Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 12/08/19 The Gift That Changes Everything

Episode Date: December 8, 2019

Homily from the Second Sunday of Advent. To be gripped by God is not supposed to be comfortable. The Prophet says that the great gift of the Spirit is the fear of the Lord. But what is it? Mass Readings from December 8, 2019: Isaiah 11:1-10 Psalms 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17Romans 15:4-9 Matthew 3:1-12

So again, I've been thinking about presents, obviously, because it's coming up. I was thinking about my favorite presents like I've ever gotten in my life. And it's funny, because when I was 10, I remember getting Optimus Prime for my birthday. And it was the best thing ever. Optimus Prime is from Transformers, for those of you who are not cultured. One of my favorite presents, but it wasn't the best. And then when I was fifth grade, I got a, back for Christmas, I got a bike. It was awesome. It was the greatest thing because I had up to that point only ridden hand-me-down bikes. and my older sisters, I rode the girls' bikes.

So the banana seat with the girl's seat with the whole thing. It was my first chance. I remember getting this bike when I was in fifth grade at being so excited and then realizing I live in Minnesota, so he will not be able to ride this bike for the next five months. So that's fine. It was a great gift, but it wasn't like the best gift ever. There's so many, I've got a chemistry set once,

and I'm so excited to get this chemistry set because I'm like, I am either going to be Batman or Sherlock Holmes, and both of them got chemistry sets as kids. So, like, that's how I'm going to train. This is at the beginning. But even that, like, I figured out, I found out pretty quickly that I don't like chemistry. And so, I'm like, what was the best gift?

I was thinking about this. I was actually, I brought up to prayer, prayer about whatever. What was the best gift I ever got? And I realized it was a speak and spell. You guys are the speaking spell? Speaking spell is basically a little, I don't know, it looks like a tablet, and it would ask you questions about how to spell words, and you type it in and you get it right

or you get it wrong, and I'm a nerd, just confession right now. I just don't know, my favorite gift. I played the speaking spell so many times and I realized why do I think that was my favorite gift of all time? Not because it was the best gift, it was the most useful gift. I realized what happened, I realized what happened to me in playing the speak and spell is a number of things. One, I got really good at spelling, so don't step up, step off. When it comes down to throwing down words. But the other thing is the speaking spell, it was, it made taking tests a game.

It made taking tests a game. So I was never intimidated by tests in school. Because my games are tests. And what happens when you fail a test? Well, you learn and you take the test again. And it was this crazy thing. I realized that's why I'm praying about this thing. I'm bringing it back and saying, oh my gosh, this little tablet game,

it shaped me so profoundly that I realized it was, this is probably out of all the gifts they've ever received. I don't see, because of the speaker's bell, I don't see failure as failure. I see, or failure as final. I see failure as I just learned. let's go again. I don't see like falling down as the end, falling down is, okay, now I'm better.

Let's go again. Because of that speaking spell, because of that gift, like it's changed so much. And maybe for you, actually, your gift, the best gift you ever got was a bike. It's taught you how to conquer your fears. Maybe it was a bike because it gave you independence. Maybe it was the chemistry set.

You realize, no, I really love experimenting. I can teach myself. I don't need a teacher to teach me. I don't know whatever your gift was. It's the gift that is the gift that was so important to you that actually shaped you. It wasn't just something you received, but actually it might have even charted the course

of everything else in your life. Because there's gifts like that. There are gifts like that. And in fact, the scripture, the first reading from Isaiah chapter 11 talks about the gifts of God. And it goes through the whole list. It says there's the gift of wisdom. Super good gift. There's a gift of understanding. There's the gift of counsel. The gift of strength. Many of you have the gift of strength

and understanding and wisdom. There's the gift of knowledge. And then it gets to this last gift, this last gift of the Holy Spirit, says, the gift of the spirit of the Lord. But then the author, Isaiah, the prophet, he says, and, and here's the thing is, out of all those gifts, the best gift is the fear of the Lord. He says, very clearly, after this whole list of gifts, such good gifts from God, understanding, wisdom, counsel, fortitude, but his delight will be the fear of the Lord. One of the things the prophet is saying is he's like, okay, this gift of this gift of this. fear of the Lord, this is going to be, if you have this gift, if you've been given this gift, this is going to be the gift that defines the rest of your life.

