Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 04/28/19 #Fail: Free to Fail

Episode Date: April 29, 2019

Homily from Divine Mercy Sunday. Failure is the one necessary prerequisite for God’s greatest gift. Many people battle with perfectionism. God’s mercy in the midst of failure is His remedy for the fear that failure is the end. Mass Readings from April 28, 2019: Acts 5:12-16 Psalms 118:2-4, 13-15, 22Revelation 1:9-11, 12-13, 17-19 John 20:19-31 Download the Homily Study

So when I was growing up, my parents kind of made me do a bunch of different sports that I was not good at. I'm not blaming them. It was their pressure, though, and it was their genes that I inherited. So, yeah, actually, it's their fault. I was not, I mean, one of the sports that I was very not good at, I was good at for a really brief time in my life. I was good at baseball for a very brief moment. The moment between T-ball and the time when pitchers got good. So that time in between was like the sweet spot for me because that's what I would do.

I would get up to the plate and I would just stand there. And they would throw four balls in a row. I'm like, take my base. Or I get struck out. You know, that's one of the two. But it would happen. Like, the number of times that I would get to base without swinging the bat were roughly 51% to my, you know, 49% of just standing there and having them throw three strikes and getting struck out.

So I'm like, those are, they're not the worst odds in the world. And so I would just stand there. I would get it to the plate and be like, no, I'll just, they're not good at pitching. I'm not good at batting, so I'm going to walk. And this was even in spite of the fact that my teacher, or the coaches, and my parents were like, no, no, no, just swing. Like, just try, just go for it. And I'm like, yeah, but I could strike out.

And they said, we would rather you tried and struck out. We'd rather you tried and failed than not to try and make it to base. So I quit baseball. Because there's that thing. There's, you know, even though they would say, we'd rather you tried and failed. failed, then just stand there and make it to the base. But what if I fail? And they're responsive. We don't care if you fail.

Just try. But I don't know if you have this. I don't know if you have the same thing I had. There was this, I don't want to try because I could fail. I don't want to try because I could fail. You think about how many times, like in this game, it's really easy for that to get in our brains because how many of the things we do, how much of the stuff that we get involved in, and it's all about, okay, just whatever you just don't screw up. Whatever you do, just don't mess up. Whatever you do, just don't say something stupid.

Whatever you do, don't do something wrong. Whatever you do, just don't embarrass yourself. And so we can hear those things like, don't do this, don't do that, don't do these other things, so often that we can begin to associate success with not doing something. As long as you just don't do that thing, you're a success. We can begin to associate a success with what a person has avoided doing rather than what a person has actually done. Because we are afraid of the F word, the other F word. Not what you're thinking.

It is four letters. We're afraid to fail. We're afraid to fail. So better not to try than to try and to fail. So, you know, I've been praying about these last three weeks. We have three weeks left on campus. We will have a baccalaureate mass after graduation. So that's our three Sundays right in a row.

And this last home stretch, I was like, I don't want to do a series, because this list has, you know, three independent Sundays. And then the Lord was like, no, dude, he calls me dude, Father Dude, you got to do the thing. And the series that the Lord introduced to us for these last three weeks is hashtag fail. Because we realize that this is one of the key things. You ever see those fail videos? I love fail videos so much. They're named like in Monster Fail or their Epic Fail or, you know, Fail Army.com.

It's one of my favorite websites. It's bookmarked in my folder. I like to see the fail. I don't like to do the fail. Something really interesting about those people on the fail blogs, fellow blogs or fail videos, though. They're all trying something. Again, when it comes to all, every one of those fail videos,

yeah, they're all failing, but they're all trying something. I'm not recommending this. I mean, honestly, how many times you have to watch a video of someone trying to jump from a roof to the pool to realize you don't always make it? Let's just, here's a side point right quick. I just, I have to say this is a public service announcement. If you ever have that sense of, I think I can make that, I think I can jump that far, and there's a big chasm there.

