Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 05/09/21 Spark Joy

Episode Date: May 10, 2021

Homily from the Sixth Sunday of Easter. Joy is rooted in confidence and comes as a consequence. We can choose joy only insofar as we can choose the source of our joy. Joy comes as a consequence; it is a fruit. And the depth and permanence of our joy is only going to be as deep and long lasting as what we place our confidence in. Only when we surrender to the love of God can we have a joy that is deeper and more permanent than any amount of suffering that comes from life. Mass Readings from May 9, 2021: Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48 Psalms 98:1-41 John 4:7-10 John 15:9-17

So I'm not sure if I mentioned this like a long time ago, but I got on this like minimalist kick over Christmas break. And so I was watching all the YouTube videos, all the tutorials on how to throw away stuff. Because you need this tutorial on how to throw away stuff. Because I was, I came across some stats that said that the average American household has over 300,000 items. We just own so much stuff that the rental property or the rental storage unit business is, in this country alone, is an $8 billion a year industry, billion. just to buy another thing to store our stuff. Like we have so much stuff that it's just like,

there's this desire to get rid of it. So I, of course, came across, we all know her, we all love her. Her name is Marie Kondo. If you know Marie Kondo, and she has this whole minimalist thing where basically if you go through your home and you want to know, should I get rid of this thing or should I keep this thing? She, as you do this thing, we like the word thing, apparently. If you want to get rid of this, here is your procedure.

She says, pick the thing up and ask yourself one question. And the question is, does this, do you guys know this one? Does this spark joy? Like, does my sweater spark joy? If it does, keep the sweater. If it doesn't, give it away or throw it away. Do my jeans, they spark joy? If they do, keep it.

If they don't, give it away, throw it away. Does my car spark joy? You know, whatever. But like the idea, it's so good. I mean, there's some limits to it, obviously. But it's such a great idea because it's not, hey, if you want to have joy in their life, go and buy something, go and get something. it's asking the question, wait, I might actually have something already

that brings joy to my life. And the fact is, I often, we often, don't acknowledge the things that are in our lives that actually should bring us joy, but we don't even stop to think about it. Imagine, again, this procedure, this exercise that she proposes, is so good because what it does is it invites us to stop and to notice it. Like to acknowledge the thing, to receive the thing,

And to realize, wait a second, this thing that brings me joy, I already have it. Like, it's yours already. You don't have to go get it. You have it already. And so one of the things that highlights about joy, we're going to talk about joy today. One of the things that highlights about joy is joy often comes not from getting something else, not from doing something else, not from accomplishing something else. Joy comes from where we focus our attention.

Joy comes so often from what we choose to look at versus what we choose not to look at. what we pay attention to versus what we don't pay attention to is often the difference between a life of joy and a life without joy. And so it's so interesting because it's our focus oftentimes that results in joy. Because a lot of us, I think, are in the pursuit of joy. A lot of us, we orient our lives around the idea that happiness, our joy is the goal.

Like that's the idea that happiness is the goal. It's what I live for, it's what I want. I want a happy life. And that's what I should have. Even we get to the point sometimes where we think, I want a happy life. That's what I should have. That's what I deserve. We might even get to the point where we think we have a right to happiness. Like we have a right to happiness. C.S. Lewis, my boy, he wrote an essay back in the day. And in it, he titled the essay, we have no right to happiness.

And I think it's really funny because he has this quote. Here it is. He says, a right to happiness sounds to me as odd as a right to have good luck. He says, I believe that we depend for a great deal of our happiness or misery on circumstances that are outside of our human control. He says, a right to happiness doesn't for me make much more sense than a right to be six feet tall or a right to have a millionaire for your father or the right to get good weather whenever we want to have a picnic. So we might live with this idea that we have a right to happiness, but Lewis points out. He's like actually happiness is oftentimes based off of conditions. It's often based off of circumstances. In fact, we're going to talk about joy tonight. There's a difference between

joy and happiness. That joy and happiness are often similar, but they're not necessarily the same thing. They overlap, but they're not the same thing. So happiness is more like this. Happiness is based off of circumstances, based off conditions and circumstances.

So if I have good conditions, I can be happy. If I have bad conditions, I'm not happy. If I have good circumstances in my life, then I can be happy. If I have bad circumstances in my life, then I'm not happy. But joy is different. Joy is rooted in confidence. And it comes as a Because, whereas happiness is based off of conditions or circumstances, joy is rooted in confidence, and it comes as a consequence.

We need both of these, because this is what joy is. Joy ultimately is a confident trust. Say that again. Joy is a confident trust. It's a confident trust in some kind of source. Again, this is what consists in our joy. It's what's the source of your joy. joy is

what we place our confidence in will be the source of our joy when you and I choose to place our confidence in will be the source of our joy and therefore the depth and permanence of our joy will be based on how deep and how permanent the source is if that makes any sense so go back to Marie Kondo she's awesome we might as well go back to her

and you pick up that sweater and you say okay does this spark joy it does great this is the source my ugly brown sweater that no one else wants, but I love, that brown sweater is the source of my joy. And that's legit, but I have to realize that the depth and permanence of my joy is based off of the depth and permanence of this ugly brown sweater.

