← Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
04/19/26 The Next...: The Next Mass
00:25:45
Homily from the Third Sunday of Easter. The Enemy wants to steal your heart. The Lord wants to give you His. It is possible to know the truth; the truth about the Resurrection, the truth about Christianity, the truth about Jesus...and still struggle. It is possible to know and wrestle to have the courage it requires to continue on. Courage is necessary. Heart is necessary...especially in the battle of discouragement.
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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 Luke, chapter 24 verses 13 through 35 that very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus Himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. He asked them, what are you discussing as you walk along? They stopped looking downcast, and one of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days? Jesus replied to him, what sort of things? They said to him, the things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the peoples. How our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel besides all this. It is now the third day since all this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body. They came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those of us went to the tomb and found the things just as the women described. But him they did not see, and he said to them, o how foolish you are. How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? Then, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over. So he went in to stay with them, and it happened that while he was with them at table, he took Bread, said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to them. With that, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us? So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem, where they found, gathered together the 11 and those with them who were saying, the Lord has truly been risen and has appeared to Simon. Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. The Gospel of the Lord. Wait. You'd have a seat. So I don't know if you know this, but last. Last May or June, I had shoulder surgery last summer. It was a. I had a rotator cuff and a labrum repair. And they did this thing called the bicep tenodesis where they detach the bicep tendon, they reattach it somewhere else. And so it was this big thing. And I knew. I knew it had to happen. Like, I'd been going to PT for, like, five or six years, and the PT was like, listen, we're just putting band aids on this. I knew it had to happen. I also. They told me. I knew it would take time. I knew that I would need to take it slow. They told me, even every person who had the surgery, they said, out of all the surgeries they've had, this is the most painful. So I knew it would be painful, all these things. Like, I knew that the reason for the surgery is so that I could go get back to the gym. I could get back to, like, active life, right? So here's the thing. I knew all of that. I knew I needed it. I knew how hard it would be. I knew how slow it would be. But here's the thing. After about six, seven weeks, after a number of weeks, I was out of the sling. And then I'm like, it just is so painful. At, like, week 10, my PT is like, hey, when are you coming back to the gym? When are you coming back to the gym? And I was like, I don't know. So I actually remember being. At this point, I was so limited with what I could do. I was so. It was so painful that I remember telling a friend on a Sunday, I remember saying, I don't know if I'll ever go back to the gym. And it might sound so lame to you. You might be like, okay, Father, you know, choose something hard. But it was one of those situations where I was just defeated And I knew. I knew all of it. I knew that it would be hard. I knew it would take a long time. In fact, that night, that Sunday night, I woke up in the middle of the night. I Woke up at 2, and my mind was just going and going and going and I couldn't get back to sleep. And. And so it was 4am And 4am Is when I normally get up to go to the gym. And I was like, well, shoot, I guess I'm awake. I might as well go. So I got out of bed, got ready, got in my car, drove to the gym. I drove to the gym, walked in with my bag, and they're like, hey, you're back. Da, da, da. I'm like, yeah. And I got to my space and they told me, yeah, yeah, the pt, the girl, her name is Bryn. She's a great physical therapist. Yeah, Bryn doesn't come in on Monday mornings. And I was like, I remember I picked up my bag and I'm like, well, I think I'm gonna leave. And I actually went to walk. They were like, are you serious? I'm like, yeah, I'm not dramatic or anything. Anyways, so I started walking to the door and the coach was like, hey, he's back. And I was like, shoot, he busted me. So I turned around, went back in. But it was that situation where, like, I was this close to quitting. I was like, I was so close to giving up. Because. Why? Because, again, it's so silly. But that was just a moment where I was just so defeated that I