Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 08/16/26 Can God Say "No"?

Episode Date: August 15, 2026

Homily from the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Can God can say no and we still stay? When we come before God and ask for anything, we are making ourselves vulnerable. We are implicitly stating that God has our permission to give us His actual answer. We do not, and we cannot, force God into anything. He might say yes, He might say wait, and He might say no. The question is not, merely, what might God say. The question is, what will we do if the answer is no? Mass Readings from August 16, 2026: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7 Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8Romans 11:13-15, 29-32 Matthew 15:21-28

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.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Chapter 15, verses 21 through 28. At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, Have pity on me, Lord, son of David. My daughter is tormented by a demon. But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her. Jesus' disciples came and asked him,

send her away for she keeps calling out after us. He said in reply, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But the woman came and did him homage saying, Lord, help me. He said in reply, it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs. She said, please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters. Then Jesus said to her in reply,

A woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you wish. and the woman's daughter was healed from that hour. The gospel of the Lord. Great to you, Lord Jesus Christ. May you to have a seat. So if you've ever been in a situation where there's some kind of like medical emergency

or not even medical emergency, but typically a situation where you've tried all of your options. Like you've exhausted all of your options. Or that would that be, you know, a joint has failed. And it's like, man, I haven't done. so much pain. Or maybe there's like a cancer diagnosis and you went through all of the treatments. Sometimes it's a mental health issue where you're like, I've seen a counselor, I've tried medication, all these things, where it seems like, okay, there's and there's no other options, there's no other,

you're desperate. You've ever been in that situation where you're just so desperate. Like you've tried everything and nothing has helped. And you find yourself in the exact same place as you before, but you're not even in exact same place as you were before. You're in a worse place. Because before, before you tried all these other options, you had hope. But after having tried everything and nothing's worked, you realize is there room for hope? And this is the place of desperation, right? And again, this is the place that a lot of us can find ourselves, and probably a lot of us will find,

maybe all of us will find ourselves at some point in our life where we have tried everything and nothing's helped. we've tried everything and nothing has worked. And if there is one word to describe us in that moment, if it's not discouraged, that word is desperate. And I just was reflecting on this obviously because of the gospel today. Here's the Canaanite Woman, right? And she comes before Jesus. Her daughter is tormented by a demon.

And I really love this in the series The Chosen. I think it's the first episode with Mary Magdalene who is tormented by demons. So she's possessed. And I think it was Nicodemus who had seen. her as, seen the demon inside of her essentially. And he's seen her as a possessed person and realized, I am powerless in the face of this. And here's Mary Magdalene. She's powerless in the face of this. Desperate. There's, there's, there's, you can't, you can't, uh, give medicine to cure someone from being possessed by a demon. You can't work hard enough to get

rid of the demon. She is desperate and she needs, she knows that she needs one person. There's only one person she's ever heard of probably in her entire life who had ever cast out a demon. And that's Jesus. And I think I think this is this scene in the gospel is so important because why? Because she comes before Jesus and she is desperate. And in her desperation, she lets Jesus know exactly what it is that she needs.

A couple weeks ago, we were talking about prayer. and in particular, we're talking about intercessory prayer or prayer is a petition. But basically, the kind of prayers where we come before God and say, hey, God, here's what I need or here's what someone else needs. And there's something, I would say this, there's something critical about approaching God in prayer where we're just seeking him. Right? There's really good prayer where we're just like, no, I just, I'm, I don't need to ask you

for anything. I don't need to ask you for anything for myself or for anyone else. I'm in prayer right now just because I want, I want you, I'm just seeking, seeking. time with you. And I imagine that in so many ways that was the majority of the prayer of Jesus. That when Jesus went up the mountain by himself to pray and prayed all night, at some level, I wonder, I don't know if he was doing intercessary prayer, I don't know if he was doing prayers or petition. I just think he wanted to spend time with his father. And there's something so, so good about that. But there's also something critical about prayers where we

ask God for what we need. Now, I've talked to some people who will see that the intercessory, petitionary prayer, they will see that as kind of like a less than prayer where it's, that's for those people who don't really trust God. And a couple weeks ago, again, I mentioned this. I said that sometimes people ask me, hey, Father Mike, what do you need prayers for? And my answer is oftentimes, I don't know. I just, I know that God, I know that God knows and I know that God is going to give me the best. And so that's a certain level of trust, right? The certain level of trust where we basically do say that. We say, God, I trust you that you're going to give me what I need. But petitionary prayer, intercessory prayer, we know that that's not for those who are less spiritually

advanced for a couple reasons. Number one is because Jesus did do petitionary prayer. Jesus did do intercessory prayer. And we are not more advanced than Jesus. That's the first thing. We have to understand. The second thing is that approaching God to, again, prayers are petition where we are interceding on behalf of ourselves or someone else. That kind of prayer. we're asking God for what we know or what we need or what we want, it's an exercise of what it is to be a son or daughter of God. I mean, just imagine. Imagine if we didn't approach to the Lord with our needs

or we didn't approach to the Lord with our wants, that could be a sign that we're not willing to open our hearts to God and tell them and show them our hearts. So years ago, when my mom was still alive, at one point she was at a group called Moms of Priests, Mops. and the mom's a priest, they were talking about, like, what their sons were done, all their priests' sons were doing. At one point, one of the gals, one of the ladies, asked my mom. So goody, what's Father Mike up to? And she said this line that I just thought, oh, ouch. She said,

