Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 02/28/21 To The Heart: The Adventure of Obedience

Episode Date: March 2, 2021

Homily from the Second Sunday of Lent. Obedience precedes understanding. We are made for adventure. But adventure means mystery and uncertainty. Often, what holds us back from action is a lack of knowing why. But what if there is a better question than “why?”? What if the adventure of obedience means asking “how?”? Mass Readings from February 28, 2021: Genesis 22:1-2, 9-13, 15-18 Psalms 116:10, 15-17, 18-19Romans 8:31-34 Mark 9:2-10 Download the Homily Study

So in 1928, there's a man who was born, his name was Andy. He was born in the Netherlands. And from an early age, he wanted his life to be an adventure. That was the movie, that would be his life. It would be an adventure. By the time Andy was 11 years old, the Nazis occupied the Netherlands. And by the time Andy was 18 years old, he had joined the Dutch resistance to the Nazis. He spent the next two years of his life, not only seeing, but doing what he

considered to be some of the most horrendous things a human being could do to another human being. Andy's mom was Christian and she had had this Bible that was super worn and at one point she gave him her Bible and he carried it with him. He never read it but he carried it with him, which is, I guess, a good step. In the pursuit of his adventures, in the pursuit of fighting against Hitler, when Andy was 20 years old, he got shot through the ankle, just shattered his ankle and he found himself at 20 years old, lying in bed, with this longing in his heart to still have a life that's a life of an adventure, but he had no idea how he would do this because he was completely immobilized. All of his dreams were done, except for this dream that I want my life to be an

adventure. You know, I hear about that, and I think about that and maybe talk about this right now, and it's one of those situations where I think a lot of us, that's what we'd like our lives to be. We'd like our lives to be an adventure. Let me clarify. Let me clarify. I think we like the idea of our lives being an adventure. Because the reality of a life being an adventure, super fun, very exciting. The reality of our life being an adventure is, that means our life is basically uncertain. I mean, that's what an adventure is, is having no idea what's going around the bend, having no idea what's coming next. That's really what makes an adventure.

And I think a lot of us, you know, we talked about this on Ash Wednesday. A lot of us, we don't default unknown, we don't default uncertain, we default comfort, right? Like, we default ease. We default as long as I know, then I'll go. Like, as long as I'm okay, and I see what's coming, then I'm okay with this. But you add the element of unknown, you add the element of uncertainty, and all of a sudden you just added the element of fear in our lives. And I think so many of us, we do oftentimes do whatever we can simply to avoid fear.

There's a man, his name is Brett McKay. He's a writer, a podcaster, and he once said this about fear. He said, fear awakens us. to the fact that an opportunity has arrived. That whenever we experience fear, here's what fear is, fear awakens us to the fact that an opportunity has arrived. Almost any time something is new, almost anytime something is unknown,

almost anytime even something is dangerous, it alerts us to the fact that an opportunity has come our way. And again, I think oftentimes we don't like that. Why? Because we like knowing. And yet, at the same time, we're so much like Andy. that we still want the adventure. So we started, at the beginning of length, we started this series.

The series is to the heart. And the idea behind the whole series is, how do we make this lent, not just a great lent, not just an excellent lent? How do we make this lent an unprecedented length that actually would change not just the next 40 days, but we'll change the next 40 years of our lives? And the idea is not we're not just going to grow in prayer and in fasting all,

we're going to grow in trust. Because that's the thing. If I can get to the place where I know that I can trust God in all circumstances and all seasons in everything in my life, that changes everything in my life. And we know we can trust God why, because A, he knows us, and B, he's good. We talked about this last week, right?

That he's untamed, he's untameable, and yet at the same time, he is still good. And yet, I think all of us find it difficult to trust when we find ourselves in a place where we don't understand. Then we just need to ask the question why. So we ask the question why. And the question is, like, why is this happening? I don't understand.

Or why do I have to take this next step? I don't understand. Or why me? I don't understand. And maybe we can convince ourselves that if I knew why, I know I've said this myself, listen, I'll do it. I just want to know why. You ever said that?

Someone's asked you to do something like, oh, no problem. Just tell me why, and then I'll do the thing. Just tell me why, and then I'll take the step. The moment I understand, I'll do the thing. Obviously, why is a good question. It's a great question to ask because if we're going to be able to enter into the process, I need to understand why is the process here.

