Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 09/18/22 Eulogy Virtues: Integrity

Episode Date: September 17, 2022

Homily from the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The connection between our values and our virtues. We are nothing without the virtue of integrity. As one pastor noted, "If you have integrity, nothing else matters. And if you don't have integrity, nothing else matters." Integrity is the bridge between our desires and our decisions. Without integrity, our lives remain mere piles without purpose. Mass Readings from September 18, 2022: Amos 8:4-7 Psalms 113:1-2, 4-81 Timothy 2:1-8 Luke 16:1-13

The Lord be with you. And reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke, chapter 16 verses 1 through 13. Jesus said to his disciples, a rich man had a steward who was reported to him for swandering his property. He summoned him and said, What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship

because you can no longer be my steward. The steward said to himself, what shall I do? Now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me, I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do so that when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes. He called in his master's debtors one by one.

To the first he said, how much do you owe to my master? He replied, 100 measures of oil. He said to him, here is your promise re-note. Sit down and quickly write one for 50. To another, the steward said, and you, how much do you owe? he replied 100 cores of wheat the steward said to him here is your promissory note

write one for 80 and the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently for the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light I tell you make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth

so that when it fails you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings the person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworth and great ones. And the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones. If therefore you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth,

who will trust you with true wealth? If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours? No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. you cannot serve both God and Mammon, the gospel of the Lord. So I was walking around the house, the Newman house the other day, and I just noticed something.

I noticed that it's maybe something you might have noticed in your houses as well. I noticed the piles. You ever notice like the piles in your house? You may be someone like piles. I have a completely ordered home. I don't know what's wrong with you, Father. But here's what I noticed. I'm like, there's all these piles.

There's piles of books because I don't know what to do with them. And there's piles of bills because I'm like, ah, and there's piles of, like, papers I have to go through. There's piles of letters. There's go into your bedroom. And what happens? You see piles, right? There's piles of dirty laundry. Then you washed it, and there's piles of clean laundry.

And same thing with the kitchen, right? There's piles of dirty dishes in the sink, and then you wash them. And you're like, I'm a successful adult. And now there's piles of clean dishes in the sink. And again, this might not be you, but I just, I noticed this in a particular way this summer. So normally in the summer, when school's out, I get kind of farmed out to different parishes. And so I get to go all over the diocese and go to new parishes. And so I kind of like, you know, get a chance to snoop around rectories.

It's not a big deal. It's under control. It's not an issue. But I remember, you know, I went to this one rectory, and it was remarkable. I walked in, and it was almost as if no one lived there. Everything, it wasn't like sterile. It wasn't ad deceptic. It was, there weren't any piles.

Like, honestly, I walked in the kitchen. there were no piles. I walked in living room, no piles. I walked into the office, as I said. I like to snoop a little bit. No, but there were no piles. In fact, this room with, this house was so like ordered that the priest said, yeah, the bedrooms are upstairs, you know, the guestrooms up there. There were three bedrooms up there, and they all had shut doors. I walked in every one of the bedrooms, and I couldn't tell which one was his, except for there were two pairs of shoes next to the dresser. I mean, that was it. That was the only giveaway. I didn't go through the dresser to see if they were clothes because I have limits to you guys. I'm not. I'm not an insane person. So, but it was just,

it was, and again, it wasn't antiseptic. It was so just, everything was where it should be. It was just so whole. In fact, on the bishop, he had a meeting at like this lake place that he, he knows some people. They have a lake place. It was gorgeous. I remember walking into this place, and as you were having this meeting, I got a little distracted and started kind of just looking around at the shelves, the bookshelves, looking around at the art. One of the things that struck me was like, man, These books are on the shelf, not because they were like, we have this book, what should we do with it? Let's just put it up here.

It was because, oh, we're going to put this book here because that's where it belongs. Same thing with art. It wasn't like, well, I have this painting, let's hang it up. It was like, no, this art is there because that's where it belongs. It was just everything. It was so welcoming because of that. I don't know if you ever been into a house like that,

where everything's just like, that's where it belongs. And again, there's a limit to that, right? There's like, you know, my grandma had plastic covers on the couches. Like, that's beyond. This was just, this was just welcoming. Again, last example. Going to all these churches, they have a room called a sacristy. Like, it's right back here.