You know, that phrase, the fear of the Lord, is used over 110 times in the Bible. And one of the things that says about the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's the first stage of wisdom. It belongs to everyone who belongs to him. Like, if you don't have fear of the Lord, it's like, who be nervous, because the fear of the Lord belongs to everyone who belongs to him. any delights in this which makes it

makes it no sense right you're like okay I delight in being afraid that's what we have to understand right now what is the fear of the Lord what is it not so back in the fourth century there's this guy named St. Hilarya Poitier which is fun to say later on you can take it try it yourself

so St. Hilary of Poitier in the fourth century he said listen we have to understand the fear of the Lord is not terror it's not being scared it's not being afraid of God and he goes on he says because no one needs to teach you how to be afraid no need to teach you terror

because we're afraid of he goes on he says we're afraid of anything we don't want to happen to us so he goes he says we can be afraid of wild beasts we're afraid of sickness we're afraid of suffering we're afraid of finals he didn't say that but not just filling it in you know we're paraphrasing

he says we can be afraid of someone who's stronger than us who doesn't like us who's not a good person but he points out he says but terror doesn't have to be taught you don't have to learn it Fear of the Lord is something that can be taught in Psalm 34. The psalmist, he says, come my children, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord can be taught. It's not terror. It's better than terror. It's more useful. It's more valuable. It's a gift. Why? Because terror, being afraid, wants to make us hide, right?

Doesn't it? When you're scared of something? When you're scared to something, it makes you want to hide. So when I was a kid growing up, like I would sleep, I mean for a long time, I slept with under the covers. And you're like, yeah, no big deal. Like, I mean under the covers. Like my head was tucked, it was like completely covered under the covers. And my siblings used to make fun of me because I did it because I was afraid.

Because there's some things you're scared of, right? Just terrified for. And my siblings make fun of me, they're like, aren't you hot? I'm like, yeah, but I'm not dead. No one's murdered me yet in my sleep. They wouldn't let it go. They were like, yeah, but like, if you're under the covers, you can't see when someone comes into your room. I'm like, I also can't see because my eyes are closed.

But maybe they can't see me. And they're going to your bed, Mark, where your head's sticking out all vulnerable and stuff, and I'm the one surviving brother. Whatever. Because being afraid makes us want to hide. Being scared makes us want to hide. I mean, even think about Genesis chapter 3.

In chapter 2, what happens is God makes this incredible world. He puts this man Adam and this woman Eve in paradise. And they love him, and they know that he loves them. them. And then what happens? They sin. They eat the fruit. And they hear God coming. God says, where are you? And what does Adam say? Adam says, I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid myself. I was afraid. Here's the interesting thing to note. It's not God's goodness that makes us want to hide. It's our brokenness that makes us want to hide. When Adam and Eve weren't aware of any brokenness, but they weren't to wear of any sin, they loved being in God's

presence. It wasn't his goodness that made them want to hide. It was their sin that makes them want to hide. And the same thing is true with us. But the fear of the Lord, it doesn't make us want to hide. The fear of the Lord actually is something different. It's something better. You know, the fear of the Lord is also not just the emotional state of crisis. Because sometimes I talk to people and they're like, okay, so I have fear of the Lord. It means like, I approach the Lord with fear and trembling. And they think they literally have to be like super jittery, like, okay, here I go. You know, it's kind of like, I'm shaking when I'm in the Lord's presence. No, That's pass.

The fear of the Lord is also not this emotional state of crisis. In fact, C.S. Lewis talks about this, and he says, that makes no sense because not only can we not will an emotion. And the emotion of like fear and trembling, we also can't live in that place. So it's not being afraid, so we're hiding from God. It's not approaching him, but shaking the whole time. So what is the fear of the Lord? And hasn't been wrestling with this so long. And I just, I think, a friend of mine pointed this out, he said,

he said, it's like this. It's like when, so you're hiking into the mountains or something like this, right? And you come upon this scene that just makes you stop. You see this vision of something, the mountains, the woods, the, whatever this is, but it's just so, it's so incredible. It is so, like, literally awesome that you have to just, in its presence, you have, it grips you. It grips you.

and it takes a hold of you. So here's the fear of the Lord. It's not, I'm terrified. It's not, I'm scared. It's not, I'm also like feeling this. It's this recognition of, wait a second, I've seen something. I've stopped by this.

