Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 05/10/20 Insecure: Uncertain Plans

Episode Date: May 11, 2020

Homily from the Fifth Sunday of Easter. Advance boldly into the shadows of uncertainty. If we are wise, we will think about the future and plan for it. And if we are even wiser, we will be able to let go of those plans when we need to. Mass Readings from May 10, 2020: Acts 6:1-7 Psalms 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-191 Peter 2:4-9 John 14:1-12 Download the Homily Study

the Lord be with you. In reading from the Holy Gospel according to John, chapter 14, verses 1 through 12, Jesus said to his disciples, do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God, have faith also in me. And my father's house, there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself.

so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going, you know the way. Thomas said to him, Master, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us. Jesus said to him, have I been with you for so long a time, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Do not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing His works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe because of the works themselves. Amen. Amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, for I am going to the Father, the Gospel of the Lord. So once again, I just want to wish all the moms, happy Mother's Day. Obviously when Mother's Day comes around, I think about my own mom and just something, you

know, my mom, ever since she was a kid, well, at some point, at some point, at some point, in her life, she got in her heart, she wanted to be a missionary, and she heard about this thing that was back in the day called, I think it was like SS Hope or the Good Ship Hope, and right now they're called Mercy Ship. So back then it was this thing where if you were a medical personnel, you could get on this ship and you could go around the world and just do medical missions all over the place. And my mom had heard the call of Jesus in Matthew chapter 25 where he says, I was hungry and you fed me.

I was naked and you clothed me. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was ill and imprisoned and you came and visited me. She heard that and was like, I want to do that. I want to be that missionary to serve those people who are hungry and thirsty and naked and sick. And so she went to nursing school. And that was, I think part of her plan was this prayer of like,

yeah, this is my plan. I'm gonna do what Jesus asked me to do. And she went to nursing school and then she met my dad. And that was it. She became a nurse and she did nursing and paid my dad's way through medical school and worked for him that way. served the family and then she just never went on mission.

And I guess she would say that she couldn't because she was too busy being a mom. That she had this plan, but then it's just, you know, never worked out. Because why? Because just, again, too busy being a mom. And I imagine so many moms get that. Like you have all these plans, all these dreams, all these hopes, and then just, yeah, the plan goes to the side because you're just too busy being a mom. We'll come back to that. But it's not only Mother's Day this weekend, and it's also our students last weekend on campus. Last week was finals.

This would have been our seniors' baccalaureate Mass. And so this is kind of our Mother's Day slash baccalaureate Mass for all the seniors who are joining us, not just here in Duluth, UMD at St. Glastica at Lake Superior College, but also across the country, just recognize that this could be, hopefully for you, we'll pray with you and pray for you that this is your baccalaureate Mass, that this mass that kind of sends you out.

But to look back over the last number of years that you spent in college, and to realize that all the work and all the decisions, that all the investment that went into this all the time, all the energy, all the money, and all the stress that went into the last four or more years, for some of you, was because you got a plan. Like, the plan is, I'm going to go to this college,

and I'm going to get this major, and I'm going to get that job. And it's so interesting because you have this plan. We all have this plan when you go off to college. And I don't know if you know this. I read a statistic recently that said that, regardless of the fact that so many college students have a plan. I have this major because I want to work in this field that only 26% of college graduates actually get a job in a field related to their major.

I want to say that one more time. Only after all this planning, after all this effort, all this investment, all this time, all this work, all this like, you know, I'm going to focus on this and major in this, only 26% of college graduates actually end up getting a job in a field that's even related to their major. That they could say like, here I am. I majored in this, but I'm working here. I had a plan and it didn't work out. And I think it could, this kind of moment can be one of those transition times that you can feel

really, it's really clear that life is insecure. Like in this kind of moment where you have a plan, it's like, no, and actually I have based my entire life off of this plan. And then I realized that taking this next step, this next step is absolutely a step into uncertainty. It's absolutely a step into insecurity. In fact, it's maybe the first truly insecure. a very curious step that some people have maybe ever taken.

Because if we think about, I mentioned this last year at Baccalaureate Mass, but I think it's worth reminding us, especially if you experience a lot of stress over this next step, that makes sense because up to now you've been on track. Like up to now you've been on the track, in fact, if you've been going to school, you know at some point you go to kindergarten and then after you get done with the kindergarten, you know the next step, the next step is first grade. And then they actually number it out for you. It's like one to two, to three, to four.

