Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 10/31/21 Learning to Lose: All is Lost

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

Homily from the Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. When all is lost, love God with all that's left. We are called to love God with everything. It is easier to love when we are winning, but are we able to love when we've lost? What if we have lost everything? When we've lost, we are most tempted to become bitter, resentful, and take back our love. But we are made to love God and we can trust God even in the midst of losing it all. Mass Readings from October 31st, 2021: Deuteronomy 6:2-6 Psalms 18:2-4, 47, 51Hebrews 7:23-28 Mark 12:28-34

Hi, this is Father Mike. Just before, you know, the homily starts today, I just wanted to have a quick note of thanks. I just wanted to, you know, it's November and it is the season of giving thanks. We have Thanksgiving later on coming up. And I just wanted to thank you for being part of this community, for listening to these homilies and supporting this community by your prayers, supporting me by your prayers, and supporting this community because so many people have given over the last number of years. In fact, I imagine if you're part of the congregation online here or the people who have listened

to these homilies for the past number of years, When November hit, you probably realized, oh, he's going to start talking about give to the max day. And if that was your thought, you were correct. On November 18th, we have give to the max day. And if you're not familiar with that, it is a day in the state of Minnesota where a lot of nonprofits or non-for-profits ask those people who believe in the mission of this organization to support the organization, not only through prayer, but also financially. And so we're no different. We rely upon the gifts. We rely upon the financial support, not only of our students and their families who want

them to have a life-changing encounter with Jesus, but also we rely upon the financial support and the prayers of those who listen to these podcasts and those who join us on or through our online masses. So this November 18th is our give to the max day. And if you're interested at all in supporting this mission, supporting this ministry financially, this is the month to do it. we don't really ask for support throughout the rest of the year. Thankfully, we haven't had to do that.

But this is the month that we just say, you know, in order to keep this ministry going, in order to keep reaching students with the gospel of Jesus, we not only need grace and we also need financial support. So if I just invite you, if you're willing to pray and ask the Lord if he's calling you to support us, I know there's so many good ministries out there, but hopefully we're a ministry that's worth supporting as well. That means you can go anytime this month to give mn.org. That's give minnesota, right, give mn.org.

Or go to bulldog Catholic.org. Both places have an opportunity where you can donate. So at bulldog catholic.org, just a donate button. You can click on that. Givemn.org. Just search for Newman. Search for University of Minnesota, Duluth, and we'll pop right up. And you can follow the instructions there.

Thank you so much. Thank you for your time. Thank you for being part of this community because, man, as I'm preparing like homilies, as I'm preparing the masses, I know that you can't be in person with us, but I do know that I keep you in my prayers, knowing that here I want to share these words from God, hopefully, that not only touch our students,

but also touch those who listen to these words through podcasts, through YouTube, through whatever means. So I've been praying for you. Every homily, I pray for you because I just want the Lord to be glorified, and I want you to come to know him and fall in love with him more and more and more. I want our students to come to know him and love him more and more as well. So once again, thank you so much for being part of this community. Please pray and ask the Lord if he's calling you to not only pray for us, please do that,

but also if he's calling you to support us. And if he is, visit boldycatholic.org and click on donate or go to givemn.org. Thank you so much. And I hope you enjoyed the homily. So back in 1823, there was a young man born. Actually, okay, you're always young when you're born. There was a man who was born in 1823. His name was Louis Martin.

And Louis was born to some Catholic parents, he was raised Catholic, and he was one of those kids who just grew up loving God. And it was his dream to be a priest. It was his dream actually to be a monk right outside his village. There was a monastery, and he wanted nothing more than to be a priest in this monastery. He got there. And for a number of reasons, one of them, he couldn't learn Latin quickly enough. And so they said, yeah, buddy, you need to go somewhere else.

So he basically booted him out of the monastery. Now, meanwhile, in the same village, there was a young woman named Zeli. and Zaley wanted nothing more than to be a nun. And yet she went to the convent and they said kind of the same thing. They said, listen, we really like you. You're great. You're great. No, you're really great.

