Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 1/15/23 Homeless: Homeless But Holy

Episode Date: January 14, 2023

Homily from the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. What is the difference between a "good person" and a "saint"? "A good society is one that makes it easy to be good." But what if you don't live in a good society? Is "being good" the only goal? Is it possible to be more than good...to be holy...even when you are living in exile? Mass Readings from January 15, 2023: Isaiah 49:3, 5-6 Psalms 40:2, 4, 7-101 Corinthians 1:1-3 John 1:29-34

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.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John. Chapter 1, verse 29 through 34. John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, a man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me. I did not know him.

But the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel. John testified further saying, I saw the spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him. I did not know him. But the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, on whomever you see the spirit come down and remain. He is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

Now I have seen and have testified that he is the Son of God. The gospel of the Lord. So welcome back. You guys, oh my gosh. I've been thinking about this. I just like, what do you say? I want to say welcome back. But also, for so many, I just, I want to say welcome home.

Because there's this reality. I don't know if you've had this experience where, you know, there's this shift that happens sometimes where moving back to campus, it doesn't feel like home for so long. Like it feels like this is where I have my towels. It's like this is where I have my slippers. But I got to go home. Like over break, that's when I went home.

There's something so good. Maybe freshman year when you come back after break, that first time and it's like you walk back on campus, you come down the hill, and you're like, okay, I'm home. And sometimes it never happens. Honestly, sometimes it never feels that way. In fact, I've been living in the Newman house for 18 years now, and I don't call it my home. I still don't call it my home. I don't call it my house because I, well, I don't own it technically, but also because it's just, it's where I happen to live. Actually, I think, I don't know if you've had this experience where you just find yourself, wherever you're living, it's like,

it doesn't, it's fine, just not home. I think a lot of us have this experience of, I don't belong here, but I have to live here. I'm not supposed to be here, but I just live here. And so we have this feeling of homelessness. We have, and there's obviously,

there's people who literally don't have a home. But many of us, we realize I do have a home. It's just that I'm not there. And all of us here, the church, we realize, you have a home, but I just, maybe I'm just not there. And again, this is a common human experience. This experience of where I'm living isn't home is so common that, in fact, it's one of the most significant themes of the entire Bible is this theme of homelessness. I mean, it's the reality that we all experience, which is, I'm not where I should be, or

we're not where we're meant to be. Here we are living here, but I'm not supposed to be here, that this is in my home. I'm homeless. In fact, the term in the Bible, that the used to talk about this is the term exile. Again, this is one of the key themes about the entire scripture is this idea, this reality of exile, this reality of homelessness. So for the next couple weeks, we're starting a series tonight for the next few weeks. We're going to be doing this series called homeless, where we just dive deeply into this reality that what do you do? What do when where you live isn't home or where you live doesn't feel like home, but you still have to live there? Because that's what it is to be here.

I don't belong there, but I have to live there. Again, this is like a Bible, big Bible theme. It goes all the way back to the very beginning story. You know the first story of the Bible. Here's God who's good, who makes this world that's good. He makes people that are good. And he puts them in this garden, and it's really good. He actually puts them in a garden that he made for them.

They're home. And then chapter three happens. And they rebel against their God. And what happens, they have to leave home. Because they rebel against God. They have to go into exile. And the whole story of the human race, the whole story of all of us since that moment is the experience of I'm homeless. I don't belong here,

but I have to learn how to live here. It goes on, of course, you have the people of Israel, and they have the promised land, they have their home, and what happens, they go to Egypt, and they're living in bondage. They're slaves, and they're going to die as slaves. All they have is they have a lack of freedom and they have death, and they have to live in exile. They have to live homeless. They don't belong there. They don't belong in Egypt. The God's people didn't belong in Egypt, they had to learn how to live there. Of course, God sets them free, and they are in the wilderness. But again, they're in the wilderness.

That's not home. They don't belong in the wilderness, but they have to learn how to live there. Of course, the biggest example of exile, the biggest example of homelessness happened in 605 BC. So 605 BC, you probably know this already, but here's the people of Israel, and they're living in Jerusalem and Judah, that whole area. And King Nebuchadnezzar comes down from Babylon, and they have the Babylonian exile, the Babylonian homelessness, where there's these three massive deportations.

In fact, the first deportation is pretty significant, is a bunch of people get deported. They get exiled to Babylon. And four of them, we know their names, Hananiah, Azuaya, Mishael, and the most famous reindeer of all is Daniel. And so, can you imagine, like, can you imagine being any of these guys, any of these people, were overnight, you lose everything. Again, not just lose everything.

