Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 10/22/23 Lost: Every Step

Episode Date: October 21, 2023

Homily from the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Between the Promise and the Promised Land. When a person is lost, it can feel like every step is taking them further and further away from where they need to be. But with Christ, we trust in the promise that we are not lost, but led...and that every step is taking us closer to where and who we need to be. Mass Readings from October 22, 2023: Isaiah 45:1, 4-6 Psalms 96:1, 3-5, 7-101 Thessalonians 1:1-5 Matthew 22:15-21

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 33777.7. 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 15 through 21. The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in his speech. They sent their disciples to him with the Herodians saying, Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man, and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth, and you're not concerned with any person's status or anyone's opinion,

for you'd not regard a person's status. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it lawful to pay the census tax to? to Caesar or not. Knowing their malice, Jesus said, why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin that pays the census tax.

Then they handed him the Roman coin. He said to them, whose image is this and whose inscription? They replied, Caesar's. At that, he said to them, then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. And to God, what belongs to God.

The gospel of the Lord. might you have a seat. So as I say at the beginning of Mass, we've been having a series called Lost, again, not based off the TV show, but off the fact that for so many of us, the whole challenge of life in so many ways is just what is God's call for my life?

Like, what does he want for me? What does he have for me? What's his promise of my life? Like basically that sense of like, where am I? Where am I supposed to go? And how am I going to get there? And so I've been kind of sharing how I have a little bit of a reputation for being directionally challenged.

And there are some people who actually are like, They doubt that. It's true. It's like, and not just like, I'm marginally, directionally challenged. I'm massively. So here's another, one more example. So years ago, I did this running race. It was back in the running days, you know?

I did this running race. It was a really long one, it was on the Superior Hacking Trail. So if you know the Superior Hiking Trail, you know that it goes one way, and then it goes the other way. That's it. Right? It starts the South of Duluth, goes all the way up the North Shore to Canada. And so this race was a 50-mile race somewhere on the Superior Hacking Trail.

And so before the race, I was like, I want to train on the road. trail. So I drove up to Duluth and actually I went to Silver Bay, got on the trail and it was like, okay, I'm going to run for a bit. So I ran like two hours out and then I'm like, okay, that's good, turn around to come back. And the way back I was feeling pretty good. And so there was this little spur that took you to a scenic overlook. And I'm like, you know what? I feel good. I'll take this little jaunt out to nature, you know, I don't know. And so I took it, I looked, it looked good, I turned around, came back to the trail. And I got there. I was like, wait, which way do I go? Like it was, it was, it's, there's two options, you guys.

This is, but I got back to the trail. I'm like, wait, I clearly go right. So I went right and I started running, but I saw two sets of my own tracks. I'm like, wait, I'm going the wrong way. So I turned around and started running the other way and got however far. I was like, no, this isn't right. So I turned around, went back the other way. I went, okay, stop, turn around and went.

Okay, spoiler, I made it. I'm alive. All right. But, but I was going. I was, the panic set in, right? Because, again, two reasons. One is I clearly have the memory of a gnat. Secondly, there were only two options.

And that actually made it harder. There wasn't like a bunch of options. There were two options, and that made it completely harder because if I was going the wrong way, the thing that kept coming back to my mind and pummeling my brain was if I'm going the wrong way, every step is taking me further from where I need to be. If I'm going the wrong way, every step is taking me away from home, away from where I'm supposed to be. And that was this like, again, this sense of panic, the sense of desperation.

You probably experienced this too. If you've ever been like driving somewhere, you've never been before, there's no GPS for some reason. You're driving to a friend's house and you're like, wait, am I in the right road? You know this. You know the exact feeling of that desperation of if I'm going the wrong direction. Every mile, every minute is a minute going the wrong way. Every step is taking me further away from where you need to be.

And again, it's one of those situations, I think, for us when it comes to life. Like, again, as Christians, we know, we know that God is a call in our life. We know that God has made every one of us for a purpose. He's made every one of us on purpose, that he actually has a promise over every one of our lives. And the challenge, of course, is, wait, am I going in the right direction? Or is every day, is every choice, is every step that I'm taking, taking me further and further away from who God wants me to be, where God wants me to be? And this is part of, I know this in a real way, like I know this desperation in a real way. when I first came to know Jesus as, like, had a conversion to him in high school,

one of the very first questions was, okay, God, what do you want me to do? Because one of the first things that happened was when I encountered Jesus, I had this question, wait, God, are you calling me to be married? I was 16, he wasn't calling me then. But like, are you calling me to be married or you won't call him to be a priest? And so every time I prayed, like every day. From then on, it was, God, what do you want me to do? And here's the desperation I felt.

