Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 11/27/22 Closer Than You Think: 29 Days

Episode Date: November 26, 2022

Homily from the First Sunday of Advent. You are made for more than a secondhand relationship with God. We have 29 days until Christmas. And so much can change in that time. If we are willing to commit to spending 29 minutes every day for the next 29 days...if we are willing to beg the Lord to reveal Himself to us...everything could be different in just 29 days. Mass Readings from November 27, 2022: Isaiah 2:1-5 Psalms 122: 1-9Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:37-44

Welcome to Sunday homilies with me, Father Mike Schmitz. I hope today's homily inspires and motivates you, and I also hope that it leaves you hungry for the one who gave everything to feed you. If you want to get this in other Sunday Mass resources sent straight to your inbox, sign up at ascensionpress.com slash Sunday, or by texting Sunday to 33777. You can also follow or subscribe on your podcast app for weekly notifications. God bless. The Lord be with you.

and reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Chapter 24 verses 37 through 44. Jesus said to his disciples, as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day

that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also, at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and one will be left.

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this. If the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared.

For at an hour you do not expect the Son of man will come the gospel of the Lord. So as I said, it is the first Sunday of Advent. It's 29 days. I mean, something about that, just adding it up, right? There's 29 days between tonight and Christmas Day.

I was just thinking about this and kind of praying about this. Like, what could happen between now and then? I was just like, imagine all the things that will, sorry, all the things that will happen, not just what could happen. There are, you know, people say you can make a habit, 30 days, that's all it takes. others say like 60, 90 days, but it's a good chunk even if you get started on 30 days.

29 days is pretty great. So much of life, think about this, so much of your life could be completely different in 29 days than it is right now. I know some of you, you'll be graduated. In 29 days, within the next 29 days, you'll be graduated. So many of you will be done with college, maybe even forever. In the next 29 days, some of you might actually end up leaving Duluth, no longer being a resident. Some of you might move to a different state.

I know there's some people who in 29 days from now, you might be engaged. There's some people you're like, how did he know? I know everything. That's how I know. Some of you, I know the countdown is already going. That in the next 29 days, you will be married to that person. And not just great. There's also hard stuff that'll happen, right?

Who knows? In the next 29 days, it might be the biggest heartbreak of your entire life. Within the next 29 days, you can enter into one of the most difficult seasons of your entire life. So much life can happen between now and 29 days from now, and we can miss it. So much life can happen between now in 29 days from now, and we could end up missing it. Like we could end up missing on the most important parts. Why? Because so many of us in the next 29 days, this might be the most busy times of our life,

the almost busy time of our year. I mean, for our students, I mean, this is the time of not only papers and projects and exams, but also parties and all these get-together. Before we leave, we have to say goodbye. before we leave, we have to second bye ten more times, or even if you're not in college. Think about this. This season we're entering into right now,

you have to do all the normal things you have to do, plus a bunch of other things. Get ready for Christmas, get ready for this, the other thing, you're getting ready for family. And so one of those things we realize, even in the midst of busyness, so much will be different, 29 days from now. So much will happen in the next 29 days.

So I want to share something. And it's just, again, this thing I'm going to say, like, it could be super dumb. It could be so, it can seem so obvious to you. It might seem really trivial. But I'll, I just want to tell you, I will lose sleep many nights. In fact, most nights, I will lose sleep. Asking God, like the same question. And it's the question that goes to my mind at every mass on campus on Sundays

and every mass here at the cathedral on Sunday nights. I just look out here right now, look out over everybody. and I lie awake and I'm standing here and I just ask the question, God, what do they need? Like this is the question that comes back to me and again, it keeps me awake. God, what do they need? Like, I'm trying to figure out what do they need me to say? God, what did they need? And crazy, God, he's been giving me an answer that's been really clear lately and he just says,

Jesus. Basically, God, so that kind of speaking anteriorly to me, I'm like, God, what do they need? And he's like, they need me. And I'm not very sassy with the Lord, but sometimes I get a little sassy with the Lord. I'm like, well, duh, God, I know that. My question comes back to God. Like, okay, but what about you? Like, what about you do they need?

And here's what God has been saying recently. He's like, no, no, no, no. Not about me. Me. What do you need? I don't know that you all need to hear anything about God. I think what we all need is we just need him. I mean, so struck by this because I wonder how.

how many of us that our relationship with God is secondhand. Like I wonder how many of us, we come to Mass to hear about someone else's relationship with Jesus. We come to Mass to hear about someone else's experience with Jesus. We come to hear to Mass, tell me another story about someone else's encounter with Jesus. Or even just we hear, you know, in the Bible. These are someone else's stories about God, which is great. They're helpful. They move us down the line.

