← Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
6/22/25 Pillar and Foundation: Greatest Gift
00:21:23
Homily from the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. Jesus did not say, “Read this in memory of me. He said, “Do this in memory of me.” Even people who love Jesus very much can miss this gift without the guidance and teaching of the church.
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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 Glory to you, o Lord. Chapter 9, verses 11 through 17 Jesus spoke to the crowds about the Kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured. As the day was drawing to a close, the 12 approached him and said, dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions for we are in a deserted place here. He said to them, give them some food yourselves. They replied, five loaves and two fish are all we have unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people. Now. The men there numbered about 5,000. Then he said to his disciples, have them sit down in groups of 50. They did so and made them all sit down. Then taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. They all ate and were satisfied, and when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled 12 wicker baskets. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. I should have a seat. So when I was first ordained, I was asked to meet with my godmother afterwards. No, my godmother's a great woman. She loves Jesus a lot. And we hadn't really had much of a relationship growing up because she just lived in a different place and no real cause for a relationship at all. I think she was my godmother because my dad was her godfather and kind of passed it on down the line, whatever. But she wanted to meet with me after I got ordained because she wanted to convince me not to be Catholic, more or less. She wanted to meet at a coffee shop. So we multiple times sat down with our Bibles and, and we just went over like, all of her questions, like, where? Okay, you, you Catholics believe in this? Where's that in the Bible? You Catholics believe that? Where's that in the Bible? And it was really good. I really appreciate it. Like, I don't. I'm not making fun of her. It was one of the situations where I'm like, oh, you genuinely believe that Catholics aren't Christians, and so you. Or you believe that our doctrines aren't Christian or they're not biblical, and so you want to show me that. And again, that's. That's an act of kindness. That's an act of love because she cared about me. But it also reveals something. Reveals this thing we've been walking with for the last, I don't know, five weeks of this series called Pillar and Foundation of the question of, like, you know, where's that in the Bible? It was a kind of. Again, I think it's a good. It's a good question, especially in one sense. We mentioned this last week. Everything we as Catholics believe it's either found implicitly in Scripture or it's explicitly in Scripture, right? So every one of our Catholic dogmas and doctrines, it is in the Bible. But the question is, is it just in the Bible? Again, that question that we started this whole series with is when someone says, okay, well, is that the Bible's teaching or is that just the church? And we have that sense of, like, is the church then simply optional? The claim we've been maintaining this entire time has been that the church is not optional. The church is essential. Because why? Because, as we said many times, Jesus did not give us the Bible. He gave us a church. And through the church, he's given us the Bible. He also gave the church the ability and the authority to teach and interpret the Bible. Why? Because we can miss stuff. So I'm sitting down with my godmother and we're talking about things. At one point we got to this doctrine today, the doctrine of Corpus Christi, the doctrine of that Jesus really is truly present. Body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist, that he is truly present there. That's not a symbol of Jesus, but actually is Jesus. And so we walk through. We walk through, you know, the. The. The Last Supper accounts where Jesus said, this is my body. She's like, okay, well, you know, maybe, maybe not. And then we went to this. We went to a part in the Bible called John chapter six. John, chapter six. We walked through this whole thing and just kind of give a little setup. In John 6 is the day before, beginning of John 6 is Jesus who feeds the 5000 like we heard in the Gospel today. That night, Jesus walks across water. It's a big day for Jesus. The next day, all these crowds come looking for Jesus because they ate the day before and they want more food. And Jesus says to them, he says, that you're coming to me not because you believe in me, but because you ate and you want more food. And they're like, yeah, we do. Okay, so give us more food. And he says, I have food to give you. If you eat it, you'll live forever. They say, sir, give us this bread always. And that's where Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger. Whoever believes me will never thirst. And they get all ornery about this whole thing. Like, wait, how can he say he came down from heaven? How can he say he's the bread from heaven? We know that he's the carpenter's