Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 06/09/24 Becoming Like Him

Episode Date: June 8, 2024

Homily from the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. God can even use a broken world to accomplish His will. What is the point of life? Is it to be happy? To get what you want? Or is the point of life to become like God? And this world is specifically designed to help you become that kind of person. Mass Readings from June 9, 2024: Genesis 3:9-15 Psalms 130:1-82 Corinthians 4:13—5:1 Mark 3:20-35

Welcome to Sunday homilies with me, Father Mike Schmitz. I hope today's homily inspires and motivates you, and I also hope that it leaves you hungry for the one who gave everything to feed you. If you want to get this in other Sunday Mass resources sent straight to your inbox, sign up at ascensionpress.com slash Sunday, or by texting Sunday to 33777. You can also follow or subscribe on your podcast app for weekly notifications. God bless. The Lord be with you.

reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark. Chapter 3 verses 20 through 35. Jesus came home with his disciples. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this, they set out to seize him,

for they said he is out of his mind. The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said, he is possessed by Bielzable, and by the prince of demons, he drives out demons. Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables. How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand. That is the end of him. But no one can enter a strong man's house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house. Amen, I say to you, all sins, and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness

but is guilty of an everlasting sin for they had said he has an unclean spirit his mother and his brothers arrived standing outside they sent word to him and called him a crowd seated around him told him your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you but he said to them in reply who are my mother and my brothers

and looking around at those seated at table in the circle he said here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother. The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. So one of the big questions, I think,

when it comes to life, I think, if you ask those life questions, I think the big question is, what's the point? And I don't just mean, like, esoteric, it's kind of like big, like, what's the metaphysical point of life. but I mean, just even like, what do you live for? Like, what is the goal? I think, again, mentioned this is the first Sunday back in ordinary time

after a whole, an awesome, Lent season and Easter season. And Green Means Grow, here we are in June, that recognition of being able to move forward and say, okay, so what am I, what is moving forward? What am I moving forward towards? And I think sometimes we forget to ask that question. What's the point? Because, again, we took over to our students like a month ago,

actually over a month ago. and many of them graduated. Many of them went off to like the next step. And the question is, what's that next step leading them towards? Because again, so often we find ourselves in the middle of life and we're trying and we're striving and we're working and we're trying to win. We're trying not to lose. But we find ourselves sometimes losing and very few times winning. We find ourselves in a world where we fail and we fall and we get sick and people die.

And as people fall in love, but then also we know that people betray. And people promise forever, but we also know that people walk away. And so the question is, in all of that, in all that working and striving and loving and failing and grieving and betraying and dying, what's the point? Why are we here? And so we have this first reading today that comes after the very first, very beginning of the whole Bible. Basically what the beginning of the Bible reveals is that God made this world for you. That God actually designed the cosmos for humanity. Like this is what we believe as Catholic Christians, is that this whole world, this whole, again, not just planet Earth, but the entirety of the cosmos was created for you, was created for humanity.

Why? So we can be happy. No. So we could have bliss. No. So you could have everything you wanted. No, that's not why. This is really important for us to understand that in the beginning, God made all things good. Like nothing was broken. Nothing was nothing was bad. There was no evil. But that world, this world wasn't created just so you could be happy. It wasn't created just for bliss, wasn't created just so you and I could get everything we wanted. It was created so that we could work. Like we were put in this world. This world was created for us so we could create. This world was created, this whole universe was created

and we were put in it so that we could worship and that we could love and that we could guard. Why? So that we could become. This is the whole point. The whole point of this universe is becoming. Becoming what? The whole point of this universe is so that through our work and through our love and through our creation and through our worship, we could become like God.

That's the point. That's the point. Of course, we know that that story goes on, right? we heard the story today, that here God makes this whole world good, makes us good, make everything in it is good, and then we have chapter three right here. We heard it today. The serpent comes into the garden, and then the woman is tempted, the man is tempted, everything falls, and basically because of sin, we break the world.

