Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 09/27/20 How Do I Look? Change Your Mind

Episode Date: September 28, 2020

Homily from the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. If you can choose your thoughts you can change your thoughts. In the garden of the mind, our thoughts are constantly growing. Some we want, others we do not. As the gardeners of our own minds, we must think about what we think about, weed out the thoughts that poison our minds, and allow the Word of God to shape how we look. Mass Readings from September 27, 2020: Ezekiel 18:25-28 Psalms 25:4-9Philippians 2:1-11 Matthew 21:28-32 Download the Homily Study

So I recently came across this story of this young woman who, she had a rare eye condition, and part of this eye condition, she had 2,400 vision. So, like, 2,200 vision is considered legally blind. I guess 2400 vision is that she can see at 20 feet what most people can see at 400 feet. Or vice versa, right? That kind of thing. So basically, legally blind plus a ton. And just this, you know, this blindness.

experienced her entire life. And then she got this device or these glasses she was able to put on and she was able to see clearly. She was able to see everything. In fact, at one point she puts them on and she turns to her dad and she's just looking all over the house. She's looking at everything. And she has this like exclamation of like she says, so is this, this is how you see all the time? And he's like, yes. And just this joy of being able to look at everything. She's wanted to look at everything. It wasn't like to put on these glasses on this device and she could kind of see some things new. She could see everything different. In fact, her dad was describing this and he said that he asked her what she saw on the TV

because he wanted to, you know, there's a TV program, she had a movie on. And he asked her what was on the TV? And she looked and she said, dust because she could see so clearly. Again, this is one of those things of this is how with this device, it's changed the way she looked at everything. And that's what we've been talking about for the last five weeks. This is the fifth part of the five-part series called How Do I Look? because we realize that as Christians, it's not just we're people just like everyone else

who simply happen to believe a couple extra things, or happen to do a couple extra things. Or we look at some things like what we do with our Sunday mornings or right and wrong. We look at something differently. Christianity is a worldview that changes the way we see everything. We look at everything differently. And we try to establish this, right, that Christianity is not just a religion, it's not just a relationship, that it's a worldview, that our vision determines our destination and this is a mindset. And so what we're going to talk about today in this last, you know, this fifth in

part of this five-part series is the mind. We're going to talk about our thoughts. Remember the very first thing that sprung board springboard? That goddess started was St. Paul's letter to the Romans where he says, do not be conformed to this present age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. And he was saying that the metamorphosis being transformed is preceded by metanoia. by changing our minds, by changing our thoughts. And I know sometimes we can imagine, like, you can imagine this,

you can imagine that your life is like a garden, or your mind is like a garden. And if you look into the garden of your mind, you're like, yeah, there's a bunch of stuff growing. Some stuff I like, some stuff I don't like, some, I have no idea where it came from, some stuff I just absolutely wish it were gone, but sometimes you can just feel like you're stuck with whatever's growing.

Like whatever the thoughts are in my mind, I've just kind of stuck with them. I have no choice. But one of the messages today is just that you can actually have a choice. You can choose your thoughts. Like if your mind is a garden and your thoughts are what's growing in the garden, you can actually choose your thoughts because remember Paul promises. He says, be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Be by the metamorphosized by the metanoia. That you have the ability to choose your thoughts. And if you can choose your thoughts, then you can change your thoughts. And if you can change your thoughts, you can change your mind. And I think that so much comes down to, do I really believe that I can change my mind? Years ago, there was this book written by a professor of psychology out of Columbia named Carol S. Dweck. And I've mentioned this before in other homilies, but it's just, it was so impactful when I read it a bunch of years ago. And what she talked about, the book is called Mindset.

What she talked about is that all of us have what she called a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. In fact, all of us have both in different areas of our lives. So we have a fixed mindset, like this is how I am, our growth mindset, this is how I could be. So the example that when I read through it, I was reminded of when I was growing up and I was in the early elementary ages and at math, I remember believing this all of a sudden that I'm bad at math. And it wasn't all of a sudden, I guess I said all of a sudden, but what I meant was I wasn't bad at math. But what happened was, like first, second, third grade, we took the speed test when it came to, addition, subtraction, multiplication kind of thing.

And again, I was fine at it, but there was a kid in my class, my cousin, who was amazing at it. Like, so his name's Riley. And I'd be on, if there are 20 questions, I'd be on question number seven, and he'd be walking up to hand in his, you know, you have to walk up, show off in front of everybody. Darn Riley. Anyways, but like, he would, he'd be done. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I must be bad at math. I wasn't bad at math. I just wasn't as good as Riley.