Imagine overnight, someone comes into your home and says this is no longer your home. It's mine. Imagine being in a place where then they say, okay, you're leaving and you're going to another place. You're going to our home. You're going to a foreign land where they speak a foreign language. You have to live a foreign life. And you realize you don't belong there, but you have to learn how to live there. imagine in those moments

it would seem impossible to be who you're meant to be in those moments like when you're living homeless when you're living in exile it would seem impossible to be the person you're called to be because I mean think about this who are the people of Israel called to be well they're the Jewish people they're the chosen people of God

they're called to follow the commandments how in the world are you going to do that in Babylon they're called to be the covenant people of God if you have a relationship with God how in the world are you going to do that in Babylon. They found themselves in exile. They were homeless. They're living, here's a crazy thing. They're living in the midst of a people who have no love for them. These people who have no love for their beliefs, they have absolutely no love for their way of life. They're living in the midst

of people in Babylon who will not make it easy for them. And they don't belong there, but they have to live there. You know, the first reading today is from the book of the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah and two other prophets. Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, all three of those prophets, they saw. this coming. They saw the Babylonians coming and they're saying, here's what's going to happen. People of Israel, God's people. They're going to come in and they're going to make you homeless. I mean, they predicted this whole thing. They said the day is coming when, yes, you are living in home. You're living here in Jerusalem. This is where you're supposed to be. But the day is coming when you'll be homeless. The day is coming will you be in exile? Which is why I love

today's reading. It's Isaiah 49. Where Isaiah says, okay, that's what's going to happen. You're going to be homeless. You're going to be in exile. But it's not going to be forever. is this going to happen to you, but it's not going to go on forever. In fact, the word he says today is, he says, Jacob, you, people of Israel, you'll be brought back to God. Israel, you'll be gathered once again to him. Again, what he's saying is, it's going to happen. But it's not forever. You have a home, but you're going to be homeless for a while.

You won't belong there, but you're going to have to learn to live there. and in the meantime, it's not going to be easy. I don't know if you know this, but almost all the New Testament writers, when they talked about what it's like to live as a Christian in the world, they used the term homelessness. Virtually, I mean, St. Paul, St. Peter, the author to the Hebrews, they said, okay, Christians, you have to realize that if you're going to live in this world, you're going to be exiles and pilgrims.

In fact, that's one of the terms for Christians. We just see ourselves as exiles. Another way to say it is you're going to be strangers and sojourners. your exiles and your pilgrims. They're going to be homeless. Because you don't belong here, but you're going to have to learn how to live here. And it's going to be difficult.

It's going to be difficult to be the people you actually were meant to be. I don't know if you've ever experienced that. Maybe you haven't. Maybe you're like, actually, it's really easy to be Catholic on campus. Father, they says, I don't know what you're talking about. It's not. We realized this.

In fact, there was a woman named Dorothy Day. Dorothy Day was part of the Catholic Worker Movement back in the last century. and she would often quote one of her friends, Peter Moran. And Peter Morin and Dorothy Day would say this. They would say, a good society is one that makes it easy to be good. I heard that, I think when I was in high school of college, and I thought, oh my gosh, yes, that is a great measurement of a good society. A virtuous society is one that makes it easy to be virtuous.

A good society is one that makes it easy to be good. And I still think that's true. I still think that's actually a good metric for what a good society is. what a virtuous society is, but there's two problems with that. Because it raises two questions. The first question is, it might be true that a good society is one that makes it easy to be good. First question, what if you don't live in a good society? Like, what do you do then?

And the second question is, is being good the goal? Like, is being good, is that the point? I think for a lot of Christians, I think that's what we think is the point. I think for a lot of us, we show up to mass because we're like, tell me how to be good, and I'll try to do that, because that's the goal. That's the point, is just being good. In fact, there's a sociologist named Christian Smith. He used to teach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Now he teaches that in Notre Dame. A bunch of years ago, he did this nationwide study of American adolescents in their spiritual lives.

Later on, he did a nationwide study of American young adults in their moral lives. And he and his team came to a couple different conclusions. One of the things they discovered about American adolescents and young adults is it, virtually all of us believe that the point of life is twofold. The point of life is to be happy and to be good. Like that's the whole point. Whether you're raised Catholic, mainline Protestant, evangelical, Protestant, Jewish,

not even religious at all. Virtually all Americans think, yeah, that's the main point of life, is to be happy and to be good. In fact, they didn't even say to be good. They said basically, don't be a jerk. The bar is really high, you guys. And I think a lot of times we show up like that, right? we show up to church because we're like, yeah, that's the whole point.

If you're going to be a Christian, it means you're going to be good. There was a Bible study that met last semester. And one of the women in the Bible study asked the question, they said, what's the difference between a good person and a saint? That's a really good question. In fact, it's such a compelling question that the women in the Bible study, they wrestled with it for a long time. what's the difference between being a good person being saint?

Because there's a lot of overlap, right? There's a lot of things a good person have in common with a saint. I mean, good people are kind, right? Good people are honest. Hopefully saints are kind. Hopefully saints are honest. Good people are virtuous and compassionate and generous. And we hope that saints are virtuous and compassionate and generous.

And so I've been thinking about this for a couple months now. Like what is the difference between being a good person and a saint? And I think the answer is actually really simple. It's actually almost too simple. The difference between a good person and a saint is one thing. God. Because there's a lot of good people who don't believe in God. I mean, to be a good person is, yeah, I'm good because it's the right thing to do. That's great. That's great. That's not a problem.

