Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 03/17/19 Behind Enemy Lines: My Own Worst Enemy

Episode Date: March 18, 2019

Homily from the Second Sunday of Lent. You have to know yourself to say no to yourself. We are in a battle, but our primary enemy is closer than we might like to imagine. In order to gain true freedom and victory, we have to know this enemy and know when to say no to them. Mass Readings from March 17, 2019: Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18 Psalms 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14Philippians 3:17-4:1 Luke 9:28-36 Download the Homily Study

So I mentioned at the beginning of mass, or asked the question at the beginning of mass, if you have a bad idea friend, like that, again, the concept of bad idea of friend is that friend who always got you in trouble, or maybe they continue to get you into trouble. I had a bad idea friend for as long as, well, my entire life. And I just, I found myself every time I did, it's one of the things, every time I did what he asked me to do, I was like, okay, now I'm in trouble. I found myself being the biggest jerk. Whenever he was around, I was the biggest jerk.

I would talk back to my parents saying things I never would say before I remember. He, another friend in Pete was over a couple times. Pete was, we were in the basement and playing and at one point he had the idea of like, he should punch him in the stomach. So I'm like, okay, punch him in the stomach. And then Pete's crying, we were both in second grade. I was just punched a second grader. I was also second grade, by the way.

I was not like, oh, he was like, get him to quiet down. So I'm like, Pete, don't let my mom know that I just punch you in the stomach. Like, I'll give you my Legos. You're like, again, bad. A bad idea friend got me to do a bunch of bad stuff. I remember going in high school, walking into rooms with him, and he'd be like, look at her, look at her, look at her, she's hot, she's hot, I'm like, just shut up. Like they are human beings and they are, yes, attractive, but they are not a temperature.

I remember one time when as a kid, he convinced me, I had asked my mom for a thing at a store and she said no, and he convinced me, just put it underneath your shirt, and you walk out with it. So I'm a thief. Bad idea, friend. Every bad decision I think I've ever made in my entire life, he was there. Every bad decision I've ever made in my entire life, he was there.

And so then the big question is, how come you don't just get rid of him? And the reason is because that friend is me. Like, when it comes down to it, I get myself into more trouble than anyone's ever gotten me into. I get myself into more trouble than anyone has ever gotten me into. We're in the middle of, we just kicked off, right? Two weeks ago, 10 days ago, this new series all throughout Lent behind enemy lines. And in it, we're talking about, like, basically,

spiritual battle, spiritual combat, like the life of the Christian is a life of being in battle. Life of Christian is being, having to engage the enemy. But the problem is this. The enemy is often, maybe most often, not external. They said of the ancient Plutarch was a Greek writer and he said of the ancient Spartans you know these people who were totally all about war, they're all about engaging,

they're all about battle, that the Spartan never asked how many are the enemy, they simply asked where are they? Never asked how many are there, where are they? Because that's where we're going to go. And so then Scripture does what, Scripture points out the three enemies that every single one of us will face in the course of the following Christ.

Scripture says that we will face yes, Satan is real, the devil. The world is an enemy. And the third enemy is the flesh, scripture says, which basically means us, ourselves. Ultimately, when it comes down to it, you're made good, but we're fallen.

Every one of us, everyone here in this room has been made good, but every single one of us in this room is fallen. And so ultimately what that means is that at the end of the day, I know this about myself, and I think this is probably true about you, that we are our own worst enemy. When it comes down to it,

the devil didn't make me do it. No one else outside of me made me do it. I am most often my own worst enemy. And so as I say that, you might be like, well, I mean, not like enemy enemy. But I'll say, yes, enemy enemy. Because in fact, I think a lot of times we think of an enemy as someone who is like distant, you know,

they're way far away and they're like super aggressive. like they're all about our total destruction. But that's actually not where the word enemy comes from. The enemy has actually a Latin word that is Inamichi. Inamichi just simply means, oh, so the word in is means not. And the word amicus is friend. So an enemy is someone who's not friend. Not necessarily someone who's like completely bent on our destruction.

