Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 02/25/24 He Leadeth Me: As Long As...

Episode Date: February 24, 2024

Homily from the Second Sunday of Lent. If I know Who, then I can say yes without knowing why. Do I have any conditions on my response to God? Will I pray or serve or say yes to Him as long as I understand why He is asking? Mass Readings from February 25, 2024: Genesis 22:1-2, 9-13, 15-18 Psalms 116:10, 15-19Romans 8:31-34 Mark 9:2-10

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.

He reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark, chapter 9, verses 2 through 10. Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves, and he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them, along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tense, one for you, one for Moses.

Moses and one for Elijah. He hardly knew what to say they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them. From the cloud came a voice. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them. As they were coming down from the mountain,

he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the son of man had been raised from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant. the gospel of the Lord. So not too long ago, I met this pretty remarkable woman. She is, her name is Britt, Brit Fisk, actually, and she is a wife and a mom, a mom of eight. And it was one of the kind of situations where immediately you kind of got the impression that this,

okay, this is a special person. She was kind, obviously, and was joyful, but at the same time was very serious and had the strength. she's really well spoken. But she struck me as someone who had a really deep trust in the Lord, but someone that had been through a lot. In fact, struck me as someone who was going through a lot. And yeah, when I met her, I had no idea what she had been through. I had no idea what she was going through.

We'll come back to that in a second. You know, last week we started Lent and last week we started this new series called He Leadeth Me. And we are following not only the Lord in his passion as he journeys towards his passion and death and resurrection, but also Father Walter Chizek, right, who is this American priest who was a missionary. And he went to Poland, went to Russia, was accused of being a Vatican spy, was arrested, was in solitary confinement for five years, was in a gulag for 15 years. Plus, he served in Siberia as a priest kind of clended secretly. And it came back to the United States and told his story just amazing of what, again, the whole point of we're doing this is because we want to see

what God can do in the life of an ordinary person, how God can take an ordinary person and they come a saint. So last week we talked about expectations and how expectations are a killer of joy, right? Expectations are the thief of peace. They rob us of God's presence. And when expectations run up against reality, we have one of two choices. We can either accept reality or we can avoid reality. And so that's expectations. And I was thinking about this all week and thinking like, okay, I know expectations aren't the greatest thing. But they're kind of still, they're still kind of nice. I mean, right? It's when there's even like basic expectations, like they just help us be comfortable.

That they give us a routine. They give us the sense that we can plan things. I mean, honestly, to be able to expect that tomorrow will be like yesterday is kind of nice. Because when I have expectations, I'm comfortable. If I have a plan, I get comfortable. If I have a routine, like that's personally, I just, I get comfortable because those plans, those comfortable expectations those routines that give us a sense of control. And that's something nice about expectations.

It's something nice about plans. I feel like I can manage things. I feel like I can fix things. I feel like I can handle things. And typically we can until we can't. We cling to in our routines, in our plans and our expectations, we cling to our illusion of control until we can't control anything anymore. And then that lack of control, I think, that lack of control

reveals our conditions. Now, what I mean by that is this, is that when our plans are interrupted, right, when our routines fall apart, we discover our conditions, we discover our as long as. So what I mean by that is on campus, and we have talked to students who will say, okay, you know, after graduation, I'll be fine as long as I can find work after college. Or like even in school, like, okay, like in class, I will pray as long as my classes are going well. Or when it comes to relationship stuff, it's like, no, I'll be faithful as long as I find that significant other. Or even just in relationships. Like, I can trust God. I know I can trust God

as long as there's a proposal by Easter. Like the kind of situation where my expectations and my routines, my plans, they reveal my conditions. And Brit, this wife and mom, she talked about this. So, as I mentioned, she's, Britt is a mom of eight open to life. She's a faithful Catholic woman, she has homeschooled her kids and just really passing on the faith and the love and the joy of knowing Jesus Christ. She and her husband run a ranch where she said their cattle and their kids run free on this ranch. And yet part of her story is this, that when she and her husband conceived their eighth child,

Britt agreed to genetic testing in utero because she did that with all their kids. But she said, I had this thought in my mind that said, I'm fine with red. raising a special needs child as long as I know beforehand and could prepare. That's the first kind of condition there, right? It turns out that when little Agnes Mary Madeline was born, she had a thing called Lombar Syndrome. The doctor, when they took an MRI of Agnes, the doctor said he'd never seen a more complicated MRI.

