Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 03/02/25 The Place of the Way: What Reveals and What Trains

Episode Date: March 1, 2025

Homily from the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Silence reveals our hearts and silence trains our hearts. As we enter into the place of training, we realize that there are certain things that reveal the condition of our hearts...trial, tribulation, speech, and silence. But we need to consciously enter into these if we are going to know ourselves and be trained in the way of Christ. Mass Readings from March 2, 2025: Sirach 27:4-7 Psalm 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-161 Corinthians 15:54-58 Luke 6:39-45

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 Luke Chapter 6 verses 39 through 45 Jesus told his disciples a parable Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? No disciple is superior to the teacher but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye

but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? How can you say to your brother, Brother, let me remove that splinter from your eye when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye. You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first. Then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye. A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its fruit. For people do not pick figs from thorn bushes, nor grapes from brambles.

a good person out of the goodness of his heart produces good and an evil person out of the store of evil produces evil for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks the gospel of the Lord wait should have a seat so training montages I don't know if all of you guys know the power of the training montage so one more thing context for training montages back in the 90s they were the biggest thing ever maybe even in the 80s You'd have a movie that was like a sports movie, inspirational movie, even just like a, I don't know,

could be a movie about someone who, like, is in class or in like studying to make it through law school. And there's always this scene, it's called the training montage, where you see clip after clip, scene after scene of this person doing something that will ultimately help them, you know, beat Ivan Drago at the end of the movie or, you know, past the bar or whatever the thing is. So, again, the 80s and 90s were like the apex of the training montage, but there have been some recent ones. I think Soul Surfer, there was a training montage. The movie Soul Surfer, if you saw that.

You saw the movie Whiplash with Miles Teller, have you guys seen that one? But a guy who wants to be an amazing drummer, there's this really cool training montage where he's playing the drum so much and he starts bleeding on the snare. It's just so intense. But again, the 90s was where it's at.

Mulan, you guys. I'll make a man out of you. That's a training montage. So if you're wondering what that looks like, just think of Moulon. I think, though, the best of all time are the Rocky movies. And I understand that not all of you have seen the Rocky movies,

which once again, you have something to do for spring break. But the Rocky One, that's the one he gets up early, Philadelphia morning, at the end he runs up the stairs and like, you know, at the end, he's standing it. Rocky 2 is great training montage. Rocky 3 is when he goes out to California, trains with Apollo Creed. They're like dancing or jumping in the surf. It's really weird. But Rocky 4 is the perfection of the training montage,

because not only is there one amazing training montage in Rocky 4, there are two training montages in Rocky 4, and they're separated by 70 seconds of movie. They crack the code. It is perfection. There's the one training montage. He's behind himself training in Siberia. And then Adrian shows up, I've missed you so much. I missed you, I missed you too. And then they have the second training montage. It's perfection.

Or, I know I'm dating myself, karate kid. Where here's Daniel son. He gets Mr. Miyagi. He's like training. Imagine, it would be so amazing to have, like, Mr. Miyagi as your sense, as your teacher, and you have like this private dojo, this personal dojo where basically here's this teacher, this person who's an expert says, listen, you come to my personal dojo, my personal training place, and I will teach you everything I know about this thing. In this case, karate, right? I come to my place, come to my dojo, and I will make it so that you can do everything that I can do.

That's actually in the gospel today. Because in the gospel, that's what Jesus says. Jesus says, he says, no disciple is superior to his teacher, but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher. We all know that Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, and normally we talk about this stuff like after Lent already starts. I want you all to get a head start on Lent because I think a lot of times when we look at Lent, we start, when it comes to Lent, I think a lot of us think,

okay, I'm going to enter into Lent and I'm just going to get a little better. When it comes to Lent, I'm going to get rid of some bad habits. I'm going to be a little healthier, maybe a little holier. but the goal of Lent is to become like our teacher. Jesus says when you're fully trained, you'll become like him. What that means is we must be trained. So what are we going to do with this Lent?