He was just faster than I was when it came to that. But I started having this fixed mindset that says, oh, I'm just bad at this. Now, on the other hand, my mom had really worked with me and my siblings on phonics and on spelling and on reading and stuff. So when I showed up those early grades, I was good already. I had my favorite game as a kid, I was a speak and spell where you just took spelling quizzes all day whenever you played the speak and spell. So when it came to spelling class, when it came to reading class, I was good. And so I had the fixed mindset of like, oh, I'm bad at math, I'm good at spelling. Like I'm bad with numbers.

I'm good with words. Now, pause. You might think, like, well, that's fine. I mean, everyone's, you know, good in some things, bad at other things, and at least you thought you were good at some stuff. That must be good. Well, it's not good, because that is a dead end. What I mean is, I can be good at second grade spelling,

but how happens when you get to third grade? In fact, that was the experiment that Carol S. Dweck did with these bunch of, you know, early elementary age students. Basically, the simplified version is, here's two groups. Same grade, same test. They gave the first group the test and when they got done with the test, they praised them by saying like, oh wow, you're really smart or like you're really good at this. Like this is something you do really, really well.

They praised their achievement. The second group of students, when they got done with the test, handed it and graded it, they said, wow, you worked really hard on this. You didn't give up. You didn't quit when it got tough and they praised their effort. Now you think, okay, fine, they both got praised. So what? What happened was that first group, well, both groups, they gave them increased.

more difficult tests. And the first group that was praised for their intelligence, they're good at this, you're smart, that's what they believe about themselves, like I'm a smart person, I'm someone who's good at this, and all of a sudden you have questions that I'm getting wrong. I don't know the answers to these questions. And so what happened was they had this fixed mindset of I'm good at this, but when things got hard, they either fell into the place where they would complain,

they would cheat, or they would just quit. Because the challenge was showing them that they were that, oh, maybe I'm not as smart as I thought I was. Even I'm not as good at this as I thought I was, versus the other group, the group that was praised for their effort, when the challenge got harder, they actually rose to the challenge because they didn't believe I'm good at this. They believed I can work hard.

They didn't just believe that I'm smart. They believed like, no, I'm the kind of person who doesn't quit. In fact, some of these kids who had embraced this growth mindset, had said things like, they even said, I love a challenge. There's this little kid who said, I was hoping that this would be informative. Like, I hope that this next test, I was hoping that it would be informative. help, I hoping that it would help me because this is where our thoughts, our mindset, has the power to either paralyze us or to propel us.

Our mindset, how we look at ourselves, how we look at the world, has the power to paralyze us in place, where we either want to complain or cheat or quit, has the power to propel us forward and say, I can do this kind of thing. The fixed mindset says this. This is who I am. The growth mindset says this is where I am. that the fixed mindset says, this describes me. And the growth mindset merely says, this describes me now.

That's why Dr. Dweck said, she said, the view, or the how do I look, the how I look, the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. Your vision determines your destination. Which is one of the reasons why St. Paul, in the second letter to the Corinthians, he says, he says, okay, so what you need to do, Christians, what we need to do. He says, take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. You can choose your thoughts. So St. Paul says, take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.

So how do I do that? Well, the first step is I need to think about what I think about. The first step is I need to go back to the garden image. And, okay, my mind is a garden, and there's things growing there, things I like, things I don't like. But here's the deal. You get to be the gardener. The garden of your mind, you're the gardener. So what we need to do is we need to think about what we think about.

And to what the gardener has to do before they plant any kind of good seed, they have to till the land, they have to clear the land, they have to say, okay, how did this get here? I mean, you ever have that, have you ever stopped and asked itself the question? There's these thoughts in my head. How did they get here? What are the things that I tell myself about me? What are the things I tell myself about other people? What are the things I tell myself about reality or about God himself?

because stuff's growing there, but you're the gardener. So we first have to think about what we think about. So here's an example. A little personal example, I guess, but I will often, I will sometimes tell myself these three words. And these three words are, you're so dumb. Like this is pretty much, this is a regular thing that happens in my brain. But it's in three ways.

In three ways I'll tell myself, you're so dumb. For the most part, it's like I'm joking, I'm teasing myself. Like, ah, you're so dumb. Like, honestly, it's no big deal. It's just a small little seed, and it's a small little thought that I have. And it's simply a joke. It's me having fun with myself, poking at myself. Like, ah, you're so dumb.

But there's sometimes when there's some darkness, and when those three words are uttered by me to me, they have an edge to them. And there's sometimes, in the midst of failure, But those same three words that were a joke earlier, that in sometimes a darkness or just maybe a little bit painful, there's some times where in failure, those words are defeating. And if that was left unchecked, it was left left to grow. Actually, I know a man who incredibly successful, incredibly intelligent,

and just a good human being, really noble person, who had done so much good in his life. But there was a season in his life when he was enslaved and ensnared. to alcohol. And he said he would get up every morning and look at himself in the mirror and say those three words and three other words. He would look at himself in the mirror and say, you're so dumb. And then he would say, I hate you. And whereas for me I have these three words and they're just kind of a joke or they're maybe a little bit barbed or maybe a little bit defeating. For him they were defining. Because left unchecked these thoughts have the ability to kill us.