Now, this is the most amazing thing, I think, that because we failed, the world is now broken. But here's the remarkable, this is the miracle. This broken world still serves the same purpose. Remember, the purpose in the beginning was what? wasn't just bliss, wasn't just happy, just wasn't so we could get what we wanted, it was so that we could become. This broken world still serves the same purpose. Why? Because we have today, we have, we only have part of the story, right? So here is God comes along and here's Adam and Eve and they're hiding because they're naked because they're afraid. So they hide themselves. Who told you were naked?

And then it goes to blame game, this whole mess of a thing where the man says, well, the woman you put here with me, she gave me this thing. And then the woman's like, well, the serpent tricked me. And so then God curses the serpent. We heard that part today. We didn't hear the next thing. We didn't hear how, or we didn't hear what God says to the man and to the woman. So he curses the serpent and then it says, well, the woman has pains and childbirth and that she, there's a brokenness in the relationship of the men and women and that the guy, the man, has to work amongst the thorns and thistles that by the sweat of his brow, he'll earn his living. Now, we can look at that story and think that God's just dealing out curses. Like curse, curse, curse, like the serpent's cursed,

the woman's cursed, the man's cursed. That's not true. The serpent is cursed. But the woman isn't cursed and the man isn't cursed. You know, I hear that and go, like, are you kidding me? I mean, pain and childbirth? Sounds like a curse. Or having to go to work in your crappy job and your crappy commute to your crappy cubicle. That sounds like a curse. That's not a curse. That's a remedy. Because why? Because, remember, the whole point of life, the whole point of this world, you're put in this world so that you and I could become like God. And so here's God who says, okay, here's the thing. I made this world without evil. I made this world without the same kind of suffering we experienced now. I made this world without death that we experience now.

it's been broken, but this world is still at the service of that plan. So here, he says to the woman, okay, you're going to experience pain and childbirth. That's not a curse. It's not a punishment. It's a consequence. But it's going to do something. So you're going to have a baby. And you're going to love this child more than you have loved anyone else and your entire life. But it's going to be connected with suffering. And you're going to realize that love always involves sacrifice.

and this man, you're going to have this family and you're going to love them and you don't want to guard them and want to care for them, but you're going to have to work among thorns and thistles, sweat of your brow. You're going to love this family,

but in order to guard them in order to care for them in order to feed them and clothe them and house them, you're going to have to sacrifice. And so what you're going to look, both learn, to the woman

and to the man, you're both going to learn that love always involves sacrifice. Why? Because, again, even after the fall, even brokenness is at the service of God's will. This is the remarkable

great news of Christianity. even after the fall, even brokenness, is at the service of God's will, that all of the battles, all of the sorrows you have to go through, the sicknesses you have to go through, the cancer you have to go through, even the losses, they're doing something. This is what St. Paul says in the second reading today, right? Second Corinthians, St. Paul makes it absolutely killer. He says this, he says, we're not discouraged. Why?

He said, we're not discouraged because this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. I want to say that again because it's a really big line. We're not discouraged because this momentary light affliction, when he says momentary light affliction, nobody's talking about. You might say, well, Paul had a rough life. He's a tentmaker and he got to travel the Mediterranean

for it sounds like a pretty decent life. Paul, when he says this momentary light affliction, at one point later on in the same reading, sorry, same letter, St. Paul's letter to the current, Corinthians' second letter. In Chapter 11, he describes a little bit of his light affliction. He says this. He says, I have more labors. I have more imprisonments, far worse beatings, and numerous brushes with death. He says, five times at the hands of the Jews, I received 40 lashes, minus one. So he was whipped five times, at least 39 times. He goes, three times, I was beaten

with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I passed a night and the day on the deep on frequent journeys and dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among my false brothers in toil and hardship through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure. And apart from this, all the daily pressures and daily anxieties. These are a sum of what St. Paul calls momentary light afflictions. You guys, if I was beaten once, if I was hit once, I'd be like, what that? You would never stop hearing about it.

