Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 01/31/21 Hindsight 20/20: Worthless Knowledge

Episode Date: February 2, 2021

Homily from the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. I learned, but I didn’t grow. Knowledge is powerful. Having lived through this past year, and looking back on what we have been through is essential. We can have learned a great number of things over 2020. But unless we are willing to act on that knowledge, hindsight will be powerless. Mass Readings from January 31, 2021: Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Psalms 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-91 Corinthians 7:32-35 Mark 1:21-28 Download the Homily Study

So that question at the beginning of mass, the question of what is one thing that you would like to know about your future? I think, I don't know what your answer is where, but I think, you know, it could be anything, obviously, right? It could be those questions of, I don't know, am I going to get married? What is my vocation going to be? If I get married, how many, will I have kids? How many of those kids? It could be a question about, like, I just want to know my occupation. I just want to know, like, what I'm, am I going to make money?

Will I get a job? Or maybe it's like even your health. Like just sometimes we are overly concerned. or just naturally concerned with our health? Maybe the thing you wanted to know about your life is, like, when is it going to end? Like, I want to know when I'm going to die because you're really morbid and whatnot. There can be any number of things. So the question is, is this, whatever it was at the beginning of mass that you said,

this is the one thing I would like to know about myself in my future. The question I have is, why that? Like, why that thing? I think a lot of us who would say, well, I don't know. I just, I want to know. And I think, that's great. That doesn't answer my question. Why do you want to know that thing?

Because whenever we're talking about the future and like really, really wanting to know the future, I think sometimes it's because, like, if I know it, then I can rest. Like if I know the answer to this question, then I can relax. I don't really want the information to be able to do something with it. I want the information so that I can just now be okay. And that's a big question. I just wonder a lot of our lives. When it comes to like what the, knowing the next step, do I want to know the next step

so I can rest? Or do I want to know the next step so I can actually take the next step? Like, why do we want to know? Why do so many of us want to know the future? I think it's one of the reasons why we like the idea of a profit. Because I think a lot of times we associate the idea of a profit with the person who predicts the future, right? That's kind of like sometimes that we have in our minds is that I love, I would love being

with a prophet because they're going to tell me what I want to know about the future. And that's not actually accurate. Prophets sometimes would tell the future occasionally. But most often, prophets wouldn't tell you what you wanted to know about the future. Most often, they would tell you what you need to do right now. Again, it's clarified. Prophets did not often tell you what you wanted to know about the future. They most often told you what you needed to do in the present.

And most often, prophets were people who had hindsight. You know, we're in the third part of this five-part series before Lent, hindsight 2020, where we're looking back and saying, like, okay, what if I knew then, like we're looking at the year 2020? What if I knew then? The last weekend in January, 2020, what if I knew then what I know now? Prophets, one of the reasons why they're powerful prophets, is because they had incredible hindsight.

They know God's word. They knew the word of God. They knew God's promises. They knew that he promised blessings. They knew he promised curses, and they could look at the world around them and say, here's what you're living. Here's how you're not actually living up to the promises. Here's how you're actually on a trajectory for destruction. And prophets most often called people to act on what they knew already. This is so important for us. Prophets most often called people to act on what they already knew.

I think here's the thing is that I'm not sure that knowing the future would do too many of us a lot of good. I'm not sure that knowing the future would do a lot of good to a lot of us. because the truth is we all know the past, and that doesn't always do us a lot of good. Like it doesn't necessarily know what the next step is because I don't even look at my past in order to know how to move forward. The truth is just because I've lived through something,

just because I've experienced something, doesn't automatically make me better, doesn't automatically make me wiser. I used to think it did. I used to think that every old person, like by the time they become old, they just become amazing. Like every old person is like the most, the sweetest person. They are gentle, they're patient, they're kind, they're funny.

They know one to laugh. They know one to cry. They're honest with each other. Like that's because I had great grandparents. I had amazing grandparents who I heard the stories of when they were parents. And my mom and dad would say, oh my gosh, your grandfather had the shortest temper ever. And I'm like, what? I mean, Grandpa Teddy Bear?

Who's like never mad at anybody, let's everything roll off his back? And my brother one said that about my dad. He said about my dad. He was like, you know, people think that the dad's getting nicer. he's just an old man who wants to be right with God by the time he dies. Like he wants to change his behavior. Because again, I was accustomed to people who are like, yeah, they live through the Great Depression so they know the value of everything.

