Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 10/2/22 Growing Through the Motions: Passion or Duty?

Episode Date: October 1, 2022

Homily from the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time. Duty is not the enemy. So much of life is doing our duty. Doing what we are supposed to do. And yet, there are times when this means that we only “go through the motions”. There is a chance for us to do more however…we can choose to grow. Mass Readings from October 2, 2022: Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4 Psalms 95:1-2, 6-92 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14 Luke 17:5-10

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 in other Sunday Mass resources sent straight to your inbox, sign up at ascensionpress.com slash Sunday, or by texting Sunday to 33777. You can also follow or subscribe on your podcast app for weekly notifications. God bless. The Lord be with you.

He reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke, chapter 17, verses 5 through 10. The apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith. The Lord replied, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you. Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending the sheep in the field, come here immediately and take your place at table? would he not rather say to him prepare something for me to eat

put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink you may eat and drink when I'm finished is he grateful to that servant because he did what he was commanded so should it be with you when you have done all that you have been commanded say we are unprofitable servants

we have done what we were obliged to do the gospel of the Lord so I'm not like a big fan of the royals, not the baseball team, like the royal family. I'm not really into the royal family, but over the course of the last couple of weeks,

we've been hearing about Queen Elizabeth II who had died at the age of 96. And just like one of the things that just struck me by her is almost every single thing I read about her, every single person was commenting on, just this incredible life. In fact, there was an author, someone who knew of followed her life,

and he said this about her. He said, she never made the mistake of thinking that she was an interesting a remarkable person in herself, and thereby she became remarkable. She never made the mistake of thinking that she, on her own. She never made the mistake, he was saying that she never thought, like, yeah, the reason I'm a queen is because I'm amazing. She never thought, like, the reason why I'm in charge of, I mean, the queen kind of

in charge of very little things, but, like, you know, the reason why she got to this position wasn't because she was deceived into thinking that she earned it. She realized that her being the queen was an accident of birth. and of circumstances. I don't know if you know the story, if you've watched the crown, you do, but like, she wasn't even supposed to be queen. That her uncle was supposed to be the king, and at one point her uncle decided he didn't want the throne, and so he abdicated, and her dad, when she was a little girl, her dad became King George of the 6th. There's even an account of her younger sister Margaret saying, as their dad became the king, does this mean you'll be the queen?

And in a really British way, she said, yes, I suppose it does. And that was it. Margaret said they never talked about it again until she was made the queen at the age of 25 years old. And just, again, going back to this, realizing from 25 to 96 years old, this woman, she showed up every single day. Again, not because she pursued being the queen, not because she wanted to be the queen, not because she sought out this role, but simply because she was asked to do it, and she just said yes. Not because she always dreamed of being queen, but simply because she did what she was asked to do. She basically, almost every

article I read, every person commenting on this, they said this, they said this about Queen Elizabeth. She simply did her duty. She did what she was obliged to do. Of course, other people can say, well, yeah, but I mean, she did have pretty good working conditions. A couple palaces, yet

at the same time, you and I know what this is like. We know what it's like, right? To do something simply because you have to. Every one of us knows what it's like to do something not because you want to, not because you dream of doing this, not because you sought it out, but because someone asked you to do it. And here's the question. When we have a duty, this is the big question. When you and I have a duty, when there's something we're obliged to do, how do we do it? Because that's what in the gospel, right? Jesus said that the good disciple

shows up and says, no, I merely did my duty. I merely did what I was obliged to do. So let's go back. What's our response? What's our attitude when we're obliged to do something? Here's my response. When I was a kid, think about when you were a kid, and you had chores to do, whether those chores were something big like, you know, taking care of the cows or like me sweeping the floor. I know. Same thing. But here's how we would do it. Time to sweep the floor. My mom would look at us and say, what are you doing? You're just simply pushing the dirt around. I'm like, yeah, mom, that's what sweeping is. You just push the dirt around. Or we'd have to vacuum the room. And she'd be like, you were done in three minutes. It takes a lot longer than that. I'm like, mom, it's just because