Maybe this is desperation you've experienced as well. It's the sense of like, God, I don't care what it is. I just want to know. I don't know if you've ever experienced that. You might be sitting there going, I care what it is. I'm not going to pretend. I don't care what it is. I pretended you guys.

It was good. But God, I don't care what it is. I just want to know. I just want to know I'm going in the right direction. I just want to have the confidence that every step isn't taking me further and further away from where I'm supposed to be. I just want to be able to walk in trusting and confidence. So, again, we've said this a couple times over the last couple weeks.

something we know as Christians is something you know is that the principle is God knows you better and loves you better than you know and love yourself. This is true. God knows you better and loves you better than you know and love yourself. And because of that, we know we can trust him. Now because of that, we know that his call on your life, that's good. We know that the reason he made you is good. We know that his promise, his promise is good and he's going to come through on his promise. What's his promise? Well, the promise is an echo of some of you know this promise in Jeremiah chapter 29 the context for this promise

that God makes over the people of Israel is people of Israel they were in the promised land the Babylonians came in and destroyed them brought them into exile and Jeremiah is speaking to them and he says listen thus says the Lord God here's this promise I know the plans I have for you says the Lord

plans for your welfare and not for your woe plans for a future full of hope like this is God's promise over his people I know the plans I have for you plans for your welfare not for your woe planned for a future full of hope so we got the promise

this is God's promise for you as well we have the promise but now we have to live in this weird space between the promise and the promised land because that's what life is in so many ways it's this weird tension between the promise that we've been given and we know he's good

we know that he knows and loves us better than we know and know and love ourselves we have this promise, but we have to live in this time between the promise and the promise land, and that can be hard. In fact, when St. Paul is writing to the Thessalonians today, it's, last week we had the Philippines, right? And today we're starting this new book, new letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians. So he says, writing to these Christians in Thessalonica, he says to them, he says about them,

he says, I know, I give God thanks, because I've seen your work of faith, I've seen your labor of love, and I've seen your endurance and hope. I've seen your endurance and hope. Here are the Christians in Thessalonica, and they're walking in that space between the promise and the promised land, and it's a long walk. Like, it's one thing to have hope, and it's another thing to have endurance and hope.

I mean, to think about that, you know, endurance, endurance is connected to the virtue of fortitude. It's the virtue of courage. It's like perseverance, and endurance are the same thing. The definition of perseverance is the ability to choose the good despite difficulty or delay. The ability to choose the good

despite difficulty or delay. That's the virtue of endurance. That's a virtue of perseverance. That's what it is. And St. Paul is writing to them to have the endurance of hope. Because as we're walking in this time between the promise and the promised land,

we absolutely need to have this power, the ability to choose the good to keep walking even in the face of difficulty and delay. We trust that every step is actually a step closer. Because here's kind of the Christian secret. The Christian secret is this,

is that if you've given your life to Jesus, if you place your whole life under Jesus, everything you do and everything you have is His. What I mean by that is, if your life belongs to Jesus, every step is a step closer. Like if you belong to Jesus, he can use it all. Like if you've given your life to Christ, he can use it all.

That means that every step is actually a step closer. No, no matter what you're doing, every step is a... No, not no matter what. We have the qualifications, right? We have the three questions we have to ask. In the danger of beating a dead horse, the three questions we've been talking about the last two weeks. The three questions of am I in a state of grace?

Am I doing my daily tasks? And am I praying today? If you can answer and ask and answer those questions, You are not walking away. You're walking closer. Because why? Because if I'm not in a state of grace, I go to confession. And God heals me again.

If I'm not doing my daily tasks, I start doing those things. And I start saying yes to the Lord. And if I'm not praying, I start praying. I start talking to the Lord and letting him talk to me. And this is the thing. When we start doing this, every step we take is a step closer to where we need to be. At the same time, I get it. We can still say, that's fine, Father.

But I still want to know. Right. Like, that's great. But it would really help me if I knew. Here's what we need to know. God will let you know. And he won't let you know too late. But he also won't let you know too early.

Years ago, we had a student here, and he came to know Christ here on campus, and he actually was baptized right here. And at one point after he was baptized, he was like, I got to discern. I got to discern my vocation. He was kind of like me in the sense that he saw his life as either marriage or priesthood. He was discerning. And so like some other people, he thought, like, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to ask God for a sign.

And I'm like, don't ask for a God for a sign. He's like, no, no, no, it's fine. I'm going to ask God for a sign. I'm like, bro, don't ask God for a sign. He's like, no, I'm going to do it. And no one listens to me. No one pays attention. People ask me my advice and then they don't do.

It's fine. Whatever, we've been moving on. So he said, okay, God, if you're calling me to be married, give me this sign. If you're calling me to be a priest, give me that sign. And listen, I don't care what it is. Just show me now. I need to know now. Well, he got what he thought was the sign.