Here's my recommendation to you. Measure out how far that is. Put two strips of tape on the lawn and see if you can jump from one strip to the other. If you can't, don't jump off the roof. Anyways, we're in the midst of this last piece of the semester, and to have that idea of failure can be really staring us right down, staring us in the face. We can look at exams and like, I'm afraid to fail. We can look at our presentation.

I'm afraid to fail. Many of you, in the next couple days, you have the presentation of your life so far. I'm afraid to fail. You have your senior recital. I'm afraid to fail. You're interviewing for jobs. You're interviewing for grad school. And I just don't want to fail.

Why? Because I think so many of us, we don't want to risk because we don't want to face the consequences of trying and failing. Because I think so many of us have been conditioned to see failure as final and losing as lasting. And so many of us have a big condition by this to see failure, that's final. That's the end. And then when we lose, that's lasting.

But you know it's not the end. And no, you might think, well, Father, I get it. Like, you know, the fail test is not the end of the story. To fail a presentation at the end of the story. But you don't understand. Like, you don't know how I've failed. And that can imagine there's some people here in this place this morning who'd say, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's nice and everything.

But you don't know how I've failed. I've encountered a loss that there is no recovery from. So maybe for other people, failure isn't final. Maybe for other people losing isn't lasting, but you don't know my story. My story is that I'm done. It's over. And so this whole like hashtag fail thing is paralyzing. And I know that, but I know that also some of you also know better than that.

Some of you know what it is, that with to have a losing be your lesson. that it was that time where failure was your turning point, that you had to lose, and you lived through this already, you had to lose what you thought you couldn't live without in order to gain what you never knew you needed. For as many of us here who think that, no, failure is final. There are so many others who have lived through it, and we realize, no, actually, I had to fail in order to be free.

I had to fail in order to be free. Because there's this thing called perfectionism, that affects and afflicts so many of us, that I'm not free to fail. And that perfectionism, one of the things it does is you say, no, no, my perfectionism drives me, and it might to a point. But then what happens is your perfectionism

holds you back, because it means then I can't try, because what if I try and I fail? So rather than trying and failing, I'm not going to try, and I'll be perfect. I'll just avoid trying, and I'll avoid failing. Because I'm not going to do this, because I might fail. It's one of the reasons I love this.

I heard this story of a dad who, from his grown children, this guy said, when I was growing up, my dad would ask us at the end of the day, hey, where'd you fail today? Just ask, that was the question. At the end of the day, sitting around the kitchen table for supper was where'd you fail today? And his person said, he was actually disappointed if we couldn't give him an example of where we failed because he's like, that means he didn't try. That means he didn't get stretched. that every day you should experience some kind of failure, because that means every day you actually got up out of bed and lived. That means every day you got up out of bed and you tried.

Because we learned that losing is learning when you're free to fail. But again, so many of us are stuck with this perfectionism, especially when we come here, especially when it comes to following Jesus. We have this idea that, no, I'm not free to fail when it comes to following Jesus that have to be perfect, we have to pretend to be perfect, to be a follower of Jesus, is never to fail.

And then you have to ask the question in response to that, have you never read the Bible? Like if we never heard the story, we just heard. This is what? This is the day of the resurrection. And Jesus appears to all their disciples

and walks among them, even though the doors are locked. Why are they locked? Because they're afraid. And Jesus appears to them, and every person he's looking at right in the eye is a loser. Every person in that room

has failed Jesus. Every one of those apostles, They've failed him. So if they say, well, I have to follow Jesus, I can't fail. I follow Jesus, I can't lose. I have to follow Jesus. I have to be perfect. Is absolutely getting the story exactly backwards.

You can be so afraid to fail, but failure is not final. In fact, in fact, it's even more. Failure is the necessary precondition for God's greatest gift. And say that again. Failure is the one necessary precondition for God's greatest gift. What's God's greatest gift? Say, well, okay, God has so many gifts. He's given us, right?

