Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 09/29/19 Are You Saved? From What: Lifelessness

Episode Date: September 29, 2019

Homily from the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Jesus took from us what was ours so He could give to us what is His. God’s grace is the cause of our salvation. God’s free gift is what gives us the power to even choose Him or choose to do good works. We do not merely “collect” or “receive” His grace, but we become active participants with Him. Mass Readings from September 29, 2019: Amos 6:1, 4-7 Psalms 146:7-101 Timothy 6:11-16 Luke 16:19-31 Download the Homily Study

So that question at the beginning of mass, if you collected anything, I'm not sure how many of you still collect. Because people used to collect things all the time. It used to be like a big thing. You know, like, I'm sure you know people who had like collected baseball cards or they collected like bottle caps for whatever reason that was. Comic books. Actually my little sister, my older sisters, they were little at the time. They collected those spoons, you know, the spoon things. It wasn't even their, it wasn't their choice.

My parents and my grandparents would come back from a trip and like, here's a spoon. They're like, oh, can I use it? Like, no, keep it in the packaging. And that's the whole thing. It's so interesting. If you were a collector of something, it's like people collect anything, like Star Wars stuff, memorabilia, or like things from the 70s. In almost all those cases, it's like, yeah, keep it in the packaging.

Like what the? Why? You're collecting this thing so you can just have it. And it's interesting because you can look at that and I can look at that and I could think, that's so interesting, fascinating, that people can like spend a lot of the time, a lot of their energy, a lot of their money just like I want to get the stuff. I want the rookie card of this person or I want this comic book or I want the thing. And it's interesting because that's a fine hobby.

Like I think it's okay to have that as a hobby if you're like, Father, are you judging me? No, I'm not judging. Not about that, at least. But like, it's no big deal if that's your hobby to collect stuff. The problem is, I think some of us, we sometimes make that our life. Like, our life becomes just, like, collecting stuff. And we don't necessarily realize it.

Like, it could be a thing where we just, the reason you show up to anything is I show up here to get something. And that's what our life is. The reason we go anywhere, the reason we go anywhere is I want to, so why are you at college? I want to get a degree. I'm here to get something. Why? Because I want to get a job.

Why? Because I want to show up to work. I want to get a paycheck. Like that's the only reason I'm showing up. I'm here to get something. Why do you go to college? Get a degree, get a spouse. One of the two, whatever, it doesn't matter.

Either or, maybe both, but like that sense of like, why are you here, I'm here to get? And even we do this like on a regular basis, like, why? I'm not going to go to that class. Why? I don't get anything out of it. I'm not going to go to that small group. Why? Because it's fine and everything. I don't really get anything out of that. And our lives can ultimately become this kind of pattern again and again of just like, I'm here to just get something. And if I'm not going to get anything, I'm not going to be there.

Like if I'm not going to get anything, then you don't get me. You know, I think, again, it's not the, you know, sorry, just a little side point. I was reading an article about, like, I was wondering if, like, people still collect stuff. It's an antique dealer and he said that he was, people asked him, like, do people still collect things? And he was like, actually, it's on the downward trend. People don't collect things like they used to. And they said, why do you think that is?

And he said a number of reasons. But one of the reasons he said was he said, people don't collect things as much anymore. They collect experiences. And so like I'm not going to have like a whole garage with all my stuff, but I have a lot of photos and I have a lot of experiences. I have a lot of time. That's one of the reasons I think we experienced the fear of missing out. On the deeper levels, right, it's because I have a friendship and I don't want to miss out time with my friends.

But on another level, it's like a matter of like, well, I don't, I wasn't there to get the thing. Like I'm afraid if I say no to this, I won't have it. And so I'm afraid of missing out on having the thing because in so many ways we can end up becoming collectors and it's just exhausting. Like when we live like that, it's exhausting. It's one of the reasons I think that, you know the guy, Henry, David Thoreau, at one point he's He wrote these words, he said, most men or most people, most people live lives of quiet desperation. One of the reasons why I think he said he went to Walden Pond is because he was like, I wanted

to get out of this whole thing of this, what is it? This race of this, I need to collect stuff, I need to get stuff, I need to acquire stuff. And it's not just like a factory worker or office drone or a mid-level manager of a failing paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, but just like, even people who have a lot of stuff, you can look at the end of the lives and say, what was that worth? Like, you just collected so much. The first reading today from the book of the prophet Amos, it's so interesting. He's describing people who, they're living large.