I would talk about it all the time. Paul says, no, no, no, no, this is a momentary light affliction. Not only is a momentary light affliction, he says, this momentary light affliction is producing in us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. This momentary light affliction is doing something. Why? Because this broken world is still at the story. service of God's will. This broken world can still do what God wants it to do, which is what

for us to become like him. That's why St. Paul, he's confident. What is he confident about? He's confident that it all can be used. That every, every moment of every day of your life and of my life, all of it can be used to what? To help us become like Jesus. To give us the heart like Jesus. So, you're very big. victories, they can help you become like Jesus. When you are compassionate and patient, that can help you become like Jesus. When you're irritable and tempted to be cranky and grumpy, that can help you become like Jesus. When you're at your peak, that can help you become like Jesus, but also when you are feeling at your worst. When you're incredibly healthy and when you're facing cancer. St. Paul is saying that momentary light of friction

is doing something. It is producing in you an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. That's one of the reasons why he says that, hey, the one who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us up with him. That God is present in this.

God is active in this. And even this broken world can still be at the service of God's plan. This world still remains at the service of God's will. And God's will is He wants you to become like him. What does that look like?

What's the heart of Jesus look like? Well, he says it in the gospel today. He says, whoever does the will of the Father is my mother and brother and sister. The whole point of life is to become like Jesus. And what is Jesus' whole point of life? What is to do? We get to do this. The greatest grace in our lives is that we get to walk through each day and say, okay, God, use it.

God, use it. Whatever it is. Use it. Super tired, I didn't get to sleep last night. All right. God, God. use it. I'm so anxious because I left, in my fault even, I left for the meeting late, no, I'm stressed out on the car on the drive. Okay, God, use it. That person caught me off. I'm really angry now. Okay, God, use it. Or here's the blessing in your life. Okay, God, use this. I give you permission to Lord God to use this because that's the miracle of this world is that it all can be used and it all can be used for what to help you and I become who God wants us to be.

because the point of life is not to be happy. The point of life is not to get what you want. The point of life is not bliss. The point of life is becoming like him. And if we have to become like him through cancer, then that's the road God is going to use. If we have to become like him through grief, that's the road God is going to use.

If we have to become like him through failure after failure, that's the road God is going to use because he... I don't want to say he wants. He needs part of his will is that you become like him. And it all can be used if we let it. It all can be used if we let it. I think about the joy of purgatory. And you don't often hear the two words of joy and purgatory in the same sentence.

Like the joy of being done with purgatory, maybe. But I think of the joy of purgatory. Why? Because what's purgatory? Pergatory is that you're in right relationship with God, but we have not yet learned to love God the way he deserves to be loved. So purgatory, they're to purify our love. Like, I'm attached to some things,

and so purgatory exists so that I can become detached to those things and love God for himself alone. Now, that's plan B. Plan A is that we actually learn how to do that in this life. But imagine the joy of purgatory. Why? Because that means if you're in purgatory, that means the next stop is heaven.

If you're in purgatory, that means you're in right relation with God. If you're in purgatory, that means every single thing God brings to you in purgatory is meant to help you purify your heart. It means everything in purgatory that happens to you is meant to help you detach from what you need to be detached from and attached to what you need to be attached to. there is this confidence about purgatory

that every single thing that comes into your heart in purgatory has one purpose to help you love God the way he deserves to be loved and so no matter what happens that's why the joy of purgatory is yeah whatever God

whatever you need to do to my heart so I can love you the way you deserve be loved amen I'm there you realize again purgatory's plan B that's supposed to happen in this life and the beauty thing is it can happen in this life if we look at every single thing that happens to us as coming to us directly from God's hands

and say, okay, God, use it. I don't know what the pains of purgatory are going to be like. I have no idea. But I do know that the joy of purgatory is knowing that even the worst pains of purgatory are all oriented towards becoming like Jesus. And I don't know what pains you're experiencing. in this life. But I do know that there's joy in every pain you could possibly be experiencing

in this life because you know that if you say, God, use it. It will help you become like him. And this is the last thing. This is our invitation to do that here. To do that in this life. This whole universe, this whole cosmos was created so that you are, and I could become like him, and it all can be used if we're willing to say, okay, God, use it. If we're willing to, it all can be used me if we give it to God because nothing given to God is ever wasted. So my invitation is that if it all can be used, then give it all. If every moment of every day can be used to help us become like him, then give him every moment of every day. If it's true that nothing given to God,

God is wasted, then give it to God. And it won't be wasted. And start today, because this is the only day we've been given. The day we've been given to become like Him.