Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 02/22/26 Autobiography: Co-Author

Episode Date: February 21, 2026

Homily from the First Sunday of Lent. Every story has a beginning. As we begin Lent, we are faced with the question: If I live the next 25 years of my life the way I've lived the past seven days, where will I end up? Who will I become? We are writing our life story with every choice that we make. Are we writing in rebellion? Or with God as the Co-Author? Mass Readings from February 22, 2026: Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7 Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11

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. You can also follow or subscribe on your podcast app for weekly notifications. God bless. The Lord be with you.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Chapter 4, verses 1 through 11. At that time, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached him and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. He said in reply, it is written, one does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

Then the devil took him to the holy city and made him stand on the parapet of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, he will command his angels concerning you. And with their hands they will support you lest you dash your foot against a stone.

Jesus answered him, again it is written. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their magnificence, and he said to him, all these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.

At this, Jesus said to him, get away Satan. It is written, the Lord your God shall you worship, and him alone shall you serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him. The gospel of the Lord. Wait you to have a seat.

So this Lent, this Lent we're going to be talking about stories. Obviously we have the stories up today. We have the story of Genesis. We have the story of Jesus and the wilderness. There's a story that we're going to come back to all throughout the course of Lent. It's maybe a story you know of. It's in Luke chapter 15. It's a story Jesus told, in fact, it's the parable of the prodigal son. So if you know that that parable, it's actually in your bulletin. We printed it out. We're going to print it out every single week because this is going to be the story that kind of we follow throughout the whole course of Lent. But speaking of stories,

you know that question at the beginning. Here's a show of hands moment. I just encourage you. If you don't like showing your hands, it's fine. But do it anyways. So how many of you said when I asked the question if you ever wanted to write a book? How many would say like, yeah, that was me?

Okay, oh, that's awesome. Yeah, this is more accurate. This morning, I'm like, I don't know if they were playing or what they were doing. Do you know that there's 80%, over 80% of people who are asked if you ever wanted to write a book, say yes. over 80% of the population

has, when they've been asked the question, have you ever wanted to write a book? Over 80% have said, absolutely, I would love to, someday I would love to write a book. Interestingly, less than 1% of the population actually ends up doing it.

I think it's fascinating. That sense that so many of us, there's a story. And I don't know what you answered, what kind of book it would be, would it be something like you're, some kind of nonfiction thing you're passionate about,

or some person you want to write a biography, or maybe like you're more thriller, like write it, whodunit kind of situation. Interestingly, while over 80% of people want to write a book and while less than 1% finish it, less than 15% ever even start. Which I think is really just fascinating. So many people want to do this thing,

but so few people even try. So few people even start. So one of the kinds of books people could write, is, as I've mentioned, about a biography. And I'm thinking about this. Imagine, if someone was writing your biography, right? If someone was writing the story of your life, would they include, just a question,

would they include anything about this time in your life? Like at some point at the end of your life, when someone's writing your biography, would they include anything? I mean, it's not because this is when you became popular, or famous, or significant, but if someone looked at this season of your life, or my life, would they look at you and say, oh, she's started?

Or look at your life and say, he's begun. Because I think here's Lent. I think Lent's one of these times where we have to stop and ask the question. Lent is one of those times to reassess and ask the question, okay, so if I live the next 10 years, or if I live the next 40 years, the way I've lived the last seven days, who will I be at the end of the story? Again, if I live the next 30 years, the way that you're going to be the last 30 years, the way we've lived, I live the last week of my life, who will I become?

Again, who will I be at the end of the story? Because the reality is someone, every life is a story. Every person is an author. And the question is this, what are you becoming? What story are you writing? Because obviously, very few of us, maybe none of us will have anyone write our biography. Probably unlikely. But every one of us is writing our autobiography.

right now. Every one of us, at this very moment, we are writing our autobiography. Because why? Because every life is a story, every person is an author. The question is, who will you become?

Who will you be at the end of the story? So what we're going to do, all the course of throughout Lent, is that's the series. The series title is autobiography. The reality is every life is a story. Every person is the author of their, you're the author of your story.