Like, they're living life. Like, they're collecting experiences. They're collecting joys and pleasures. It says, you lie upon beds of ivory. Let that sink in. How many elephants have to die for you to get a night's sleep on your bed of ivory? You sick human being. Like, he goes on, he says, you drink wine out of bowls.

Like, you ever see those glasses that you? You can fit a whole bottle of wine into the one glass, you know? Yeah. Just me. Okay. Amos is saying, you guys, you don't drink out of glasses. You drink out of bowls. That's the kind of life you're living.

But at the end of the day, what do you have to show for? At the end of the day, what does it matter? You've collected all these things, and you still find yourself lifeless. That's the parable, the rich man. Jesus describes him. He dressed in fine linen. He dressed in purple garments. Purple garments means that, you know, the most expensive cloth.

you could wear, so I'm really glad we're not rating this during Lent, because that's always embarrassing because I'm wearing purple. It's just, but he says he dressed like this. He dived sumptuously each day. Like he didn't just feast on Thanksgiving or Father of July. Like he died every single day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, he ate like an American. Like this man, and at the end of his life, after collecting, after getting, after showing up, and just getting and getting and getting and just getting and getting and Abraham can look at him

and he could look at his own life and say, what was it worth? Like I spent the whole time collecting and I realized now my whole life, I lived a lifeless life. Because all I did was I showed up to get. And this is the reality of every single one of us. When I find myself showing up just to get, just to take, just to receive, what happens at the end of the story, at the end of my life, I can realize, oh my gosh, what was that worth? I just showed up to get and I ended up living a lifeless life. And all the things I collected, I just kept in the package. We're in the third part of this four-part series right now called Are You Saved?

And that's the big question because when it comes down to following the Lord, one of the big questions we have is like, okay, he's my Savior. What is he saving me from? And the first week he talked about the fact that God, Jesus himself, he saves us from being orphans. He saves us from fatherlessness because God makes us his sons and daughters. It's just a huge gift. The second week last week we talked about how we all owe a debt we cannot pay. So Jesus paid a debt he did not owe.

and he saves us from hopelessness that almost always comes along with indebtedness. And tonight what we're going to talk about is the fact that God saves us from this lifelessness. Can we spend our lives just collecting stuff and the gathering stuff? And I show up for this thing, then what happens is I just collect things and I keep them in the package. But I find myself being the passive recipient of God's grace. And I think that's fine. That's what it is to be saved. I received all this grace.

I'm the passive recipient of God's grace, and now I'm done. I collected it, but we're still lifeless. I mean, honestly, look around. Sometimes in church we can even see this like, man, you have the Holy Spirit? Are you sure? Like every one of us, every person here has been given the Holy Spirit. And sometimes you're like, you look around next to you. Like, are you sure?

Look in the mirror. Like, are you sure? Like, because I can look at my life and I'm like, I think I'm just collecting. I think I'm just collecting grace. I think I'm just being the passive recipient and I'm not being changed. And yet remember what Dr. Michael Barber, the first week, we get talked about this, that he said salvation is being saved from being un-Christ-like. Being saved is being saved from not looking like Jesus, not being like Jesus.

That's why we were made. That's one of the gifts that God wanted for us. And think about Jesus, like his life on this earth. There was no one more alive than Jesus. No one more present than Jesus. No one more powerful than Jesus. No one who loved people better than Jesus. Like honestly, in the history of everything,

no more alive than Jesus. And if you read the Gospels, whenever he shows up, you can see that he doesn't show up to collect. He doesn't show up to say, okay, what am I going to get? Okay, if I get off this boat and, like, see all these lepers and these people who need healing,

like, what am I going to get from this? Whenever he showed up anywhere, Jesus was always like, okay, where can I give? What can I do? What can I offer? He's the source of all grace. He's the source of all grace. He's the source of the Holy Spirit.

the Father and the Son proceed, you know, the Holy Spirit proceeds from them. All that life comes from him. And being saved is being saved from being not like him. And the scripture says that Jesus went about doing good works. And then we look at our lives and we're like, oh man, I live my life. And if I'm really holy, I'm just collecting grace. That's all I'm doing. I'm just receiving the passive recipient of grace.

