Editor's Note: Father Mike Schmitz spoke Thursday night at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. Below is a transcript of his talk edited for clarity and length. 

 

I don’t know if you saw the title of this talk, but it’s called “The Greatest Love Story,” and I thought, “Okay, here’s my promise to you tonight: I’m not going to tell you anything you don’t already know, agreed?” You’re like, ‘No, I came here to learn something bro — let’s go!’” 

But here’s the thing: You know this love story already. But what if you didn’t? 

So, tonight, I’m going to read a story, and you know this story; and you know how this story ends — but what if you didn’t? It’s actually a story we heard yesterday a couple times: It’s Luke Chapter 24 — the disciples on the road to Emmaus. There’s a guy named Cleopas, and his traveling companion. Now, we know that Cleopas had a wife named Mary, so my guess is this is Cleopas and Mrs. Cleopas; and, well, I’ll just read it to you:

Here’s the word. Luke Chapter 24 says: “That very day, two of them were heading to a village 7 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 seeing him, 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? Are you the only one here who doesn’t know?’”

Because we know. We know what happened. Who does not know about Jesus? 

“Jesus said, ‘What sort of things?’ They said to him, ‘The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene who’s a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; how our chief priests and elders 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.’” 

Here’s the deal: Cleopas and Mrs. Cleopas, they knew; they knew that Jesus was a prophet mighty in deed and word. They knew that Jesus was arrested by the chief priest and elders. They knew that he was crucified. They knew that he was executed. They knew, and Jesus says to them: “You’re stupid.” I’m paraphrasing. Here’s what he said:

“He says, ‘How foolish you are! How slow to understand to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah 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.” 

Amazing Bible study: Jesus is walking along. He’s like, “By the way: Here’s what you think you know. Let me fill in the gaps.” 

Because they knew the story.

Here’s the greatest love story ever, and Jesus is telling them on the way to Emmaus, 7 miles, he’s telling the greatest love story. And it begins like this: In the beginning (this is going to be a long talk). In the beginning, there’s God. He’s good, and this good God made this world good. And he made human beings, and he made them good. He had human beings like him in his image and likeness, and the whole thing was good. In fact, Jesus would say it was very good. 

See, in the beginning, was God, and he was good. And he made this world good; he made you good. And they’d be like, “Yeah, we know that already.” And then he would say, “But what happened was this: We took our human freedom. We took our ability to be like God we already had. He gave it to us, and we broke the world by sin.” Now, I think its funny something about the first sin that Adam and Eve committed: It wasn’t a mistake. No — a sin isn’t I made a mistake; a sin isn’t I broke a rule. A sin is this: God, I know what you want. I don’t care. I want what I want. 

That’s what they did: God, I know what you want. I don’t care — not that I didn’t know. I just didn’t care.

And so they did what they wanted, and it broke the world — and what that did is, again, here’s God, who’s good. He made this world good; he made them good, but with their freedom, they chose to break the world, and it broke our relationship with God, with each other, and even in our own hearts. 

And so what happened was this — and, again, I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. You know this is what happened. Because of that, there became this unbridgeable gap between God on one side and humanity on the other side. And no matter how hard humans would try, no matter how much good things, how many good things human beings could do, we could do nothing to get from our side to God’s side. We recognize the brokenness; you recognize the brokenness. Amen. 

Every philosophy, every social construct, every economic reform — all of it — is an attempt to fix that brokenness.

But here’s the thing about unbridgeable gaps: They’re unbridgeable.

And you know this. 

And Cleopas and Mrs. Cleopas knew this, and they thought that Jesus would be the one. They thought that Jesus would be the one to be able to restore it all, but they knew the story. He’s a prophet mighty in deed and word, but then he was executed. We had hoped. 

Again, Jesus said, “Let’s take a little review.” My guess is Jesus went like this: “Here’s some more stories you might know.” Imagine Jesus said, “Cleopas and Mrs. Cleopas, remember that story of Abraham.” They’re like, “Of course, we do. He had that one son. What’s his name?”

That son’s Isaac. 

What did God say?

God said, “Abraham, take your only son, your beloved son, whom you love. Bring him to a mountain that I’ll point out. And upon that mountain, you will sacrifice him.” 

