← Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
5/25/25 Pillar and Foundation: Says Who?
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Homily from the Sixth Sunday of Easter. Do we rely on the Bible alone? The Church is not optional. When there is a question that is not covered explicitly in the Bible (and even when it is), where do we look for guidance?
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Welcome to Sunday Homilies with me, Fr.
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Mike Schmitz.
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I hope today's homily inspires and motivates you, and I also hope that it leaves you hungry for the One who.
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Gave everything to feed you.
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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.
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God Bless the Lord be with you. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John Glory to you, o Lord. Chapter 14, verses 23, 29 Jesus said to his disciples, whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. Yet the word you hear is not mine, but that of the Father who sent me. I have told you this while I am with you. The advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you I am going away and I will come back to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens so that when it happens, you may believe the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Why don't you have a seat? So I recently had this conversation, and it's a conversation that I have had many, many times with many different people. And it's one of those situations where someone's asking about God or they're asking about truth, they're asking about how to live the Christian life. And see, I'll give an answer and they'll ask the question. And this is a fascinating question. They'll ask the question, okay, well, is that in the Bible or is that just from the church? And I think, okay, this is a really interesting question. Is that from the Bible or is that just from the church? Now it would be interesting. I think it'd be maybe a better question if it was like, is that from the Bible or is that from the church? But the word just changes some things. What it means is, what it seems to imply at least, is that if this is found in the Bible, then, oh, you can, you can base your life on It. But if it's just from the church, then it's optional. And I think we have to stop and ask that question. Is the church optional? You know, we're coming to the end of the Easter season and we're launching into this kind of transitional season, into Ordinary Time. We're going to get there in a bit next weekend. Is Ascension, then Pentecost, then some of the things. But we have to ask that question, is the church optional? Is this enough? Like, right, Is the Bible that I have, is it enough? And is the Bible not just sufficient, but is this what Jesus wanted for us? Is this book, right, the Bible? Is this the only thing that Jesus wanted for us? Or is there something that we could say is the pillar and foundation of truth? The question we want to ask is, is the Bible the pillar and foundation of truth? So. So for the next. I apologize for this, but kind of don't really. Sorry. Not sorry. For the next six weeks. For the next six weeks, we're doing a series. It's a kind of our summer series this year. And the summer series is called Pillar and Foundation because we have to ask the question. So when it comes to the Bible, is the Bible the pillar and foundation? Another way to ask it is, is the church optional or is the church essential? That what does Jesus want for us? Does he want for us the Bible? And if you also want the church, that's great, or is he saying, no, no, no, Both of them, Both the Bible and the church, both Scripture and tradition are essential. Another way to ask the question again, going back to this question we're going to follow throughout the course of these next six weeks is, is that in the Bible or is that just the church? I say, okay, what does the Bible if say it's just the Bible. What would the Bible say about the role of the church? I think that's an important question we're going to start. That's what we're going to ask today. What does the Bible say about the role of the church? What's the Bible say? Does the Bible indicate in any way, shape or form that the church is optional and not necessary? Well, look at the first reading today. It's Acts, chapter 15. I think this is absolutely fascinating. In acts, Acts, Chapter 15, you have this issue. It's called the Council of Jerusalem. And the issue is this. So we all know this. We know that Jesus is Jewish. The apostles, the first apostles are Jewish. The first disciples of Jesus, they're all Jewish. And then what happens is a lot of Jews after Jesus dies and rises from the dead. A lot of Jews become Christian. I mean, think about Pentecost. We're going to celebrate in a couple weeks that thousands and thousands of these Jewish people are now Christians. So what happens? They're Jewish and now all they have to do is get baptized. Now Paul's going out, Barnabas is