Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 02/21/21 To The Heart: Untamed and Untamable

Episode Date: February 22, 2021

Homily from the First Sunday of Lent. God is not safe, but He is good. Trust is a challenge for all of us. Trust in God is a battle that every person faces at some point in their lives. Often, we might find is easier to trust God if He were a “tame god”, but He is not. This Lent, our invitation is to not only trust in God’s mercy, but also in His justice. Mass Readings from February 21, 2021: Genesis 9:8-15 Psalms 25:4-91 Peter 3:18-22 Mark 1:12-15 Download the Homily Study

So I was thinking about this, what would make this lent an awesome lent? Like what would make it like not just a very good lent? It would make it a great lent. What would make this, like you know, Matthew Kelly has, the best lent ever? What would make this lent the best lent ever? What would have to accomplish? What would have to be true at the end of this time for it actually to be? I lent that, they'll say it like this, a lent that was unprecedented.

It could be a situation, right, where I removed all the vices, right? So I drilled it down. Here's the things in my life I just need to get rid of, and you did it. That would be awesome. That would be a very good lent. It could be a lent where maybe you needed to increase your prayer, and by the end of 40 days, you had increased your prayer. Well done.

Gold Star. Good length. Maybe it was a thing where you needed to have a more generous heart, so you did the almsgiving thing, and that was awesome. Super good. High five, A for the day. Those would be really great things. All of those things would be really good.

But there's one thing I think that would again. make this Lent unprecedented. And it would transform. I think it would transform. If we did this one thing, it would transform not just the next 40 days. I think it would transform the next 40 years. In order to understand what it is,

I think we have to go back to the first land. It's not really technically the first Lent. But we have 40 days of this wilderness journey and the Israelites. They had 40 years. It was a little longer for them. But remember the story, how the story goes. The Israelites are their slaves in Egypt for 400 years.

And at one point, God sets them free. he fights for them, and they're set free. They're brought to Mount Sinai. And there, God says, okay, here's what's going to happen. You're going to go up from here, and you're going to go into the promised land. You're going to go up from here, and you're going to take the land. And don't worry about it. I'll be with you.

And what happens? They send scouts, and they say, no, we can't take the land. There's too many of them. They're too big, and we can't do it. And imagine God's saying, yeah, you're right. You can't. But I can. I mean, I imagine God at this point saying, you're right, 100%.

You cannot take the land. I can do it. Remember, when you were slaves to the world superpower of Egypt, who fought for you? I fought for you. Who defeated all the gods of Egypt? I defeated all the gods of Egypt. Who? All you had to do was one night, stand there and eat some lamb and some on 11 bread, and I set you free. Who did that? I did that. Like, you don't have to do any of these things. All you have to do is one thing, and this is the key. All you have to do is one thing. And that one thing is all you have to do is trust me. That's it. but they didn't right and so what did god do he brought them into the wilderness for 40 years why so that in the space of 40 years every one of them would know this is true i can trust him

so what did he do he he brought them into 40 into the wilderness and every day he showed them his presence every day he gave them his provision every day he gave them his protection Honestly, his presence was there, right? The pillar of fire by night, pillar of cloud by day. His provision was there feeding them every single day with mana. And his protection was there basically saying, listen, go into the wilderness. I will be with you. I will feed you.

I will lead you. I will guide you. All for one purpose. And that purpose is, at the end of this time, you're going to know this thing that you don't yet believe. And that one thing is you can trust me. You know, I think it's so interesting that right away, the Israelites, they fail. right? Because they made what? They made the golden calf. We all know this story, that they make

this golden calf and they say, here, O Israel, this is the Lord, your God, who set you free from slavery. And you can almost hear the people of Israel being like us saying this, okay, God, we'll trust you if. We'll trust you if we can tame you. We'll trust you if we can tame you. And God demonstrates over the course of those next 40 years that you don't know my heart. Because my heart, the heart of God, is untamed. And the heart of God is untameable. And I believe that's one of the things that the Lord is doing these next 40 days for us. These next 40 days are prayer and fasting and almsgiving.

What's the point of those things? Prayer, I'm going to spend more time with God. That way I get to know his heart. His heart, that's what? His heart that is untamed and untameable. I'm going to spend the next 40 days doing what? Fasting, meaning I'm going to empty myself of the crutches that I keep using every single day, knowing why, knowing that what?

that even if I don't have the crutch, I have him and I can trust in the untamed and untameable heart of God. And I'm going to give alms. Why? So that I have an untamed and untamedable heart just like God. That's the reason for prayer and fasting and almsgiving is to know his untameable heart, to trust in his untameable heart, and to have an untameable heart just like him.

And because of this, that's what we're doing for the next 40 days here. You know, we started this series on Ash Wednesday, and the series is called To the Heart. And the first thing that we're going to be doing right now tonight is if this series is going to get to the heart of Lent, then we have to get to the great wound of our hearts. And the great wound of our hearts, every single one of us,

is that we will only trust God if we can tame Him. And we even go back to the very beginning of the whole story in Genesis. Here's Adam and Eve. God puts them in the garden. They have whole hearts. They trust them, trust him with their whole heart. And what happens in Genesis chapter 3, the serpent comes into the garden?

