Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 05/18/25 Move On: Not Alone

Episode Date: May 17, 2025

Homily from the Fifth Sunday of Easter. Life is difficult. You don't have to move on alone. In a difficult life and a difficult mission, Paul had someone with him who helped him continue to do the work he was called to do. Paul had someone who helped him move on. Mass Readings from May 18, 2025: Acts 14:21-27 Psalm 145:8-13Revelation 21:1-5 John 13:31-33a, 34-35

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

The Lord be with you. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John. Chapter 13 verses 31 through 33 and verses 34 and 35. When Judas had left them, Jesus said, now is the son of man glorified and God is glorified with him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and God will glorify Him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.

I give you a new commandment. Love one another. As I have loved you, you are also to love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. The Gospel of the Lord. I should have a seat. when I was in high school, I found this book that my parents had.

It was just kind of random that sat there. I don't know if either of them ever read it. It was a book by M. Scott Peck. It was a book called The Road Less Traveled. And it just really popular book back, I think, in the 80s, maybe it's 70s. It's kind of a self-help book about just how to get the most out of life and whatnot. But one day, I just randomly, I think I might have been a senior high school. Maybe I was in my first years of college.

And it picked it up. And I read the first three words. in the first chapter on the first page of this book. And I put it down and I was just like, that's awesome. Because the first three words of this book, it filled me with so much confidence. It filled me with so much just kind of excitement. It filled me with even just, it was refreshing to read these three words.

And the three words were, the first three words of this whole book about like how, you know, you can be your best self, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, the first three words were, life is difficult. And remember just thinking, reading those words, as a teenager, as a young 20, whatever I was, and thinking like, yes, this is so good. This is just, it is so refreshing for someone to be able to say, like, yeah, that's the, what you're going through, what you're experiencing, when things are tough, like, that's actually normal.

That would that, would that, everyone around you seems like, oh, they're just skating through life or they're just kind of like loving everything. When you experience life and, like, oh, no, life is difficult. For someone to just tell you the truth, something about that is so refreshing. And also, I just think so encouraging. You know, we've been, for the last three weeks, it's the fourth week of talking about this series, move on. And we had our students who, two weeks ago, they took their tests, they graduated, and they're moving on. And it's exciting, but at the same time, we realize that transitions are tough, that going to a new place is difficult.

even if it's exciting and even if it's the thing you need to do to move on, oftentimes underscores that truth. Life is difficult. I remember years ago, my little brother, he was going off to residency. And it was one of those situations where it was the 4th of July because his residency started on the 5th of July. And it was one of those situations where it was this next step he had to take. And he had to take this step by himself. And so we're all, well, my whole family were at the lake.

and we're hanging out, we're having a good time. But he knew that if he was going to make it to work the next day, he had to leave at a certain time. And so here we are. Everyone's hanging up by the fire. We're all eating stuff. And he says goodbye to everybody. Then he had to leave.

And as he walked away from all the group, I'm going to go with him. So I followed him out to the car because I just don't want. I hate that feeling. I don't know if you ever had that feeling of like having to leave the group, having to leave your family, having to say goodbye, having to move on. So I'm like, I want to go with him as far as possible. And so we went to the driveway and here he is getting in his car, doing this scary thing he's never done before, taking this next step, moving on like he's never had to before.

And we just both are standing there in the driveway, both crying. But at some point he had to get in the car and drive off by himself. Because moving on, can be exciting. It can also be really, really difficult. Which is why I'm really glad that M. Scott Peck wrote those words, life is difficult. I'm also really, really glad that St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles today in the first reading wrote these words, that when Paul and Barnabas showed up, it said this. It said, they strengthened the spirit of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith,

saying, it is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. I pause in that for a second. It says, they strengthen the spirits of the disciples by telling them, oh, it's necessary to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. I think that is so refreshing. That is so encouraging. Now, on the face of it, it looks, no, that's discouraging. It's necessary to undergo many hardships and the kingdom of God.