So what does Abraham do? He does what God asked him to do: He takes his only beloved son, and he takes him to a place called Mount Moriah.

And on Mount Moriah, he gets to the base of that mountain; and he puts the wood for the sacrifice on his only son’s back, and he walks with his son up to the top of that mountain. And on the way up, Isaac his son asks a question: “Father, here’s the knife. Here’s the wood for the sacrifice, but where is the sacrifice?” And Abraham says to his son, “My son, the Lord will provide himself a sacrifice.” 

They get to the top of the mountain. Abraham is about to sacrifice his son, but what happens? The angel of the Lord stops him: “Don’t lay a hand on the boy. Don’t do the least thing to him.” 

He spies a ram caught by its horns in a thicket and sacrifices that ram. 

Jesus would say, “Remember how he sacrificed that ram. What did Abraham promise his son? That God would provide a ram or a lamb. God provided a ram in that moment.” But God had promised to provide a lamb. 

Time goes on.

It’s Exodus. You know the story, right? 

The people of Israel, the brothers of Joseph — you remember Joseph. He had this amazing technicolor dream coat, and his brothers sold him into slavery. 

So then the whole family goes into slavery, essentially — ultimately in Egypt for 400 years, until God goes to Moses. 

And Jesus is telling Cleopas and Mrs. Cleopas this whole story. This is the story you already know.

And God says to Moses, “Tell Pharaoh, ‘Let my people go.’” 

There’s a bunch of plagues. The last one is what? Take a lamb, remember? God had promised on Mount Moriah to provide a lamb. 

They take a lamb in the evening. At twilight, they sacrifice the lamb. They roast its flesh and eat its flesh; and they mark their homes with its blood. And this is what Moses told the people. He said: “When you do this, when you mark your homes with the blood of the lamb and eat the flesh of the lamb, you’ll be saved, and you’ll be freed. You’ll have liberty, and you’ll have life — only if you mark your homes with the blood of the lamb, and only if you eat the flesh of the lamb.” 

Imagine, here’s Jesus saying, “Cleopas and Mrs. Cleopas, remember this?” 

They’re like, “I remember that,” because they would do that every single Passover: They would take the flesh of the lamb and eat it and say this, “This is the lamb of Passover that set us free, that God passed over — the angel of death passed over us, and God gave us liberty, and God gave us life.”

Then I imagine Jesus would say, “Remember when John the Baptist came along?”

“We knew John the Baptist.”

What did John the Baptist say?

I’ve gone through a lot of Scripture really quickly — just, by the way, John the Baptist: The first time John the Baptist saw Jesus outside the womb that we know of, he’s by the Jordan River. And he looks at Jesus, and he says what he says, “Behold the Lamb of God.” 

Sometimes I used to always think when John said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” I thought he was like Jesus is a lamb, he’s fluffy and gentle and cute and cozy — he’s Jonathan Roumie [laughing in reference to the actor who portrays Jesus in The Chosen]. 

But when John the Baptist was saying, “That’s the Lamb,” no one was like, “Get your eyes checked.” 

They were saying, “Wait a second: You mean he’s the lamb of sacrifice?” 

Because they knew the story. 

And so then Jesus comes into the city of Jerusalem. We call it Palm Sunday, but the Jews would call it the day they bring the lambs into Jerusalem. I always pictured Palm Sunday as Jesus is riding his donkey as they put down the palm branches. 

When Jesus was going into Jerusalem, that’s the same day that all the sacrificial lambs were being brought into the city of Jerusalem, as well, so he’d be surrounded by sacrificial lambs. Why?

Because he’s the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 

And that Friday, what happens? 

Again, you know this already.

That Friday, what happens is Jesus is executed. 

This is what Jesus unpacked for Cleopas and Mrs. Cleopas. He like, “Wait a second. Go back to the beginning: The father was willing to sacrifice his only beloved son. Cleopas, what mountain was that?” 

“Mount Moriah.”

Jesus, “Very good, Cleopas. Mrs. Cleopas, on what mountain range was Jesus crucified? 

“Mount Moriah.”

“Very good. The same mountain. Cleopas, you were there. What did Jesus carry on his back?” 

“He carried the wood of the sacrifice.”