And the serpent comes up to the woman, and what does he say? say, hey, do you believe in God? It doesn't say, hey, does God really exist? He comes up to the woman, and he basically says, can you trust him? She says, of course. I mean, he's given us all this stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But really, can you trust him? Because you know you don't control him, right? This is essentially what the serpent is saying. You know that you don't control this God, right? She's like, yeah, he's untamed. He's untameable. You can't trust a God who can't. You can't trust a God who

can't be tamed. You can't trust a God who can't be controlled. And in that, here's Adam and here's Eve, and they sin. And then the catechism describes it like this. It says, in doing this, we let our trust in our creator die in our hearts. From that moment on, the catechism says, from that moment on, every subsequent sin that you and I do is a result of disobedience and a lack of trust in his goodness. Because we think, how could God possibly, possibly, possibly, possibly be good if he can't be tamed. So what we need to do these next 40 days is we need to get to the heart. But here's the question, how do we get to the heart?

Because I don't know about you, but sometimes my brain comes up with so many obstacles, so many, so many arguments against actually trusting in the untamed and untamable heart of God that I need something else to get to the heart. And so I think what gets to the heart maybe better than anything else, at least for me, are stories. I think stories have such a good way of getting around all my objections, all my obstacles, all my resistance, and it just gets right to the heart.

And so I was thinking about, one of my favorite storytellers, his name is C.S. Lewis. Some of you know, you all know who C.S. Lewis, who am I kidding? You all know who C.S. Lewis is. And at one point, you know, Lewis, he wrote the books, The Chronicles of Narnia. He wrote them actually for his goddaughter, Lucy. And he started writing these books. And actually, in one of the four words, he says,

Lucy, I started writing these books for you. It turns out, you are growing faster than I can write these stories. And by the time I'm done, you will have outgrown them. He says, but, he says, but I hope that they will come when you have grown enough to be able to enjoy them again. Again, because there's something about these stories that just can get to our hearts. And so what's the story? Here's the little overview, my book report of the line the witch in the wardrobe. Here's these four siblings, two boys, two girls. One of them is Lucy. And they go through the wardrobe. You guys know this already. They go through

the wardrobe and they enter into a land that is just encased with snow and ice and it's perpetual winter perpetual death it's called northern minnesota it's called narnia and it's been enslaved this way it's been kept this way by the white witch now there is the king of narnia there's the king who basically sang it into being in his name aslan at one point one of the brothers his name is edmund he betrays his siblings and he betrays aslan and because of that he does deserves to die. He's actually the white witch says, I have a claim over him because of what he's done. And Aslan, he takes it upon himself. Aslan in Narnia is what he's this great lion. And Eslin, what's he do? He hands himself over to the white witch. And he humbles himself and he

lets her humiliate him. He lets her torture him. He lets her kill him. And in doing so, he He breaks her curse. He breaks the spell on all of Narnia and of course over these children. You know, one of the most powerful lines, for me at least, in that book series is where Aslan's telling the children they have to go back home. They have to go back to their normal lives and one of the kids asks, but will we find you there? Like asking him, Aslan, are you there? And he says, I am. But there, I have another. name and you must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason you were brought to Narnia that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there. And it's that kind of story that gets to the heart and reveals to us who Jesus is. Because it gets around our obstacles,

it gets around our objections, gets around the idea that, like, in order to be able to trust God to have to tame him, and we realized, wait a second, here is God who is untameable. And he, In fact, that's what Mr. Tummus says about Aslan. He says, you know, Aslan, he is wild, you know. He is not a tame lion, but he's one that we have to learn how to trust. And I think a lot of us, maybe we struggle to trust in God's mercy. I imagine a lot of us tonight, we struggle, truly struggle, that trust in God's mercy. You know what God's mercy is.

God's mercy is his love for us when we need it the most and deserve it the least. That's what God's mercy is. God's mercy is his love for us when we need it the most and deserve it the least. God's mercy is his love for us when we need it the most and deserve it the least. And we have to ask the question, do I trust in that? Do I trust when I deserve God's mercy the least? That he wants to give it to me the most. Because that's one of the big steps for all of us to be able to trust that.

But we also need to trust something else. We also need to be able to trust God's justice. Here tonight, this is the challenge, not simply to trust God's mercy. but to also trust his justice. So as you know, the first reading is from the book of Genesis. It's Noah's Ark, the flood. And I imagine a lot of us, if you're like me, you heard the story when you were a kid. So you used to think this was a kid's story.

Of course it's a kid's story. There's a big boat. There's animals. There's rain. There's a rainbow. And then you become an adult and you're like, wait a second. Everyone died? This isn't a kid's story.

What the heck did they, why my parents tell me the story when I was growing up? It's one of those kind of situations where we can look at it. this as adults and say, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, this is God. Like, this is like the God, the same God who said, you can trust me in my mercy, is also saying you have to also trust me in my justice. Because here's the reality is we all have to be willing to trust God, a God who is not tame. We have to all be willing to be able to trust God's mercy, but we have to also be able to trust God's justice because here's the thing, God is revealing in this story, he's revealing that he is not. He is not like the other gods.

