Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 11/03/19 CompariSIN: Infinitely Preferred

Episode Date: November 4, 2019

Homily from the Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. What makes them so great? What makes me so awful? When someone else being honored or loved more than we are meets our insecurity, we are tempted to tell stories…about them and about ourselves. But when we know who we are and are grateful for what we have, we have security. And comparison is powerless. Mass Readings from November 3, 2019: Wisdom 11:22-12:2 Psalms 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13, 142 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2 Luke 19:1-10 Download the Homily Study

So you guys remember yearbooks? You're like father we're not that old. You're the old one. I know, but like I remember yearbooks. You guys, you have your books, right? You've heard of paper, right? It's not everything digital. Okay, so like, do you guys have this still back in your high school

where at the end of the year when you got the yearbook? They also did this like vote where you got to like vote for the most something. Like, you know, the cutest couple. Do you ever have that kind of thing? Or the prettiest smile, the prettiest eyes? The most athletic, the smartest, the nerdiest, whatever you want to have. Like, is that such an interesting thing, like, to have those categories and, like, hey, who picks those things?

Like, why? I don't know. But here's the thing, is when I was, when I was, like, growing up in high school, I remember when I first saw my older siblings in your yearbooks, and I thought, oh, my gosh, they vote on this stuff. I remember thinking, like, I want to win. Like, I don't know what I want to win. All I know is, I want to be an S something.

You know, some people want to be an er or something. They want to be, like, smarter. I'm like, I want to be the smart est, or they want to be. the more athletic. I want to be the athletic est. Clearly wasn't the smartest. And whatever that thing is, like sometimes there's something in us that drive toward competition. Like, I want to know where I rank. And that's the thing about yearbooks, is it tells you that when it comes to one of these categories, it tells you who the top is, or at least who people think the best is. It's interesting because that was back in the day.

That was, you know, before any digital presence, any online presence, any social media kind of thing. You guys know Anderson Cooper, right? He's a journalist. He did a documentary a couple years ago, maybe four or five years ago, called Being 13. And what they did is he and a team of people, they followed digitally a bunch of 13-year-olds.

They got their permission, signed a waiver, they got their parents' permission, and they monitored their devices and their computers, and basically their online presence. And it was really interesting, because at one point, Anderson Cooper came to this conclusion, he said, you know, for as long as adolescence has existed, we've always wanted to know who, like,

We always wanted to be cool. We always wanted to know who is the most popular person. Who is the most well-liked person? Who is the most whatever? He says now with digital media, with social media, with all these platforms, you have an actual tangible proof of who the most popular person is in your class. You actually can see where you rank. Who is the person who has the most followers?

Who has the person who has the most retweets? Who has the most likes? Whatever that thing is. Who has the most likes on TikTok or whatever the newest thing is? Like, all these things, you actually can rank who the coolest person is that you know, or at least who the most popular person is that you know. And you can also find out where you are. Up until just recently, you could want to be in that.

But now you actually can be ranked. I don't know if you ever had that experience where, like, maybe there's been a social media thing. Like, you and a friend are out of a place and you take a picture of yourselves. It's the same picture, and you both post that same picture. And all of a sudden, then you keep monitoring, like, okay, who gets more likes? like who has more comments on their thing ever have you ever done that you're like, wait, why does she get

why is everyone liking her thing the more, so-and-so liked her more than mine maybe you've done this where it's like actually you've been scrolling through and you see both photos and you're like well I like this one more than that one so I'm going to like her thing but not like his

there's that thing that like when that happens to us and you realize they got liked more than me they got praised more than me there's that thing in us that's like to ask the question, like, what's so great about them?

In fact, I ask two questions. Not only ask, what's so great about them, the next question is, what's so awful about me? We just started last weekend this series. It's called comparison, and it's clever, because it's comparison, right? S-I-N at the end, and I invented that, and I'm so proud.