But how many of us have a first-hand. relationship with Jesus. And how many of us are just living off of a secondhand relationship with Jesus? How many of us are actually living out of our real encounter with Jesus as opposed to just, hey, tell me another story about someone else who had another encounter with Jesus? And again, as I say that, please don't think that I'm trying to judge anybody. In fact, Mother Teresa had the same thing. Because that's how I think, you know, like Mother Teresa, I'm at the same level.

But Mother Teresa, she was actually giving a retreat to a bunch of her sisters. and these are women who have encountered the Lord, they've given their entire life to Jesus and to serve the poorest of the poor. Mother Teresa at one point, she's speaking to these sisters, have dedicated everything to Jesus. Here's what she said.

She said, I worry that some of you have still not really met Jesus. She's talking to nuns. I worry that some of you still have not really met Jesus. She said, one to one, you and him alone. Jesus wants me to tell you again how much love is

how much is the love that he has for each one of you beyond all that you can imagine. She said, we may spend time in the chapel, but have you seen with the eyes of your soul how he looks at you with love? Do we really know, do you really know, the living Jesus, not from books, but from being with him in your heart?

Have you heard the loving words that he speaks to you? She said, never give up on this daily intimate contact with Jesus as a real person, not just an idea. But too many of us, we can just have a secondhand relationship. And of course, the reason is because I think, I think, because it seems like God is kind of easy to miss. I mean, it seems, I think it can seem so difficult, but it's possible that maybe we're missing out on something that's right in front of us.

We just don't realize it. A couple weeks ago I mentioned the story of the two twin brothers, Esau and Jacob, if you remember them, they're the sons of Isaac. So Issa and Jacob, we told the story a couple weeks ago about how Esau was the hunter and Jacob was the one who stayed close to home

and at one point Issa came back from hunting, didn't have any game, but Jacob had made this pot of red stuff for like red porridge or red stew and Esau hungry said, hey, give me some of the red stuff. Jacob said, I'll give you the red stuff if you give me your birthright. And so Esau makes the exchange.

I'll give you my birthright. I don't care about it. Just give me some red stuff. Well, what happens after that is their father, Jacob, their father, Isaac, is dying. And Isaac says, Jacob, go out and get me some game and then serve it to me, and I'll give you the blessing. No, Esau has already given away his birthright.

But then Isaac's wife conspires with Jacob to trick his blind and dying father to give him the blessing. So he disguises himself as Esau, and he basically steals the blessing from Issa, from his father. When he hears about this, he literally is going to kill his brother. I've said that to my siblings. Like, I'm going to kill. Esau is literally going to kill his brother.

So Jacob has to flee into the wilderness. And it's remarkable. This happens in chapter 28 of Genesis. Jacob goes to this place called Bethel. There's a shrine there and everything. And I do think this is remarkable. It says this. It says that Jacob departed, it goes to Bethel, and he stopped there.

And taking one of the stones from the shrine, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep at that spot. I think it's remarkable that he used a stone as a pillow. I don't, I don't. But it gets more remarkable. It says this. It says, then he had a dream. A stairway rested on the ground with its top reaching to the heavens, and God's angels were going up and down on it.

And there was the Lord standing beside Jacob and saying, I the Lord and the God of your forefather Abraham and the God of Isaac, the land on which you're lying, I will give to you and your descendants. It was on to say, know that I am with you. I will protect you wherever you go and bring you back to this land. I will never leave you until I have done what I promised you. Then Jacob wakes up and he says these words that are just so striking. Jacob wakes up and he says, God was in this place and I did not know it.

God was here and I didn't realize it. That God was in this place and I missed it. And this is one of the things we just have to realize. This truth, God is not distant. God is not far off. God is... God is close. In fact, we would say this.

He's closer than you think. God is closer than you think. So that's what we're going to do for the next 29 days, for the next four weeks. For this time, from now until Christmas, we're going to be doing this series. And the series is closer than you think. Because we realize that Advent is a season of what? Season of preparation.

It's either a season of preparation to celebrate the first coming of Jesus at Christmas. We want to get ready for that. It's also a season of preparing for the final coming of Jesus when he comes at the end of time. So we prepare, right? We prepare either to celebrate the first coming or we prepare to enter into the second coming. But saints have always talked about this middle coming of Jesus.

Saints have always talked about, yes, his first coming, his final coming, but there's also this middle coming. because right now we're called to enter into the current presence of Jesus. Yes, prepare to celebrate the past, prepare to encounter him in the future, but also right now, like the season of Advent is to recognize that God is here, the God is now, that God is closer than you think. So if we miss this, if we miss these next 29 days, we could miss everything. If we miss the next 29 days, we could miss everything.