That's a great question. I think a lot of times, you know, we have the prayer, fasting, almsgiving, that's your standard things. Or have you guys heard the real question? Have you heard the word asceticism? Have you ever heard that word? Aeticism?

So asceticism, we always think of it as like giving stuff up. it's like discipline, it's doing something extra, and that's real. It is giving stuff up. It is being disciplined. It is doing something extra. But that word asceticism actually comes from a Greek word that's acesis. And the Greek word acesis doesn't mean discipline. It doesn't mean giving something up, doesn't mean doing something extra. That word acesis means training. So every time we enter into a a season of asceticism like Lent, even the church says, no, no, no, this isn't just a time. to get a little healthier, get a little skinnier, get a little whatever. This is a time to train. It's just significant. Because I think we all know there's a difference between working out and training.

You ever thought of that? The working out is great. Working out's wonderful. It's exercise because I want to be a little healthier. Training is working out because you have a goal. Working out is awesome. It's a, you know, I want to get on the treadmill, maybe I'll lift a few weights. Training is, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, want to be able to do something that I can't currently do. I want to be able to run a marathon, so I'm in training. I cannot currently run a marathon, but I'm training so that I will be able to ultimately do something I can't do right now. That is what Lent is for.

To be able to say, at the end of this Lent, I want to be someone that I'm currently not. I want to be able to do something that I currently can't do. Why? Because the goal of Lent is to become like Jesus. It's one of the reasons there's a, there's a saint. His name is St. José Marie Escrivá. He has this quote about Lent. He says, we're at the beginning of Lent,

which is a time of penance, purification, conversion. St. Rosa Maria says, it's not an easy program, but then Christianity is not an easy life. It's not just enough to be in the church, letting the years roll by. In our life, the life of Christians,

our first conversion is very important. But the later conversions are even more important. And that's where we find ourselves right now. We're at season heading into a season of conversion, is heading into a season of training. And so we realize that's what we're going to do. We're entering this season. We're entering into, I don't want to say corny,

into the personal dojo of Jesus. The reason I bring that up is because for the next 40 days, we're teaming up with hallow and we're going to have these 40 days of prayer where we follow, not only Jesus, we follow that saint, St. José Maria Escribaba, who wrote a book called The Way. I don't know this about the way,

but the early Christians, they weren't called Christians. they were called the followers of the way. So this whole 40 days we're going to be followers of the way, so we're going to follow after St. Jose Maria Escobra. But we're also going to follow after another man. His name is Takashi Nagai.

If you've never heard of Takashi Nagai, he was a Japanese Catholic. He was born in the beginning of the last century, and he was born and raised Shinto. In high school and college, he began studying science, and he thought that science meant that faith didn't exist or was an important, so he became an atheist. As a high school, as a college,

as a medical student, he was an atheist. but later on he became Catholic and he's a radiologist in Japan in those early in the 20s and 30s and 40s and he became a radiologist even though he knew that at the time the technology, the radiology technology was going to kill him. He knew that every time he took an x-ray of someone

it was shortening his life but he was so moved by his Catholic faith that so many other Japanese around him were dying because of lung diseases that he said it is worth shortening my life in order to save some other lives. That's what he did. Tagashi Nagai continually served people and prayed and grew in his Catholic faith.

And one day in the 1940s, as we know, his hometown of Nagasaki, the United States dropped the atomic bomb virtually meters from his home, 500 meters from the Catholic Cathedral in Nagasaki. And in that moment, in a single moment, in one day, his entire life was completely destroyed. Everything he owned was completely taken away. His wife was instantly, instantly killed. And Takashi spent the next days and weeks bleeding and sick from radiation poisoning, just caring for whoever he could care for, saving whoever he could save. And he said that as he looked around at this utter devastation of his home, utter devastation of all the people, his neighbors, people he loved, his beloved Nagasaki, this line from Jesus kept coming back and again and again and again.