you're slower than me. How do you and I finish the busy work that gets assigned to us at school? How do we do our jobs? When our jobs are just like, no, I didn't ask for this. Someone gave me this task. Here's how we do it. Typically, our attitude, when we're obliged to do something, when we're asked to do something, when it's our duty to do something,

is we kind of sort of do it, right? I do it half-heartedly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no. I'm going to show up. I'm going to do what you ask of me, but all I'm going to do is I'm going to go through the motions. Again, our jobs, how much of our life is spent just going through the motions?

When it comes to work, school work, how much of it is just going through the motions? When it comes to relationships, how much is just like, oh, yep, just go, show up, kind of go through the motions. When it comes to our faith, how much of what we do, you can just describe as I'm just, I have to be here. I know I'm obliged, I know it's my duty, so I just end up going through the motions. When it comes to our relationship with God, that can be the thing that defines our relationship with God is as I show up and I go through the motions. and what ends up happening is we can end up stuck. Have you ever felt like that when it comes to your faith? Like I'm just, yeah, I show up and I do the thing, but I'm stuck

because I'm just going through the motions. I'm thinking about that, and I think, I wonder if that's what moved to the disciples. You know, this afternoon in the beginning of the gospel, the disciples show up and they say, Lord, increase our faith. I wonder if they looked at their faith and realized, like, I feel stuck. I don't want to be here. I wonder if the disciples at that point said, I have this much faith. I want more.

Because I can imagine that even those disciples, living with Jesus, could say, no, I just, we're just going through the motions. Every single day, Jesus with you is the same thing. Miracle, miracle, miracle, yon. And even Paul writing to Timothy, what does he say? Here's Timothy, who might just feel stuck. And so Paul says to Timothy, Timothy, I urge you, stir into flame the gift that you been given. Why? Because Paul wants more for Timothy. The disciples want more for themselves.

They all want to be unstuck. And I think this, this idea that you can stir into flame the gift, that the idea that you can have increase in faith, what it tells us is if you're stuck, you don't have to stay stuck. So this tonight, if you showed up going through the motions, if you show up tonight, just like I feel stuck in my faith, realize, faith is something that can grow. And if it can grow, it means it's alive, which means you don't have to stay stuck. You can do something about it. Because God, His grace, God wants our faith to grow. But also, you have agency, which means you can actually do something to get unstuck. You can do something to grow your faith. That rather than just simply showing up and going through the motions, we can choose to live

differently and start growing through the motions. I know. Pun. But get used to the pun because for the next four weeks, we're going to start a new series for the next four weeks called growing through the motions. Why? Because A, I like puns. Get over it. B, because I talk to too many people. Because this series is for everybody, but it's especially for those who are raised in the church. I talk to too many people who are like, no, no, no, I go to Mass and yep, I know all the moves. Like, I know all the, I know when to sit, I don't understand, I know when to nail, I know the lines, I know the lyrics. Lord be with you, with your spirit, I got it down. You know all the motions. but it just feels like I'm stuck.

It just feels like I'm just going through the motions. You don't have to feel this way. It doesn't have to be like this. We can actually choose to grow through the motions. So again, whenever I think of this, whenever I think of going through the motions, I always think of the movie The Karate Kid. He's ever seen the movie The Karate Kid?

So little recap for those of you who are not cultured like I am. So in the original, there's this kid, Daniel LaRousseau. Daniel, it moves with his mom from Jersey, over to Reseda, California. And while he's in Reseda, he moves in the summer right before school started. And it was a cruel, cruel summer. If you've seen the movie, you know that that's a theme song.

Anyways, back to our story. So here's Daniel. He's living in Reseda, California. First day of school, he gets bullied, gets picked on, gets beat up. So he meets this guy named Mr. Miyagi. Mr. Miyagi is the man who can teach him karate. And so he goes, Daniel goes to Mr. Miyagi's house.

