Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 11/20/22 A God You Cannot Control

Episode Date: November 19, 2022

To support Ascension’s free media, please click here! To find out more about how Ascension will use your gift, please click here! Are you interested in supporting the Catholic campus ministry at the University of Minnesota Duluth? Please click here! Would you like to watch the "Virtual Front Pew" Day of Thanks Livestream event? Click here! Homily from the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. What do you do when you encounter a God you cannot control? We all have fears. Often, those fears lead us to either seize control or to cede control. But when we fear God and His call in our lives, we are called to choose trust over fear. We are called to choose obedience over control. Mass Readings from November 20, 2022t: 2 Samuel 5:1-3 Psalms 122:1-5Colossians 1:12-20 Luke 23:35-43

Hi, this is Father Mike Schmidt. I just wanted to take a moment to thank you. Thank you so much. As you know, this last week, we had our give it to the Max Day. We had our virtual Front Pew Day of Thanks. And maybe you logged on to the Sundays with Ascension YouTube channel and saw that or maybe you just heard me talk about the last couple weeks that, you know, that day or this season right now from November till the end of December is where we rely upon the generosity and the kindness of people who have been blessed by this podcast. And we just basically every year we just trust. the Lord, that people in their response, and they're believing in not just in the ministry that we do on campus here, but believing in the ministry to college students, knowing that if we lose these college students, we will have lost the culture. And those of you, thank you so much. Some of you who have never been here, some of you have never been to Duluth, never even

been in Minnesota, but have been so generous. I just want to say thank you so very much for your generosity. It is what keeps the lights on. It's what keeps the heat going, which we definitely, desperately need in the middle of winter. And also, it also brings the gospel to hundreds and thousands of college students every single week. I'm thank you. I thank you so much. Now, one thing to kind of note, you know, these, these podcasts now are now a kind of a joint effort. We have our team here in Duluth who put on these homilies. We give, offer these homilies for the

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world. We know that conversions only happen through God's grace, that every conversion is a miracle. So thank you so much. Keep us in your prayers. Keep our focused missionaries in your prayers. Keep our students in your prayers. And please know that I and all of us are keeping you in our prayers. Thank you so much. And God bless. The Lord be with you. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke, chapter 23 verses 35 through 43, The rulers sneered at Jesus and said, He saved others. Let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God.

Even the soldiers jeered at him. As they approached to offer him wine, they called out, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. Above him, there was an inscription which read, This is the king of the Jews. Now, one of the criminals hanging there, reviled Jesus, saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply,

Have you no fear of God? For you are subject to the same condemnation. And indeed, we have been condemned justly for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal. And then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus replied to him, amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

The gospel of the Lord. So as I mentioned, it is the Feast of Christ, Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. It's also, you might know this, it's also the last Sunday in ordinary time. Like, this is the last Sunday of the church year. So next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent, which I guess makes sense. It's also Thanksgiving. But there's something about this. Like, you know, when you ever come to the end of something, it's the end, but it's not really the end in the sense of like, yeah, it's the end of the church year.

But, like, we're still in the middle of school. There's still things to happen. If you're in your work, it's not like, they're like, oh, let's take the week off for the end of church here. It's like you still have to have life, you know, all the same things. It's like, yeah, it can be the end, but life still goes on. It's kind of like even the end of the year, year, right? There's December 31st, that's the end of the year, but then there's January 1st and then January 2nd. You just keep on moving, right? Just keep on living. So even though we're at the end, I think all of our sister, we're kind of still in the middle of it, which means all of us,

we don't know how it's going to end. because we're still going. And I think a lot of us, we have this sense of like, when it comes to certain aspects of our lives, it's just like we have this anxiety until we know how it's going to end. Like I still haven't decided on a major. I have this anxiety until I know how it's going to end. I still don't know what my career is going to be.