This is bigger than me. Maybe even this is dangerous. I don't want to move on. I don't know if you've ever been gripped by God like that. I've been gripped by God like that, because that's what the fear of the Lord can be like. But it demands that we, We stop. It demands that we see. It demands that we let ourselves be gripped. And I don't know if we like that.

Not only are we so busy, we just rush past. I mean, imagine this. We rush past gorgeous sights all the time. We rush past people who have made man in God's image and likeness without even looking up all the time. So you don't stop. We don't see. And also, I don't think we, I don't know if we all like being gripped by God. Because I think we'd rather be comfortable. I think a lot of us would rather have that sense of like even we'd say this like I don't know if I'm comfortable with the idea of like the fear of the Lord and I say that's that's okay like it's fully okay because this isn't supposed to be comfortable

there's this rabbi his name is rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel one of his students he came to him and he the student was kind of far from God and he came to the rabbi and he said to Rabbi Heschel, he said, it must be gratifying to spend all of your time, all of your life amid what he called the comforts of religion. That would be really nice, gratifying to spend all your life, you know, rabbi amongst the comforts of religion. And Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel looked back at him and said, oh, no, no, no, no, no.

God is not an uncle. He said, God is not nice. God is an earthquake. Degripped by an earthquake. This is what it is to experience the fear of the Lord. I'm not saying hey to my uncle. I'm being gripped by an earthquake. Peter Craft is one of my favorite philosophers.

He worked at Boston College for years. And he said, he said, true religion might lead to comfort ultimately. But it never begins in comfort. It always begins in repentance and humility and fear. It always begins there. Here's the clarification. Therapeutic religion begins with comfort.

therapeutic religion wants you to feel good. That's the goal of therapy, right? That's the goal of therapeutic religion. It wants you to feel good. But Judaism and Christianity, they are prophetic religions, not therapeutic religions. Judaism and Christianity are prophetic religions,

which it doesn't want you to feel good, wants you to be good. Our Lord, our faith, doesn't call us to feel good. Our faith, our God, he's a prophet. The prophet who was ahead of him calls us not to feel good.

He calls us to actually be good. Look at the gospel today. John the Baptist, He's not like offering people comfort. He's not saying, hey, come to me and just like, feel the waters of baptism. Isn't it awesome? In fact, when the Pharisees and Sadruses he show up, what does he say? You pack us snakes.

Like, ouch. Listen, I promise you, I will never call you that ever, ever, ever. But the prophet does. And the prophet says, if you really want repentance, if you really want to change, if you don't just want to feel good, but you want to be good, says produce good fruits as a sign of the fact that you're actually willing to change. You can't just stroll up to God like he's your buddy. This is what the prophet says.

You can't just stroll up to God like he's your buddy. God is not your buddy. It's not about being comfortable. Because when God becomes your chum, he quickly becomes your chump. Retweet. So when God becomes... But this is true, this is true. When God becomes your chum, when he becomes your palau,

he quickly becomes your chump because we start thinking this like, no, no, no, no. He doesn't mind about that. Like I know the commandments say this, but he doesn't mind about that. Oh, really? Listen, that's not the God that I follow. The God that I follow doesn't care about this or that or the other thing. And we realize that's too little. And I begin to dismiss God.

I mean, think about, when Moses meets God in the burning bush, God says, Moses, take off your shoes. The place where you're standing is holy ground. Moses is like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. No the God I know. What does God care about footwear? This is ridiculous. I don't know what God cares about footwear.

But what he reveals to Moses is he reveals that he's there. So Moses act like it. This is what is to be gripped by God. This is what it is to have the fear of the Lord. It's to realize, okay, God is here. Therefore, I need to act like it. God is here. Therefore, I need to act like it.

And again, I can still hear it. But like, I want to feel comfortable. Like shouldn't I, shouldn't we expect? Because you know of Jesus, who loves us, he comes close to us, that's what Christmas is all about. Shouldn't I expect to be comfortable around him? And I would say yes and no. Yes, in the sense that he calls us his friends, he calls us into intimate relationship with him.