Maybe you get to the end of elementary school and then it's time to go into junior high. That's stressful, okay, fine, but at the same time, it's very clear what the next step is. The plan is, okay, go from whatever you consider elementary school, you know, fifth grade, into middle school, sixth grade. Very clear. And that step into high school might be stressful. Now you have some choices, you have electives you can take, but still, it's just, okay, go to 10th grade. You know where the school is. It's just staying on track.

And if you went from high school to college, if you went from high school to work, then you know what this step is all about already. If you went from high school right into the labor force, you know exactly. It's like, okay, the track is done. And now it's just, there's no more track. It's just all insecurity. It's all uncertainty. Because you go to college, still on track. You have to choose things, or getting stressful, but now you're done.

And it's like, okay, I am face to face with the reality that life is uncertain. And we look back and sometimes in this moment of insecurity, we realize, okay, I thought I had hope. We talked about hope a couple weeks ago. Like, I thought I had hope. I thought I had courage. We talked about courage last week. I thought I had confidence. And you probably did.

I had hope. I had courage. I had confidence. But I had hope. I had courage in my plan. I had confidence in the plan. And now, oh my gosh, what's the next? I don't even know what's next.

No, caveat. It is good to plan. Like, so good to plan. We talked about this last weekend as well. We need to prepare for the future. We need to have what you call is forethought, right? We need to think about the future. We need to think about the plan.

We need to ask the question, okay, God, where is it you want me to go? We need to have forethought. But no matter how much forethought we have, we cannot have foresight. Like, no matter how much we think about the future, we cannot ever possibly see the future. And so planning is good. But as Mike Tyson once said, as the quotable Mike Tyson once said, He says, when you get into the ring, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. And that's the fact of the matter is.

We have to have four thought. We cannot have foresight. Everyone has a plan until like, reality hits you hard, bro. And then it's just like, what do I do now? Maybe more portable, Dwight Eisenhower, famous general. When he came to planning, he said, when going into battle, I have discovered that plans are useless. Yeah, just like nothing works out the way you want. that plans are useless. But he went on to say, but planning is indispensable.

I've discovered that plans are useless because when it hits up against reality, man, it's rough, but planning, actually engaging, having forethought, thinking about the future, that's indispensable. Because Eisenhower knew about this thing called the Fog of War. The Fog of War is that my best understanding is the fog of war is in the midst of all this strategy, there's so much uncertainty, there's so many variables. so many variables. Do you have no idea of? You have no control over? Because you might have a great plan. But newsflash, someone wants to actually defeat you in your plan. Someone

actually wants to mess up your plan. And so in war, you have this thing called the fog of war, which is so much uncertainty, so much insecurity, but you have to move forward. That's why, again, last quote from a military person, there's a Prussian general back in the early 19th century's name's Cardinal van Klauswitz. And he said this. He said, we must be confident that the general measures we've adopted will produce the measures we expect. I'm confident that the measure that was adopted will produce the measure we expect. That's our plan. And if we've made the appropriate preparations taking into account all possible misfortunes

so that all will not be lost immediately if they do not occur. After planning, he says after planning, then is the line. Then we must boldly advance into the shadows of uncertainty. After all that planning, we have to then boldly advance into the shadows of uncertainty. After all of that, we have to walk into insecurity, which can be absolutely massively painful. So painful. I remember talking with this man actually in contact me because he had discerned and decided that God would call him to a particular ministry in the church. And so, in order to do this, he had to leave his home. his people, all the people who knew him.

He had to take this massive risk, move across the country, and get involved in this church ministry. And he thought it was a good plan. He thought it was God's will. He thought it was super selfless of him, just to leave everything and pursue the Lord. And nothing worked out the way he wanted. Nothing worked out the way he planned.

It all kind of, basically, it all went wrong. And he asked me, he's like, what, that is certain wrong? Like, was that the wrong decision? And it's so important for us to realize that just because the original plan didn't work out the way we wanted to, didn't mean it was the wrong plan. Or just because the original plan, don't work out the way we thought it would, didn't mean it was the wrong decision.