If I take joy in my car, you guys, I actually legit love my car. It's not like a filial love. It's more like a story-gay love. I haven't a lot of affection for it. I love it. And it brings me, every time I start my car, it's a push button one of those things.

I don't have to turn a key. I don't know why, but I just love pushing that button. like every time I get in my car, I'm like, whoa, this is awesome. 2021, who knew? And I say, yeah, this is a source of joy, but I realize the depth and permanence of my joy is only as deep and as permanent as a super outback. And that's as far as it goes.

So if we're going to choose joy, because you've heard that phrase, right? You've gone on Pinterest, you know. If you've ever heard that phrase, choose joy, or today I choose joy, you know that that's true, but it's also not true. It's not true in the sense that we can't choose emotions. But it is true, and we can choose where we focus. We can choose our source. So Victor Frankel, we know him.

He wrote the book, The Man's Search for Meaning. He spent three years in a concentration camp, and when he survived, he came out, and he just asked the question, like, how is it that people, even in the worst possible circumstances, could still find meaning? how is it that people in the worst possible conditions could still actually find joy. And one of his conclusions was, he said, happiness cannot be pursued. It must ensue.

Happiness can't be the goal. Happiness can never be the goal. Happiness can't be pursued. It must ensue. He says, basically, it has to be the result of something else. And he gives the example of laughter. He says, you don't just laugh. Like if I were to say, hey, everyone, just start laughing right now.

you'd be like, ha, ha, ha, ha, it would be hollow. It'd be empty. Because why? Because when we truly laugh, something makes us laugh. Something causes us to laugh. In fact, again, he uses an example of smiling. You hear a picture taken. And someone says smile.

And they say, okay, no one's smiling. Okay, say cheese. And he said, people make the face that looks like a smile. But you know, that is an empty smile. That is a hollow smile because for a smile to be genuine, for laughter to be genuine, it has to be the result of something else. And so the same thing is true when it comes to joy. Just like laughter, just like a smile.

Joy is the consequence of something else. Joy is the byproduct of something else. Joy isn't the goal. Joy is the fruit. Joy is the result. And so when we choose joy, we're not choosing joy. We're choosing the thing that has joy as its fruit. So Galatians, St. Paul writes this letter, and he says,

one of the fruits of the Spirit. He said, here are the fruits of the spirit. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, understanding, self-control. That we realize even joy itself is a consequence. Joy itself is a byproduct. Joy isn't the goal. Joy is the fruit. So last weekend, we heard the gospel.

The gospel in last weekend Jesus says, he says, I'm the vine, you're the branches. He goes on to say, if you remain in me, you will bear much fruit. So we realize that that's our call last week. We had that invitation to say, okay, I'm going to choose to remain in Jesus. I'm going to choose to be rooted in Jesus. I'm going to choose to be plugged into Jesus. He's going to be the power source. And we realize, again, of course, love always binds us, but also if we plug ourselves into the Lord,

not only are we limited, we're also empowered. We're empowered to be what? We're empowered to have love. We're empowered to have kindness. We're empowered to have gentleness. We're empowered to have joy. And we're plugged into the right source. Remember, because joy is confident.

trust and the depth and the permanence of the source of that confident trust is going to be the depth and permanence of our joy, which is why when Jesus says, remain in me, get plugged into me, what we're doing there is we're putting our confident trust that God is present and that God is active. When we have confident trust in God, we're putting our source in him, we're putting our confident trust in the fact that God is here and that he cares. In fact, the certainty, right, the confident trust, that God wants what is best for us, is what for Christians, it's the foundation of our joy. It's the reason why we even have joy. And Jesus is in the gospel today, he's saying, okay, let me be the source. What does he say? He says, I've told you all this, why? So that my joy

may be in you and your joy is super limited and super small and just enough to get by. No, he says, I'm telling you this, so my joy may be in you, and your joy is absolutely complete to remain in me. You know that Jika Chesterton, who was an atheist for much of his life, he became a Catholic at one point in the turn of the last century. He was an author, and at one point he said this line, they just blew me away. In his line, he said, joy is that gigantic secret of the Christian.

That in no other, no other philosophy, no other religion, no other people, no civilization, no culture ever produced people who were as joyful as Christianity did. Which is, you might say, seriously, Father? Like, look around. Are you kidding me? You guys, you're the exception. I mean, like normally, normally.

But joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian. Why? Because in a world with so much tragedy, in a world with so much suffering, in a world where there's so much stuff that just, it falls through, we experience real tragedy in suffering that is deeper

and longer lasting than the source of any other source of joy except for the love of God. What does God declare today? He declares, I have loved you first. This is like the massive declaration of the gospel today. Jesus says, I have loved you first. You know, in the Song of Songs, there's this line, it says,

love is stronger than death. And sterner than devotion, sterner than the nether world is devotion. That love is actually stronger than death. And not just any love, but God's saying my love. If there's nothing else you remember about the source of joy is this word that God speaks over us, over you today,

where the Father declares, I mean, to hear the words of the gospel today, the Father declares, I love you. Or Jesus Christ declares, I love you. I don't know if you're like me, but when I hear those words, a lot of times, I have a desire to control that kind of love. I have a desire to kind of, I don't know, it's one thing, it's one thing to earn someone's love and then you were like, okay, yeah, I get it, I get it,

I know why you love me because, you know, a dazzling smile or you love me because of this, I'm so funny, you love me because of these reasons. But what happens when someone just loves you for you? You can't control that kind of love. I think that's why Jesus says, you didn't choose me. I chose you.

I think it's why in the Gospel of John, in the letter of John today, and this is love, not that we've loved God, but he loved us. We can't control, you can't control that kind of love. I mean, you can ignore it, you can run away from it, you can deflect it, you can all shucks that thing away, but you can't control it. The only thing you really can do, the only thing we really can do is surrender to it. That's what it is. The only response to this kind of love is we just surrender to it. We either deflect it or we accept it. I heard someone say that another definition of joy, I say the definition of joy is trustful confidence. Another definition

someone said was joy is choosing to celebrate what is. Joy is choosing to celebrate what is. And so we as Christians, we can ask the question, okay, what is? What's the deepest truth we can imagine was the deepest truth that is virtually unutterable. And it's what we heard today. Again, that the God of the universe knows your name and that he has said, he's declared over you, I love you. In fact, John in the second reading today, he says, in this way the love of God has been revealed to us. God sent his only son into the world so that we might have life through him. Back in the fourth century, this guy named St. Augustine, he said, that line, If that was the only thing we ever knew about God, that would be enough.

That in this is love. It's been revealed to us that God sent his only son into the world that you might have life. That's the only thing that God ever revealed about himself. That would be enough. That's all you need to know. And again, that love, what can't we do? I can't control it. I have to surrender to it.

How do we surrender to it? I think we just, it's really simple. We just say yes. It's not that complicated. It's just basically, when we're surrendering to God's love, when we're surrendering to Him himself, we say yes. What we're saying is, okay, God, you have access. Your love has access to me. To every part of my life. To the great part to me that I'm proud of, to the parts of me that I'm ashamed of, God, you have access to all of it. That's what it is, to surrender to God's love. That's what it is. That's what it is, basically to say,

that will be done. And if we were to say, thy will be done and actually mean it, that's the recipe for joy. That confident trust in this truth. God's love is the source of our joy. In fact, one of my heroes, his name is Peter Craft. He's a professor of philosophy. He's retired from Boston College a couple of years ago. But in one of his books, he said, he said, every time I've ever said yes to God, with something even slightly approaching the whole of my soul, like every time I've said, not only said the words, thy will be done, but actually meant thy will be done, but loved it, and longed for it, he said, I've never failed to find joy and peace at that very moment. In fact, to the precise extent that I have said it and meant it, to exactly that extent have I found

joy. So it's possible to choose joy when I choose the source of my joy. And that source of joy is the love of God and Jesus. So here's the last thing. That's easier to say and then it is to do. Because how did I say this? I came across a quote from someone that says, said that cheerfulness is the only duty of the Christian. That cheerfulness is the only duty of the Christian to actually be joyful and then let your face know. That that's actually the one task, the one thing, the first thing we have to do as Christians. And I have to say that I know myself, this is the last thing. I say that already.

I can get, just so you can be joyful. That I can get bogged down, like, by stuff. Like, I get so easily bogged down by, like, I let uncertainty, like, rob me of joy. Like, I let anxiety rob me of joy. I let responsibility, like, have to get all these things done. I let all those things rob me of joy. And there's so much in life that I choose to not celebrate because, like, oh, we need to go on to the next thing. And so I need to be reminded of this, this truth that St. Thomas Aquinas, he once said,

everyone who wants to advance in the spiritual life necessarily needs cheerfulness. Which is another way to say, everyone who wants to grow in Jesus, everyone who wants to be a saint, has to choose joy. And what that looks like for me, I think, is because I'm so prone to just want that I need to, I need to do what Marie Kondo asked me to do. That I need to go through my life

and pick up these things that are already in my life and ask the question, okay, does this spark joy? And the first thing that I know I need to pick up and I need to pick it up every day and it's my invitation for all of us to pick it up every single day and say, okay, here is the Lord Jesus in my life today. Here's God's promises of faithfulness in my day.

Here is the declaration of the Father's love for me and for you in our days. To pick that up, to pick up the cross and say, okay, does this spark joy? Meaning, can I choose this today? Can I root my life in his love? And let it spark joy. Because there's no other source that can outlast death. There's no other source that's deeper than hell. There's no other source that is deeper than the suffering that every one of us will experience.

And so today, pick up Christ, pick up the cross, pick up the Eucharist, and allow it to spark joy.