Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 1/18/26 Mistaken Identity

Episode Date: January 17, 2026

Homily from the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. Who are we talking to? It is critical to know WHO we are talking to when we pray. What is the image of God that guides and directs our prayer? Does He need our counsel? Does He care about us at all? Or does He care about us more than we could possibly imagine? Mass Readings from January 18, 2026: Isaiah 49:3, 5-6 Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 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.

He 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 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 testified that he is the son of God, the gospel of the Lord. Might you have a seat. So like the beginning of mass, I asked the question about the mistaken identity. Have you ever had that? I mean, I imagine we all have where you walk out to somebody and is like, they are not. As a kid, I remember, like being in a grocery store and walking up to this woman and grabbing her hand. And then she looks down at me and I look up and realize, you are not my mother.

Why do you have my mom's hand right now? Because it doesn't end. I think sometimes it doesn't end as kids. I mean, I remember in college. I went to college with my older brother all four years. We were in the same school. And at one point, he kind of, he would always send me on errands. Like if he forgot something or he needed something, you'd just send me because I'm the little brother.

And so at one point, I remember, it was just like across campus, I had to get this thing for him. So I went across, I'm a good brother. I did it. Went across campus. Got the thing. Come back. And I walked up behind this guy and to hand him this thing. And I walked up behind him and I was like, you're an idiot.

And the guy who turned around was not my brother. I was like, I'm sorry. I have no idea whether you're. idiot or not. But we have those things. So I thought I did this thing where like, I know I'm not alone. I know I'm not the only one that has had this experience. And so I took to this thing called the internet to see if I'm alone.

And I came across, like, here's four examples of people doing the same thing. I just thought they were funny and I couldn't. Here's the first one. Some woman wrote in, she said, we were at a funeral for a distant relative. And my sister was talking to one of our cousins and asked our cousin, so, how's your mom doing? not well apparently it was her funeral another one I don't know we have a lot of nursing students here's this woman wrote in she says

I was a first year nurse I was talking to a patient who had some bunch of flowers delivered to his room and I said oh my gosh I wish I could have some of those at home but everything I touch dies the patient looks at her and she's like no no no plants not people plants another one is that someone missed text this guy he texted my boss he texted his boss I love you, my cute, pretty little princess. It was for his wife.

Anyways, the boss responded with, I love you too, sweetheart. This man was dating this one woman, and going on a date with her, he texted her, hey, Olivia, I'm out front. Her name was Natalie, and she never came out. That was their last date.

And it was one of those situations, right, where we just have the sense of like, either I say the wrong thing in the wrong time or I say the wrong thing to the wrong person, person because it matters who we're talking to. I think a lot of times it matters who we're talking to. And so the question of mistaken identity, when we're talking, who are you talking to? More specifically, when we're here, who are we talking to? Like when we come to Mass? Like right now, like here right now, in prayer. When you and I go into our room when we pray, when we're here, when we're in our chapel,

when we pray, the question is, who are we talking to? Another way to ask it is, what is the image of God that drives our prayer? What's the image of God that guides our prayer? Because here's the reality, because who we're talking to determines how we talk to them. And who I imagine God to be determines how I talk to him. So if you remember last weekend, the gospel was just before this scene with John the Baptist, right? Jesus approaches John the Baptist, asking John the Baptist to baptize him. And what John says is, John says, no, I should be baptized by you.

I shouldn't be baptizing you. And I highlighted this last week if you were with us. That oftentimes that's how we talk to God. Sometimes we talk to God as if we're God's counselors. No, no, God. This is where you've got it all wrong. We'd sometimes talk to God as it were his advisors. Sometimes we talk to God in prayer as if it was our job to advise God,

where we say things like, okay, God, here, maybe this sounds like your prayer. Okay, God, here's what you need to do. We're going to prayer, we say, okay, God, this is how things need to turn out. Sometimes we talk to God like this. We say, okay, God, you need me to tell you how to be God. How many times we approach God? And we talk to him like that, as if he needs us to tell him how to be God. In that case of, that would be once again a case of mistaken identity. Of course, God does want us to come to him with our needs. God does want us to come to him with our concerns and our prayers, our petitions. I mean, scripture says again and again. I mean, Psalm 62. Here's Psalm 62 is a line. It says, trust him at all times. Pour out your hearts before him. So yes, of course God wants us to bring up our hearts. Proverbs. Proverbs 23 says, give me your heart. And let your eyes delight in my heart.

