The hour that will change your life

EDITOR NOTE: In 2015, Father Mike Schmitz presented “The hour that will change your life” on stage at the SEEK2015 Conference – an event led by FOCUS, the Catholic outreach organization. Though ten years old, this talk continues to convert people and remains one of the most relatable on the Catholic teaching of the Eucharist.

What follows, in partnership with FOCUS, is an abridged for print version of “The hour that will change your life.”

We hope it changes yours.

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By Fr. Mike Schmitz & FOCUS

A number of years ago, I was in Israel—the Holy Land – and I was there with four FOCUS missionaries. There was one of our missionaries named Eric Clark – just the coolest guy – but we noticed, while we were having meals, Eric wasn’t sitting with us. He was sitting at another table with what may be the ‘female Baptist equivalent’ of Eric Clark.

All his friends were giving him a hard time like, “we know what you’re doing you’re evanga-dating” – you know this flirt to convert kind of thing. And he’s like “no, no, no. we’re talking about the Lord…she asked me if I had a relationship with Jesus.” And he said, “Yeah, of course, but I want more.” She leaned across the table and was like, more? “Yeah, I don’t just want to have a relationship with Jesus, I want to have intimacy with Christ.”

The reality is this: every single person is made not just for relationship, we’re made for intimacy. We’re made to have connection with each other.

I. How We Express Intimacy

There’s only one way we have intimacy with each other and that’s in and through our bodies. The reality is, the only way you have ever known love, the only way you’ve ever shown love has been in and through your body. That’s the only way.

Let’s be honest. When you like someone you want to touch them. Have you ever been in love with someone and said:

“I love you so much…you stay right there and I’m gonna go home and sit at my kitchen table and just think about you for a while.”

No! And it doesn’t have to be romantic – it can be any kind of love. When I was in college, one of the posters that almost every woman had in their dorm room was this black and white photo of a bare-chested man holding a naked baby against his chest: that’s actually intimacy. It’s what we’re made for. In fact, if we don’t have that, we die.

I don’t know if you knew this but back during WWI and WWII, there’s a lot of kids that were left orphans because of the war. So what people did is they took them in, created these huge orphanages, and they kept these children warm, hydrated, and fed.

But they found that these kids started to die. They started getting sick. They started having this thing called “failure to thrive.” Why? You’re getting everything you need. You’re staying warm, you’re getting water, you’re getting fed, what more do you need?

They found out that if they would take these children and just pick them up, once or twice a day, and hold them…they recovered fully. You realize this because you and I, as human beings, are made for intimacy – we need it.

And I need it! I don’t know about you but at the end of mass, the priest is standing at the door trying to stop you, but people walk by and I’m like “come, shake my hand, come back and shake my hand. Failure to thrive!”

“you and I, as human beings, are made for intimacy – we need it”

II. Levels of Intimacy

When it comes to intimacy, you know I’ll shake anyone’s hand. I’m sure you’re the same way, you’ll shake anyone’s hand.

But there’s fewer people that you’re gonna hug right? You know those people at mass you go up to, “Hi sign of peace”, “I don’t shake hands I hug.” Like I don’t hug – I shake hands back off! Because I’ll shake anyone’s hand, but there’s fewer people that I’m gonna hug. And there’s fewer people that you’re gonna kiss.

You know, I come from a really affectionate family; I kiss my dad hello and goodbye. I kiss my brothers hello/goodbye. If you’re like me, you’ll shake anyone’s hand; there’s less people that you’ll hug; there’s fewer people that you’re gonna kiss.

There’s fewer people that you’re gonna kiss… like that.

There’s a difference between the way you kiss your mom and the way you kiss your girlfriend because these levels of intimacy are different.
So I’ll shake anyone’s hand, fewer people we’re gonna hug, fewer people you’re gonna kiss, fewer people you’re gonna kiss like that.

But as human beings if you love someone what do you want to do? You don’t just want to give them a hug or a handshake or a kiss, you want to give them your whole self. You want to give them everything you are, everything you have; you want to give them your whole body, to be a gift to someone; Not just in thoughts but with your whole self.