And I have this anxiety until I know how it's going to end. Or am I going to marry anyone? Am I going to find anyone? And we have this anxiety until we know how it's going to end. And I remember I just think sometimes, that we might have this thought that says, like, you know, if I, if I just knew how it was going to work out, then I would be okay. If I just knew that, okay, this is how it's going to turn out, then it'd be fine. It doesn't even have to be, like, the best thing ever. Doesn't even have

to be good news. If I just knew how it was going to end, I would be fine. Remember, we talked about this last week, how the end of the story reveals the kind of story it is. And sometimes you just want to know. The problem with this is we don't get to, right? The problem with this is, you know, it's so hard. Can we skip to the good part? No. The reality is, when it comes to life, we don't get to know. Like, when it comes to those things that give us all this anxiety, we don't get to know how they're going to turn out. And yes, of course, one of the great things about being a human being

is we have agency, right? We get to actually make choices, and those choices have consequences. But the hard part, again, is that there's so much in life that we can't control. Yes, we can make decisions, but there's so much in life that we can't control. And the big question then is, okay, with all, with, so much in life we can't control. What do we do with that? Like, what do we do with the amount of life that we just is beyond us? I mean, even go back to relationships. And our relationship, there's so much that's unknown, right? There's so much we can't control. And that can even be

something like, I can't control when or if you'll meet that person. Who even knows if that's ever going to happen? You can't control when or if you like someone. Like, you can't control when or if they're going to like you back, which kind of stinks. And even if you, you know, are in a relationship, sometimes you can't control when or if they're going to propose. You know, I have known people who have tried to control the proposal. It rarely goes well. It really rarely works out. Because I think a lot of times because that control, that desire for control, comes from a place of fear. That I need to know the end. Why? Because it's rooted in fear. It's either fear of losing what I have or it's fear of not getting what I want to have. So I just want

to have control. But here's the problem. What do I do? What do we do when we encounter a life that we can't control. What do we do when we counter a future that we can't control? Even bigger question, what do we do when we encounter a God that we can't control? Because a God I can't control. That is an unsettling reality. I think that sometimes can be a really unsettling truth. Because if I can't control life, right? If I can't control another person, I for sure can't control God. So what do I do when I encounter a God that I can't control? we'll get back to that but just for a second take a turn as I mentioned today again three times

today is the feast of our Lord Jesus Christ king of the universe I don't know if you know about this about this feast it's not that old actually Popeius the 11th he inaugurated this feast in 1925 so in three years it'll be a hundred years old now that might seem really old really ancient but in a 2,000 year old church that's pretty new it's actually a pretty new thing to have this feast that is celebrated on the last Sunday of ordinary time everywhere in every Catholic church

around the entire world, and it didn't come out of the blue. Like Popeius I was 11th in 1920s, he looked at this world and he said, what we need, we need this feast. So it wasn't just kind of something like, you know what we're missing? Let's call Jesus the king. It was not that. Popeius XVI the 11th, he looked at the world and he saw a bunch of stuff. He saw the rise of like this militant atheism throughout the world.

He saw the rise of fascism in Italy. He saw the rise of communism in Russia. He saw the rise of national socialism in Germany. And even think about, think about Germany in the 1920s. Think about what it would be like to be in Germany in the 1920s. They just got out of World War I. They got thumped. Just a place.

Germany in the 1920s is a place of great pain. In 1920s, Germany is a place of great hurt. It's a place of great fear. Imagine all of a sudden, there comes this man in Germany who says, you know what, if you give me some power, I can fix it. Along comes this guy, this is kind of a simplistic view of it, but it's what happened. It comes this guy who says, you know, if you give me some power, I can make things all better. And we know this. We know that Germany is a country, not all the individuals,

but Germany as a country, they were willing to hand over their soul to an authoritarian dictator. And again, this is not just about Germans, because, I mean, hopefully not. My last name, Schmitz, but we're no different now. Like, we're no different now. they did a survey in Great Britain in 2019. In 2019, 54% of citizens of Great Britain said that what Great Britain needed now was a strong leader who wasn't afraid to break the rules. Like there's this place of fear, right?

This place of fear. So only 23% of Brits said that they disagreed with that. That what we needed now in Great Britain is a strong leader who isn't afraid to break the rules. Why? Because we're in a place of fear. Fear of losing what we have or fear of not getting what we want to have. And again, again, it's not about German, it's not about English people.

It's us, too, a couple weeks that we had in an election. How many of those election, those campaign commercials were all about sparking fear? If the other person gets elected, here's how the world's going to go to hell. Like, I mean, everything was about this.

That if this person gets elected, you're going to be taken away from you. If this person, if your person gets elected, everything you want is going to be given to you. All these things are rooted in fear. And as a result of our fear, we just desire to do one of two things. One is we desire to seize control

that could just control it or out of fear we desire to seed control. If I just give it to someone else, they'll take care of me. Out of fear, we either grasp onto control or to fear we're willing to hand it over. You know, at the end

of his life, John Adams, second president of the country, another history lesson. He's like, who is that guy? Second president. So John Adams, at the end of his life, he said, I fear that democracy won't last. You know, it's interesting. We talked to historians, so many of them have pointed out that democracies are rarely toppled by an exterior regime. Democracies also not only are rarely toppled by an external force.

