Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 01/28/24 Holy Moments: Present Moment

Episode Date: January 27, 2024

Homily from the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Holy Moment is the present moment. When we live lives of distraction we cannot live lives of wonder or joy or holiness. Distraction steals life away because it takes us away from the present moment. And the present moment is the only moment that has the potential to be a holy moment. Mass Readings from January 28, 2024: Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Psalms 95:1-2, 6-91 Corinthians 7:32-35 Mark 1:21-28

Welcome to Sunday homilies with me, Father Mike Schmitz. I hope today's homily inspires and motivates you, and I also hope that it leaves you hungry for the one who gave everything to feed you. If you want to get this in other Sunday Mass resources sent straight to your inbox, sign up at ascensionpress.com slash Sunday, or by texting Sunday to 33777.7. You can also follow or subscribe in your podcast app for weekly notifications. God bless.

The Lord be with you. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark, chapter 1, verse 21 through 28. Then they came to Copernum, and on the Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as their scribes. In the synagogue, there was a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Jesus rebuked him and said,

Quiet, come out of him. The unclean spirit convulsed him And with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits And they obey him.

His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee. The Gospel of the Lord. Wait to have a seat. So I've been thinking a lot recently about I was kind of a really serious, genuinely serious. It sounds like a joke.

It's not. A serious issue of like just this, again, it sounds like a PSA, but it kind of is like of distracted driving. And the reason I'm thinking about distracted driving is because we have, not too long ago, one of our, I guess she graduated a number of years ago,

one of our students. She became a focused missionary. After she graduated here, she was a track, I want to say, track star here. I'll call it a track star here on campus and got married and her young family

was involved in a horrible, horrible car accident that was a result of two people who were distracted driving. They weren't drunk. They weren't high. They weren't overly speeding. They were just distracted. And I just started doing some reading on like just the rate of distracted driving. And almost every year, up to almost 10% of all automobile fatalities are because of simply

distracted driving. Not to mention all the non-fatalities. There are just there are so many accidents that happen just because of distracted driving. I think one of the things we get used to is like, well, that's just normal. You know, you drive by someone on the highway and they're on their phone. It's just like, you're going 75 miles an hour and you're looking at your phone. I mean, I don't know this, but if you're driving 55 miles an hour and you look away for five seconds, you will have not looked at the road for the length of football field.

Like it's just, it's crazy not only because it's obviously so dangerous. You're driving this massive machine, but also it's so illogical. Why? Because if you're driving, you have a destination. There's somewhere you're going. You have somewhere in mind that you want to be. And you also have something to do right now. It's not like, what should I be doing?

Like, you should be driving because you have a destination. But what happens is I just, but I want to be somewhere else. And the reality, of course, if I'm distracted driving, I'm not looking where I'm going. And that's, again, that's when it comes to being in an automobile. But I think a lot of us are probably guilty of what you might call. distracted living. Like even as Christians where we realize, yeah, I have a vision for my life or God has a purpose for my life. He has a goal in my life.

There's a, I'm going somewhere, but I'm not here. Like that even this reality, of course, that because of Jesus, you and I, we could actually live a life of joy. We could actually live a life of purpose. We could live a life of meaning. We could live a life that we'd be proud of. Like, that's actually possible in Jesus Christ. We could live a life where at the end of the end of the life where at the end of the life that

it, we could say, I didn't, I didn't waste it. At the end of our lives, we have the potential because of what God has done for us to be able to look back on our lives and say, I didn't miss it. And we could, but I think, again, too often, we live the way we drive. We're guilty of distracted driving, and I think we're guilty of distracted living. So last week we started the series, the series called Holy Moments. It's based off of Matthew Kelly's book, holy moments, but kind of almost the premise of the series is based off a different book that Matthew Kelly wrote called The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity. And so he claims that the biggest lie in the history of Christianity is that holiness is for someone

else, that holiness is for the special people. Holiness is not for you. Holiness is not for me. And yet this truth that because of what Jesus Christ has done for us, because he's poured His Holy Spirit into our lives, ordinary moments have the capacity to become holy moments. And a person's holy life is simply made up of moments. And so what he's shown us, and we talked about last week, is that holiness is actually incredibly possible.

It's not a matter of doing extraordinary things. It is having ordinary moments. And we realize, in those ordinary moments, three things, right? We realize that God is present, that God is active, and this moment is his. And if we just have a number of holy moments stacked up, that actually leads to a holy life. Again, you don't have to go anywhere else to do this. You don't have to wait to do it in this moment right now as you're praying with us, as you're listening to this. In this moment, God is present.