I will not stop saying that until we're done with the series. But I think it's probably the smartest thing anyone could have come up with. But the question is, the reality, of course, is that comparison, at the heart of comparison, is this desire, right? Not the desire simply to be good at something, not the desire to be smart, not the desire to be beautiful, not the desire to be known, but it's to be smarter.

It's the desire to be more beautiful. It's the desire to be funnier. It's the desire to be more than the next person. That's what comparison's all about. And the heart of comparison, of course, is this fear, and that fear comes out in that question, those two questions. Like, what's so great about them? What's so wrong with me?

And it gets to the heart of us. And the question keeps coming up. why do they keep getting chosen? How come they keep getting loved more than me? Like when it comes down to it's like, how come they're always the one who's preferred? And what happens is we stop seeing where we're loved, we stop seeing where we're chosen, we stop seeing, we stop seeing where we've been preferred, and we look at them. That's one of the reasons why we mentioned the quote from Teddy Roosevelt last week.

He said there's that thief that takes away your joy. He says comparison is the thief of joy. Because no matter how well-loved I am, no matter how, will like to am, no matter how many gifts I have, if someone has more, then I must be less. When we ask that question, what's so great about them? What's so wrong about me? In the gospel today, you know, there's a scene where we just heard it.

Jesus is walking by the tree, sees Zekees, and he says, Zakias, come down quickly, I must stay at your house. And there's a, scripture says that Zikaas came down. He had joy, right? Zikaas came down and received him with great joy, it said. And then the very next word, in the very next line, his butt. Zikis came down quickly and received him with joy, but they began to grumble saying he has gone

to stay at the house of a sinner. Because imagine here's the crowd. Like we've been following Jesus around. This guy just showed up. Like honestly, he's going to stay at his house. What's so great about him? No, it seems silly. It seems silly to me when I look at this.

I'm like, are you kidding me? You guys, realize this. This is like the greatest moment in Zakiya's life. Like, don't take that away from him. Let's pause on that. Just hold on for a moment. This is the greatest moment in Zekees' life ever. Like, there's no need to compare the greatest moment in Zekees' life to just Tuesday in your life.

We do that all the time, don't we? We compare our, like, daily life to someone else's highlight reel all of the time. We look at their highlight reel and like, what the heck? What's so great about them? and what the heck what's so wrong with me? Like why can't, in those moments, like, when there's that comparison, the question can be like, why can't I just be happy for them? Like, what does Jesus preferring Zechias in this moment?

What does that do to take? How does that take away from me at all? But it makes sense. It makes sense for the crowd to say, like, I'm not secure. You know, it's interesting because that word secure is all the difference. It makes all of the difference. And you see that in St. Paul in the re. first reading, second reading today. He's writing to the Thessalonians. And he says, you guys

are, he basically says, you guys are amazing. You're incredible. In the chapter one, he says this, he says, we've heard all about you. And news of you flourishes more and more. Everyone is learning about you, everyone's talking about you. Everyone realizes how great, how holy, how good you are. And he says this, he says accordingly, we ourselves boast of you to all the other churches that we go to. St. Paul isn't threatened by this. In fact, he goes on. In today's reading, says, and so we're praying for you, that the Lord, they make you worthy of his calling and even more powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every act, effort of faith on your part. So here's St. Paul, who sees their growth, he sees their being preferred, he sees

them doing awesome, and he doesn't go like, well, you guys, what about me? St. Paul says, that's incredible. You know why he can do that is because he has this thing, this thing called security. He doesn't have to ask the question, what's so great about them? He doesn't, He knows. He doesn't ask the question, what's wrong with me? He knows. You know, we keep falling into that trap again and again. When we have this insecurity, like the comparison, that beast of comparison can just beat up our hearts. In the Old Testament, there's a story of King Saul and David, the shepherd boy, right? We know that story. At one point, here's King Saul, the armies of Israel out to battle the battle the Philistines. And there's this giant, like

Goliath, right? He challenges the armies. No one responds, except this shepherd boy, David, who comes and says, well, I'll fight him. He fights him. Beets him. Spoiler, sorry. And And as King Saul and David are with the whole army riding into the city, scripture says that these women came out and they were singing these songs, praising Saul and praising David. And what they sang was Saul has slain his thousands, and David has slain his 10,000s. And then it says that King Saul heard that.