This is true for every one of us. Just because my original plan failed, didn't mean taking that step was the wrong step. Because maybe where you thought God was going to plant you was maybe the place where he was just bringing you to purify you. Maybe the place you thought God was going to plant you, it was actually the place God was bringing you bringing you to simply prepare you for that next step.

What you thought would be like, no, this is God's plan. I sign up for this. And he says, okay, since you took that step to sign up for this, here's actually what I really want you. That's in the first reading today, chapter 6. You have Stephen. You have the early church. And Stephen is part of the first deacon class of the church.

And what describes is the apostles, and they realize there's so much stuff to do in the early church that they need to not only preach the word, they also need to heal people. They also need to take care of the sick. There's vulnerable, vulnerable? Vulnerable? How easy for me to say. Oh, vulnerable people in the church that they're like, we need to take care of these people.

We don't have the time. And so the apostles selected these seven men and said, okay, well, we go preach, what your job is, we're going to consecrate you, we're going to invite you, we're going to ordain you to serve these poor people, to serve the vulnerable among us, basically be servants of the servants of God. And so among them with Stephen. Discerning this, like, yeah, I've discerned this, they've called me, I'm going to aside, I'll be a deacon. And the very next thing we see Stephen do, right after his order, the next time we see Stephen is he's in the temple preaching. Like, he's

proclaiming the Word. In fact, all of chapter 7 is Stephen preaching the Word. Like, and imagine that Stephen is being called upon. Like, no, no. Imagine Stephen going like a descendant. I'm not called to preach the word. I was ordained for a specific purpose. I was ordained to serve. In fact, that's a good thing. That's what Jesus did, right? Jesus at the Last Supper, Stephen heard the stories. Jesus at the last supper took off his outer garments, got down in his hands and knees and he washed the disciples feet. And Jesus said, I did not come to serve, but to be served, but to serve. And here's Stephen like, no, no, no, I'm not going to Lord it over

and I'm not here to teach. I'm here simply to serve. And the apostles and the Lord are like, okay, you were ordained for this, but actually you're called to that. And you didn't discern wrongly. And you didn't decide incorrectly. Where you thought God would plant you, he was simply preparing you to preach. Of course, what that led him to is to be martyred by the end of chapter 7, Stephen has become the first martyr in the early church. And that wasn't the plan. That wasn't the plan. I'm guessing that it was not on Stephen's radar, even part of Stephen's plan, that when the apostles asked him if he would be willing to lead the local soup kitchen, that that would end up leading

to his death. But just because the original plan changed does not mean that it was wrong. And just because you discerned and decided does not mean that you're done. Because you discerned and decided on a plan does not mean you're done. Because life, following Christ, it's not about having a plan. It's not about living out a plan. It's about the process of becoming. And following Christ, again, it's not about living on a certain plan. It's about the process of becoming.

One of my heroes is a man named Father Walter Chizek. Some of you've heard me talk about him a thousand times because he's one of my heroes. And Father Chizek, normal guy in the early part of the last century here in the United States. Went to school like normal guys. He played football like normal people. At one point though, he recognized his call to be a priest. And so he took that courage and went to seminary. This is the plan.

I'm going to be a priest here in my local diocese here in the United States. But at one point, the Holy Father, the Pope, had said, you know what? We need priests who are willing to be missionary priests. And not only missionary priests, we need them to be missionary priests to Russia, communist Russia at the time, that was atheist and communistic regime. And so Father Walter Chizak said, okay, that's what I'll do. He discerned priesthood and he discerned, I'm going to be a missionary priest. He discerned I'll be a missionary priest in Russia and he went and did all that training.

His whole plan was, I'm going to get into Russia and I'm going to bring the gospel there. So he gets ordained and he gets sent to Poland and he has to try to find a way into Russia from Poland, but he can't get past all the guards and all the security and all these things. And then Russia invades Poland and Father Chizek realizes, okay, I'm kind of in Russia now. And he's like, okay, now is when I can live out this plan. What happened was after two weeks of being undercover missionary in communist occupants, Poland, he got captured. Here is Father Chisak's plan.

