Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 05/01/22 Wasted Potential

Episode Date: May 2, 2022

Homily from the Third Sunday of Easter. Use your potential. Jesus called Peter to sacrifice his potential so that his life and his death might glorify God. You are I are called to pick our spot, to pour ourselves out in such a way that God would be known, loved, and glorified. Mass Readings from May 1, 2022: Acts 5:27-32, 40-41 Psalms 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-13Revelation 5:11-14 John 21:1-19

So as I mentioned, this last mass, it's the last mass with all of us. And we're going to, again, as I said, we're going to have mass next weekend for all the CSS people and anyone who's like stragglers. But this is the last mass with all of us, which is, it's kind of bittersweet. It's bitter because it is hard to see you go. But it's sweet because that's just what has to happen. There's an element. And I think you probably have experienced those of you who realize here's what's coming, like, this is what has to happen. You have to go. It's hard. It's bitter, but it's also sweet

because it's what has to have. I just, yeah. You know, it's incredible. To be able to be here, to be able to be on campus, to be able to be with you, it's one of those incredible things where I get to every single year, every single weekend, every single day, basically. I get to see just a church right now, even full of potential, that every single one of you has so much, so much potential. I just look out right now, honestly, and see all the potential opportunities, all the potential future, all the potential impact you can make on not only your life, with the lives of the people you care about. All the potential challenges, tonight truly, this church is full of potential, which makes me think of what Jesus said to Peter. You know, this whole context of John's Gospel

right now at the end of the story. Here is, we know the story. Simon Peter, he has denied Jesus. He has, he's left Jesus. He's now come back and he's been read. but here I love this where he gets the chance not only be reconciled with Jesus. I don't know if he caught this. He gets restored. Not only is he forgiven, but Jesus gives him back his old job. Like you get to be Pope still, Peter, that kind of a thing. When he says, feed my sheep, ten my lambs, he's giving, he's restoring Peter so fully that basically, Peter, all the potential you had back in Matthew 16, where I made you the first pope, I'm giving you all that potential back. And he does that, but then he does something really,

really profound. He reminds Peter about how he used to be. He reminds Peter of how he used to live. Where he says, Peter, when you were young, you used to dress yourself, you used to go where you wanted to go. And this is one of those things that we could all hear Jesus saying this to us, right?

We could hear Jesus looking at us and saying, remember when you were young. Remember this moment right before summer, like you're staring down the barrel of a whole summer right ahead of you. And like how much freedom that was? Like just, again, looking at ahead to like, I got three months off or however,

many months off, like, I get to do whatever I want to do. Like, that freedom of childhood, that freedom, that independence, that there's so much potential. In fact, when you graduated, most likely from high school, someone probably gave you a book by Dr. Seuss. And all the places you'll go, right? That thing. Like, because in that book, it's embedded this idea.

All the places you go, basically, the places you have the potential to go, the things you have the potential to do. When you're young, you're so full of potential. And I've heard it said this exact thing, that young people are so blessed because you get to be nothing but potential. You can do anything. But if we remain nothing but potential,

then you aren't really anything. There's a church, a church full of people who are filled with potential. But really, if we think about it, to be nothing but potential is kind of like being nothing. At some point, the potential has to be used. At some point, the potential has to become

actual. At some point, you know, we can get tired of living in such a way where we say, like, I could do this or that, I could be this or that, I could be whatever I want. At some point, we have to make the decision. I'm going to do this, not that. I'm going to be this, not that. At some place in our lives where unlimited potential becomes limited and actual. And that's why after pointing out his potential, Jesus says, but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. And I hear that. I'm like, I don't like that at all.

Like, thank you, Jesus, but no thank you. I like the first thing. I like the potential thing. I like all the things you possibly could do. Why? Because I think all of us, we want our freedom, which is a good. All of us, we want the strength. We want the gift.