In fact, okay, I've used this example a couple of times in Daily Masses recently. I don't know why I've been obsessed recently with the karate kid, but it's just my life. So there's the original, there's the remake with Will Smith's Child, which is great, it's fine, but I'm like the OG karate kid.

We have Daniel Laruso moving from New Jersey all the way to Recita, California. What happens? He gets to this new high school, Johnny Lawrence of the Coburkeye, Dojo. He picks on him with a bunch of other guys. So what does what does Danny do? Daniel Luhroso finds Mr. Miyagi. What does Mr. Miyagi do? He teaches him karate. How does he teach him karate?

By having him paint his fence, wax his cars, and sand the deck. Remember this? You guys seen this movie? Okay, so here's the thing. Mr. Miyagi says, do all these things. Don't paint the fence like this. In long strokes here and wax the car, wax on, wax off, and sand the floor. Here's sand like this. And then Daniel Luzzo, this is a synopsis for those who you have not seen the movie because your life is pathetic and lame. But at some point, Danny is, Daniel Laruso, is so frustrated, when am I going to learn karate? And Mr. Miyagi says, paint the fence.

He's like, no, teach me a karate. He says, paint the fence. So he moves to paint the fence. And Mr. Miyagi punches and he blocks the, what the painting the fence is a block. And then he says, okay, wax on. And he blocks the kick. And wax off, blocks the other kick. And realize, says, oh my gosh, the power of karate taught by household chores.

This is not a lie. This is completely true. I remember leaving that movie, going home, going to my mom and saying, mom, do you have any chores for me to do? Because I want to know karate. And she's like, sure, yeah, you can go clean your room. I'm like, no, mom, karate chores. That's the kind of chores that I want.

Then we know that that actually couldn't happen. That would never happen to be able to learn karate by painting the fence, waxing on, waxing off, standing the floor. Why? Because we know ourselves, right? If someone told us paint the fence like this, long strokes, we'd do that while they were there. And when they left, we'd be like short strokes.

Like he says, okay, wax on like this, wax off like this. and then we'd get like, like, I'm waxing up and down or vertically, horizontally, because we know we would take the passive least of resistance because I don't know why I'm doing this. It wouldn't make none of us, I wouldn't learn karate that way. Because in order to trust the process,

I need to know that there is a process. In order to trust the process, I need to know why. But sometimes, maybe even most times, a why isn't given. I think sometimes, maybe most times, we don't understand, we're just called to act. So here's the story we heard in the first reading today in Genesis. When God says to Abraham, Abraham,

take your only beloved son, Isaac, your only beloved son, whom you love, and go to a high mountain, I'll point out to you, and on that high mountain, I want you to offer him up as a sacrifice. And we hear the story, and we realize there's something missing from this story, and there's something missing from the story is a why. God doesn't tell Abraham why I'm asking you to do this. He doesn't say, here, I need you to understand before you act. And I think a lot of times we can hear this story and we can get stuck right here.

Because I don't understand. And I think it's not understanding that stops us. I'm not understanding why are you asking me to do this. That stops us. And yet this story, this account, it challenges us to realize this profound truth. And the profound truth is this. obedience precedes understanding that obedience comes before understanding

so here's 20 year old Andy the Dutchman who's lying in this hospital bed and these Franciscan nuns are taking care of him and Andy is laying there with his life and his shambles around him and he saw the joy in these Franciscan nuns faces and he just he said finally he asked one of these nuns why are you so joyful why are you like this

and she looked at him and she said well it's the love of Jesus and she said she pointed the body He had still had his mom's Bible sitting around next to him, and she said, well, it's right there in that book next to you. You should read it. And so he did. Didn't know why. Didn't understand why, but just pick it up, read it.