The question, again, we get to come back to this place, is, have you seen, started writing. Again, you're the author of your autobiography. We also, we recognize God is the co-author. You get some credit, but have you started writing? Another way to ask it is, this is your autobiography. Has the story, is is the story yours yet? What I mean by that is, it's all, because it's already going on, right? It's already, you're already moving. You already exist. There's already things in your life. But we all know this about any person's life, about any story in a person's life. There

there comes that one moment where all of a sudden they're not just doing what they were told, they're doing something on purpose. It's not just that they were just kind of going through life as a passenger. They've now picked up the pen and they're saying, no, this is when I started. This is when I'm moving. We all know this. We all know there's a moment in every person's story where they start. They act. There's a moment where you stop doing just, I'm living because they told me to live like this, and you start writing. So one of my favorite stories, maybe it's one of the greater stories of all time, Lord of the Rings. Some of you know this story, that one of the characters, one of the protagonists of Lord

of the Rings is Frodo. And it's fascinating because of the first big portion of that first book, Frodo is just kind of doing what he's told. He's guarding the ring, why? Because Gandalf told him to. He's taking the ring to the prancing pony. Why? Because he was told to.

He's bringing, he's going with Eragorn to Rivendale. Why? Because someone else told him to. But there's a moment in it. And this might be us, right? I went to high school because they told me to. I went to university because I told me to. I have a job because they told me to.

There's a moment where Frodo is in Rivendale and they're like, who's going to take the ring to Mordor? It's the first time we really ever see. He steps up and he starts writing his story. He doesn't do something just because someone told him to. He stands up and he says, I'll take the ring. I'll do it. This is what authors, this is what literary people call a strong start.

So every strong start in a story has four components to it. One, it's an element of irreversibility. What I mean by that is you can't go back to who you were before this. Second is, your identity is at stake, meaning you don't know who you're going to be after this. Number three is there's risk. The future's unclear. And number four is there's agency.

You're making a decision. This is so good when it comes to photo. Here's this. It's not his ring. It's not his burden. It's not his responsibility. This whole ring existing is not his fault. But at one point, he starts writing his own story.

And that's a strong start. Why? Because irreversibility. There's no going back to the shire. there's a threat to his identity in the sense of he literally doesn't know who he's going to be after this after he takes this step there's no telling who he's going to be there's a risk because the future is definitely unclear and there's agency because he's making that decision every strong start has these four elements whether it's a good start photo or a bad start

Genesis we heard a bad start today that first reading today in Genesis chapter 3 was a bad start I mean, sorry, let me clarify. It's a great start at first. God makes the whole world. It's all good. Good start. Adam and Eve, great start. Amazing.

Imagine, imagine being Adam and Eve. All you know in the garden, all you know, you've been given every good thing. All you know is God loves you. All you know is this Adam loves Eve. Eve loves Adam. It is amazing. But their story hasn't really,

they haven't started writing their story yet until when, until the serpent comes in, gives a challenge. Up to the, this point, they've been given a lot of great things. But up to this point, they're not yet co-authors. And what happens? The serpent comes in and challenges threatens them. I think this is fascinating because I think sometimes we think, well, yeah, that's what Eve had to do. Eve had to eat the apple. She had, I don't know if you think about this. She had options. Eve added so many options.

Adam and Eve, they could have fought the serpent. They could have cried out to God for help. they could have prayed they could have run away they could have they literally could have run away you guys they could have faced the serpent and been killed

that's an option they could have wrote the story they could have had a great strong start but what do they do I mean Adamie they look at the apple and it's not a bad thing

we know this nothing God makes it bad so Eve looked at the apple like no it's good for the food delightful to the eyes good for gaining wisdom it's a good apple or a good piece of fruit

and what happens? They reach out. And this moment they start writing, but they don't start writing with God as their co-author. They start writing on their own. And this is the key. A strong, strong start. Irreversibility, you're not going back to where you were. A threat to your identity?

They have no idea who they're going to be after this. There's risk. The future is absolutely unclear. And there's agency. They've done it. But here's the reality is they're doing it apart from God, because this is what every sin is. We all know this. Every sin is an attempt to be happy. Like none of us have ever sined saying, I'm going to do this thing and it's going to make me so miserable.