And of course, there’s something in us that just wants this, we want it so bad because we realize this: you only know love and you only express love in and through our bodies.

Which is awesome, but also stinks because we come here and we talk about God and we realize while every one of us has a body, the truth about God is that God ain’t-got-no-body.

“…you only know love and you only express love in and through our bodies… but God ain’t got no body“

III. God gives himself

God is love. But the only way we know love is through our body…So what do we do? The incredible thing is we don’t have to do anything. God, who is love, who is immaterial and eternal, takes on a body so that you and I can know what love and intimacy is like.

And you say, “well that’s fine, that’s great, that’s wonderful but that was 2000 years ago and at the end of the story Jesus zips to heaven like Neo at the end of the Martix and he’s gone now so the body is nowhere around here.”

Well, the incredible thing is this – the night before Jesus died what did he do? He was at the table with his disciples and he took some bread, said “take this all of you because this is my body given for you”. Here is Jesus who says ‘I know that I’m gonna take this body and go to heaven but I’m gonna give you my body – why? because that’s how deeply I love you. He says:

‘I want to give them my whole body. I don’t just want to just shake their hand. I don’t just want to share my word. I don’t just want to have a relationship with them. I want to have intimacy with them.’
He gives that intimacy to us through the Eucharist.

“God, who is love, who is immaterial and eternal, takes on a body so that you and I can know what love and intimacy is like.”

IV. The Eucharist as the Giving of Self

I don’t know if you’ve heard of Christopher West – He goes around the world and talks about The Theology of the Body. I remember him telling me this once: The day after his wife’s mom and dad got married they went to Mass. They go through the normal Mass, receive communion, everyone else leaves, and this man is still kneeling there, face in his hands, just sobbing, tears coming through his fingers, and he looks at his bride and says “I’ve been going to Mass every Sunday my entire life and I never got it.” She said, “What do you mean?”

“I never understood. I never realized that up there on the altar Jesus said ‘this is my body for you’… that’s what I said to you last night. And if my love is even a fraction – a fraction of Christ’s love – I missed it my entire life.”

“Jesus steps off the altar and gives himself to me in the Eucharist. I thought Mass was boring. Last night wasn’t boring and last night was simply a foreshadowing of this moment when God himself gave his entire self to me.”

Can you imagine? Can you imagine the reality that God wants…you’re his the one.

V. The biblical roots of the Eucharist

It’s crazy that some people think “well that’s not real, it’s more like a symbol of Jesus’ body.” I don’t know if you ever heard that.

Well, let’s do a little Bible study quick. In the gospel of John, Chapter 6, there’s kind of a big thing that happens: Jesus feeds 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. That night, he walks across the water so it’s kinda a big day for Jesus. But, it says the next day, the crowds that he fed came looking for him. They come to find Jesus and he says I have food that if you eat it you’ll never be hungry again. And they say ‘that sounds like a great idea.’ And then he says “I’m the bread that came down from heaven.”

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So the crowds, in verse 41, murmured about him because he said I’m the bread that came down from heaven. Imagine the murmuring, it’s like “murmur-murmur-murmur… what is he talking about? The bread that came down from heaven.” Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” Here’s the kicker: He says, ‘The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.’

there’s brawls breaking out: “what the heck is going on, who’s this guy?!”

Now remember in verse 41 the Jews murmured. In verse 52 it says the Jews now quarrelled among themselves. So there’s brawls breaking out: “what the heck is going on, who’s this guy?!” The Jews quarrelled among themselves saying, “how can this man give us his flesh to eat?!” Question… does it sound like they think Jesus is speaking symbolically or literally?

Literally, right? Jesus speaks symbolically in other parts of John’s gospel. He says things like, “I am the gate.” He says things like “I’m the vine, you’re the branches.” He says “I’m the good shepherd,” but you don’t have people saying: “Jesus…you’re not a gate.” “Dude you look nothing like a tree, try again.” Or, “you’re not a shepherd, you’re a carpenter. Busted!”