But when you're talking to people who are undergoing hardships, they realize, oh, this is where I'm supposed to be. When it's difficult to move on, and someone says, actually, that's okay. It's okay when it's difficult to move on. That's not discouraging. That is encouraging. Because what you're saying is what I'm going through isn't unusual. we need that word. I think we need that word of encouragement, especially when we feel like we have to move on alone. Because every one of us, right, in life we have to move on. But I think sometimes we think that

the only way to move on is you have to move on alone. And yes, there are some ways we have to do that, like my brother when he had to go off to the next step of school. I think about this a lot of times when, so back in the day, I don't know if you guys know this, I don't know if you know this, but when you used to go to the airport, one of the things you would do before 2001, you would go all the way into the airport. If you brought someone to the airport, you wouldn't just drop them off at the curb, you would park the car, you'd walk in with them, you would make all the ticketing stuff, you'd walk all the way to the gate. And one of those things like you just, you want to hold on to the last moment, you don't want to say goodbye too soon. I remember being that person. I remember the

first time I had to leave my family for a significant amount of time. And they did, they parked the car. We all walked in. They walked me all the way to the gate. And it was something good about not having to be alone, but at some point, at some point, every one of us had to take that one step that no one else could take with us. At some point, even if they walked all the way to the gate, it was okay, but you're going to go down the jetway now and we can't come with. And I always think about that image and that feeling when I think about death. Because, I mean, what a joy to be able to be surrounded by people when you're dying. What a joy, I mean, what a great comfort it would be to know that, oh, these are people who actually care about me.

But at some point, every one of us, when we die, we have to say goodbye to everyone we know. At some point, that's next one step. No one can do it for us and no one can do it with us. At some point, we have to move on alone. So yes, there are times when we have to move on alone. But at the same time, we're not meant to do it. life alone. In fact, I'll say this. I'll say one of my favorite unsung heroes in the entire Bible is mentioned in today's first reading as well. So there's so many heroes in the New Testament,

right? We have Mary, the Mother of God, pretty big hero. We have Mary Magdalene, incredible woman. We have Peter. We have John. We have we have Paul. But one of the guys that I just think is, again, one of my favorite unsung heroes is Barnabas, which is not his actual name. The actual name is Joseph. But he gets a nickname. And it's not even a, I mean, at some ways, you're like, it's not even a cool nickname. Here's Simon. He gets the nickname Rock, right? Peter.

You have, you have James or John. John is the, you know, he's the beloved disciple. That's his nickname. That's kind of a nice nickname to have. Or James and John are the Sons of Thunder, which I think is pretty intense and awesome. Or you even have, um, Paul. Paul is known as the Apostle. Like, all these have cool nicknames.

Here's Joseph, who's nicknamed to Barnabas. And Barnabas means son of encouragement. Like, that's what he's known for is encouragement. I would be, if I was one of the Apostle, or the one of the disciples, if I was mentioned in the Bible, it'd be like, yeah, they're known for their preaching or they're known for their healing, they're known for the mighty works, they're known for all the miracles they do. Barnabas, what are you known for? Well, my encouragement, like, wamp, womp, but think about how necessary Barnabas was. Because all throughout

the Acts of the Apostles, it talks about who, Paul and Barnabas. Paul needed Barnabas. Why? In 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Paul, Paul describes a little bit of his life, a little snapshot, a little glimpse into what he's experienced. He says this. He says, five times I received 40 lashes minus one. So five times he was scourged with 39 lashes. Three times beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, night and day on the sea. He said, we experienced frequent journeys and frequent dangers. He said dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, danger in the wilderness. dangers at the sea.

He said, we experience the danger of false brothers. Sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, and daily pressures and anxiety for all the churches. Here's this man, Paul, the apostle, who's bringing the gospel to the Gentiles. And he's experiencing all these setbacks. I don't think he could do that alone. I don't think that Paul could actually be Paul

unless Barnabas was Barnabas. Now imagine how much someone like Paul would need absolutely need someone like Barnabas. Someone like Paul would absolutely need encouragement. And there was Barnabas. Because Paul didn't have to do it alone. Paul moved here and there and everywhere, but he didn't ever move on alone. And we don't have to do that. That's why I think in the gospel today, here's Jesus' commandment.

He says, love one another. implied in Jesus' commandment, love one another is, hey, you're going to need one another. You're going to need each other. See, I think there's this massive lying Christianity that says that you have to do this on your own. Or even that you can do it on your own.

That's legitimately a lie. You know, even in monastic communities, there are some hermits, right? People who live out on their own. But in monastic communities, you don't show up and say, hey, I'm going to be, I'm here to be a hermit.

