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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, oh Lord. Chapter 20, verses 19 through 23. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord Jesus said to them again, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. You should have a seat. So when I was a kid, my mom had this news clipping. Have you guys, you know, okay, interaction. Have you guys know who Dear Abby is? So, okay, one person. So there used to be like these things called newspapers. And in newspapers, people would write in to a column columnist. Her name was Abigail Van Buren. So Dear Abby. And they'd write in with all of their problems, their questions. And it was kind of one of those having a tough time at work. They're gossiping, what should I do? Or having a tough time with my husband. What should I do? At one point, and she's Dear Abby, she write back. At one point, someone wrote in and asked, Dear Abby, Dear Abby, who founded the world's religions and when? And so Dear Abby went through the whole list. And my mom had cut this out because she thought it was pretty important and pinned it up on the cork board, like on the little thing and had a little pin in it. So growing up, I saw this with my own eyes almost every day. And it was, you know, it was like, you know, so Confucius founded Confucianism and Buddha founded Buddhism, et cetera. Moses founded Abraham, founded Judaism, and then it said, the Roman Catholic Church founded By Jesus Christ, 33 A.D. i'm like, yeah, that's nice. You know, and Martin Luther founded Lutheranism and John Calvin. And it was one of those situations where actually so dear Abbey was back in the day. Now you can ask Siri and ask Siri who founded the Catholic Church. And Siri will tell you if it's still, still accurate. It will tell you that Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church. And this is one of the things, you know, we just started a couple weeks ago, we started this, this summer series. It's kind of like a, as I mentioned last week, it's kind of like a teaching series more than anything else. Just wanting to get this content because one of the realities is the big question we come back to again and again we're talking with people, maybe even in our own hearts we have that question that says, okay, wait, does the Bible teach that or is that just the church? And we can see sometimes the church as it, as if it's, as if it's optional. We all love the Bible. Hopefully every one of us loves the Bible and recognize that the Bible is the word of God. Absolutely, totally. But we sometimes can think that the church is merely optional or maybe even worse, that the church is just another example of man made religion. And yet we're going to talk about this in maybe two weeks from now. The opposite of man made religion is what dear Abbey said and what Siri says, which is no, actually Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God founded the Catholic Church. So just to reiterate this, virtually every other world religion is exactly that. It is a man made religion. The only religion that can claim that it is the opposite of man made, but actually God divinely instituted is the Catholic Church. Jesus in Matthew chapter 16. We're going to talk about this, I think in three weeks. He says, you're Peter and upon this rock I will build my church. And today, Feast of Pentecost. This is, it's known as the birthday of the church. I think it's safe to say this again. We hold up the Bible and we honor the Bible. The Bible is the word of God. It's infallible. The infallible word of God. This Bible is true and it's given to us. We talked about last week. It's been given to us by the church. We have to understand this. It's safe to say that Jesus didn't give us a Bible. Jesus gave us a church. And through the power and working of the Holy Spirit, the church gave us the Bible. And we need both. We absolutely need both. Because without both, I would say this, without both this Bible this book could potentially end up becoming a worthless book. We need the church. No, but at the same time, I understand the attraction. I understand the attraction of just having just the Bible. I understand the attraction of just like, I guess we realize that, yeah, the Bible's power, the Bible is able, the word of God is able to pierce through joints and marrows. The word of God comes forth from the Lord and doesn't return to him without bearing some kind of fruit. We know that the Bible, the word of God has the power to convict, has the power to reprove, has the power to lead to truth. But also, let's just be honest, in a certain sense, if you just have the Bible, it's kind of safe. I mean, just in the sense of this, in the sense that, okay, the Bible says what it says and you can study it, you can handle it and if you want to, you can put it back on the shelf if you want to. You could say, well, you know, I think X about this topic because the Bible doesn't say anything about it. And in a certain sense the Bible's safe. It doesn't invade my life and say, okay, yeah, but right now, in this year, in this moment, in this part, in this big question of life, you have to do X. It doesn't do that always. In some ways it's non invasive. In some ways you can keep it at arm's length. And the problem is this, the problem is the church is too close. I think the problem is the church is too invasive. I think that someplace the church is too dynamic, meaning it continues to grow, it continues to interact with, with life. And in some ways, if we're going to be honest, the church is too messy. And just look at, look at the history of the church. 