Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 10/8/23 Lost: Have No Anxiety At All

Episode Date: October 7, 2023

Homily from the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time. What if? Or What is? Not knowing where we are, where we are going, or how to get there can be incredibly daunting. It can bring us to a place of worry and anxiety. We can be tempted to avoid the uncertainty and discomfort of the journey. By focusing on God's presence and blessings, we can have the courage to move. Mass Readings from October 8, 2023: Isaiah 5:1-7 Psalms 80:9, 12-16, 19-20Philippians 4:6-9 Matthew 21:33-43

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. 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 Matthew. Chapter 21 verses 33 through 43. Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people, hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.

Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce, but the tenants seized the servants, and one they beat. another they killed and a third they stoned. Again he sent other servants more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way.

Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking they will respect my son. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance. They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes. They answered him, he will put those wretched men to a wretched death, and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times. Jesus said to them, did you never read in the scriptures? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

By the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes. Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a people that will produce its fruit. the gospel of the Lord. Wait, you'd have a seat. So I have a little reputation in my family for being what you might call directionally impaired. There was a time when my family would, they would just randomly say, Mike, where are we?

Like we were traveling somewhere together? Mike, where are we? And I would have no idea. Or even, they got so far because I just, I don't know, I wasn't paying attention. And so I never knew. Like, they would even ask like, Mike, where are we going? And I'm like, I don't know.

I'm in the back seat. It doesn't. And it's one of those things where. But so for so much of my life, I was just lost. Like, genuinely, I would get in the car because they told me to get in the car, and I would have no idea where we were at any given moment. I would have no idea where we were going. I had no idea how to get there, which is not a bad thing.

And also, in my defense, just keep this mind. In my defense, I'm one of six kids. There are eight of us. I was never consulted of, like, where would you want to go? No one ever asked me that question. So basically, I just like disengage. And also, just so you know, where I sat, my spot in the car was in the way, way back. Like not the back seat, the way way back seat, like all the way to the back.

So my thing, whether we're on a trip for like 10 minutes or 10 hours, I would just go to my spot in a way, way back, and put my nose in a book. And that was my trip. Road trips for me are just reading a book and the way, way back. It doesn't matter to me where we are. It doesn't matter to me where we're going or how to get there because I have no say. And then what happens is I turn 16, which is not a problem. but I still didn't know where I was or where I was going or how to get there. And again, they just, they were, my family, merciless, you guys, you have to understand.

My scars come from my siblings because it just was one of those things like, Mike, where are you going? I had no idea how to get to my grandparents' house. No idea, not even a clue. Because why should I know? I'm in the way back. I don't have to know where we are, how to get there, or where we're going. Because that's just, then they say, hey, you're in charge now. go drive somewhere.

And that'd be completely lost. That's it, just completely lost. But it's your job to drive there. So how do you do that? How do you live a life where, okay, you're lost, but it's your job to know where you are, to know where you're going,

and to know how to get there? And isn't life a lot like that? Here's the segue, guys. Because honestly, for most of our lives, the beginning of our lives is just follow the person in front of you. Right? The beginning of our lives is just like,

yeah, show up and do this. you're this old, go to school. After that year, go to the next year. After that year, go to the next year. And at some point, they say, okay, now choose. What kind of life do you want to live now? I don't know. I've just been following the person in front of me.

How in the world am I supposed to know where I am, where I'm going, or how to get there? Because all of my life had just been following. And then all of a sudden, if you're a Christian, you realize the truth is that God has put a call on your life. Like, God has made you for a purpose. God called the vocation, right? God has made you for a vocation.

He's called you to something. something. And it's like, now figure it out. Sure. I can't. I'm lost. How can I figure this out? I am lost. And we have these questions. Like, what if? When you're lost, you have these questions, what if, right? What if I miss out on God's plan? Like, what if I can't figure it out? What if I stay lost? So what we're going to do is for the next four weeks, we're doing a series. and series is called Lost. And no, it is not based on the hit TV show of the same name. It is based on the reality that every single one of us,

we've been given the steering wheel. We've been put in the driver's seat. And we've been told, go. And we have no idea where we are, no idea, where we're going, and no idea how to get there. And we are so lost. And here's the crazy thing. You know, the number one question when you're lost is what if?