“Exactly. What did Jesus have around his head?” 

“A crown of thorns.” 

“Mrs. Cleopas, what was the ram caught by?” 

“It was caught by its horns in the thicket among thorns.” 

So Jesus is the lamb that was promised at what time. 

“Cleopas, was Jesus crucified the same time the sacrificial lambs were sacrificed in the temple?” 

Exactly. 

“Cleopas and Mrs. Cleopas, this is for both of you, either of you: They divided his garments?” 

“Correct, yes.” 

“But what did they do for his robe?” 

“They cast lots.” 

Why? 

Because it was all woven from one piece. 

What does that mean? 

That means it was an ephod, which is a high priestly garment.

So here’s Jesus saying to Cleopas and Mrs. Cleopas: “You thought you knew what was happening. You thought that it was an execution. It was not an execution. This was a sacrifice of the Lamb of God by the High Priest, Jesus Christ himself, that takes away the sins of the world.”

So let’s go back to the beginning: God is good, made this world good, made you good. Sin broke the world; there’s an unbridgeable chasm between humanity and God. And God bridged that gap. How?

The cross.

Jesus Christ, who is both God and man, is the only one who could ever bridge that unbridgeable gap between God and man.

And what did that do? 

That restored us. 

What did that do? 

That action redeemed us. 

What did this Jesus on the cross do? 

Made it possible for our sins to be forgiven, for us to be able to have access to the Father.

Because if he bridges the unbridgeable gap, that means you and I have access to the Father.

Pause once again: Was it the Incarnation that saved us?

 Yes or No? 

You remember; you know this.

The Incarnation: Did God becoming one of us save us? No.

Did Jesus’ miracles, healing the man born blind — did that save us? No. 

Did Jesus driving out demons, did that save us? 

Did Jesus calming the storm, did that save us? 

There’s one moment, there is one action of Jesus that saved us — one action of Jesus that restored us, one action of Jesus that bridge the unbridgeable gap. And that action happened upon the cross. 

What do we mean? That means it was the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus that bridged this unbridgeable gap. 

Another way to say it is, this is the moment — the moment that Jesus offered up his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity to the Father in loving sacrifice, in loving obedience, because that’s what happened, right? 

It was our disobedience. 

We said, “God, I know what you want. I want what I want.” 

It was our disobedience.

So here is Jesus. He says, “I offer you, Father, my Body, my Blood, my Soul, my Divinity, in loving obedience. I trust you.” 

And that action redeemed the world. 

But wait — there’s more. 

You know this; we know this already. This whole conference, we’re talking about the Real Presence of Jesus. Amen!

Yes, Jesus is truly present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in every Eucharist, in every Mass, in every Tabernacle around the world. 

Is the point of the Mass the presence of Jesus?

No — it’s the presence of Jesus that makes the point possible.

I want to say that again: The presence of Jesus is not the point of the Mass. I mean, it’s a big deal. I’m not minimizing that, but just like the point wasn’t the Incarnation — the Incarnation makes the sacrifice possible — the Real Presence makes the sacrifice possible.

So we fall into a big trap when we say, “No, the point is that you’re here,” or “The point is I get to receive you.” 

Those are amazing things, but what saves us is the sacrifice of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus to the Father in humble obedience.

And where does that happen? 

I’ll tell you this right now. Here’s an analogy:

When the priest says, “This is my Body given for you,” elevation, “This is my Blood given for you,” elevation, that’s like the Incarnation. God is present among us, but it’s this moment, where the priest holds the Body of Christ and the Blood of Christ in his hands and says, “Through him, with him, in him” — who’s him? Jesus. 

You know this: “In the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever.” 

That moment is the moment where Jesus on the cross says, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” 

That moment is what’s happening. 

And then he cries out in a loud voice and breathes his last; and with that last ounce of breath, he offers on the cross his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

In the Mass, it’s not just about looking at Jesus when you see the Lord lifted up like this. You are looking at Calvary when you see the Host lifted up like this. You’re participating in his restoration of the world at Mass. 

And here is the priest holding up to Our Lord like this and just saying, “God the Father this is for you.” You get to be a part of redemption of humanity because every time that happens, the Father is glorified. 

Jesus says, “This is for you, Father.” 

