Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 07/17/22 The Question

Episode Date: July 18, 2022

Homily from the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Feeling anxious, worried, or sorry for yourself is normal. It is also completely unhelpful. We have a problem. And the problem is that we can do the right thing in the wrong way. We can choose to serve...while feeding our worry and self-pity. We can carry our cross...while feeling anxious and sorry for ourselves. Everything comes down to one question; it is not a matter of being tough, it is a matter of trust. Mass Readings from July 17, 2022: Genesis 18:1-10 Psalms 15:2-5Colossians 1:24-28 Luke 10:38-42

So one of my favorite shows, TV shows, of all time. It's controversial in the sense that there are people who like love it, love it, people who completely hate it, people who loved it, but then ended up hating it. It's called Lost, Lost, if you know anything about TV. So it started, the first episode aired like 20 years ago. It started in 2004 and finished in 2010. So there's going to be spoilers in this. If you haven't seen it yet, I'm really sorry.

I'm literally going to ruin it for you. But the whole premise of the show is there's a plane that's crashed on this island. And they have to survive. But then it becomes like the kind of sci-fi. Like there's this black smoke. What's the black smoke? There's this time travel flashed forward, flashed backwards. There's like alternate realities.

There's all these different things going on. And so all these questions, how do people get to this island? Because the island brings them back. Even if they try to escape, there's all these questions. People wanted to know the answer to all these questions. Because it's really fascinating story of like survival. In fact, the whole point of the TV show is, you know, one of the things they say many times is live together, die alone. We just need to live, like that idea.

Live together, die alone because the whole point is to live. This is where I ruin everything for you. The last episode, the last season, actually, it turns out that the last season, they're all dead. And the last episode, they all realize we're dead. And so here's this conversation that this man has, his name's Jack, he's one of the main characters, with his father.

And it's really fascinating because here's these people. You think about this, I love this reality that there's some people who die in the very first season, like kind of right away, And there are some people who make it home, they live out their lives, we imagine. There's some people who stay on the island and they live for hundreds of years on this island because it's kind of this magical, whatever, mystical place. But in the end, they're all dead.

Again, whether they lived a short time, whether they lived for hundreds of years, here they're all dead. So Jack is talking to his father, and I love it because they're in a Catholic church and they're in a sacristy, like where the priests get vested and stuff. And Jack is having this crisis because the whole point was to stay alive, now we're all dead, and he asks the question. The question that is so important. And the question that many people got upset about

because at the end of the series, the writers didn't answer the question of what's the black smoke? At the end of the series, the writers didn't ask the question, wait, why is this island so mystical? How can the island bring people to it? Like, what happened? They never answered those questions.

And I was like, yeah, because those questions aren't important. They answered the one question, the question, the question that Jack looks at his father. and he says, so did any of it matter? Did all that we did, did it just not matter? Did it not mean anything? Because that's the question, right? Here they are all. They're all dead at this point, again, whether they lived a short time

or hundreds of years, they're all dead. And so the question is, did it not matter? Did any of it mean anything? That's when his father looks at him and says, Jack, it all mattered. all mattered. Like every piece of it meant something. Because there's some big questions that we need to ask at times.

There's questions that we want to be answered that they don't need to be answered. But there is one question that has to be. That's why I'm going to go to the gospel today. Here's Martha. I'm thinking about Martha, man, Martha gets a bad rap. She's always, I think Martha's misunderstood more than anyone. And maybe in the entire Bible because people are like, yeah, Martha, she's the one. If you start, if you're the person who volunteers, you like to serve,

people like, oh, you're a Martha. as if that's like a bad thing. The thing with Martha is she's, there's some problems with Martha. But the problem isn't that she's busy. The problem with Martha is not that she's serving. The problem with Martha is not that she's helping or that she's working. In fact, Jesus even says what the problem is.

He says to her, he says, Martha, you are anxious and you're worried about so many things. It's like, that's her problem. Which is actually funny because that's all of our problems. I mean, if we get down, to it, how many of us would, in any given day, would be worried about something? We're anxious about something. In fact, it's really interesting.