Mr. Miyagi says, yeah, I'll teach you karate. Here's what you need to do. Paint the fence. So paint long strokes, paint the fence, up and down, paint the fence. Next, I need you to wax the car. It's like wax on, wax off. And then I also need you to sand the deck. So sand the deck, just like this.

And so after days of Daniel doing this, like painting the fence, waxing on, waxing off, sanding the deck, he finally gets frustrated because all these tasks are meaningless, right? All these tasks are just meaningless, menial tasks. Because he wants to learn karate, but Mr. Miyagi's teaching him how to paint a fence, how to wax a car and how to sand the deck. So he yells at him. Like, I'm doing these things that don't mean anything.

And then Mr. Miaogi says, okay, paint the fence. And he moves to paint the fence, and Mr. Munggi, he punches. And he can block the... Painting the fence, you guys, painting the fence is a block for a punch. You didn't know this. I learned it 20 years ago watching... And then waxing on is like block for a kick. It's this whole thing.

I remember, honestly, this is not an exaggeration. I'm not making this up. After I watched that movie as a kid, I went home and was like, Mom, what kind of chores do you have for me? Like, can you build a fence? I will paint it. I promise. Like, we can get some turtle wax.

I will wax on and wax off the cars. Like, I thought I've discovered. You guys, this might be a shock. I discovered, it doesn't work that way. That chores are not immediately transferable to knowing martial arts. It's just to spare you painting. Now, here's the thing. Yes, when you're actually learning karate,

when you're learning any kind of skill, practice, like putting in the reps, definitely does something. But it doesn't work if you don't know the point. Like, just that doesn't work. Like, painting the thing. Here's what would happen. If someone says, okay, paint the fence in long strokes.

I'm like, sure, I'll do that. But I'm, I am lazy. I get sloppy. And I'll start painting like this, you know? If you're waxing the car, okay, wax on, wax off. I'd start like scrubbing up and down side to side. It's kind of situation. Because why?

Because I don't know the point of the movement. The movement itself, sure, might be fine. But if I don't know the point, these are just meaningless tasks oriented towards no goal and no purpose. And this is, I think, a lot of times what we feel like when we come to mass. Everything we do at Mass has a point. Everything we do at Mass, it means something. Everything you and I do when we pray as a disciple of Jesus,

it's supposed to mean something, but how do we do it? We do it simply because it's our duty. But we have no idea what these tasks mean, and we have no idea what the point of them is. But just imagine, imagine how different what you and I do on a regular basis, how different that could be, if we realized these are meaningful tasks oriented towards a worthy goal. Because here's the thing.

If it's not, then mere duty is slavery. And if it's not, going through the motions is a trap. It's a trap for all of us. Because if it's mere duty, if it's merely work, only what we're obliged to do, that's a recipe for discouragement. That's a recipe for burnout. Because what do we do?

We just end up keep doing and we keep doing and we keep doing and we keep doing and we keep going through the motions. showing up for mass, saying our prayers, and we don't grow. We just feel stuck. The solution would seem like this. Well, if that's the problem, the solution is just avoid duty. Like, that's the temptation, right? That's not the answer.

Duty is not the enemy. Duty is not the enemy. In fact, the truly heroic among us are often those who did the heroic thing even though they didn't feel like being heroic. I mean, last month, we commemorated 9-11. And so during that month, I just, during that weekend,

I read so many stories of people, we all heard the stories, right? People when the towers were burning and they were collapsing, everything was destroyed, people were running out of these buildings. There were some people who ran into the buildings. Many of those people died. But some of those people, while everyone else was running out,

they ran in. Some of those people lived. And afterwards, as they were being interviewed, every one of them, to a person, when they were asked, have you always been this heroic? Have you always been like this? They didn't believe they were being heroic. They just said things like,

I just did what I was supposed to do. I just did what anyone would have done. And they would say this, every single one of them, I just simply did my duty. So we know this. Duty is not the enemy. Duty is the minimum, according to the gospel. Duty is the minimum.