And the world is sanctified. 

The world is restored; the world is renewed. Amen! 

But you know ignorance is a problem. 

I think one of the reasons why the bishops so wisely wanted to have the Eucharistic Revival is because we saw a lot of people don’t know; a lot of people are ignorant — a lot of people are unaware. 

And so what we need to do …  we need to bring people from ignorance to knowledge. That’s not bad, that’s great. 

We need to tell people the truth because … if you have ignorance, if I don’t know, give me some truth — and now I have knowledge. 

But I wonder if our problem is deeper than that? I wonder if our problem is what Jesus said in the Book of Revelation.

This is for us right now; this is for all of us: Jesus, in Revelation Chapter 2, he’s talking to the church in Ephesus, and he says this: “Hey, church in Ephesus — that’s a paraphrase — he says: “I know your works and your labor. I know your endurance and that you cannot tolerate the wicked. You’re doing great; you’re doing the right things. You’ve tested those who call themselves apostles but are imposters; moreover, you have endurance and have suffered for my name. And you have not grown weary. Good job!”

I believe that Jesus could be speaking to every person at this Revival and say those words: “Hey, you’re holding fast to the faith. Hey, you’re struggling. I know you’re struggling. I know you’re striving to be faithful. I know it’s hard out there — but I also see your endurance. I see your perseverance. And also,” he goes on to say, “I know you believe the right things.” I know that you know you know this, but then he says: “Yet I hold this against you: You have lost your first love.”

Sometimes our problem is ignorance; what we need is knowledge, and the road to knowledge is truth, and sometimes our problem is indifference. 

Sometimes, too often, it’s I don’t care.

But we say this: We say, “Well, yeah, but we have Jesus.” This is for us Catholics; this is for us practicing Catholics; this is for us who tonight, right after this, we’re going to have adoration. We’re going to bow down and bend the knee before Our Lord, and we’re going to praise him and love him. 

But, too often, and we’re going to say, “We have Jesus — this is the real presence.” But, too often, we’re the kind of people that Jeremiah was speaking to. If you know anything about Jeremiah, God sent Jeremiah to the people of Israel to give them a word. It was a hard word, and I’m passing on this hard word because it’s a word we all need to hear. He said this: “Oh, my people, thus says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Reform your ways and your deeds, so that I may remain with you in this place. Put not your trust in the deceitful words. This is the Temple of the Lord.” 

Consider this: The Israelites, they had the Temple of the Lord. What does that mean? They had God in their presence; they had God in their midst. They have the real presence of God in this unique way in the Temple, and they’re like, “No, no, no, listen: We’re okay. We have the Temple of the Lord.”

And too often, us Catholics, that’s what we say: “We have the Real Presence.”

But our hearts are far from him. 

We know; we just don’t care.

If the remedy for ignorance is to get to knowledge, and the road to knowledge is truth, the remedy for indifference is love — and the road to love is repentance, my brothers and sisters.

 I just want to share this with you all. A year ago, when I was asked to be part of this, I was so honored, I am so honored; I’m so grateful to be able to be with you and to speak and to share this — but this word kept coming back again and again.

If this is going to be a revival, if it’s going to be a real revival, here’s the reality: In the history of Christianity, you can never have a revival without repentance.

So we know this; we know that, like Jeremiah said, I can’t just say: “But we have Jesus.” Like Jeremiah said, “You have to reform your ways.” 

There’s one last Bible story I want to share, just to kind of hammer the point home. It’s from 1 Samuel. Eli is the priest in the Temple, and he has two sons; they’re Hophni and Phineas — there was also Ferb, but we don’t talk about him [joking] — but Hophni and Phineas, the Israelites are fighting the Philistines, and the Philistines are winning; and so off go Hophni and Phineas, who were not preceptors of God’s own heart, who did not follow the Lord closely.

But they’re like: “Wait a second — in the past, there were times when Joshua took the Ark and brought it into battle, and then the Lord God fought for us; and then he won the battle.” 

So Hoph and Phineas have this great idea: “The Philistines are winning. Let’s take the Ark and bring it into battle, and then we’ll win.”

