Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 09/26/21 Holding On: Patient and Ruthless

Episode Date: September 27, 2021

Homily from the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. What if the biggest obstacle to being the person you were created to be is the person you are currently choosing to be? There are things that we need to stop holding on to if we are going to allow Christ to change our lives. Often, we know exactly what those things are. The things that our hands reach for, our eyes look at, and our feet lead us to can the exact things that are keeping us from God. Mass Readings from September 26, 2021: Numbers 11:25-29 Psalms 19:8, 10, 12-14James 5:1-6 Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

So here's kind of a riddle. What are the following, what are the following three things have in common? A calendar, the yellow pages, and a video camera. Here's more. How about these three things? An alarm clock, a notebook, and a flashlight. Or this, a roadmap, a calculator, and a television. Last one. A camera, a phone, and a computer. you might already know this. You guys are smart. You already figured it out. I'm not that clever. This is what they have in common.

Every one of these things are in this little magical rectangle that I have in my hand right now. Every single one of these, there's a roadmap, a calculator, a TV, a calendar, yellow pages, video camera, alarm clock, notebook, flashlight, camera, phone, computer. It's all right here. And I don't know, whether or not, whatever you believe about Apple computers,

whether you like the brand, whether you dislike the company, you don't like their business practices. The truth of the matter is, they've changed the world. like this this thing in my hand right now has it changed everything it's changed the way we live it's changed the way we interact it's changed the way we learn it's changed the way we connect with each other this thing has changed the way we spend our days another way to say it is this thing has changed

our lives this this thing has changed our lives and again whether you like it or not doesn't matter it's true you know there's a story about steve jobs steve jobs founded apple so the story about Steve Jobs, who at one point, he founded Apple in that, I think, 1976. And it was 1983 now. And he had a guy in mind that he wanted to be the new CEO of the company. This man's name was John Scully. John Scully, at the time, he was the vice president. He became the president of PepsiCo.

And here's Apple Computers. This kind of small, upstart computer company wasn't doing amazingly well. And Steve Jobs was recruiting John Scully, the president of Pepsi. And he said, he said, remembers the scene, they were sitting on this balcony overlooking Central Park. And Steve Jobs turns to this man, John Scully, and he says this, he says, do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugar water? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?

Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugar water? Or do you want to come with me and change the world? That question gave John Scully a decision to make. Are you going to hold on to what you know, or are you going to do something different? Are you going to do what you know? hold on to the life you have, the safety life you have, or are you going to risk something? Are you going to hold on to what is a sure thing, or are you going to risk it all? So in 1983, John Scully left Pepsi, became the CEO of Apple.

And he said, he fired Steve Jobs two years later. But back to our story. For two years, though, he said he spent hours listening to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates talk about what they wanted to do. These guys, they wanted to develop something. They wanted to do something big. And he said he spent hours and hours for two years listening to both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs talk about what they wanted to do.

And he said they never mentioned money. Neither of them ever, when they talked about their plan, when they talked about their vision, they never mentioned money. They always talked about what they called the big noble cause. And they had this vision that drove them that was bigger than money. It was bigger than wealth. It was this big noble cause. And their big noble cause, they said, was putting tech, was putting computers into the hands

of ordinary people and unleashing their creativity on the world. to taking ordinary people, but giving them the kind of technology that would tap into their creativity and would give them permission and give them the ability to change their world. See, that's called vision, right? That's called something that's a big vision. It's not small. It's not, you know, too many people have a small vision for their lives, and because of that, our lives stay small.

But here's Steve Jobs, who had this big vision, and it wasn't about wealth, and it wasn't about fame, and it wasn't about becoming a star, wasn't about becoming an NHL star, wasn't about becoming a Broadway star or a TikTok star or a YouTube star. The vision that every one of us has, or should have, for our lives, is essentially becoming who you were meant to be.

Like the vision God has for us is becoming who you were meant to be. So the question I have to ask is, have you ever had a Steve Jobs step into your life and point this out? We've read the Steve Jobs come into your life and say, okay, you realize this. The task of your lifetime, the task of your life

is to become who you were created and redeemed to be. Because the hard truth is, you are not that person yet. The task of your life in my life is to become the person you were created and redeemed to be, and the hard truth is you are not that person yet, and I am not that person yet. That you and I are not yet the person we're supposed to be. Now, you might be on your way.

