Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 04/13/25 The Place of the Way: Here

Episode Date: April 12, 2025

Homily from Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion. Thank God ahead of time. We often put off joy and praise and peace. We are tempted to be preoccupied with wanting to be "there" or wanting to be "done" with whatever we are working on or whatever we are doing. Yet, as Catholics, we are called to be "here". We can best live "on the way" when we don't wait to thank God; when we thank God before we are "there". We can thank God right here. Mass Readings from April 13, 2025: Isaiah 50:4-7 Psalm 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24.Philippians 2:6-11 Luke 22:14—23:56

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz. I am so excited to be joining the Courage Under Fire Gala on May 23rd in Nashville, Tennessee, and I would love for you to be there too. I believe that this world needs people of faith who are willing to live with clarity, conviction, and compassion. That's what this night is all about, standing in truth, rooted in Christ and unshaken by the storms around us. You know this. We weren't made for comfort. We were made for courage. So go to the Courage Underfire Gala by grabbing your ticket at courage underfiregala.org. That's courage under firegala.org. And God bless. So, I would say this. I would say that for the most part, when it comes to just life, when it comes to how, what kind of person? You know, sometimes you have those two kinds of people

in this world. I'm a person who, I'm someone who likes, who kind of lives for done. What I mean by that is that when it comes to, I talk to me before I'm done and I'm the worst person to talk to. Like, before I get to the gate in an airport, like, I'm the worst. Before the talk, I'm not helpful to be around. Before I get an answer, if I'm struggling with a question, before that, I'm unpleasant before the meeting, before the conversation, before the thing, I'm kind of internally mess. Because I live for done. I really like done.

And the reason is because I think before the meeting, I get nervous. I'm not sure how it's going to go. Before the project it's done, I'm anxious because I'm not uncertain of the outcome. When there's work to get done, I get stressed because there's still so much to do. And oftentimes I'm self-preoccupied, but like, okay, how well am I going to do? Or even that sense of until I'm done, I'm not in control. Because if I'm out of control, because I have to make the result just so. Like, you know, I don't know if that makes any sense, but I just realize that I and maybe a lot of us, we wait.

Like we wait until we're done or we wait until we're there. And so what I find myself doing is I find myself putting off a lot of joy until I'm there. I probably putting off a lot of peace until I'm done. I found myself in some ways putting off life until I get there. You know this whole Lent, here we are on Palm Sunday, this whole Lent, we've been training. Right? Because this season of Lent, we know the season of Lent is not just a time of self-denial and not just a time of self-discipline. It's a time of asceticism. A Cesis means training. And so we're

training to become like Jesus. We want in this week and up to next week with Easter, we want to be the kind of people that we weren't at the beginning of this, right? We want to be trained to be more and more like Jesus. And so what have we done? We've entered that place of training, right? The place of the way, that dojo, the place of the way, has been silenced. We entered into the desert. The place of the way was the crossroads. The place of the way was the valley. The place of the way was home. last week we realized the place of the way was the dead ends that the Lord leads us to. But I'd say this Sunday, this is the final place of the way. And I think it's maybe the most profound, maybe the most crucial place of the way,

especially for those of us who want to just be there, right? For those of us who want to just be done, the most important place of the way is here. For those of us who just want to be done, the most important place of the way is life. life on the way. I would say this, I would say to be like Jesus. If we want to really truly look like Jesus,

want to have our focus like Jesus, we especially, again, if you're like me and you just want to be there, the place of the way is here. If I just want to be done, the place of the way is actually on the way. So for the last couple years, I'm literally for the last maybe two or three years,

every day I've been struck by something, maybe sometimes a couple times a day. I'm struck by something Jesus said. And it's been turning it over and over in my mind, like virtually every day. And there's something that Jesus does, that so few of us who just want to be done or who just want to be there, he does something that we rarely do. We hear it at every mass.

And you're going to hear it in a little bit. We say on the night he was betrayed, he himself took bread, and giving you thanks, he said the blessing, and gave it to his disciples. The thing that's been striking me, every day for over two years is that line

in giving you thanks that he took the chalice in giving you thanks and I was a pause on this and it asked the question when does Jesus seize the opportunity to give thanks? Like what's the context for Jesus giving thanks? The context is on the night he was betrayed

he took the bread to the blessing giving thanks that I realized that for myself like I want to give thanks I totally I want to make thanks a vital part of my life. I want to make it a regular part of my life, but I realize that when I want to give thanks, I want to give thanks when I get what I want, right? That kind of makes sense. You get what you want to give thanks when I'm not worried anymore. I want to give thanks

when I'm not stressed out anymore. I want to give thanks when I'm done, right? When the work is finished, the task is finished, I want to give thanks after the end. I want to give thanks when things are all better. When I'm healed, I want to give thanks that when I'm answered. I want to give thanks that when I'm rested. I want to give thanks when I'm calm. I want to thank when things are complete. I want to give thanks when I'm there. Question, when does Jesus give thanks? Jesus gives thanks in the midst of, he gives thanks in the middle of the worst moment of his entire life. Jesus gives thanks as he enters into the worst pain of his life. Jesus give thanks as he enters into that we're suffering. Jesus gives thanks on the night he was betrayed in the midst of

betrayal, in the midst of denial, in the midst of being abandoned. In some ways, you realize that the depths of Jesus' passion haven't even started yet. Basically, he has everything left to do. And here, in this place, Jesus gives thanks. And this is the truth. This is the crucial part of the way. Not there, but here. The crucial part of the way is not when we're done. The crucial part of the way is on the way, in the midst right here. And the question we have to ask is, can I live here? That if I'm like Jesus, can I stay, can I remain here? Now the question to ask is, can I stand in the middle of it all

and thank God before it's over? Can I stand in the middle of everything? And thank God before I'm done. The question is, can I thank God here? You know, this whole Lent we've been following that, Japanese Catholic man, Takashi Nagai. And if you rate his story, you hear his story, I know so many people have listened and said,

