Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 11/01/21 Your Feast Day

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

Homily from the Solemnity of All Saints.One day, this will be your feast day.The Solemnity of All Saints is the day the Church has given us to celebrate and honor what God has done in the lives of the countless people He has redeemed and sanctified. Mass Readings from November 1st, 2021:Deuteronomy 6:2-6Psalms 18:2-4, 47, 51Hebrews 7:23-28Mark 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 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 givemn.org, that's givemn, notorg, 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. 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 bulldogacath.org and click on donate or go to give mn.org. Thank you so much. And I hope you enjoyed the homily. So one of the things that I think it's important to note is, just disclaimer, on All Saints Day, it's It's kind of one of those days that I kind of say, we're going to say the same thing, which almost every All Saints Day, it makes it happy for me and reminiscent for everyone else if you ever join us.

But one of the first things we have to do is to define what a saint is, because there are at least three definitions of saints or three kind of ways we can think of the term saints. Saint is, as St. Paul, sorry, St. John in the second reading today, he talks about how we've been made into God's children. We've been consecrated. Basically, we've been sanctified because of the fact we've made holy because of our of our baptism because of what Jesus has done to us in baptism. So even St. Paul says he writes to the Holy Ones in Ephesus,

writes to the Holy ones in Galatia, that St. Paul is writing to those for saints. Another way to translate, holy ones is the saints. So anyone who's been baptized is, in some sense, a saint. The second definition of saint or second reality of saint is anyone who's in heaven. So anyone in heaven, whether they were canonized or not, they're considered to be a saint. They're one of the holy ones.

In the book of Revelation talks about those holy ones gathered around the throne of God. So any baptized person? Saint. Anyone in heaven? Saint. And then the third definition of saint is those who are canonized, right? They went through the official canonization process where their lives were examined for holiness and miracles have been attributed to their intercession,

that whole situation. So you have like capital S-T period in front of your name. That's great. But those are three different ways to be a saint or three different ways to use that term saint. But they all come back to the one reality that to be a saint is to be set apart. To be consecrated, to be made holy is to be set apart.

and this is just so incredibly important for us to understand because we can sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that to be a saint is to be perfect. That is not the case. There is no saint who ever lived who was perfect. I mean, even our lady, Mary, who never sinned. That doesn't mean she was perfect in everything. It just meant that she never violated God's will.

But perfection is not what it is to be a saint. To be a saint is to be someone who isn't perfect, but who lives on purpose. This is completely different. So when something gets blessed, when something gets consecrated, it gets set apart. But it's not just set apart, like to be put on a shelf or like to be put in a museum and you look at the thing because it's, oh, it's been set apart. There it is. The expensive vase, don't touch it.

When something in Christianity is set apart, it's set apart for a purpose. And that purpose isn't just to be on display. The purpose is to be used. And so one of the realities we have in life is those of us who believe in God, I'm guessing everyone praying with us. today, we believe that you're not an accident and that you are not created on accident, but you were created on purpose. And if you've been created on purpose, that means you've been called for a purpose. If you've been baptized, you've been set apart for a purpose.

You've been consecrated for a purpose. So think about this. You were created on purpose. You've been called for a purpose, and you're consecrated on purpose. So the question we have to get to answer every single day is, will I live on purpose? Or will I live off purpose? Because those are the choices we have.

Either I live on purpose or I live on purpose. Once again, remember, being a saint is not being perfect. And also being a saint is not just someone who does good stuff. Like a do-gooder, we like do-gooters, they do good. But to be a saint is not to be a do-gooder. To be a saint is not to be perfect. To be a saint is to live on purpose, which is another way to say this.

A saint is someone, I remember hearing someone tell me this, just struck with me and stuck with me, a saint is someone who says yes to God, and this never stops saying yes. A saint is someone who says yes to God and then just never stops saying yes, which means that at any given moment, any baptized person can make the choice to be a saint. Even if you've actually crashed and burned massively in your life, even if right now you find yourself listening to this or watching this, being praying with us, and you're like, man, I've made a shipwreck of my life. How could I possibly be a saint? Well, just start saying yes to to God and then just don't stop.