What if I can't make it home? I think the number one emotion of when you're lost is concern, right? The number one emotion when you're lost is worry. The number one emotion when we're lost is anxiety. Because I don't know. What if I never make it home? What if I never get there? What if I miss out of my vocation?

And of course, into this, into the beginning of this series, we have St. Paul who comes along and he says, have no anxiety at all. Thanks, Paul. That helps a ton. But he does. He says this. He says, have no anxiety, anxiety at all.

And you think, no, at first, before we get mad, at St. Paul. We have to understand. When St. Paul's writing this, he's not writing this as someone who's like, his life is going incredibly well. As someone who like everything he touches turns to gold. St. Paul is writing these words when he says, I have no anxiety at all. He is writing from prison where every one of his rights has been taken away. All of his freedom has been stripped of him and it's been stripped of him for one reason. And that one reason is because he is simply doing what God asked him to do. That's it. Like, he's in the midst of his vocation. He's doing exactly what God asked him to do. And as a consequence, everything is taken away from him. And that's the context

where St. Paul says, have no anxiety at all. Can you imagine a person more lost than Paul in this moment when he's writing to the Philippians? Because he has no idea. He has no idea how, God, how in the world is this going to work out? What if I never get out of prison? What if I can never get my, what if I can never go home? What if I, all these questions? You know, we realize this, the source of our anxiety is not knowing, isn't it? So often the source of our anxiety is uncertainty. The source of our anxiety is discomfort. In fact, one of the descriptions of anxiety

is the avoidance of uncertainty and the avoidance of discomfort. We just have this, we don't know what's going to happen, so we keep asking that question, what if? And of course, we know this. We know that anxiety's normal. Just keep this in mind. If you're like, is everyone else getting this?

Like, anxiety is completely normal. It's so common. It's actually healthy. Like, for example, if you have a test tomorrow morning, you have not studied for it yet. To experience some anxiety over that is, that's the appropriate response, right? That's the right thing. If you have bills to pay tomorrow, but no money to pay those bills, to experience anxiety, yes. If a saber-toothed tiger is racing, tracking you down, chasing you down, and you've experienced anxiety, that's the proper emotion.

And yet, you know this for the last few years. Anxiety has outstripped depression as the number one. mental illness on college campuses. In fact, four out of ten Americans don't just experience the normal amount of anxiety. They experience clinical, chronic anxiety. Between 31 and 39 percent of us experience anxiety at such a heightened level. It can become so completely debilitating so much so that we end up trying to justify ourselves, right?

We end up trying to like say, no, no, no, no. My anxiety is good. In fact, my dad would do this. My dad would always, he would always be like, hey, I worry about you, Mike. I'm like, dad, don't worry. And you'd always say this. He'd always say in response, you'd always say,

listen, I'm your dad, it's my job to worry. Is it? Is it? I'm just the question, you know? Because you're my dad. It's your job to care. I don't know that it's your job to worry. I don't know that it's anyone's job to worry.

I heard this definition of worry. They said, worry is having the same thought five times in a row and making no progress on it. Worry is having the same thought five times in a row and not making any headway. worry is having that same thought five times in a row and not doing anything about it. There's a difference between worry and I care. Because I care means I actually do something.

That's one thing we have to understand that to say, don't worry, is not the same thing as saying don't do anything. We don't take any action. There's nothing you can do. In fact, it's the opposite. I have a good friend. I've known in my entire life. The last 20, 25 years, he's been a special operator in the United States military.

And just this man has been deployed more times than I can even count. He has been in the thick of firefights. He's been in situations where many, many lives depended on his decisions, on his presence, on his training, on what he would do. And so about a couple months ago, actually in May, I was down in Tampa, Florida. Tampa is the home of a place called Socom.

Socom stands for the Special Operations Command in the United States military. And when I was down there, I was going to give a couple talks to some generals because, you know, clearly I would. They need my expertise. And they all knew him. They all worked with him. They all actually had seen him in action.