2000 years of here is Pentecost. And so, you know, the church is born out of the Holy Spirit. But also we realize that in the history of the church, people have done bad things. In the history of the church, people even with positions of authority in the church have done horrible things. Not just ancient past, even in the recent past. I think I have some friends who are from Ireland and some friends who now are living in Ireland. And I just, they told me about what it's like to be a Catholic in Ireland right now. It's really, really difficult that something like 10 to 15 years ago, 90 plus percent of people went to mass on Sunday and now that number is completely flipped or only 10% of the population in Ireland in a decade or more goes to Mass. And they do that. Why they do that because of the actions of some priests in the country of Ireland and in our country and other countries around the world who hurt. Who hurt people. I mean, even think about right now with the scandals of the church in our day and age in this country, I mean, anytime you want to try to make a moral stance, anytime, like I find myself trying to say, okay, but here's what the Church teaches. People will bring up the recent past, and that's real. They'll bring up scandals, and that's real. Those are real. But I think this is interesting, and this is not trying to make an excuse for anything, not at all. But I would say this. I would say that virtually all of the charges leveled against the church, all the charges leveled against those people who have done horrible, horrible things, you could also say that virtually all of them, maybe even every one of them at the time, they were doing those horrible things. They were failing to live up to the teachings of the Church. What I mean by that is the church continued to be on the path towards holiness. The church continued to be on the path towards the truth. Remember, we talked about this last week? This whole series is called Pillar and Foundation because why? Because the church is the pillar and foundation of truth. It was certain members in the church that failed to live up to the truth, that failed to live out the truth, and in doing so, hurt, in a devastating way, hurt so many people. And yet here we are. I mean, this is the crazy thing. Here we are still called to trust the church. Here we are still called to trust the church that's both holy and human. And it's really, really tough. But we're still called to this. And I say again, sometimes we look and think, well, man, it would have been much easier. Here's Pentecost, the birthday of the church. It would have been much easier to trust those folks back then. I don't know if you've read this. You know, we spent all, all Easter reading the Acts of the Apostles. And there was one moment we were reading Acts of the Apostles here in this chapel a bunch of weeks ago is Acts, chapter four. And something just, like, struck me by this, and I was like, wow, this is interesting because how many people want to go back to the early church? I wanna just have that purity of belief. It says In Acts, chapter 4, 34 and 35, it says this. It says the community of believers was of one heart and one mind. No one claimed any of his possessions as his own. They had everything in common, said with great power. The apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded to all of them. Now, here's the next line that I was like, this is weird. Not weird. This is challenging. It said this. There was no needy person among them. For those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need. And again, I've read that I don't know how many times, but at one point I just thought, like, wait, that's a law to trust. Imagine selling your property and saying, okay, here's all the money here. Apostles, do whatever you want with it. And I would say, maybe I trust John with that. Maybe I trust Matthew. He seems pretty like, you know, orderly. But you'd be able to be one of those early believers and say, wait a minute, wasn't the person who used to manage your finances? What was his name again? Oh, Judas. That's right. So are you guys really trustworthy when it comes to, like, I'm really going to sell all my property and give you all the money, just trusting that you're going to do what's right with it? Didn't like, the whole leader of the whole deal, Peter? Didn't he, like, crack under pressure the night when Jesus was denied and betrayed and abandoned? Like the reality, of course, the church has always been messy and the call has always been. And yet trust the church. Not because the church is the smartest, not because the church is the best, but because the Holy Spirit has been given to the church. So the church is holy. And at the same time, of course, the church is also human. But we have to understand, we remember. But if you want to get close to Jesus, we need his church. We mentioned yesterday, last week, we mentioned that it was a church that gave us the Bible, right? That Jesus didn't give us the Bible, he gave us church and the church gave us the Bible. So what did people do in the meantime? Well, I think it's fascinating because we have First Corinthians, chapter 12 today as the second reading, it talks about the body. Now, when it's talking about the body, he's talking about the church. But First Corinthians, chapter 12. Later on in verses 27, 29, it says this. Now, you are Christ's body and individually parts of it. So you're part of the church. That's what he's talking about. And some people, God has designated in the church to be first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then mighty deeds, then gifts of Healing