ways. God wants us to make our petitions. St. Paul, writing to the Philippians. Chapter 4, he said this. He said, have no anxiety at all. But in all things, in prayer and petition with Thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. So it's not as if God doesn't want us to bring our hearts to him, but it's the question is, when I bring my heart, when I bring my cares, when I bring my concerns, when I bring these petitions and prayers to God, who do I think I'm talking to? So, here's a question. this is a legit question in prayer in mass

who are you talking to like I said there was a legit question so like who are you talking to God great great God okay the answer is God so if you said God you get a C I mean it's passing it's it's average

because you're accurate it's right but it's is that all when we come to prayer when we come to mass are we just like talking to God? I have a friend his name is David, David Ladding. David Ladding pointed this out recently. He said, if you consider Islam, Allah has 99 names. There's 99 different names for Allah in his Islam.

And those names are powerful and they are majestic. Those names are impressive. Those names are mighty. All of those names for Allah are about his greatness, his power. but there's one name in those 99 names that is notably missing. And it's the name that we use again and again and again in every Mass. And it's the name Father. Doesn't exist when it comes to God in Islam.

It does not exist. And yet here in Mass, I don't know if you know this, but almost all of our prayers, all throughout the whole Mass, except for like five times, we are talking to God our Father. But the question again, who are we talking to? So David gave this example. He said, imagine two fathers, two different fathers. And one, this father is impressive. This father is important. This father is powerful. And his father comes home. And he walks through the door. And his kids, his kids are there.

Kids in the family, they stand in attention because the father's home right now. And they're ready to go. Because if the father gives them a direction, they need to act right now. The father doesn't look at his kids. He doesn't acknowledge them. If he needs them to do anything, he tells someone else to tell them. When it comes time for supper, the father eats in the dining room, the kids eat in the kitchen. It's time for bed. The father goes to his room.

Kids drift off wherever. Because the father's important. He's powerful. He's mighty. He needs to sleep because the next day he needs to go to work. That's one image of one father. He said, but there's another image of the father. Imagine this father.

This father, where the moment the kids hear the crunch of the gravel and the driveway under their father's tires, they race outside competing to see who's the first one to jump into his arms. The father can't even get out of the car because they're grabbing onto his legs and he's playing with him. He's carrying him in the house. They're all just climbing on top of him. They get in the house. And this is one of the things that David points out. He says, he gets in the house, they get in the house.

And the father just gets down on his hands and knees and just plays with his kids. He rejoiced that he's there. and he plays. David, he said it like this, I thought it's so good. He says, he gets down on the ground and he plays dinosaurs with him. He says, sits on the floor in front of the TV and they eat pizza and watch Zootopia 2. And the father carries him up to bed and he tucks him in and he reads to them until they fall asleep. And he just stays there and he watches them as they fall asleep.

He is also powerful. He's also important. He's also impressive, but he's also dad. These are the two images. The image in Christianity is a father, in the image in Islam is a master. In fact, this isn't a parody. I have a friend named Scott Hahn. You might know Scott Hahn, Scott Hahn was a Presbyterian pastor, became Catholic. At one point, Scott Hahn was having a debate with the Muslim scholar,

and they were going to debate on some topic of Catholicism in Islam, and they met at like a Denny's to kind of go over their discussion points. And at one point, is there meeting and being friendly, Dr. Hahn, he said, well, we know that, you know, God the father created in the Muslim man said, stop. Do not refer to Allah as father. Allah is not father. Okay? I'm sorry. Kept talking, kept talking. Well, you know, Jesus, God, the son, it's like, stop. Jesus is not the son. Allah is not father. Jesus is not the son. Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be offensive. Third time, Scott Hahn said something along the lines of, well, you know us as children of God. And the Muslim man said, stop, you must not say this.

Allah is not father. We are not his children. Allah is master. We are his slaves. And he called off the debate. Because that's the vision. This is the massive distinction. In Islam, Allah is not father.