You have to live in the community for a significant amount of time in order to be able to be prepared to spend a significant amount of time by yourself. Why? Because it is a lie to believe that you have to do it on your own or that you even can do it on your own. That's one of the reasons why we have community. That's one of the reasons why we have parishes. It's one of the reason why Jesus gave us the church. It's one of the reasons why we have friends.

And yet when you move on, what do you do? Typically, when we move on, we have to leave our friends. And that's what our students are doing now. They're in a place right now where they have to make new friends. I always think about this. I think about this when our students arrive as freshmen. One of the things I like to point out is that they're learning to do something you never had to do before. Like when you get to campus, they probably have never had to really make friends.

I mean, maybe if they moved around a little bit as kids, but typically you show up at kindergarten and like, oh, these are my friends. Or you're on the sports team. Like, okay, these are my friends. But when you get to college, you have to kind of make. friends, not from scratch. You have to make friends like Hello Fresh, you know, Hello Fresh where like the ingredients show up in a box, you have to put it together because that's what they are. I mean, all these freshmen show up looking for friends. Everyone's looking for friends so they just throw them together. It's kind of like get the ingredients, just put it together.

When they leave college, now they have to make friends from scratch. I've got to go, because why? Because they're thrust into life where everyone else already has their friends, everyone else already has their family. And you have to learn how to make friends. Another way to say it is you have to learn how to be a Barnabas. Because we can't do it alone. None of us are called to do it alone, and none of us can do it alone. So we pray every time they leave, pray that they find a Barnabas. But this is for all of us.

If you haven't found a Barnabas, you can be a Barnabas. Like, reality is you don't have to wait. Immediately, every one of us can do three things. Number one, we can notice the people near us. That's the first thing. I think the first movement of a Barnabas is just look around and say, okay, who are the people around me? Secondly, is to notice their gifts or even notice their effort, notice their attempts at doing something right. And thirdly is simply to remind them that they're not alone.

I mean, this is how every one of us, even if we don't have a friend, we can be a friend. Even if we don't have a Barnabas, we can be a Barnabas to notice the people around us, to notice their effort, to notice how they're trying, to notice their gifts, and then to remind them that they're not alone, that they don't have to do this alone either because we have to move on, but we do not have to move on alone. And that even if, even if right now where you're at in life

is not surrounded by people, maybe even where you are at life is just, I have God alone. Well, then you've got something good. What would that second reading say? The second reading from the book of Revelation, it says, behold, God's dwelling is with the human race.

He will dwell with them and they will be as people and God himself will always be with them as their God. Yes, you have to move alone, move on, but you don't have to move on alone. In fact, we can't, and this is the last thing. Yes, we have to move on, but we don't have to move on alone. A little while back, I heard a story from Bishop Vedder.

Bishop Vedder was a priest in North Dakota. Now he is a bishop in Montana. I grew up on a farm. Bishop Better, I should have a child. shared a story, he said, he said, the deepest lesson I learned about God, I learned as a first grader when he was seven years old. On the farm, he had a pale calf. He said, what a pale calf is, is when you want to save the milk of the mother cow, you wean the calf off of the mother's milk, and you put it on formula. And he said, my dad, first grader, my dad put me in charge of the pale calf.

The pale calf was mine to take care of. So I had to go out and I fed it twice a day, every single day, took care of it every single day. So at one point, that pale calf got sick. And so I gave it more formula. Apparently, that was the wrong thing to do. And I didn't let it out in the pastor. I kept it in the barn. Apparently that was the wrong thing to do. He said, I did everything I possibly could think of, but the pale calf died. And he said, there I was, you know, this six, seven-year-old, this first grader, and I'm sitting on the straw next to my dead pale calf. but I'm just crying my eyes out. My dad came out and I look up with my dad.

I'm sitting there on the hay and look at my dad and say, Dad, I'm sorry. I did my best. I'm so sorry, Dad, but I did my best. And he said, my dad looked at me and he said, no, you didn't. So no, you didn't. You didn't do your best. Because doing your best would have been asking me for help.

You don't have to do it alone. Doing your best. It means asking the Father for help. See, as we take this step as we move on, we don't have to do it alone and none of us can do it alone. If we actually want to do our best, it's not about making more effort, it's not about trying harder. Life is difficult.

We already know that. But doing our best means not doing it alone. That even if there aren't people around you, God has made his dwelling with the human race. And every one of us has access, direct access to the Father at all times. And so, be a Barnabas. Move on. But you don't have to move on alone.