Not necessarily coming, someone who absolutely hates us and wants to like attack us. but someone who simply, just simply not friend, simply someone who does not help us accomplish the task, someone who doesn't support us. Yes, and an enemy also is someone who can easily turn and betray us. And so what happens in the scripture, in the second reading today,

St. Paul's writing to the Philippians, and he says that there are these Christians. There's people who are in the battle, right? They're in pursuing Christ. And something happened in their lives where they ended up becoming what he says, enemies of the cross of Christ, not friends of the cross of Christ

again let's back up a little bit here there were these people who at one point made the decision of like I know Jesus Christ I know that he's risen from the dead I know he's conquered death for me he's conquered my sin he's set me free he's worth living for and at one point in their lives they went off track and sort of paying attention to the not friend they became not friends of the cross of Christ

and he goes on to say how he says their God is their belly that seems weird but what he means is they chose comfort over cross that when they came a conflict between the cross of Jesus

and comfort it was well comfort all the way and again it's not just like they liked comfort like we all like comfort they said that their God is their comfort their God is their belly so whatever is easiest whatever is the path of least resistance their default was comfort And so when I hear that, I hear myself saying that word, their default was comfort.

I think about my life. Is my default battle? Is my default cross? Embrace the cross. Or is my default comfort? He says, they're God. They made comfort their God. I will trade anything for comfort.

And I have to ask myself for the same question. Have I made myself a not friend of the cross of Christ? because my default is comfort. The other thing he says is their minds are occupied with earthly things, and I think what that means is they're distracted, constantly distracted. Can't think on one thing, can't be in a room by themselves. They're living off mission, distracted from the mission. Remember, there are people who they know that Jesus is true.

They know he's risen from the dead. They know that he has a plan for their lives, that Jesus has a vision for their lives, and they just became distracted. that says their minds are occupied with useless things, earthly things, things that do not help them. And I look at this, I read this, and I think, how, man, how much is that me? How much is that any of us, or maybe even all of us? Where I find myself being my own worst enemy.

Yes, I'm behind enemy lines, but in some ways the enemy is behind my lines. That's St. Paul even says that. St. Paul in Romans chapter 7. He asked this question. He actually reveals a little bit more about his personal life. in a bit. In St. Paul in Romans chapter 7, he says, now, what I do, I do not understand. He's like, I'm a mystery to myself. He says, what I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. Now, if I do what I do not want, I concur the law is good, but it's no longer I

who did it, does it, but the sin that dwells in me. For I do not do the good that I want, but I do the evil that I do not want. You ever feel like that? I have so many good plans. I want to do the good. And then what the flip kip? Why am I unable to do what I hate? Not able to do what I want, and I can't not do what I hate. It's one of the reasons why this Shakespeare's line,

to thine no self be true. Sometimes people really like that. You put on a little stencil, have it look nice over the top of your window, over the top of your door, on a little plaque. It is one of the most anti-Christian statements you could ever say. to thine own self be true is very dangerous. Why? Because the Christian knows the truth.

Is that actually, I can't trust me. In fact, here's a little key. One of the first moves of the spiritual life, one of the first moves of anyone's spiritual life, is this one move. It's called distrust of self. Distrust of self. And I understand that somebody like,

but that sounds so cynical. Like, yeah, you haven't lived. long enough unless you realize I cannot always trust myself. Why? Because I'm not always friend. I'm sometimes not friend to myself. I know what I'm capable of. In fact, St. Philip Mary was one of my, he's one of my favorite saints. St. Philip Mary, he would get up every morning and you'd pray this prayer. He would say, watch out for Philip today, Lord, because if you give him the chance, he will betray you. I think probably most of us could get up out of bed every morning and say the same thing. God, please watch out for me. Because if you give me the chance,

I know myself and I do not trust myself I am not often a friend to myself so what would I do what would you do with a bad friend you couldn't get rid of what would we do with a bad idea friend we couldn't get rid of because here's the deal you're stuck with you I am so sorry

and I'm stuck with me and that's even worse what would you do with a bad idea of friend you couldn't get rid of you do at least two things you get to know them and you get used to saying no to them What do you do with a bad idea, friend? What do you do with your own worst enemy? Get to know them and get used to saying no to them.

I think this is really important because every one of us is not to let know itself be true, it's get to know thyself. To get to know yourself, because I think too many people get here this and say, well, I'm just going to reflexively, automatically just say no to everything. That's not the key. First move, get to know, get to know yourself.

And so in order to do that, what do we need to do? We need to make space. It's one of the things that Lent is all about. Lentz is all about making space in our lives. It's what fasting is. Fasting is simply making space. Fasting is saying, okay, I'm making space for something other than the comfort. I'm making space for something other than the familiar.