The next step for you might be confession. The next step for you might be, I'm going to start praying again. But a saint is not someone who's perfect. The saint is not merely someone who does good. A saint is someone who knows they're made on purpose. They've been called to live on purpose. And they've been consecrated for a purpose. And the amazing thing, all saints day, is we're reminded that we're not alone.

Like we're reminded that in this pursuit of Jesus, in this racing after the Lord, in this trying to say yes to the Father's will and everything, that you have to do it, yes, but you don't have to do it alone. That's why it's the feast of all saints, not just a feast of one individual saint. We're reminded today that every time we race after the Lord, we're not running alone. Every time we worship the Lord, we're not worshipping alone, that we have. What the letter to the Hebrew says in chapter 12, it says this, it says, therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, again, this cloud of witnesses,

because what in chapter 11, the author to the Hebrews had done is he talked about all the great saints in the Old Testament. He says, therefore, since we're surrounded by this incredible cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us. Another way to say it is let us say no to the things that are holding us back. Let us say yes to God. And goes on to say, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfector of our faith.

And whenever I hear or read Hebrews chapter 12, this thing, I always think of the same thing and I always tell the same story and this is the same story. So years ago, my family loved to do trathlons and one of the things we would do is Iron Man trathlons. And an Iron Man Trathlon, the length regulation distance is a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112-mile bike, and then a 26.2-mile run. And so you do those things back-to-back.

And one of our favorite things, people would say, like, Father, how many Iron Man's have you done? And he used to say, two or three. And the answer is two, I said two or three, because it's two or three. I've done two or ten. It's the answer is two. I've only done it twice. But that's what our family vacations used to be to go to a destination,

to go do an Iron Man because we're weird. And our favorite place to go was in the town of Penticton, British Columbia, up in Canada. And because one of the reasons is because the entire town comes out for the whole week, and especially on race day for the race. And so it's amazing. So 2.4 miles swim. And then 112 mile bike up in the mountains, it's gorgeous up there. And then the 26.2 mile run, you run out and then back. And the last, I don't know, five or six miles, you run into the small town of Penticton. But the small town of Penticton on race day is not a small town of Penticton. It is like people have come out of the woodwork. They've come all over the place.

to cheer people on. So at the end of this long, long day, you start at 7 a.m. And you have to end by midnight. If you don't end by midnight, you get disqualified. And so at the end of this long day, you've been racing since 7 a.m. And you're running these last five or six miles into the small town of Penticton. Like maybe five or six miles out, there's people shoulder to shoulder on the side of the road. It's cheering you on. You know, they have a little race brochure that tells him your name. They see your number. And they go, hey, Schmitz. I'm like, oh my gosh, you knew my name. It's great. But then as you get closer and closer to the center of the town,

it's not just shoulder to shoulder, it's like shoulder to shoulder and like, you know, too deep. But at the end of the race is incredible. So you're running on Main Street and the last 100 meters, you take this sharp left turn, 90-degree turn to the left, and you run down this corridor. And the corridor doesn't just have people shoulder to shoulder too deep. It has bleachers going up either side of Main Street. And it's just like the last hundred meters of this long, long day has all these people. And there's this man on the microphone. And he's like, and this, you know, number 426, Mike Schmidt's coming in, you know, that kind of thing.

And everyone's going crazy. It's going nuts, and you run underneath the big sign, tells you your time, and all this stuff. It's amazing. It's crazy. It's chaotic. It's, and should I said amazing? It's amazing. So, one of the things we did, the one year we had, I don't know, gosh, five of our family members had done the race.

And after the race, our custom was we would, you know, cool down, wait for everyone to finish, and then have something neat, take a shower, and then come back to their finish. Because, again, people are coming in up until midnight. But again, if you finish after midnight, you get disqualified. So we go back and we're sitting in the bleachers there on that last 100 meter stretch. And it must, I mean, the clock's ticking down. It's 1130. And it's like a party because the music's thumping and the guy's on the microphone and he's just going crazy. And these people are coming in.

