Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 10/15/23 Lost: You Are Here

Episode Date: October 14, 2023

Homily from the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time. This is life. We need to understand that life is not waiting for us to start. This is life. This is your life. You are here. But we do have to ask the questions: should I be here? And is what God wants for me enough for me? Mass Readings from October 15, 2023: Isaiah 25:6-10 Psalms 23:1-6Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20 Matthew 22:1-14

Welcome to Sunday homilies with me, Father Mike Schmitz. I hope today's homily inspires and motivates you, and I also hope that it leaves you hungry for the one who gave everything to feed you. If you want to get this and other Sunday Mass resources sent straight to your inbox, sign up at ascensionpress.com slash Sunday, or by texting Sunday to 33777.7. You can also follow or subscribe on your podcast app for weekly notifications. God bless.

The Lord be with you. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Chapter 22 verses 1 through 14. Jesus, again in reply, spoke to the chief priest and elders of the peoples in parables, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants, to someone they invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come.

The second time, he sent other servants saying, Tell those invited, behold, I have prepared my banquet. My calves and fat and cattle are killed. and everything is ready. Come to the feast. Some ignored the invitation and went away. One to his farm, another to his business. The rest laid hold of his servants,

mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged and sent his troops destroy those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, the feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out therefore into the main roads

and invite to the feast whomever you find. The servants went out. into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests, he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. The king said to him, my friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment? But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, bind his hands and his feet. He cast him into the darkness outside where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

many are invited but few are chosen the gospel of the lord wait you to have a seat so i mentioned i mentioned last week that i suffer i'm directionally challenged generally speaking and so which is ironic because i love maps like i really like genuinely i love i have maps like hanging up just in my house just randomly of different places i really like maps even though i'm directionally challenged in fact one of the maps, I think is, I don't know why this is, I like maps and malls. You know, you know mall maps, right? So this last summer, we took a group of teenagers down to a youth conference, and so we stopped at the Mall of America. Everyone knows the Mall of America. It's the, what's the Mall of America? It's the Malliest of Malls. It's, you can't get any mauleier

than the Mall of America. And, but if you've ever been recently in the Mall of America, you know that their maps are not ordinary mall maps. They have interactive mall maps, where you can just, like, type in the place you want to go, like the store you want to go to, and it will tell you exactly how to get there. They have, like, a line. Or even you can search for genre of store. And just like, I want electronics from Tokyo. And it tells you all the stores. It's incredible.

It's interactive maps. But whether it's like the interactive, computerized, you know, state-of-the-art map or just your ordinary, like, you know, Crossroads, St. Cloud Mall map, which is just basically a picture with the layout of the mall. The most important part of the Mall map. We all know, right? We know the most important part of the Mall map. On every Mall map, they have this.

And if they don't have it, it doesn't help you at all. The most important part of every mall map is a little dot, and next to the dot are three words. Yes, thank you. You are here. That's it. Without that dot, without those three words, it's like, well, fine, thanks. I'm glad that J.C. Pennings is right there, but I have no idea where I am. But when you know, you are here, that makes all the difference in the world. Because if you know you are here, you're not really lost. We started a series last weekend Just entitled Lost Not by Stuff the TV Show

But based off the fact that For most of our lives If we're Christians, we know this If you're a Christian, you know that God made you for a purpose God made you on purpose If you're a Christian, you know that your life is not an accident

And that God has a call He is placed on your life And he made you on purpose He made you for a purpose But so often, right, we don't know what that call is We don't know like I don't know where he wants me to go. I don't know how to get there.

And sometimes we just realize I actually don't know where I am. I want to tell you right now, the answer to the question, where am I? The answer is three words. You are here. And I know that might seem like really overly simplistic, but I think we make it more complicated than it needs to be because that's the truth. I think we spend a lot of time and energy just focused on where I wish I was or how I would like things to be.

but you're here. When it comes to being lost, you are here. Because this is you. This is the truth, right? We need to understand this. That the person you are right now

is who you are. That this is your life. I don't know if you realize. Life's already started. For all of us, every one of us, life has already started. Life isn't waiting for you to graduate to start. It's not waiting for you to find that person to start.