We want the talent. We want the potential. When Jesus says, but the day is coming, that's scary, but the alternative is worse. because the alternative is to be given so much freedom and then to just waste it. The alternative is to be given so much independence and then not use it. The alternative, the tragic alternative is to be filled with gifts and filled with strength and to waste it.

The tragedy is to be filled with potential and never do anything with it. Why? Because you've been given your freedom to be used. You've been given your gifts to be used. you've been given potential to be used, and not just to be used, but to be used for something. And Jesus actually says what that something is. After he says this whole thing, John highlights that Jesus said this. What does he say?

That you're filled with potential, but the day is going to come where you stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you, take you where you do not want to go. And John highlights, Jesus said this signifying by what kind of death Peter would glorify God. Those words, these words have been, they've been like deep in my heart for a long, long time now, in anticipation of this night, right being here with you, because we know this. We know that God is meant to be known and loved. He's meant to be glorified by our lives, by the way in which we live. But God is actually also meant to be known and glorified by our deaths. By the way we die. Of course, by how we live and use our gifts, but also how we die and how

we pour out our gifts. And so again, we have a church full of potential, but it's all meant to be used for something and that something is God's glory. That where you pour yourself out, where you choose to let go of potential and actually pour yourself out is meant to glorify God somehow, where basically somewhere where he'd be known, somewhere where his goodness would be revealed, where his love would be on display, where his faithfulness would be on display. Jesus said this, signifying by what kind of death, Peter would glorify God. Basically, Peter's saying out of all the options, out of all the potential, I'm choosing, here. Out of all the places it could be, I'm choosing now. This spot, I'm going to use it. I hear,

this is where I'm going to be poured out. About a week ago, I was here in this church for a wedding to graduates, recent graduates. And it's really interesting. Whenever, whenever there's a wedding, there is, a wedding is a definitive moment. The wedding always signifies something definitive. Basically, one of the things it signifies is no more potential. What I mean by that is no more potential romance. That they come to get married because they're saying, okay, no more potential romantic partners. They're saying, okay, I'm no more,

am I going to be looking out there for someone? It's not out there, it's right here. Not someone, it's you. They come right here and they look at the other person and they say, you get the best of me. You get the best of me. they're also saying you get the worst of me but that's another homily but but in that moment there's all this potential that is freely given up that they come forward they say i do they say yes and the crazy

thing is they have no idea what that yes means they have no idea what that yes will entail because what they're ultimately saying is whatever it means for me to love you for the rest of my life whatever that means whatever that entails wherever that leads whatever that looks like that's what i'm saying yes to whatever it means to love you for the rest of my life, whoever that looks, wherever that leads. Whatever that entails, that's what I'm saying yes to. So after this whole thing where Jesus says, Peter, you had so much potential,

the day's going to come where you need to pour yourself out. He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus looks at Peter and he says, now, follow me. And ultimately Peter says, yes. Not having any idea where that's going to lead. but we see where it led, right? We see in the first reading today, in the Acts of the Apostles,

where that led. We have Peter and the other apostles. They're preaching, and what happens? It's not happy. It's not as happy as when Jesus was preaching and healing people until the end. They bring Peter and the apostles in front of the Sanhedron, and the Sanhedrons say, we gave you strict orders, did we not, to stop preaching in that name.

Yet you fill this whole city with the name of Jesus. And what does Peter say? He says, we must obey God rather than men. Essentially, Peter points back to this moment in John's Gospel at the end of this whole thing where Jesus says, follow me. When Peter said yes to that, when he said yes to Jesus, he said yes to whatever it means to follow Jesus, wherever that leads. In this place of difficulty in front of the Sanhedron, that's one of the places where it led.