It was heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. That was the line. He looked around. Yes, heaven and earth will pass away. My words will never pass away. The only reason why Takashi Nagai could continue to be faithful is because he was following the way. So because of that, because we're going to follow Jose Maria Skiva in the way, because we're following this Japanese man, Tagashi Nagai on the way,

I discovered in the last couple weeks that the word dojo, is a Japanese word that actually means the place of the way. So for the next Lent, we're following the series called The Place of the Way. Because we realize that at some point, what happened to Takashi Nagai is going to happen to us. At some point, everything we trust in, everything we hope in, at some point in all of our lives, whatever we've trained for is going to be revealed. Wherever our heart is, is going to be revealed. the truth of our faith is going to be revealed.

It's like in the first reading today, right? Syrac chapter 27. The author of Syrac says what he says. He says, the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace. Now picture that. You have a potter who's at the spinning wheel and he molds this, whatever the clay thing is. It might look amazing, it might look beautiful,

might look great. But you don't know if it's what it should be until it's been placed in the kiln, just like us. we might look fine on the outside when things are going well but we don't know actually the truth of our hearts until we're placed in the kiln until we're placed in the furnace goes on Syrac says so in tribulation is the test of the just because the fruit of the tree shows the carrots had and we know this we know that

those times of tribulation and those furnace seasons they will come to every moment of us every one of us that there's times of tribulation and even those seasons those furnace seasons, what they are going to do is they have the possibility, the time to tribulation have the possibility, have the potential to do two things. They have the potential to reveal our hearts and they have the potential to train our hearts. Because we know, we know that the furnace reveals. Again, the pot. The pottery looks good until it's placed in the furnace. And then we actually see whether or not it's what it should be. I don't know if you've ever heard about this, but like, If you ever find like a chunk of gold or a piece of silver, you can pick it up and say,

that looks like silver. It looks like gold. It's great. But if you're an expert, if you're someone who actually deals in gold or deals in silver, you can't just take a raw hunk of gold or raw hunk of silver. You have to put it in the crucible, right? You have to actually heat it up. You have to put it in the fire.

And in the fire, what happens, the fire begins to reveal the impurities that's in the metal. You actually might think that the fire is causing the impurities? No, the fire is simply illuminating the impurities. just like the time of tribulation reveals what's in my heart. And this is, you guys, I have to tell you this. I think I'm all good until things are not good. Like, I'll say this, I think, I am all good when things are all good. I'll tell you that if I get my way, I am the kindest, most gentle, most gracious person ever.

But the moment, this is just true, the moment things don't go my way, all of my selfishness comes to the surface. the moment I don't get what I want, all of my littleness and all of my like fragile ego, like all of that stuff just bubbles to the surface, my sense of self, my even the depth of faith in God or my shallow faith in God, all of that comes to the surface the moment I encounter, even a small thing, not even, not just even a big thing. I think the same thing is true for all of us, whether it be something devastating or a minor inconvenience, those furnace moments, those times of tribulation, they reveal our hearts.

and it's not even it's not even the furnace Syrac goes on to say that our speech reveals the truth of our hearts I don't know if you've ever thought about this, that our speech actually has the power to reveal our faults

what we say reveals the truth of my heart it's one of the reason that St. James later on in the New Testament St. James says the person who claims to be religious but cannot control his tongue is deceiving himself because our speech reveals the truth. It's one of the reasons why I really like the long-form podcast. I think that's a really cool thing that people talk for hours. It's one thing

to go on a news channel and have like you have your 60-second soundbite, you have your rehearsed thing. It's another thing to have to talk for an hour or three hours because then all of a sudden like, oh, that's what you really think. That's what's really in there. I don't know if you've ever been to that place where, okay, here's my script. And then you're just that's what you're, I don't know if you've ever been to that place where, okay, here's my script, and then you get to a place where you have to go off script. You get to a place where, like, the script runs out and you have to actually say out loud what you really think. If you've ever been in that place, it's one of the, it's sometimes it's relieving and sometimes it's shocking. You're like, oh my gosh, that's what's in my heart. Because, why?

Because our speech also reveals the truth of our hearts. Have you been there where you've like heard yourself, say something out loud? You're like, oh, no, that's what's in here. Speech not only reveals the truth of our hearts, but silence also reveals the truth of our hearts. Yes, you know this already. We have so little silence in our world. And I'm just as guilty as everyone else. My head, my ears are always so full. They're always so constantly.

