Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 09/20/20 How Do I Look? Highlighter

Episode Date: September 21, 2020

Homily from the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. It doesn’t matter how long you live. What matters is how you live. Our lives will magnify (or highlight) something. Will they be so full of nice things that they will miss the most excellent things? Or will we be wise so that, no matter the outcome, Christ will be highlighted? Mass Readings from September 20, 2020: Isaiah 55:6-9 Psalms 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18Philippians 1:20-24, 27 Matthew 20:1-16 Download the Homily Study

So on campus, we have our students that are back. Pretty much I think every student who's going to be on campus for this semester is back, which is awesome, so good. We have classes. Of course, they're online. Because I don't know, there's some in-person classes. But I think about this, like, not only are there online classes. There's like online textbooks.

Now, I am so grateful that I'm not grateful I had to pay for textbooks, but I'm grateful that I had actual textbooks because even when our professors would assign like online articles, I have to, that's the kind of thing I have to print out because like, textbooks, reading, I have to have it in my hands. Because there is something about paper and remembering stuff that, like, I don't know, for me, there is this thing called the lost art of the highlighter. And I needed, nedded. I needed to highlight things.

But the highlighting is it's an art, it's a science, it's a mystery because, like, what in the world are you supposed to highlight? Now, this is not for those people who have taken it to the next level. Like I have some next level highlighters in my life. little brother. He went to med school here. I've mentioned it a thousand times. And he had highlighting down to, it was more than a science, it was more than an art, where he had different colors of highlighters that would correspond with different subjects as he was reading these medical school textbook textbooks. They said, oh, if I need to look up this human system, it'd be under yellow,

under green, under pink. And it's crazy. I actually have a buddy who's a priest in our diocese that when he went to seminary, he found like, well, there's all these. These theologians. It's like who, how can you know what, no one person could study all the theologians. So well, who's the best? And everyone told him, like, well, St. Thomas Aquinas is kind of the best theologian of all time. And he's, okay, I'm going to study his stuff.

But wait, he's written so many things. Like what's his best work? And they said, well, the Summa Theologica is his best thing. So he sat down and beginning with his first year in underground seminary, he sat down and he read four pages every day of the summa with a highlighter in hand. And not just one highlighter, multiple colors of a highlighter. So if it was, this is related to the moral. life was this color. This is related to the intellectual or the spiritual life. Is this other

color? This is an example I'll use some day in a homily. It was a fourth color. It's incredible. And he's an incredible priest. And if you talk with him, you're like, yeah, you're that guy. We're not that guy. Typically, when it comes to highlighting for us, you ever do this? It's just kind of like, I have a highlighter and reading the book. It's like, well, that sounds neat. It's like, well, that seems important. He just kind of highlight things randomly. So you get to the end of the chapter and you look back and there's one paragraph that maybe you didn't touch and then you start thinking, wait, should I have a highlight? that paragraph too, what's wrong with this one paragraph?

Or you have pages and pages and pages that there's no highlighting and you realize I didn't even pay attention. That's the thing, is to highlight well, here's a little secret, pro tip. To highlight well, you need to do three things. One, you need to pay attention, right? You need to actually be reading the words. Secondly, we have to think it through and ask the question, I need to, how do I figure out what matters?

Like, what matter? What's most important here? And then the third thing you need to do is you need to decide. You need to make up your mind and say, okay, this is the thing that I'm going to highlight, right? So we have to pay attention, we have to think it through, okay, what really matters here, and then have to make up our minds and decide and say, okay, this is the thing. Because what we highlight highlights what matters. Or what we highlight reveals what matters to us.

I have a kind of a lending library here at the Newman House that people take my book. Sometimes they return them unscathed, and sometimes they actually would give me back books that they borrowed with highlighting in it, which is not a big deal. I'm okay with it. I've forgiven them. But like, I remember giving a book to a friend, and it was an inspirational book about a lot of different virtuous virtues.

And I noticed that when I flip back over what he had highlighted, it was all about the topic of courage. Like almost all these things he had highlighted were things that just like, oh, that's what matters to you. It revealed his heart. I remember I lent a book on relationships to this couple that was preparing for marriage. And she was the one who highlighted this one.

And just kind of flipping things. through with them. I said, I noticed that, gosh, when it talks about honesty, when it talks about trust, when it talks about vulnerability, that's what she highlighted. And I wanted to, I pointed out to her future husband say, okay, this is what matters to your future wife. Like, what she is what matters most to her. That what she's, what your future wife sees when she read the same words that you read are these words, honesty, trust, vulnerability. This is her heart. This is how she looks. Because what we highlight, it reveals how we look. We're in the fourth part of this five-part series called How Do I Look? And the whole basis behind the thing is the reality

that Christianity is not just a religion, it's not just a relationship. It's a worldview. It's an entire vision. It's a way of looking at reality. We know that the vision determines our destination. In Christianity, belonging to Christ shapes all of our vision. It is a way of looking at all of reality. It's a way of looking at life. And so one of the big questions we have to ask is, in the book of our lives, how do I look at life? Another way to say, how do I look at a good life? What do I think is a good life as a Christian?