knew. The thing is, I knew, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to know because I was just so discouraged, you know? Last week we started this series of the last four weeks of school. It's called the Next Right. And we talked about how at Easter, we have all these people became Catholic. They had their first confession, their first communion. If we were already Catholic, we had our latest confession, our latest communion. But we know that that's not enough. We know that we, all of us, every one of us, is going to be about, what's the next step? What's the next confession? What's the next thing that God's calling us to do. And so we realize that if we know the truth of Jesus, if we know the truth of the resurrection, if we know the truth of Easter, then it's not going to ever be about our first confession or our latest confession. It's always going to be, we talked about this last weekend. It's about our next confession. We know that when it comes to life, it's not about our first time or our latest time. It's always going to be about our next time. And we also mentioned this, if you remember this at all, we mentioned that when we know this, when we know the truth, when we know the truth about the Resurrection, about Jesus, about Easter, we know that the enemy only has one last weapon that he can use against us, and it's not to get us to fall. The only weapon the enemy has to use against us is if he can get us so discouraged that we just stop trying. Because this is it. When you know the. The enemy only has one last weapon. Here's what the enemy wants to do. This is the truth for all of us. The enemy wants to steal your heart. The enemy wants to steal your courage. So here's what we have to know, that the next. Whatever the next, is for your life and for my life. The next will require something. The next is going to require courage for all of us as we get to the end of the semester, as we launch into the summer, and some of us into life, the next step, the next thing every one of us needs, it will require our heart. So let's go back to the gospel, the gospel today. Luke, chapter 24. Incredible. This. I don't know if you know the context. The context is this is the day of the Resurrection. Like, this is the day that Jesus rose from the dead. And what do we have? We have two disciples. They're walking seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Now, who are these people? I don't know if you know this. They mentioned one guy. His name's Cleopas. I don't know if you know who Cleopas is. Cleopas is named earlier in the Passion. He's the husband of Mother Mary's cousin. So Cleopas is Mother Mary's sister. Cleopas is the uncle of Jesus, so he's kind of a big deal. He's the uncle of Jesus. He's also a disciple. He's the father of James and Simon and Jude. Basically the first bishops of Jerusalem. So this isn't like just some, like, random disciple. This is a disciple who's been following Jesus, who's his uncle. They're walking along. We heard the story. Jesus shows up. They don't recognize him. And Jesus asked, what are you guys talking about? Are you the only one who doesn't know the story? They tell what's what story? And they tell him about Jesus the Nazarene. The part that gets me is this, that we Thought he would be the one. But he was crucified. He died. The part that gets me is when they say, but some women have astounded us. They were at the tomb this morning. They saw that his body wasn't there. In fact, angels appeared to them. Then some of our group went there. They also didn't see his body. They said he resurrected. And I pause on this and say, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You know, like, it wasn't like they left before the women returned from the tomb. Wasn't like they left before Peter and John came back from the tomb. They had been told, this is the thing. They knew. They knew that Jesus had risen from the dead. Here's the question. If they knew, why are they walking seven miles? If they knew, why are they leaving? And the text even says it, Jesus shows up. And it said, they stopped looking downcast. What are you talking about? We're talking about Jesus the Nazarene. I think this is really interesting. They call him Jesus the Nazarene, not Jesus the Christ. They don't call him the Messiah. They're like, yeah, he's the guy from Nazareth. And then there's the line. But we had hoped. We don't hope for this anymore. They had hoped. This is the key for them. They knew, but they had lost heart. You know, in fact, that's what it is to be discouraged. Have you ever been discouraged? Like, to be discouraged, right, Is to lose courage. Discouraged. But, like, the etymology of the word courage comes from the word cor, C O r. The Latin word cor means heart. So literally, to become discouraged is to lose heart. So when it comes to, like, the next step, the question is this. Will my love grow cold? Whatever. As God is launching me into the next step in my life, Will my love grow cold as I take this next step? Will I lose heart as I take this next step? Because, again, the truth is this. The truth