There are some evolutionary biologists who talk about this. And they say, actually, human beings were wired for worry. In fact, we did a series on fear back in the day, like last year. And we talked about how fear is good for us because fear is what's kept us alive. The same thing is true for being anxious and for worry because we're wired to worry. We're wired to notice the negative. In fact, we're so weird to notice the negative that we know this about compliments and insults. Someone can give you a dozen compliments, but that one person who says the negative thing,

that's the thing you remember. In fact, there was a study not about insults and praise, but there was a study where they brought a bunch of people in and they were showing them photographs of people's faces. And they asked them to identify the threatening faces. And so they did. People looked menacing like, oh, that's the threatening face, you know, then normal faces, normal faces. At one point though, the researchers, they stopped showing menacing faces. They stopped showing threatening faces. The interesting thing was people still identified faces as

being threatening, even though they weren't objectively threatening. Now, in their defense, they were told, look for the threatening faces. But this is what we do. We can have things going so well for us. Now there's no problem, but we can find things to worry about. We can find things to be anxious about. And that's, that's Martha right now. we have a problem she had a problem we could be doing the right thing we can be doing the good thing we can be doing exactly what we should be doing and we can be doing it in the wrong way

again we need to know this it's normal to feel anxious at times is normal to feel worried at times is normal it's just not helpful but there's a third thing that's going on

not just she's not just anxious she's not just worried there's a third thing going on with Martha that the text doesn't say it, but I've been praying about this a lot. It seems to me that there's a third aspect. I wonder if it's there. And there's hints of it because you imagine. Okay, here's the scene. Martha, Mary, Jesus comes to their house.

I can imagine how happy they'd be. Just like, this isn't just their friend. This isn't just their rabbi. This is the Lord. And imagine that maybe even Martha volunteered to serve. She volunteered to help. In fact, I imagine that initially Martha was incredibly grateful for the opportunity. I get to serve Jesus.

But then, We have to ask the question, okay, but then, you know, if you're blessed to be surrounded by good-hearted people, generous people who like to serve, people who volunteer, it's amazing. But a lot of times we can fall in, they, even though those good people can fall into this trap of, yeah, I wanted to volunteer, but then I notice, well, other people aren't helping. Yeah, I wanted to serve, but then I realized, wait, other people aren't serving. Yes, I was grateful for the opportunity to be here, but then I realized, wait, I'm working while other people are enjoying themselves.

You know, here's the thing, crazy thing, that Martha could, Martha could have taken joy in the fact that she was feeding people so that they could be fed by Jesus. Martha could have rejoiced in the fact that she was welcoming not only Jesus, but other people into her home and giving them the context, the setting, the environment, so that they didn't have to worry about a thing other than just simply listening to Jesus, But she didn't. Why?

Because of this third thing. She wasn't just anxious. She wasn't just worried. Martha fell into this trap. She felt sorry for herself. And this is the trap that is so normal. The trap that is so real. Self-pity.

You can picture her. Not just anxious and worried that people are getting their food. People are taking care of things. But just, why am I the only one doing this? Why am I the only one going through this? Why don't other people have to do this? And you can see, Martha falling into this trap of just simply feeling sorry for herself.

Now we have to pause on this because we realize that this might be Martha's story, but this is all of our experience. That one of the primary temptations of our lives when we're going through pain, we're going through discomfort and we're going through real suffering is self-pity. And we need to pause on this because we have to acknowledge the fact that suffering is real. In fact, if you're part of the virtual front view, that might be because you're in the midst, you're not able to go to church. It's because you actually are in the middle.

midst of maybe the worst season in your life. So we have to acknowledge that this is not a small thing. It's not just those volunteers who sometimes get jealous of other people. This is the reality that you might be going through right now in this moment devastating loss. In this moment, you might be going through debilitating illness. You might be in this moment going through destructive grief, or someone you love is going through all these things. And so for you, again, not only that suffering real, but the temptation towards self-pity is so real. And again, please don't misunderstand me. We need to grieve in whatever way we need to grieve.

