Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 08/16/20 Great Faith

Episode Date: August 17, 2020

Homily from the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Faith can only become great when it is tested. What kind of faith do you want? Faith that makes a difference because it is lived out is the only kind of faith that matters. Mass Readings from August 16, 2020: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7 Psalms 67:2-3, 5-6, 8Romans 11:13-15, 29-32 >Matthew 15:21-28

So one of the things, I think basically everybody you ever talked to about this gospel today is like, wow, what's up with Jesus right now? Because it seems like at first glance that Jesus is jerky-make-jerk-face. He is not, I just want to get that out of the way right away, that Jesus is not, he's not being rude to this woman. Because let's go, like, we're diving right in right away. We're not talking about, here's a pun story. No, we're going to the gospel right now. And like, let's get a little picture of this woman at this point.

Now, context matters. So where they're at, they're in, they're not in Israel. They are in the region of Tyrant-Syden, where there are not Jews around. And this woman is Canaanites, so she's not just a non-Jews, not just a Gentile. She's also basically the oldest enemy, part of the oldest enemies of Israel. And not only that, but at that time, Jesus, the Canaanites were known for their immorality. So they were like a broken people, right? And they would have nothing in common with each other.

But this woman has something really good. But Jesus looks at her and says, essentially, that she needs something even better. So this woman comes and she has this, what is what she has, she has, she has human love. She's mother's love and that's something good. It's a good thing. If you've ever been gifted by having a parent that knows you and loves you, that you know what that's like. If you've been a parent who has known and loved their child, you realize that this kind of human love is a good thing. It's a gift.

In fact, it's probably one of the greatest natural gifts we could ever possibly have in this world. And it's powerful. It can do so much. There are the love of a parent can get them out of bed in the middle of the night to take care of their child. The love of a parent can lift a car for crying out loud of your little stories. Like the love, a human love can be so powerful.

It can lead us to do so many incredible things. But here's what human love can't do. Human love can't stop death. Human love is a good, but human love can't deliver a possessed child. Human love is a gift, but human love does not have the power to save someone's soul. And so for as good as human love is, as good as this mother's love is, what Jesus, when he sees this woman, again, keep this in mind, he's not being a jerk. He's not being mean to her.

He knows her. Remember, this is Jesus we're talking about. Jesus actually knows this woman. She doesn't need to say her name. He knows her name. She doesn't need to tell him her story. He knows her story. He doesn't need her to tell him the daughter's name.

Because he knows the daughter's name. He knows the daughter's story. He knows the pain that both of them have gone through. So this isn't, again, this isn't Jesus being insensitive. He, again, this is Jesus. He knows what he's about. He knows what he's doing. And he knows what she needs.

Please, as we launch into this, don't ever forget this. She has human love, and that's good. But Jesus wants her to have something even better. He wants her to have something even more powerful. He wants her to have faith. And so this whole interaction with this woman is all about that. It's all about taking the good thing she has, love for her daughter, and giving her something even more powerful, which is faith in him.

In fact, you know, how the story ends. I mean, it goes to the place where Jesus, it's mission accomplished because not only she is the daughter healed, but Jesus declares, woman, great is your faith. You're a woman of great faith. You're a person of great faith. And I just think about this. Like, she doesn't just get faith. She gets great faith.

Remember last week we were talking, we had the gospel with Peter's walking on the water? And at the end of that, after Peter walked on the water, yeah, he sank. But Jesus, what does he say to him? He says, you have little faith? I imagine Peter's sitting there going like, what the heck? Are you kidding me? This lady you just met her and she's great faith? I was walking on water.

But there's something incredible about this great faith. And it's something accessible to every person watching this, every person listening to this. Great faith. I have to ask the question myself, like, what kind of faith do I have? And of you, what kind of faith do you have? There's the next question, which is, what kind of faith do you want to have?

Because only faith that is tested can become great. Only faith that is tested can become great. And I know for myself, I often times I'd rather have untested or untrained faith. Like it's just like, no, I mean, I got it. It's somewhere, I know I believe, and I have this kind of this faith. And I'll find out someday what it's worth. I'll find out someday if it was great faith or not great faith. I'll find out somebody like the final judgment.