Allah is master. In Islam, we are not his children. We are his servants. We are his slaves. In fact, I have a youth minister in the diocese who, she was deployed to Afghanistan a number of years ago when she was giving a talk. And at one point she said, well, as children of God in her translator stopped her right there and said,

you may not give the rest of your talk because you will not refer to human beings as a law as children. We are not his children. We are his slaves. And yet, what did we hear in the second reading today? What we heard in the second reading is St. Paul saying, here is God, our father and our Lord Jesus Christ. We heard in the gospel today. Here is Paul who says, I've seen him and I know that he is the only beloved son of God. I want to say this quickly clearly. This is not a criticism of Muslims. Muslims, they're faithful. If you're a faithful Muslim, that means you pray five times a day. Five times a day, every day you pray.

But here's this, imagine. Again, that dedication is admirable. That consistency is impressive. But imagine this. Imagine praying five times a day, every day to God your master. Imagine every time you approach to God, you approach Him as his slave. Every prayer you utter is uttered as a slave to a master. Again, that is not a criticism. It's just a description. Actually, it is a criticism. But it's not a criticism of anyone out there.

It's a criticism of us in here because here's what I think. I think that's how many of us pray. How many of us have a case of mistaken identity when it comes to God? We come to Mass. And we, we, we come to Mass and we pray to God the Master. We come to Mass and we pray as God's slaves, as opposed to the reality that Jesus reveals, which is God is our Father. And Jesus has made it possible for us to be his children. We have a case of mistaken identity. Imagine how painful that would be. Every time you prayed was you're praying to your master and missing out on the incredible children. You know, the last three weeks we've been celebrating Christmas up to last weekend. And what's Christmas? Christmas is right, the incarnation of God. And what is the incarnation of God?

Other than, here's God with all his divinity, all his power, all his might, who become, who unites his divinity with our humanity to do what? I think to play. Have you ever imagined this? Imagine the incarnation of Jesus, God on this earth, is God who just wants to come near his kids and play. Here's a question. How many of you know? How long did Jesus live upon this earth as a human? 33 years. Okay, good, good, better. So, up to it up to it. would be. How many of those years, those 33 years, did Jesus spend in public ministry? Three, okay, B plus, great. That means how many of those years did Jesus spend doing virtually nothing that we know about in public? Math majors? 30, right, so, okay, A minus. So, so you're improving. Here's the question. What did he do for those 30 years? How he worked, he lived with his family,

he lived in Nazareth, all these things. I would say this, I submit this. For those 30 years, here's what Jesus was doing. The all-powerful God played. Of course, he worked, he served, all those things. But here's God who just wanted to be near his kids. To imagine those 30 years of Jesus' life on earth of just, I can't believe I get to be this close to my kids.

That real play, but also that real love. in the midst of the whole thing, right? Because let's go back to Christmas. How amazing is this, that here's the angels singing the shepherds at night. I mean, that's pretty fun. That's play. A little disco concert in the middle of the night for the shepherds.

The wise men come to Jesus and they bring them these golds, these presents, gold, frankincense, and... Okay, you got a nay now. MIR. What's Mur? Do you notice? Mure is the oil you'd put on a dead body

to prepare it for burial. an amazing gift to give a new mom. Why? Because here's this symbolism, this foreshadowing, that here is this God who's come down to us to play, but also to love to the point of death. And even in the gospel today, when John the Baptist sees Jesus, he says, Behold the Lamb of God.

We hear Lamb, we think innocent. We hear lamb, we think light and fluffy. We hear lamb, and we think, oh, Jesus, tender, meek, and mild. No, John said, behold, the lamb, because that meant lamb means sacrifice. that's the one who's going to give of himself. Why? Because he came here to play, but he also came here to love to the point of emptying himself out. He's going to win our souls by offering himself. He's going to win our bodies by offering his own.

And he's going to win our hearts by revealing us his heart. There's a story in the Gospels I love. It's in John Chapter 11. In John Chapter 11, it's three friends of Jesus. There's Mary and Martha and their brother back down to a B. Okay, it's okay. Lazarus, his name's Lazarus, right? So the story is this, that Mary Martha send word to Jesus,

and they say, the one you love, your friend, Lazarus is dying. He's sick. Jesus delays, he finally gets there. Lazarus has been dead for four days. And Martha comes out to meet him, she's broken-hearted, and Mary goes out to meet her, and her heart's broken. And then Jesus says, take me to the tomb, and he gets to the tomb, and he sees his friend Martha weeping,

and he sees his friend Mary weeping, and he sees the other people weeping, and he's standing in front of the tomb of his friend Lazarus. And what happens? It's the shortest line in the entire Bible. It's only two words. Okay, you can redeem yourself. What are the two words?

