Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 08/07/22 Loosen the Roots

Episode Date: August 8, 2022

Homily from the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. We sacrifice because we love and we love because we sacrifice. The roots in our lives can be so beneficial. Family and friends, home and homeland. But roots can also become traps. Good things can become Ultimate Things. When we say "I need this" and are willing to sacrifice anything to get or to hold on to it, we become trapped. In this, God loosens the roots and calls us to walk by faith. Mass Readings from August 7, 2022: Wisdom 18:6-9 Psalms 33:1, 12, 18-19, 20-22Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 Luke 12:32-48

So I've been thinking a lot about roots lately. And I realize that we have people all over the country who are part of the virtual Fumpu. So when I say roots, I mean the R-O-O-T-S version that you might say roots, roots, not like routes, Routes, root, roots, there's no saying. So roots lately. And how important roots are, like how good it is to have roots. Like it is just, in fact, psychologists talk about one of the stages of development for

young, for children is stability. to have a place where they know is home, to have relationships that they know are consistent, to have the stability when it comes to, if I do this, I get rewarded. If I don't, if I do something else, I get disciplined. That kind of stability, that reality of having roots is so good and necessary for us.

In fact, I sometimes mourn the loss of roots in our modern culture where everyone has to kind of, you're expected to leave home. You're expected to leave your family of origin. expected to go some other place where no one knows you and like set down your own roots. In fact, I think roots are so important that at some point in the future, we're going to talk about how good they are and how like necessary. Not today, not in the next couple weeks, but sometimes soon.

And also even naturally speaking, I mean, think about plants and trees. What do roots do? Roots are the thing that really actually keep the tree strong. The roots are the things that keep them upright in the midst of storms. The roots are the things that keep them watered when there's a drought. So again, roots so good. But we also know that roots like any good thing can become a trap. That roots like any good thing have the potential to become a destructive thing.

They have the potential to become a trap. So even like a hometown. Hometown are great. Hometown are really good until I can't escape my hometown, right? Until I define myself by my hometown. We all know those people who live in their hometown and they're free. And those people who live in their hometown and they're like, no, I'm still stuck my senior year, that kind of situation. So we know that here's a good that can become a trap.

Here's a root that can become a trap or even family. That family, what a great gift to have the rootedness of family. But at the same time, we also recognize that that can be destructive. You've heard of like the Hatfields and McCoys, right? So these families that for long, long time in history, warred against a judge. Why? Because we belong to this family and you belong to that family. So even while, even though family is a good, it's not an absolute good. And you've heard me talk a thousand times, even this summer about patriotism. I love my country. I think this country is incredible and patriotism

is a virtue. It's a good thing. But if that leads a person to say, my country right or wrong, that good thing has become a trap. Again, it's good to have roots. This is our home. This is our house. This is our group. This is our tribe. This is my people. Those things are all good. But all of those roots, all those good things have the potential to become traps. We recognize that I'll do anything to hold on to this good. And these are good things. But when I get to the place where I'll do anything to hold on to this good, that good thing, that root that's become a trap is an idol. And that's what I want to talk about today. I want talking about idols. I'm using it in terms of roots, right? Because these are all good things.

It's so good to have a root. That's the thing. It's like when I say idle, I know some people automatically would say, well, I don't have any idols in my life. I don't have a little statues in my home that I kind of bow down to. Yet I'm guessing that if you're anything like the rest of the human race, you and we have idols in our lives. In fact, the whole book of the Bible, like the number one sin throughout the entire Bible is not the sins that you and I like name when we name sins. but the number one sin in the entire Bible is idolatry. We have the ability to make anything into a false God. Again, that's one of the things.

Sometimes people think, like, no, I don't have any false gods. Why? Because I don't have these bad things in my life. Listen, idols are rarely bad things. We've said this so many times before, but idols are good things that we make into ultimate things. They're like roots that have become traps. Anything, any good thing that has the potential to become the ultimate.

thing in our life has the potential to become a trap. Basically, it's that kind of thing of, I mean, think of taking a good thing. Have you heard of the term golden handcuffs? So it came about in the United States in the 1970s where this was in like the business world, where if you had a really good employee and the employers wanted to keep this really talented, really good employee, they would offer them a contract. The contract called the golden handcuffs because the employees given all these benefits are given all these rewards, all these incentives, as long as they stay with the company.