Whether that's wrestling, if that's crying out to God, if that's just really going back and forth and just experiencing this pain, we need to do that thing. And so remember, suffering is so real, it is normal to feel sorry for oneself in the midst of of suffering. Completely normal. In fact, I'd say there is nothing more normal than feeling sorry for oneself. And at the same time, there is nothing less helpful than feeling sorry for oneself. And again, talk about those of us right now who are in the midst of suffering. I want to spare you this because life is difficult enough. Life and the suffering might be going through is hard enough without adding to it this useless self-pity. And it's something. And it's

So, as I said, it's nothing else helpful. So part of this comes from the family I grew up in, like, this attitude. I've shared this before, but years ago, my older sister, her name is Amy, she was reading her young son a book called Hatchet. So Max is her son. He's now just finished his freshman year in college. But when he was a kid, maybe six years old, she was reading to him this book Hatchet. Hatchet is about this young boy, maybe 13 years old, who was flying in this little Piper

cub airplane over. over the Yukon and it crashes and everyone dies except for him. He's alive and it's this adventure book about how this boy, you know, survived in the wilderness and made it back to civilization. Well, as she was reading this, it was the scene where here's the young boy and it says that he was cold and he was wet because he's raining, being rained on and he was hungry and he was alone and he was afraid and he was hundreds of miles from civilization. And the author says, and he sat there and he cried and he cried and he cried.

And he cried until he couldn't cry anymore. And he looked up after he stopped crying and he realized he was still cold and he was still wet. He was still hungry. And he was still alone. And he wasn't any closer to home. And all that crying did nothing to help him. My sister stopped and she turned to her six-year-old and said, you see Max? Crying doesn't do anything.

I was like, that's my family. just a little insight into like, you know, the family in which I was raised. But that's the truth in so many ways. And sometimes you need a good cry. Okay. But self-pity is a trap. Self-pity is a dead end. Now, here's the thing.

Grief is a process. Grieving is a process. The process implies you're going through something and you're going to somewhere. But self-pity is a dead end. It doesn't go anywhere. In fact, the anthem of the person who experiences that feeling sorry for themselves is one word. And that word is, see? Right when someone sees themselves as someone who just like, no, it gets pummeled, gets pummeled,

gets pummeled, and the next negative thing's going to happen, the next bad thing is going to happen. And if someone is feeling sorry for themselves, the only thing they can say is when the next bad thing happens is, see, see, again, I'm the kind of person, I'm the professional victim, that always things are going to get piled on me. But again, as I said, I want to spare you that. And it's not just about being tough. I mean, when I was younger, my old older brother and I loved this movie about this woman who's trying to qualify for the Navy Seals. And in it, I don't want to say the name of the movie because I'll get slapped by Will Smith. But at one point in the middle of the movie, one of the trainers was talking about self-pity. And he quoted this poem and the poem was, I've never seen a wild thing feel sorry for itself.

I've seen a bird, dropped dead, frozen from a bow, without ever having felt sorry for itself. And my brother and I were like, yeah, that's awesome. That's so cool, you know, because that's toughen up, because we have, again, same parents as my sister. But the Christian life is not that. The Christian life is not just, you know, suck it up and toughen up. The Christian life is not just, you know what? You have your anxiety, you have your worry, you have your self-pity, just deal with it. The Christian life is to do what Martha did. Again, Martha is misunderstood. Because Martha is feeling anxious. She's feeling worry. She's feeling self-pity just like all of us

because it is so normal, but then she does something. What does she do? She brings her feelings of anxiousness. She brings her worry. She brings her self-pity to Jesus. And what does she do? She asks the question. She could have asked a dozen questions.

But she asks the question. It's not about, God, Jesus can make me tougher? Jesus can you resolve this pain? The question is, Jesus, do you not care? That's the question. Jesus, do you not care? Does anything I'm doing here matter? Do I matter?

Do I matter to you? See, again, Martha is so misunderstood because she doesn't have to be a robot. She doesn't have to be super tough. She just has to ask this question that was on her heart, which is, Lord, do you even care? Does this matter? Do I matter to you?

And that's all of us, every single one of us, when we experience what's completely normal, being anxious, worrying, self-pity, to be able to come back to that question, do you care? Does this matter? Do I matter? Because it's such a great question. But here's the important thing. If we're going to ask this question,

we have to be willing to accept God's answer. Because how many times when we ask that question, God has answered it again and again. And how many times in Scripture has God made it so clear that he cares? How many times in Scripture has God made it so clear that you matter to him? You know, the Psalm says, cast your cares on him because he cares for you. Psalm 23 says,

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down and rest inverted pastures. You know, Jesus makes it so clear in scriptures where he says, look at the lollies of the field. They don't spin or sew or reap, but Solomon's splendor isn't dressed like them. He says, God has counted every hair on your head. Jesus says that, consider the sparrows. Not one of them falls to the ground without your father noticing.