And he began to become bitter. And he said, wait, they're giving David tens of thousands, and they're only giving me thousands. And from that moment, that, beast, that enemy, that demon of comparison, like entered his heart. Now, you want to press pause on this and be like, seriously, Saul, what is your deal? A, they're clearly exaggerating. David killed one guy, not tens of thousands.

B, keep this in mind, King Saul. For all those days when Goliath was challenging, you didn't fight anyone. You didn't defeat anyone, and they're still giving you thousands. Also, Saul, you're the king. Like, what's the deal here? But that's the thing about comparison. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you're being praised

as long as someone else is being praised more. It doesn't matter if you're being honored. As long as someone else is being honored more, we still have that question. What the heck? What's so great about them? Can you imagine Saul? He's like, I've been leading this people. I've been the king of these people.

I've been serving these people for so long. Who's this guy who just came along? You ever have that situation happen in your life? Well, you're slogging away. You're trying. You're working so hard. And then someone comes along and they just do whatever you do,

they just do it better. Like, man, what the hell? Heck, what's so great about them? What's so wrong with me? Because that's the thing is like, when someone being honored meets you when you're secure, it's like, I'm fine, that's good. I think they're pretty awesome too. Like, you can agree to that.

When someone being preferred, when someone else being loved, even loved more meets you and your security are like, yeah, they are great, aren't they? But when someone else being honored more, or someone else being preferred more than you, or someone else being loved more than you, it meets your insecurity. All of a sudden, what do we have to do? We have to start telling stories. We started to ask that question, like,

what is so great about them? And if we're insecure enough, we'll come up with stories about them. Why they're not as great as people? You think they're that, really? You think, yeah, he's really good at school, but you realize that his parents pay for everything, so he doesn't have to worry about school. It doesn't worry about money at all.

That's the story I have to come up with. Or, yeah, she's really pretty, but, I mean, if she's so skinny, she probably has an eating disorder. That's, yeah, sure he's buff and he's really fit and all these kind of things, but he's probably a meathead who doesn't do anything other than I think about himself. Yeah, she seems really, really nice, but I don't know, she's just a brown nose. That's all it is. So when someone else being honored, when someone else being loved more than me meets my insecurity, I have to come up with some story about them.

What's so great about them? Nothing. Or I have to come up with an answer to the question, what's so awful about me? You know, I was listening to a talk by a makeup artist online because that makes sense. I've got a lot of free time, you guys, so I just surf the web. But she says she's a makeup artist, and she says she goes all over the country, all over the world doing makeup. She says, but here's the thing that happens. Every time a woman sits in her chair, every time.

No matter how smart they are, no matter how accomplished they are, no matter how does class, classically beautiful they are, every single woman who sits in her chair, the first thing they do is they apologize for themselves. I'm sorry, you have to touch my face. I know I'm breaking out today. Like, good luck with this, do what you can with this nose. Sorry about it. Yeah, my mother-in-law says I have this round face and you can't do anything with it,

so I'll never be pretty. Sorry, I know, I'm overweight, but just like, just work your magic. I'm sorry, I'm mom of two kids, and I'm just exhausted. Look at these crow's feet on the side of my eyes. I'm just, you know, these 11s in between my eyebrows, like, just do what you can. She says every single woman gets into her chair, and they point out what they think is what's awful about them. They get into her chair, and they apologize. Because when we don't feel like we're worthy of being loved, and when we think, like,

how come someone else keeps getting chosen, how come someone else keeps getting preferred, we have to either ask the question, what's so great about them, or we just look at ourselves and say, what's so awful about me and we begin to list off the things that we think are awful about ourselves. She said, every woman, except for two kinds of women, immediately apologize. We'll get back to that in a second. But what if we did something different than that? What if instead of trying to figure out, like, what's so great about them or what's so awful about myself, what if instead we just decided, I'm just going to tell the truth? What if when someone else gets honored or someone else gets chosen, when someone else is loved even more than us? What if we just told the truth?