In the moment they leave the company, they lose all of the incentive. They lose all the long-term benefits. And so it's golden, why? Because there's so many gifts. There's some gold involved here. But there's handcuffs because you have to stay. So there's this thing of like the reality, of course, is many people were willing to sacrifice anything for that gold, even their freedom, willing to sacrifice anything, willing to sacrifice

anything for this thing. And this is us too. Like anytime we have this, that phrase that can go through our heads and says, I need this, I need this. That might, that good thing might have become an ultimate thing. That root might have become a trap. I mean that I need this. I want, I need this job. Who am I without this job? That this is my childhood home. I need this house. I need this home. I need this. What? I need this. What? I need this job. I need this. stuff and I need this car. I need this success. I need this reputation.

I need this recognition. Because without it, who am I? I need this relationship. And sometimes we can make, kind of look down on younger people when they say, you know, they can go overboard when it comes to needing this relationship.

I need this person that I'm a romantic relationship with. But that's any one of us. And we have a good thing. We turn it into an ultimate thing that we're willing to sacrifice anything to hold on to, sacrifice anything to get.

And I was thinking about this because I remember Lance Armstrong, Lance Armstrong, like arguably the greatest bicyclist of all time who has won no tour to France's, but at one point was a 7th, tour to France. I was a huge Lance Armstrong fan. I cycled all the time. I had the U.S. Postal Service jersey.

Like, I wore it seven out of ten times. I'd ride. I was very excited. I rode a trek bicycle because that's what Lance Road. I read all the books. I watched all the movies. and I was his biggest defender when Greg Lamont, who actually I really like, a Minnesotan who actually literally won the Tour de France a number of times. When he came out against Lance Armstrong,

I was like, no, Greg Lamont, what the heck, man? Lance is clean. And I was defending him. Here's Lance Armstrong, who we know sacrificed so much to be a Tour de France champion. I mean, think about the hours on his bike alone. The amount of training. It's not just, I'm tooling around riding my bike, the amount of difficult training, not only that, but dialing in his nutrition to like the gram of protein, gram of carburettoride, gram of fat, every day of his life. The amount of sleep he would get, like everything was sacrificed for this goal. But he didn't stop there. When the news would come out about him being on illegal substances for promising

financing drugs, he was even willing to sacrifice people like Greg Lamont. He was willing to defame people who were actual champions like Greg Lamont or like his own teammate in really close friend Frankie Andreu and his wife Betsy and there's this whole story this documentary called Stop at Nothing and it just highlights that he wasn't merely willing to sacrifice his own physical health his sleep, his personal life. He was willing to sacrifice anything for this ultimate thing that root good thing and become a trap and that good thing had become an ultimate thing. And even if I think, well, I'm not as ambitious as the lines arm's wrong. I don't have that kind of thing in my life. And yet we do. There's things in our lives that we're willing to sacrifice anything to get or to hold on to.

Even if that thing is just, I want to keep my spot, I want to keep my status quo, I want to keep my life how it is. I just, I love it like that because I've got a lot of good roots. And again, those roots are good. But have they become traps? If they have, God has to loosen the roots. This is the process that God has to do. loosen the roots. You might have caught in the second reading today, Hebrews chapter 11.

There's the story all through Hebrews chapter 11 of all the great heroes of the Old Testament. It's just, it's remarkable. But one of the heroes, two of the heroes that are highlighted are Abraham and Sarah. And it says that, you know, yeah, at one point, we know the story. God called Abraham from his homeland to go to the promised land. And of course, we're like, yeah, duh, Abraham left. Why? Because that's what they do in the Bible. God calls and they just leave. He's called the father of the faith for a reason. But put yourself in this situation. God has stepped into Abraham's life and has said,

You don't know me yet. But I'm calling you to leave everything you do know. Every good root in your life, I'm loosening these roots and I'm calling you to go to a distant land you've never been to before, a place you do not know yet. Now, add on to this, in this moment in Abraham's life, He is 75 years old. Sarah is 65 years old.

I mean, the scripture even says he's as good as dead, which I think is kind of stretching things a little bit. But think about this. I think everything, like all the things you're supposed to do in your life, he's kind of done them already. He hasn't had any children. But everything else, he's done already. There's literally nothing for Abraham to look forward to.

Nothing for Sarah to look forward to. Like, imagine, you get hit 75 years old. It's like, okay, now what do you do? It's a porch, porch, front swing, front porch swing time. This is that, that's sipping on some tea. That is life from now on. And God says, no, all that stability you have, let go. Like all that security that you have, everything you know, let go.

That all the expectation that you have of, like, is what life is going to be like until I'm done. Let go. All the comfort that you built up over 70,000. 25 years of hard work, you need to let go of that. And even the certainty, God steps in to Abraham's life and says, I need you to let go of that. I need you to sacrifice this comfort and this stability. I need you to sacrifice this security.