As he read the Bible, what happened is he encountered Jesus, and he gave his whole life to Christ and realized God was calling him to the next adventure. The next adventure was to be a missionary. But there's a problem. He didn't have any money. That's kind of a common thing with missionaries. So the next word came to him and said, Andy, he needs to write some articles for this periodical, publication here in the Netherlands. But he was asked to do it for free and he's like, why? I, I'm going to spend all this time writing an article on a desk that I built because I have

no money and I'm not going to make any money off of this. Why do I need to do this? But he just did it. Sent it away and then pretty soon people from all over the Netherlands started sending him a little bit of money. Got enough money to buy winter coat, which apparently is important to have in Netherlands. And you got enough money to buy a Bible in Czech for someone who lived in the Czech Republic. And he just kept writing these articles. And at one point he met this group of people. And in this group of people, there was a man named Carl. Carl was kind of the elder of this community. And Carl says, hey, Andy, do you know how to drive a car? And Andy says, no, I don't know how to drive a car. And I don't want to know how to drive a car. And Carl said, no, actually, I was praying last night

with a bunch of people. We were all praying. And the word God came to us. And the word was, Andy needs to get his driver's license. And so I'm telling you, you need to get your driver's license. And here's Andy, who not only has no need to have a driver's license, has no need to drive a car. He doesn't have a bike. He's what he's saying. He's a Dutchman. He's in the Netherlands. He doesn't even own a bike.

This is, like, embarrassingly bad. He says, I'm going to take public transit the rest of my life. I will never need to know how to drive a car. So a week goes by. Carl comes up to him a week later and says, Andy, have you taken driving lessons yet? And he says, uh, no. Okay, meet me here next Saturday. I'll teach you how to drive a car.

So the next couple weeks happened, and Carl teaches Andy how to drive a car, takes the test, passes. Now he has a driver's license, but he has no idea why he has a driver's license. He has no idea why he has to. God wants him to drive a car. We realize this, obedience proceeds understanding. Now, going back to the Abraham Isaac story, I think, I don't know if you, I've ever listened or watched or read this story with the eyes of cynicism or the eyes of skepticism? You ever kind of put your, sometimes I put myself in the position of, like, was Abraham just sitting there?

Sometimes we wonder this. was Abraham just like sitting there underneath the tree and he just thought to himself? You know what? I really, really love my son. I get, I bet that God probably wants me to try to kill him. If he doesn't, he'll just stop me. Like, you ever, I don't know if you've ever wondered,

like, is that how it went down? Because that's really weird. That's freaky and that's crazy. The answer is no, that's not how it went down. In fact, it says very explicitly that God spoke to Abraham. Now, here's an important thing. Abraham had heard God's voice many times before this moment. Abraham had heard God speak to him so many times before this moment,

and every single time it went to his heart. And every single time, God had always shown himself to be trustworthy. So when Abraham hears this really hard word, it was unmistakable who it was coming from. I don't know why I've been not obsessed. I've been getting more and more exposed to Mike Roe recently. I don't know why. He's just really cool. I think I'd like to be his friend. But at one point, Mike Roe was doing an interview and the interviewer asked him, okay, Mike Roe, this is the end of the interview.

I ask this with everybody I do an interview with, what is the best piece of advice you've ever been given? And Mike Roe went back and forth. He had some things and he said, I think maybe the best piece of advice I've ever been given is one word. And that one word is duck. The guy says, tell me the story. So here's the story. When I was a kid, I was at a barbecue. at a picnic. And I was talking with my friend Charlie Baker, and at one point, in the midst of this conversation, I hear this voice shout out one word,

and the word was duck. Now, what happened was there was another man, Kevin Rondelet. Kevin Rondelet was playing horseshoes. At one point, he threw this horseshoe, and it kind of went where he didn't want it to go. He said, my dad saw the horseshoe flying to the back of my head, and he shouted out with his clear, baritone voice, as clear as a bell.

He just had one word, duck. And he said, and I ducked, and the horseshoe hit Charlie Baker in the face and broke his nose and chipped his tooth, but saved the back of my head. It was the best piece of advice I've ever received. And he said, the advice wasn't the best ever because it was excellent. He said it was the best piece of advice because it came from him at just the right time and just the right moment. Mike Rowe went on to say he said,

you know, if you don't know the source of the advice, you aren't going to duck. You don't know the source of the advice. You aren't going to duck. But he knew what was coming from. It was coming from his dad who he trusted. If they don't know the source of the advice, you're not going to duck. And also, if you stand there and ask the question, why,

you're going to get a horseshoe to the back of the head. Why? Because obedience precedes understanding. Now I want to stand there on and say, no, let me know why, and then I'll duck. Let me know what the process is and then I'll duck. And there's times when what, there's times when I can't understand the process, but I can trust the person.