And here's the deep truth. There's two parts. The first truth is this. I would say, I realize I'm nothing without God. So I want to be the er, I want to be the S, right? But actually, at the end of the day, I know myself. And hopefully you know yourself. You spend enough time, like, even just in prayer or just in quiet reflection, realizing, wait a second, without God, actually I'm zero. I'm nothing without God.

That's the first truth. Do you be able to realize that without it being a threat to yourself? It's so freeing. It's so powerful to realize, oh, my gosh. Like, actually, God, without you, I'm zero. And that's okay. Because there's not just one truth. that there's a second truth.

First truth is, I am nothing without God. And the second truth is, God infinitely loves me. Like, what if, again, just picture your life, what if someone else is being honored, someone else is being loved more, what if someone else is being preferred? And you lived, lived in that,

those two truths, or you're able to say, no, I know the truth, I'm nothing without God, and I know that I am infinitely loved by him. You are nothing without God. and you are infinitely preferred. I know what happens sometimes when we say those same things like,

you are infinitely preferred. Like, well, does he infinitely love me more than someone else? I'd say, stop, it's... How can you be more infinitely anything? How can you be more infinitely loved? How can you be less infinitely loved than anyone? We have to get off that wheel of just like, wait a second, how come they keep getting chosen?

How come they keep getting loved more? But to live in that place where it's like, no, this is the truth. I'm nothing without God. I'm infinitely loved by Him. Because until I realize that, I'm going to be chasing after more and more and more. And I'll be chasing after est and est and est. Because no matter how much someone gives me or doesn't give me, I'll always have that wound that asks the question,

what's so great about the person who has more? And what's so awful about me who doesn't have what they have. There's this story. Man, because that happens, right? In this life, there are times where, someone else is going to be loved more than you. In our lives, every one of our lives, there's going to be people who are more preferred.

Even the people who should love us more actually will turn out loving someone else more. It just happens. There's a story in the Old Testament about a guy named Jacob. And Jacob, at one point, he meets this woman named Rachel, and he's like Twitter pated. Immediately he falls head over heels for Rachel,

just absolutely in love with Rachel. And scripture says that Rachel is, basically in scripture, it says she's a knockout. It says, Rachel is beautiful in form and in face. So basically, she's got the total package. So Jacob falls, head over heels in love with Rachel, and so he goes to her father, Laban, and says,

may I marry your daughter, Rachel? And he says, sure, you can marry my daughter, Rachel, if you work for me for seven years. So it basically becomes an indentured servant to Laban for seven years in order to be able to marry Rachel. Scripture says that Jacob is so overwhelmingly in love with Rachel that seven years seem like nothing to him. Like, you guys, ladies, that's love.

Anyways, so, anyways, after seven years passes, it's the wedding day, and his bride is heavily veiled, so he's being all the bows, all the things, and then at one point, the bride is ushered into the wedding tent in darkness, and Jacob and his bride consummate their marriage.

And then next morning, in the light of the sun, Jacob realizes that Laban had tricked him, and instead of marrying Laban's daughter, Rachel, Laban gave him his daughter, Leah. Now, when Scripture says that Rachel was beautiful in form and in face, that she was gorgeous, that she was a knockout, scripture says that Leah had really nice eyes. Which is scripture's way of saying is she has a really nice personality. And here's Jacob, who's like, now I'm married to Leah.

He says, you tricked me and Laban says, well listen, that's what happens. You know, I can't marry off the younger daughter, Rachel, before her older sister, Leah gets married. But if you want, you can work for me for another seven years, and then you can marry my daughter, Rachel. And Jacob says, fine. So that's not a recipe for a happy life, though. I'll tell you this right now. Jacob, who loves Rachel, who's married to Leah and Rachel, and Rachel, this is like, scripture when that happens, it's always like, this is a lesson, don't do this thing. Because it's just, it absolutely, it's absolutely destructive. Because we can look at Jacob in his life, and he was tricked, and look at Rachel in her life.