I need to sacrifice you to sacrifice this certainty because he's loosening the roots in Abraham's life. Because this is so important. We realize this is true in our lives. the same roots that hold a person in a place of security have the potential to hold that person back from the place of promise. And God has made a promise to Abraham. Again, what was in Abraham's life? Good things.

When God is calling a person to greater things, those good things can become a trap. So what does he do? He has to loosen the roots. because the same roots to hold the person in a place of security have the potential to hold that person back from the place of promise. So Abraham still has to walk and he doesn't walk by certainty. Why? Because certainty has to get sacrificed. How does he walk? Scripture says he walked by faith. In fact, I don't know if you caught this in chapter 11.

Everyone moves by faith. Even like Abel and it goes talked about Samson and talks about all the other people. He says by faith they don't did all these things. So it says by faith Abraham obeyed. By faith Abraham's sojourn. By faith, Abraham left. By faith, he received power to generate. So what does it mean to do something by faith? Basically what it means is the motive for your movement is a relationship with God. Sometimes we think that having faith is having a thing. Like I have some faith here and just can hold it in my hands or have it in my heart. It's not the same thing. By faith means the motive for my movement is my relationship with God. Abraham didn't move because he thought it was a great idea.

He didn't move because he had certainty. He didn't move because he had anything other than the promise. Which is why, it even says in Hebrews 11, says by faith Abraham was willing to offer up his only beloved son, Isaac. And we might look at that and say, like, dad, that's the part of the story that he just lose me. Because why in the world would God do that? Why wouldn't the world would God ask that of Abraham and of Isaac? And the answer is because even some of the best things in our lives, the really, really good things in our lives have the potential to become an idol.

Even the promise of God has the potential to become a proxy for God. Imagine Abraham, after years and years, Sarah, after years and years of wanting a child finally get the child of the promise. Now all of a sudden, you can see what could happen to their hearts. What could happen to their hearts is now this child is, now this child is, you know, this child is, you know, of the promise is now the replacement God in our lives. And God wants to do what? He wants to loosen the roots in Abraham's life. He calls him to walk by faith.

Again, being the motive for his movement, being this relationship with God. And I just love there's this line from Hebrews 11 where it says, it says, he was called to go forth, not knowing where he was to go. He went out, not knowing where he was to go. was to go. And you think, again, why? Why would God not have just like even revealed in a simple way, here's where you're going to go or here's what the next thing. Because here's what I would do. I mean, I can imagine myself talking to God and just saying like, okay, God, can you just tell me? You'd be like, tell you what. Well, tell me what's coming. Like, why do you want me to tell you?

Because I want to know. Like, I want to know the destination. Because I want to know the future. Because I want to know the answer. And if God was, were to say, well, just. let me walk with you. I'll get you to that place. Like, yeah, but I'd feel more comfortable if I had the destination. I'd feel more comfortable if I had the answer. I'd feel more comfortable if I knew. And God could ask me the question, like, why? And the answer would have to be because I'm so uncomfortable,

not knowing that if I don't know, I have to rely on you every moment of the journey. And when it comes down to it, I maybe don't want to need you so much, God. You see, even knowing, which is so good, even having the answer, which is so good, even having the destination, which is so good, that also can become a trap. I'd rather know than have God. I don't want to have to need him so much. And I think this is all of us, right?

When it comes to our future, and it doesn't just mean your future if you're a 20-year-old, if you're a 35-year-old, you can be 75-year-old, 85-year-old, 85-year-old. and still say, what's coming, Lord? And he says, you don't know and you can't know. What you have to do is you just have to move, just like Abraham did. How? By faith.

Where the motive for our movement is our relationship with God. Because that's what faith has to do. Like faith in order to be faith has to move. Faith in order to grow has to move. Has to actually translate into action for us. Because faith by that action, St. James says this in New Testament. Faith without action is dead.

Faith without works is dead. So God has to loosen the roots. How does God do this? Well, let's ask the question. You know, we've talked about this many times how the heart of religion is not just a creed. Heart of religion is not just what we believe,

having faith. The heart of religion is worship. Have you ever wondered why the heart of religion is worship? Have you ever wondered why? Why does God ask us to worship? I mean, the first reading from the book of wisdom It talked about how God invited his children to worship him, and they did it with courage. They ever wonder why?

Why is worship so vitally important to God? It's because this, because worship is the problem, and worship is the remedy. What's an idol? I don't say anything I need. What's an idol? Idols anything I'm willing to sacrifice for. Okay, it's the problem. We know, right?

We know that the heart of worship is sacrifice. so if the heart of religion is worship, our worship is sacrifice, then how many of us find ourselves on a regular basis sacrificing, worshiping, something that is not God, a good thing that we've now made an ultimate thing. Because we know this.