Democracies are often rarely toppled by an internal coup either. That rarely, rarely happens to democracies in history of the world. Historians point out that democracies, whenever they die, it's almost always a death by suicide. that it's a free people who trades in their freedom for security. It's a free people who trade in their freedom for safety. And almost always it is the security of slavery. Almost always it's the safety of slavery. So here is Pope Pius XI. 11th, right, back in 1925.

And he sees this happening not only in Italy, not only in Russia and in Germany. He sees it happening in Mexico. I don't know if you know anything about Mexico in the 1920s. It's remarkable. In the 1920s, Mexico was a country that is 90% Catholic. that's 9% Catholic. And not just kind of like check the box Catholic,

but like go to Mass every Sunday, like pray every day kind of Catholic, like robust, a vibrant, a live, a living Catholicism. Imagine being in a country where 90% of the citizens were Catholic, as opposed to like up here where it's 19%. Imagine 90%? Super Catholic.

But in the 1920s, some politicians came to power who were driven by Marxist ideologies and Masonic prejudices. And they instituted immediately these anti-Catholic policies. In fact, immediately became illegal to have seminaries. Immediately became illegal to have convents.

It became illegal to go to Mass. If you were a priest, it was illegal to wear your priest's clothes in public. It was legal. If you were an ordinary Catholic, it was illegal to pray in public. Not only that, actually, it became illegal to say adios. Because, I mean, this is crazy,

because that's like, we say adios. It comes from Mexico. We know where it comes from. Why would it be illegal to say adios? Because adios means to God. Illegal. Another common Mexican phrase is, see Dios Kere. If God wills it. Someone would say adios care. See you later. If God wills it. It was illegal to say adios to God. It was illegal to say if God wills it. And it was to those people that Pope Pius XIus 11th was writing when he wrote this encyclical saying, on the last Sunday in ordinary time, we need to celebrate the Feast of Christ the king. And he's writing to us too, right? Because we all have this tendency. We all have the tendency in fear to hand over either to seize power or to cede power. And he's basically saying, there's

no authority, there's no authority in government. There's no government that gives you your worth. Popeius XI. 11th was saying there's no government that gives you your dignity. No, good governments will uphold your dignity and bad governments can violate your dignity. But all of them are limited. And every single one of them will topple at some point. Every single one of them will fall at some point, Popeius 11th said, there's only one who has an absolute claim on your life, and that is God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the king of the universe. And he wrote, he wrote, he said, therefore, because of that, we cannot be timid. Catholics cannot be timid in the face of authoritarianism. He says, we also have to resist the fear that's in our hearts. He said, we have to resist the fear

that either seizes control or seeds control to the one who promises peace at the price of our freedom. because that person who promises peace at the price of our freedom is a thief. Now Catholics in Mexico, they heard this. In Mexico, they heard loud and clear that Christ is the king. So they tried to protest peacefully. But the Mexican government would round up priests by the hundreds and kill them. They'd break into comments and kill every one of the nuns. They killed thousands and thousands of ordinary Catholics.

And so at one point, they formed an armed resistance called the Cristeros. I don't know if you know anything about the Cristeros, but the Cristeros were made up of old men and old of young men. In fact, one of these young men was a man named Jose Sanchez de Rio. And Jose Sanchez de Rio, he joined the Cristeros when he was 14 years old. Now, we hear that 14 years old, like, are you kidding? A child. Yes, a child. But here's what happened. His life was being stripped away from him. His freedom had already been stripped away. His faith had already been violated by the government. And the question is, how old do you have to be to be able to stand up for your faith? How old do you have to be to be able to fight for your faith?

How old do you have to be to be courageous? At 14, Jose Sanchez de Rio, he was old enough to fight for his faith. At one point, he was with a bunch of Cristeros, and he was riding a horse. The general of the Cristeros was knocked off his horse. His horse was knocked out from underneath him, and so Jose jumped off his horse and told the general,

get on my horse, you can flee. You're more important to this cause than I am. So the general got on his horse. ran away, Jose, at 14 years old, was caught. He was tortured. They tried to get him to renounce his faith. At one point, they tried to offering him deals. They said, we can send you to the United States. You can be free. We can send you to a military school. You can be free. In fact, at one point, they offered his family. If you just pay a 5,000 peso ransom, we can send your son back to you. Jose heard about this, and he said,

do not pay the ransom. He said, my faith is not for sale. At 14, you know, the man who signed his death warrant, The man who signed Jose's death warrant was his own godfather, was the man who just a couple years before this stood by him as he received his first holy communion. That's how upside down this world had turned. On the night of his death, it was 8.30 p.m. in the evening, these soldiers, they said, let's see what kind of man you are.