I'm making space for something other than distractions. That's one of the reasons why my encouragement for most of us is that we fast from one of two things, if not both, from some kind of food and from distractions. What is St. Paul say? Their God is their comfort, and they've given themselves over to distractions. So what would happen if you actually fasted, made space in your life from that comfort and from that distraction, you'd have solitude. And in that solitude, what would happen?

You would get to know yourself. You'd get to hear not only the voice of God, you get to hear your own inner voice. It's what Jesus is doing basically in the gospel today. He would often, almost always, go off by himself. And Luke makes a very big point of saying, he went off by himself to pray. What would happen when Jesus went off and found solitude? made space to hear his own thoughts. How long has it been since you heard your own thoughts?

Like, like, really, heard your own thoughts? How long has it been since the last time you really just actually made space and said, okay, what do I think about this? Rather than just tuning on the next YouTube talk or turning on the next movie or the next song. But to enter into solitude, like to really enter into silence. And this doesn't mean like you have to be a hermit. for the next 40 days.

What I mean is on a daily basis to be able to say, actually I'm walking to class and I have my earbuds in, but there's nothing playing. Because I just want to think my own thoughts. I want to walk in solitude. I want to get to know myself. And in that solitude, when you get to know yourself, you get to realize, okay, where can I not trust myself? Where does the not friend live?

Then you also get even more. Where is Jesus calling you? In that solitude, you also know this. you get to know yourself, you also realize, okay, where is Jesus calling me specifically? And where are the obstacles? Because that's the key. If there's a goal in your life, whenever there's a destination, there will always be obstacles. Whenever there's a destination, there will always be, whenever there's a goal, whenever there's a vision, whenever there's a purpose, whenever there's a plan, there's always going to be obstacles.

If you're not going anywhere, no problem, no obstacles. There's no fight, there's no enemy. It doesn't really matter because you're not going anywhere anyways. But the greater the vision, the greater the destiny, the greater the goal, the greater the thing God, planted in your heart, the greater the obstacles are going to be. That's just the truth of the matter. Including the enemy inside, the more he or she is going to fight. And when you get to know yourself, I've got to tell you guys, maybe you've done this already. It's easy to get intimidated by that enemy, by that not friend who lives in your own heart.

To see those obstacles, it's easy to get depressed. It's easy to get discouraged. It's so easy to get saddened by this. We're even can be tempted to self-pity. I want to talk about that for a second. We can even be tempted to feel sorry for ourselves. I just watched, I've recently watched a documentary on the Netflix called The Dawn Wall. I don't know if you've seen the Donwall.

It's the story of Tommy Colble and this other guy. And they climbed up the dawn wall of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. It's never been climbed before. And so Tommy Collewill had spent maybe like eight years training and planning and finding a route on this dawn wall that was like considered to be impossible to climb. There's a 3,000 foot pitch. It was made up of 32 different moves, the 32 different pitches.

And one, pitch number 16, was called the dino, because what would happen is you're 1,500 feet off the ground, and at one point, the next hold is 8 feet away. So what you'd have to do is you have to 1,500 feet in the air, have to launch yourself off of the rock and grab onto something that's basically the width of a pencil flying through the air 1,500 feet over the ground.

And Tommy Caldwell talked about this, and he said he had tried it, He tried it hundreds of times and never made it. He's on this big climb. He tried hundreds of times in practice and never made it. He even built a replica of this pitch 16, the dino, in his shed in his backyard, and still could never do it. And he got to this wall, got to this pitch, threw himself off it a bunch of times and didn't make it now.

At that point, he could have just felt sorry for himself. All of this effort, all of this opportunity, all this work, and I can't do it. He could have given into self-pity. But here's the thing. He had a goal. He wanted to be the first person to ever scale the dawn wall at El Capitan. And so what he did is rather than just curse the obstacle and feel sorry for himself, he decided, I think I can go around it.

So what he did was he found a new route while on the wall where he had to climb an extra 200 feet. He climbed down. It's called down climbing and it's one of the most impossible things to do on this rock wall that He said no one else has ever, literally never ever climbed in history. But he climbed 200 feet out of the way to get around this 800 foot or 8 foot section. And he did it without one feeling sorry for himself for one moment. Why?

Because he had somewhere to go so he found a way. And here's this, please listen. Christian, you do not have permission to feel sorry for yourself. In this life, you do not have permission. to ever feel sorry for yourself. Yes, you can feel sad. You can be heartbroken. You can be discouraged.

