Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 11/08/20 Roadmap: Accident or Excellent

Episode Date: November 10, 2020

Homily from the Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time. Excellence requires making the decision carefully, consistently, and quickly. The one question that can either deflate or motivate a person is “When?” This question reveals whether our goal is an actual goal or merely a wish. But if we want to escape a life of accidents and craft a life of excellence, we need to make the decision of “when” are we going to choose excellence carefully, consistently, and quickly. Mass Readings from November 8, 2020: Wisdom 6:12-16 Psalms 63:2-81 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Matthew 25:1-13 Download the Homily Study

Hi, this is Father Mike Schmitz. I want to take one moment to thank you for listening to this podcast. Each week, it is my prayer that our students on campus, as well as all those people listening online, are blessed about what we have to offer in these weekly homilies. It has further been my prayer that this roadmap series has helped you take those practical, tactical steps to being who you are and being that well, becoming a saint. Before today's homily, I just want to let you know about our one annual fundraiser that we do one time a year to keep this ministry moving forward. On November 19th, 2020, there is this online giving event throughout Minnesota called Give to the Max. Now, while we up here in Duluth can accept and need support all year round, this one day has been the one time that we actually ask those who have received something from this ministry to pray about giving something to this ministry.

But this is a soft sell. If this ministry has blessed you, I simply invite you to pray about offering something. We always need prayers. I know I do. And the campus is a battleground for our students. So that's a huge gift. We're always grateful when people share the podcast with friends or on social media. So that's a huge gift, too.

But we also have a number of ways that we know we need to grow this ministry on campus. And that can only happen with financial support. So if you're interested in supporting this ministry financially, you can go to giveMN, like give Minnesota, givemn.org. Or you can search for UMD Catholic Campus Ministry. It pops right up. Or you can go right to our website, which is Bulldog Catholic. because we're the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs,

Bulldog Catholic.org, and click the donate button in the upper right corner or in the upper left corner. Yep, we have two places to help us out on top of the homepage. You can either donate on November 19th, the give to the max day, or on any day leading up to the 19th, and really any day after the 19th. But 19th of November is our target date to go to givemn.org or to go to bulldog Catholic.org. I am so sorry about this long message before you. about this long message before the homily, but I am also so grateful for you and for the sake

of these students on campus I needed to ask. Again, thank you so much. And let's keep praying for each other on our way to becoming saints. God bless. So there is this magic question. Well, it's not magic. It's a powerful question. It's the question that has the ability to, I think, has the ability to either instantly deflate a person or to instantly motivate a person. I mean, not any person, just it has the ability to deflate or motivate a person with goals. And that's one of the things we've been talking about, right? We talked about, I guess the first weekend of this series we're in the middle of, we asked the question, like, do you have any goals in your life? There are anything you want to accomplish in your life? And so

the examples of things like, I want to run a marathon, I want to learn how to play the guitar, I want to pay down my debt. I want to learn how to code. I want to get into shape. I want to spend more time with my family. I have a goal. I've had this goal, actually. You know what a muscle up is? So a muscle up is when you pull up is when you pull it down here. Muscle is when you go all the way to your waist. Like you end up over the bar. So that was my, to be able to do a muscle up was the goal of 2017. And then it was the goal of 2018. And then to be able to do a muscle up was the goal of 2019. And guess what the goal of 2020 is? I have one and a half months to be able to do a muscle up. And it's dumb. Obviously, it's silly, it's small. But we all have

these kinds of goals, right? We all have the goal, like whether they're small, whether they're huge, it doesn't matter. It's, what matters is that they matter to us. And so if you ever have one of those goals, something that actually matters to you, something where you say, here is something that I want to do, there is something someone can say to you that will either instantly deflate you or instantly motivate you. That can either shut you down or it can get you off your butt. And it's not like, no, you can't. It's not like I can't believe you would do this. It's one question. And it's, that question is one word. And that word is, when?