God is active. And this moment is his. Just remember, holiness is not perfection. Holiness is not, is not, nothing's going wrong. Holiness is simply, remember the technical term, holiness simply means to be set apart. Set apart for a purpose. Consigated, right? Set apart for a purpose.

purpose. And that's what it is to realize that a holy moment is an ordinary moment where God is present, God is active, and this moment is his. And so again, the greatest lie, the biggest lie in history Christianity is that holiness is unattainable. But I would ask the question, what's the second greatest lie? What's the second biggest lie in the history of Christianity? And I think if the first biggest lie is that holiness is unattainable. I think the second biggest lie is that holiness is undesirable. In the sense of this, in a sense of, like, how many of us would say, okay, fine, I could maybe live a holy life if I realize that God is present, that God is active, this moment is his. But is it really worth it? And that sometimes is the question. Even for people who show up to church,

even for people who pray, the question we can sometimes ask is like, why even bother? I'll have to say it not only is holiness attainable, it actually is desirable. Because imagine this. Can you imagine what life would be like if you noticed each moment? Can you imagine what life would be like if you were awake at each moment? Can you imagine what life would be like if you live in such a way as if each moment mattered? Like imagine, imagine being present to each and every ordinary. moment. Imagine what it would be like to not miss out. Because that's what a holy moment is.

Last week we said that holy moments are ordinary moments. And it's true. This week we're going to highlight the fact that the holy moment is the present moment. Because that's what we're talking about. Really, in this series, we realize that holiness is possible. Not only as holiness is possible for you. Not for someone else. Holiness is possible for you. And holiness is possible for you right here and right now. Not in some other time, some other place, not some other life, but holiness is possible for you right here right now. The problem is this. The problem is, yes, God is here, but I'm not. God is present, but I'm not here. I'm not living right now. But I'm supposed to be, right? I'm supposed to be. And so imagine if we were present,

imagine if we weren't distracted, we realized, okay, God is. God is. is present, God is active, and this moment is his. Our response, our response would not be, oh, ho-hum, our response would be to be astonished. In fact, go back to the gospel today. In the gospel, Jesus shows up in the synagogue in Copernum, and he begins speaking, and it says, all those who heard his voice, they were astonished. They were filled with wonder. You imagine this. They were astonished to this teaching. They were filled with wonder. Here's a question. When was the last moment that you were astonished? When was the last moment that you were filled with wonder?

And not just like this, oh, that's neat. That's a good picture. Well, that's a fun thing. Fun fact. Keep scrolling. But when you stopped and marveled at something, when you stopped and marveled at the beauty of something, or stopped and in the midst of joy, in the face of power,

even stopped and were astonished by heartbreak, when was the last time you were filled with wonder at just, life. Because the truth is we're surrounded. I mean, imagine this. You and I have been given eyes to see the wonder around us. We've been given ears to hear it. We've given lives to live this thing. And the problem, I think, one of our problems is that the wonder, the astonishment, is just, it can't get inside. Like, it's around us. It's everywhere. I mean, we realize this, like, well, if I only heard Jesus' voice, then I would be astonished. We heard the gospel today. how many of us were astonished.

We see as works in the world, how many of us are astonished? I mean, it's, I don't know how many times we've seen us sunrise or maybe a sunset for those of you who are not early birds. And someone says, oh my gosh, God's showing off today. But we're just like, oh, yeah, neat. Our problem is I think we can't see and we can't hear, and that astonishment can't get inside. So what that means is the life can't get inside.

and we think is holiness even desirable? It is because holiness means to be able to walk through this world with wonder. To actually be holy means to be able to walk through this world and be astonished. Why are we not continually astonished? And I think the reason why is what we said in the Responsorial Song today, where the response we kept saying was,

if today you hear his voice, or if today you see his works, if today you see his presence, Today you know he's active. Do what? Hard and not your heart. I think our problem is, astonishment can't get into our hearts, wonder can't get into our hearts,

joy can't get into our hearts because we have hard hearts. And here's what I mean. I don't necessarily mean hard hearts because of rebellion or because we're trying to reject God or because we're angry at God. I think oftentimes a hard heart is simply a distracted heart. A heart that, yeah, I get it.