And the same thing is true for us. When you and I said yes to Jesus, what we said was whatever it means to follow Jesus for the rest of our lives, lives, that's what we said yes to. To give up potential and say, here's where I'm going to pour myself out. To be able to say, Jesus, you get the best of me and you get the worst of me. But to say yes means you picked your spot. It means we said, okay, here, now, this is where it all goes into the ground. I, you know Nick Davidson. If you've never met him, you know that I've Brett mentioned him. It's basically I mentioned Jesus, Mary, Mother Teresa, and then Nick Davidson. So Nick Davidson, I talk about him way too much. But Nick's my best friend, and I met Nick a number of years

ago. Well, he grew up in Duluth. He was raised Pentecostal at an Assemblies of God Church here. And then when he graduated high school, he went down to a Bible college in the Twin Cities. And he met his wife there. They got married. And they became missionaries to China for a couple years. They came back to Duluth with the idea that she would get her prerex for medical school and that he would get his pallets license. And then they'd be medical missionaries for the rest of their lives in foreign missions. In the course of that time, they went randomly to, well, providentially, they went to this, random basically, Tuesday night mass up at St. Glastica that I happened to be at. And we kind of hit it off and they said, we have questions. And I said, well, I have answers.

So we started talking and eventually they both became Catholic. And in the process, you know, Nick was hired as a youth minister here in town. And, you know, this diocese has a bunch of really good youth ministers, like exceptional youth ministers. Like really incredible people who have and given so much. Out of all of them, I'd say Nick is the, he's the model. He up so many people come to the Lord. In fact, there are people even here tonight who said that because of Nick's talks, because he's so gifted when it comes to presenting, he's so gifted when it comes to preaching and just speaking. They said, because Nick Davidson came to my high school when I was in high school, and that's the reason why I'm Catholic today. He is so,

so blessed. His wife did go on to become a doctor, and they now have five kids, and Nick told me a couple of months, a bunch of months ago that he and his wife and the five kids are moving to Cambodia. He said, that's where we're going to live for the rest of our lives. We're just going to serve the people of Cambodia. My wife as a doctor, and I'm just going to do whatever I can. And he asked me, hey, can you help me? Can you, like, we have to pay some things and, like, raise money to be missionaries in Cambodia. Would you help me? And I didn't tell him this until a couple months ago, but no, because I think what he's doing is a waste. I think he's wasting his potential.

I don't know any better presenter than Nick Davidson. I love presenting the theology of the body with them. When we do the theology of the body day or a retreat or a camp, like he's the funny one. I get to be like Dean Martin. He's Jerry Lewis. It's a whole thing. I'm like, the theology of the body is.

And he's like, why? You know, and everyone loves it. And I'm saying like, you do, okay, dude, you're going to a place where they don't know the language. Sorry, you know, they do. They know their language. You don't know their language. Your gift is being able to present the gospel in a powerful way. You're going to a place where you can't speak the gospel to them.

It's a waste. And no, I'm not going to help you. But that didn't sit really well with me. And so my mind kept going back to this man named Maximilian Colby. Some of you know Maximilian Colby. I talk about him a lot too. His story is he was a Franciscan priest back in the day around the time of World War II. Maximilian Colby was an incredibly gifted guy.

I mean, in fact, when he was a kid, Mary appeared to him. And so that's one of those things you're like, you kind of set on a good trajectory when Mary appears to you. And super blessed. And Mary said, what do you want? Do you want a crown of purity or a crown of martyrdom? And the little kid's like, I want both. Mary says, okay, that's what's coming. Maximilian Colby was a genius.

When he became a priest, he began this apostolate that completely spanned the world. He began a publication that at one time had over a million subscribers to his magazine that he would write and print. Maximilian Colby founded the world's largest Franciscan monastery with over 700 people in it. Now think about that. He was responsible for over 700 people's formation, so they would be responsible for how many, how many other people's formation? He was in charge of that. He started the whole thing. He had this massive printing apostolate. But most of us don't know that about him. Most of us know what happened when the Nazis invaded Poland. He was put into Auschwitz. and after serving the people there, at one point, there were a couple prisoners that escaped

and the guards in order to punish the rest of the people, they picked 10 men at random to die by execution through starvation. The 10th man they chose broke down, started sobbing and begging the guards, please don't kill me, I have a wife, I have children, please let me live. And at that moment, that's when Maximilian Colby stepped forward and he said, I'll die in his place. They asked him, why would you do this? And he said, because he's, he, has a wife and children, and I don't. I'm a Catholic priest. That's why. And he did die. You know, the incredible thing about his story is, I only knew that part for most of my life. For most of my life, I only knew the end. For most of my life, I only knew that he sacrificed himself for this married man.