going out. They're going out to proclaim the gospel to non Jews. And the big question is this, the big question is, you meet these people who are not Jewish, do they first have to enter the first covenant? Right. Do they first have to enter the covenant of Moses, covenant of Abraham, do they have to enter the Old Testament covenant and then be brought into the new covenant? Or can they just be brought into the new covenant? And now the way, let's be more specific, the question is the reality. Every one of the first Christians, the man men had first been circumcised, had. And then they were baptized, they were first brought into the old covenant before they're brought into the new covenant. And so now you have a bunch of gentiles, right, who are not circumcised. They haven't brought into the old covenant first. The question, do they first have to get circumcised? They first have to be like, all of us did all the other guys, like, imagine all these Jewish men are saying, like, we all had to be brought into the old covenant before being brought into the new covenant. This is a legitimate question. Why? Well, because Christianity isn't a new thing. Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism. So imagine you're a Jewish person, Jewish man. It makes sense. You're now baptized. The fulfillment of everything that started when you weren't circumcised, but now you're a gentile. Do they have to also be brought into the old covenant before they can be brought into the new covenant? This is a serious question. You know the problem, the problem is Jesus didn't say anything about that. Jesus did say, unless you're born of water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Right? Have to be baptized. That's John, chapter three. We know that. But when it came to this issue of what do you do with Gentiles? What do you do with people who have not been brought into the old covenant first? What do we do with them? You know, I think this is a. Have you. You know the phrase red herring, A red herring is, is one of those, like you're paying too much attention to this, this thing. I think you're putting too much emphasis on this thing. When someone Says something like, well, Jesus never taught about X. Like, Jesus never taught about abortion. Never. Jesus never think about that and said anything about that. Jesus never said anything about gay marriage. He never said anything about that. So what does the Bible say about those kinds of things? That's a little bit of a red herring. Why? Because Jesus also didn't say anything about what do you do with people who are not circumcised being brought into the covenant. But who did here? Acts chapter 15. Jesus has long before, long, long before this. He has ascended to heaven, he has sent his Holy Spirit, and the church has been living. And now the big question that Jesus never talked about, what happens? They come together and they. They pray and they argue and they figure it out and they say, it seems clear to the Holy Spirit and to us. Here is our conclusion. And the conclusion is, you do not first have to get circumcised before you get baptized. Now, here's why this is so important for many reasons. One is, this is not a small issue. If you have to. If you have to get circumcised before you get baptized and you don't, that means no salvation. That means it's not just kind of a small thing like, well, you know, one of the many options, like, no, if you need to, but you don't do it, then no salvation. So this is a serious, serious thing. And who decides? It's not in the Bible who decides? And the answer is the church decides. And again, and not some kind of nebulous, kind of like this out there, like, you know, the church, but specific people like the apostles, Peter, Paul, James, John, Mark, but coming together. And they're deciding. And what they teach is now doctrine for every single Christian who's ever lived since then. We recognize how important this is. They taught this definitively, the church. And every Christian has accepted that as absolutely true. Now you might say, like, well, is it this specific church, or is it just like, isn't it true that Jesus said, he who hears you hears me? And the answer is, yeah, absolutely. Jesus did say that he who hears you hears me. So does that mean that, well, every Christian, then. Every Christian, when we proclaim with our lives or proclaim with our words about Jesus, if they hear us, they're hearing him to a certain degree, yes, but. But also, I don't know if you paid attention to Acts 15. It said this. It said, in answer to the question, does that mean it's true for everybody? Whenever we speak as Christians, we're speaking on behalf of the Lord. Well, Maybe not with the same amount of authority, maybe not with the same amount of truth. Here's what I mean. It says in Acts 15, it says when they came together to debate this whole thing about circumcision and baptism, it said there was no little dissension among them. You know what no little dissension means? Means there was a lot of dissension. No little argument means a lot of argument, which means that there were people, Christians, not only Christians, but also apostles, possibly, and leaders