But you can't stay. And so she got booted back to the village as well. So Marie and Zeli met each other and they fell in love and they got married. And they had just a bunch of kids. Almost all girls. They had two little boys who died in childbirth, around childbirth. But five of those little girls ended up becoming nuns. and it's incredible except about four years after the birth of their last little girl, their youngest girl,

her name was Terez. She became St. Terese. When Terez, their littlest girl, was four years old. Louis lost Zelly, Zellie died. And then one by one, he saw all of his girls leave him. As girl after, as daughter after beloved daughter after beloved daughter, just left and went to the convent. In fact, the youngest, Dres, she went when she was 15. Imagine being a dad and losing your 15-year-old daughter. Just like that, she just walked away and entered the convent. And the last five years of his life, he had two strokes that left Louis virtually paralyzed. In those last five years, he couldn't move himself.

He could hardly think he actually had the onset of dementia as well. And it was one of those situations where his whole life, he just lost little by little. This huge dream he had of being a priest who was just lost little by little. This dream of having his girls surrounding him lost little by little by little. This dream of growing old with his bride, little by little by little taken away. In fact, even his dream of being able to grow old

and be fully functioned, be able to grow old and still serve the Lord to pray to the Lord. Little by little, it was taken. Now, five years after Louis was born, in 1828 in New York City, another man was born. His name was Horatio. Horatio Spafford, who's his name. And if any people could be different, more different, Horatio's life, he was born to privilege.

His parents were quite intelligent and quite wealthy. He became a lawyer, and he became a Christian. At one point, Horatio met and fell in love with a young woman named Anna. And they also had four daughters, and they had a little boy, Horatio Jr. Now, even though Horatio and Anna, they loved the Lord, they served their church as often as they could, tried to raise their girls and their little boy to love Jesus. At one point when the little Horatio Jr. was only four years old, Horatio Jr. got scarlet fever.

And in a few short days, he was gone. He died, and they lost their youngest son. And it's one of those things that just realizing both these stories, we know the truth about our lives. At some point, everything gets taken. At some point in every one of our lives, whether it's little by little, or in great big chunks, at some point in our lives, everything gets taken.

At some point, all is lost. Can we keep losing until, in the end, all is lost? And so, you know, we've been doing this series for the last three weeks. This is the third part of four parts. Emphasizing this reality that life is the process of losing. That life is the process of repeated loss. That one of the greatest things we can learn how to do as Christians is to learn how to lose, we learn how to lose well.

And so, before we go any further, I need to answer the question. What is it to lose well? Because we want to learn how to lose well. Losing well is not like one of those things where it's like, yeah, play me in any game. You will win. I promise. Yeah, checkers, you win. Chess, you win.

Tennis, you win. That's not losing well. What losing well is this. Learning how to lose well is to lose and not become bitter. Learning how to lose well is to lose and not become resentful. learning how to lose well is to lose and not to lose yourself. It's losing and still being able to love. Because if one of the goals is to learn how to lose well,

we know that the goal, the goal for life, the goal for living is what's in today's gospel. The goal of our entire lives is to be able to be the kind of people who are capable of loving God with absolutely everything we've got. But if there's any obstacle, if there's any challenge to loving, it's losing. Because we realize this,

I don't know if you've ever thought about this. It is really easy to love when I have everything I want. I want to have everything that I could possibly dream of, when I have everything I need. But the moment, the moment of pain all of a sudden makes it difficult for me to love. That season of loss makes it really difficult for me to love. That time of defeat

it tempts me to take back my heart, to take back my mind, to take back myself. because we realize that we can love God when we win. The question is, can we love God when we lose? Do you and I know how to love God when we've lost? So one year after Horatio and Anna lost their little boy, the year was 1871. And Horatio and Anna had a lot of property in Chicago.