You can be depressed. You can be in agony. You can go through so much. This world is difficult. And it can break your heart. Those are all the things you can feel. But to make the decision to feel sorry for yourself. It's simply like a decision to simply stay there and give up.

But you can't give up because you have somewhere to go. Another thing, here's a note, very important. God has compassion for you. That God cares. It said a couple times in Scripture, it says that when Jesus met someone's weakness, he felt pity for them. That he was moved with compassion for them. That our weakness doesn't disgust him.

Our weakness moves him towards compassion. Our weakness is what draws, we talked to this before, our weakness is what draws him to us. So please, yes, be patient with yourself. And yes, love yourself. And yes, forgive yourself, and yes, give yourself grace, but never, ever. You do not have permission to ever, for one moment, feel sorry for yourself, ever. No matter what.

And this is St. Paul, again, go back to St. Paul. He's talking about in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. He talks about his own wounds, his own weaknesses, and he basically talks about the time he cried out to God and said, God, I have this thorn in the flesh, this thing that I hate about my life, this thing that he went to solitude and he found this pain. He went to solitude and he found this obstacle. Here's St. Paul, who had a great vision that God planted it in his life, and he's like, but God, I have this wound in my side. How can I ever possibly do this? And he says, in 2 Corinthians 12, he says, three times I begged God, just take it away.

And he didn't. Instead, what happened? Jesus spoke to him and said, My grace is for you. He says, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. St. Paul says, therefore, I would rather, I boast most gladly of my weakness in order that the power of Christ may dwell inside me. I'm not going to waste a moment feeling sorry for myself. It is real. This thorn in my side is real, but so is Jesus. He's real too. And I do not trust myself, but I 100% trust him. To go into the wilderness, to go into the solitude, to go into this place where you make space is to get to know yourself so that you then can say no to yourself.

but not indiscriminately and not reflexively, intentionally and strategically. So here's the question. When you get to know yourself, you get to know, here's where I need to say no. When you get to know, when you have a goal, and realize, okay, this obstacle isn't the way of my goal. So therefore, this is where I say no.

Just like Tommy Calable on that El Capi 10. I have this eight foot thing that I can't accomplish, but I have a goal and the goal is not to do this eight foot leap. The goal is to get to the top of the mountain. How can I get around this eight foot leap in order to get to the top of the mountain? same thing is true for you. God has placed a goal in your life, a vision in your life. How can you get to there? What do you need to say no to? Particularly know to self when self wants comfort

over the cross. And this is the last thing. Again, in solitude, you get to know yourself so that you can say no to yourself. And it takes a decision to make that space, but it requires courage to stay in that space. It takes courage to make that space. But it takes courage to make that space. But it takes courage to stay in that space. In the first reading, Genesis chapter 15, I don't know if you noticed this. God calls Abram to enter into a covenant with him. So he cuts up the animals and says, it says, a deep terrifying darkness envelops Abram. And it says, all, these birds of prey, they come and they swoop upon the carcasses of these animals. And here, they're all hopping around and Abrams right there. And a deep terrifying darkness envelopes him. He made a

space in solitude so he can be there with the Lord. And what happens? He's in a place of fear. Deep terrifying darkness enveloped him. But then what does Moses write about? He says, but Moses says, Abram stayed there. But Abram stayed there. And this is going to be the challenge for all of us for the rest of land, maybe for the rest of our lives. To have the decision, I'm going to make space so I can hear God's voice, so I can know who I am, so I can say no where I need to say no,

but also to have the courage to stay there, to trust in him. Here's the deal. I know myself. I am not always a friend of myself. That's one of the reasons I do not trust myself. almost at all, but I do trust Jesus 100%. We realize, I think we realize, that this journey, this behind enemy lines, this whole fight thing, it's not because we like to fight. It's not because we like self-discipline, not because we just like enemies, it's because

of what we're fighting for. This is the key. Tommy Colville didn't just like dino moves. It was what he was clans. for? I can't trust myself, but I can trust him. Here we are behind enemy lines. What are you fighting for? We're fighting because God has promised something on the other side of this fight. He's promised a love that knows no end. He's promised a joy that knows no bounds. He's promised a hope and a faith. He's promised a fullness of life. He's promised a freedom that cannot

ever be taken away. And that's why we're here. And that's why we fight. Because there are some things are not worth fighting for, but God's vision, God's glory, God's plan for your life, and the freedom he offers is not only worth fighting for. It is worth everything.