You might have started long ago like, father, listen, bro, I've been praying. I've been grinding, I've been surrendering my life, I've been letting the Lord love me, and that is true. And I want to say that because there's some people I know of us who are easily discouraged. And we have to acknowledge the fact that, no, you have, you might have further to go, but you are so far from where you started. That's true. But another truth is you are still made for more. Another truth is you're not there yet.

We're not yet, you're not yet, I'm not yet the people we were called to be. And too often, this is crazy, too often, too many, of us are holding on to what's holding us back. We know we're not the people we're called to be. We're not the people we're supposed to be. Heck, we're not even the people we want to be. And too often, too many of us are holding on to the exact thing that's holding us back. So for the next three weeks, we're starting a series.

It's our first series of the academic year. It's only three weeks, very short series, but it's called holding on. It's the idea here that a lot of us are holding on. What I mean by that is I believe, I think that if we really believe that every one of us was made in God's image and likeness, I think that if we really believed that Jesus Christ suffered and died for our sins so we wouldn't be separated from him forever, but he suffered and died for us so that we would actually be able to live with him in eternity. I think that if we really believed that Jesus Christ came so we have joy and have it to the fullness,

I think that maybe we would want that. I think if we really believe that, then maybe we would want that. And I think if we really wanted that, then maybe we would be willing to change something. Because if it's true that I'm not yet that person, then something. needs to change. If it's true that I'm not yet the person I'm supposed to be, then something needs to change. There are parts of you, and there are parts of me that need to be burned away. If I'm not yet the person I'm called to be, there are parts of you and parts of me that need to be willingly surrendered. If it's true that we're not yet that people were called to be,

then there are parts of you and parts of me that need to be ruthlessly eliminated. So we have to ask the question, if that's true, could it be that the biggest obstacle to the life God made you for is the life you're currently living. Could it be true that the biggest obstacle to the person you've been created to be is the person you're currently choosing to be? Could it be possible that the things you and I are holding on to are the very things that are holding us back? You know, it's so funny. Real change, like real change in any life, in any, any corporation, in any, real change never just means I'm going to start doing X. We're all just, add such and such.

It always evolved something else. So we got a new bishop a couple months ago, and I've been really just so blown away by him. I was talking with him a couple weeks ago with some other priests and some staff in the diocese. And he was just casting vision for what the diocese could be. And he was casting all this vision about, like, we have to rethink how we do ministry.

He's saying we have to rethink how we do parishes. He said, we have to rethink out to families, how we support families, how we help families. He said, we have to rethink priestly life. He said, we have to rethink how priests live. they're living alone, but they need to be with each other. He said, we have to rethink how we do evangelization, how we do discipleship. We have to rethink everything.

But then he said, even though we have this massive opportunity for growth, he said, we have this massive opportunity for change. We have to first ask three questions. And the three questions were he said, we have to say, what are we going to start? What are the good things we need to do? What are the things we're going to start? He said, the second question we ask is, there's a lot of good things in the diocese, so what are we going to sustain? But he said, the third question is, is that the third question is, the most important question. And the most important question is, what are we going to stop?

Because if we don't stop doing stuff, if we don't actually cut away, if we don't get rid of some things, if we don't stop holding on to some things, we never can really grow. It's just another thing we're adding to the plate. We can't actually change unless we're willing to stop holding on to the stuff that has gotten us to this place. That question, what am I going to stop holding on to. Back to our friend Steve Jobs, you know, he, as I mentioned, he was kicked out of Apple in 1985 and Apple tanked, and in 1997 he was brought back to save the company. And at that time, again, Apple computers was a mess. They were competing with IBM. In fact, they were competing with everybody. Everyone was their enemy, everyone was their competitor, and they didn't even know

what they were all about. And at one point, Steve Jobs is in this meeting for product review. And they're looking at all the products, all the projects that Apple had going on. And at one point, he had enough of it and he said, stop, this is crazy. And he walked up to the whiteboard with a dry race marker. And he wrote a two by two quadrant on this dry raceboard. And above the squares, he wrote pro and consumer. On the side, he wrote laptop and desktop. And he said, these four things are we're going to do.

We're going to have desktops for professionals, desktops for consumers. We're going to have a laptop for pros and a laptop for consumers. We're only going to do four things. We're going to focus all our energy on these four things. And everyone's going nuts. And he said, no, we are canceling every other project. We're canceling every other product. We're going to stop holding on to this.