We love what we sacrifice for. See, it works both ways. It's very, very interesting. We sacrifice because we love. Right? That's just that kind of a normal thing of our lives. Like anything you love, we're willing to sacrifice for. but also we love because we sacrifice.

We sacrifice because we love. That comes naturally. But also, the more we sacrifice for something, the more we end up loving it. Remember, I'm talking with a student years ago, and she was saying that she wanted to pray, but she was very, very concerned that if she dedicated her time or set time aside and said,

I'm going to pray whether I feel like it or not, that she'd end up resenting God, who's like, well, I don't want to pray right now. So I'm only going to pray when I feel like it or also end up resenting God. And that's actually not 100% wrong, because our broken hearts, we have the potential for resentment like no one else. So that's real.

But I remember asking here, so when God willing you become a mom, and she now is a wife and a mother, when you become a mom and your child is crying and need you in the middle of the night, when you don't feel like it, will you say, well, I would take care of you, but I don't want to end up presenting you. So I'm just going to let you be, you know, kind of thing. She's like, well, no. I think, okay, that's the thing, is we love because we sacrifice. the more we sacrificed for something, the more we love that thing.

In fact, I remember listening to a marriage counselor, and he was describing, in his experience, he said he had this theory. He kept seeing couples with adult children, and those couples with adult children had great relationships with their adult children, but they had weak relationships with each other. And as he kept asking and finding out more about their relationship, he found that, yeah, these parents were really good parents, meaning whenever their child needed something,

from being an infant all through high school and to becoming an adult, they were willing to sacrificially love their children. But they got into a pattern earlier on in their marriage where, well, my child needs me to sacrificeually love for them, love them. But my spouse doesn't need me to sacrificially love them now. They can feed themselves, they can change themselves. They can get themselves up and ready on time. So they don't need me to sacrificeually love, so I just won't sacrificeually love.

And here years later, decades later, they have this great love for their children. and they have a weak love for their spouse. Why? Because we love because we sacrifice. What we sacrificeally love, we can end up actually loving. And so the problem is worship. And the remedy is worship. So our invitation here today is kind of the last thing is to sacrificeally love the Lord.

We all have roots that have become traps in our lives. We also have a God, the living God. And he's calling us to walk by faith. What I mean, but what he, I think he means by walk by faith is to sacrificially love by faith. Why? How would that mean? The motive for our movement, the motive for our sacrifice is love. Every act of sacrifice is an act of faith.

When we think about going to Sunday Mass, the more we go to Sunday Mass, when it's difficult, the more our love grows, the more we're willing to say, no, God, you're center, regardless of soccer tournaments or regardless of vacation, regardless of whatever else is happening in our lives, you're the center. The more we sacrificially love the Lord by going to Mass, the more we love him in our hearts. I think about prayer.

I mean, every time you and I turn to pray, think about this, every time you and I turn to prayer, we are saying no to a thousand other things we possibly could do and saying, God, you're first. You're first. And we sacrifice a thousand things every time we take 20 minutes to pray to the Lord. That grows our love. Every act of sacrifice is an act of faith. And every act of faith grows our love. In fact, every time we do penance, every time we fast, every time we give up anything, any sacrifice for the Lord is an act of faith. act of faith grows our love, even this last one, even going to sleep, which you know,

we talk about prayer, talking about going to mass no matter what, talk about, you know, penance and fasting, that's one thing. But even going to sleep gets to be an act of faith when it's a sacrifice. What I mean by that is what's our desire? Our desire is to control. We have these good things in our lives who want to make ultimate things. We have these roots that become traps. Every time we go to sleep, we're saying, okay God, I'm not in control. Now we have to do this as human beings. We have to go to sleep. But as Christian human beings, as Catholic human beings, here's how you and I can go to sleep. We can go to sleep. Letting that time that our head is on the pillow be a sacrifice.

Got all the things I'd worry about right now, sacrifice them. Got all the things I could stay up doing right now. I'm going to sacrifice them. Got all the things that I could be in control of right now and hold on to right now, I sacrifice them. And now I lay me down to sleep. I prayed the Lord, my soul to keep. I'm just trusting every act of even going to sleep can be an act of faith, an act of sacrifice that grows our love. Why? Because our lives are full of good things that we have made into ultimate things. Our lives are full of our roots that are blessings, but those roots in so many ways have become traps. And so God says, okay, sacrifice for me. destroy those idols, sacrifice for me, and increase your love.

Walk by faith that our relationship is the motive for your movement. And those roots that could become traps don't have the power to hold you back from the promise. Because worship and sacrifice and walking by faith has the power to loosen the roots.