Let's look at Leah for a second. Leah loves this man. She loves her husband, Jacob. and he does not love her. Just think about how humiliated, like, Leah, you're a trick. You're your dad's trick so that this guy would marry you. Imagine being Leah, waking up every morning knowing that, yeah, I'm second.

I'm not the one my husband loves. He just has to deal with me. Imagine going around the house all day. Okay, there's Rachel, yep. because not only at the older sister did you grow up with everyone telling you, oh my gosh, your younger sister is so gorgeous, she's so

nice, she's so beautiful. But now here's your husband who is out of eyes on her and just tolerates you. And this is that, that, can you imagine, what's so great about her? What's so awful? What's so wrong about me?

So Leah does what any of us would do. She says, I can get his love. I can earn his love. So scripture says, that says that she has her first son, that Rachel doesn't have any children, but Leah has her first son. And she names her son, Rubin, and it says that in scripture, she says she named her son, her son, Rubin,

and as Ruben, the name means, it's because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now. But Jacob didn't love her. So then she has a second son. And it says that, then Leah said, because they named him, because the Lord heard that I am not loved,

he gave me this one too, and so she named him Simeon. Because she wasn't loved. wasn't preferred. But she was like, no, I can still make Jacob love me so she has a third son. And this time she names him, she says, now at last my husband will become attached to me because I'm born him three sons. So he was named Levi.

You can just see the desperation in this woman's heart. Every time she thinks that the next thing that if I do this thing, then he'll love me. If I do this thing, then I'll be enough. If I do this thing, then I'll be loved more than my sister Rachel. And she's not. What's the grid about Rachel? what's so awful about me, but something happens between child number three and child number four in Leah's heart that just like, we don't even know what it is, but at some point, she decides,

she's not going to give in to comparison anymore. At some point, Leah must decide, like, I can't just keep chasing after I need to be the er or I need to be the S. I just, at some point, she decides, I'm going to stop chasing this, and I'm just going to be, here's what she says, she gave birth to a fourth son. And she said, this time I will praise the Lord. and so she named him Judah because Judah means praise the Lord see what happens was for Leah as she was on this comparison race

in this comparison battle like if I just am more if I just do more if I just become more then I will be loved more and she realized that's not the case I could do any number of things and I would still not be enough I would still not have enough because I can't make him love me

I have to acknowledge this truth this is the truth I am already loved I can't make him love me I am already loved. I can't make him prefer me. I'm already preferred. This time I will praise the Lord. You know what's a little sidebar to this whole thing?

You know Judah? Judah, this fourth son, the one that essentially in some ways broke Leah free from this comparison trap. All the 12 children of Israel, 12 sons of Israel, become the 12 tribes of Israel. And God later on promises that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would come from one of those 12 tribes.

You know which one of the 12 tribes Jesus Christ came from? the fourth son, the tribe of Judah. You might say like the son that set that mom free from this comparison, the son that allowed the mom to be able to say, listen, I don't have to chase

after someone else's loved. I am already loved. This time I will praise the Lord. You know, maybe her heart still was pained every morning when she walked out and saw Rachel and her husband Jacob. Maybe she was still grieved by that, but here's the important thing. It didn't define her heart and it didn't define her life. And the question did not

persist as what's so great about her and what's so awful with me because she knew her identity. She didn't have to keep score anymore. So where are you keeping score? Like where is it when you walk into the room you see like, okay, where do I set with everybody else? Where do I rank with everybody else? Where am I keeping score? Who are the people that when I see them being loved more, when I see them being chosen, when I see them being preferred? I'm like, what's so great about them and what's so awful about me? Because your identity is what? Your identity is I'm no one without God. I'm infinitely loved by this God.