And they invested their life savings. They invested everything in some real estate in Chicago. And if you know anything about 1871 in Chicago, that was the year of the great Chicago. Chicago Fire. And in one night, Horatio and Anna lost everything. They thought they lost everything with the death of their son. They lost everything that night. 300 people died that night. 100,000 people became homeless that night. And that night ruined Horatio and Anna. Virtually homeless, their business gone, their property gone, all their savings gone. They had it all. And in this

moment, they lost it all. Question, like, when you have it all and in one moment you lose it all, what do you do? What do you do? I think it's because it's one thing, it's one thing when accident, you know, causes you to lose everything, when illness causes you to lose everything. What happens when it's our own fault? What happens when I've lost and it's actually my fault? You know, there's someone in the Bible who this was their story, that they had it all, and then they lost it all. And it was completely all their fault. So you might have to be know this guy. His name is Simon Peter. He's in the Gospels quite often. Simon Peter, right? He's a fisherman, works with his brother Andrew, and at one point Jesus steps into his boat and says,

come follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. He becomes not only one of the disciples, he becomes one of the 12, he even becomes one of the inner circle, one of the three. And at some point in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus tells Peter that he's going to be the rock upon which he builds the entire church. He makes him the first pope. Peter is given everything. Everything he has. all that he has came from Jesus. You even think about that night of the Last Supper, the night where he's made a priest, the night he's given First Communion for the first time,

that is the night, the night that he is sitting there on Thursday night. He has it all, and that exact same night is the night that he lost it all. In a moment, every one of the Gospels records it. We know the story. That he denies even knowing Jesus three times, and he knows when the cocky, crows, he what happens, he goes out into the darkness and he weeps bitterly and everything he'd been given, including all of his friends, including every role, a mission in life. In one moment,

he lost it all. The question, of course, is, what do you do then? What do you do when you've lost it all on your own? You ever been that place where you realize, I've lost it all on my own? What's the way back. Like, how do you get back? How do you recover from that kind of thing? And we're actually showing it in the gospel, not today, but we're showing it at the end of John's gospel. After Jesus has suffered, he's died, he's risen from the dead, and he's at the Sea of Galilee. And Peter's there with a bunch of other guys and they're fishing. And at one point, John points out that that's Jesus on the shore. And so we know the story, Peter jumps in, he swims to shore, he can't wait to get there. And when he's on shore, Jesus asks Peter a specific question. Here's Peter, who has lost it all.

and what is the question that Jesus asks him? He simply looks at him and he asks the question, do you love me? More than these. Do you love me? That's it. He doesn't ask Peter, hey, do you promise to never mess up again?

Do you promise you always be faithful? Do you promise you'll never screw up again? Do you promise all these future things? He doesn't ask him any of those things. All he asks him is right now. Here you are. After having lost everything, I have one question for you.

Do you love me? Because I realize, that after we've lost it all, the way back is love. After we've lost it all, what do we do? We love. And of course, our problem is, I think one of our problems is we're not prepared. We're not prepared to love God. Because I think a lot of us, we have this incorrect and distorted

and misshapen image of who God actually is. Because we think sometimes, and this is even in spite of ourselves, sometimes I think we think that if I follow God, I'm going to win. I think sometimes we think if I follow God, then I will win everything I want and everything that I wish for. I want to be strong. Great. I want to be healthy. Great. I want to be wealthy. Awesome. I want to be powerful. If I follow Jesus, if I love him really, really well, that's what I'll get. And we have to realize that God doesn't exist. The God who if you follow him, you're going to be blessed with wealth and with health and with power and influence and a wrinkle-free life. That kind of God doesn't exist. I mean, think about it. Look at the, what's the principal image that Christian.

have put in front of their faces every single day for the last 2,000 years? What is the image of God himself? Every follower of Christ has put in front of their eyes, under their gaze, every single day for the last 2,000 years. Is it an image of a God who is powerful? Is it an image of a God who has everything? Is it the image of a God who is loved by everyone? The image we place in front of our eyes is the image of a God who is stripped naked.

The image we gaze upon every single day is not the image of someone who's loved, it's the image of someone who's been mocked and beaten. It's not the image of someone who's healthy, it's the image of someone who's broken. It's not the image of someone who is wealthy. This is the image of someone who has had everything taken from him. Nothing left.

The image of Jesus on the crucifix is the image of a God who has lost everything. That's what you get. Yes, when we love God, he gives us blessings. but what you and I get when we love God is we get God. When you and I get when we love God is we get God. And I think that the biggest obstacle that you and I will ever face

while learning how to lose is can I lose and still love? Can I lose and not become bitter? Can I lose and not become resentful? Can I lose without forgetting how to love? And so Jesus asked Simon on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, reminding him of the one thing he can't forget to do. The one thing he can't afford to forget to do. And he asks him that question,

do you love me? Because when all is lost, the way back is to love God with all. Of course, you can ask the question like, okay, wait, that doesn't make any sense. After you've lost at all, after all is lost, what could you possibly love with? The answer is, when all is lost, we love God with all that's left.