That’s what they do; and as soon as the Israelites see the Ark, they’re like, “Yeah, we got this!” They cry out; the Philistines are scared out of their minds, but then they go to fight, and the Philistines win — because you might have the presence of the Lord, but he’s not your toy. God might be in our midst, but he’s not our play thing, and he’s not our pet. He doesn’t exist to help us win whatever battle we want to win. He’s in our midst to transform our hearts so we can be close to him, not so he can just fight for whatever we want him to fight for. 

So what happens is the Philistines win, and they capture the Ark, and they bring it into the temple of Dagon and placed it beside the idol Dagon.

Now please keep this in mind: In the temple of Dagon, God didn’t leave. He was still there.

Why? How do we know this? 

Because, overnight, the Lord God knocked Dagon on his face. The Philistines come in. like, “Wait a second — who knocked down our god? Put him back up.” The next night the Lord God knocked him on his face again, knocked off his head, knocked off his hands — and the Philistines are like, “We got to get rid of this thing.” 

So God was still present; he was still present. 

And he is still present, just like Mother Olga said: “I have Jesus, and I can’t take him away from me.” 

But here’s the problem: I can just not care. I can say, “Here’s the moment of redemption. Here’s the moment of restoration.” I can be there at every single Mass and say that’s it — but if I’m not willing to repent, it makes no difference.

When Jesus offered up himself to the Father, his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in loving obedience to the Father, the Father was glorified, and the world was saved. 

At every Mass, as we offer the sacrifice of the Son to the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit, the Father is meant to be glorified, and the world is meant to be saved.

But if I don’t give him my heart, he’s just that much less glorified, and the world is just that much less saved. Amen. 

So, what I need to do is, I need to repent. 

“Yeah, but I’m faithful. I go to Mass.” 

I know; I know, but maybe we’re here tonight, and Jesus could say: “I know you’re doing all the right stuff. I know you’re fighting. I know you’re persevering. I know you’re enduring, but you lost your first love, and the road to love is repentance.” 

See, here’s a big question: If you’ve lost the fire of your love, this is the question for everyone of us to just ask: If I’ve lost the fire of my love for the Lord, my first love, what are the fire extinguishers in my life? 

Now, sometimes the fire extinguishers are big big sins: They take my fire of my love for God. ...  I don’t know why this keeps going out; this is weird. But most often, it’s those small things that we settle for; it’s those small things that don’t snuff out our flame right away — they’re just kind of like putting a cup over a little fire and just hold it there a little bit; little bit, little bit — just get slower and lower and smaller and smaller and not feeding it.

Here’s the invitation for all of us tonight: Identify what are the fire extinguishers in your life. 

The Lord is present among us.

I don’t need more knowledge, but I need more love.

I shared this earlier today with somebody that, last year, my mom died. 

And I don’t know if you’re like my mom, but she’s a great, great woman — but my whole life, my mom had a stack of Catholic books that she meant to read someday, stack of Catholic magazines that she was going to get around to one day; and when whenever something came up, you know, about the Bible, about the Church, she’d be like, well, “I don’t know enough.” And she automatically disqualified herself because she said she didn’t know enough. 

You know, knowledge can make someone great, but only love can make a saint. 

And the truth is: You are not disqualified; your brokenness doesn’t disqualify you; a littleness of heart doesn’t disqualify; you not knowing enough doesn’t disqualify. You not doing enough doesn’t disqualify you.

It’s not that I don’t know. So often, it’s I don’t care. So I just pray tonight, Lord, give me that that love; let me feel it tonight in adoration; let me feel it.

The road to love is repentance, so let me make these choices: Jesus, what are those fire extinguishers. I can't expect to take the fire of this weekend and bring it back to my home if I try cramming it into the life I just left. Domething has to change

Someone has to redecorate my home. We have to do some remodeling.

That is the plan tonight: Make some of those decisions. What are the fire extinguishers I know I'm returning to when I go back home?

It's time to remodel because I cannot fit the fire of God's love into the life I left behind. I can't return and expect that flame to keep growing. I have to identify those fire extinguishers. I have to repent because I need love.

You've been restored by Jesus. He is offering his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. You've been redeemed by Jesus offering his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. 

He has won for all of us this access to the Father. He's given us this love and that's the reality.

Again, knowledge can make one great but only love can make you a saint.

So God, help us love. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.