And so I can choose to either reflect on and focus on how someone else is preferred or I can actually pay attention to what I have. The two kinds of women who get into a makeup chair, this artist said, who don't apologize immediately. She said there's the ones who don't measure themselves in a mirror. They just don't seem to measure themselves in a mirror. She gave an example of like a 90-year-old woman

who sits down and she says, oh, I am 92 years old this summer. I look pretty good for a 92 year old, don't I? I'm not going to measure myself by mirror. Why? Because I know my identity. They don't have to apologize. Because you know you're already loved. I don't have to fight for someone's love. You know you're already loved. The other kind of the ones who look in the mirror and what they see, they're grateful for what they have. Oh, I've always looked in the mirror. I've always liked my eyes. look in the mirror, say, I've always liked my, I have this full head of hair, I've always liked my smile. Because this is the key, to escape this whole comparison thing, there's that identity part. Like that, I don't have to apologize.

I don't have to fight for love. I already know. You don't have to fight to be preferred. You already know you're preferred. But secondly, I'm going to focus on what I have. I'm going to intentionally be grateful for what I have. This is the last thing. I was watching this other video because, again, free time, this other video.

And they interviewed a bunch of people who were over 100 years old. And one of the people they interviewed was this old woman. She was over 100 years old. That's why she was in the video. 103. And they asked her about her life, and she said, oh, she's sitting in this chair, this comfy cushy chair. She's like, oh, I've always been lucky.

She's like, I've always been lucky. Well, tell us about your life. We said, well, you know, as a young girl, I got to live in Czechoslovakia with my grandparents. You asked her why. She's like, because my father was a prisoner of war during the war. Like, yeah, lucky girl. You got to live in Czechoslovakia with your grandparents because your dad was a prisoner of war. But then he got released from the prison after the war ended and we moved to England.

And just like, she says, everything makes me happy, 1003 years old, everything makes me happy. I love talking to people. I love going out shopping. When I go out shopping, I don't want to come home. I just like talking to people. She's looking at what she has, not what she doesn't have. She said, I have so many beautiful memories. And she looks at the camera, she's like, I'm strong.

She's like, I'm very strong. And she said, look, I have no. I've never realized how strong. I'm looking at this woman who, like, cataracts. I can hardly see the original color of her eyes. She looks like so frail in this big, because she cheer that I say, oh, I completely outsizing her. And she's saying, I never realized how strong I am.

I'm like, lady, listen, I could bench way more than you. She goes on. She says, oh, my marriage, my marriage was absolutely wonderful. It was just heavenly. She said, I lived with my husband when we got married and I was 17 until he died, I think when he was 70. I wanted to marry a man who was handsome and who had good manners, and I got both. But look back at this and say, you married him from 17 to 70.

That means the last 33 years you've lived as a widow, a widow. No, no, good memories. She didn't focus on in the last 33 years, it's a hole in my heart, although there was a hole in her heart. What she focused on was all those years from 17 to 70. That I just had so much gift. She said, my first children were twins, and unfortunately my husband and I, lost them. And that was the greatest tragedy in my life. Then we were blessed with a daughter, and we're such good friends, and now all my children are dead. But I'm just so grateful for all of them.

You realize this. Here's this woman who has outlived all of her children, her husband, everyone she's ever known and loved, she's outlived all of them. And she's like, I am so lucky. I've been given such an incredible life. The woman who sits in the chair and looks at her face and says, I love this dimple on my chin. But when it sits in the chair and says, oh, I love these, you call them crow's feet, I call them laugh lines. The kind of person who can say, I don't have to chase after being preferred, I already am preferred.

I have to chase after being loved more. I have already loved infinitely more than I could take in. And the person doesn't have to say, I'm looking at my life saying, what could I have that I don't, but looking at their life and saying, here's what I have that I might not have, except it's been given to me. Here's the key. Outside to escape this comparison battle, this comparison trap, what are the two keys? Identity. You know you don't have to chase after love. You already are loved. In gratitude. To not look at what I don't have, but to look at, oh my gosh, I am so lucky. I am so blessed. I am so loved.