And so I said, like, he's never told me any stories about, like, what he does, because he's pretty secret about that. And I said, so tell me some stories. And they started describing what he was like to work with. They had all the normal things, like, you know, that he is incredibly courageous, the only things that he is incredibly skilled, highly competent. But one word they kept saying again and again about this man. It came up more than once, and I just thought, this is a strange compliment.

They said, working with him, he is unflappable. I thought, that's it. That's all you can say. That's the biggest compliment you can give, someone, that they can't be flapped. I just, but they said, really, they said, no, if you want anyone standing next to you in a situation that is life or death, who's not going to panic, who's not going to freeze, but he's going to ask the question, what if, only in order to decide what if, then I'll do this. Contingency.

If this happens, I'm going to do that. The other thing happens, I'm going to do the other thing. He would have this incredible ability to act in the place of uncertainty. This incredible ability to make decisions in a place of discomfort. And we actually know this about action. Action kills anxiety. That it's inaction. That creates anxiety.

But action kills anxiety. And too often, what do we do? Too often, anxiety is connected to our need to control. Okay, I'll take action, but what's the outcome going to be? Okay, I'll do this thing now, but how is it going to turn out in the end? We realize we can't control that. We cannot control how things will turn out. We can't control how they'll end up.

All we can control is what we can control. And that's this man. He's just incredible because he's made the decision. He's made the commitment. He has the conviction, I will only control what I can control. I will only do what I can do. And he refuses to try and control what he can't control. He absolutely refuses to try and do what he knows he's,

can't do, but he takes action in the midst of anxiety and action kills anxiety. But of course for us that's the challenge right. I mean for us at the heart of anxiety, I remember hearing a clinical psychologist describe it like this, at the heart of anxiety is the overestimation of danger and the underestimation of our ability to cope with that danger. the overestimation of danger and the underestimation of our ability to cope. And so that's why I think so often we feel so lost. Do we just say, I don't know. I don't know where I am.

I don't know where I'm going. I don't know how to get there. And we have this uncertainty. We have this discomfort because I don't know how to control this. But that doesn't mean we don't know what to do. This is important. I'm reading an article about the levels of clinical anxiety in the lives of so many young people. And he described the situation where there's a high school young man, and he had a free period,

and that free period was given to him so that he could catch up on his work. But he was just sitting there doing nothing. He was given this free period. He kept him on his work, but he was doing no work. And so his teacher who knew his situation said, hey, you know, Rex, whatever his name is, how about doing some work? He says, I have no work to do. I have nothing to do.

And the teacher was good. He said, actually, I know that you're failing physics. How about work on physics? And this student's response was so insightful. He said, nothing I do will make a difference. Because that's at the heart of anxiety, right? Oh, I know what to do.

I don't think it'll make a difference. I guess I have something to do, but I don't think it'll matter. So why take action? And being stuck in that place, being stuck in that place of inaction, anxiety just grows. And into this kind of place where we feel lost,

once again, St. Paul steps in and says, don't be. Don't be anxious. But the great thing about St. Paul is that he actually gives us a way out. He gives us what to do instead. In the reading today, St. Paul says, do not be anxious at all.

But in everything, with prayer and petition and Thanksgiving, make a request known to God. Here's the thing. Anxiety is all future-focused. Right? Anxiety is future-focused.

It's all about the question, what if. And St. Paul is saying, okay, here is, in response to future focus, in response to what-if, be present-focused. and ask the question what is.

So anxiety looks to the future, but gratitude looks to the present. That's why St. Paul says, have no anxiety at all, but with Thanksgiving, be able to look at your life and say, okay, I'm not looking at my life with an attitude of scarcity. Like, well, all the things I'm missing, all the things that could go wrong. I'm looking at my life with an attitude of abundance. I realize, okay, not just what if, but what is true about my life? What are the blessings in your life right now that you could stop and say, wait a second, I know the truth.

And the truth is, I might not know how this story is going to end up. I might not be able to control the outcome, but I absolutely do know what is true in my life. And in this moment, I can be thankful for those things. This is the way out. This is the way forward. In fact, think about this, what is, what is true?