So you say to someone, like, I, there's something like really incredible that I want to do. It'd be great, when. Because that question, that question of when, it reveals so much about us. It reveals whether what we want to do is a wish or an actual goal. It reveals whether if it's something I just, I would like to do, or something I'm going to do. It reveals if this is something that I'll let happen or something that I'll make happen. That one question, that question is something that's just, that question is something that I'm going to do, of when reveals what I think a lot of us are doing. I think a lot of us, maybe too many of us,

we walk through life with some vague kind of wish that it will be a certain way. And so we just let life happen to us. We let life happen around us. And because of that, for so many of us, life just becomes a series of what happens. Life just becomes a series of accidents. So our whole life is then just a string of accidents. And what is it when we have a life of accidents. Like, yeah, some of them are good, some of them are bad, but that's all they are. All they are are accidents. But remember, the very first foundation thing of this whole series, the roadmap series, is the belief, the truth that you've been made on purpose. You haven't been made on accident. That you've been created and redeemed to live on purpose.

Basically, that your life means something, you have a goal, a what to live for. And again, that what is what St. Francis DeSales said, said, he said, to be who you are, and be that well. If that what, that goal, which is to love God with everything and become a saint, if that what is worth spending your entire life for, if it's worth pouring out your whole life on,

then we all need something. We don't just need a what, we need a how, we need a roadmap, we need a rule of life that helps us actually get to that place. And so the very first week, one of the things, this will review, the very first week we said, okay, rather than just like, here's a checklist of things to do,

what we need to establish first is who you are. Our identity is more key than almost anything else. And so we talked about the fact that you've been made in God's image and likeness. You've been inscribed, but he's made you into his son. He's made you into his daughter. That's who you are. That's the first thing. And then the next week we said, you don't have to radically change your life.

You might go back to the same things you've been doing, but that life has been reclaimed, and then every action in that life has been repurposed. So you have a new why. And you have that new why by going into the events of your day and saying, God, I'm going to ask you to be present, make me holy. I'm going to offer you this moment, and I'm going to accept whatever. whatever you bring to this moment. We asked, we have who, we have why,

and then last week when we asked where. We said, I might have an incredibly detailed, incredibly informative map, but I need to know where I am on that map, because this is not someone else's map, this is not someone else's rule of life, this is gonna be your rule of life, and so what we need to do is you need to figure out

where you are on that map, and where you're weak on that map, and where you can establish guardrails on that map. And I think that today though, to really make a difference, in this whole rule of life thing, to really make a difference in this, to get to this incredible

what. We have to ask the question when. Because I think all of these things we've been talking about, the who and the why and the world, those are all really great ideas. But we have to answer the question, when will they be part of my life? Like if that's the what, if that's the goal I want to spend, when am I going to actually, when am I going to start being a saint? That's the question. If that's the goal for my life, if that's the what, is that when am I going to start? Because the reality is we could get to the end of the story. We could get to the end of our lives and not be ready. That's the whole point of the parable today.

The parable Jesus tells about the ten virgins, five are wise, five are foolish. No, I remember the first time I ever heard this. The first time I paid attention to this in church as a kid. Maybe you had the same experience where you have the foolish versions asking the wise ones share some of your oil with us. And they don't share. And I'm like, that, mom.

My mom would not approve of that. I'm like, mom, I think you would. Jesus disagree on a couple things because you would think, right, that Jesus would say, and the wise ones were also good and they were kind and they shared what they had. And Jesus is like, no, they didn't share. And it was fine. That's a good thing. Here's where you have to realize the point of a parable is never to make like a universal application to every situation.

The point of a parable is it's a very specific story to make a very specific point. And the point of the parable is not, don't share with people who need. The point of the parable was, to be ready, you have to get ready. In order to ultimately be ready, you have to get ready. That reminded me of a quote from a Football Hall of Fame coach named Bear Bryant, he coached for Alabama. He said this. He said, it's not the will to win that matters.

Everyone has that. Everyone has the will to win. It's the will to prepare to win that matters. Because if we think about that, that's the key. Look at the parable. It isn't that only some of them fell asleep. they all fell asleep. It isn't that only some of them

kind of really, really wanted to meet the bridegroom. They all wanted to meet the bridegroom. The point is, the issue is, that only some of them, only the wise ones, were prepared. That's why they're called wise, actually. That's the reason why they're called the wise ones. So in Greek, right, wisdom is Sophia. In Hebrew, wisdom is this word chokmah.