So God's gift of life, the universe. That's pretty nice gift. It gets better. Your life. It's even greater gift. What about, he's giving me the gift of faith. Awesome, wonderful. You give him hope.

Great, so good. He's giving you a gift of eternal life. That's a fantastic gift. Blessings, all the bustings in your life. Those still don't even come close to God's greatest gift. What is God's greatest gift? What is the love? Okay, yes, but a certain kind of love.

love that we know we don't deserve. That love has a name and that name is mercy. The greatest gift God has ever given is mercy. What's mercy? Mercy is the love we know we don't deserve. Mercy is the love. Mercy is the love that God gives to those who have failed. Mercy is the love that God gives to those who have failed.

The thing about mercy is you have to need it before it can be given. if you don't need mercy, God can't give it to you. If you haven't failed, God can't be merciful to you. In fact, the precondition, the one necessary precondition, for God to love you in this way, that you've never been loved before. His greatest gift is that you've actually failed. That is the necessary precondition. We have to need it before it can be given to us.

That's why Jesus comes into the locked room. And what does he say? He says to his apostles, he says, shalom, peace. It goes even further. He says, has the Father sent me? As mercy itself, I now send you. Think about this incredible gift that Jesus in this moment, he forgives them of their sins. And then what's he did, he says, now I've forgiven you of your sins and breathes on them and give them the ability to hear confessions and forgive others of their sins. Those who sins you forgive are forgiven. Those who sins you don't forgive and retain. They're retained. And even how John

ends the gospel today. He says Jesus did many other things that aren't written in this book, but these have been written. Why? Because you don't believe it. These have been written. Why? Because after all Jesus has done, you're still so afraid to fail that you don't believe you can trust him when you've fallen. These have been written. Why? So you can come to believe that he is the Christ and that by believing you can have life in his name. What is it to believe other than to trust him after you failed. That's why this whole, that's why John says, this is the whole reason I wrote this book. The whole reason I wrote the gospel of John named after me, whatever, no big deal, is that after you hear these stories, you'll know, wait a second, I am free to fail because I'm free

to trust. That failure is not final. You know, even though John wrote those words 2,000 years ago. You and I, we're still afflicted with this fear. Even though he wrote these words, and even though the church has said again and again, listen, you're Catholics, brothers and sisters, you are free to fail, you're free to try again, you're free to trust him. We don't do it. In fact, that's our greatest, our greatest wound is that after everything God has done for us, we don't trust him. He asked the question, like, what more could Jesus do? I mean, you guys, you walk to a Catholic Church anywhere in the world and what's kind of the prominent artwork. It is a man on a cross basically saying, do you have any idea how much I love you? And we walk in and say,

yeah, yeah, yeah, as long as I don't mess up. What the cross proclaims is you are free to fail. And you're free to trust the one who always gives you this thing, this mercy, which is love for those who have failed. Love for those who know they don't deserve love. But we still don't get it. So what happened in 1930, back in the day, there's this girl, her name was Sister Faustina. She was a Polish young woman. And she's in her 20s at this time. And Jesus appears there and starts

giving her all these visions, starts giving her this message and messages what today's Sunday is named after, the message of divine mercy. And basically, after all these messages, there's kind of three things that Jesus was trying to communicate to Faustina to communicate to the world. One is this image. This image standing right here. This is the image of divine mercy.

And Jesus is basically saying, listen, here is what I want you to know about me. Here's what I want this world that has fallen into so much discouragement and so much darkness and so much woundedness and so much lack of trust. Here's what I need you to know about me is that he's walking out of this door. And what's happening? He's walking towards you. If you come here later on after Mass and look at his feet, he's walking towards us. He's not running away from us.

He's saying, I actually want you. And what is this? What is this? His pierced hand is raised. How is it raised? Is pierced hand right so there's wounds there, just like in the gospel today? Which it raised is not raised in a fist. It's not God, I'm here to crush you.