And apparently, he wasn't as flexible as he thought he was. It was the sign that he didn't want. And you guys, I have to tell you, I have to tell you, I don't know if I've ever seen another person in as big of a spiritual tailspin after this. Like he was like, I thought I could handle it. I can't handle it. And I'm like, yeah, that's why you listen to me. You guys, just learn from that guy's mistake. Because again, once again, principle is God always speaks in clarity. Remember we talked about this last week.

God always speaks in clarity. And he will never let you know too late. He will always be on time. and that because of that he will never let you know too early. What he expects is just that we, when it's time to wait, that we're willing to wait. And when it's time to move, that we're willing to move. This is kind of how we have to be during this time between the promise and the promised land. It's actually literally what the people of Israel did in the time between the promise and the promise land.

If you know the story of when there were slaves in Egypt and they were set free by God, you know, they had the ten plagues and they go through the Red Sea and they get to the promised land, but they weren't ready to go in. And so what does God do? Well, for 40 years, he leads them. Now, we sometimes think that here the Israelites, they were lost in the promised land. They were not lost in the promised land. They were being led through the promised land.

We need to realize this. Between the promise and the promised land, the people of Israel, they were not lost. They were being led. And they were being led in this amazing way, right? If you don't know the story, you know that there was this pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And that was two things. It was a sign of God's presence that would be there over the tabernacle, over the Holy of Holies. but also was a sign of when it was time to wait and when it was time to walk.

So when the pillar of cloud stayed still, till the fire stayed still, that's where they stayed. But then when the pillar of fire or pillar of cloud rose up and moved, that's when they'd pack up and they'd move. And this is the incredible thing. They weren't lost, they were being led. And every step along the way was doing something in their hearts. It was doing something.

It was training them, was preparing them for the day they got to the promised land. They were ready to enter in. Because I really believe this. It's not just, well, if I just know, I'll be fine. Today's first reading, Isaiah chapter 45. There's this prophecy in Isaiah chapter 45. Isaiah is talking about one day, there'll be this guy named Cyrus. Cyrus would be the king of Persia.

And he'll set you free. He'll actually send you back to the Holy Land. This is 150 years before the people of Israel were actually in exile in Babylon. And here's Isaiah who's saying, listen, here's the promise. When you're exiled, God will bring you home. Be at peace. When you're exiled, don't worry. God has a plan.

Be at peace. When you're exiled and far from home, you do not have to fret because God has promised this, be at peace. And you know what they had to do? Even though they knew they still had to live through siege, they still had to live through war, they still had to live through exile, they still had to live and wait. So I think sometimes we say, I just need to know.

Like, well, that might be part of it. But I think a lot of times we're like, I don't just need to know. I need to have it. Like, I need to be there. I want to be done. I want to know and I want to actually be there. Because we realize that even if I knew, even if we knew what God's call was, what the promise was, what the vocation was, we still have to keep walking.

You know the story of King David, right, in the Old Testament? in the book of Samuel. Here's David. David knows his vocation ever since he was a little kid. So David's a child when the prophet Samuel goes to Jesse, David's father,

and sees all the brothers and says, oh, nope, David's the one who's going to be the next king. So as a kid, David has, the vocation is settled. He's going to be the next king of Israel. In fact, he's even anointed the king right there.

You know what David does? After he gets anointed, king of Israel, he doesn't go to the throne, doesn't take the kingship. They send him back into the field to be a shepherd. And I don't know

If I was David, I'd be like, wait a second. I'm not going to go, shepherding. I'm the king. But David went back into the fields. He spent years being a shepherd. And while he was a shepherd, what did he do? Well, he had a lot of time by himself. So he started playing the liar, which is like an old school guitar, right?

Started singing a bunch of songs. So people heard that David was a good singer. And so they said, hey, King Saul is having a tough time. go and sing some songs for King Saul. Steve David does that. He doesn't make, he's not made the king. He just goes to sing songs for the king. He's like the original jester of the court, just not funny.

Then he goes back to the fields and what does he do? Well, he has to fight off a bunch of animals, so much of lions and bears and wolves and things. Then later on, what happens? Well, his brothers all go to fight the Philistines. His brothers are in the army, but here's David's a shepherd. David's dad says, hey, David, take a bunch of food to your brothers who are on the front lines. So David's basically like, I'm basically essentially door dash.