And yet real salvation is living like him. being saved from lifelessness. Like being fully alive. Like I think sometimes I wonder, like, can I even imagine what that looks like? He went about doing good works. And sometimes I think, again, I think of like the good works thing is, it brings up like the classic Catholic versus Protestant kind of dilemma of like, are you saved from your faith? You save from works. Are you saved from faith in works or save from something else?

And it's interesting because last week we said this, we said the Catholic formula is we are saved by grace through faith, working itself out in love. That's what saves us. And yet Ephesians chapter 2 points this out. It's really important. We read this. Ephesians chapter 2 says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, the first part of the whole thing. By grace you've been saved through faith. Remember, grace means gift.

That's it. It's been a free gift, unmerited, unearned, undeserved, complete gift. By grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It's the gift of God. not because of works lest anyone should boast. So we're saved by God's completely free gift. Not because of our works, so no-no-no-us can boast.

In the same time, we have to ask the question, wait, okay, but if I'm saved from lifeless, if I'm called to be like Jesus, if salvation is looking like Jesus, then shouldn't I do stuff? Like, doesn't that mean I have to act? And absolutely, it does mean I have to act. Because, again, Martin Luther, his Protestant rallying cry of the Reformation, one of the rallying cries was Sola Fide, or Faith Alone. It's really interesting to say, okay,

is the Bible teach that we're saved by faith alone? Well, I think it's worth looking at where the Bible has the words faith alone. It's interesting, and the entire Bible, the only place where those two words, faith and alone are next to each other are in the book of James, the letter of James, when James says,

see how a person is saved by works and not by faith alone. Like, oh, yikes. Okay, James, what else do you have to say? No, the thing I love about James is, this is the whole thing of like the question, of how are we saved? Do we save just by faith, just by believing? We saved by faith and works. And James himself, so interesting, because many reasons. One because he talks about faith and works,

but also because James is like super sassy. I like the sassy saints because he goes, here's what James says. He says, what good is it my brothers if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? And like, James, you're getting warmed up. James. And he goes on, he gives an example. He says, if a brother or a sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, oh, go in peace. Keep warm and eat well, but you do not give them the necessities of the body? What good is that? And we've all been there, right?

We've all been that we thought we were a good person because we saw someone in distress and we're like, oh, I feel bad for them. I'm a good person because I felt bad. Like James is like, no, you're a schmuck. Do something. St. James, basically, he goes on to say, no, he says, so faith of itself if it does not have works is, and the word he uses,

is lifeless. So faith, if it doesn't have works, is lifeless. It's dead. And Jesus came to save us from lifelessness. To save us from being collectors to save us from just like holding on to these things and not using them. He goes on, and this is great. He says, indeed, someone says, might say you have faith and I have works. Well, demonstrate your faith to me without works.

I'll demonstrate my faith to you from my works. And this is where he gets super sassy and I apologize, but I don't really. He says, you believe God is one. You do well. He's like, you believe God is one. No, he's just want a cookie? Want a little prize for that? Even the demons believe that and tremble.

So St. James is like, oh, you believe that Jesus is God. Okay, well, so are the demons. So now you have the level of demon. So congratulations. Do you want proof you ignoramus? I did not make that word up. It is literally in the Bible. Do you want proof you ignoramus that faith without works is useless?