This is not Divine Vengeance Sunday, you guys. This Divine Justice Sunday? No, this is Divine Mercy Sunday. He raises his hand in blessing, pointing to his heart, and what comes out of his heart are these two rays, blue rays and red rays. The blue rays stand for baptism. That I want to wash you clean. The red rays stand for the Eucharist, which is my blood given for you.

And at the bottom of this image are those five words, and in the center of those, that sentence is the, one word, Jesus, I trust in you. And so this image is an image where Jesus said, come to this image and trust in me. Second thing God Jesus gave to us through St. Faustina was Divine Mercy Sunday. As I mentioned this, it's so crazy to think about this. At one point, on New Year's Eve, Jesus gave Faustina a vision of the sins of the world that were happening at that very moment.

Just a glimpse of the sins happening that night on New Year's Eve. You can imagine. So Faustina had this image for an instant. That was all it was. It was all she could take. She said it was all she could do not to have her heart broken in her chest. And after she saw this, she looked at Christ and she said, Jesus, how could you possibly still love us?

Could have been the same thing last night. Could have been the same thing Friday night. If we had a glimpse of really the things that we choose and how much they wound the Lord, we could ask the same question. Jesus said, honestly, how could you possibly still love us? But here's what Jesus said. He said, I'm sending you, Tostina, with my mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind.

You're hurting. You've failed. You've fallen. You're wounded. He goes on to say, I desire to heal it. I don't desire to punish aching mankind. How can you still love us? Listen, I'm not here to punish.

I'm here to heal. And he went on to say, on this day, Divine Mercy Sunday, the second gift, right? The first gift is the image. The second gift is the Sunday. He says, on this day, the very depths of my tender mercy are open, and I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of my mercy,

that no soul fear to draw near to me, even though it sins be like scarlet. And so the promises associated with this, I mentioned the beginning of Mass. If you go to confession on this day and receive Holy Communion on this day, it's like the day of your baptism. you're made completely new. Jesus promised this.

So we have the image. We have Divine Mercy Sunday. Sorry, you're like, shoot, we have a question before Mass. 45 minutes. You're right. We're also at the end of this Mass, I'm going to go to the end of the room. I'll make a break left, and I'm right behind that little divider. And I'll hear confessions as long as you need.

Because this is the day that Jesus has said, I want to make you as new as I possibly can, as you possibly can be made new, like the day of your baptism. So if you need to get prepped for that for the rest of this Mass, get prepped for that for the rest of this Mass. But the third gift God gave Faustina, not just the image, not just Sunday. He gave this prayer called the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. And it says, prayer. He prayed on a rosary beads.

And he has all these promises associated with it. In fact, in your bulletin, there's these, I think it's 12 promises. Am I right? Am I wrong? Twelve promises, maybe 14. I don't know. I'm not good at math. Promises in your bulletin associated with those who prayed the chaplain of divine mercy.

and he said, Jesus said, by saying the chaplet, you're bringing humankind closer to me. And the souls that say this chaplet will be embraced by their mercy during their lifetime, and especially at the hour of their death. You know, it's so interesting, the power of this chapel is kind of the last thing. Especially when we feel like we failed. Especially not a no, especially when we actually have failed. The power of the chaplain, the power of God's mercy when we've failed so hard that it's over for us. There's this nun. Her name is Sister Gaudia. She's from Poland. She's actually part of St.

Faustina's community. She just was in my hometown about a month ago, Brainer. She was there with another sister, sister, Veritas. They spoke to my family and talked to the people of the parish. And it was remarkable. They told this story, and this true story back in Poland, it had just happened a number of years ago. Where there's a relatively young priest. He was in a hospital, and he was visiting some of his parishioners, and he was walking down the hall. away at this hospital. There's this none who stopped him and said, Father, can you go into this room, this hospital room? There's a man, he's on his deathbed. He's been here for days, but he chases everyone away. We've asked priests to go in, and he chases everyone away. He doesn't want to

talk about Jesus, but he's dying. Could you please just like, just go and visit him? He says, okay, fine, no, no problem, I'll go in. He goes in and he says, hey, you know, I'm Father so-and-so, would you like to talk? The guy, and the guy just erupts, like absolutely, He starts cursing at him and Dionne. I'm like, no, I don't want anything to do with you. Just take your stuff. Get out of here. And it's so angry, so mad.