son. But then Jesus makes it even more explicit. He says, I am the bread that came down from heaven, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. Now, when Jesus says, the bread I will give, that you must eat. If you don't eat it, you don't have life is my flesh for the life of the world. At that point, not just the crowds, but the disciples of Jesus began murmuring. They began arguing, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? It's in John, chapter six. Right here. And in this moment, I was walking my godmother through this. I said, in that moment, if Jesus. If Jesus was speaking figuratively. Because there's times in John's gospel even where Jesus is speaking figuratively, right? He says, like, I'm the gate. He says, I'm the vine, you're the branches. He says, I'm the good shepherd. None of those situations. Did anyone say, wait a second, you're not a shepherd, you're a carpenter. Busted, bro. Like, none of those times. This is the moment where he says, the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. They start arguing because it sounds like they're taking him literally. If Jesus did not mean this literally, this would be an incredible opportunity for him to pause and say, well, wait, wait, wait. Let me correct you. But he doesn't. In fact, he kind of doubles. Not just doubles, triple. He quintuples down where he basically says when they're quarreling among themselves, he says, amen. Amen. So very solemn. Amen. Amen. The Jews are quarreling. He says, amen. Amen. I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. But he doesn't stop there. He keeps going. He says, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. Now raise him on the last day, he goes, a third time he says, for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. A fourth time, he says, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. And the fifth time, he said, just as the living Father sent me, and I have left life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. So in response to them thinking that he's taking them, he's being literal, Jesus says, yeah, absolutely. I really mean it. So I'm walking through this with my godmother, and to her credit, she said. I remember her saying this. She's like, oh, well, I can see that as an interpretation. I was like, that's really good. Right? I can see that as an interpretation. I had to point out to her that for 1500 years, for 1,500 years, that was the only interpretation, that we have to realize this as Christians, as if you're not a Catholic Christian. Do you realize that for 1,500 years, 100% of Christians believed in that interpretation? That at the Catholic Mass, the Eucharist is actually truly the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus? Now, let's pause on this for a moment, for just a second. That interpretation is absolutely clear in the Bible. But without the Church, even people who love Jesus can get it wrong. That's one of the reasons why we need the Church, because that interpretation, again, it is word for word. It is so clear on the page. But without the Church, even people who love Jesus can't get it wrong. There are so many people right now who love Jesus who can get it wrong or are getting it wrong. Even though this was the. I made the claim that it's the teaching of the early Church. Ignatius of Antioch was a guy who lived. He died in the year 107. And as he's being marched from where he lived in Antioch all the way to Rome, he's writing letters. One of his letters, he wrote to the Smyrnians, and he wrote to the Smyrnians about the Eucharist. At one point, he said this. He said, take note of those who have heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us. See how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God. And here's what he says. This he said, they abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior, Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father in his goodness raised up again, here is. Remember mentioned this two weeks ago, Ignatius of Antioch was a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of John the Beloved, the guy who actually wrote John, Chapter six. And what's he saying? He's like, oh, no, no. At the Mass we know that that is truly Jesus, the flesh of our Savior. A bunch of years later, not a ton, but year 150 or so, there's a guy named Justin Martyr. At one point, Justin was writing to a non Christian about what we do as Christians, like how we gather. And what he describes is essentially the Mass. So especially when people say things like, well, the early Christians would never recognize the Catholic Church as the church Jesus founded, you say, well, pause on this a second. The earliest account we have that's not in the Bible of how Christians celebrated the Mass comes from Justin Martyr in the year 150. Here's what he says. This is a little longer quote, but just go with me. It's going to sound familiar. He says, having ended the prayers, we greet one another with a kiss, sign of peace. Then there is brought up to the president or the presider, the presbyter, the priest, right, the president of the brethren. Bread and a cup of wine mix with water. He takes them and offers praise and glory to the Father of the universe through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and