But also we know this. Duty is not the point. Duty is not the enemy, but it's also not the point. Because mere duty is meaningless without any purpose. Going through the motions is not the problem. Again, the motions are not the problem. Our perspective is the problem. How do we do it?

Going through the motion is not a problem. Our perspective is the problem. What are we looking for? What do we want to increase? In fact, think about this. At the beginning of the gospel, they say, Lord, increase our faith. And you might come be at mass here thinking, like, yeah, I want to have,

Lord, increase my faith. Great. What is faith? Like, what is the thing we're asking God? to increase. I think sometimes we mistakenly think that faith is like a thing. Like if I want to, I'm holding my faith and I want more of this thing. And so it's like, it's like, um, we have like faith tanks, like gas tanks. And so I just want to, my faith tanks getting low. And so just, Lord, fill me up, increase my faith. But we realize this. Faith isn't a thing.

Faith is trust. Faith is trust in another, which means to say, faith isn't something you can hold on to. Faith is a relationship. So if I say, God, increase my faith, I'm saying, God, strengthen my relationship with you. If I say, Lord, increase my faith or fan into flame, this gift you've been given, we're saying, could deepen the relationship.

So faith isn't a thing, but it's also, faith isn't a feeling. Because the apostles, as they're walking around with Jesus, they're not saying, Lord, increase our feeling. Jesus, it's nice to be with you and everything. But I'm not feeling it anymore. So could you increase that? They're not asking Jesus to increase their feeling.

And St. Paul, writing to Timothy, he's not saying fan into flame the feeling you got. This is so important. The question is not, what does faith feel like? The question is, what does faith do? Not what does faith feel like? What does faith do? So St. Paul says to Timothy, he says,

listen, when you received that gift, you did not receive a spirit of timidity. You did not receive a spirit of cowardice. You received a spirit of power and of love and of self-control. those things, they're not feelings. They're ways of living in power. They're ways of loving, in love, the ways of being, power and love and self-control.

So when you and I say, like, increase my faith, fan into flame, the gift, not a feeling, but a way of living. And I have to say, I have to say that some of the most spirit-led people I know, some of the people who live with power and live with love and live with self-control that I've ever met,

are exorcists. And also the lay men and women who work with exorcists. Now you're like, wow, father, you went there again. Exorcism. But here's the thing. Go with me on this one. I think sometimes when we think about exorcists, we think, of course they're exorcists, they're super holy. Or of course, exorcists are people who are incredibly gifted, incredibly talented. And that might be the case.

In fact, I know one exorcist who has a photographic memory and a complete audiographic memory. He has, he told me, last time I talked to him, he said, he has 100% recall when it comes to whatever he's read, whatever he's heard. I think that's incredible. I should not get in an argument with you. But for the most part, for the most part, those who are exorcists, those who are involved in exorcism ministry,

they're not special. But they are among the most spirit-led people who walk in power and of love and of self-control. And he asks the question, how is it? Here's the reason. Because for every single one of them, they have to walk in faith every day. for every single one of them,

every time they go into an exorcism, they show up and they have to trust that God will act. Every time they pray, if they show up and God's not there, they're dead, they're toast. They're probably possessed themselves. I don't want to go into it, but it's a whole thing. Every time they pray, they're expecting God to ask. And so what they're doing is they're pushing the limits of their faith

every single time they show up to do one of these exorcisms. And here's the crazy thing. They simply pray out of the right of exorcism. They simply pray the prayers that you and and I could pray every single day. They go through the exact same motions that you and I go through. What's the difference? Differences when you and I pray a lot of times are like, okay, here we go. Rosary. Okay, I'm the name of the Father's only. We're just kind of going through the motions. We're just simply praying because it's our duty. When they're praying, they're leaning into

this. Yes, they're doing their duty, but they're putting their heart into it. When they're praying, they're realizing, I have to walk in faith. Like I have to be stretched to the very edge of trusting God or else I am dead. Imagine what will be different in your life and in my life. If we showed up and prayed like that, if we actually prayed pushing ourselves to the very limit of our faith, pushing ourselves to the very limit of knowing that,