Not only did Agnes have these ulcers and this skin condition was in constant pain, how Britt describes it is that what caused the pain was something called a chaotic lipoma, which is this fatty tissue enveloping Agnes's spinal cord as a newborn. And she was constantly in pain, constantly crying. The procedure they were looking at was to detether the lipoma from Agnes's spinal cord. It's super risky, super complicated. Not every doctor would even consider doing this. So that's going on.

all this pain, this newborn baby. At the same time, a couple months before Agnes was born, Britt found a lump in her chest. And when she went to have it looked at, she had this, her prayer was, her prayer was that, you know, Jesus came to earth to experience human weaknesses in every way imaginable, but he didn't have to live without a mom. And her second condition was this.

She says, I can handle, I can handle this. I handle this cancer as long as my children don't have to grow up without their mom. Turns out that it was breast cancer and it was aggressive. And Brits, again, Britt says she always had this game going on, this condition game, basically, where she said, she's saying, okay, I can handle this particular difficult situation, whatever that was, as long as this other thing doesn't happen. So she said, I can handle breast cancer as long as it's early stage. Well, it turns out it had already spread to her lymph nodes. She said, okay, well, I can be in treatment. I can handle treatment as long as it only lasts a year.

And when I met her, she had been going on two and a half years. She said, okay, I can handle Agnes's tethered spinal cord as long as it can be detethered before she becomes symptomatic, only to discover that Agnes might not ever even walk. And when it came to her chemo, she said, okay, I can do that, I can handle chemo. I can handle this medication as long as it's not what they call the Red Devil chemo. Now, Red Devil chemo is its color red, and apparently Britt described it. She said, you watch them push this chemo through the IV because they have to push it quickly, and then you have to suck on ice hoping that your mouth and esophagus wouldn't erupt in sores.

But that's exactly what she had to do. But there's that condition, right? I can handle this as long as that. She said many times the thing that I couldn't handle was the exact thing that happened. She said it was because God knew that I couldn't handle them. But he could. She said, I had to stop trying to handle it. I had to stop trying to control it.

I had to stop trying to enter in my will so that his will could be done. And here's the thing is that as the story kept unfolding, they kept finding more cancer in her. So they had more rounds of chemo, more surgery, more radiation. At the same time, she was going through all this. At the same time, her four-month-old Agnes was undergoing those detethering surgeries, with all these complications that Agnes was having tough them healing. They discovered she had spina bifida. She was in pain.

Britt was in pain, more interruptions and more conditions being revealed. Especially this big revelation. And it's all this. Brit said she discovered this revelation, this revelation about her own heart. it wasn't ever that I didn't need God. She said, I knew he was constantly there, and I never doubted his love for me. I just didn't trust him. And that part, that part's everything.

Because we have interruptions in our plans. We have interruptions in our expectations and interruptions and our routines. They reveal our conditions. They reveal, basically, what we're placing our trust in. Am I placing my trust in my plan? Am I placing my trust in my routine? Am I placing my trust in my expectations? or am I placing my trust in God?

So Father Walter, going back to He Leith Me, he went through a different series of events, but it's the exact same process. If you've been reading the book at all, you know that when he was in Poland, remember he couldn't go right into Russia, he had to go to Poland, he was in this town called Albertine,

that while he was there, he's only there for a year, but he got into a routine. He had a plan. He had some sense of control. But then when the Red Army invaded, right, when the Russians invaded, he was only two years ordained. He had only been with that group of people for one year and he said he had some sense of how normal people acted in normal times.

But in the midst of a crisis, he wrote this. He said, but the war changed everything. The crises they face now were not family quarrels or sickness or loss of a loved one. The advice they wanted now was not about things coming to every parish and learned by every priest. Suddenly, our whole world, theirs and mine, had changed. He said, it's impossible to describe the feeling that comes over you at such a time. The feeling that somehow, in an instant of time, everything has changed. And nothing again will ever be the same. Tomorrow will never again be like yesterday. Again, that's what we expect, right? I know what yesterday's going to be like because I, or I know what tomorrow's going to be like because I know what yesterday was like.

In the midst of this, it revealed Father Walters' desire for control. It revealed Father Walter's conditions where he would say things like, well, I can serve as long as you his people keep coming to Mass, only to find out very quickly that under this communist oppression, very few people, only old people come to Mass. Okay, well, I'll stay here as long as I can serve, but then he found himself unable to serve. He said, well, I'll be fine, as long as I can still say mass, but then when he went into Russia and he was accused of being a Vatican spy, being arrested in solitary confinement, he had no, for five years, there was no way for him to be able to celebrate Mass. Again, I'll be fine as long as I can approach the Lord in the Eucharist.

