← The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
Don’t Go Into Easter Without Asking Yourself This (w/ Fr. Mike Schmitz)
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Throughout Lent, and really throughout the entire Christian life, we keep Christ crucified before our eyes as a reminder of how deeply we are loved. But it also confronts us with a question: Do I want to be associated with that? Fr. Mike Schmitz challenges us, especially during Holy Week but also every day, to answer honestly: Do I want to be associated with Jesus, even if it means suffering? Our hope is that the answer becomes “yes,” day after day. Because no matter the trials or sacrifices, nothing compares to the joy of being with Him at the end of it all.
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That's my prayer over this triduum at the end of this Lent leading into Easter. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension presents. You know, all throughout Lent and all during Holy Week. In fact, during the life of Catholics, we often put in front of ourselves the crucifix, right? So it's a cross, of course, but it is the cross with the corpus, right, with the body of Jesus on it. And of course we don't do that because we don't believe that He's. We're not putting Jesus back on the cross. Like we know that he's. He has conquered death, he's conquered the grave, he's risen from the dead, he's ascended to heaven. We know that, but we also, we place in front of ourselves the image of Christ and Him crucified for a number of reasons. Not to say he's not, not to say he's still on the cross, he's not. But to remind us of his love for us, to remind us of what he's done for us. I mean, that's so, so remarkable. But also to remind us of his identity and for us to ask the question, do I want to be associated with that? I love crucifixes. In fact, John Paul II's crucifix that he would have on his crozier, like the staff he had as a pope, is just like so cool. Here I am saying that's a really cool crucifix, but let's be honest, it's this image of Jesus just hanging. You can see gravity pulling him down to the ground as he's just hanging from his wrists, hanging from his hands, from the nails, and there's a self emptying there that just sit. So it's powerful. I mean, even though it's death, it's powerful. In a lot of countries or cultures, they have crucifixes that are, they have wounds, a lot of wounds on them, like the scourge marks. My mom in particular, she, at one point, she. For a little chapel space we have when I come home, I used to be able, I still do say mass. But my mom wanted a crucifix there. She wanted it to have the wounds of Jesus, not just his hands and his side and his feet. She wanted that to be like the scourge marks. And that is powerful too because it's that image of, wow, here's what the Lord has undergone for us. This is what he's experienced for us. But recently I had an opportunity to help out With a pilgrimage of our students and some friends of Newman up here in Duluth to Poland and beautiful churches. Incredible. Just remarkable country and a place where saints have lived and saints have died. And one of those saints is John Paul ii. I mentioned before, in a place called Krakow, let's be honest, Krakow, in the city of Krakow, there is the John Paul II shrine, I think it is. And it's right across, like a kind of a road from the Divine Mercy shrine, which is also remarkable. But going into the John Paul II shrine, or John Paul II center, I'm not sure what it's called. You walk in and beautiful. Take a left, and there is the white cassock that John Paul II got shot in. And you can. There's no blood on it. And I remember I just. I knelt down and just prayed in front of this, just asking for his intercession. You could see the bullet holes in his cassock that he was wearing as he was shot twice in the stomach. But then you go a little further, and there's another little side chapel. And I'd been here before. I'd been here two years ago. In that side chapel, there's a crucifix. And this is something that's kind of remarkable. I don't know if it's just particular to Poland or if it's to Europe, I don't know. But there's crucifixes there with real hair. Here's Jesus and the corp. Body on the cross with real hair. And there's something about that that's very unsettling, I'll say that. Like that. Something about the real hair that's unsettling. But there's something about this particular crucifix that I don't know if I can put into words. When you're in its presence, it's not just that this real hair, and that's kind of unnerving, but it's because that real hair is also unattractive and a way to say it. And the body of Jesus on the cross is also. I don't have another way to say it other than it's unattractive. A lot of crucifixes have Jesus with, like, broad shoulders and narrow waist, and he's kind of ripped. You know, he's kind of. He's fit. He looks like some crucifixes looks like he could be sleeping, right? Or it looks like he's undergone this dramatic, like, for lack of a better phrase, mangling. And there's something about both