Because we don't know, right? Jesus in the gospel, he says, stay awake because you don't know. Basically, Jesus is saying, don't miss this. No, I can hear some people saying now or thinking right now. This is not the right time, Father. Like, again, this is a busy season. This is a difficult season, not just busy, but also for a lot of us, it's a season of a lot of pain.

Like, it can be a season of a lot of trials and a lot of difficulty. It can be the hardest season of your entire, year. And I get it. Believe me. But here's the other thing is that this is life. The life is busy and life is difficult. And this is life. And in the midst of this life, God is closer than you think. And that's why we can't wait for things to be perfect to find him. You know, the first reading today it's from Isaiah chapter two. And what does Isaiah say? He says, listen, good days are coming. He says, in days to come, the mountains of the Lord's house here in Jerusalem, right, in Zion, shall be established as the highest mountain.

And what's going to happen? All nations will stream towards it. And all peoples will come and say, come, let's climb the Lord's Mountain. Basically, Isaiah is saying, there's an incredible thing that's on its way. He goes on to say, you're going to beat your swords into plowshares.

You're going to beat your spears into printing hooks. Basically saying, peace is on its way. Like, this is coming. Here's a question. Do you know the very next thing to happen to the people of Israel after Isaiah said this? The very next thing to happen to the people of Israel, after Isaiah said this was Babylon came down from the north

and surrounded Jerusalem and besieged Jerusalem and starved them and then beat them, killed so many of them, and then exiled the rest of them. This was a hard season. In fact, this is a very difficult chapter in the story of a people who has a lot of difficult chapters in their story. But Isaiah is saying, yes, but in this, God is here. Isaiah is saying, yeah, even in your defeat, God is closer than you think. Right now, don't miss it. And here's the thing,

I don't want any of us to miss it either, even if this is a difficult season in your life, even if this is a busy season in your life. Because things will be different in 29 days. Things will be different in 29 days, but it's going to take a decision. In fact, the next 29 days have to be a 29 days of decision. So I first met Tom at the federal prison up here in Duluth a couple years ago. Back in the 2008 market housing crash and the Ponzi schemes and everything, the biggest, apparently biggest and the most powerful people, they could do all their schemes, they could get away with it and they got away with it. But there were some smaller guys, smaller fish, who didn't have as much power, didn't have as much wealth. And they needed a scapegoat.

And so some people were the scapegoats. Some of those people were the scapegoats. Some of those people went to jail, Tom was one of those guys. Tom was one of those guys who, whether he knew what was going on or not, he was a scapegoat. And he said this, he said, you know what, those people who are powerful, those people who are super rich, they could throw me in prison, ruin my life, and really, who cares?

His reputation was destroyed, his family was devastated. And Tom said about this. He said this, he said, you know, that can happen to a person. What happened to me can happen to a person, and one person can walk away, bitter and angry, which makes some pleat sense, right? You get thrown to prison for a crime that you were like, I didn't even realize this was happening.

I didn't realize this was a crime, but I'm a scapegoat. He says, that can happen to a person, and they can walk away, bitter or angry. He said, I walked away with so much gratitude. He said, it cost me everything. But it has been worth every single tear. Before we went to prison, he said he was invited to lay down his life.

He basically said he was invited to, us that Jesus told him, okay, you're going to go to prison. There, you're going to spend time with me. And there, you're going to raise up an army of adorers of me. And so before Tom went to prison, he said he laid down in front of the tabernacle in his local Catholic church. And he just said, Jesus, I'm laying down, like a priest lays down his life before he gets ordained. He said, I'm going to lay down my life. And I'm just going to spend time with you in prison. So in the prison here, there are about 12 different religions that are represented. Everything from the Catholic Church of Satanism is there. And in fact, at the chapel there, there is, in a loft area in the prison,

there's a tabernacle with Jesus truly present in the Eucharist. In the same room, essentially, same structure as they would do witchcraft and other satanic rituals. But Tom, he said in the years that he was in prison, he spent hours in front of Jesus in the Eucharist. In fact, I think he said he totaled up the hours. He said he might have spent 15,000 hours with his arms wrapped around the tabernacle, just clinging to the Lord. And it transformed his life.

It so transformed his life that he told the story once about another inmate. His name was Rick. And Rick had spent about 12 or 14 years in Leavenworth. Rick was about 62 years old. He had been a meth addict for 40 years, and he'd been in the Hell's Angels, and that's how he arrived in prison for a long, long stint.

He got sent for the last six months or so to Duluth, to the federal prison here. He was Tom's cellmate for about two days, and then he got moved on. And as the weeks unfolded, Rick noticed something about Tom. In fact, so he came up to Tom at one point, he said, Tom, listen, I've been in prison for however long, right? My life's been a mess. I've been doing Bible studies. I've been praying.