And this Hokma, this Hebrew word, this Hebrew idea of wisdom, is not just someone who knows a lot of data, they know a lot of facts, they know a lot about a lot, they have a lot of knowledge, that's not Hukhma. In Jewish mindset, to have wisdom

is practical wisdom. It's excellence, essentially. Hukmah is excellence. So if you were a carpenter with Hukmah, you're not a carpenter who would do really, really well on Jeopardy. A carpenter with Hukmah is an excellent carpenter. And if you're a lawyer with Hukma, you're an excellent lawyer.

If you're a salesman with Hukma, You're an excellent salesman. If you're a doctor or a plumber or a coach with Hukma, you're an excellent doctor. You're an excellent teacher, an excellent plumber, your excellent coach. If you are a regional manager with Hukh ma, you might be the world's best boss,

but you are definitely going to be an excellent regional manager because this is what wisdom is. It's excellence. That's what the oil is. The oil represents this excellence. And this is the recent. The reason why the wise ones don't share it with the foolish ones is because no one can become excellent for you. They don't share it because no one can become holy for you. This Hukma,

this excellence, it requires a decision to be excellent. Holiness requires the decision to be holy. That's why St. Francis de Sales, right? He's our guide to this entire series of the roadmap. He says that this decision must be made three, in three ways, must be made carefully, consistently, and quickly. Because if we're going to escape a life of accidents and craft a life of excellence, we have to make this decision. I was thinking about this because I was around campus today,

and I saw a bunch of people paying tennis. And, okay, so I don't play tennis, but I have played tennis. So I don't know if you're good at tennis, there's probably nothing more frustrating than playing tennis with someone like me, someone who's like no good at tennis whatsoever. because the majority of the time I'll swing and the ball will go the opposite way I wanted to go. Either it goes right into the ground or goes like over, not over the net, it goes over the fence.

Like it's just one of those. But occasionally, right, if someone like me playing tennis, I will hit an excellent shot. It will like sail right over the net and go right to where I wanted it to go on the court. But the ability to make an excellent shot does not make me an excellent tennis player. It makes me lucky occasionally. Because if I hit it in the right place, that was an accident. And that's the difference. between accidents and excellence.

To do it on occasion, that's accident. To be able to do that on command, that's excellence. I'm sure a lot of you, have you heard of the Cirque de Soleil? So it's super cool, like, circus that just like, they're these incredible acrobats and jugglers and all these things, they do these remarkable feats. I remember watching a documentary about Cirque. It was following the guy who invented Cirque de Soleil,

And one of the things he said, he said that in other performances, other performers, other shows, they need their performers to be able to do their act 10 times out of 10. But at Cirque, they need to be able to do their act 100 times out of 100. Like that's the kind of excellence that's required to be in Cirque de Soleil. Not to be able to do it on occasion, but to absolutely do it on command. And so the question is, what is the ultimate Hukma? What's the ultimate excellence? What's the ultimate?

What's the oil? Like really, you know, the early church fathers said the oil that the wise virgins had, it was their good deeds. It was a life lived after following the commands of Christ. But Jesus gives us an even more precise definition or description of what the oil is. And what the oil is is a relationship with him. Because the ones that don't have oil, what does he say to them? They're knocking the door.

And he says these just tragic words. He says, I don't know you. Imagine getting to the end of your life and wanting to get in. And Jesus is like, I don't, we don't spend time together. I don't know, we don't have a relationship. And just in the same way that no one can become holy for you, no one can become excellent for you, no one can have a relationship with Jesus for you.

No one can have a relationship with Jesus for you. And say because of that, our roadmap, right, our rule of life, it has to include this. asking the question, hey, where am I? And where do my cliffs, where I drive off the road, where do I need guardrails? But also, your rule of life must create space in your day for moments of encounter with him.