They lived through World War II or they served in Korea. And so they know just the preciousness of life and they're just calm and gentle and wise. And then I met actual old people. No offense to old people. But just getting old does not make you automatically wiser. some of the most bitter people I know have been old people who haven't resolved their issues some of the most resentful people I know

have been old people who haven't resolved their pains some of the most greedy and envious and foolish people I know have been wise people or have been old people who have lived through so much and it didn't do them any good no also on the other hand I have them as the wisest people in general most generous people and most gentle people I know have been old people because why

because we realize this, knowledge is not enough. It's not enough just to know something. I have to be willing to do something with what I know. But I think so many of us were just, sometimes it's just easier to live in the dark. Like I know this, but sometimes just easier to live in the dark. So I was talking with Lauren, she's our team director for focused missionaries, and she noted that someone asked this question, it was online.

They said, what's one thing in your life that if you did it, everything would be easier? It was one thing that in your life, if you did it, other things would be so much easier, but you're not doing it, and you know you're not doing it. And she talked about how in the bathroom that she shares with her roommates, there were two burnt-out light bulbs. And they were going to the bathroom in the dark. And not that they didn't have light bulbs, they had them in a drawer in another room. And it was just one of those things they just tolerated.

And I knew what to do. She said, I knew what to do, but just sometimes it's easier to live in the dark. And so when this question came up, she was like, I know what I need to do. Replace the light bulbs. and it's so easy. Because we can look back over the last year. We can look back with hindsight, say, I know so much,

but it didn't change me. We could say, I learned, but I didn't grow. Imagine the pain of saying that, I learned, but I didn't grow. We know all this is coming out, for me, at least, out of the gospel today. Because in the gospel, this is the beginning of Jesus' ministry, right? So last weekend we heard how Jesus is on the shores

the Sea of Galilee, and he's assembling the apostles, and he's gathering them to himself. And today is the first day that Jesus is like on the scene, and he's starting to do some incredible things. And he walks into this synagogue, and what happens? This demon calls out, what have you you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? And then he says this massively important line where he says, I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Now, stop on this for a second. Sometimes we've kept, we've stayed away from because we're like, I don't know if Jesus is really who he says he is. I don't know. Is Jesus really God? That can be sometimes our hang up when it comes to faith. But here's this demon who's like,

no, no, no, that's not a question for me. I know exactly who Jesus is. I know that he is the son of God. I know he's the incarnate word. I know who you are, the Holy One of God. And that knowledge did nothing. That knowledge didn't change him. So it's true for us. Knowledge needs to be transformed into action or it is worthless knowledge. Imagine everything you and I have been through over the last year. Imagine all this suffering, all the pain, all the loss, all the things that were taken away from you over the course of this last year, going completely to waste.

Because we went through it and it didn't change us. Because we learned, but we didn't grow. Imagine how much you would lose, how much we would lose, but not only how much we would lose, imagine learning but not growing, how much that would cost the people around. because the people around us, they're counting on us to be changed, to be transformed, to learn and grow. So, example, I'm going to show you my nerd in a second. So I was rereading

the Lord of the Rings. So again, here's, okay, nerdville. But you might be familiar with the movie or with the stories. They're incredible. Little backstory. There's this place called the Shire, right? That's what the hobbits come from. The thing about the hobbits, hobbits aren't human beings, but they're like a people of their race. Anyways, they're not humans, but they're not humans, but but they're hobbits, whatever. And they live in this place called the Shire. The Shire is basically like Eden in Middle Earth. Because the hobbits, all they have to do in the Shire,

they just, they eat and they drink and they smoke, leaf, and they sleep and they celebrate. That's all they do. They don't have to worry about anything. Like, evil has not really infiltrated the Shire. And at one point, here comes Gandalf. And he says, OK, Frodo, I've got a job for you. And then Sam goes with him, and then Mary goes with him.