He's not like the gods of the Greco-Roman world. He's not the gods of the Babylonian world or the Near East. All of those gods, you probably know the stories. All of those gods, they were powerful, they were immortal, some of them were beautiful, but none of them were good. None of them were just. All of them were erratic. They're all unpredictable.

They're all volatile. They're all fickle. And here is God who's saying, I'm none of those things. I'm one, and I'm good. I am untamable, but I'm just. Just a few chapters after what we heard today in Genesis is the story of Abraham. And the story of Sodom and Gomorrah,

another story where there's these two cities that are destroyed. And so we get to wonder, like, wait a second, everyone's bad there? Now, here's what happens. You probably know the story. Abraham's looking out over the city of Sodom and Gomorah, and God says, I'm going to destroy it because all the wickedness that's there.

And Abraham has the little auction near thing with God where he's like, so I hear 40, 50 people, 50 people, here are 40 people, 30 people. You know, he's trying to have bartered God down. And God essentially says, listen, if there's even one righteous person in that city, I won't destroy it. Why? Because I'm just, I won't destroy a city, even if there's one just person, even if there's one innocent person, I will not do that. Why? Because I am not tame. I am not controllable. But I am good. Question. Do we trust that? that God is not tameable, that he is just.

Because here's the thing, without justice, God ceases to be good. Without justice, mercy is simply nothing more than permissiveness. And maybe that's fine if I'm the one who's guilty, right? Totally that's fine. If I'm the one who's guilty, I don't necessarily need God to be just. What happens if you're the one who's been hurt? What happens if someone you love is the one who's been hurt? then every single one of us we want our judge to be just

because we know that a judge cannot be good unless they're just and I know I know that one of the things happens is we look at the story the Noah story and maybe we think well maybe they needed more time like maybe God could have just given them more time if they had a little more time maybe they could have repented maybe they could have come back to the Lord here's the truth if more time would have helped them God would have given them more time. This is the truth for everyone in our lives. When it comes to coming back to the Lord,

when it comes to giving him our heart once again, if giving more time would have helped, God would always give more time. How do I know this? I know this because of 2nd Peter. Second Peter very clearly says this. People are complaining because it's taking Jesus so long to come back. This is the first century.

What about the 21st century? So they're complaining that Jesus is taking so long to come back. And Peter says, the Lord does not delay in his promise. As some consider delay, but he's patient with you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. The reason why we're still alive,

the reason why this world is still spinning right now and God hasn't returned is because he's giving us time. Why? Because he's just. Because he's good. If more time would help, he'll give us more time. If going further, if doing more would help, God would go more. You realize this, there's no lengths to which God won't go.

That's what First Peter highlights. I mean, even the gospel highlights this. I don't know if you've noticed. Jesus gets baptized at the Jordan River, which is just north of the Dead Sea. If you know anything about topography, you will know that the Dead Sea is the single lowest spot on the face of the Earth.

You can't get any lower than the Dead Sea. It's a lot below sea level. What is Jesus saying when he goes there to begin this ministry? He's saying, I will go as far down as possible, as far down as it takes to get you. And what happens in 1 Peter today, the second reading, is that Jesus, when he died for us,

he actually even went to hell. He went to the abode of the dead, and to do what? To preach to the souls in prison there. Basically, the early church said, to bring them back, to bring anyone who had not had a chance to say yes to him,

to bring them with him. You guys, we have to realize this. In God's untameableness, in his uncontrollableness, God, there is no limit. to the depth that he won't go just to get us. We need his heart

to be untamed and untameable. But even further, we need to trust that heart. I know this, I can say all this. And to the heart that doesn't trust, no explanation is sufficient. But to the heart that does trust, no explanation is necessary.

To the heart that doesn't trust, no explanation, no amount of proof will suffice. but to the heart that does trust, no more explanation is needed. And this is the last thing, because God has revealed his heart to us, even in the story of Noah. What we heard today was Genesis chapter 9. But before all this started, in Genesis chapter 6, it says this, it says, the Lord looked out over the world that he had made, and he saw that there was so much wickedness in the heart of man. And here's what it says.

It says, and it grieved him to the heart. this first step in the series it reveals what? It reveals that God is grieved to the heart. By what? By loving us so much that our choices actually matter to him. Think about this.

This is the God that we come to worship tonight. He loves us so much that his heart can be grieved because our choices actually matter to him. He has made his heart in a certain sense woundable because of how deeply he has taken us to his heart. In the Narnia books, at one point Susan learns that Aslan is a lion,

and she says, oh, I didn't realize he was a lion. I thought he was a man. She asked the question, is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion. And the response is, safe. Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe, but he is good. But he is good. And this is our God. We approach him. This isn't safe. Because he is not safe. He keeps drawing us to the heart and to his heart. And yet that heart is not safe. God's heart is untamed and untameable. But we can trust him because he is not a tame lion. Our God is not tame. But he is good.