Like what's highlighted in that? Paul gives his answer so quickly. Today's first reading, it's Philippians chapter 1, and he says, He says, Christ will be magnified in me. Like that's how He looks at life. Christ will be magnified. That the whole purpose of my life is that Jesus Christ will be seen, that Jesus Christ will be known, that He'll be highlighted.

Which is obviously no surprise. That's like, yeah, you're St. Paul. Of course, that's the point of your life is that Jesus Christ will be magnified in your body. But the thing is, the crazy thing is he doesn't stop there. The incredible thing is he goes on and he says, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by my life or by my death, whether I live or whether I die. Like, that's what's highlighted. What's highlighted in my life, what's magnified in my life, what's the point of my life,

is Jesus Christ without condition? Is Jesus Christ regardless of outcomes? So whether I live or I die, it doesn't matter. He's the point. Whether I have success or failure in life, that doesn't matter. I mean, think about this. St. Paul at this point, he has no idea if he's going to die this obscure, you know, preacher of Jesus Christ in Rome and have no one remember him or if he's going to write

two-thirds of the New Testament. He has no idea if he's going to be a success or failure. And he says that doesn't matter. What matters is that Christ is magnified, that he's highlighted in my life, whether I am a success or whether I'm a failure. He is saying that Christ is the point regardless of outcomes, regardless of whether I have fame or infamy, regardless of whether I have health or sickness, regardless of whether I am surrounded by people who love me or whether I live the rest of my life alone and

die alone. St. Paul has said that this is the point, regardless of outcomes, regardless of whether I have a long life or a short one. I wanted to stop in this for a second, regardless of whether I have a long life or a short one. He has no conditions on who or what gets highlighted in his life, what's magnified that it's Jesus. And I think about the conditions that we have, like when it comes to what's a good life, all these conditions. How do I look at a good life? I think that too often we look at the way

the world looks. What St. Paul says is, do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. The world, how's the world look at a good life? Well, it's a life that has a, you have a nice spouse, and you have a nice family, and you have a nice job, and you have comfy weekends, and you have fun-rinkations, and you have a really nice, retirement. And that's what a good life is. According to the world, years ago I came across this sermon from a pastor down in the Twin Cities. And he had given this sermon 20 years ago, actually, and gave it to a bunch of college age young people. And in the sermon he spoke about a tragedy. And he mentioned that two women from his congregation had just died three

weeks prior to when he gave this sermon to all these college students. Their names were Ruby and Laura, and they were killed in Cameroon, from the Twin Cities, but they were killed in Cameroon on a mission trip. And this pastor described Ruby that she was roughly 80 years old. She had been single her entire life, and she was a nurse.

He said, she poured out her life for one thing to make Jesus Christ known and loved among the poor and the sick in places no one else wanted That was Ruby. Laura was a doctor from the Twin Cities and she had been retired for almost 20 years. But her retirement, she spent, teamed up with Ruby and the two of them dedicated their lives to magnifying Jesus Christ. And they were doing that.

As the brakes went out on their truck and the truck flew off a cliff and they flew into eternity. And he asks these young people, he says, I went to my congregation, he said, at their funeral, I ask my people, and I'm asking you right now, is this a tragedy? Is Ruby and Laura's death a tragedy? He says, no. But then he goes on to say, I don't want to steal the whole thing from this pastor, but, you know, it's good. He said, I'll tell you what a real tragedy is, and he pulled out this article from the Reader's Digest. The article was called Start Now, Retire Early.

And here's what it said. It said, Bob and Penny, describing this couple, Bob and Penny took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago. when he was 59 and she was 51. And now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, they play softball and collect shells. And then speaking to all these 18, 19, 20, and 21-year-olds, he says, that's a tragedy.

What Ruby and Laura did, that wasn't a tragedy. They were spending their lives magnifying, highlighting one thing, one person, Jesus Christ. And he says, he says, the tragedy is a nice house, a nice job, a nice family, a nice retirement, collecting shells. And that's the last chapter before you standing for the creator of the universe to give an account of what you did. Here it is, Lord, my shell collection.