And then Pittman goes with him. So these four hobbits, they leave Eden. they leave this place almost untouched by evil, and they go to the heart of evil on this mission to destroy the ring and take down this big bad guy named Sauron. And so in that, what do they do? They encounter battles, and they experience incredible suffering, and they experience loss and betrayal. They come face to face with their own personal weakness and with the evil that's within themselves,

but they also can face to face with goodness. And they also fight side by side with people of great, incredible nobility, and they see what self-sacrifice really looks like. And it changes them. They go through this and it actually does something to them. So what happens is, spoiler, they win. They destroy the ring and they defeat the big bad guy, Sauron. And I remember looking at the reading the book the first time and realizing there's like half the book to go. I mean, it's all these end notes and everything. It's like, no, it's over. Like give me another page of like, and then they lived happily ever after. But there's this, all this story that Tolkien tells after the bad guy is defeated. And

In the second to last chapter is a chapter called the scouring of the shire. When these four hobbits who have been off and they've been changed, they come back to the place that was like Eden, and they realize that the place that was like Eden is like Eden no more. That it has been infiltrated by sin. That evil has actually changed their home. What they see is they see hobbits who are manipulating each other and using each other. They see men, human beings, who have come in and are dominating the hobbits,

and they see this other bad guy, Sauraman, the wizard who is ruling over all of them. But because they've been changed, they can do something. It's incredible. Like, these little hobbits come out, and they're like the sheriffs in town, they're the big bullies, and they say, you're under arrest, you four hobbits. And they just laugh. The four just laughing at them, and they start singing, we're arrested. We'll follow you on our horses.

You get to walk ahead of us. Well, they just laughed and sang songs. Because when you've encountered real evil and it's changed you, and you know that you're more powerful than it, you can laugh in the face of like the little bully. Then these men come up and they're going to really actually be violent to them. But these are hobbits who have been transformed and they know what they know when to fight. So they draw their swords and the men run away.

And then when they encounter Saraman and he is defeated and they're going to kill him. And Frodo says, no, no, I also know when to show mercy. This is incredible because they know and they were changed by what they knew. They lived through this whole thing and it actually. transformed them. They had seen evil so they could identify it. They faced evil so they wouldn't ignore it and they had fought evil so they knew what to do. And that's the key thing, to know what to do, to look back over the last year and say, okay, now I know what to do. Because we have to do something with what we know or it's worthless. Hindsight is going to be

powerless without the will to act. And knowledge is going to be worthless without the will to act. So let's go back to the gospel. And here's the demon who says, I know who you are. So in some ways you could say the demon has faith. In some ways you can say the demon has faith. Remember what Jesus said about faith? If he said, if you have faith, that's even tiny, the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, be transplanted and put into the sea. But truth is, if faith is going to move mountains, then it first has to move me. It's one of the reasons why in the early church, St. James wrote this letter. He said, in James chapter two, he said, He says, you have faith.

You might say this. You say, you might say, you have faith and I have works. But he says, demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I'll demonstrate my faith to you from my works. Basically, I need to put it into practice where it's going to be worthless. He goes on, he says, you believe that God is won. You do well, which I always think. James is like, you believe God is one.

Nice. You want a cookie? You want a little prize for believing God is one? No, you believe God is one. You know who Jesus is. You do well. That's great. But he goes on, he says, even the demons believe that and they tremble.

So we realize if I have the level of like, I know this, I know this about Jesus, I know that he truly is God. Okay, I've just risen to the level of demon because they also know that he's God. We have to take it a step further. We have to actually do this next part, which is the hardest part, which is do something with what we know, which is surrender. That if Jesus is really God, then that means my whole life belongs to him.

That's why it's so powerful in the gospel again. It says that twice it says Jesus taught with authority. Jesus taught with authority, it says, which means he's writing the story. So Dr. Peter Crave, Freser Vostovie, Boston College, he pointed this out years ago to me in one of his books. He said that authority comes from the term author's rights. That if someone has authority, they have the right of the author.

So Jesus teaches authority. not like the scribes, not like their teachers. Why? Because the scribes was teachers, they were interpreters of the author's words. But when they meet Jesus, he is the author. Like, he is the word. Which means if he's the author, if he is the word, then he gets to write my story. Like this is what it is to take that knowledge, what I know about Jesus, and then actually do something with it is I actually get to surrender it.

I get to say, okay, God, you get to write my story. That's what surrender is. It's not like a give up. It's, I give him permission. If you're the author, I give you permission to write my story. That's what it is to say, I learned and I grew. This is the last thing. To be able to say over the course of this last year,

or even not just the last year, over the course of my life, everything from my past, I know that he is the author, that whole story. So I don't need to know the future because I know the past. I see it clearly enough with hindsight to know what to do in the present. Like this is the key, this is the secret of hindsight. It's not just knowing, but it's letting what I know actually change me. You and I, we don't need profits to tell us what we like to know about the future

because we already know enough to surrender. to trust the author and act on what we know. So last year, to have last year look at it with hindsight that doesn't go to waste is to say, ultimately, I learned, and I grew. I now know, and it changed me.