It is lifeless. And Jesus came to save us from lifelessness, from just simply kind of collecting grace. what God wants us to do is become active participants in his mercy, active participants in his work. Because this is so incredible. It's incredible. We recognize that we're judged based off our works. Matthew Chapter 25, you all know the story of here comes the king at the end of time, and he separates everyone into sheep and to goats, right? And to those on this right, he says, come into the dwelling of my Heavenly Father, because I was hungry, you gave me food, I was thirsty,

you gave me drink, and I was all the things. And they say, Lord, when did we see you hungry and thirsty and all those things. And he says, as often as you did it for the least of my brethren, you did it for me, so come into heaven. And the others, he says, depart from me, you were cursed because I was hungry, you didn't feed me. I was naked, you didn't clothe me, et cetera. They say, Lord, when did we not, when did we see you like that

and not serve your needs? And every time you didn't do it for the least of my brethren. At the end of time, they're all judged off of their works, off of what they do, whether they were lifeless or full of life, where they were simply passive recipients of grace, or if they were active participants in God's work to transform the world. This is the crazy thing. Here's what God wants for me.

He doesn't just want you to receive his mercy. He wants you to be an agent of his mercy. He just want us to receive his redemption, receive his salvation. He wants you to be an agent of salvation, an agent of redemption. Here's my proof. It's in the Bible. So there. In the second reading today, St. Paul is writing to Timothy and he says,

you, man of God, you holy, when you want in pursuing the Lord, he says, pursue righteousness. devotion, faith, love, patience, generalists, compete well for the faith, lay hold the eternal life, be active. Like, come fully alive. Unpackaged, like, I know you like the little action figure that's Boba Fett and the one that's Luke Skywalker,

but, like, take him out of the box and, like, start using them. Because God has been giving you his grace your entire life in order to save you from lifelessness. So use it. St. Paul in his letter to the Colossians, he tells you what you can use, and it's so powerful. Because you're like, I don't have anything to offer. I can't, like, I'm not a superhero.

What do you mean, save from lifelessness? St. Paul says, you can use everything. God can use everything. Here's what St. Paul says. He says, Colossius chapter 1, verse 24. He says, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. And in my flesh, I am completing what is lacking in the sufferings of Jesus for the sake of his body, the church.

Let's break that down for a second because this is like a big statement. St. Paul, A, he's saying rejoices in his sufferings. So, like, being full of life doesn't mean being free from pain. I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. Because in my body, I am making up for what is lacking in the sufferings of Jesus Christ for you. You have to ask the question, okay, what's lacking in the sufferings of Jesus?

Like, what was lacking in Christ's life, death, and resurrection that, like, Paul needs to do? And John Paul the second, he answered that question. He said, nothing's lacking in the sufferings of Christ. But so that you and I could participate in his work of redemption so that you and I could actually come alive and be saved from lifelessness, God extends to us a particle of his cross. So if we embrace it and use it, it can actually transform the world.

Because God can do it all on his own. Like, he's a good dad. He's very powerful dad. He can build the shed on his own. He doesn't need kids help. here's God who can save the world on his own. He doesn't need our help. But he wants us to join in with him.

This is the crazy mystery of God's love for you. He doesn't just want to sit down kids. Let me watch Dad build a shed. I don't know why I'm obsessed with the shed thing right now. But like sit down and like let me do the thing. He's like, actually I want to do it with you. That's why Ephesians doesn't stop where I stopped. Remember it says, for grace you've been saved through faith.

This is not your own doing. It's the gift of God. Not because of works, lest anyone should boast. He goes on. The next verse says, for we are his workmanship, created in Jesus Christ for good works. Created for good works,

which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. I did not make you for lifelessness, made you for purposefulness for life, and goes on. This is Philippians, chapter 2. St. Paul says, work out your own salvation and fear and trembling.

Like work, engage, embrace this. Active participants. For God is at work in you. both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So yes, by grace we've been saved, a complete gift. But St. Paul's also saying, but every time you do something good, God is at work in you. When he extends that particle across to you

and you actually embrace it and rejoice in your sufferings for the salvation of the world, that's actually his grace too. Like you didn't do it on your own. I think sometimes if I do something well, I'm like, I did it, yay! And God's like, listen, buddy. There's more of the story. Imagine this scene where, you ever see like a two-year-old and their dad and they're playing basketball?