It's not waiting for you to have children to start. This is a way. your life. The person you are right now is the person you are. And you are here. So you're not really lost. At the same time, we have to ask the questions. This is, this truth of the matter is, this is your life. This is who you are. You are here. But the question we still have to ask, we have to ask two, we have to ask two questions. And the first question is, is this where I should be? Because the reality is you are here. But we have to ask the question, is this where I should be. the second question we have to ask is, okay, this is who I am, this is my life.

What if it's not enough? Is it enough? Those are the two questions we're going to ask tonight. And the first one is, again, is this where I should be? We have to realize that God's call in our lives is never accidental, it's never incidental. One of the principles we need to understand when it comes to discerning God's call in our lives is God never speaks, he never speaks in riddles, that we realize life is not a puzzle to solve, life is not a riddle to unravel.

Here's a principle of when it comes to discernment is that God always speaks in clarity. That's it. God always speaks in clarity. So look at the gospel, the parable even. Here's a king holding a wedding feast for his son and he sends out an invitation. This is the call he's extended.

It's not like, I might be hosting a party someday. That's not what God is saying. God is saying, I'm hosting a party. It's at this time, on this date, in this place. God always speaks in clarity. And when God has a place for you to go and he has something for you to do, I'm telling you right now, he will always speak in clarity.

But what happens in the gospel? God speaks in clarity, and then people hear it, they know exactly what they're invited to, they know exactly what the next step is, and they still refuse. And this could be us. It could be some rebelled where they killed the messenger. Please don't, but we could. We might even be here tonight. It might be in a place where, like, no, I am sitting here, and I,

refuse whatever it is God wants for me. We could be here tonight and still refuse what God is asking for us. That could be us, but I think most of us are probably, like the first description. I don't know if you caught the first description of the people who got invited. It wasn't that they rebelled, you know, they mistreated the servants or whatever. It simply says that they ignored the invitation. Can you imagine? Like, can you imagine being invited to the king's son's wedding feast?

And just ignoring the invitation. The answer, of course, is of course we can. Like, of course, we, I don't know what it comes about you, but what comes to me, I have incredible selective hearing when it comes to God. Like, I can hear some things really loud and clear. Other things, I'm like, nah, I'd rather not. I mean, we have a selective hearing when it comes to each other. I have a niece.

She's in first grade. Her name is Lucy. Lucy has the most heightened, developed sense of selective hearing I've ever experienced in any human being in my life. Her parents can be right next to her saying, Lucy, do X, Y, Z, and she just keeps on eating her food, doing whatever. she just glazes over like you would think literally that she's deaf she's just like no unbothered this girl is going places you guys as long as it's where she wants to go and no one tells her what to do but like

that's us too like we're we're lucy we have such selective hearing that just like no i'd rather not do what i've been asked so it says some ignored their invitation and went along with their business one to his farm another to his business basically i hey i appreciate the invitation i got some stuff going on. That's it, right? I appreciate, no, it's not that I don't value the invitation, God. I've just got other stuff. That's why I really like that word ignore. Because so, see, here's a little Greek lesson. Ignore comes from the Greek word gnosis, or it's silent G. So nosis, and noses simply means to know. And so to be ignorant, it means to not know. So to ignore and to be ignorant, it's the same root. But I think it's fascinating. To be ignorant of something is to

literally not know it. I didn't know it. I'm ignorant of this. But to ignore, isn't to not know it, it's to pretend like you didn't know it. Right? To ignore something is to act as if I didn't know. I'm ignoring the invitation. I'm going to act as if I didn't know I was being invited. And the question we have to ask is, are there any invitations that you're currently being offered that you're currently ignoring? You are here. Am I where I should be. The question I have to ask is, are there any invitations that you are currently being offered that you are currently ignoring? And not, don't, we don't have to like turn over every rock, every stone. Like, is there, I don't know? Let's go back to the three questions of last week.