How often do you have those words like, you're pathetic, or worthless, or unlovable? Sometimes there's just little small little weeds, but sometimes they have this deep root and they can be defining. We have to ask the question, okay, who planted that thought?

And sometimes it was parents, you know? Sometimes it was friends, family members, teachers, coaches. Sometimes it's the evil one. He's the liar, and he actually, in Scripture, Jesus gives the parable of that he will sometimes go into the field and he will sow weeds. But there's even some times when we have these things that define us, these thoughts that define us, that come from people we don't even know. In fact, okay, I was watching Netflix the other day, big surprise. And there was this docu series, mini series, on barbecue. And I could not get enough of it because it was insanely good.

And I want barbecue right now, even though it's early in the morning. But one of these things, the stories, was on this man named Rodney Scott. And Rodney Scott grew up in a poor family in the South, and his mom and dad made barbecue, cooked barbecue. And so he had to do that all throughout his early years and all throughout his high school years. But he wanted to get out of town. He never wanted to cook barbecue. And his graduate high school graduation, he said he was with a group of his friends and they were celebrating and we graduated, we did it,

this whole kind of thing, and celebrating this incredible future they could have. And this girl in his class walks up to him and she says, I don't know why you're celebrating. She said, you ain't going nowhere but down the road and are going to cook hogs for the rest of your life. And he said, that was it. And then the next thing that happened is his dad walked up and said, hey, actually, we need to get to the pit. We need to start getting the fire going because we need to get the barbecue going. But those words from that, almost a stranger, why are you celebrating high school graduation? you're not going nowhere. You're just going to cook hogs the rest of your life. It planted itself in his mind and became that's how he saw his life. His life that could have been, it actually became incredible where he's this master, you know, grill master, a pit master. But for years of his life, he was doing this excellent work. But all he had in the back of his head was this girl's words, you ain't going nowhere but down the road and going to cook hogs for the rest of your life. That's why we have to have to be.

when we examine the garden, we have to find out two things. We have to find the origin and the purpose. The origin is like, where did this come from? This thought that we have in our head. Where did this come from? And the purpose is, and what's it doing here? Before we start ripping up everything, we have to ask those two questions. Okay, where did this thought come from?

Because maybe there's a good thought, it's a hard thought, but that came from the Lord. I need to leave that here. Because there's purpose is to convict me and to raise me, move forward. But sometimes there's these lies that someone told, even someone who was supposed to love, love me told and that comes from them and his purpose is doing nothing it's doing nothing but holding me back from who the Lord is calling me to be he's doing nothing

than holding you back from their freedom that God has made you for it doesn't belong there so we have to weed out what doesn't belong of course that process of weeding is not easy it's actually it's a process sometimes we think like okay I took the pulled the weed out now I'm done I mentioned this to you guys before I think by my my brother-in-law and my dad have this massive garden. It's like 300 feet by 100 feet. It's huge. And it takes a lot of work. But at one point this summer, last summer, they both have a friend, his name's Andy, and Andy wanted to do the garden with them. And Andy said, well, you know, I'm going to build

on another 20 foot by 30 foot patch attached to this garden. And my brother-in-law was like, go for it, but like you're not going to like it. He's like, it's not that hard. It's no big deal. It's only 20 feet by 30 feet. You have to, in addition to this 300 by 100-foot garden. Halfway through the summer, Andy was very upset because there's all these we it kept coming up and he's like, wait a second, I tilled, I got rid of all the weeds, I tilled and I tilled and I tilled all day. And now all summer I have to keep going out there every week and pulling up more weeds in this 20 foot by 30 foot section and my brother-in-law laughed at him and said, exactly,

that's why we didn't do this because you don't just do it one day. You don't just pull up the weeds one time. You have to, in the garden and in the garden of our minds, we have to keep pulling up the weeds. How do we do this? Really simple, really simple. When you identify the origin and the purpose of these lies, these things that are in our thoughts, that shouldn't be there. We don't just do it on our own.

We actually claim the name of Jesus. This is the invitation, just a little how-to kind of thing right now. We claim the name of Jesus. And if there's a lie that's come against you, that's been planted in the garden of your mind, that thought, you actually get to choose it by saying, in the name of Jesus Christ, I reject the lie of this.