I had no idea all the things that came before this. I had no idea the potential in Maximilian Colby. I had no idea that if he just would have hung on for one more year, if he would have just stayed alive for one more year, he could have gone back to this incredible global apostolate. He could have gone back to this place where he was a missionary to Japan. He did know language, though. He could have had this apostolate where he could resume all of the work that he had done before the war. He could have helped rebuild Europe after the war.

But here's this one guy, and Maximilian Colby said, yes, because of God, I have a lot of potential, but I'm going to pour it out right here for him. That's the one thing I knew about him. the kind of death by which he would glorify God. You wonder like, where did he get that from? I think it's from the big image hanging on the wall in front of us. This is the pattern that Jesus has laid out for us, right? Here's Jesus.

There's no one with any more potential than Jesus, right? I mean, how many times? Jesus, they tried to kill him and he just walked away. On Good Friday, they could have tried to kill him. He could have walked away again. He could have said, listen, there's more people to heal. There's more people to raise from the dead. There's more people to teach.

There's more people to save. But what did Jesus say? I'm letting go of my potential. I'm going to choose this spot. I'm going to pour myself out right here, right now for you. He could have held on to his potential, but he poured himself out in a way that was more powerful than this world has ever seen.

Jesus said, when I'm lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself. Here is where I will make my sacrifice. And that's what I've been praying about. And that's why I had to talk to Nick recently and saying, Nick, I was wrong. You know, Nick is always, he's always said that he wants to be Job's kids.

You know the book of Job? In the book of Job, he starts out. Job starts out as this righteous man. He's got everything. He's got a bunch of kids. He's got a bunch of land. He's got a bunch of wealth. And at one point, his kids all get killed.

And that's part of what brought Job closer to the heart of the father. And Nick has always looked at himself and said, I want to be Job's kids. I just want to be the kind of person that if I pour myself out, It helps someone else get closer to the heart of the father. So it makes sense, right? He's going to Cambodia with his wife and their five kids. It makes sense to say, this is as good a spot as any to pour myself out.

I could spend the rest of my life clinging to my potential, or I could say, no. Here. Now, for you, it's as good a place as any to pour oneself out. It's as good a place as any for God to be glorified. And this is the last thing. That's how Nick's going to pour himself out.

That's how Maximilian Colby poured himself out. That's how Jesus poured himself out. Question, how will you? I'm in a church right now looking at people who are filled with so much potential. How will you let go of your potential and actually pour yourself out? I think for most of us, it's not going to be all at once. I think for most of us, it's like step by step. It's kind of incremental.

It's really simple. That Jesus says, follow me. And so we say, okay, yes. I think today, I think, think this summer, follow me, might be as simple as showing up. I think for a lot of us, follow me and saying yes to that is as simple as saying, okay, yeah, I said I would pray, so I'm going to pray. I could be doing a bunch of other things, but I said I'd pray, so I'm going to pray. I'm going to daily mass. Like, there's a thousand other things I possibly could do,

could be potentially doing something else. But I said yes, and so I show up. I think follow me and saying yes to that just looks like sometimes honoring our commitments, not knowing where that's going to lead because why? Because Peter had no idea, right? Peter had no idea where this would lead. And Jesus didn't tell him. He simply, Jesus simply extended the invitation to leave potential behind and say yes. And Peter did. And Peter died. And God indeed was glorified. And so now it's your turn. There is so much potential here. So say yes. Pick your spot. Leave potential behind and be poured out and may God be glorified by your life.