At the end of my life, at the end of creation, when there's that last judgment, then I'll find out, you know, everything will be revealed, and I'll know if I had great faith or had small faith. And that's true. It's like, that's the finals of the universe. of the universe. That's Finals Week, universe style, when it comes to the Lord, at the end of time, yes, absolutely, the greatness or littleness of our faith will be revealed. But God is so good because what he does is he gives us little pop quizzes along the way, that Jesus

isn't waiting for us to get the end of our life and then saying, okay, now find out, did you have great faith, did you not have great faith? We, a whole life is filled, every single day is filled with all these pop quizzes that reveal how little is my faith or how great is my faith. And there's these four moments in the gospel today that mirror reflect and show us these are some of the tests that every single Christian has to go through. I mean, in one encounter with Jesus, this woman goes through four tests that every single Christian needs to go through repeatedly in their life. What's the first one? She calls out. And what is Jesus? He's silent.

He doesn't say a word in response to her. Then what happens is that she keeps calling out, so she persists, she stays at it, and then the disciples, these first Christians, right, they're like, get rid of her, send her away. They're kind of, they're being the jerky-mach-jerk jerks, right? They're being the ones who are rude to her. And what this woman gets to do right away, her first encounter with Jesus, she gets to come face to face with the silence of God in the midst of her prayer and in midst of her need. Then she comes right face to face with the brokenness of the church, brokenness of other

Christians. That her first encounter with Christians, they're telling her to leave. or telling Jesus to tell her to leave. Later Jesus, what does he say? He says, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So the third test that she comes right up against is, test if it sounds like Jesus is saying no to her request. That sounds like Jesus is saying no to her prayer.

And then lastly, when Jesus says that line that makes everyone kind of scratch their heads and says it's not right to take the food for the children and throw it to the dogs, and I'm like, why are you calling her a dog? our dog and that's the big question that a lot of us have to face is sometimes like, wait, I am confused by what you're doing God or I'm confused by what you said God. It leads to, do you even care? These four tests, this woman goes through that every one of us has to go through many, many times in our lives. These pop quizzes we experience on a daily basis.

The first one, I call it to God and he seems silent. The second one, where I have to live in the midst of Christians who are not perfect, the brokenness of church leaders, the brokenness of Christians next to me. The third one, where it seems like God has said no to me, to my deep and profound need, my deep and profound request, and then the fourth one, where I just have to come face to face with this temptation, this test, of believing God, do you even care?

On those, these four things she goes through are four tests. Every one of us has to go through. And those four tests when we encounter them, these are the moments where the actual, greatness or the actual littleness, the actual strength or the actual weakness of our faith is revealed. And these are the moments that you and I have to have every single day that test and train our faith because only faith that is tested can become great. Because you have to ask the question on a daily basis, does my faith make any difference?

And again, what I mean by that is not like, not in terms of like what use is faith or what does it ever done for me. But I have to ask the question, has the faith I profess made any difference? Meaning, has the faith I profess caused me to live any differently? Because that's when it comes down to it, is, will I continue to persist in the space of silence of God? Will I continue to persist in a brokenness of the church? Will I continue to persist? Will I continue to endure in the face of the answer being no from God?

And will I continue to persist even when it seems like God doesn't care? care. Question, has the faith I professed caused me to live differently? Has it made any difference? And again, you know, the easy way to go into it is, has it caused me to live differently than other people? That's one thing. Do I, or does my life look exactly like those who don't profess faith in Jesus? And how do you know that? We look at, take a snapshot of my Netflix account history. Take a snapshot of your web browser history. Take a snapshot of your web browser history. a snapshot of your bank account and say, okay, am I spending my time and spending my money and spending my life on things that even those who don't believe in Christ at all?

They don't profess Christianity. They spend their money and their time and their life on those things. If it looks no different, then my faith doesn't make a difference. Does that make sense? So like that sense also, so has it caused me to live differently from others or even question about myself, has it caused me to live differently than I would if I didn't, believe in Jesus. Again, has my, what I profess, what I proclaim, what I declare I believe, my conviction that Jesus is the Lord and I belong to Him, has that caused me to live differently

than I would live? What I mean by this is, do I live saying this to him or do I live saying yes to any thought or desire or want that I can get away with? So I go where I want, I do what I want, I watch what I want, versus what Jesus said, if you're going to be my disciple, if you have faith in me, you're going to deny yourself. You're going to pick up your cross and you're going to follow me because that's the thing. It's like, how do I know if my faith is growing? It's not just growing in conviction. Like I grow in this feeling of faith. This is so important because if I'm going to get to the place where the test leads me to have great faith, it's not just great conviction. It's not just great proclamation. It's not just louder and louder declaration of my faith.