I can't wait. None of us have ever done that. Every sin is an attempt to be happy, but every sin is an attempt to be happy apart from God. That's it. Every sin is an attempt to be happy. I just want to be happy, but I don't want to you to be part of my story. Every sin is an attempt to say, God,

I'm going to write my own autobiography. I don't need your help. I don't need you to be my co-author. I'm living my life. I'm writing my life. I'm writing it without you. That brings us to the story that we're going to be talking about all lent.

Luke chapter 15, the parable of the prodigal son. If you're not familiar with the parable of the prodigal son, as I said, it's printed in your bulletin, but this story today is just looking at the beginning. Because this is the start. Every story has a beginning. And Jesus begins it by saying, a father had two sons. And the younger son said to his father,

Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me. Now, we hear this. We're like, yeah, yeah, that's how the story goes. We've heard it a thousand times. I don't know if we've understood, ever really understood, how the original Jewish authors, listeners, would have received this. As a son goes to his father and says, Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.

Why? Because he's asking for his inheritance now. You know this, right? When do you get your inheritance? You get your inheritance when the person who has inheritance is dead. So here's the younger son going to his father and saying, hey, listen, I can't wait for you to die.

So can you just give me what's coming to me after your death? But I don't want to have to wait until then, so just give it to me now. It's so insulting, but it's not even the worst part of it. It gets really worse. It says, the father gave it to him, which is crazy. That's bananas. Then it says this.

is after a few days, the younger son took all his belongings and went off to a distant country. Now, this is the part that we might miss, but this is the part that it's more devastating maybe to the father than anything else. It's more devastating to the story than maybe anything else.

Why? Because I always imagine, here's the younger son saying, hey, give me this share of the estate. I'm going to put up a fence between you guys and my side of the farm. I'll take care of my... I'm going to build a house on the back 40. I'll wave at you across the fence,

but he's kind of living there. That is not what the son does. He takes it. He sells the property. Again, think about this. In first century Judaism, your land is not just your land. If you remember the story, right,

as God leads Joshua across the Jordan River into the promised land, all the tribes that get certain land, all the families get certain land in that region. So this land is not like, well, this is your dad's land.

he bought it from someone else. Though this is your family's land that has been in your family for generations, maybe been in your family for hundreds of years. What's this guy done? He's taken his family's land,

sold it to someone else, not the family. And then went somewhere where no one knows him and no one knows his father. What is he saying? Not just Dad, I want your stuff. He's saying,

Dad, I don't want to be associated with you at all. I don't want. I'm going to go into a place. I'm going to get rid of everything that's connected to me our family, I'm going to get rid of it, and I'm going to a place where no one knows me and no one knows you and no one knows that I'm your son. Why? Because I want to be happy, but I want to be happy apart from you. I want to be happy, but I don't want to be happy near you. Because I want to

write my story. I just don't want you as my co-author. And this is a strong start, but it is a bad start. Remember the four elements, irreversibility. There's no going to be. I'm going to back after this. This is a threat to identity. Who is he going to be after this? We have no idea. His risk, the future is completely unclear, and his agency, yeah, the character chooses. Basically, he's choosing this.

I don't want God to be my co-author. I want to write my story. I want to be happy apart from God. I've shared this with some of you all a couple weeks ago, but there was a student on campus years ago. And he was raised kind of sort of Catholic, one of those kind of situations.

He was baptized, maybe First Communion, second grade, but that was it. At one point he was going to study abroad. He was a UMD student was going to study abroad and he studied abroad. He chose the country he wanted to study abroad in because he thought, okay, where do I have the best chance to be able to party as much as I want, to smoke as much as I want, to drink as much as I want, and to have sex with the many women as I want. And he chose, that's how he chose where he wanted to study abroad. Because that's my plan, that's what I'm going to do. And so he left. That's what he did. But before he left, He said this, he said that before he left, the last thing he did is he went into his bedroom

and he opened up his sock drawer. And he had, he had a crucifix that someone had given to him on a necklace. And what he did is he took that crucifix off and he put it in the sock drawer and shut the drawer basically to say, God, I'm going to go write the next chapter of my life. I'm writing it without you. God, I'm going to go live my life. You stay here. And again, that's what he did. he came back to Minnesota after the whole semester and a couple weeks,

