What’s the Point of Religion?

oh gosh this is so incredible you guys this changed my life when i when i realized this in a deep way [Music] hi my name is father mike schmitz and this is ascension presents we did this series a number of years ago called uh come to the altar was all about worship and one of the points we were trying to make was the heart of religion i mean across the board from the beginning of time to now whenever there was any kind of world religion and actually even even any kind of local religion any religion whatsoever the heart of religion wasn't just the creed like it wasn't just here's what we believe although that's really important and the heart of religion wasn't just uh morality like here's how we live although that's really really important too but if you look at world religions from the beginning of humanity up till now you recognize is the heart of religion is worship is that sense of like okay we need to come before the god whoever the god is and offer something so i would say this the heart of religion has been worship like that's that's the key thing we do and the heart of worship is not just gathering it's not just singing songs it's not just listening to like whatever sacred texts people have but the heart of worship is sacrifice so let's see we say like this the heart of religion is worship and the heart of worship is sacrifice basically taking what one has and saying god i give this to you so in the old testament you have the sac the first fruit sacrifice of the first fruit so you know the uh the first goat or lamb or ox or whatever to open the womb that's what we give to the lord um the first fruits of the field the first fruit of the vineyard those are given to the lord and they're offered as a sacrifice or we have cereal offerings or there's grain offerings that's the same thing i think there's thank offerings there's all these different kinds of offerings all across the board in the old testament why because at the heart of religion is worship and the heart of worship is now give god something that's of value you've got something that's of value people can stay on the surface that way obviously i mean peop in the old testament god even says this through his prophets he says do you think this is the worship i desire that you um would just give me the bulls and the goats and the ox and the rams all those kind of things but not change your hearts he said this is the sacrifice i desire sacrifice of mercy or this is the sacrifice i desire the sacrifice of humility the sacrifice i desire is a sacrifice of obedience like all these things where god is basically saying yes that sacrifice on the surface is what i asked for but what i truly desire is i truly desire the sacrifice of your heart i say that because for two reasons one is because sometimes people will say oh but what really matters is to give the lord your heart right not just the sacrifice that's on the surface but to really give god your heart and i would say yes 100 absolutely but they're connected right it's not like one or the other it's as we give god our best as we give god what's precious to us as we give god a sacrifice as the heart of worship we're also giving him our hearts so our hearts should be connected to our sacrifice so that sacrifice of worship should be connected to a sacrifice of a contrite spirit or of a humble heart or merciful heart or obedient heart so yes it shouldn't just stay on the surface but also it has to be both depth and surface that makes sense the second reason is because people will say oh it doesn't really matter all it matters is your heart you don't really have to give the lord anything of precious value because all the sacrifices are gone no because what we realize right is that gosh yes actually if you look around christian churches worship is gone yes there's praise and worship right where we sing songs um and where we pray to the lord but worship truly as worship which means sacrifice is no longer there in fact the only place you're going to find the sacrifice is in catholic and orthodox churches where they have a what they have an altar it's not a table it's an altar because what do you place on the altar you place the sacrifice the once for all sacrifice of jesus is represented in an unbloody way this is technical words but it means a lot the once for all sacrifice of jesus is represented in an unbloody way in the form of bread and wine that actually become the body blood soul and divinity of jesus and what do we do when i was 16 i recognized jesus is truly present in the eucharist like this is blew my mind and so to be able to receive jesus and holy communion incredible amazing but then i realized wait but the heart like the the what we're really doing is not simply we're not we don't go to mass simply to receive communion we go to mass to lift up the sacrifice we go to mass to live up the sacrifice of the son to the father and the power of the holy spirit so the big moment in the mass is i mean i'll do a lot of big moments right there's a moment where the eucharist actually becomes the eucharist where what was bread is no longer bread it's the body of christ what was wine is no under wine it's the blood of christ but the moment is when the priest says through him with him in him him being jesus through him with him in him in the unity of the holy spirit all glory and honor is yours heavenly father forever and ever that's that right i think i said that right that's the moment right that's when we're offering up the sacrifice of the son to the father and the power of the holy spirit that's the moment that every single one of us should be dialed in and saying what i'm doing now is offering that sacrifice now why do i bring this up a because it's the most important thing we do because the heart of religion is worship the heart of worship is sacrifice but also i've been able to fill in at a lot of churches around the area for the last couple months and one of the things that i realized is people bring kids to mass which is great but here's what happens when people bring kids to mass a lot of times they say i they say father i didn't hear a thing you said in the homily i couldn't pray at all i had no moment of relax relaxation even hardly had a moment of focus i was so distracted by my kids that i tried but i feel like i didn't get anything out of mass and i'd say oh man that is so incredible why because you might not have gotten anything out of mass but you gave something at mass and the whole point right the whole point of mass is not to get something although we get incredible gifts like god's word and god's word explained and they're actually word made flesh given to us in the eucharist but the whole point of mass is to give remember the heart of religion is worship the heart of worship is sacrifice and what did you get to do what did you get to do if you showed up with your kids and your kids were squirmy the whole time if they're crying the whole time you had to get up and walk to the back a thousand times during the course of the mass you got to offer a sacrifice my gosh i think about this because on the altar there is the great sacrifice once for all of the son to the father and the power of the holy spirit but you got to sacrifice your peace and say lord i unite this distraction to your sacrifice you didn't get a you didn't get a single insight from the gospel or from the homily but you get to say lord i missed it all because i'm taking care of this kid this kid my child whom i love i offer that to you as a sacrifice i join this distraction i join this distraction i call my beloved child i join the sacrifice of taking care of this beloved child who's a distraction right now i offer that and join it to your sacrifice on the altar i join it to your sacrifice from the cross and so that's the thing is like even you can show up and the people around you are singing horribly or maybe the the i mean maybe everyone's singing horribly maybe the priest is horrible maybe everything's horrible maybe you're super hot maybe you're super cold whatever this is maybe you're in pain maybe you can't focus all of that all of that can be joined to the sacrifice on the altar so there's actually never a time when you go to mass and it's like i can't i can't get anything out of this or i can't i'm not participating like no no actually you are because especially when you're distressed you can say lord i place whatever this distress is even if it's like really um childish because i have those where i think i'm so annoyed by whatever the thing is and i realize i'm being i was gonna say turd i don't know if i can say turd on this channel being a dummy dum-dum whatever childish lord take this whatever this annoyance that i have i give it to you and i unite it to your sacrifice on the altar use it and that can be a sacrifice the fact that you even showed up to mass for crying out loud and you're doing something other than whatever you would rather be doing that's a sacrifice so there's there's no time when you shouldn't go to mass your kids are too squirmy you didn't get anything out of it i get it like that that'd be so hard but you were able to offer that sacrifice with the sacrifice of jesus the son to the father and the power of the holy spirit you know what that sacrifice does it gives the father glory and it absolutely saves the world so next time you go to mass offer your sacrifice with the sacrifice of jesus and give the father glory and save the world for all of us here at ascension presents my name is father mike god bless [Music]

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 17,452

Rating: 4.9725714 out of 5

Keywords: Fr. Mike, Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Presents, Ascension, Ascension Youtube, Ascension Press, Father Mike Schmitz, Fr. Mike advice, Father Mike advice, fr. mike schmidt, the point of religion, why worship, what is religion, what is the point of religion, does god need us to worship him

Id: Oahb7RE0FNQ

Length: 9min 16sec (556 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021