“you’re not a shepherd, you’re a carpenter. Busted!”

But in this moment they’re taking him literally – they say “whoa whoa whoa…how can this man give us flesh to eat?”

Now if Jesus was only speaking symbolically, this is the perfect moment for him to say, “that’s disgusting, don’t go there.” But instead of clarifying he emphasizes and ramps it up not once, not twice, but FIVE times.

Jesus says:

1) “unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you do not have life within you.”

2) “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”

3) for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

4) whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. And,

5) just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.

So when they think Jesus is speaking literally, he doesn’t clarify, he ratifies absolutely that’s what I mean… times FIVE.

What happens next? Many of his disciples – people who left their family, their friends, their homes, their jobs, their everything to follow Jesus – were listening and said, “this saying is hard…who can accept it?” Question again… is a symbolic statement hard to accept?

No! The literal statement is absolutely hard to accept. Jesus’ response
is so amazing, since Jesus knew his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “does this shock you?” Yes, Jesus, as a matter of fact, I’m quite startled and alarmed by the fact that you just said I need to eat your flesh and drink your blood to remain in you and live forever.

In verse 66 it says, “as a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”

Do you realize this is the only time in the entire Bible where someone leaves Jesus over one of his teachings? And the teaching was on the Eucharist. The only time in the entire Bible.

this is the only time in the entire Bible where someone leaves Jesus over one of his teachings… the teaching was on the Eucharist.

Here’s where it gets really personal. Imagine the scene: there’s literally thousands of people walking away from Jesus (that’s the crowds), there’s probably hundreds of people who were living with Jesus now walking away
(that’s the disciples). Jesus then turns to the twelve and he doesn’t say ‘hey guys guys guys, come back I’ll change it. Guys I’m gonna soften it.’ He doesn’t go after them. He looks at them, I love this, and he says “do you also want to leave?”

Jesus is willing to risk the entire program of salvation on one thing: The Eucharist. That’s what Jesus says to us.

“Jesus is willing to risk the entire program of salvation on one thing: The Eucharist.”

VI. Why be Catholic?

“Yeah, but the church down the street, I mean their preachers know how to PREACH, my priest is boring.” I know he is. But if you don’t want the Eucharist, you don’t want Jesus.

The truth of the matter is this: “If I don’t want the Eucharist, then I don’t want Jesus.”

It’s not to say that anyone who is not Catholic doesn’t want Jesus, that’s not the case. But I gotta tell you this: I have not met one person who loved Christ as a Christian but not as a Catholic who, when they heard this, didn’t end up becoming Catholic.

My best friend in the entire world and his wife wanted to devote their entire lives to be Pentecostal missionaries around the world. They came back to Duluth, Minnesota, because she was going to get her prereqs for medical school, he was gonna get his pilot’s license. On a Tuesday night, she said “why don’t we go to the Catholic service.” I remember after Mass he’s like, “hey, can we meet? We have some questions.”

For the next six, eight, nine months, at least once a week, we went down to Perkins. We got to this teaching on the Eucharist and you should have seen the looks on their faces: “is that in our Bibles too?” Yeah, it’s in all of them!

Her dad is a minister, his mom teaches Bible in a church in their hometown, her uncle is a pastor, and her grandfather is a pastor. And all of sudden they’re like, “do we have to become Catholic for real?” But they realized, I love Jesus so much… if the Eucharist is really him, I need him. Because we’re made for intimacy.

“if the Eucharist is really him, I need him. Because we’re made for intimacy.”

VII. Why is God hidden?

To Jesus, to God, you’re his the one and he wants to give you his entire self, his entire body, his entire everything. But that doesn’t look like God. My senses of sight and taste – they don’t seem to say that this is Jesus. I remember praying about this, “Jesus how come I don’t see you, how come you’re so hidden?” If you were to see Jesus 2000 years ago walking along the street, would he look like God? No! He would just look like some dude… but was he just some dude? No!

He was fully human but fully God – he was God hidden.