And what he did was he saved the company. That decision to stop holding on to what was draining the company of its funds was the decision that saved the company. In fact, here's this big quote. He says, people think focus. People think focus means saying yes to the things you've got to focus on. but that's not what focus means at all. He said, focus means saying no to the 100 other good ideas that are there. He said, I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as I am of the

things we have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things. That's what he did to save a computer company. What do you and I need to do to save our soul? He was ruthless in order to save a computer company. What are you and I doing to save our soul? The question is, what will you and I need to do to save our soul? question is, what will you say no to? What do you need to stop holding onto? Because the truth is, I can't live the life God made for me if I keep holding on to something he hasn't made me for. You can't live the life God made you for

while holding on to what he hasn't made you for. Which brings us to the gospel today, which makes sense halfway through Mass. Jesus says in the gospel, some really incredibly like strong words, right? Jesus says, he lays it down pretty quickly, and he lays it down pretty hard. He says, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. If your foot causes you to sin, get rid of it. So what is that thing? What is that thing that keeps separating me from God? What is that thing that keeps causing me to sin? See, the reality, I think, is a lot of times we know exactly what it is. I think a lot of times we hear that gospel, and we're like, I know exactly what Jesus is talking about in my life tonight.

And we might say, I don't want to hold on to it, but I don't want to let go of it either. We know exactly what it is. We say, no, I don't want to hold on, but I don't want to let go. I just can't decide. I don't know if you've ever been in that place where it's just like, I can't decide. You know, I love etymology as the words. So the etymology of the word decide is really interesting.

The etymology, the origin of the word decide, means to cut off. That's literally what it means. So it makes sense that I would say, I don't want to hold on, but I don't want to let go. I have to decide, I have to decide what gets cut off. Even if it's killing us, sometimes it's so hard to let go. So I have this friend, acquaintance, really, a number of years ago, he was in his mid-20s, maybe 26-27.

And his thing, the thing that was killing his life, destroying his life, was alcohol. At 26-27, alcohol had already ruined his life. He had been arrested multiple times. He had been in jail multiple times. I remember, I mean, not just like overnight jail. He'd been in 30 days of jail multiple times. times. Alcohol had left every one of his relationships either dead or dying. He lost his license. This disease had absolutely destroyed his life. And he knew. He knew this is the thing. I have to

stop holding on to. I remember at one point he went to AA. He went to Alcoholics Anonymous. And I remember talking about it, talking with him afterwards. And he was so resentful. He was resentful that he had to go. He was resentful of the old timers at AA. Because he said he resented them because they didn't have to stop drinking until they were old. They got to waste their lives drinking and they didn't have to stop drinking until they were old. He was resentful of his friends because he said, they get to drink like normal. Why can't I drink like normal?

You can't drink like normal because you have a disease. And he knew it. It had already ruined his life and yet he was unwilling to stop holding on. And it's just to know from the outside. It looks so crazy. But from the inside, it's so difficult. From the outside, it's like, from the inside, he just wants to start adding things. Okay, how about this?

How about if I start going to A? How about if I get the sponsor? How about if I work the steps? Well, that's fine. You can add a bunch of stuff, but it won't help until you stop holding on to the thing that's actually destroying your life. And my friend, he is no different than me. I'm exactly the same, just not alcohol.

I'm exactly the same. I think we are exactly the same. We sometimes in our lives we experience no joy, We experienced just these slight glimpses of joy. And we realize the person that we're meant to be does not yet exist. Not because we're not willing to pray, not willing to go to Mass,

not because we're not willing to serve people around us, but because we're still holding on. And we're not willing to stop holding on to the thing that we know has been ruining our lives for so long. Because alcohol ruins lives, but there's something even worse, and that's sin. Sin destroys lives.

and it was crazy. You ever stop to think we only get one pass at this? Here we stop to think that we only get one life, we only get one shot. And at the end of this life, we either end up with God forever or we end up separated from God forever, forever. And I know whenever we bring up hell, there's all the objections and all the questions, like, well, what about people who need more time?

What about people who never met Jesus? We don't have ever heard the gospel. Like, those are all real questions. But that's not the question we're asking tonight. The question we're asking tonight is, what about you? The question we're asking tonight is what about me? Because tonight Jesus makes it so clear. Hell is real.

And there's a definite possibility of going there. That's what Jesus says. If anything causes you to sin, you have to be ruthless with that thing. The hand, the eye, the foot, if those things cause you to sin, they have to be ruthlessly eliminated. And of course, we have to also note that Jesus isn't advocating amputation. He isn't advocating maiming. because the problem isn't the hand.