If I'm captured, I will be faithful to the Lord. If I'm captured, I will be unbreakable. If I'm captured, they will never be able to strip my faith away from me. But after a year of solitary confinement, after a year of every single day being interrogated by those Russian agents, Father Chisak was broken. At one point he describes in his book, the book called He Leadeth Me, he describes that they led him to this room of interrogation, and they put documents in front of him that,

would disavow the United States government and he just signed it. He's so broken. They put documents in front of him that's about the Vatican, he just signed him. Documents in front of him that does about the church, he signed it. This about Jesus and he signed it. And then when he signed everything they put in front of him, they left him in his cell by himself with nothing but his embarrassment, with his failure, with his guilt, with his shame. And then they finally sent him to a Soviet gulag in Siberia. And here's Father Chisach looking at his life and saying, Okay, not only did my plan not work out, look at inside of me like I can't even be a missionary. My plan was to go to the Russian people and bring them Jesus and here I am in a Soviet

gulag surrounded by, wait, Russian people in need of Jesus. And it was in the midst of that failure, in the midst of Father Chizek's plan not being reality that he realized that he had a decision. He could realize that either I'm stuck here or I've been led here. here. You can look at this situation in two ways. Either I've been abandoned here or I've been brought here. Either this is the thwarting of my plan or this is actually the way that Jesus wants me to live,

this way he wants me to walk. This is actually part of his plan. That's the case with all of us. Right, we have our plan and then it doesn't work out. Our options are we either can have resentment and anger that my plan has been taken away, resentment and anger that my plan has been thwarted, or we can have recognition that God is even here in the midst of insecurity and a willingness to adapt to the reality of insecurity. Because we realize this, right? Life is change. Like to be alive is to change. Which means that

to take a step is always going to be to risk because life is insecure. And to be a Christian, to be a follower of Christ is to be willing to keep discerning. Not just discern and I'm done, But to keep discerning, to keep deciding, and to keep being willing to adapt. Every single one of us have to cultivate a willingness and ability to let go of our plans. When God makes it very clear, or when reality makes it very clear, that that's the next good step that every one of us needs to take. Because we all know, we all know people who, when their plans are thwarted and the plans are taken away, they become resentful, they become bitter, they become small.

There's a quote I came across that said, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Another way to say it is, no plan survives first contact with reality. I had my dream, I had my vision on my plan, but no plan survives first contact with reality or with the enemy. What matters is how quickly the leader is able to adapt. What matters is how quickly the leader is able to adapt.

To get past that disappointment. Another way you say, to get through the real, resentment, which can be a really big deal, so I want to pause on this for a second, to get through that heartbreak. Because this is what all of us need to do. We need to be able to get through the plan-altering and dream-crushing and heart-destroying moments. We need to be able to get through those seasons. But here's something for just this for you. But you don't have to rush through those things. Yes, we have to get through them. But you don't have to get through them. have to rush through them. It's not a race. Those things are real. Like if you find yourself

right now in your job and it's just like this massive insecurity and this massive like, this is not the job I planned on, this is not the life I wanted. And you're looking at your life right now saying, did I just waste everything. And there's this grief that comes along with this like, okay, you have to get through that, that there are relationships. You could look back on maybe the primary relationship in your life and you say, I messed that out, I did that, I messed up, I made choices, I made decisions that destroyed my marriage. marriage, that destroyed my relationship with my parents, that destroyed my relationship with my kids.

Like I did that. I messed that up and I have to. We have to learn how to get through that kind of thing. Maybe it was a situation where the other person walked away. This person that had promised you their entire life said, I take it back and they messed up the plan. You know, again it's Mother's Day. These moms, too many of you moms know, too many of you moms don't.

being a mom is all about giving at, but it's all about risk. Like you risk your heart every day just to become a mom, to be a parent. Because you know the insecurity, the uncertainty of life, just you realize that this person, these people that have given you your greatest joy and greatest hope also can give you your greatest heartbreak. And too many of you moms know exactly what it's like to have your kids be taken away. too soon. And it's really easy to not just be in grief, because that's necessary, not just be in grief,

but to be in resentment. Not just to mourn the loss of the plan and mourn the loss of this person that you've been made for, that was made from you, but to also become bitter about it. But how do I let go of that plan? Knowing that God has not abandoned me here, but he's going to bring me here and bring me through this. You know, sometimes even worse, there's the pain of you've raised your kids and you tried to teach them who Jesus was and now your kids don't even care about their own souls. They don't even care about Jesus.