Here is my golf swing. Because that's what gets highlighted. That's what gets magnified. The question is, is this how we, as Christians, look at a good life? Is it a long life? St. Paul reveals this. He reveals something to us today in this first reading from Philippians, or second reading from Philippians, where he says, he doesn't say this,

but essentially he's saying it doesn't matter how long we live, it matters how we live. It doesn't matter how long we live. What matters is how we live. And in that life, who or what do I magnify? Who or what do I highlight? What do I put the emphasis on? I mean, the gospel today, think about this. It's such an incredible parable from Jesus where there's all these words.

workers, right? And so there was day laborers. And the master of the vineyard went out hiring people in the morning. And then he hires people at 6 a.m. And they're working the entire day. The people work at 9 a.m. noon, 3 o'clock, 5 o'clock, one hour. And we get the story that the landowner pays those who worked for one hour the same as the people who work the entire day. And again, let's stop for a moment on this. Because those people who worked, you know, they got up early, 5 o'clock to get and wait around looking for a job. And then they worked, as they say, in the scripture, all day and bore the day's heat. Like, they had to hard work.

But how did they look at this? They looked at their lack. They looked at what others had been given. They looked at what was wrong. This is so interesting. They could have looked both ways. One thing is like, you know, we worked all day. You know, the people who got hired at 5 o'clock, they could have been, I mean, think

about this. You're still waiting to get hired at 5 o'clock knowing there's one-off. hour left in the day, you're probably not going to get hired. But you don't want to go home to tell your wife, to tell your kids, like, no, I didn't make any money today. So, yes, the people who worked all day, they could complain. We worked all day. The people who got hired at the end of the day, they could complain, we worried all day. Like, why didn't you pick us up earlier? The people who worked all day, at least they had lived that day with purpose. At least they had done meaningful work all day. And what does even the landowner say? He says, why do you

stand here idle, purposeless, this whole day has been meaningless. See, everyone in the, everyone in the parable could complain, or everyone in the parable could say, this is how I look. How I look, how I look at this world, everything is a gift. How we look, how do I look as a Christian, at life, at a good life, it's all a gift. I mean, even ask the question, why do you, why do you or I have anything at all? The answer is because God is good, because God is generous. So St. Paul could say, like,

I don't care whether I live or die, a long life or a short man, because why is there life at all? The only reason is because God is good, because he wants you to exist, even if that is only for one day and then step into eternity, or for 100 years and then step into eternity.

We complain about so much. We don't look at it like this. I don't know if you ever notice how often we complain about stuff that we would mourn if we lost it. I got so much work. And what if I didn't have work? And maybe those of you who are parents like, I just gotta take care of all these kids,

it's just such a drain on me, like not getting any sleep. Imagine not having even one of them. And I remember talking to the man who he got married and he had a bunch of girls, all girls, and he said, when I was a single, I used to go for long walks by myself and think, deep thoughts and pray to the Lord and I said, I haven't thought of deep thoughts since my first child was born. The stuff we complain about, we would mourn it's lost if it was taken away.

But everything is a gift. This is how a Christian looks at a good life. It's everything, yes, and the hard parts are real. Absolutely. Loss is real. Betrayal is real. Death is real. The question is what gets highlighted? Paul says Jesus Christ will be highlighted. He'll be magnified. regardless of the outcome, regardless of the conditions. And you have to ask the question, why, Paul, are you so certain that, because he says it.

He says, Christ will be magnified, whether by my life or by my death. Paul, how are you so certain? The answer is because he's made up his mind. Because he's decided. You know, the etymology or the meaning of the word decide is to cut off. St. Paul has decided. There are certain things in this world that I will not. magnify that I will not highlight and there are certain things that I will.

And so this is the last thing we have to ask this question. Have we decided? The book of your life and the book of my life can have a lot of good things. It can have a lot of hard things. It can have a lot of tragic things. But how do you and I become a good highlighter? Which is an art and a science and a mystery. Well, we have to pay attention to live awake. and then we have to think it through. We have to look at and figure out, okay, what matters, what's important.

And then we have to decide. We have to make up our mind. We have to choose and we have to decision. Realize that there are some things in this world that I need to cut myself away from. There's something in this world that I cannot and will not. I refuse to highlight. I refuse to magnify. But there is one in this world who will be the one that.

is magnified, whether I live or whether I die, whether I'm healthy, whether I'm sick, whether I have people around me who love me or if I find myself isolated and alone. There is one who will be magnified. There is one who will be highlighted. I have to ask the question, have you ever made that decision? Have you ever, like really paid attention, thought it through what matters the most, and then made that decision to give your life fully to Jesus. So you can say, I mean, just in my invitation right now, so you can say, yeah, whatever happens

today with the rest of the day. I belong to Christ. He's what's highlighted. Whatever happens this week? Like, whatever happens with my family, whatever happens with my job, whatever happens with my retirement or my health. Regardless of the outcomes, I've been paying attention.

I know what matters. And I've decided Christ will be magnified. You know, we look back in our lives, having magnified, having highlighted a nice house and a nice job, and nice retirement and seashells, or will we be able to say, Jesus Christ will be magnified? Jesus Christ will be highlighted regardless of outcomes.

And I know he will, because everything, because the way Christians look at this life, at this world, how we look is everything is a gift.