Because that's good. We need to have that. We need to proclaim our faith. We need to declare our faith. And we have some incredible declarations in the Gospels. I mean, you have some incredible declarations in the Gospels. I mean, you have the declaration of Martha in John's Gospel after her brother Lazarus dies and Jesus comes to her and she's brokenhearted but she declares powerfully that she knows, I trust you Jesus still. Like, no, I know He'll rise. I know that you are the one that the Lord has sent, the one who's come into the world, you're the Messiah.

Peter, next week in Matthew chapter 16, next Sunday, we're going to hear Peter make an incredible declaration of faith where people say, who do you say that I am? And Peter says, you're the Messiah, you're the only beloved son of God. Thomas, doubting Thomas, not so much because after he doubts, he doubts, he He makes the most incredible declaration of faith in Jesus in the entire, I think that's in the entire Gospels, where he sees the Reservative Christ and he says these five words, my Lord and my God. Those are incredible declarations of faith, and it's so important for us to make those declarations of faith,

make those proclamations of faith, to root ourselves in conviction. In fact, I was talking with someone recently who said that one of the things they would do every day for a amount of time is they would renew their baptismal promises. So we have our creed, right? So typically at Mass we pray the Nicene Creed, I believe in God, et cetera. Today what we're going to do is we're going to actually renew our baptismal promises. If I can find it in the book. We're going to find it in the book.

Because it's something, and I love this idea of standing in the mirror, if you have their baptismal promises renewal thing, like the right of baptism, stand in the mirror and ask yourself the question, do you believe in God? Father Almighty, Creator of Heron. I do. And like answer yourself that question. to be able to declare with conviction what you believe. So good.

But Peter was, oh, you have little faith, Peter. And Thomas, Thomas, you doubted. Blessed are those who believe, but have not seen. They made incredible declarations. But this woman today, she doesn't make an incredible declaration. She just says, Lord, help me. It's not an incredible declaration of faith. She makes an incredible demonstration of faith.

Because going from littleness of faith and going to greatness of faith through that test is growth not merely in proclamation but in participation. It's not merely a growth in declaration but in demonstration. It's not merely a growth in conviction. I have more and more conviction, but it's a growth in contribution. So the example is faith isn't just something I believe, it's not something I hold, something I have. It's an expression of a relationship.

It's living out the relationship. And so I think about this when it comes to families. I could look at my family or think of my family and make a declaration of faith. I believe I'm a vital part of my family. I believe that I'm an important part of my family. I believe I belong in my family. That's an incredible, that's a great declaration. It's good to know that if you believe that and it's true.

Awesome. Super good. I can do that on repeat. But a growth in conviction has to also result in a growth in contribution. A growth in declaration has to also result in a growth in demonstration and a growth in proclamation has to result in a growth in participation because that's what it is. to grow from little faith to great faith. It's just like in the family.

A missionary gave me the example of this. Like she said that, you know, when kids are being raised in a family, you know, at certain age, they get given more jobs. So, okay, at four years old, you're clearing the table. At seven years old, you're washing the dishes. At 12 years old, you're mowing the lawn. Actually, I have a niece who started mowing the lawn at eight years old. Crazy, so good.

I have also some neighbors who pretended like they couldn't figure out the lawnmower, so they never had to do it. Beside the point, back to the story, is when you're 16 years old, now you can drive in mom and dad. I'd say, okay, I need you to give your siblings a ride to wherever the thing is. I need you to run errands for me. So there's this growth.

The more and more you're given responsibility. The more and more, you're able to express that participation. And the more and more, you don't just like, I believe I'm more a part of this family. It's actually living more as a part of this family. You know, it's funny because I also shared that a couple times this summer I had the chance to go and I'll be with my family over the, you know, on a Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening, Monday morning and it's all these kids there's like 20 plus people at every meal and so I have brothers-in-law who are really good at cooking they take over that

job some sisters who participate in the whole thing and so I'm like can I do something like no we're good I'm like okay I can't do anything for a cooking salt I'm like well I'll clean after afterwards but in the family what the deal is everyone sits at the table until everyone is done and so until everyone's excused and so the kids are like can we be excused not everyone's done okay can we be excused we're all done but before you get excused you have to do the dishes. And so I'm sitting there. The adults are still sitting there and the kids are now doing the work. And I'm like, shoot, I missed out on cooking. I'm missing out on cleaning. Like,