is the enemy has one last weapon. The enemy wants to steal your heart. It's the only weapon he has left is if he can steal your heart. Years ago, I read a book by a man named John Eldredge. Some of you might have read John Eldredge. He highlighted this reality. In fact, he pointed to in his book. He pointed to, of all things, the story of the wonderful wizard of Oz. The actual. The original one. Not this, like, musical that some of you like, but like the original story of the wonderful wizard of Oz. I read it, and for the first time ever, I read the origin story of the Tin Man. I don't Know if you've ever have you heard the origin story of the Tin Man? It's remarkable. So I'm going to read it to you. This is from L. Frank Baum's Wonderful wizard of Oz. Here's the Tin Man. He's telling the story. He says there was once one of the Munchkin girls who was so beautiful that I soon grew to love her with all my heart. This man, he actually wasn't a tin man. He was just a woodsman, like he chopped wood, a human being. But he fell in love with the Munskin Mateys who, who was so beautiful. I loved her with all my heart. She, on her part she promised to marry me as soon as I could earn enough money to build her a better house. So I set to work even harder. But she lived with this woman who hated me. And she didn't want to leave. She didn't want to lose the Munchkin maiden. So she asked the Wicked Witch of the east to stop her from loving me or to stop me from loving her. So the Wicked Witch of the east, he says, enchanted my axe. When I was chopping away at my best one day, for I was anxious to get the new house and my wife as soon as possible. The axe slipped and all at once cut off my left leg. This at first seemed a great misfortune, for I knew that a one legged man could not do very well as a wood chopper. So I went to a tinsmith and had to make me a new leg out of tin. The leg worked very well once. I was used to it. But my action angered the Wicked Witch of the east, for she had promised the old woman that I should not marry the pretty Munchkin girl. When I began chopping again, my axe slipped and cut off my right leg Again I went to the tinsmith and again he made a leg for out of tin. After this the enchanted axe cut off my arms one after the other. But nothing daunted. I had them replaced with tin ones. The Wicked Witch then made the axe slip and cut off my head. And at first I thought that was the end of me. But the tinsmith happened to come along and he made me a new head out of tin. And I thought that I'd beaten the Wicked Witch. And I worked harder than ever. But I little knew how cruel my enemy could be. She thought of a new way to kill my love for the beautiful Munchkin maiden and made my axe slip again so that it cut right through my body, splitting me into two halves. Once more the tinsmith came to my help and made me a body of tin, fastening my arms and legs and head to it by means of joints so that I could move around as well as ever. But alas, I now had no heart, so that I lost all my love for the Munchkin girl and I did not care whether I married her or not. Now, I suppose she's still living with the old woman, waiting for me to come after her. He talks about how he then stood in the sun, loving how bright his body shined until he was stuck. And he said this. I stood there for a long time thinking that the greatest loss I had ever known was the loss of my heart. While I was in love, I was the happiest man on earth. But no one can love who has not a heart. And so I'm now resolved to ask the Oz to give me one. And if he does, I'll go back to the Munchkin maiden and marry her. The story goes on to say that Dorothy and the Scarecrow were interested in the story of the tin woodsman. You know, the scarecrow, he wanted a brain. So the scarecrow says this. He says all the same, said the scarecrow, I shall ask for brains instead of a heart. For a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one. But the tin woodsman said, I shall take the heart for brains did not make one happy. And happiness is the best thing in the world. Here's the story of this man, the tinman, the woodsman. And the enemy wanted to steal his love. How did he steal his love? He stole his heart. We have to understand this. The enemy, his only, his last weapon is he wants to steal your heart. So here's the question. When we get to that place, when we're so defeated, when we get to that place where we're so discouraged, when we've lost heart, the question is this, because it's going to happen. It's going to happen at some point. The enemy's going to steal your heart. What do we do when he steals our heart? And I think the answer is we do the opposite of what the disciples do in the gospel today. This is it. We do the opposite. What they do. They were discouraged and so they left. They were discouraged, so they walked away. They were discouraged, so they left, even though they knew where he was. I think this is remarkable. When Jesus finds them, he does two things. He reads the word to them. They hear the word of God and what happens. Their hearts are burning inside