gives thanks at considerable length. When he has finished the prayers in thanksgiving, all the people present express their assent by saying amen again, sounds so familiar. He goes on to say, then those who are called deacons give to each present partakers of the bread, the wine, the water over which the thanksgiving is pronounced, and carry away a portion to those who are absent. We have in the tabernacle, we have the ciborium, and if someone is sick, we bring Holy Communion to them. Here's what he says about the Eucharist. He says, this food is called among us Eucharist, for not as common bread and common drink do we receive them, but in like manner as Jesus our Savior, having been made flesh by the word of God, has both flesh and blood for our salvation. So likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His Word is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. It makes it so clear that in the early church they absolutely believed this one interpretation, this possible interpretation. No, this is the one interpretation. When Jesus said, this is my body, he didn't say, this is a symbol of my body. When he said, this is my blood, he didn't say, this is a symbol of my blood. This is absolutely, absolutely essential for all of us. In fact, it's not just essential for all of us. It's become de. Defining teaching and the defining practice of Christians. In the fourth century, in the year, I think, 303 AD in a place called Abitani, which is in northern Africa, there were a number of Christians. In fact, I think there were. Let me get the number right. There were 49 Christians who were rounded up by the Romans to be put to death because they gathered for the Mass. And at one point, the Roman guards had said. The officials had said, like, listen, we're not even asking you to admit that you're Christians. We just want you to stay away from the Eucharist and from your Bible. And they responded. This one man responded, and he said, this. This is so powerful. Again, Octavius Felix was asked this. He said, I'm not asking if you're a Christian, but I'm only asking if you've taken part in the assembly or if you have a book of the Scriptures, if you had Mass or Scriptures. And he answered. He said, oh, foolish and ridiculous question. As if a Christian could be a Christian without the Eucharist, or if the Eucharist could actually be celebrated without there being a Christian. He said, don't you know. And he called him Satan, which I think is kind of tough, don't you know, Satan. That it is the Sunday Eucharist that makes the Christian and the Christian that makes the Sunday Eucharist. One cannot exist without the other. To realize this is who we are. It is the Eucharist that makes us Christians. And Christians gathered together with the priest, they make the Eucharist. Yet many of us might be tempted to, like, downplay it. I remember we have a camp at a little campground just in the middle of Minnesota. It's owned by a different denomination. At one point, the board of directors had met because they were kind of concerned that we as Catholics were having camp on their campground. And at one point, the head of the camp said, hey, I had a meeting with the board of directors. And, man, they were. One of the guys was pretty amped up because he was like, do you realize what they do, those Catholics? They believe that the Mass, that piece of bread, they believe that's God. I believe it's Jesus, and they worship him. And the camp director, he looked at me and said, yeah. But I told him, like, no, no, no, it's not. It's not that big of a deal. And I looked back at the guy. And I was like, actually, that's exactly what it is, that what we're doing. When it comes to the Eucharist, if the Eucharist isn't really Jesus, then we are the worst idolaters who have ever lived. Because we are declaring that what Jesus said is true. When he said, this is my body, we're saying that is his body, and we worship him in the Eucharist. So it's like, actually, we do. We worship the Eucharist as the body and blood of Jesus because it is the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus. Now, here's a question. One of those exercises. If you're a God, if you're a God, and you went to all the trouble of establishing the church, and immediately the church fell into idolatry. Not just some of them, immediately, the entire church for 1500 years fell into idolatry. That the core of what they did every single day and every single Sunday was idolatrous. Would you not have stepped in a little sooner? I mean, when the golden calf thing happened, God acted right away. That was immediate. He would not have tolerated idolatry. Because what we're doing is not idolatry. What we're doing is worship. And it's not just worship. It's the worship that God has asked us to do. Because he didn't just say, this is my body. He didn't just say, this is my blood. He said, this is my body, this is my blood. Do this. And so we do. You know, there have been times when it comes to Corpus Christi, there have been times where God has revealed himself in a miraculous way. This is kind of the last thing. There have been a number of times. But I just want to talk about mention 2. What I mean by this is that I know sometimes as Catholics going to Mass, it can be