. We get to live the resurrection. The resurrection is alive in you. The spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is in you. So those places that feel dead, they're not just comforted. God brings life out of them. Those relationships that are beyond repair. It's not just hate. We'll try harder. It's the reality that new beginnings are possible. And for those of us who have shame, that feels permanent. It's not covered, but grace recreates the person again. Jesus didn't rise from the dead to prove that he could. He did it to begin the restoration of everything that death had touched. Everything is given, everything is taken, so everything's restored. And that, of course, what does that mean? That doesn't mean. That doesn't mean that here there's no more pain or tears or loss or grief. It just means that in the midst of pain or tears or. Or loss or grief or death, the resurrection is the beginning of a world where death no longer gets the final word. The incredible news is we get to live this. Now. The resurrection, it's not just proof, but it's something we're invited to participate in. And we're invited to participate in with our wounds. This is the last thing. Next weekend we're going to. It's Divine Mercy Sunday. We're going to read the Gospel where Jesus reveals himself to his apostles and he shows them his wounds. And that is the truth. Is this what, after the resurrection, Jesus has wounds. Resurrection doesn't mean this never happened. It just means that what wounded you no longer defines. You see, our wounds are reminders of the reality and power of death. And the resurrection reminds us of the reality and power of restoration. And everything that you and I hand over to Jesus, everything you and I hand over to the one who has raised from the dead can be restored. All of it. All we have to say is, Jesus, it's yours. All of it. Everything given, everything taken and everything restored.