And it's where, like, the vestments are. It's where all, like, the vessels for Mass are, all the books and everything. Sometimes you go into a sacristy, and it's like, wow, everything is exactly where it should be. And sometimes, you walk in and there's, like, there's a pile of this and a pile of this. And it's so interesting. because that room has a purpose. When you walk into it, it's just a collection of piles. And this might be how your rooms are like, how my room is like.

Again, these rooms, all of our rooms that we live in, they have a purpose. But so often, they're just a collection of piles. But when things are like ordered, right, when things are where they should be, there's like this wholeness, right? There's a piece. It's so welcoming because why? Because the room is doing what it's supposed to. He just want to say it like, the room is doing what it's supposed to.

Another way to say it is the room has integrity. And that's the key word. Has a purpose and it's doing what it's supposed to, therefore it has integrity. You know, the last three weeks, this is the fourth week, last three weeks we've been talking about Uliji virtues, right? We know that so many of us, we live our lives to build the resume, right? We live our lives of these resume things. We want to accomplish this.

We want to achieve that. We want to do all these great things. We live for the resume, but we all know this. At the end of our lives, we're left with the eulogy. I live for all the accomplishments, but at the end of our lives, we're left with the eulogy virtues. Basically, you might have done these things. The big question is, but in the process, who did you become?

So the first week we talked about humility, being one of the eulogy virtues. Then it was loyalty. Last week was joy. This week, we could go on with this series until the end of the semester. There are so many things that we want to. be known for at our death, but we're going to end tonight. And we're going to end with one of the virtues that I think might be more important than any other. And it's that virtue of integrity.

Actually, I remember hearing a pastor once say this, he said, if you have integrity, nothing else matters. And if you don't have integrity, nothing else matters. Like all of the loyalty you have, all the joy you might have, all the compassion or patience you might have, if you have integrity, nothing else matters. And if you don't have integrity, then nothing else matters. So here's the question, what is integrity? There's two definitions, at least. The first definition is kind of what we think of typically.

First definition is integrity is the quality of being honest. Having strong moral principles and moral uprightness. Great definition. Love it. Super good. Being honest, strong moral principles, moral uprightness. The second definition I think is so compelling. And it's this.

integrity is a state of being whole and undivided having internal unity and coherence. So if a person has integrity, that's not just they do the right thing. It's a state of being whole and undivided, having internal unity and coherence. I think that's, I think that's something a lot of us want, but I think it's something that a lot of us don't have. Why? Because I think most of us live our lives divided. What do I mean? I mean this, we're here, but I want to be there. And I'm doing this, but I want to do that. And I say I value these things, but actually what I end up doing is I end up choosing those things. And therefore what happens, what happens is our lives become piles. Our lives are just piles of this. I mean, here's the question. How much of your life,

how much of our lives are just piles? But we can say, well, I know what I want. I know what I value. Here's the thing. Values are good. Values are basically, they're an articulation of what we hold as worthy. If you have a value, that's awesome. That's an articulation of what you think is worth pursuing, what you think is worth choosing.

But here's the thing. Values are aspirational. Values are our desires. Virtues are decisions. And they're not the same thing. Values are our desires and virtues are our decisions. and integrity is the critical connection between values and virtues. Integrity is the only bridge between our ethics and our actions.

Integrity is the only thing that can take our desires and actually turn them into decisions. Because we know this, right? We know this without integrity, I can never be a person of character. Without integrity, I can never be a person of virtue. Without integrity, I can never be whole, right? Why? Because I'm always somewhere else. If I don't have that integrity where I just, I value these things, but I keep choosing those other things, I can never be whole. And that's in the first reading today.

It's from the prophet Amos. And Amos, you know, he's talking to the Jewish people and he's saying, here's the thing. God has said, six days to work, one day a week, one day, take a break, one day, rest and worship. And what do they say? He says, you keep saying, how long till we get back to work? How long? When will the Sabbath be over so we can pick up our work again? When will this new moon be over so we can go back?

Because why? Because there's no integrity. I'm here, but I want to be there. I'm doing this, but I want to do that. How many of us were like, okay, father, this mass is going on? I got plans after this because that's what happens when we live without integrity. Is I want to be doing something else. And I'm so divided.