I'm always listening to an audiobook or to a podcast or someone's music. In our lives, is there any space for silence? Because I'll say this, not only does tribulation reveal and furnace reveal. and speech reveals, but silence in a massive way reveals the truth of our hearts. St. Hoz de Maria, Escriba, in the way. He says this. He says, silence is the doorkeeper of the interior life. That unless I actually have some amount of silence in my life,

I will never actually know myself. Unless I have silence in my life, I will never actually know. Because here's a question. How can I ever know what I think if I'm always putting someone else's thoughts into my brain? if I constantly have to listen to something, constantly have to be entertained by something, how can I ever know what I think if I'm constantly putting someone else's thoughts into my mind? That if I can't be alone with my own thoughts, how will I ever know what I actually think? Because the furnace reveals and the furnace trains, tribulation reveals and tribulation trains.

And I would say this, silence reveals and silence trains us. That's this invitation. this invitation as we begin lent, as we begin walking on the way, the way of the cross, the Christian, the way of Jesus, to become more like him, I think our first step is this. I think our first step in the place of the way is silence. Our first step is just how do I create a space for silence to reveal and silence the train? Jesus today in the gospel, he says, out of the store of one's heart, one speaks.

So what am I putting in the storehouse? Like sometimes I'm putting good stuff in there. That's great. Sometimes we're putting bad stuff in there. That's not great. Sometimes, I'll tell you this. Sometimes in the storehouse is like neutral things, but they're really annoying, like that, like, earworm of a song

that's that lyric that goes in your head for the entire day. And like, how did that get in there? Well, I put it in the storeroom. So here's the invitation. The invitation is, as we begin Lent, put something good in the storeroom and then enters silence. and don't just mean like in the chapel. I don't just mean in your prayer.

I mean, before you go for a run, open God's word, take a little nugget of God's word, put it in your mind, and then go for a run without your AirPods. Just let that live in your brain. Or before he cook dinner. Take a little bite of God's word.

Put it in your mind and then cook dinner in silence. Or this one. Before you take a shower. Put a little nugget of God's word in your brain and then take a shower in silence. Or driving in silence. Or how about this one? This is maybe challenging for everyone. How about putting that nugget of God's word in your brain and then getting into bed,

getting ready for bed and getting into bed and falling asleep in silence. And to let that silence reveal and let that silence train. Actually, this is my invitation for all of us to do this just this week. This week, if you want to keep doing it, that's amazing. But this week to be able to say, once a day, I'm going to put God's word in my brain and then I'm going to go outside and I'm just going to go for a short walk by myself in silence.

And I'm going to enter into that silence and I'm going to allow that silence to reveal and I'm going to allow that silence to train knowing that you're not on your own. I mean, what does St. Paul say in the second meeting today? St. Paul says, listen, you're not doing this on your own. Jesus Christ has conquered death. Jesus Christ has conquered evil.

You just get to share in his victory. So as you launch into Lent, we're not waiting for Jesus to save us. We're not waiting for Jesus to have the victory. He's already got the victory. now we get to share in the victory, but we have to enter into silence first. Here's the last thing. What's the goal? The goal is not to be more disciplined. The goal is not to be healthier or a little bit more holy. The goal is to look like Jesus.

So if you know anything about those people who, they purify the gold, they purify the silver, and the impurities come to the surface while it's in the furnace, those impurities come to the surface. I remember hearing someone say, you know how the expert, know how the master knows that the gold is purified? How does the master know that silver is purified? They say this, they say,

the master knows that the gold has been purified when he can see his face in its reflection. So that's the goal of this Lent. That's the goal of entering into silence. That's the goal of being in the place of the way. So at the end of this Lent, Jesus, the master, can actually see himself in you. And it starts now.

And it starts, not by doing something extra, but it starts in silence. And the more we enter into silence, the more we will find ourselves in that personal dojo of Jesus. The more we enter into silence, the more we'll find ourselves living in the place of the way.