He knows that if he didn’t hide his beauty, if he didn’t hide his glory, if he didn’t kinda hide his love, we would. Because if Jesus didn’t hide himself in the Eucharist, I’d be the one hiding.

If you walked into a Catholic church and you saw the radioactive love of God coming out of that tabernacle, I wouldn’t go anywhere near it because I would say “I can’t get close to you!”

But Jesus made you not to just get close to Him but to have intimacy with him. He made you not to just have a relationship with him but to let him give you his whole body, his whole self. To him, you’re his the one.

So he hides himself so you don’t have to hide.

“if Jesus didn’t hide himself in the Eucharist, I’d be the one hiding… Jesus made you not to just get close to Him but to have intimacy with him.”

VIII. The College Student & the Martyr

I was still struggling with this when I was in college.

Everyone would gather around the altar and for the Eucharist they had this bread that was like bread-bread. When people would distribute the Eucharist they would rip off pieces of the bread. The unfortunate thing is that after Mass, all around the altar on the ground were all these crumbs. I remember in my years of college there was one guy,, who’d be up around the altar after everyone would leave for Mass, on his hands and knees eating the crumbs of the Eucharist off the floor.

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I finally asked him, “dude, why do you do that?” And he told me this story:

When the communists came into power in China, they wanted to suppress religion, especially Christianity, and at one point they came into this village and took the priest, locked him in the house next to the church, and just destroyed the place. They turned over pews, they ripped the Bible, and at one point these soldiers took the tabernacle, threw it out the window, and the Eucharist just scattered on the ground. All the priest could do was just stand there and keep watch with Jesus because he couldn’t do anything else.

As night fell, he saw this shadow getting closer and closer, darting from shadow to shadow. As it got closer, he recognized this 12-year-old girl from his parish. She had seen what the soldiers had done, so she waited till night fell. She was taught not to touch the Eucharist with her hands so she bent her face to the ground and picked up the Eucharist with her tongue. She stood up, made the sign of the cross – and she was taught you only receive communion once so she got up and snuck away into the night.

The priest knew exactly how many consecrated hosts were there and night after night this girl kept coming back. She’d sneak in, kneel down, and receive the Eucharist off the ground, make the sign of the cross, get up, and run away into the night.

On the last night, he knew that after this she’d be safe. He was praying as she came closer and knelt down – she received Jesus off the ground with her tongue, and made the sign of the cross; but as she got up, she knocked something over, made a noise, and these two soldiers saw what she was doing and beat this 12-year-old girl to death with their rifles.

This man looked at me and said “why do I do this? That’s why. One crumb from the body of Jesus is enough to save the world. So why do I eat the crumbs of Jesus off the ground? Because I cannot do otherwise. Because he gives his whole self to me, I can not but give my whole self to him.”

“Because he gives his whole self to me, I can not but give my whole self to him.”

IX. You are worthy

We get to spend time in Adoration where we’re gonna get to be in front of Jesus. And I know a lot of us will feel not worthy to be here.

A lot of us will say to God, “I can’t, I don’t deserve to be here. I can’t receive your body. I can’t even worship your body.” But he’s not asking you that.

He’s not asking you if you’re worthy. He’s just asking one question: are you willing to let him love you? I’m scared by his love; that’s why he hides.

I go to confession a lot of times and I think “God, I’m here, give me another chance, I promise I’ll be better. I won’t do it again.” But you realize you have it the exact opposite.

When we go to confession, it’s Jesus saying to you “hey, please give me another chance. Give me a chance to love you.”

Jesus is begging you, “please give me the chance to give you my mercy.” You don’t have to convince Jesus to give you his mercy, all you have to do is give him the chance to forgive you. You don’t have to convince Jesus to love you. He already made that decision long ago.

The only question is not will Jesus love you; the question is will you let him love you or will you hide? Because you’re made for intimacy with Jesus.

He gives you his body and he gives you his blood because you are his the one and he hides, brothers and sisters, he hides so you do not, you do not, have to hide. ■

To watch the talk from SEEK15, click below!

If you are interested in the Catholic faith after reading this story, read more about becoming Catholic – we are praying for you!

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