I can't actually even be here. You guys, here's the crazy thing. Right now, this time, this place, this is exactly where you should be right now. Like there is literally nothing else on this planet you should be doing instead of worshiping the Lord at Mass. That's freedom. If you can actually say, okay, here I am. That's incredible freedom.

But most of us, what do we do? Wherever we are, we can't actually be here. I can't actually be where my feet are because I'm so divided. But have you ever met someone who can? Like what I mean by that is, have you ever met someone who can just say, oh, it's time for something else? I'll put that aside. Now do the thing.

So I was listening to this. interview of an entertainer named Acon. You may have heard of him. I'm not recommending it. I'm just quoting him. So he had, he did some work with Eminem, whom you also know. Not the candy, the rapper, the rapper. Not the candy rapper, just the rapper. So, sorry, back to, Acon was working with Eminem. And at one point, he shows up kind of mid-afternoon to do some stuff in the studio. And at 5 o'clock, Eminem says, well, I'm taking off, see you later. He's like, wait, we just got started. He's like, no, no, no. I'll start tomorrow at 9. So come here at 9. I always end at 5. Okay, so Eminem leaves, goes home, 9 a.m. sharp the next morning, here at Acon, here's Eminem.

And they're working all morning, they're doing some stuff. At noon, they're in the middle of this, whatever they're working on, and Eminem says, well, it's noon, I take an hour lunch every day, see in an hour. Okay, comes back at one. At 5 o'clock, they're in the middle of this, like, they're going with the flow, right? They're at this point, like, they're spitting bars, as they say, and there's all these inspirations happening to them. The clock strikes five, and Eminem says, well, great days work, I'm heading home. And Akon says, well, we're in the middle of it. The flow, let's keep going.

And Eminem points and says, listen, I'm going to do this for my entire life. This is how I make a living. I work really hard from 9 o'clock to 5 o'clock. And at 5 o'clock, I get to stop working really, really hard, and I get to go be with my family. So that's what I'm going to do now. Like, wouldn't that be amazing to be able to do that? I like to be able to say, this is the time.

I'm going to work really hard on your homework, as opposed to what we do. Work really, really hard on my homework. There's a new reel. There's 30 new reels. I'm not even interested, but here I am. We're so divided. I love those dads who can come home

and their kids are playing with Legos and they can just stop whatever they're doing and get on the floor and play with Legos. You guys, confession, if I ever had to play with Legos with a little kid, I would take so many years off purgatory, it would be incredible. But those dads, those dads who can just say, yep, my kids playing with Legos, I'm just going to sit here on the floor with them and play the Legos.

Why? Because that's what I need to do right now. And they just be there. They just be present. Not divided, just present. Can you imagine the freedom of that? Just showing up and being. Being there.

I think a lot of us, I think we, I know you're made for that freedom. I think we want that freedom. I think that's maybe one of our values. But to get that freedom, I think it means that we have to do some hard work. So let's go back to the piles. There's a clinical psychologist who, he's become kind of famous for this instruction he gives to people. What he just tells them, hey, what you need to do is you need to clean your room. That's why you need to start.

It's kind of a meme at this point, right? But people are saying, like, are you serious? That's all you need to do, clean your room? He's like, no, that's not all you need to do, but that's where you need to start. And he points out, he says, it's not as easy as it sounds. It's not as clear cut as it sounds. To walk into a room and to ask that question, we asked at the beginning of mass, which was, if I were to spend 10 minutes making this room better, what would I need to do?