Remember the three questions last week? Then if we ask these questions, we will never truly be lost. First question is, am I in a state of grace? And if I'm not in a state of grace, if I'm a conscious of mortal sin, the invitation is let God love you, let him forgive you, go to confession. So it's, again, this isn't, it's not a puzzle, it's not a riddle. Is the invitation that I'm currently ignoring, the invitation to let God love me in confession? Or maybe the next question, right? The next question after, am I a state of grace? The next question was, am I doing my daily tasks?

And if I'm not, great, that's the invitation God is extending to me. Just this is your life. This is the schedule. This is the task. Just do it. That's the invitation maybe that I'm currently ignoring. So after a state of grace, after I'm doing my daily task, the third question was, am I praying? And if I'm not, again, don't panic.

Just realize that might be the invitation that I'm currently being offered that I'm currently ignoring. So simple. You are here. Is this where you should be? Or am I being extended some invitations that I'm currently ignoring? That's it. So simple.

Of course, the next question comes up. and the next question is, I think the next question is harder? Because the next question is not just, am I where I should be? The next question is, what if it's not enough? I think that's a deeper question. I think it's a bigger question. It's a heart question. What if what God wants for me is not enough for me?

What if I'm afraid that what God wants for me is not enough for me? This is my life. What if it stays that way? This is where I am. What if it stays that way? What if God wants for me is not enough for me. That's why I love St. Paul. St. Paul in the second reading today, right, Philippians? What does he say? He says, I learned how to be well-fed. I learned how to go without.

I learned how to live in abundance. I learned how to live with nothing. I've learned how to be full. I've learned how to be hungry. And I've learned, it's a crazy thing. And I've learned how to be happy no matter what. I've learned that in the midst of all of it, I don't have to be afraid. Here's Paul basically saying, you guys, I've learned this secret. I'm never lost. This is Paul making this declaration. Guys, I've learned this secret. I am never lost.

But this is important for us to understand. He had to learn the secret. Which means he had to go through what you and I are going through right now. What you and I are going through right now is that fear like, okay, God, if I take this next step, will it be enough? Okay, God, I feel lost. things aren't the way I wish they were. Will you be there? So this is Philippians, right?

It's one of Paul's last letters, if not his last letter. One of Paul's very first letters is what he wrote to the Corinthians. And that second letter to the Corinthians, like this is early on in Paul's life. Paul's describing in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul describes what his life has been like. Remember, he said yes to God. God has called him to be an apostle. God has called him to go out to be a missionary. So he's doing exactly what God wants.

And here's what it looks like when you do exactly what God wants. Here you go. Strap in. He says, I have far greater labors, far more imprisonments, far worse beatings, and numerous brushes with death. You're like, Lord, if I follow you, will my life be happy? Yeah, if you're okay with beatings. He goes on to say, he says, five times at the hands of the Jews, I receive 40 lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I passed a night and a day on the deep on frequent journeys to dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers amid false brothers in toil and hardship through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst,

through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure, even in the midst of all these things. Paul says I learned the secret I'm never lost because Paul had to live through this by saying, okay, God, tomorrow will I be fed? And then tomorrow came and God was there.

Paul had said, okay, God, tomorrow when I go to this new city, will I be loved or rejected? And then Paul went to that new city and God was there. People had the fear like, okay, when I talk to these people who should love me, will they accept your word?

and Paul showed up and God was there. That's why St. Paul says, I've learned the secret. When I show up, God is there. No matter where I go, God is there. I've learned the secret of being hungry, going well fed, having abundance, having nothing. I can do all things in Jesus Christ who strengthens me. Why? Because when I show up, God is there.

And that's enough. so he's never lost. And this is the last thing, and this is true for us. You don't ever have to be lost. You do not ever have to be lost. Because you know the most important truth of any map in any mall. You know exactly where you are. You are here.

And Paul learned, okay, God is here and Paul is here. That's enough. And you and I get to learn in the midst of life because this is your life. that you never have to be lost. We just have to ask the questions. Are there any invitations that I'm currently being offered that I'm currently ignoring?

And to be honest with the answer. To reject selective hearing, but to say, okay. God, yes. And then to not be afraid. Because you know the truth. God is here. And you are here. And that is enough.

and you are not lost.