That if we're not going to get to the end of our lives and not be ready, if we don't want to get to the end of our lives and hear those words, I don't know you, our roadmap, our rule of life every single day must craft space to have access moments. Where God has access to your life. No, someone would say, well, Father, you mean like prayer? I would say yes and no. Yes because yes, that's what I mean. No, because if I say prayer,

you're going to be like, oh, I totally do that. Like I pray before meals and stuff, you know, bless us the Lord. So I have access moments. Like no, no. That is nice. I'm glad I keep doing that, but that is not a moment of access. What I'm talking about is creating a space in your day when Jesus has access to your heart. Like creating spaces in the course of your day when Jesus has access to your life. These moments of encounter, one of the most incredible ones I mentioned at the beginning of mass. My uncle in college decided I'm going to go to daily mass every single day. And I think going to daily mass is one of the most incredible moments of encounter, not only because we do literally encounter our Lord and God in the Eucharist, but also because,

you know, so often when we show up to pray, I don't know where to start, I don't know where to stop. I can tell you guys this, when mass starts, you know how to start. We all stand. You know how to stop. We all leave. Like all the in-between stuff, you already know. Like, I even know this thing. I got it down. Like, it's like strapping into a roller coaster. It's like, you get in, you buckle up, and just like, hold on. So if you want to say, I want to craft a moment of encounter, a moment where God has access to my life, maybe what you get to decide on is maybe it's daily mass. Whatever you decide on, what St. Francis DeSales say, whatever you decide on,

those moments of encounter, decide carefully, consistently and quickly. Now, when he says carefully, what he means is intentionally. What he means is, is okay, knowing myself, like knowing where you are on the map, knowing your day, you already know what your schedule looks like. I mean, we're well into the semester. You know what Mondays look like. Knowing yourself, when? When will you decide to write in moments of encounter?

To be careful about this is when will you decide? Because it's good, integrity decides, but excellence decides ahead of time. To decide in the moment, that's great. but to decide ahead of time is excellence. So as an example, last week you probably remember, last week was All Saints Day, which means that last Monday was All Souls Day. And you might not know this,

but the church gives priests permission on All Souls Day to celebrate multiple masses in order of in praying, interceding on behalf of the Souls in Purgatory. And so normally I will schedule like a couple masses that day. But for whatever reason, I just scheduled one, the 1-8, normal 8 a.m. Mass, with the idea that, well, maybe, later on in the day I'll have an opportunity to offer another Mass. And I did, like later on,

that afternoon some things cleared up and I was like, oh, well, I'll just offer Mass at 4 and sent out a little text to people to say, hey, mass at 4. And it was good. It was a good thing to do, right? To offer another Mass is a good thing. But it was not excellent. It wasn't excellent because I only decided in the moment. And excellence decides ahead of time. I just, I didn't do this. It wasn't excellent. It was on accident. I happened to happen. I happened to have a have some time. So it just happened to have happened. And again, it was good, but it wasn't excellent. Because excellence decides, but excellence decides ahead of time. That's why they actually did a study on a large group of people who all wanted to exercise. They all wanted to become

fitter. And so they divided them into three different groups. The first group, they told them, track down how often you exercise. That's a helpful thing to do. If you write it down, keep track of it, that's something that's supposed to increase your reliability. And so that first group, they just tracked down their exercise. The second group, they tracked down and they motivated. They say, can write down, when do you exercise? And also, before you leave, here's a motivational video to get you fired up to go hit the whatever you want to hit. And then the third group, they said, okay, we want you to track down your exercise.

We're going to show you this motivational video. But before you leave, we want you to write down these words. Write down during this week, I will partake of at least 20, make a commitment. I will partake of at least 20 minutes of vigorous exercise on such and such a day, at such and such a time and such and such a place. Like deciding ahead of time, here is when, here is where I'm going to exercise. That first group that tracked their exercise, they increased their 38% of them worked out. 38% not bad. The second group that tracked their exercise and they also had some motivation, 35% of them exercise. So apparently watching Rocky videos does not necessarily do the trick.