a couple months after he got back here, one of his friends invited him to Newman. Okay, sure. It was a pretty girl who invited him, so okay, sure. But he was just like really compelled. I remember we were meeting and we were talking about a lot of things. I remember the moment we were having conversation and he became convinced that God existed. He was just like,

no. Oh my gosh, God is real. I'm like, yeah? Like really real. And then I remember the moment he was convicted that Jesus is God and that Jesus actually loved him, this man, it was incredible because there's this moment of this absolute joy of like he had lived so much of his life and not having any idea. God exists. Jesus is God. He loves me. And he's this joy of like, oh my gosh, this is true. At the same time, there was this, like he was crushed internally because he was

looking at his own heart. Because he looked what he had written. He looked at who he had become and remember him just saying all that I've done, he said, that's not me. I don't want that to be me. But that was his story at to that point. And in that moment, what's the reality? The reality is number two of a good start

is his identity was at risk in the question of like, oh my gosh, who am I going to be? Because the future was unclear and he was convicted by this irreversibility. I can't go back. I can't go back. I've written. this chapter in my life and I can't unwrite it. So here's the question. Is it true that I can't

go back? Because we might find ourselves in this place. We might find ourselves in the same exact thing of like, oh my gosh, I've written this last chapter of my life on my own, apart from God. Without God is my co-author. What I've been trying to do is I've been trying to be happy apart from God? Is it possible? I love going back to the Particle Son. Particle Son, he's in this distant place. He spends everything he's got. A severe famine strikes and it's scripture, Jesus says this. He found himself and dire need. The next line is, coming to his senses, he thought.

Another translation is, coming to himself, my favorite translation as a kid, I came across this, it said, remembering himself. Basically, he had been writing this story without God. He writing the story like my friend

who said, this can't be me. Remembering himself, he said, I'll go back to my father. And I think this is his key. Because he might have had the conviction. the prodigal son might have had the conviction, I can't go back to who I was.

He might have had the conviction, I don't know who I'm going to be. But what did he know? He knew, I can go to my father. Because here's the reality. The reality is when we started writing apart from God, we can say, I don't know who I am anymore, but I know who he is.

You have the conviction of like, I don't know my identity, but I know his identity. And there's proof. There's actually proof in the story Jesus tells us that the younger son, knew his dad's identity even before he left. Why? Because the knucklehead, right? This giant turd of a son had the gall, had the audacity to ask his dad for his share of the inheritance. Knowing what? Knowing that a dad wouldn't kick him out. When he asked the question at the beginning

of the whole story, he knew his father's heart because he's known, my dad is kind. My dad actually loves me, my dad cares about me. If I ask my dad for the inheritance, he'll, this guy thinks so much of me, he'll actually give it to me. That's what he remembers. He doesn't know who he is. He's been writing apart from God, but he knows he can go back because he knows his father. Because he knows his dad's heart, he knows this, I can go back. He knows this. I don't have to write this next chapter on my own. And this is the last thing. whatever it is you and I have written up to this point we don't have to write this next chapter on our own

this is our this is your autobiography right now and here's the reality you have to start writing you have to start because why because every story has a beginning even in the gospel today this is the beginning of Jesus' story we know that he's the second person of the Trinity so he's existed for all eternity but beyond that this is the moment Jesus goes into the wilderness and he's like okay this is the moment irreversibility there's no going back to nazareth after this

his future is unclear after this he takes that step and you know what the serpent attacks you know what the Satan the devil attacks you know what's under threat is his identity I mean think about almost every challenge the evil one brings to Jesus the challenge is this hey if you are the son of God turn these loaves into bread if you're the son of God throw yourself down from the temple Who are you really? And this is where we get that Jesus is this brilliance.

He started his story. He left, but he didn't leave the father. He left with the father. He didn't start writing apart from God as his co-author. He wrote with God as his co-author. And you can too. Every one of us can do this right now because, again, you are living right now,

you are living your autobiography. And maybe we've tried to write it on our own. Maybe we've tried to be happy apart from God. But today, in this moment, remember who you are. And if you can't remember who you are, in this moment, remember who he is. Come back, come back to the Father. Your autobiography is being written.

This story is becoming your life story. and your life story begins now.