It's great. At one point, though, at gosh, it must have been 1145. So 15 minutes left in the race. This guy gets on the microphone who's doing all the calls and he says, you guys, there is someone, they're out, they're two miles out. And they have two miles left to go. and go out and cheer them in, go out and bring them in. And so people are jumping off the bleachers,

and they're running across this park, and they're going down the road to, like, run this person in. And I'm thinking, no way. A, I'm really tired. I just raced all day. B, there is no way that this person, whoever this person is, is going to run the last two miles of this massively long race in less than 15 minutes

because, I mean, the reason they're out there at 1145 is because they must be hurting, they must be really, really kind of suffering there's no way that can finish. So I go back to cheering everyone all sun in. And then he gets on the microphone a couple minutes later and says, you know, it's seven minutes to go, whatever. And they say, he's one mile out.

And I thought, are you kidding me? One mile? How did this guy go one mile in eight minutes in that time? I didn't think I did the math, right? That one mile in eight minutes, and now he only has a mile to go. More people jumping off the bleachers and running past. And it's like, this is nuts.

But the clock's ticking, right? Because time doesn't stop for anybody. And so as people are coming in and coming in, just they're trickling in now. But the clock is getting closer and closer. So you know, it's 1159 now. Now 1159, this is the craziest thing. At 1159, here I'm sitting in the bleacher. Here's the finish line right here. And here's that whole 100 meters of Main Street. I heard this like dull roar, 1159 or so. Here this dull roar back into the right. And it just gets to get louder and louder and louder as the seconds keep ticking further and further and further.

And looking down this corridor and at one point, all of a sudden, you see this guy bursting around the corner. And he's like leaning into the corner and leaning hard left. He is printing with everything he's got and he's racing down this. This is the guy, right? And behind him, this is amazing. Behind him filling up the entire road in this like V formation, like the flying V, is this massive group of human beings, this massive group of people running next to him, behind him, running beside him. As he races down this last 100 meters, it was incredible. He comes underneath the finish line at 1159 and 47 seconds. Everyone's going nuts. This guy made it with 13 seconds to go after racing since 7 a.m.

He finishes the race at 11.59 and 47 seconds. I mean, everyone's crying. We're all hugging each other, like going nuts. Like thinking, like, there is no way this is even humanly possible. And this person did it. They finished the race. And you realize that that's why I think of Hebrews chapter 12. But the author says, we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Let's persevere in running the way race that's set before us.

The amazing thing is this person, I don't think this guy, this racer, I don't think he ever could have finished those last two miles and 15 minutes on his own. Yet at the same time, no one who jumped off the bleachers and ran with him could run for him. But they could run with him. And I think it was there running with him and they're encouraging and spurring him on that made it possible for him to do something that would have been impossible for him to do alone. And that's one of the reasons why I always think of that story on All Saints Day. because we're surrounded.

We're surrounded by these older brothers and sisters who have themselves lived on purpose, have themselves been consecrated and set apart. They weren't perfect, but they lived on purpose. They weren't perfect, but they said yes to God, and never stopped saying us. And right now, what they do is they continue to race beside us.

Right now, what they do, they continue to intercede for us because they want you to win. And you're not running alone, especially when you feel most alone. You are not running alone. You have older brothers, sisters running with you, praying for you. And one of the things they're praying for is

this last thing. You know, this is the feast of all saints. So it's not the feast of any individual saint. We already said this. This is the feast of everyone who doesn't have their own feast day. So this isn't the feast day of, well, I guess it is. They're all included in it. But this is the feast of all those who don't have their own feast day. Every saint in heaven who doesn't have their own feast day. And all the saints running next to you, are praying for you that one day, this day is your feast day. All the saints who are interceding on your behalf and racing next to you. I'm praying for this thing that one day, this day, all saints' day, is your feast day.

Imagine this, that someday in the future, your kids will celebrate November 1st. This is mom's feast day. This is dad's feast day. Someday your grandkids will celebrate, this is Grandma's Feast Day, this is Grandpa's Feast Day. Because you're made to be a saint. You have been created on purpose. You've been called to a purpose, and the Lord God has placed a destination in your life. And that is to be a saint.

So run. Run so as to win. And run so that one day, this day, is your feast day.