But maybe like this, maybe as comfortable with him as we would be if we worked near a nuclear reactor. That may be how comfortable we should be with God. As comfortable with him as we would be if we worked with a nuclear reactor. I have a buddy, he's a priest out in Michigan. And he went to seminary with a former nuclear physicist, who also became a priest. And the nuclear physicist was kind of a weird guy. And he told my friend Father John, he said, Father John, they were seminary.

And so, hey, John, have you ever seen a nuclear reactor? And like an ordinary human being, John said, nope, I haven't. And the guy said, you really should. He says, it's incredible. If you look it up online, it says, it's incredible to look into this nuclear reactor. And he says, but there's this wall of protective glass around the reaction. And he said, if there was even a credible. crack, the smallest crack in that glass, and you were standing in front of it, you would cease

to exist in less than an instant. And he said, that's what I always think of when I walk in front of the tabernacle with Jesus inside, because this is the God we're gripped by, to be as comfortable with him as we would be with a nuclear reactor. If there was a crack in his goodness, there isn't. But if there was a crack in his goodness, we would cease to exist in less than an instant. Because here's the problem with comfort. I love comfort.

but comfort can often lead to us being casual with each other. If we're comfortable with each other, we quickly become casually. Don't we do this? Think about last weekend at Thanksgiving, or next week when you go back home for Christmas, hopefully. We become, oh, I'm home, I'm comfortable again. And then at first it's nice, it's good to be comfortable at your home. You should be comfortable in your home. But then being comfortable with our family, being comfortable with our friends, with our roommates,

it leads us to being casual with them, and that casual leads us to being careless. How many times have there been like, hard words in your family because I just, I was careless. I was so comfortable that I became casual, and then I was so casual, I became careless. I didn't, not being stuffy, like not being stiff with each other, but just actually taking care. Like, this is someone who's worth loving.

Like, this is my mom, mom, my dad. They're not my pal. I love them and they love me, but maybe we're not friends. You know, it's funny, as I mentioned at the beginning of mass, last Sunday, this is the week anniversary of our Bishop Paul Serber's death. Next Saturday is the 10th anniversary of his ordination. this upcoming December 14th, 10 years ago, he was ordained to be our bishop. You know, it's so cool.

The day he got ordained, it was the night of our Christmas party that we just had on Friday. We invited him to come. On the night of his ordination, hey, come by Newman and judge our talent show. Dude, he showed up. And he pretended to have fun. I was just so like, what a heart, what a great, incredible man. So then I was like, oh, my gosh. I knew him from when he was father, Paul Serba, back in the Twin Cities.

And I'm like, I love that priest. He's so good. Now he's our bishop. And I asked him out to dinner one night. later on that week. He said yes, and we sat down to eat at Bulldog Pizza. And within like maybe five minutes, I realized, oh, we're not going to be friends. Not because he was mean, not because he was cruel, not because he was cool.

He just was like, no, I'm your bishop. You're one of my priests. And we're not going to be pals. Again, it wasn't like one of those where I was like, oh gosh, Bishop Paul. It was like, oh, I get it. Because what he was offering me was better than being his buddy, was actually better than being his friend, he was like, I'm going to be a good father to you. And he was.

He'd better than being a pal. I say this. Around Bishop Serba, I did not merely want to be on my best behavior. I wanted to be my best. There's a difference. Around holiness, we don't just want to be on our best behavior. That's manners.

That's etiquette. That's fine. But it also can be a lifeless straight jacket. Around true holiness, around that's just with one of God. Saints, that's not what... Imagine what it's like with God. Do not be his pal, to not be his buddy.

But to be God's beloved child, or you don't just have manners, you don't just want to be on your best behavior, but you actually want to be your best. When you're in his presence, to be stopped by him, to take him seriously, to be aware of the wonder,

to be gripped by God. See, this is one of the reasons why the prophets said that the fear of the Lord is my delight. His delight is the fear of the Lord. Because why? because I know it's true nature, I know what God's really like. I know that he's not a tyrant and he's not a teddy bear.

Like, he's neither an overbearing grouch or an over-approving grandpa. The fear of the Lord is your delight. Why? When you have that gift, it becomes the gift that changes every other part of your life because I know I can approach the God that you know that you're longed for, you are fought for, you are begged for by the God who needs nothing and gives you everything. Imagine this. Being longed for by the God who needs nothing from you but just wants to give everything to you. To be gripped by that reality is the delight of every person who knows what his heart is like.