In the name of Jesus Christ, I reject the lie that all I'll ever be is a barbecue master. In the name of Jesus Christ, I reject the lie that I'll be unloved. In the name of Jesus Christ, I reject the lie. that I'm so dumb. In the name of Jesus Christ, I reject the lie that'll always be alone. Whatever that thing is, you actually get to take authority in Jesus' name because you're a Christian who's been baptized, been an anointed, who's been given the Holy Spirit.

So use the Holy Spirit who's been given to you. That's how we pull up the root. We don't do it on our own. We actually call upon the name of Jesus and we need to do that in order to have the same mind of Jesus. St. Paul says today, be of yourself the same mind of Jesus Christ. So how do I get the mind of Christ? I know how to pull up weeds in his name. How do I have the mind of Christ? And I just want to say this briefly.

The number one way to have the mind of Christ is to be exposed to God's word. The number one way, to have the mind of Christ is to be exposed to the Word of God in the Scriptures. Like that's it. And let me clarify, not just to be exposed to the Word of God, but to be soaked in the Word of God. Because this whole thing, like reading your Bible,

so I want you to read your Bible every day. Sure, fine, that's great. But the invitation is not just get more information. Because information isn't enough. The call is to have metanoia, right? Changing our minds, so we actually become changed. So what we're going to change is our appetite. We're going to change our imagination.

That's what Scripture does. It doesn't just give us more information. It changes our appetite, which means the things I love and long for, and it changes my imagination. How I see everything. This is how I see everything. So my invitation, of course, right now in this moment, is when you read scripture, yes, we're taking in the information, we're taking in the data.

But I'm saying, okay, God, now change my appetite. Let me love and long for the things that you love and long for. God, change my imagination. Help me see all this with your eyes. Here's an example. I'll get into the end, I promise. You probably know that within the last week plus one of the Supreme Court justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, had passed away. We pray for her and pray for everyone who's died. But it seems like almost immediately everyone just started scrambling. Like almost immediately on this side they're like, we got to put, you know, someone in there

on the other side. Be like, you can't put anyone right now. Like there's all this like clash and everyone has good arguments, right? Everyone has good thoughts. Like, yeah, on our side, we need to put someone in. Well, on our side, you need to not put someone in. There's incredible arguments that anyone could make. And you might even be someone who's like involved in that process and you'd be like, yeah,

we need to make some decisions. I'm not arguing that. But here's what I have noticed. When I'm soaked in God's word, so much so that it has changed my appetite and changed my imagination, we get to see what's underneath all this because there's some anxiety. I know there's some stress, there's some fear that's underneath all of this. And what's this whole thing about? What we need to replace this Supreme Court justice?

Yes, if it was only about that, then you wouldn't be so scared. It was only about that, you wouldn't be so stressed out. If it's only about that, you wouldn't have so much anxiety. So what's it about? It's about power. Those who have power want to keep it and use it. Those who don't have power want to get it and use it. And the Christians, we get to look at all this and say, okay, I see what's going on.

This is people who are fearful and anxious and stressed out because they want power, want to hold power, want to use power, and yet in the second reading, what does Jesus do? Jesus, though he was in the form of God, he did not deem equality with God, something to be grasped, but he emptied himself, took the form of a slave. And we have to realize, Lord, the world is playing this game of power, and you reveal the truth of divesting yourself of power and becoming a slave. Without fear, without anxiety, but in freedom. So this is the last thing.

How do you just not let this be information, something that's something that changed? your appetite, that changes your imagination, and changes the garden. I love reading the Bible, but as anyone who knows me, I love listening to the Bible. Like the audio Bible is the best thing in the world. Our podcast about the Bible is so amazing, so incredible. In fact, we might have something coming out from Ascension that has like the Bible proclaimed in your ear. I need the Bible proclaimed to me. Whether that's me reading it out loud to myself, that's awesome.

listening to someone else on a podcast, that's awesome. I need the Bible proclaimed to me. And that because when the Bible is proclaimed, not just read with my eyes, but when the Bible is heard with my ears, it goes right to my heart. It changes my thought. I need the Bible proclaimed to me. And I need the Bible proclaimed by me. So rather than me saying those three words, you're so dumb, what I'll try to do is I'll try to take like a notebook. And what I've heard proclaimed to me, I'm going to write down in this notebook. Like, no, I'm going to proclaim the word by myself. I'm going to claim, I'm not only, not only, only have the word proclaimed to me, I'm going to let the word be proclaimed by me.

We do that. When we do that, it changes everything. It changes our mind. It changes our thoughts. You know, the son in the gospel today, he later changed his mind and went. And your past matters, but not nearly as much as your present. And what you've said in the past matters, but not nearly as much as what you say now. now. And what you've done matters, but it doesn't matter nearly as much as what you're doing. What you have thought in the past, it matters. It doesn't matter nearly as much as what you're thinking. And yes, how you used to look. That matters. But it matters

even more is the answer to the question. Now. Now how do you look?