OK (laughs) Are you ready for someth-? (laughs)
Sorry, I entertain myself. Ready for something (laughs) that will blow your mind?
(laughs) Sorry, OK. Are you ready for something that'll ... Are you
ready for something that will blow your mind? Like actually, I ... Are you ready for something that will blow your mind?
Check this out. Hi my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents. A little while ago, a friend of mine who's dating a girl who's not Catholic brought her to Mass and they went to the cathedral here in Duluth and she walked in and she was ... she's Christian and she studies Scripture and she like, she is an active practicing Christian and so she went to her first Mass and she walked in with her, her Starbucks, walked in with her coffee and he's like, "No, you can't bring coffee into Mass!" And she's like, "Why not?" Because in her church service, they
have a coffee shop in the church, right? It's an interesting thing- have you ever wondered that? Have you ever wondered why as Catholics, we don't have a coffee shop in the church and we don't serve coffee before Mass. There's two reasons:
one is because we have the Eucharistic fast and so we don't eat an hour before
we receive Holy Communion, that's one reason. The other reason is because this:
Too many of us, we show up to Mass every Sunday and we watch. Too many Catholics show up to Mass and watch Mass. What we're called to do is, we're called
to worship at the Mass. Now here's ... this is why we can't have coffee. When you were baptized, you were anointed.
The priest or bishop or deacon whoever it was who anointed your head, put chrism oil, Christos, right, anointing oil on your fore- on your head and said, "I anoint you as priest, prophet, and king." As a priest, to be able to offer up sacrifices, in your daily life, but also at Mass. A little theology of the priesthood: Jesus Christ is the one priest. He is the great priest, he's the high priest. There is only one priest, that is Jesus.
Jesus is the high priest. The next thing is there's the ministerial priesthood.
That's what I ... what I'm part of. That means Jesus extends, or he shares his
ministerial priesthood with certain men in a certain way.
He commissions me giving me the Holy Spirit to the imposition of hands by the
bishop so he gave it to the apostles. Apostles gave it to the bishops, bishops
gave it down, all the way down two thousand years later, here I am.
I have received a ministerial priesthood to be able to, with Jesus, offer up the sacrifice of Jesus to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit but if you've been baptized,
you've also been consecrated as kingdom priests. What does Peter say? You're a nation of priests. You've been consecrated a nation priests or kingdom priests, which means you—like ministerial priests— share in the one priesthood of Jesus Christ. But here's what Catholics often do. We waste our priesthood. We look at the ministerial priest- me- or your priest in your hometown and we say, "Yeah, he's the one who's praying,"
so we show up to Mass and we watch him behind the altar and we say,
"Yeah, he's praying the prayers. Oh, he looks like he knows the prayers or he's reading the prayers off the book," but we just watch him pray and we think that's
going to Mass. We think that's worship. We think showing up to Mass and watching
the priests pray is worshiping. So, yes, why shouldn't we have coffee if that's
all we're there to do, is to watch the priest pray? But the Second Vatican Council invited, commanded, let all Catholics know that we're there to have, what they call, full and active participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. What some people have taken that to mean is like,
"Well, then, yeah, I read at Mass. That's my full and active participation."
Wrong. "Yeah, I'm an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion. That's my full and active participation." Wrong. Full and active participation is when you embrace your kingdom priesthood and, with the ministerial priests, united with the great and one high priest, Jesus Christ, we offer up the sacrifice of the Son to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. My invitation for all of us is to never again show up to Mass and simply watch, but to show up to Mass every time from now on in worship. Now, keep this in mind, that doesn't mean that you pray the words along with the priest, right, when he says, "This is my body. This is my blood," doesn't mean you also pray that, because why? Because he is a ministerial priest; it's kind of a unique sharing in Christ's priesthood, that he is the one that we need in order to have the Eucharist. What do we believe about Christ's priesthood? In Christ's priesthood, he is the priest, he's the altar, and he is the sacrifice. And if you and I are going to share in Christ's priesthood,
that also means we share in his being a sacrifice. So as the sacrifice, Christ himself is offered to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit, the priest himself is supposed to be
offering up himself with Jesus to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. But my brothers and sisters, my kingdom priests, that means you, as you are worshiping with the ministerial priest united with the great high priest, Jesus, you're also offering up yourselves as the sacrifice. We even say that in the prayers, don't we?
We say, "Let us be an offering to you." Let us be an oblation to you, with you. You know, the very great, the great moment, it's called the Great Amen. It's called the great amen but in most churches it's called the lame amen. I mean, because it's like, we the priests, the ministerial priest, offers up the sacrifice and he says, "Through him and with him and in him in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours for ever and ever." like this is, we're offering up the sacrifice and that moment of Jesus Christ suffering, crucified, died, and risen to the glory of the Father. In that moment, we're offering
up the greatest thing any of us could ever offer and we're including ourselves in that offering. Your response with ministerial priests is, "Amen," again, the Great Amen. To many of us it's um (weak singing) Amen.
It's lame amen. That's the moment *sighs* your hearts, minds, everything should be united with the ministerial priest, united to the great high priest, Jesus, to worship God as he desires to be worshipped in the Eucharist, in spirit and in truth. Please, brothers and sisters, the next time you go to Mass do not watch but worship and resolve to never again waste your priesthood. From all us here at Ascension Presents,
my name's Father Mike. God bless. (click)
(laughs)