assistance, administration and varieties of tongues. And one of the things that Paul is saying is like, okay, how do you get holy trust the church? God gave apostles and prophets and teachers and administrators and varieties of tongues and gifts to the church, so that as long as you stay in the church, you're going to get closer to the Lord. Because Jesus didn't give us a Bible. He gave us a church, and the Church has given us the Bible. You know, it's fascinating. There's a man named Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius of Antioch. He was killed in the year 107, but he has a number of letters as he's on his way being led through the Mediterranean area to Rome to be killed. He. He wrote a number of letters. And in those letters, it's fascinating because Ignatius of Antioch was a disciple of Polycarp, who's a disciple of St. John the Beloved, right? So he's very, very closely connected to the apostles. And what he's teaching is remarkable at one point, especially when it comes to the Church. At one point, Ignatius of Antioch said this. He said he was talking about the structure of the Church, just like Paul was talking about the apostles and prophets, et cetera. Here's Ignatius to the Smyrnians in year 107. He says, in like manner, let all reverence the deacons. An appointment of Jesus Christ and the bishop as Jesus Christ, who is the Son of the Father, and the presbyters, like the priests, as the Sanhedrin of God, the assembly of the apostles. Apart from these, there is no church. So even already in the very, very Beginning, here is St. Ignatius of Antioch who's saying that, okay, if you separate yourself from the bishop, separate yourself from priests, if you separate yourself from the deacons, apart from these, there is no such thing as a church that for the first thousand years, first 1500 years of the Church, there was no even idea that the Church was this kind of invisible spiritual reality. But for the first 1500 years of Christianity, the Church was tangible and the Church had the authority to teach. It had the authority. This is the last thing the Church had the authority and the power by the Holy Spirit to teach. Why? Because think about this book. Think about all the time that went into. I mean, what I mean by time that went into giving us this book here. God, again, we believe this is the inspired word of God. These are the words of God written in the words of men. Imagine you're God. Some of you, you've already done that already today. Imagine you're God and you want people to know who you are. Like, actually, it's a desire of your heart because you want the people on this earth that you love you made in your image and likeness. You want them to know your heart. You want them to know who they are. You want them to know how much you love them. You want them to know your plan for their life. And so what do you do? I mean, you start with Moses or Abraham, even way, way back in the day, and you begin slowly revealing yourself. And as people are starting writing things down, you're guiding that writing. You're. You're inspiring it by your power. Your Holy Spirit is already working in the fullness of time. You send your only son Jesus, and he reveals the fullness of God, and people start writing about him. And this whole time as they're writing, you're making sure you're preserving that writing from all error. It is completely and totally true. And then when it comes to compiling the Bible, because you want people to know who you are, it's very, very important to you. And so the next 300 plus years, you guide your church to assemble these 73 books. Because why? Because not only have you preserved them from all error, but because it's so important to you as God that your people know exactly who you are. So here is this infallible word, this infallible book. Here's the question. If you're God, and it's so important that people get your identity right, so much so that over the course of thousands of years, you put a lot of effort into creating this book and preserving it from all error, what's the likelihood of saying, okay, I'm God, I made this infallible book. Now here you go, take a read and tell me what you think. Imagine going through all the trouble of making an infallible book, but then not giving an infallible interpreter. Because we realize this. We realize that the Bible is an infallible book. It is without error. We also realize that an infallible book without an infallible interpreter is ultimately a useless book. Because you as God, you might have gone through all this trouble making sure that only those things that you wanted people to know about you were collected. But if then anyone could just read it and come to any different conclusion about you, well, then it'd be a pretty useless book. Once again, an infallible book without an infallible interpreter is a useless book. But here's the great news, great news of Pentecost. The great news is that this is the birthday of the church. And the great news is that God did not leave us abandoned. He did not leave us orphans. He not only gave us an infallible book, he gave us an infallible interpreter of the book called the Church. And we need it. We need her. In fact, I think GK Chesterton is the one who said this. He said, I don't need a church that can tell me where I'm right. I need a church that will tell me where I'm wrong. And that's the Catholic Church that Jesus Himself founded. It is messy, but it's also holy. It is human, but it also has the promise of Jesus, the promise that he would lead it into all truth. So that's what he gave us. He gave us the Church as the pillar and foundation of truth.