for you, that's all he is. I'm the king. No, you're Uber eats. That's all you are. He gets there. Then what does he do? We fights Goliath. After he fights Goliath, King Saul says, you're pretty good. I'll make you a general. David could say at that moment, I'm not a general. I'm a king. But he takes the generalship. After that, King Saul tries to kill him. So David has to be on the run. While David's on the run, I don't know if you know this part of the story. While David's on the run, he runs into this group of bandits. Basically, these other guys who are on the run, basically, it's kind of essentially Hell's Angels. And David becomes like the leader of the Hell's Angels back,

style. And he has to learn how to lead this rag-tag group of men. The whole time, David could be thinking like, what is happening right now? Every step I'm taking is taking me further away from the kingship. I know my vocation. I know what God's plan on my life. I know his call over my life. I know the promise. And all I'm doing is just wasting my time. I don't know if you ever felt like that. I'm just wasting my time. Think about another king. King who came a few years after David. His name was Alexander of

Macedonia. Ended up being Alexander the great. The name like that you have a lot to live up to. But like so here's Alexander. So Alexander as a kid he was destined to be the next king. Philip the second was his dad and so there you know you know your vocation, you know the plan for your life, you're going to be the next king. And so from an early age, Alexander had the best trainers. He had not only his own father, Philip the second, who was an incredible military strategist. He also had a man named Parmenian. Parmenian was known as an incredible general and a criminal tactician. He had another man named Lysimachus.

Lysimachus was a bodyguard and he was like a specialist in hand-to-hand fighting, and he taught Alexander all these fighting styles, like Greek kung fu and stuff. You have Leonidas, who was a relative of Alexander's mom, who trained him in battle. And then you even had his tutor. His tutor was Aristotle, like the Aristotle, not just A Aristotle, but the Aristotle,

was Alexander's tutor. So he had all these incredible trainers. You can imagine if you were Alexander, you're not sitting there going like, when can I be the king? You're like, no, no, no, this is training. So I'm ready when it's time to be the king. For Alexander, that training was obvious. For King David, that training was less obvious, but it was more powerful. Because here's David, anointed the king, sent back into the fields.

While he's in the fields, what happens? He plays the liar. Two things happen because of that. One, as mentioned already, he gets to sing for King Saul. He's not the king yet. but he gets to go into the royal court and see how things get run. He gets to have experience with royalty without being royalty. He gets to learn that way. It's training.

He keeps singing songs and he keeps writing more songs so that 3,000 years later, the song we sang at mass just a second ago is one of David's songs. Because in the wilderness, he was being trained not only to be a king, but also to be someone who can worship the Lord. He goes into the field, right? And he fights the wolves and he fights the bears he fights the lions, these creatures that are more dangerous, more powerful, more cunning than him, so that he trains himself so that when he gets to the front lines, he can fight Goliath.

He was more dangerous and more powerful and more cunning than him. Now, if he fights Goliath, what happens? King Saul makes him a general. And as a general, he learns how to lead other men. And when he's on the run, he learns how to lead men who don't want to be led. So then when he becomes king, he can unite these 12 tribes of Israel, 12 tribes that didn't want to be united. but every step along David's life

prepared him for the next step in David's life because that space between the promise and the promise land every step brought him closer and the same is true for you the exact same thing is true for you that you are not wasting your time that you're not wasting your life every step is not taking you further away from

who you need to be or where you need to be Every step is a step closer to where God needs you to be. Every step is. And this is the last thing. At the same time, of course, we can still feel lost. At the same time, we can still be like, but, okay, that's fine, Father. But I still need to know. That's fine, but I still just, I want to be there.

I get it. That's why we need perseverance, right? That's why we need endurance in hope. The ability to choose the good, the ability to keep walking, despite difficulty or delay. Because reality, what do we expect we're going to find when we get there? Or wherever there is, right? What do we expect we're going to find when we actually get to the promised land?

I'll tell you what the Jews found when they got to the promised land. Like they were led through the wilderness. They got to the promised land. It wasn't like, this is awesome. They just chilled out. They got to the promised land and it was time to fight. When the Jews were brought back from Babylon, they didn't just get back to Jerusalem, back to the promised land and just relaxed.

They had to rebuild. Sometimes I wonder, like, you know, where like there's some people are like, I just need to find that person. I just need to find that person I can spend my life with. Well, you find them, then you have to actually craft a life with them. It's just harder than it looks. Or like, I just, I want to have a child. I can't wait. Lord, give me a child.

I want to have a child. I've always wanted to be a parent. And then you have that child. Like, wow, this is way harder than it looks. Or you like, I just want my vocation. And maybe you get ordained. And maybe you're here tonight. And maybe you're wondering like, whoa, this is harder than I thought it would be.

But the reality, of course, is for all of us, once you get to the promised land, you got to keep walking. Because life doesn't end. Life keeps going in the promised land. You don't stop walking just because you know your vocation. Because life in the promised land is still life. So we need to have this endurance in hope. We need to have this perseverance in hope. We need to walk in spite of difficult.

or delay every one of us you're not lost you're not lost you are exactly where you need to be and every step is doing something you belong to Jesus Christ your life is his and because of that every step is taking you closer to being the person you need to be