But for five long years, he was denied that. Okay, as long as I have a guarantee that things will work out, as long as I know this will ultimately pay off. And here's the most significant condition. And this is the most, this is the condition that faces every one of us. I think this is the condition that we, all of us hold on until the very end. It's, I can do what God is calling me to do as long as I understand. Like, I can do, I can say as to whatever God is calling me to do

as long as I know why. See, like Britt, Father Walter knew. He knew that God was present and that God still loved him. He just wanted more. He wanted to be able to understand before he was willing to trust. This is so key. He wanted to be able to understand

before he was willing to trust. In fact, he wrote about this. He said, it wasn't a crisis of faith anymore than it is for anyone who's ever suffered great loss or faced a family tragedy and asked himself the same questions. He said, it was rather a crisis of understanding.

He goes on to say, he says, no one need to be ashamed to admit that he's been touched by that question, by that crisis. Again, it was not a crisis of faith. It was a crisis of understanding. But again, this, again, this is the last condition that many of us are going to be wrestling with.

And it's the condition that people of Israel wrestle with so often. They would pry out and say, okay, God, we're going through this pain, going through this suffering. How long, oh, Lord? Like, why do your servant suffer and you do not see it? They just wanted to know, I just want to know why. And so many of us, when those routines are stripped away, those plans are stripped away, those expectations are dashed, I just want to understand.

I just want to know why. Again, I'll do whatever you want as long as I understand. The thing is, do we realize that that's also a condition? I'll say yes to you, God. As long as I understand, understanding is clinging to control. It's trying to stay in the driver's seat, it's trying to stay in charge. I don't know if you ever realized this. Have you ever noticed this in the Old Testament?

In fact, it's in the first reading today. I love the stories of God calling people. and just throughout the Bible, because this reality is God is calling you, it's calling me to something at some point in our lives. But today, there's this call of Abraham and Isaac to do what? Well, to go to the mountain and offer up Isaac. Now, caveat, here's a side point. I think it's important for us to understand.

Is that Isaac is not a child in this moment. Like in this story, in this time in history, Isaac is a full-grown man. He is over 30 years old. He's roughly the same age that Jesus was in his public ministry, at the same age as Jesus was when he was crucified on the cross. So this is not a situation where there's this crazy old Abraham who's sacrificing his child Isaac.

This is a father and son, both adults, both cooperating with each other because they have both been asked to do this thing. They've been asked to offer up the son. You know what they don't do? They don't ask why. I notice this about almost every person called in the Bible. You have Moses. God says, Moses, go to Pharaoh.

He doesn't ask why. You have David. David gets anointed to be a king. He doesn't say, God, help me understand this first. You have Gideon. Gideon is called to lead the Israelites against the Philistines. He doesn't say why. Esther, who's called to go before the king on behalf of her people, to intercede for them,

she doesn't ask why. When Mary, the mother of God, Gabriel comes to her, she asks her clarifying question, but that question is not, why. When Jesus comes into the apostles' lives and he says, come follow me, they don't say why. none of them ask why. None of them say, Lord, I will do what you ask

as long as you, I know the reason why. I will trust you as long as I understand what you're doing. Now, keep in mind, keep this in mind. It's so important for us to understand. Asking why is normal. Like asking why is natural. Asking why is human.

In fact, John Paul II, you know, Pope a couple of popes ago, John Paul II, he actually noted that all living beings suffer. He said all living beings experience pain, but only human beings can suffer. What he meant by that is, you know, dogs and cats and every other animal knows pain. But human beings are the only creature that we know that can experience pain and in the midst of it, look up and say, why is this happening to me? That kind of suffering is a unique kind of suffering.

It's a uniquely human kind of suffering. So, again, asking why is not only normal, it's actually good. It's an exercise of us being human. Asking why is normal. But needing to know why is just another attempt to cling to control. Needing to know why is just another way to avoid the call to trust.

It's another way to avoid the call to surrender. To say, I'll say yes as long as I know why. I will easily say yes as long as I understood. But here's the crazy thing. Trust is not trust if I need to understand. before I trust. Say that again. Trust is not trust if I need to understand before I trust.

Obviously, that's difficult. But I would say this, in the midst of the call to accept reality, we can ask one of two questions. Again, in the midst of that call, God steps into our lives and says, okay, would you accept this or are you going to avoid it? We can ask one of two questions. is why. God, tell me why. How me understand why. The other question is, who's asking?