Like, no, because two-year-olds don't play basketball. You're right. You ever see a two-year-old and their dad, and the dad puts the basketball in the two-year-old's hands and then like lifts up the two-year-old up to the hoop? And it's like, let it go, buddy, drop it, drop it in, buddy. And the kid's like, okay. And the kid drops the ball through the hoop. And the kid's like, I did it. I slammed the basketball through the hoop. And like, oh, child. I mean, you kind of did it. But without the dad doing what he did, there was no. No, the basketball is bigger than you. You barely held on.

You simply let go at the right time. Like, I did it. That's us, you guys. When we do good stuff, we're like, oh, man, I'm so good. I helped that person. I prayed. I showed up to Mass. Like, I did it.

This is because God was working inside of you. That's the mystery. It's such a gift. Every time you and I do something good is because God's grace was already at work. Every time you and I show up to pray, it's because God invited you to prayer. That's why I know when I begin Mass and I'm like, you guys, I know this for certain. You're supposed to be here.

God wants you here because if it wasn't for his grace, his complete gift, you wouldn't be here. That's why when you go to confession, so many times people are like, oh gosh, God, do you want me here? Like, yes, he brought you there by his free gift of grace. But sometimes we're like that little kid

and we get lifted up to the hoop and we're just hold on to the ball. And the dad's like, no, go ahead. I'm making all of this possible. I'm like, no, I don't want to let go. You know, the dad doesn't take away his love doesn't put the kid down. But think about the scene where the kid

puts the ball through the hoop. What does the dad do? Let's do it again. Give the kid the ball again, lifts him up again, and he gets to do it again and again. And the more you do that, the more the kid says, do it again, the more the dad does it again. This is the mystery so good

of going from lifelessness, being saying from lifelessness, to have that life or to act of participation in what God is doing in this earth. Imagine being able to look in this earth. Imagine being able to look in the mirror and saying, my, my gosh, Lord, you just keep lifting me up, don't you? You keep letting me dunk.

On my own, I could not even dream of dunking. But you keep lifting me up. That's what he did to get you here tonight. That's what he does every time you're saying yes to him. He's saving you from lifelessness. This is the last thing. He saves us from lifelessness, and he saves us from this quiet desperation.

takes us from collecting and prepares us to give, but I know sometimes people are like, well, I don't have anything to give. I'll wait until I have more, then I'll offer something significant. And I think I've quoted Dave Ramsey a little bit too much lately, but Dave Ramsey's like a money guy, right? And one of the things people will call into his show and say, you know, Dave, I'm worried about getting rich because I always associate rich people with being jerks. And that's when I want to say, I don't think I'd be as worried about it. I won't be worried about getting rich, my friend. I'd be worried about other things. But they associate like, you know, being rich with being, you know, haughty or being, you know,

arrogant or being whatever. And Dave says, he's like, listen, I know a lot of poor people, I know a lot of rich people. Here's what money does. Money just makes you more of what you already were before you had money. So if you're a grumpy poor person, you're going to be a grumpy rich person. If you're a stingy poor person, you're going to be a stingy rich person. If you're a jerk as a poor person, you'll be a bigger jerk as a rich person because you have more money to be a jerk with.

But if you're a generous poor person, you're going to be a generous rich person. And one thing you pointed out, I just like, man, this is so true when it comes to the spiritual life too. If you're not willing, if I'm not willing to give when I have $100, I'm not going to be willing to give when I have $100,000. Because if I'm holding on just here to get that $100,000, I don't have anything to spare when I have $100,000. my invitation this week. I say, I'm so poor. I don't have anywhere to give.

My invitation this week. All the places that you and I typically show up to get, show up and say, okay, God, where can I give? What can I offer here? So I'm going to go to class. I go to class that I get something. I'm going to show up and say, where can I offer? What can I give here?

When I hang out with my friends, like usually I get there because I hang out because I really like hang out with them. What can I get here? Okay, I'm going to show up because where can I give? here? Give a job. I'm here to put my time in, get my paycheck. Okay, where can I give here? You realize the power, the power of looking like the son, because the son came to give his life as a ransom. Looking like the father, because the father gave his son, looking like the spirit, because the spirit is given to all of us. Imagine this week being saved from lifelessness.

because you and I decided to show up and to ask, where can I give? Which is another way to say, how in this situation can I look like Jesus?