she didn't say it in a resentful way. She didn't say it in a negative way. She just said it as a fact. She said, well, he's always been our secret agent man, so I don't really know what he's doing. And she told me that later on. And I remember thinking, oh, that's right. like for a lot of my life I just I didn't tell her what was going on and part of that is just because like well I don't want to you know I'm the fourth I do she really care oh she did I know she'll let me but there's a part of it is too like that I don't know I do I trust her do I trust my mom or to trust my dad with what's going on in my heart do I trust them enough to like to share like here is what's in my heart when she said that I realized oh my gosh I've kind of fallen into the

this place by default, this place of maybe, maybe even, like we even call it, a place of hiding from my mom or hiding from my dad. And we often can do that in our prayer. But to be able to come before God and say, God, here's what I want or here's what I need, that's an exercise of a son. That's an exercise of a daughter. That's an exercise of someone who knows that they can trust their father. So there's something good. That's the second thing. The third thing is this, I think there's a certain kind of trust. Again, there is a real trust that says, God, you know best, so I won't even ask. Again, I think that's not bad. That's a certain kind of trust. God, you know best. I won't even ask. But there's also a kind of trust that says, God, you know best. So I will ask for what I want.

I will ask for what I need. And then I will trust that you will give me the best. And I think that's even a deeper trust. It's one thing to just be like, hands off. God, you give me whatever you need to give me. There's a deeper kind of trust that says, God, I'm going, I know you're going to give me what's best, I'm also going to reveal my heart to you. I'm going to ask you for something, and then I'm going to trust that you give me what is best. Because again, that is a profound act of trust, because we know this. We know that God can have it, God will answer. You know that God's answers are at least three things. He says one of at least three things. He could say yes, he could say no. He can say wait. We know that when we come before God, like the Kenyan night

woman in the gospel today, and we're desperate. And we say, God, this is what I need. he can say yes, he can say no, and he can say wait. So here's the question. When I ask, when I'm desperate, when I come before God and say, God, this is what I need or this is what I want, the question is this, can God tell me no? Can God tell me no? The further question is, what do I do when God tells me no?

I love this. What happened to the Gospels? What someone might say is that she persists, and maybe even they would say that she argues with Jesus, maybe. But the first thing that she does is Jesus tells her no and she stays. This is that this is so, so important. Jesus gives his answer. Jesus tells her no. And she stays there. Question, can God tell me no and I won't go anywhere? Because our temptation, my temptation, our temptation needs to be mercenaries, right? To give our hearts to the highest bidder, to give our faith, to give our trust, to give our allegiance to the highest fitter. There's a great poem by a man

named C.S. Louis, possibly you've heard of him. N. C.S. Louis, at one point, he talks about his own mercenary heart. Here's what he says. He says, all this flashy rhetoric about loving you. I never had a selfless thought since I was born. I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through. I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn. Peace, reassurance, pleasure. Those are the that I seek. I cannot crawl one inch outside of my proper skin. I talk of love. The scholars parrot may talk Greek, but self-imprisoned, I always end where I begin. Only that now you have taught me, but how late my lack I see the chasm. And everything you are was making my heart into a bridge by which I might get back from exile and grow into a real man. And now the bridge is breaking.

I have to realize that I remember when I first read that poem and he had that sense of I'm mercenary, self-seeking through and through. And I realized the truth that oftentimes I'm tempted to have a mercenary heart in that sense that, okay, God, I belong to you as long as you give me what I ask for. Can God tell me no and I won't go anywhere? Or will I stay? Will we stay like the woman in the Gospels? And I think this is the reason, in my opinion, this is the reason why Jesus tells her that she has great faith. Because she hears the words, no, and she doesn't leave. In fact, the next thing she says is so profound.

It might be the secret, it might be the secret of every saint who ever lived. When she says those words, she says, but Lord, even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the master's table. I think you could hear this in any ways, but I think that one accurate way is to hear this woman through this lens. Basically, she's essentially saying, I'm willing to receive from you whatever you are willing to give to me. Even the dogs eat the scraps, they fall from the master's table. I'm willing to receive from you whatever you're willing to give to me. So if it scraps, that's great. I'll receive them from your hands.

And this is the thing we have to know. Faith so often is nothing more than trust. Faith so often is just, we use the term surrender. And when I say surrender, we say surrender, we don't mean giving up. What we mean is, I will accept whatever you're willing to let me have. That's the kind of faith. That's the kind of, when Jesus looks at her and says, that's great faith who says, I'm willing to accept, I'm willing to receive from you, whatever you're willing to give to me.

I accept whatever you're willing to let me have. Imagine being in a place of desperation, where I've exhausted all the options. I've come before God and I say, okay, God, even if you say no, I'm not going to leave, but I will receive whatever you want me to have. And this is the last thing. Imagine. Imagine having this depth of faith to be able to be in that place of desperation. It's really where there is no other option. and to ask and to beg

before God for exactly what we need and then to have the trust to accept whatever he's willing to give us. Because if there's anything that the Kinnanite woman demonstrates to us about our faith, it's this. It's in our place of desperation where there's no other option.

What we do is we come before the Lord and we tell him what we need. And even if he tells us no, we make the resolution. God, you can tell me no, and I won't leave. But I'm willing to receive everything, anything that you're willing to let me have.