And so the priest is like, okay, gotcha. It happens to us as priests in hospitals. Like, I understand. And he left. He went in the hallway, and there's a nun still there. She's like, could you go back in? And he's like, sister. He doesn't want confession.

He doesn't want anything I have to offer. She's like, but could you just go back in? Just give it another chance. So the priest, a normal guy, right? He's like, okay, I'll go back. He knocks on the door again. He says, come on in. He says, okay, I'm not going to ask if you want to confession. I'm not going to ask if you want Holy Communion. Is it okay if I just sit here next to your bed and pray the chaplain? This old man, he looks, says, I don't care.

Do whatever you want to do. So the priest sits down and starts praying the words of the chaplain. One of the prayers in the chaplain of by mercy is this, for the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. As a priest says, he's praying that out loud just praying it quietly, softly, for the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. And after he says it a couple times, for the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world, the man says, stop it. The priest looks up and says, why?

He says, because there is no mercy for me. The man says, the priest asks the man, he says, why do you think there's no mercy for you? This dying man says, you don't, you don't, it doesn't matter. And the priest says, no, no, no, why do you think that there's no mercy for you? He says, okay, fine, I'll tell you. He says 25 years ago, I was working for the railroad station. And my job was to lower the railroad arm, crossing guard arm, when a train would come to prevent cars going on the tracks. But one night I did this.

It was my job and I was drunk. So I didn't lower the crossing guard arm. And a mom and a dad and their three kids were on the tracks as a train came and they were all. instantly killed. And that was my fault. So there is no mercy for me. That, like, I failed. And it's over. And he sat there. Looking at his hands, looking at the rosary, pray the chaplain on the rosary, he's looking at the rosary. And he says, um, wait, where was this? He told him the game in the name of the Polish town. He says, 25 years ago, he said, the priest looks up at the man, he says, 25 years ago, my mom and my dad,

taking my little siblings on a trip, I couldn't go with them. And they were driving through this small town. And for some reason, the crossing guard arm on the train tracks wasn't lowered. So as they were crossing the tracks, a train came and killed my mama and my dad and my siblings. And I lost my whole family that night. He looks at the man. And he says, my brother, God forgives you. Not only that, I forgive you.

The man comes to this place where he recognizes what, where he wasn't, what was happening, and realized that God's mercy was for him, that he failed, but failure was not final. And so he, the priest said, well, would you, would you let me hear your confession and give me, give you the Eucharist? So the man makes his confession, receive Holy Communion. Two days later he dies because mercy wins. failure is not final. The priest goes on a really cool story. The priest goes into the hallway and is like where's the nun? You know, because she gets, thanks, nun. And then she can't find her. So he asked the administration, hey, who's the nun who's here there? We don't actually

employ any nuns at this hospital. He doesn't know who she is for years. He doesn't know. And he goes to this, the town of Vagivniki, which is where St. Faustina was. And he goes to the convent to say, master the nuns there. And he sees a painting on the wall of St. Faustina. and he said, hey, I met that nun a couple years ago. And they're like, no, Father, you did not. She's been dead since 1938. And he says, that's the nun who told me to go into that room. Tell me to go back into that room.

Because failure is not final. Not when it comes to Jesus. So here it is. Question, what if I trust again? What if you trust again? What if you try again? What if he forgives you again? What if he lifts you up again?

And what if after all that you fail? again. Well, then you'll simply trust again and you'll simply try again. You see, you guys, to be Catholic is to be free to try again. To be Catholic is to be free to trust in Jesus. To be Catholic is to be free to fail.