That question isn't an easy one to ask. it's not an easy one to answer because you have to know this other thing. You have to ask the question, well, what's this room for? Before you actually know how to make it better, you have to know what's the purpose of this room. So with your bedroom, what's the purpose of your bedroom? Some of you might say, the purpose of my bedroom is to do homework. Okay, how can you make that room better? Hopefully, many of us say the purpose of my bedroom is to sleep in.

wonderful if that's the case how can you make that room better maybe by vacuuming maybe by doing something that makes it more itself right so actually it fulfills its purpose even more clearly same with the living room

so we might say how do I make this room better well what's your living room for many families are like our living room is for watching TV okay how do you make that entertainment system the kind of entertainment system that's good for your family some of you say no the living room is for us to like look at each other and not be distracted by devices or distracted by entertainment. Wonderful. How can you make that room better? You have to ask and answer the question,

what is this room for? Here's my problem. It might be your problem. I don't decide. I don't decide what the room's for, and so I have piles. Or maybe sometimes you can't decide, and so you have piles. Or maybe sometimes you say, it's a multipurpose room, and so you have piles. What is the purpose? What is the purpose of your life. We don't decide, or we can't decide, or we want it all. And so what happens is we have all these desires, but no decisions. We have all these values, but no virtues. We have all these ethics. We don't take any action on this, and so we have these piles in the gospel today. What does Jesus say? At the end of the confusing gospel, at the end of it, though, he says,

no one can serve two masters. You can be so interested in so many things. That's one of the great things about being a human being. We have so many interests, and it's so good. but we can only have one overriding and unifying purpose. There can be only one. A lot of interests, but only one overriding and unifying purpose. And Jesus says, unless you decide, right, unless you choose it, you will end up hating the one. And I don't want that for you.

You can say, maybe I, maybe you know what you want. Maybe you know what you value. Maybe, maybe it's both. Maybe it's like, no, I want to be the kind of person who follows Jesus. I want to be the kind of person who lives my life pursuing the Lord Jesus. That's awesome. But also, I want the college experience. Like, also, I want the young adult experience.

Also, I kind of want the experience of just, like, getting to live for me and getting to do whatever I want. Jesus basically says, that is a recipe for disintegration. Jesus basically says, that is a recipe for being miserable. Because not only am I not the person I. I want to be, I end up hating the person I've chosen to be. And then I end up resenting the God who wants more for me. But can you imagine the wholeness?

Can you imagine the freedom to always be where your feet are? Can you imagine what it would be like? To just always be doing exactly what you should. Or even not say this, to always be doing exactly what you chose to do. imagine the peace that would come with that. Honestly, just imagine the relief of a life, not just being piles, but having a purpose. Can you imagine the joy of changing those piles into purpose?

Imagine the joy. You know, last week, we talked about joy. This is the last thing. Last week we talked about joy, which was we defined it as the abiding sense of well-being. And last week I also talked about a young woman named Laura, who graduated from UMD a couple years ago, and this last summer at 25 years old, died. We talked about how her life was defined by joy, but here's the crazy thing.

Laura's life was not merely defined by joy, because why? Because if you have integrity, nothing else matters. And if you don't have integrity, nothing else matters. Laura's life was defined by integrity. That state of being whole and undivided. of having internal unity and coherence. And that's the word coherence, right? It makes sense.

Integrity makes sense. I would say this very clearly. Dying at 24 doesn't make sense. Dying at 25 doesn't make sense. Laura's death did not make sense. But her life absolutely did make sense. Why? Because she looked at her life and she knew the purpose of the piles.

She looked at her life and she knew what she'd valued, and she had the integrity to choose virtue. And the same, you guys, the same is true for every one of us, the same is true, regardless of how long or how short our lives are. That we have no idea the circumstances of our death. We have no idea that situation of our own deaths. We have no idea how long or how short our lives might be. And your death might not make any sense to the people who are there.

But to live with integrity, that's to live a life that does make sense. That's to live a life that's whole. That's to live a life that has coherence. Basically, a life that says, I know the purpose of these piles. I know what I value. And I have the integrity to choose virtue, above everything else. We all know this. We say it all the time, we every one of us in this church right now,

we will be forgotten. At some point, we will be forgotten by every single purpose on this planet. But there is one person who will never forget your name. There is one person who will always every, for eternity will remember you. This one same person is the exact same person and even right now is calling us to choose him.

It's like calling us to have a relationship with him and that's the thing is like not just to value him not just to value the work of his cross, not just to value his grace, not just to value his love, not just to simply desire a relationship with him, but to decide to choose him. I think that too many of us live for the resume and every one of us is left with the eulogy.

But Jesus has chosen you. Jesus has chosen you. And every one of us is invited to choose him back. So why not? Because in the end, we will be left with what we've chosen.