And they took their bayonets, and they cut off the souls of his feet. And they made him walk for three hours through his town. till he got to a shallow grave at 1130. And before they stabbed him with their bayonets, before they shot him in the head, Jose Sanchez de Rios' last words where Viva Christo rei long live Christ the king

because he knew. He knew who he belonged to. He knew who his king was. He knew where his worth, where his future, where his whole life came from. and in this place where you and I, I mean, man, I'd be so afraid. I'd be so in this place of like desire to control. In that place of fear and that place where you would experience the desire to control, he experienced freedom.

You have to ask the question why. What do you do? What do we do when we encounter a life we can't control? Circumstances we can't control. What do we do when we encounter a God we can't control? We do what Jose Sanchez-Dario. What St. Jose Sanchez-Dario did? We trust.

What do we do when we encounter? a God we can't control? The answer is we surrender. No, when I say surrender, I don't mean what we typically think of. Typically when we think of the word surrender, we think give up. We think quit. For Catholics, to surrender to Jesus

does not mean give up. It means to give access. For us as Catholics, when we come to Jesus in surrender, we're not giving up, we're giving him access. We're saying basically, Jesus, if you are the king of the universe, you get to be the king of my life. And every aspect of my life, you get to be the king of my occupation. you get to be the king of all my relationships. You get to be the king of my free time.

Jesus, you get to be the king of every shadow, every crevice of my heart. You get to be the king of my past, and you get to be the king of my future. And this ultimately is the thing. This is what it is as Catholics to surrender to Jesus, not to give up, but to give access. What does that look like?

Well, okay, here's what it looks like. Technically, practically, what does that look like? well what do you and I do when we encounter a person we can't control but we know we can love all right thinking about this when it comes to marriage um in marriage a couple often surrenders themselves to each other i don't know if you know this about the old wedding boughs back in the day the old wedding vows they've changed them but couples would promise three things for each other so first they promise to love each other which makes sense that we love that it's awesome to love you they promise to honor also great makes sense but you know that the old

wedding bow has said, I promise to love, honor, and obey. And I know you're like, I don't like that, father. Like, I'm glad they changed that because for us, it's so, like, strange. It seems so out there. It seems like such a risk. Can you imagine looking at your future spouse or maybe at your spouse and saying, I promise to love, honor, and obey you. Whatever you ask, I promise to do.

Again, that's crazy time. that crazy time crazy town that's crazy talk that is like that's insane for a lot of us but when it comes to marriage remember what saint paul said he said in his letter to the ephesians he said husbands and wives submit to one another out of reverence for christ what is it to submit submission means i place myself under your mission means whatever your life's about i place myself under your mission and doesn't make any sense to say i'm under your mission and not do what the other person says Same thing is true when it comes to Jesus. It makes no sense to say, I surrender my life to Jesus, but not do what he says.

Practically speaking, what it looks like to surrender to Jesus, it looks like I promise to love, honor, and obey. And why this is so important, if there's a couple and they want to get married, but they're like, I don't know if I can actually put myself under their mission. That is a really good reason to pump the brakes. That's a really good reason to press pause. If I don't trust you enough that I can place myself onto your mission,

if I don't trust you enough that I actually can place my life in your hands and say I promise to obey you, then maybe it's a good reason to re-evaluate the relationship. And the same thing is true when it comes to our Lord. What do we do when we encounter a God? We can't control.

But we choose trust over fear. We choose obedience over control. And this is the last thing. That's last thing. Come back to the same thought, though. Okay, but I just think that if I knew how it was going to end, I'd be okay. And we're reminded of that reality, that's fine, but you don't get to know. We don't get to know.

We don't get to control. Because we have a king, we can't control. Because we have a king on a cross. Why is Jesus on a cross? Because he is the king of the universe. Yes, he has dominion, but he does not dominate. He's a king who pours out his life on a cross. Why?

To prove that when you're afraid, you can still trust him. To prove that the most incredible power doesn't look like control, but looks like surrender. So once again, what do we do? When we encounter a God, we can't control, we trust him. And we choose obedience over control. And we choose trust over fear.