When all is lost and all there is is is just pieces, then we love God with all that's left. We love God with the pieces. Here's Louis Martin, right? And everything, his hopes, his dreams, all lost. His children, all lost. Even his strength and his mind, all of it. It's just piece by piece, little by little, taken away.

And yet, and yet he's a saint. He's actually St. Louis Martin. So was Zelly, St. Zelly Martin. Why? Because when all was lost, and all he had was just piece by piece, little by little, taken away from him. He loved God with all that was left. He just loved God with the pieces.

And I think, I wonder if maybe this loving God with the pieces, I wonder if it sometimes just means trusting God in the middle of loss. I wonder if it sometimes means just trusting God in the darkness, trusting God in the not knowing. So after the death of Horatio Jr., and the next year after losing everything, all their finances in the Chicago fire, Horatio and Anna were just devastated.

They tried to help and tried to serve in their local church, tried to take care of the homeless people, but at some point they were recommended by their physicians to go take a break and to get out of the country to go to Europe. They had a friend, H.L. Moody, he's an evangelist. He traveled all over the world preaching the gospel, and he invited them to come with him to Europe and be part of the mission trip.

Be part of this mission to bring the gospel to people. And so they said that would be a good idea. we have to leave America, we just have to go, take a break. And so what Horatio did is he put Anna and their four little girls on this ship to set sail for Europe so they could be part of this mission. And six days into the journey, at 2 a.m., in the middle of the night, the ship that Anna and their four girls were on

was struck by another ship. And within minutes, everyone, including Anna and the four girls, were submerged in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. Anna was holding onto their two-year-old, who was ripped out of her hands by the force of the ship going under. She grabbed onto their four-year-old by the dress,

and yet she was ripped out of her hands. They found Anna unconscious lying on a piece of driftwood, and they brought her into one of the lifeboats, and she made it to shore. She made it to Wales, and she sent a telegram back to her husband in the United States, and all it said was, saved alone, what shall I do? It went on to say, Mrs. Goodwin, the children, Willie Culver, lost. All these people, everyone they knew on the ship, lost.

Everything they had lost. Here she sends this telegram back that says, all is lost. What shall I do? Horatio tells her, he invites her, he asks her, please wait for me, I'm coming to you. So he got on the next ship available and it took off from harbor and six days later. In the middle of the night, the captain, he called Horatio up to the bridge because he knew that they were about to pass the spot where his four little girls had drowned and been lost. I heard over the spot, he stops the ship and he says, Eratio, just take your time.

this is where everything in your life was lost. The ship resumed and Horatio went down to his stateroom, we went down to his cabin and he sat down and in the middle of the night over the same spot that his daughters had been taken, that he lost every one of his kids. He sat at his desk and he wrote these words, when peace like a river attends my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll,

whatever my lot you've taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. Though Satan should buff it, though trials should come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless state and has shed his own blood for my soul. And so I will say, it is well, it is well. It is well with my soul. He wrote this incredible hymn

in the moment when everything, everything had been taken from him, in the moment when all was lost, Horatio, he just simply loved God, trusted God with all that was left. I wrote that song, It is well. Anna, at one point after this tragedy, she was overheard saying, God gave me four daughters. Now they've been taken from me. Someday I will understand why.

But you almost hear her say in the meantime, I'm going to keep on loving. Here's Anna, all is lost. Until then, I will keep loving God with all that's left. And this is the last thing. This is for every one of us. In the course of this learning how to lose, the greatest danger

and learning to lose is giving into bitterness and resentment over the loss. It's to take back our love. It's to forget how to love in the middle of our loss. But we know this. This is the moment when love actually matters. This is the moment when it really counts.

And it's not easy, obviously. But it's necessary for us to be able, in the moment of greatest loss, to say it is well. To be able when all is lost, to love God with all that's left.