Holy moment is a moment where God is here God is active, this is his. But if I'm distracted, I'm somewhere else. I'm not here. That's why distraction is the enemy of holy moments. Why? Because what's the distraction? Distraction is just, man, distraction is so sneaky.

I would say this. A distraction is anything that takes our attention away from where we should be focused. Or another way to say it, our distraction is anything that takes our attention away from where we should be present, from what we should be doing. That's why a distraction can be anything. So again, let's go back to this.

Let's go back to the reality. I believe that distraction is the enemy of holy moments. And it's also the enemy of wonder. It's also the enemy of joy. It's the enemy of heartbreak. It's the enemy of life. Now, here's a pause. Let's pause on this for a second.

There's two kinds of, we don't call distractions. There's interruptions and there's distractions. And I think that they're very, very similar, but they're not the same thing. So I've heard it said this. I've heard it said that an interruption is something or someone that wants your attention. Makes sense. And the distraction is something or someone that your attention wants.

So a lot of times an interruption comes from the outside and trying to get your attention. But sometimes distraction oftentimes comes from the inside and our attention wants to go over to this place. And I would say this even more. So distraction and interruption are similar but not the same. There are two kinds of interruptions. There are optional interruptions and there's obligatory interruptions. So, like, an optional interruption is, it's like a distraction. It's just trying to get you off course.

It's just trying to get you out of this moment and go take you somewhere else. And there's obligatory interruptions. And those are things that need to be attended to. Like, an obligatory interruption means that your course is being rerouted. So our response to those two things is different. So if it's an optional interruption, it's like a distraction. And we get to exercise something we might even call like the power of no. I don't know if you've heard of a man named James Clear.

James Clear is an author. He wrote a book called Atomic Habits. He also recently wrote this. He wrote, he said, the obvious way to buy back your time, because all of us are like, how do I get more time? I just don't have enough time. He said, the obvious way to buy back your time is to pay someone to do something for you. Right.

So you pay the mechanic to change your oil, so you have more time. Or you pay the dry cleaner to press your clothes because you don't have to waste your time, use your time to do this. He said, the other way to buy back your time is to say no. He says, passing on a promotion might buy you more time with your family. Declining the dinner invite might pay for the time you need to exercise. He said, we buy back our time not only with the money we spend, but also with the opportunities that we decline.

And then he said this line that's so important. He says, the more clearly you know how you want to spend your days, the easier it comes to say no to the requests that steal your hours. And this is the truth, right? we're guilty of distracted driving, we're guilty of distracted living. God has a vision for your life and for my life. And the more clear we are on that vision, the easier it becomes to say no to the optional interruptions

or to the distractions. Now, of course, at the same time, there are obligatory interruptions. We need to attend to these because these are very important because our lives are made up of these. The obligatory interruption is the introduction of a new holy moment. moment. Here's what I mean. This last week, I had a meeting that was like an all-day meeting. And it was it was massive interruption, right? It was one of the situations where like, okay, I had a bunch of things planned that I couldn't get to do. I had a whole other day plan, but I couldn't do it because

I had this meeting that was planned. No, it was meeting that had to happen. And so I could look at this day and just resent it. I could look at this day and just be mad about this whole thing. Or I could look at the day and realize, okay, this is the obligatory interruption. This is where I have to be. And then the next thing is, when I got to the meeting, and maybe you've been this experience, I got to the meeting and now I have another choice. I can be in this meeting wishing I was somewhere else. I can be in this meeting trying to do something else, or I could be in this meeting and be present to this moment. Because that's the crazy thing. When we run up into obligatory interruptions, that means that God has given us a new holy moment. And in that holy moment, we have the same temptation.

And the temptation is, will I be here where God is? Or will I give into distraction? And this is, I mean, how St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, the First Corinthians chapter 7 today. He says, I want you to be free from distractions. And he talks about married men and married women and single men and single women. I was talking to a friend of mine. His name is Zach.

And Zach, when he was a single man, he had a serious prayer life. Very, very serious prayer life. where he holy hours every single day, he would go to Mass every single day, and then he got a wife who's amazing, he loves her very much, she loves him very much, they have a bunch of kids. And Zach was like, oh, I'm still going to be a praying man. I'm a married man, I'm a father, I'm still going to pray. And he was serious about this. So Zach said the alarm clock, and he would get up to pray every single morning at 515, 5.30,

somewhere between 515 and 5.30, depending on whether this news existed. So somewhere between 515 and 5.30, Zach would get up, you'd get out of bed, and he walked down the hallway. What would happen? He said, maybe half the time, he walked down the hallway and at 515, 530, one of his, I think has four kids, one of the kids will be woken up. Because he's, he's walking as quietly as possible past his kid's room, but they hear the creaking of the floorboards and he said, I'm walking so quietly and I just hear, dad? And I, he says, I know, okay, shoot. Like, I had great plans to pray, had great plans to hear God's voice and be astonished by wonder and brought into love by him.