one of those situations where it's like, I mean, I know Jesus. You said, this is your body, this is your blood. It doesn't feel like it. Sometimes you just want to see, right? You just want to say, I want to know that. Is this really true? If you do, you're not the first one. In fact, in the year 700, there was a guy, he was a Basilian monk and he was a priest, and he was offering Mass in Italy in a town called Lanciano. And as he's at the altar and he's offering up the sacrifice of the body and blood, soul, divinity of Jesus, he had questions about the real presence. And in his very hands, the host changed physically into flesh. And the Wine changed physically into blood. They preserved it, they kept it. In fact, if you go to Lanciano, Italy, right now, you can see that it wasn't until 1970 and then again in 1980, that they actually allowed scientists to examine what they were claiming was body was flesh and blood. And the doctors who examined this, the scientists who examined it, they came to a big conclusion. The big conclusion was, yeah, this blood is actually human blood. Not only is this blood, human blood, this blood is of type ab. Not only that, but what they claimed to be flesh was actually flesh. But not only was it flesh, it was heart tissue, myocardium from the left ventricle. Even though These samples were 1200 years old, they were still intact, still living tissue. This happened again in 1996 in Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires. There was a host that had fallen to the floor. Someone had put it, like, on a candle stand, and a nun brought it up to the priest and said, we found this host. The priest did what you normally do. You put it in a glass of water and put it in the tabernacle, allow it to dissolve after a week. Typically, a consecrated host will dissolve more or less completely and then you can dispose of it properly. But after a week, not only was it not dissolved, there were these spots that look like blood coming from that host. They kept it in water. He told his archbishop, his archbishop, Jorge Bergoglio, which is Pope Francis. The pope said, or the archbishop said, well, preserve this. Keep it in a tabernacle. Keep it locked up. Three years later, in 1999, they sent two samples to labs in New York and to labs in Los Angeles. And they didn't tell the researchers, the scientists, they didn't tell them what they were sending them. They just said, could you please look at this sample and tell us what you find? But we need the entire sample back. Don't dispose of it. We need the whole sample back. And these physicians who had. These scientists who had no idea whatsoever they were looking at, they found the same thing. They found that what was red was actually human blood. It was type ab, which is same as Lanciano, same as actually the Shroud of Return as well. They found that the host, it was flesh, was actually human tissue, once again from the left ventricle of the human heart. And even more, it was confirmed that it was tissue from someone who had undergone significant trauma. That left ventricle of the heart is the part that pumps oxygenated blood to the rest of the body. The Eucharist is the heart of Jesus that pumps grace to the Whole body of Christ, the whole church. Last. You know, Dr. Zugebe was the doctor who was examining the tissue. And he said, but how old is this sample? They said, why do you ask? And he said, because white blood cells can't remain alive longer than a couple hours detached from the living source. He said, well, three years. He said, this sample is three years old, and yet there are living white blood cells in the blood and in the tissue. So I have no idea how to explain this. Where'd you get this? And they said it came from a consecrated host at a Catholic Mass. And he said, I have no rational way, no scientific way to explain what I'm looking at. But he, like many, after looking at this truth, said, this is the conclusion. The truth is this is Jesus. This is miraculous, and this is who we worship at every single Mass. And unfortunately, we know this. Unfortunately, we have a lot of brothers and sisters who are not Catholic Christians that this is meant to be. Actually, this is supposed to be theirs. This is just the truth. I remember when we did the Bible in a year. This is the last thing we did, the Bible in a year. We have these seven books we talked about a couple weeks ago, these seven books that Protestants don't have because Martin Luther moved them. And then they ultimately were removed from the Bible, saying, don't doubt these books. These books are actually your pedigree. These books are actually your inheritance. And same thing is true with Jesus in the Eucharist. If you're a Christian, you love Jesus. Just like my godmother, Jesus wants you to have the Eucharist. If you're someone who loves Jesus, this is his greatest gift. If he had a greater gift to give, he would have given it. But at some point, someone said, all I need is the Bible. I think it's interesting Jesus never said, read this in memory of me, but he did say, do this in memory of me. The church isn't optional. We need both Scripture and Tradition. We need both the Bible and the church because the church is essential, because the church is the pillar and foundation of truth.