what do I do now? I have to admit, at first it's kind of nice. Because I'm like kicking back. Like, this is the best. I'm just served here. But the problem is, the more that happens, the less and less I feel like family. And the more and more I feel like a guest. And I could say, I'm a vital part of this family, but I'm not actually living as a vital part of this family. I could say, I believe, I have this conviction that I matter to this family, but I'm not making any contribution to this family. I can have faith, but I'm not living this faith. And so my growth, declaration can keep growing, but the demonstration stays small. And so I share this again with their missionary. And she said, well, what did you do when you noticed that?

I had to pause, like, whoa, shoot, you mean like, your assumption is that when I noticed that I could and actually, like, should change my behavior. Like, I, I had. And when I noticed that, that is what happens, I could and actually would do something to change this experience. And thankfully, there's always something to do, right? You've 20 plus people eating a meal. There's going to be an overlooked cup or a counter that hasn't been wiped it down. Because at first it's nice. Like everyone's just taking care of things.

But at some point, we all need to live that relationship. That's a little moment of testing. My part of this family or not? And if I respond and say yes, then I get to grow in that relationship. And if I just say no, then I just stay the same. Stay as small as I ever was. Because that kind of relationship, just like faith, has to be exercised in order to grow.

It has to be tested in order to become great. Which is another way is saying it has to move. It has to work. You think about last week, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat. So they got in the boat. their faith in him moved them into the boat. Peter, Jesus said, come.

His faith in Jesus moved him out of the boat. And today in the gospel, this woman, her faith moved her to be persistent. In the face of those four obstacles, in the face of those four tests, in the face of what was for her that day, a pop quiz judgment. This is last thing. My invitation is this week, today, this afternoon. Look out for pop quiz judgments. I mean, here's what I mean.

Don't be afraid of them. Don't be afraid of the test. Again, we sometimes are so afraid of being tested. Do not be afraid of the test. Don't ever be afraid of the test because only faith that is tested can become great. And also, you don't need to go hunting them down. Here's what I really believe this. You do not have to hunt down the tests.

You don't have to hunt down the pop quiz moments of judgment. because they're just going to come to us. While we're clinging to the Lord, we're going to experience the silence of God. That when we're trying to live amongst the community of brothers and sisters in our families and in the church, we're going to experience rejection and their brokenness is going to rub up against us, it's going to hurt us. And those moments we persist, when we come before the Lord and we have desperate need and he says no to persist in that, that's a pop quiz judgment moment.

And when it seems like he doesn't care, it seems like we're confused of what he's doing. All of these give us an opportunity to go from people of little faith to people of great faith. Every single one of those tests gives us the chance to persist. Everything one of those tests give us a chance to say, Lord, I don't just want to grow in my declaration. I'm going to go in demonstration in my faith.

An opportunity to say, Lord, I don't want to just grow on my proclamation. I want to grow in my participation in my relationship with you. Jesus in today's gospel, he loved this woman through every one of those tests. And she persisted through every one of those tests. She stuck with him through the whole thing. And that's why he could say it to her what we just pray that he says to every single one of us, great is your faith. And we know that only faith,

faith that is tested can become great, and every person of faith, every person of great faith, has persisted in their tests. I invite you to stand as we make our baptismal promises and renew our baptismal promises. This is what we do every single Easter. We come before the Lord with the baptismal water, the holy water that has been re-blessed. We pay attention to these words. We pay attention to the words that we're about to declare, the answers that we're about to give. Our answers are I do, the questions are, do I reject, do I reject evil, do I reject my own ways, my old self?

And do I believe and profess belief in Jesus? I'm willing to proclaim that. So my brothers and sisters, where you are right now, standing with us in this prayer, I ask you, do you renounce sin so as to live in the freedom of the children of God? I do. Do you renounce the lure of God? Do you renounce the lure of evil so that sin may have no mastery over you? I do.

Do you renounce Satan, the author, and prince of sin? I do. Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth? I do. Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered death and was buried, throw us again from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of the Father? I do.

Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Thank you. This is our faith. This is the faith of the church, and we are proud to profess it in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.