And in that moment, this obligatory interruption showed up. I thought that I was going to spend my day in prayer. Now I'm going to spend my morning with my progeny. Like there's this recognition that, but he also had the recognition that this is an obligatory interruption. The great news about that is not that God's not found there. Remember, holy moments are ordinary moments. The good news is that that moment became the new holy moment.

What he thought would be a moment of prayer, that where God would be there, God would be present and God's voice would be heard, became a moment of cuddling or taking care of his sick child. See, that's this incredible news. Even when our holy moments are no longer the moments we expected them to be, this is the new moment of wonder. This is the new moment of meaning. This is the new moment of love.

This is the new holy moment where God is here, God is active, and this moment is his. Of course, the temptation is the same. God is here. Will I be here? Will I be distracted or will I be present? Because the holy moment is the present moment. And of course, I think it's important for us,

before we conclude today, it's important for us to acknowledge the fact that this distraction is a greater battle than ever. that it's I think it's pretty safe to say that it is easier to live distracted at this moment in history than in any other time in human history. I mean, and this is recent too. I remember when I was growing up, if you were waiting for something, you just waited. If you're waiting for a ride, you just waited. We're waiting for my mom to pick us up after school. We just waited. There was nothing else. You just looked at your shoes or looked at the trees. I remember the day when you're riding the

school bus and you didn't do anything else. You just watched the condensation on the windows drip down. That's all you did. In fact, I won't. I wonder if there is a generation of people and I asked, I asked Will, and I asked Allison if they've ever rebound anything. I think there's a generation of people who never rebound anything. They're coming in that sense of being able to have to wait and just like I'm doing nothing else other than just being here. We live in the most, I would say, distracted age and it's not even your fault.

But this is the battle that we've been thrust into. Why? Because pick up your phone. There's always, I mean, think about back in the day, you might be distracted by a butterfly. That gets boring pretty quickly. Now, there's always a different image. There's a different video. There's a different story.

There's a different show. There's different short. There's a different movie that comes to us. There's always another one. There's always a newer one. The distraction, we give into it, will lead to destruction. And not because it'll wreck our lives, but because it will leave us incapable of building the kind of life that we're made for.

Distraction will lead to destruction, not because it'll ruin everything, but because we'll end up missing everything. And that's the saddest thing. It'll rob us of every holy moment that it can. Just because you and I can't seem to be where our feet are. So this is the last thing. We live these distracted lives. We're meant to live holy lives.

But we realize that God is present, God is active, this moment is his. But we live these distracted lives. And I think the problem is the thing called FOMO. Everyone's heard of what FOMO is. It's fear of missing out. We have fear of missing out. We're just like, okay, what's that? What's there?

What's next? That's the question we always have. We think of all that we might miss. And so we're constantly distracted. And I would say that in many ways, FOMO is the problem. But also in many ways, FOMO is the solution. Because if the fear of missing out constantly is asking, What might I miss?

A deeper sense of the fear of missing out. Highlights all that you and I will miss because I can't be here. Because I can't live now. Again, imagine your life being stolen. Imagine your joy being stolen. Imagine your holy moments being stolen, not by something that's amazing or astonishing or wonderful, but simply by a thousand little distractions.

The holy moment is the present moment. God is here. God is active. This moment is his. So here's my invitation this week. My invitation this week is just like here's the call to action. Here's the moment where I just invite you to take a risk. And the risk is twice this week, two times this week.

I'm going to invite all of us to take at least half an hour, 30 minutes, doesn't matter. 20 minutes, it doesn't matter now. But go outside. Go outside for half an hour with no one else, with no phone, just you. Just you and nature. Just you and the sound of the trees. Just you and the sound of snow or sand wherever you live. Just you and God.

And let your heart be open to astonishment. Let your heart be open to wonder. Let your heart be open to a holy moment because God is there and God is active and that moment is His and you are there and you're with him and you're his and just be present because the holy moment is the present moment.