I've been so inspired by Takashi Nagai. He's moved my heart so much, but you realize that he's a very ordinary person. He's just a very ordinary Catholic. Basically, there's nothing overtly remarkable about his accomplishments. Yeah, he was a great doctor, radiologist, and yes, he sacrificed himself to save people's lives,

but he would have said he's just doing his job. Yeah, he had a great relationship. He loved his wife, Madori. He loved their two kids. But again, if you asked him, he'd just say, no, this is just what a husband does, this is just what a father does. And yes, he survived Nagasaki,

he survived the atomic bomb. But so did other people. So the question is like, why him? Why is this man so inspiring? I think the reason, one of the many reasons, is because even though he was like us, he's pulled in so many different directions, even when he talks about this,

in bells for Nagasaki, in the book, A Song for Nagasaki, he talks about how distracted he was, how he wrestled with being distracted. When he was at home, he was constantly torn back to, he wanted to go to his work, and when he was at work,

he wanted to be home. But he battled that out, and he fought to be right here. That he actually fought for that by giving thanks here. In fact, one of his sayings was, for all that has been, thanks, for all that will be, yes. And he tried to live that every day. Again, he just like us, he was distracted. He wanted to be there. He wanted to be done.

But, okay, for all that has been, thanks, for all that will be, yes. The remarkable thing is that my choosing are trying to give thanks in ordinary moments that paved the way for him to be able to give thanks in extraordinary moments. For him to basically just give thanks when things were very, very normal, it made it possible for him to give thanks when things were completely out of the ordinary. In fact, there's this moment in his book where when he finds his wife's Midori, his wife, Midori's body, among the ruins of the... home. And it says this. It says that he could see. He found her body, the ashes of her body,

the ruins of her body, the remains of her body. He said, he could see that she died in the kitchen that she loved. sobbing, he picked up a heat buckled pale and knelt to gather her bones. What was that dull glint among the powdered bones of her right hand? Though the beads were melted into a blob, the chain and cross identified it as the rosary, that he had seen slipping through her fingers so often, and he bowed his head and sobbed. Dearest God, thank you for allowing her to die praying. Mother of sorrows, thank you for being with faithful Madori at the hour of her death. And as he carefully scooped the bones into the pale, he murmured,

ah, gracious, Jesus, our Savior. You once sweat, blood, and bore the heavy cross for your crucifixion, and now you have shed peaceful light on the mystery of suffering and death on Maduris and on my own. included that whole prayer by saying, Lord, receive her with my gratitude, that he could give thanks while his heart was breaking. That he could thank God in the midst of his sobs. And that's why his life is extraordinary.

This is why his life was extraordinary that he saw and he recognized God here. He recognized God on the way and in recognizing God, he was able to give thanks before he was healed. He was able to give thanks while he was weeping. he was able to give thanks before he got there, he was able to give thanks right here. It reminds me a fact of the wisdom of a man named Blessed Salinas Casey.

Salinas Casey once said, he said, give thanks ahead of time. Again, especially for us, for you and me who want to be there, who want to be done, Salinas Casey. Now, give God thanks ahead of time. We realize we don't have to wait that we can thank God here.

We can thank God on the way, that even in the midst of the challenge, even in the midst of the pain, in the difficulty. This is what Takashi said. Tagashi, he said this. He said, each day is a gift. He said, I give thanks even for the pain. Remember, he was dying of leukemia. I give thanks for the pain because it reminds me that I'm alive to love.

Each day is a gift. I give thanks even for the pain because it reminds me that I'm alive to love. and it reminds us too of Jesus that Jesus is a Jesus in this moment on the night he was betrayed what does he do ahead of time he gives thanks what's he do in the midst of his passion

he gives thanks what does Jesus do while he's on the way he gives thanks and this is the last thing I think it's profound that the phrase thank you and Takashi Naga's Japanese language is the word

arigato you might know that word aragato means thank you but in fact doing some research in this and in fact it says in the book the song for nagasaki it says that arigato is more than just casual

like thanks or even more than just a casual thank you that the word aragato comes from two Japanese characters that put together mean this came into existence with difficulty.

That's what Arragato means. Thank you means this came into existence with difficulty. So Takashi says, every day is a gift. Why? Because basically, Arrogato acknowledges and recognizes the giftedness of this moment. Essentially, it's saying, if you say Artegato to someone, you're saying what you've done is rare. What you're saying is it didn't have to happen. You're saying it was not owed

and I want to honor that every time we say thank you every time we say that like Takashi would say that Arregato it is this came into existence with difficulty it was not owed to me it was rare and I want to honor that

and that's us that's where we find ourselves today on this Palm Sunday on this day that we walk with Jesus through his passion we recognize that each day each moment each breath and each heartbeat all of it is undeserved. That what Jesus has done for us, it didn't have to happen.

And yet here we are. Here we are receiving God's grace. And this came into existence with difficulty. New life that you and I have in Jesus that came into existence with difficulty. Therefore, I would say this. I would say like Jesus, we give God thanks ahead of time.

Because of this like Jesus, we give God thanks in the midst. Like Jesus, we give God thanks before we're there. Like Jesus, we give God thanks on the way. And like Jesus, we give God thanks right here. Because the place of the way is here.