That's the shortest verse in the entire Bible. Go for it. Back to an A. Well done. Jesus wept. Which, if you think about it, it's kind of ridiculous. You imagine, here's Jesus. He was like, guys, just calm down.

I mean, this life is good and everything. But heaven is awesome. Like, I've been there. He could dismiss it. Or he could even say, guys, calm down. In like three minutes, I'm going to raise him from the dead. It's going to be fine. Stop trying.

But he doesn't. What does he do? Here is the God who is powerful and mighty and impressive and invulnerable. And he lets what breaks our hearts break his heart. When it says, Jesus wept. I think too often we do this. I think too often we say, well, God's not going to be interested, moved by the things that move me, the things that interest me. He's not going to be, he's not

going to care about the things I care about. And yet we have this proof that no, here's the God who's powerful but plays. Here's the God who loves us and listens. Here's the God who lets what breaks our heart break his heart. That's who we're talking to when we pray. That's who we're talking to at this mass. Here's the question. If that's who we're talking to, how are we talking to him? Because who we're talking to determines how we talk to them. I think sometimes we have this notion that, well, God's all powerful, so I don't know, just come to him and beg. Or God knows everything.

Have ever had this thing where you're like, okay, well, God knows everything, so I don't need to bring him anything. Like, God knows everything, so I don't need to tell him anything. I'll talk to people who are like, okay, just pour out your heart to the Lord. And they're like, ah, you already knows. No, bring your cares to him. Well, he already knows. There was this priest out of South Dakota who once shared this image with me.

that I thought was so helpful when it came to, why would we talk or how do we talk to a God who already knows? He said this. Imagine, here's the kid of a father and his son. And the dad's best friend is the son's basketball coach. At one point, there's an unway game and the dad can't go. So the son's in the game. The last two minutes of the game, the sun just lights it up.

Like shoots the daylight out of the thing. Great defense, incredible comeback, amazing game. They win the game. They're on the bus ride back home, and the son is sitting there behind the coach, his dad's best friend, and he hears his coach on the phone with his dad as his coach is giving the play-by-play.

He did this, and then this, and then this. And they finally get home, and he walks into the kitchen, and dad says, oh my gosh, tell me all about the game. Now, if that's, if we're, that son is like us, what we'd say?

It was fine. Say, no, no, tell me, tell me. How did it go? And then we'd say this. We'd say, well, you already know. The coach already told you all of it. Here's the thing.

The dad doesn't want his son to tell him how the game went because he doesn't know. He wants his son to tell him how the game went because he wants to hear it from him. He wants to see, like, but how is it for you? How is that in your heart? That's whenever we pray and we tell God, we pour our hearts to him, we're not telling God something he doesn't know. We're giving him access to something he doesn't have.

We could ask the question, especially for those of us who struggle telling God what's in our heart, struggle telling God what our desires or fears or cares or concerns are, you'd ask the question, how well would God know you if all he knew of you is what you told him in prayer? How well have I shown in my heart? This is the last thing. How well would God know you if all he knew of you was what you told him in prayer?

How much of your heart would he know? How much of your heart would he have? and also how much of his heart do you know? Because we can't keep having this case of mistaken identity. We can't do it anymore. We can't come before God and say, great God, you're powerful, you're mighty, you're majestic, but you're not close.

No, he is powerful, but he plays. And he is the father who is unlimited, and yet he loves. And he listens. And in just a second, we're going to stand. In a second, we're going to declare, here's what I believe about God. We're saying, I believe in God the Father Almighty. And what does that mean?

What does it mean for you to say, no, I know this. I believe this. I believe in God the Father. He's Almighty, but he's my dad. And for the rest of this Mass, we're going to be talking not to God our master as his slaves. We're going to be talking to God, our Father, as his children. So as we go back to prayer, now here's the question. Who are you talking to?