Now it doesn't mean there's no fear. Because in the midst of that, what do we experience? In the midst of that we experience like the reality of sin and hell are still terrifying realities. And the more in love we become with him, the more fearful we are of anything that could take us away from. from him. Sin and hell are terrifying realities. And if I don't, here's the reality. If I don't experience terror when I reflect on sin and hell, then my thermometer is broken. My terrorometer is broken. If I don't experience real fear, when I reflect on sin and hell, then something's up. Because God is the one. Maybe he's the only one in your life right now, who cares enough to pursue you. Maybe this God, in his presence who grips us, is the only one

who cares enough to fight for you. Maybe this God, where he's begging us to approach him is the only one who cares enough to beg for you, to die for you so that you and I have a chance to escape that slavery, to escape that sin. Now just imagine the depths of this reality degripped by the depths of this reality that we are served and loved by a God

who won't pretend to not see our scars. I was talking with a young woman recently who's really hurting, hurting so much that she often turns to two sources She often, maybe this is some of you too, and I don't want to bring anything up, but this is the reality. She often will cut into her own skin. And she told me that she's written on certain parts of her body, she's written some words.

What she thinks about herself, that in certain parts of her body, she told me that she's written the words, slut, whore, all these things, everything, and they're carved in there. And your other thing is, she will swipe right. Is it right? I don't know. she will use Tinder, she'll use Snapchat, she'll use whatever to hook up with guys. One of the ways she escapes her, tries to escape her pain. And I asked her about this, I said, well, when you hook up with those guys, like, don't they see the words that you said you've written on parts of your body?

She says, I don't think they see. I said, the way you described it, I think they have to see. She said, well, maybe they pretend not to see. maybe they pretend not to see see see here is the god of Christmas here's the god who steps into our world here's the god

who says let your delight be being gripped by me taking me seriously why because I'm a god who doesn't ever pretend not to see I don't ever pretend like I don't see your scars like I don't see your wounds

have the fear of the word why because he is great enough to do something about the scars, have fear of the Lord. Why? Because he's good enough to want to. So how do we grow in that? How do we walk in the fear of the Lord? Here's the last thing, just as brief as I possibly can. I think it starts in some ways by stopping, right?

To be overwhelmed by wonder and awe. To be overwhelmed by the sunset or the sunrise, be overwhelmed by the moon or the mountains, only can happen if we stop and are willing to look. What's that for us? That means, actually, I take time to pray. even maybe during finals, even maybe when school's not going on, and I'm back home and I'm super busy, maybe involves a stopping and entering his presence and praying.

Then maybe it involves being gripped by him and having to just let him hold you, even if it's uncomfortable and hear the words of the prophet, the prophetic religion, not the therapeutic religion, that says, listen, there's more for you. And maybe it means examining your conscience and saying, wait a second, God, how am I far from you? I see how good you are and you don't want me to be my best behavior. you want me to actually be my best? Maybe an examination of conscience and saying, God, where are you?

What's the distance? What's the gap between where I am and where you're calling me to be? That's an examination of conscience. The difference between where I am where you're calling me to be. And maybe lastly, it involves letting the God who doesn't pretend not to see your scars to actually have your scars. Maybe it involves actually letting the God

who will never pretend to not see your scars, to actually have access to your scars. This Tuesday night, in this ballroom, we're going to have a bunch of priests here from 7 o'clock to 9 p.m. 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Just to come here, they're going to spend two hours here just to wait for us to go to confession.

It's going to wait for us to say, yeah, the truth of the matter is, I've been trying to pretend not to see my scars. I've been hoping that other people are pretending not to see my scars, but God, I'm tired of that. I want you to see my scars, because I know that you are so great,

you can do something, so good you want to do something with these. Just three steps, three things. It's so simple to experience the delight of every saint, the delight of every prophet, the delight of every person's ever belonged to God, to stop in wonder, to be gripped and realize,

God, this is where you're calling me, and to not pretend to not see your own scars, but to hand them over to the God who is so great, he can heal them, and is so good that he wants to. This is the fear of the Lord. And it is a gift that can change everything else for the rest of your life and for the rest of eternity.