I don't know if you've ever had the experience of a request comes across, you know, for your life or whatever. And at first you're like, you're going to push back on this. Like, no, I would never do that kind of thing. And someone says, oh, someone so-and-so wants that. Like, oh, totally. I would totally do this kind of thing. Maybe the example I kept thinking of is maybe you have a coach at some point in your life where you had a coach that you didn't trust. And the experience I think I've had a couple of times in my life where I had coaches I didn't trust. And so everything that they ask is met with this like, well, why are we doing this? So it wouldn't even matter if what they were asking was exactly what I wanted to do. You have to justify every decision to me. That's what I, again, a coach you don't trust, a person you don't

trust. No, you have to justify every decision you're making to me. Why? Because I need to understand before I will agree to doing the thing you're asking me to do. Now contrast that with a coach you do trust. So years and years ago, like so long ago, it's almost another lifetime. I used to do a lot of endurance stuff. And one year, actually two years, I did this race called the 24 hours of Telmark. So it's a 24-hour cross-country ski race. And so yeah, it starts at 10 a.m. and you finish the next morning at 10 a.m. Just ski for 24 hours. So when I was training myself, I felt like I was never going to be done. I felt like I would never, no matter what I did, it was never enough. Right. So I go out and ski for like six hours and I get done skiing. I mean, honestly, go ski for six

hours and I get done and be like, wow, that is one quarter of the race. There's no way I can be prepared for this until I asked my sister for help. So my sister is just not only is she really a great athlete herself, she's a great coach, she has a degree in exercise physiology. She worked at the Olympic Training Center in Finland and cross-country skier with cross-country skiers. She's a personal trainer. Like she knows all of the, she knows training techniques, right? She knows training tactics. She said, hey, I will drop a plan for you. And she wrote it all out. if you follow this plan, by the time you get to race day, you'll be ready to go. And I trusted her.

So I looked at the plan and just did exactly what she said. If there's a day she would say, go hard, I would go hard. If there's a day that she would say, okay, I want you to ski for six hours, take a four hour break, then ski for another four hours, I would do that. If she said, today's a rest day, I would gladly, absolutely rest on that day. Why? Because I trusted her. She didn't have to justify herself to me.

She didn't have to tell me why because I knew who She didn't have to tell me why she was asking me to do this Because I knew who was asking And that is this is the heart of the second reading today St. Paul writing to Christians he says If God is for us who can be against us us? He who did not spare his own son but handed him over for us all

How will he also not give us everything else along with him Basically St. Paul is saying that God is good how good is he? He is so good that even in the midst of your pain he's experienced more even in the midst of your suffering he's experienced more. Even in the midst of the greatest trials of life

God the Father did not withhold his only son from experiencing being overwhelmed by life so you can trust him. I think it's well as for why in the gospel when the Lord God the Father speaks over the son He says, this is my beloved son. Listen to him. He doesn't, I think it's important. He doesn't say, listen to him if you understand what he's asking you.

He just says, listen to him. Which means you can trust him. And that's what God is calling every one of us to do. If I need to know why, I will never know trust. I'll be constantly clinging to expectations and my routines and my plans. I will constantly be clinging to control. But here's the great thing. If you and I know who, we can begin to experience the joy and the peace and the freedom

even in the midst of trial and in the midst of not understanding. And this is the last thing. Questions are normal. Keep this in mind. Don't forget this. Questions are good. But if I need to know why, if I need to understand before I'm willing to move, there will always be another question.

I mean, imagine. You have your big question for you. God, why this? And he shows up and he answers your question. Great. Well, tomorrow you're going to experience another question. God, why this? If he answers and shows it, it gives you another answer, that's fine.

But there's infinite numbers of whys. There's only one who. And if I know who, then I can say yes without understanding why. If I know who, then I realize I can't trust my plans. I can't trust my routines. I can't trust my expectations. I can't assume that tomorrow will be like yesterday. but I will know that God will be there.

And that's what the Chisak said. In the midst of his pain and confusion, Father Chisac wrote these words. He said, he came to this conclusion. He said, we would survive, although the world around us had changed completely. We would go on today, tomorrow, and the next day, picking up the pieces and working out each day

our eternal destiny in our salvation. He said, there would be it tomorrow, and we would have to live in it. and God would be there as well. The church would survive, perhaps not exactly as we had known it at the mission, because the faith would survive among the people of God as it has always survived in times of persecution. Only one thing need be of great concern to us.

In all this, seeing upheaval and catastrophe, to be faithful to God, to look to him in everything, confident of his love and his constancy, in striving always to know his will and to do it each day of our lives. That's what he discovered. These plans crashing around, these routines been taken away, control being taken away, no conditions. I know who. Britt said it like this. She gets the last word. Britt said after all these surgeries, after all this medication, all this chaos, she said Agnes's life will be a constant game of wait and see, but she is waiting.

She says she's finding beauty in the loss of control. She does that by choosing to turn it over to him day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. She said losing control does not mean sitting idly by as your life moves on without you. It means surrendering your will to his and in prayer taking the next right step moment by moment. It's trusting him.

It's knowing that there will be a tomorrow we'll have to live in it. And God will be there as well. It's taking the next right step. Not because we necessarily know why, but because we know who.