God, if you're not here, I'm lost. It's the same motion. It's the way we do it. One ends up being stuck, the other one, we actually end up growing through the same motions. Because it's not a question of, should I live in passion, or should I do my duty? We know this. We know that we grow when we go through the motions and we put our whole heart into it. So years ago, there's this man, he's a scientist named Anders Erickson.

Maybe you've heard of Anders Erickson. Anders Erickson popularized the reality. He studied people who are experts in whatever field. and he discerned that anyone who was an expert in their field, they had a couple things in common. One of the things in common was, not that they were exceptionally gifted, not that they were exceptionally talented,

but was that they put in, every one of them, put in at least 10,000 hours of practice in order to become excellent. So Malcolm Gladwell is an author who wrote a book called Outliers, and in that book he popularized Honors Erickson's findings. And so in book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell goes through all these examples of people like the Beatles,

said that the Beatles seemed like an old woman. overnight sensation. They just exploded on the scene, but they had put in well over 10,000 hours, not merely practicing. They had put in well over 10,000 hours in performing and bars throughout Europe before anyone heard of the Beatles. So when they showed up on the scene, they knew exactly what they were doing. They were already experts because they put in 10,000 hours. Same thing as true with Bill Gates. Bill Gates, unlike virtually anyone else in the world, when he was 12, 13 years old, he had access to computer programming. And so what he would do, for the 10 years between his 13-year-old and 23-year-old self, he put in over 10,000 hours of computer programming in his junior

high, high school, and college age time. So that by the time he started Microsoft, he already was the world's expert in programming. And the same thing is true for virtually every expert in anything you have to put in over 10,000 hours. Now, this is really cool, but one of the things that's come out of this is it's not just 10,000 hours of practice. It's very specific. They wanted to make this clear. It's 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. Because I'll tell you this. I started playing guitar when I was a freshman in college.

And for the first four years, I got really good. And I occasionally played the guitar now, but I am a worse guitar player than I was as a senior in college, even though I've been playing for 30 years now. I was at my peak after four years, why? Because those first four years, I spent learning all these things. I picked up my guitar, I was like pushing the limits of my ability to play. I was learning new

songs constantly and getting better every single day. And now when I pick up my guitar, I'm okay, but I just play the songs I like playing. I just play the songs I already know. I have not grown at all since I peaked in my senior year, you guys. It's the worst. But that's so much of us, so many of us, in so many areas. We could peek at one point and we realize now I'm not an expert. I'm stuck. Why? Not because I'm not going through the motions, but because I'm not growing through the motions. Not because I'm not showing up and doing the thing. Because I'm not showing up and doing the thing and putting my heart into it. Again, it's not about passion or going through the motions. It's not about passion or duty. Where we grow is when we show up and go through the motions and put our whole heart into it. And this is the last thing.

I think one of the things that made Queen Elizabeth the second great. Living a life that she didn't choose, but a life that she was asked to live was that she did it in a unique way. She did it like she actually did choose it. She did what she was asked to do as if she believed it was worthwhile. She did what she was obliged to do as if it mattered. She went through the motions like her heart was in it.

and that makes all the difference. And that's, I think where we can, we can be too. Because all of this, all of everything we do is to create saints. That's the goal. That's the worthy goal. Not mere passion and not mere duty, but growing through the motions by doing what has been asked of us with our whole hearts. Growing through the motions by doing our duty with our heart in it.

Confident that what we're doing here, are meaningful tasks oriented towards a worthy goal. And that changes merely going through the motions into something incredible. We don't have to be stuck, but where we can grow through the motions.