Here's two things that are true about your life, especially if you feel lost. If you're like, I don't know where I am, I don't know how to get there or know where I'm going. Two things that are true about your life. Number one, God knows. knows you better than you know yourself. Number one truth. God knows you better than you know yourself. He knows why he made you. He knows how your heart comes alive with certain ideas. He knows what sets you on fire.

He knows how you learn. He knows how you hear. He knows why you were made. He knows that purpose, that call he's placed in your life. That's number one truth. What is? God knows you better than you know yourself. The second truth, what is? God loves you better than you love yourself. God loves you better than you love yourself. So that thing that set you on fire, he wants that for you. The way you learn, that's how he's going to speak to you. What you need in order to take that next step, he wants to give to you. So here's the thing.

If that's what is, God knows you better and loves you better, then you know and love yourself. If that is, then you get to trust him. That's the conclusion. You get to trust him. Not what if, but what is. is if these two things are true that God knows you and loves you better than you know and love yourself, then you actually get to trust him, even if you're lost. Even if you don't know where you are, you don't know where you're going, and don't know how to get there.

Because in that context, you get to ask, this almost there. You get to ask three questions. This is my invitation for all of us, especially if you're lost, especially if you realize, okay, I know God has a plan for my life. I know he wants me to do something. My life is not over yet. And this is not just for young people. This is not just for college students. This is for everyone who's here, because if you're still vertical, there's still a plan.

If you're still breathing, that God still has something for you to do. So we need to ask these three questions, knowing what is, God knows you and loves you better than you know and love yourself. We ask the first question is, am I in a state of grace? This is important because if I'm not in a state of grace, if I realize that there's some serious sins in my life, I've detached myself from the Lord. I've built a wall between me and God. And yes, he can communicate to us, but it comes through like static.

So am I in a state of grace. If I'm not, go to confession. If I am, go on to the next question. Second question, am I doing my daily tasks? You know, if I'm looking for the big picture of my life, like, God, what do you want me to do with my life? God says, okay, look at Monday. Look at tomorrow. What's on your schedule for tomorrow?

That's his will for you tomorrow. When you say yes to him tomorrow, you're saying yes to his big picture. So first, am I a state of grace? Second, am I doing my daily tasks? The third question is, did I pray today? if you aren't start if you are chill that's it it's it's super simple because if what is is true that god knows you and loves you better than you know and love yourself then realize that life is not a mystery to be solved your vocation is not a puzzle that god is laid in front of you and says i wonder if they can figure this out

sherlock like that is not god's plan because if he knows you and loves you but any know love yourself then life is not a mystery to be solved not a puzzle to win but just be able to ask that question Am I in a state of grace? God speak to me. And if you're not, again, easy, go to confession. Am I doing my daily tasks? If I'm not, just start. What's on the schedule? Tomorrow, when time do I have class?

What time do I have work? Who is God bringing into my life? Just say yes to that. And am I praying? Because it makes no sense to say, I wonder what God wants me to do, I wonder what God wants me to do instead of stopping and saying, God, what do you want me to do? That's very helpful.

And when that's not, I want me to do, I want me to do. happens, be at peace. Because you still might not know where you are, you still might not know where you're going, you still might not know how to get there, but you've focused on what is, and this is the last thing. The big question, the big temptation that's going to come up, I promise you, it's coming. The big temptation is to go back to that question, what if? What if I miss it? What if I can't figure it out? What if I stay lost? That's why I love St. Paul, Philippians chapter four. He just, he says it in today's reading. St. Paul basically says, don't focus on what if, focus on what is. He says, whatever is true,

focus on that. Whatever is good, focus on that. What is pure? Think of these things. What is honorable? Think of these things. Whatever is gracious, whatever is lovely, whatever is incredible blessing in your life. That's what we focus on because you might be lost. Again, we might not know where we are, we might not know where we're going, we might not know how to get there. But when we focus on what is, we realize that I'm lost, but God is here. I don't know the next step. But I know God is with me. I might not know where I'm going.

But with God, I will not stay lost.