of them. And they realize, no, there's hope. And the second thing is what happens at the very end of the story? Jesus takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and they recognize him. This is the key. This is like one of the keys for the early church. It said this. They recognized him in the breaking of the bread. You might not know this, but in early church code, the breaking of the bread means the Eucharist. That's what it means all throughout the New Testament. Whenever they say the breaking of the bread, what they're talking about is what we're doing here. What they're talking about is Jesus truly present in the Eucharist. What happens when they find Jesus in the breaking of the bread? Their hearts are on fire. Of course, we could say this. I, I, I would have stayed. I would have stayed. I would have stayed if I knew for sure. We say I would have stayed if things were different. And we say, I would have stayed if I wasn't so heartbroken. Here's the truth. When the enemy steals your heart, go to where he is, where Jesus is. When the enemy steals your heart, stay where Jesus is. That's the key. Go where Jesus is and stay where Jesus is. The breaking of the bread is the Mass. The breaking of the bread is the Eucharist. Imagine here, these two people, Cleopas and his companion, and they see the Eucharist, and what happens? They're restored. The enemy had stolen their heart. And when they see the Eucharist, you know, this is so important. This is very important for us. We have to know this. We have to know that what we do here at Mass, and we just worshiped before Mass in the, in the Eucharist, that's not a symbol of Jesus, right? Jesus even says in John, chapter six, he says, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don't have life within you. We need to receive the Eucharist. Jesus, in fact, in John 6, he says, My flesh is true food, My blood is true drinking. He also says, the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. And then, of course, at the Gospel, Luke's Gospel, Matthew's Gospel, Mark's Gospel, Jesus says, this is my body given for you. This is my blood given for you. So we know this. We know what we do here is not a symbol. Okay, so here's the deal. If it is a symbol, stay home. If it's just a symbol of Jesus, there's no reason to be here. In fact, there was one of the greatest American authors. Her name is Flannery o'. Connor. Flannery o' Connor lived in the Deep south in the last century. And she was a Catholic, but she lived as a Catholic in the midst of a bunch of non Catholics. And there's a story where Flannery, she was kind of a quiet person, kind of a private person, but she had to go to this dinner because they made her go to dinners as you do when you become the best author in the United States. So she goes to this dinner and she's surrounded by Protestants. There's one Catholic, one other Catholic at dinner with her. And this other Catholic is kind of like one of these Catholics. And the other Catholic was saying, well, the Eucharist is just a symbol. It's not really Jesus. It's just a symbol. And Flannery o', Connor, who didn't like people, didn't like crowds, but was sometimes sassy, looks across the table and says to this woman, she says, if it's just a symbol, then to hell with it. Because if the Eucharist is just a symbol, stay home. Even greater, if the Eucharist is just a symbol, then to hell with it. Mother Teresa said this. Mother Teresa said, when you look at the Crucifixion, I got the crucifix on the wall here. When you look at the crucifix, you can see how much God loved you back then. But when you look at the Eucharist, you can see how much he loves you right now. That's why it's so, so incredibly vital that we go to Mass every Sunday, like, every Sunday. So it's necessary for us. If we don't, we become spiritually dead. If we don't, we lose heart. Now, of course, there's times where you have to work. I mean, like, you have to go to the hospital, have to take care of someone who's in the hospital. There might be times when you actually can't make it to Mass. Do you guys know that you can actually ask your pastor for dispensation if you can't make it to Mass? Because there's some significant reason, you can ask your pastor. But here's the thing. I think sometimes our bar for I can't make it to Mass is too low. Years ago, we had a woman who worked with us at UMD Newman. And she, among other things, she loved the Lord, but she also loved rock climbing. So she's this kind of adventurous young woman. At one point, she had this rock climbing vacation to Thailand. And so she's in Thailand for. I don't know, weeks and weeks and weeks. At one point she's spending time on an island off of Thailand. And on this island there's no Mass. And she actually looked to say, where's the closest Mass? Said, well, I can't make it to Mass. Why? Because the closest mass I'd have to get up at 4am, get on a ferry, go over to the mainland, take a bus for two hours and finally get it to Mass. So she's like, I guess I can't make it to Mass. That was what she said, I can't make it to Mass. But then