The problem isn't the eye. The problem isn't the foot. The problem is what the hand reaches for. The problem is what the eye looks at. The problem is where the foot leads us. Because there might be things in my life that when I reach for it, I'm choosing hell. When I look at it, I'm choosing hell. When I walk, when my feet lead me there, I'm choosing hell.

You know, people don't really like it when preachers talk about hell. I love it, though. Like, why do you have to mention hell? Do you know who mentions hell more than anyone else in the Bible? You know, there's one person in the Bible who mentions hell more than anyone else in the Bible. His name is Jesus. Why? Why does Jesus mention hell more than anyone else in the Bible?

I think it's because of this. I think because Jesus loves you more than anyone else in this world. And hell is the worst thing, that he loves us too much to stay quiet about it. I mean, in fact, this is crazy. To save us from hell is the very reason why he died. To save us from hell is the very reason why he became one of us, not just to teach us a few things, not to make us the best version of ourselves,

not to make us all we wanted to be. He died so that you and I wouldn't have to go there. He died so we actually had access to the father. This is the crazy thing. He died so that you and I could have life. And yet we still reach, we still look, and we still walk. We keep that in our lives,

and we're not willing to stop holding on. So this is the last thing. What do we do about this? Okay, here's two steps. Very simple. Step one, be patient with yourself. You know, we realize this, that, man, every one of our hearts is broken.

So we need to be patient with ourselves. You need to be patient with yourself. This is not an event, this is a process. This is not a sprint. This is a marathon. And a whole lifetime of us reaching for stuff we shouldn't do or looking at stuff we shouldn't or walking where we shouldn't.

That doesn't get undone in one night. So we need to be patient with ourselves. When we find ourselves reaching and looking and walking, we need to do is stop and just say, Jesus, take me back, pick me up. That's why, one of the great things God gives us in confession, the fact that he gave us confession, oh my gosh, how many times

at the end of John's gospel, right, when Jesus breathes on the apostles, he says, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Those whose sins you forgive are forgiven, those who sins you hold bound are held bound. Don't worry, they're probably not going to need it, but just in case. Jesus gave us the sacrament of confession, not because he didn't think we would need it, but because he knew we would.

Not because he didn't want us to use it, but because he wants us to use this. Being patient with ourselves means when I fall down, I go back to the Lord in confession and let him pick me back up. So step one, be patient with yourself. Step two, be ruthless with your environment. Step one is be patient with yourself, but step two is be ruthless with your environment because we know every single one of us, we have kept something in our lives that we keep reaching for, keep looking at, keep walking towards,

and it leads us to sin every single time. I mean, gosh, how many times do we keep inviting anger into our lives? How many times do we keep inviting the sin of comparison into our lives? How many times do we keep inviting just this needless anxiety or this narcissism into our lives or lust into our lives or this distraction into our lives? Wouldn't it be interesting if you could find a source of anger or a source of comparison or narcissism or lust or distraction in your life?

I imagine that if you could find a source of a source of anger, some of these things. I mean, how many times, you know, something comes across our news feed and, like, we're so angry, like, I need to angrily tweet about this. And then not only are we angry, we're also cruel. How many times are we surfing social media and we realize, I leave that not feeling any better about myself,

but giving into this comparison and feeling anxious and feeling depressed and feeling stressed? So I looked at someone else's edited version of their life. How many times we gave in to narcissism? Narcissism, I mean, it's called a selfie for a reason, or the sin of lust. How many of us have trained our hearts and trained our eyes to see the people around us or the people on a screen as mere objects to be used?

And we trained ourselves to be bad husbands and bad wives in the future. Because we keep reaching for this, looking at this and walking down this way. How much of our lives have we given away in just distraction? How many days? How many weeks have we given? given to this magic rectangle in distraction. You know, there's a thing, it's an app called Covenant Eyes. And Covenant Eyes is awesome.

I love it. It's just, I recommend it basically everybody. It's not free, but it doesn't cost your soul, so that's better. It, covenant Eyes puts accountability on your devices, accountability on your phone, on your laptop, on your computer. And basically an email goes out to accountability partner, someone, you've selected to get an email saying, hey, this is where your friend has been. Super good when it comes to that accountability.

And then you actually can give, let a friend take off your ability to install apps on your phone and they keep the code. Now that might seem extreme, but better to enter heaven with a dumb phone than enter hell with unlimited data in 4G. Because here's the truth. Today, my friends, you're not. the person you were meant to be. Tonight, I'm not the person I was meant to be, but we could be. You and I could be the people that we were meant to be if we would just stop holding on.