That's great. That's not a problem. But to be a Christian is not the call to be good. It's so important for us to understand. To be a Christian is not the call to be good. The Christian is called to be holy. The Christian is called to be a saint. And so, like, how do you do that? In fact, again, if a good society is one that makes it easy to be good,

can we do that in our society? Is this, is it impossible? That's one of the reasons why I love that the second reading tonight is from First Corinthians. In fact, for the next few weeks, while we walk and do this series on homelessness, we're going to walk with First Corinthians. And one of the things you need to know about Corinth

is that it was not a good society. And one of the things you need to know about Corinth is what it was. Corinth had a reputation. It was known even back in those days, which were really rough days, really kind of distorted days. It was no one for being a really even rougher and even more distorted kind of a place. In fact, like in Corinth, like every street was Bourbon Street, that kind of situation. Like in Corinth, every street was the Las Vegas Strip. That if a person was

exceptionally bad, like they were exceptionally crude or barbaric, if they're exceptionally kind of perverse, you'd call them a Corinthian. Like they was, it was an insult. It's kind of like right now, like if you meet someone who's a little bit dim, you know, kind of slow on the uptake, you say that they're from Green Bay. You know, that... That same kind of thing, right? Or Madison, it's fine. Either way. But so it was rough.

Corinth was a rough, rough, rough place. And here's St. Paul, writing to these Corinthians. And he says, you've been called. He says, I've been called. He says, and you've been called. He says, I've been called to be an apostle. Then he says these words so powerful, he says, you've been called to be holy.

What is it to be holy? I know a lot of us we think, well, to be holy is to be exceptionally pious. You're going to walk around with this kind of glazed over look on your face, like a plaster statue. That's not what it is to be holy. Biblically speaking, to be holy simply means one thing. It means to be set apart for a purpose. That's what it is to be holy. So when you bless something, you set it apart for a purpose.

When you consecrate something, you set it apart for a purpose. To be holy, simply to be set apart for a purpose. To be holy is, I've been set apart for a relationship with God. That's it, that's it. I've been set apart for a relationship with God, which means that you can be homeless and holy. It means that you can live on purpose, no matter where you are. I mean, think about St. Paul.

What's he say? He says, he doesn't say you have to become holy. You have to become sanctified. St. Paul, writing to these Corinthian Christians, he says, you have been. sanctified. If you've been baptized, you've been made holy. If you're sitting here tonight and you're baptized, you already are holy. It's like you start out with an A for the class. I mean, this is, this is one of those situations where here's God who already, you don't have to do anything to

become holy. St. Paul's writing to you tonight and he's saying, you have been sanctified. Now, you've been called. What does that mean? You've been sanctified. You already are holy. You already and set apart for a purpose. Now the one task you have to do is to answer the question, am I going to live on purpose or am I going to live off purpose? That's it. You have been sanctified. You are holy. You've been set apart for a purpose. The one question we have to answer, am I going to live on purpose or am I going to live off purpose? That's why one of the easiest things in the world is it's easy to be holy, no matter where you are, even if you're homeless. because you ask the question,

is there any place that God is not? Like, no. So is there any place in this world where you can't live in a relationship with God? The answer is no. Then you can be homeless and holy, which is another way of saying you can be homeless and his.

But we have to choose to live on purpose. And this is the last thing. Tonight, this week, one of the ways, I'm just going to invite us all. Who all you've been sanctified and called to live that sanctification. You've been set apart for a purpose,

called to live on purpose. The one way I'm going to say this week as we start this is by prayer. So in the book of Daniel, we're going to follow Daniel for the next few weeks. Daniel, who's living as a homeless person, Daniel who's living in exile, Daniel who's living in a place where they do not love him.

Daniel's living in a place where it's difficult to belong to the Lord. It said in Daniel chapter 6 that Daniel resolved to pray three times every day. And he would stand in his window and he'd face Jerusalem and he'd lift up his hands and he would cry out to his God. He'd thank God for his blessings and he'd ask God for his help. Daniel was able to be homeless and holy because he simply because he prayed.

That's the invitation this week. My invitation this week for every one of us is to make the decision. Not necessarily to pray three times a day. If you want, that's awesome. I'm just saying once to be able to say there's one time every single day for the rest of this week. I'm just going to stop and I'm going to do like, I'm going to do what Daniel did. I'm going to stop and I'm going to realize I am not. where I should be, but it's where I have to live. I'm not where I belong, but it's where I have to

learn how to live. And I'm just going to pray. You know, I have a friend his name's Mark. And Mark has said this. He said, prayer doesn't help our relationship with God. Prayer is a relationship with God. So if I'm not praying, that does mean it's hurting my relationship. If I'm not praying, it means I don't have a relationship. So the invitation this week is that all of this, to be homeless and holy begins and ends with prayer. You don't have to wait to be a saint. You already have been sanctified. You already have been made holy.

You've been set apart for a purpose. So let's this week, just make the decision. I'm going to live on purpose. And I know, I know this, we know this. We don't belong here. But we've been called to live here. And we're homeless. But we've been called no matter who we are,

or where we are, to be homeless and holy.