I've been around Christians. He says, but there's something in you that I've never seen before. And it's something that I want. So Tom, he said, I realize this guy, this guy, he's got six months left. I mean, we don't have a lot of time. And so he basically says, okay, listen, Rick, you're six months from the door. Do you really want to know? Like, how badly do you want to have what I have?

How badly you want to know what I know? And Rick was like, so badly, it's okay, here's what you're going to do. We're not going to study the Bible. You've already done that. We're not going to read the catacism. I'm not going to teach you apologetics. He said, and if you're going to waste my time and not doing exactly what I say, then we're done. He said this guy, you know, here's a banker who went to prison

talking to a hell's angel guy who went to prison. He's looking at him like he's crazy. Like, okay, go on. He says, but if you're going to, if you're in it to win it, then you're going to sit down and you're going to shut up and you're going to follow my instructions to the letter. Now, I would never have said this to anyone, not much as a hell's angels guy. But it was like, fine, I'll do it. I don't care. I'll do whatever you ask of me. So, okay, no, open of your Bible. Rick opened his Bible. And he said, okay, go to John. Gospel of John. Went to the Gospel of John. He said, go to chapter 6 and read verse 51. And read it to me. And Rick said out loud. He said, well, I'm the living bread that came down from heaven.

Tom said, do you know what that means? Rick said, I don't. And Tom says, that's your problem. Here's what you need to do. For the next 30 days, you're going to go into that room where I go, where the tabernacle is, where Jesus, the true bread from heaven, the Eucharist is. And you're going to go into that chapel in front of that tabernacle for one hour every day for the next 30 days. And if you're not there, you're going to tell me when you're going to do it, and I'm going to pop my head in. And if you're not there, we're done. Because you have no, you have no more time. It is time to wake from sleep.

You have no more time. Are you willing to do that? Tom said, I'm willing to do anything. Okay. The first time we go in, I'm going to go with you. So they went into the chapel. Went in front of Jesus and the Euchar, and he said, here's what I need you to do. this first time, I need you to beg Jesus to reveal himself to you.

I need you to beg Jesus, just that you're desperate. Jesus, reveal yourself to me, reveal your love to me, reveal your true presence in the Eucharist to me. All right, great, he does it. Okay, I'll check him with you in 30 days. Rick shows up every single day for one hour for the next 30 days. Day 27 rolls around. On day 27, this 62-year-old man races out of the chapel.

He's racing across the field at the prison there, and he's just crying. He said he was running like an eight-year-old boy, just sobbing, going, where's Tom? Where's Tom? Finally, comes to Tom. He finds him, Tom. He finds him, I met him. Tom's like, I know. He's in the Eucharist.

He's like, no, Tom. Like, he embraced me. Didn't it's like, someone takes your hand and shakes it? He, like, he embraced my whole heart. Like, I am completely new. I, he had went from a second-hand relationship to a firsthand encounter with the true and living God in the Eucharist. Later on that year, before he got out, Rick was received into the Catholic Church by Bishop Serba, before Bishop Serba passed away.

Later on that year, he not only was confirmed, he got to receive Holy Communion for the first time after he got out of prison. He wrote Tom and his wife this letter just saying, my life has been transformed by Jesus in the Eucharist. My life will never be the same. He's I have experienced so much joy, so much freedom, so much love, the reality of Jesus, Christ in the Eucharist has shifted everything in my life. So here's the invitation. Tom had and Rick had 30 days. We have 29 days. Rick spent one hour. I'm asking for 29 minutes. Here's the invitation. If you want what Tom has, if you want what Rick now has, if you want your life to be completely different in 29 days, here's my invitation, 29 days of decision, 29 minutes,

29 days. Every day for the next 29 days, my invitation is to spend 29 minutes in the presence of Jesus and the Eucharist. And what I mean by that is I don't mean like, you know, you just read your Bible in your room or you find a quiet place and you pray. I mean you go to either to the church or you go to the chapel at Newman and you spend 29 minutes for 29 days and beg Jesus to reveal himself to you because we realize we cannot. we cannot continue to have a second-hand relationship with Jesus. You're not made for a second-hand relationship with Jesus. You're made to have a first-hand relationship with Christ. This isn't magic, but it is power.

And we realize this, nothing will change, if nothing will change. Maybe this is too much. Maybe this is too daunting. Maybe this is too intimidating. I'm not inviting anyone to perfection. What I'm inviting us all to do is try to place ourselves in God's presence, to realize that he's closer,

to take that risk for the next, for 29 minutes, for the next 29 days, and to go from having a second-hand relationship with God to having a firsthand relationship with God. I'm thinking about this, Edmund Chapel over at the house, Jesus, if you're sitting in the front row, Jesus is five feet from you. He has come so close.

So get close. 29 minutes, 29 days, to get close to Jesus, because he is closer than you think.