Even when I can't understand the process, I can trust the person. This is what it says in Romans chapter for it about Abraham. It says that his faith never wavered, but his trust grew. But his trust grew. That's what happens to happen for all of us, to the heart, this whole series, this whole his faith never wavered but his trust grew that we can't get bogged down we realize we can't get bogged down by the question why me

because we could just as easily ask the question why not me we can't get bogged down with the question like why do I need to trust well because if you didn't it wouldn't be faith if we knew we wouldn't we wouldn't need trust if we knew how it was all going to work out then you know what we wouldn't need him if I knew what was going to happen not only would it not be an adventure

but we wouldn't need to have a relationship with him. But when I can't understand the process, we can always trust the person. I think it's interesting. I think a lot of us would say that it's easier to trust God when things are going well. I don't think that's true. I think a lot of us would say,

I can trust God far easier when things are going well. I don't think that that's true because I think what happens is when things are going well, we trust the things that are going well. It's when things aren't going well it reveals to us what we've been trusting or who've been trusting. I think asking why is a really good question. But when why becomes an obstacle to moving forward,

we need to ask a better question. Why is an incredible question? I want to understand the process. But when that question, why becomes an obstacle for us to take the next step, we need to ask a better question. And the better question is not why. The better question is how.

The question is, you're calling me to take a step forward. Okay, God, I trust you. How do you want me to move forward? The better question is, okay, God, I trust you. How are you calling me to take a step forward? God, how are you calling me to respond to this moment? I think a better question than why often is how. In fact, it's in the gospel today.

The question isn't there, but the reality is. Here's Jesus. He gets transfigured. His clothes look amazing. His face is different. And Peter is freaking out. And I love this, right? This is Mark's gospel.

Mark's gospel is Peter's gospel. So you imagine all the times that Mark heard Peter tell this story. Okay, guys, there we were. We're on top of this mountain. And I was freaking out. I started being like, let's make some booths for you and Moses and Elijah. And I was like, I was out of my mind. I was so scared.

I didn't even know what I was saying. Here's Mark going, you're kind of crazy, dude. But what happens? The voice of the father says, this is my beloved son. Listen to him. Basically, do what he says. And what's the thing that Jesus says to do after this? he says, okay, don't tell anyone what you just saw.

The next line is, so they didn't tell anyone. How many times in the gospel did Jesus say, hey, don't tell anyone, and the first thing they do is go tell everyone. This is the one time in all the gospels where they actually do what Jesus told them to do. Why? Not because of not why. Because Jesus, how do you want us to respond? I want you to respond by not telling anyone.

That makes no sense. You're right. You don't understand the process. so just trust the person. You'll get it later. Obedience comes before understanding. So a short while after Andy got his driver's license, he was convicted, he realized that there were people behind the iron curtain,

people in communist-occupied countries where the Bible was illegal. The Christians who were already there who were starving because they didn't have scripture, they didn't have God's word. And someone came along and said, Andy, you have a driver's license now? He said, yeah, I do. But they don't have a car. They said, well, I have a car. And they gave him a Volkswagen Beetle. And then he all of a sudden got a bunch of different Bibles,

written in Polish, written in Czech, written in Russian. And Andy became known as God's smuggler. Because he would pack this Volkswagen Beetle full of Bibles and then crossed the border into communist occupied countries and give these Bibles away to Christians who were being persecuted at the time. In fact, when he pulled up the checkpoint. And his prayer would be Jesus, when you walk this earth, you took those who were

blind and made them see. I'm asking you at this moment to take seeing eyes and make them blind. He transported so many Bibles across those borders that were heavily trafficked. Again, known as God smuggler. He started this group called Open Doors that every year, even now, every year, gives away two million Bibles to Christians who are living in countries where it's legal to be Christian. Not just Bibles, also food and shelter and blankets. When these people are refugees, this group takes care of them. When these people are moved out of their homes, this group takes care of them. When they move back to their homes, this group takes care of them. And it all started because this Dutch guy didn't have any idea why God was saying, write an article for free.

He had no idea why this guy named Carl was saying, you need to get your driver's license. He had no idea the story God was writing for him. And that's why he said, he said, that's the adventure in obedience. Finding out later what God had in mind all along. That's the adventure in obedience. Finding out later what God had in mind all along. Trust is the gift of this lens. But if I continue to ask the question, why, I'll be stuck. And I've asked the question, how I can move. And that movement comes before seeing clearly that trust helps obedience come before understanding.