But that third group that tracked their exercise had some motivation, but the ones who made the decision ahead of time, 91% of them exercised for the whole entire process. Why? Because they decided ahead of time. Excellence. So carefully, and then St. Francis says to do it consistently. Because we know that excellence is not based on how intense we feel, that we realize, we know this, that consistency beats intensity every single time. In fact, that's what excellence is, right? is repeated actions over time. You can't become excellent unless you have repeated actions over time.

So Francis Seales, he says about that, he says, so many times Christians they come to the Lord, they want to become excellent, they want to become holy, and so what they imagine is we imagine these really big heroic battles, these big heroic moments where we choose God, and he says it's not those heroic moments. He says it's the small skirmishes. He says it's the daily skirmishes.

It's the daily just choosing again, and choosing again, and choosing again. Which is remarkable because, I mean, think about Alcoholics Anonymous or any 12-step program. You have these people who are highly motivated. They want a life of sobriety. They want an entire life of freedom. But what AA says is, no, no, no.

One day at a time. Don't promise forever, just promise one day at a time. And one day at a time and one day to time. And these repeated actions over time, they amount to a lifetime of sobriety. One day at a time, repeated over time amounts to a lifetime of freedom. It amounts to a lifetime of a new life. I think that's one of the reasons why J.R.R. Tolkien, right?

The Hobbit, author, and Lord of the Rings, he said, he said, faith is not a single moment of final decision. Though sometimes we like that to be, right? Just the single moment, I chose, I'm done. Set it, forget it. He says, faith is not a single moment of final decision. It is a permanent, indefinitely repeated act. I was going to come back and do it,

carefully and consistently. And thirdly, and lastly, quickly. What do you mean, what Frances de Sales means by quickly, is this, when it's time to do it, we do it. And I totally know that sometimes it's like, well, I need to sit here. Just let me sit here for a second. Let me see if I can like muster up the motivation. There is the, if that's you, if you like put things like this off,

my invitation is to do this thing that's called the two-minute rule. Now the two-minute rule is this. If you have something you want to do, I don't care what it is, so you want to go for a run. You're like, oh, shoot, I don't know, half an hour, 45 minute, however long you're going to run. The two-minute rule is just commit to doing two minutes of whatever the activity is. Just commit to doing the first two minutes. So that means getting your shoes on, walking outside the door, and running down the block.

At two minutes, if you want to stop and walk home, go ahead. You did the first two minutes. Or even studying. Like, okay, I don't want to stop whatever I'm doing and go to study. How would this just start studying, put in the first two minutes of this? And if after two minutes you want to stop studying, that's fine. You can fail, whatever. It's just kind of...

But just the first two minutes, because we realize this, we realize that motivation often comes after starting. We tell ourselves, though, that, no, I got to feel motivated before I start. No, it's false. Motivation often comes after we've started. And the same thing is true with creating these moments of encounter with the Lord. Just say, I committed to praying for 20 minutes. I committed to a daily mass.

Listen, go to daily mass. And if by the first prayer you want to leave, just take off. But it's making this decision, these moments of encounter carefully and consistently and quickly, because this is the last thing. This, I would say, is the difference between a life of accidents and a life of excellence. Deciding when.

Like, that's it. Deciding when, carefully, consistently, and quickly. And now when you're crafting your rule, again, last week the crafting the rule was, where am I on the map, where do I need guardrails? The rule this week is this, where are you going to create spaces for Jesus to have access to your heart? Where are you going to create moments of encounter? And my invitation is, don't create this ideal.

The rule of life, the roadmap of life is not an ideal. It's meant to be a real rhythm of life that you could do virtually any day of your life. But when you do this, remember, in the parable, they all wanted to welcome the bridegroom but only the wise ones were ready only the ones that already had a relationship were ready remember nobody can have a relationship with Jesus for you

and therefore when you craft this rule of life this week when you craft these moments of encounter in this rule of life what it means is you're making yourself ready for a life of excellence. You're making yourself ready to meet him. And you make yourself ready to meet him

by meeting him. And you get to start that, when? No, you get to start that right now.