in the church who disagreed. So it can't just be, oh, if you hear any Christian, that must be the truth. When Jesus said, he who hears you, hears me. He's talking to those apostles as church. He's talking to those apostles as the church. And we realize. We, we realize this. It's not until Peter stands up and he says, this is now the teaching of the church that the matter is settled. We recognize this. We recognize that. If I'm going to say, well, is that in the Bible or is that just from the church, I'm cutting off an entire leg. I mean, I'm cutting off an entire support says I'm. I'm cutting off the pillar and foundation of truth. Because. So where did that come from? Where does the idea that. Is that in the Bible or is that just the church? Where does that come from? Well, it comes from Protestant Reformation, right? Comes from the 1500s, where at one point Martin Luther and people who went after him, they claimed this sola. They have a couple different solas. One was sola scriptura, right? Or Bible alone. And what they base themselves off of, they base this idea off of is the idea, the belief that you don't need tradition, you don't need the church, you just need the Bible alone. And they have based. I mean, again, these are Protestant brothers and sisters. We love them. If they're baptized, they're part of the body of Christ. But here's an area where there's error. And why? Because. Well, actually, let's ask this question. If this is one of the fundamental beliefs of the Protestant Reformation Bible alone, that, that you don't need tradition, you don't need the church, you just need the Bible alone. The question I would have to ask is where in the Bible is the teaching Bible alone? I mean, if this is gonna be one of the fundamental things that, that even us as Catholics, when we say, okay, wait, is that in the Bible or is that from the church, we're giving credence to this false belief Bible alone? Because I would say this again, this is One of your fundamental premises, Bible alone. Look through the entire book from Genesis to Revelation. You will not find one moment when the Bible teaches Bible alone. Now, sometimes people will point to second Timothy 3:16 and say, okay, let's look at two Timothy 3:16. It says this. It says, all Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness so that the one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work. That. That's awesome. That's great. Yes, 100% love it, believe it. We love the word of God. The Bible is the word of God. Absolutely. All scripture is inspired by God. Useful for teaching, correction, etc. But the Bible didn't here say, only Scripture is useful for teaching, correction, a scripture. And actually, when St. Paul was writing to Timothy, they didn't have this part of the Bible. They only had the Old Testament. So when he's referring to all scripture, he's only referring to the Old Testament. Here we have to understand this. If anyone is going to make a distinction or juxtaposition, a dichotomy between the Bible and the Church, they're making the wrong juxtaposition. In fact, the Bible does maintain that we need both Scripture and tradition. In fact, Second Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 15, it says this. St. Paul's writing to the Thessalonians, he says, hold fast to the traditions that you were taught in, either by word of mouth or by written letter to you. The Bible itself teaches Scripture and tradition. The Bible itself teaches Bible and church. When it says, hold fast to the traditions you were taught, either by word of mouth, tradition, or by written letter to us, Scripture. See, as we walk through the next few weeks in this whole question, we have to understand that the Church is not optional. The Church actually is God's plan A for all of us. God's plan for all of us is the Church. And there's the last thing. Not just the Church in general, but God's plan for all of us is the Catholic Church. That's for those who don't believe the Catholic Church. Those for our Protestant brothers and sisters. God's plan for you is the Catholic Church. It's not as if things have changed. It's not as if like, well, that was originally like at the very, very beginning, the apostles were important and their successors, the bishops, are important. But now it's all different. No, Jesus has not abandoned his bride. He's not abandoned his body. He's not abandoned the pillar and foundation of truth. We can even see this in Revelation today. What happening? Revelation again. The last thing Jesus in Revelation, John, the beloved John is in heaven, and he looks and he sees the city of God. And it says, the city of God, Heaven itself is built upon the foundation of the twelve apostles, which in so many ways is John looking up and saying, oh, the kingdom, the church, the bride of Christ, the body of Christ. This is not something that's passed away. This is not something that was only temporary. This is definitely not something that is optional. But if you and I want to be in heaven with the Lord, we're in heaven with the Lord through the gift he gave us, his bride, his body, his church. And that church is not optional, but is the pillar and the foundation.