And he says, looks at them dead in the eyes, looks you dead in the eye right now. And he says, you are worth more than many sparrows. There is an answer to this question, Lord, do you care? The answer is I couldn't care more. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that anyone who believed in him would have eternal life. I mean, you think about this, the definitive answer to the question, Lord, do you care?

Does this matter? Do I matter to you? Is Jesus Christ on the cross? There is, there's, God couldn't, he literally could not give a more clear answer to the question. Do you care? Does this matter? Do I matter?

In fact, the Catechism says this. The Catechism says there is not one aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question, or answer to the question of evil, the question of suffering, the question that we ask in the middle of suffering, which is, do you care? Does this matter? Do I matter to you?

And that's why, again, this is not about being tough. It's about trusting. Because I'll say this, I'll say that the most important thing, the most fundamental thing, is our approach to God, meaning how do we see Him? What is our attitude towards God? Is our attitude that you can't trust Him? It's our attitude of suspicion.

Or is our attitude, no, God is good, and I can trust Him. Here's the thing. For those who do not trust God, no amount of blessings will ever be enough to give them a feeling of stability. Because think about it, like God can bless them, bless them, bless them, but the moment he stops blessing, the moment he stops giving them what they want,

well then he can't be trusted anymore. But for those who trust God, for those who know, okay, God is good and He loves me. God is good and he cares. And even when those overt blessings stop, even when we're in the midst of suffering, no amount of suffering can steal one's faith. That's why the whole question comes down

to whether or not we accept God's answer. And he says, actually, I do care. Care more than you actually maybe even like sometimes. Why? Because in answer to the question, does this matter? Does what I choose matter? Sometimes we're like, I got to don't want what I choose to matter so much. I don't want to matter so much to you because it means more and this is the last thing.

Because we can ask the question, okay, if we matter so much to God, if he cares so much, then why doesn't he just take the pain away? Why doesn't he just remove the suffering? St. Paul in the second reading today, his letter to the Colossians chapter 1. St. Paul was someone who knew suffering. You know it very, very well. But St. Paul was someone whose life was marked by an attitude of trust to the Lord. Paul goes on, you know, in scripture, he goes on in any numbers, all the ways that he has suffered,

not just suffered, but suffered for Jesus and for the service of the gospel. You would think that a person like that would say, Lord, I suffer so much for you, just give me a break. But what does St. Paul say in today's reading? He says, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. He doesn't just tolerate suffering. It doesn't just endure suffering. He says, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.

Why? Because he knows this truth. He knows, A, that he can trust God, but he also knows that he can trust God so fully that Jesus didn't take away suffering. He transformed suffering. Jesus didn't remove pain. He redeemed pain. We all know that Jesus Christ's death on the cross is what saved us

from our sins. It transformed this world. It saved this world. St. Paul knows this deeper truth that in the midst of suffering, in the midst of pain, in midst where we're tempted towards being anxious or being worried or feeling sorry for ourselves, there is a deeper thing at work. that God invites us to participate in his suffering. He didn't remove it, he redeemed it. So St. Paul says, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my body I'm making up for it is lacking in the sufferings of Christ

for the sake of his body, which is the church. St. Paul realizes that every suffering of mine, everything I go through, if I give it to the Lord, he can use it to save the people I love. If I give it to him, he can use it to save the people I don't love. If I give it to him, he can use it to save the world. Now, just a little quick clarification, John Paul II, he wrote this book called Unhuman Suffering. A little booklet on Human Suffering.

And he asks the question, wait, what's lacking in the sufferings of Christ? And he answers it. He says, nothing. Nothing's lacking in the sufferings of Christ. Because Christ's suffering were sufficient. But so that you and I could participate in his saving work. That's what God wants for us. Not simply to experience the saving work, but to participate in his saving work,

but so that you and I could participate in his saving work, he's extended to each one of us a small particle of his cross, that if we offer it to him, we can share in his plan of redeeming the world. And so the question, Lord, do you care? Does this matter? Do I matter? The answer is, just like Jack said, Jack's father said to him,

son, it all matters. So my invitation is this week. This week, take everything. Take those moments of victory. Take those moments of defeat. Take those moments of strength. Take those moments of suffering. Simply turn to the Lord,

knowing the answer to the question. Saying, God, I know that you care. God, I know that this matters. God, I know that I matter to you. I give you permission. Use it.