of those, right? Here's the Strong, you know, aesthetically pleasing, I guess, chiseled Jesus. And there's also the Jesus hit by a truck. And both of them are saying something different, but both of them have this appeal to them. That one is like, oh, he's strong and he's intact and he's beautiful. And the other one is, oh, he's been marred and he's been. He's been hurt. But that's also powerful. This crucifix. First time I saw it, two years ago, I went there right away. I went right to kneel in front of John Paul II's cassock with the blood, asked for his intercession. Then I went right to the crucifix because I wanted to be there again. Because I have no other word to describe this crucifix other than it's repulsive. Not repulsive in the sense of, like, oh, a lot of wounds. Like, no, it's just ugly. Not ugly. Like the art is bad. Ugly in the sense of. There is nothing attractive about this corpus on this cross. And it's so appealing because of that fact. I found myself praying in front of this crucifix for a long time, and I've reflected on it ever since we left, because the thing that was convicting was this. I'm standing at the foot of the cross there at the foot of the crucifix, and I'm asking the question, would I want to be associated with him? Do I want to be identified with that? Because, again, when there's a beautiful, again, aesthetically pleasing crucifix, like, yeah, that's my Lord, or the crucifix that's been marred, like, yes, that is the God who loves. But what if he's just, I don't know, again, unappealing? What if it's Christ on the cross and he really, truly, like as it says in Isaiah, there was in him no stately bearing nor appearance that make us look at him, but one from whom men would hide their faces, one from whom men would hide their faces. And I look at that crucifix, and I think that question, that's an image, right? That's the image of the one from whom we would hide our face. Do I want to be associated with Him? As Christians, we know this. Christ has won, he's conquered, he is God. And we get to have these really beautiful depictions of him, whether that be in the Passion with Jim Caviezel or in the Chosen with Jonathan Roumie or the Franco Zeffirelli one. Way back in the day, Jesus of Nazareth. They're all like attractive Jesuses. And when I pray, you know, you look at the artwork and they're typically like, oh, no, that's an. What if it is just one as from whom men would hide their faces? What if it's a repulsive Jesus? This is not me just being a surface level, seeing as man sees, not as God sees. It's not like about attractiveness versus unattractiveness or beauty standards versus not beauty standards. What it is, is about there's something in the one who is rejected. It's captured in that crucifixion. There is the one who's rejected nothing in him to make us look at him, but as one despised one from whom men hide their faces. And there comes that question, do I want to be associated with that? The truth is, this is the question we have with being in front of any crucifix. This is the truth before any, even bare cross. Do I want to be associated with the God who would let himself go through that? Rejected, a failure, betrayed, denied, without a friend in the world? Of course, Mary Magdalene, Mary's mom, John the beloved. But I invite you to do this over the next couple of days, whether you have a crucifix at the end of your rosary or maybe on your neck, or maybe in your home or maybe at church, maybe this upcoming weekend, maybe you see a crucifix and just be able to say, jesus, am I willing to be associated with you like that? Because that's one step. We have to take that step. Because why? Because Jesus associates himself with those who are rejected. Jesus associates himself with those who are poor, with those who are alienated, with those who are hated. Jesus associates himself with those who have nothing. Jesus associates himself with. With those from whom men hide their faces. I think in some ways it might seem like Christ associates himself with those whom the world finds repulsive more than he associates with those who the world finds beautiful. Do I want to be associated with him? I think it's a thing worth praying about. Ultimately, of course, the answer is. Hopefully the answer is yes. Hopefully the answer is, as I'm standing there at the foot of this cross, I'm like, yes, Jesus, yes, I do. I want to be associated with you. I don't care how you look. I don't care how your people look. I just want to be associated with you. I want to belong to you. I want people to know that I belong to you. I think you might too. I think you might also want people to know that you belong to Him. So we find him in the distressing disguise of a crucifix. We also, as Mother Teresa said, find him in the distressing disguise of the poor. Do I want to be associated with him? That's my prayer over this. Over this triduum at the end of this Lent leading into Easter. Do I want to be associated with him? My answer is yes. I think yours is too. Anyways, from all of us here at Ascension Presents, My name is Father Mike. God bless.