she allowed the Holy Spirit to like convict her heart. She said, wait. If I wanted to climb a route that was really intriguing for me and really compelling and it was kind of this adventure I wanted to go on, I would easily get up at four in the morning, take the ferry, take the two hour bus and make it to the rock face. If I would do that to climb, I can do that for Jesus. I would say this, let that be our baseline. But here's the reality. God wants more for you than just the minimum. Now I'm going to say this. I want more for you than just the minimum. Because I know this. I know the enemy wants to steal your heart. I know he wants to steal your. I know how easy it is to become discouraged. I know that when you leave here in three weeks, it will be so easy for the enemy to steal your heart. So what, what do we do? His invitation. Go to where Jesus is and stay where he is. Here's the invitation for the next three weeks and then for the summer, my invitation is this. Go to one daily Mass per week. Not just Sunday. Go to one daily Mass per week. This is my invitation, not a command. Obviously I can't do that for you, but my one invitation is go to one daily Mass per week. Why? Because going to one daily Mass, that is a remedy against your heart being stolen. I looked up some stats, but I say, what are the stats of people who go to church more than once a week? In fact, there is a thing. It's like, you know, chat is very helpful. The stats are this. 92% of people who go to church more than once a week report that they are happy or pretty happy, which is not bad. Then I looked up what percentage of Catholics go to daily mass? Yes, there's 1.4 billion Catholics in the world. Question, what do you think? What percentage of Catholics do you think go to daily Mass? The answer is one. One percent of Catholics go to daily Mass. You guys I want you to be part of the 1%, even if just for the summer. Be part of the 1%. Why? Why? Because of this. There's no stats for this one, but I figured it out. Even though only 1% of the 1.4 billion Catholics go to daily Mass, do you know what percentage of saints spent their lives going to daily mass? 100. Even though only 1% of us go to daily mass, 100% of saints went to daily Mass. This is the last thing. Next three weeks, next three months, go to your next Mass and never lose heart. Because what is the Mass? The Mass? In the Mass, we have Jesus in the Eucharist, but he's hidden, right? The fascinating thing is there's been multiple times in history, multiple times throughout history when Jesus doesn't hide in the Eucharist. In fact, one of The Times was 1200 years ago in this little small town called Lanciano in Italy. There was a moment where there's a priest at the altar, and he was at the altar saying Mass and he lost heart. He actually was doubting. He was asking the question, God, are you really, truly present? Is this really. In my hands? This feels like bread. It looks like bread. Is this really you? What happened was that bread literally turned into flesh in the chalice. That wine literally turned to blood. They kept it. You can actually go to Lansano Now, 1200 years later, you can see it. In the 1970s, they sent it away for scientists to experiment on it, to say, what is this? Even though it was 1200 years old, the data came back. You know, it's fascinating to say, I don't like the 1200 year old miracles, Father. Do you have any new ones? Yes. In the 1990s in Argentina, in Buenos Aires, same kind of thing happened where here's the host they had. It began bleeding. So they sent it off to independent researchers, scientists. They didn't tell them where it came from. They said, tell us what? Investigate this, examine it and tell us what it is. So both Melanciano and Buenos Aires and other places, they came back and they said, well, this is human tissue. Not only that, they said, this is human tissue from a man. They said, this liquid, this is human blood. In fact, every eucharistic miracle, the blood type matches. I don't know if you know what blood type it is. It's ab, which I think is fascinating, not only because it's the rarest blood type, but also because it's universal. Receiver. I think there's been something the Lord is telling us that he wants us, all of us, no matter who we are, to come close to him. But even more than that, it's not just human tissue from a man, not just AB blood. But when Jesus said, this is my body, the Eucharist is actually. The scientists have said, this is actually from the myocardium. Another way to say it, this is from the heart. Do you realize that when we receive the Eucharist, what we are receiving is the very heart of Jesus? This is the very heart of God. The enemy wants to steal your heart, so Jesus wants to give you a his. So when you become discouraged because it's going to happen, when you lose heart because it's going to happen, what do we do? Go where he is and stay where he is. Go to the Eucharist and stay near the Eucharist. And not your first Mass and not your latest Mass, but have courage. Go to your next Mass. Go to your next Mass and never lose heart.