And because of that, you're not insecure. You are so secure. This is Father Mike. Oofta, that was a long homily. I am so sorry. Unless you listen to these podcasts when you're running, in which case, you're welcome. Now you're a little bit healthier. Or if you listen to the podcast when you're driving on your commute,

hopefully it went by a little quicker. But I am actually just, as I said last week, I think I always try to say when I try to reach out to the podcast community, I'm just really grateful. Hopefully these podcasts, these homilies are helpful to you. Hopefully they just help you take one more stuff. You know, this series on comparison has been really powerful for me as well because I'm just like, oh my gosh, before every homily and after every homily, it's just unveiling stuff in my own heart

that I'm like, man, I really beat myself up over these things. And when someone gives you a compliment, why not like King Saul? Just receive it. Like, what is going on in me that keeps coming back to this comparison? So I hope and I pray that these homilies are a gift to you. As I mentioned last week at our little kind of additional piece like this, just speaking to the podcast community, we have upcoming on November 14th, 2019, it's a Thursday, our give to the Max Day. Basically, all throughout Minnesota, all these nonprofits basically come together and say one day in the entire year, we're going to ask those people who believe in our mission to support our mission. I know, at least I'm confident.

I hope that when you listen to the podcast, that you also, that you say a prayer for me personally, that you say a prayer for our mission on campus. You guys, there have been so many conversions recently when it comes to people coming to the Lord. Just as an example, it was just remarkably beautiful. I talked to a student who had been coming to Sunday Masses for a long time in their college career. And they said, Father, I want to meet with you one-on-one. I was like, great, let's do that. And so I was like, yeah, I recognize you from Sunday Mass. And I met with him and they told me, they said, you know, at Mass, you tell us that we need to pray every day.

So I've been praying every day. Like, really? she's like, yes, and you told us that we should read the Bible every day. And so I've been reading the Bible every day for the last couple of years. And I'm like, oh my gosh, like this is so good. And she just wanted to take that next step of like, how can I really grow as a disciple of Jesus? How can I really grow to become a saint? Because you also told us that we're supposed to be saints.

And so it's such an honor to be on this campus. So again, as I said before, when you hear these podcasts, I just ask, invite you to please pray for me personally because, again, I need to grow. I need to be holier. I need to be more and more the man God wants me to be. I'm not done growing, hopefully. I know he's not done with me. And also, please pray for all of our students. There are so many who are not being reached. There's a lot who are being reached, but there's a lot who we need to continue to fight for. So thank you for your prayers. As I mentioned, just a second ago. On November 14th, you know, the mission, obviously, as you know, cost money.

this day, November 14th, is basically the day that in so many ways pays for all of the outreach we do. Yes, we have our students who we have a collection every mass. And some of them can be incredibly generous. But when it comes down to it, it's the podcast community. It's you who listen and believe in the mission that is supporting our mission. Like you enable us to stay on campus, to keep having focus on our campus, to keep having an impact on this secular community. So if you don't mind my asking, please pray about supporting our ministry financially. You can do that easily just by going to bulldog Catholic.org

clicking on the donate button and then just, you know, you can set up a recurring payment if you'd like, if you believe in the mission like that, or even just a one-time payment. It's not just, quote unquote, just a one-time payment. It is a massive gift for us. And again, as I said, we could not do this ministry without you. Without you, we would be on even more of a shoe string with you. We're able to do stuff where we can boldly go out into the campus and provide opportunities for encounter with the Lord. We can provide retreats. We can provide digital presence online.

We can provide so many more resources than we would be able to without your support. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for listening. Thank you for praying for me. And thank you for being willing to pray about financially supporting us this upcoming Thursday, November 14th. You can always support us. We always have that button online or on our website, but in a special way, I just, if you don't mind my asking, please pray about that financial support. Again, enough with the commercial. Please know of my prayers for you. I just made an extra long homily, even extra

longer. My gosh, ridiculous. You guys, God bless you. I'm so grateful for all of you.