They don't even care about... They've walked away from God and his church. And every time you think of that, it just crushes your heart once again. And lastly, of course, we can't forget those couples who you got married and you're like, our plan is it's marriage and the family. So we're married, where's our family? You can't seem to get pregnant, you can't seem to have kids. Maybe you got pregnant and then just keep, the babies keep perishing.

Or the person, the single person who's just like, you know, through your life, all your friends, they get married, they find someone, your family members, they find someone, they get married, and you're waiting, waiting for this to happen to you. And that was your hope. And that was your plan. And that was the thing you counted on, and it just hasn't happened to you. Like, what do we do in the midst of that? How do we get through this?

How do we get through this insecurity? How do we get through this uncertainty? How do we get through this grief? How do we boldly advance into the shadows of uncertainty? Especially when we don't know the plan. Especially when we're like, okay, God, I don't know the way forward. I had my plan and it's gone. How do I move forward?

I don't know the way. And that's what we hear St. Thomas, right? In the gospel today, Jesus says, where I'm going, you know the way. And Thomas, just, Thomas, so good. He says, master, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? And then Jesus says these words that just echo

from 2,000 years ago to this day, to this moment, to your heart, where he says, I'm the way. So if you're like, I don't know the plan, I don't know the way, I don't know where to go from now on, Jesus says, okay, listen, listen, listen, I'm the way. Another way to say it is Jesus is saying, I'm the plan. Your plans might have been well thought out.

They might have been good plans, might have been holy plans, might have been incredible plans. But Jesus is saying, okay, in this world of insecurity, this world of uncertainty, I'm the plan. Don't have hope in the plan or confidence in the plan. Have hope in me. Have confidence in me. Because God's plan is not that you and I do certain things, but God's plan is that you and I become a certain kind of person. Again, God's plan is not that we do certain things, we accomplish certain goals, or have a certain kind of life. His plan for us is that we become a certain kind of person, which is why he can say, I'm the way,

continue to walk with me, I'm the plan, continue to live with me. Because when he's the way, when he's the plan, we learn how to become the kind of person who can recognize him in our joys. We become the kind of people who can hear him, even in the darkness. When he's the plan, we become the kind of people who can be loved by him, even in the midst of loss, even in the midst of grief, even in the midst of times when our plans are shattered.

When Jesus is the plan, we become the kind of people who can know he is with you wherever you are. He is the way. He is the plan. And when we realize this, we become the kind of people who know that we can serve him wherever we are. And this is the last thing. I mentioned my mom never got to be a missionary.

She said she was too busy being a mom. Later on when we all left the house, she was able to go on some short-term mission trips with my dad doing medical mission stuff in Peru and Haiti. So probably the way she would say that she's never got to be a missionary. That she never got to do what Jesus said in Matthew 25 of going to the hungry and feeding them and going to those who are naked and clothing them and going to those who are naked and clothing them and going to those who were ill in prison and visiting them and caring for them. But I would tell you this.

My mom spent her entire life as a missionary. She didn't just go on a couple mission trips at the end of her life. She spent her life as a missionary. Why? Because she had his kids. And I don't know if you know how babies come out. They come out pretty naked. So she spent her life clothing the naked. And she gave up herself, her time, for her body feeding the hungry.

You moms know about this. How many times your child comes into your room at night and says, I'm thirsty? You say, you go get, you know where the water is, you go get it. No, you get out of bed, and she gave drank to the thirsty. When we were grounded, she visited us. But that's what it is, right? We have these dreams, these plans of where God is going to make us holy, where God is going to use us.

And very rarely is it somewhere else. Always is it right here. Very rarely is it somewhere, some other time, almost always is it right now. And even now, now that we're grown and she and my dad are empty nesters for years now, she can't see us, but she prays for us. Can't visit us, but she prays for us. She's not perfect. She'd be the first person to tell her she's not perfect, but she fasts for us.

She can't preach, but she sends us email forwards all of the time and that, where she tells us what's true and what's good. what we need to know. And just like your life, probably, in my life, probably, it's not glamorous, but it's powerful that she had a plan and you had a plan and how you and I are living right now, how you and I are called to live right now. It's probably not glamorous, but it's powerful. And where you are right now, where you're going to be led tomorrow and next week and next year, is to boldly, to boldly, advance into the shadows of uncertainty, to boldly walk through a world of insecurity. And it probably won't be your plan, but it'll be something better.