Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 12/11/22 Closer Than You Think: Be Patient

Episode Date: December 10, 2022

Homily from the Third Sunday of Advent. Be patient with the Lord, the process, and yourself. We often find it difficult to wait for things to come to us. During this season of Advent, we can also struggle with the feeling that "nothing is happening". During this time, we need to be reminded that God is closer than we think; He is in each moment and in each step...and remember to be patient. Mass Readings from December 11, 2022: Isaiah 35:1-6, 10 Psalms 146:6-10James 5:7-10 Matthew 11:2-11

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 33777.7. 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 Matthew. Chapter 11 verses 2 through 11. When John the Baptist heard in prison of the works of the Christ, he sent his disciples to Jesus with this question. Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another? Jesus said to them in reply, Go and tell John what you hear and see.

The blind regain their sight. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. The deaf here. The dead are raised. and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me. As they were going off,

Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, saying, what did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces. Then why did you go out?

To see a prophet? Yes. I tell you, and more than a prophet. this is the one about whom it is written behold I am sending my messenger ahead of you he will prepare your way before you amen I say to you among those born of women

there has been none greater than John the Baptist yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he the gospel of the Lord so I was thinking about that I think it's so funny how when we are looking forward to something that we use this phrase we use basically when we anticipate something when we're looking forward to

something, we're excited about something, we want something, we just, we say, we say, I can't wait. I don't know why it is, that just strikes me as funny. Because, you know, we say it things, we say it all the time. Like, I can't wait for tomorrow. Or I can't wait for this paper to be written. I can't wait for these finals to be done. I can't wait, I can't wait to go home. I can't wait to be in my own bed.

I can't wait to sleep. I'm very obsessed right now with sleeping. I can't, I can't wait for Christmas. Like, there's all these things, and we just keep saying is, I can't wait. And I think for the most part, we're right. Like, we can't. Like, as human beings, I think we're really bad at waiting, like most of us. In fact, I don't know if you've ever heard of the Stanford marshmallow experiment.

We've seen this? So in 1971 at Stanford, they did this experiment. They brought these preschool-age kids into this room, and they set them down at a table, and on a plate, there was a marshmallow. And they said, okay, here's what you can do. You can have the marshmallow now, or we're going to leave the room. And if you wait, if we come back into the room and you haven't eaten the marshmallow, you get two marshmallows.

And then they left. and to see what happened. And the idea behind this was, is there any connection between the ability to have delayed gratification as a kid and success later on in life? Like, if the people who eat the marshmallows right away, are they in prison, you know, that situation?

So they came to some conclusions. It was inconclusive. They redid this study in 2018. It's also inconclusive. But what's not inconclusive is how awesome the videos are. So here's an early Christmas present. Just look up Stanford Marstomel Experiment on YouTube

and it's awesome. There's some kids that there's a in the marshmallow in front of them, and the person leaves and they're like, boom, boom, done. Like, no waiting. I'm fine. It's over. I got my one marshmallow.

Other kids are super calm. Yep, I don't need a marshmallow. I'm waiting for my two. Others are hilarious. They're like covering, there's some kids like covering their eyes. Some kids sitting on their hands. There's one kid who's like completely turned around in his chair. Like, I can't look at this.

I can't look at this. Like holding his hand over his mouth. And it's, again, Merry Christmas. My gift to you. Look it up. It's awesome. The thing is, it's. you can see the drama of our human experience

on the faces of these little preschoolers. Because that's us, that's us, just like in this place of like, when I want something, I can't wait. And yet we have to, right? Here we are in the middle of Advent. The whole thing is waiting. Like, you know, it's either waiting, is preparing for the first,

to celebrate the first coming of Jesus at Christmas, or it's preparing for this final coming. And of course, we talked about this for the last couple weeks. That even though we're preparing for the celebrate the first coming, Christmas and preparing for the second coming, there's this middle coming that we actually realize that God isn't distant, that the truth is that God is close. In fact, we've been going through this series called God is closer than you think. And of course, the pain part of a lot of us is that too many of us, you know, we show up for mass on a regular basis, and we're living out a

secondhand relationship with God. Like too many of us, we've never had a firsthand encounter with God. And so we go to Mass and we get to hear about other people's encounters with Jesus. We get to hear about other people's relationship with God. And so we end up just simply having a secondhand relationship with a God who made you to have a first hand relationship with them. Like God made us to know him. He actually made us to encounter him. And so what we did is the first Sunday of Advent, I said, okay, how about this? In order to let that be the reality, here's the challenge.

The Advent challenge has been 29 minutes a day for 29 days, you know, from the first Sunday of Advent to Christmas. And if you haven't started, you can start today. It'll be fewer days, but it's still 29 minutes where we go into the Lord's presence in the Eucharist. Just put yourself before the tabernacle, put yourself before Jesus in the Eucharist and just say, Jesus, reveal yourself to me. No, it's been incredible. I've heard from students. Actually, I love being at Newman because all day, like every day, there's all these people coming in and going who never had been there before,

but they're doing the 29-minute challenge. It's awesome. People have been writing to me and saying, like, I'm doing this 29 minutes. In fact, yesterday I did a wedding here. And in the back, there's this woman not even from Duluth. who said, okay, father, I'm doing the 29-minute challenge. My problem is this. Sometimes I go to the church and it's locked.

What do I do? I was like, well, just sit in your car in the parking lot and face the church. She's like, really? I'm like, yeah. It's like a giant tabernacle. Like, that's a little tabernacle. Like, if you're outside of the church, it's like a giant tabernacle. It's the same thing.

The problem, of course, is almost everyone has said, I'm showing up. Some people saying it's awesome. Some people are saying it's difficult, but almost everyone has this. experience of I'm showing up in some days nothing's happening. I'm showing up in some days it feels like nothing's going on. So what do you do then? I want to talk about that. What do you do then when you show up for prayer and nothing happens? What do you do? The answer is pretty simple and I really apologize right away. It's not my answer. It's the Bible answer. So if you get mad at anyone,

get mad at James because he's the one who today in the second reading, he said, okay, when you're awaiting this, when you're longing for this, his answer was, be patient. Like, I duck for tomatoes. I know, because, like, no one when you want something, no one when you can't wait wants to hear, it's okay, just be patient. That helps no one ever. I understand this. So in order to make this kind of, like, be more practical, I want to invite us all to tell you, be patient in three ways. Or be patient in three areas. Number one, be patient with the Lord. When we, we need to be patient. When show up and it feels like nothing's going on, nothing's happening. First, just be patient with the Lord. Why? Because the truth is, it feels like he might be absent, but the truth is, God is

closer than you think. I don't know if you know the story of Daniel from the Old Testament. You know, Daniel, he was a Jewish man who, when the Babylonians came into Jerusalem, they exiled a ton of people. He was one of the people exiled. Of course, he was in the lines then, that whole story with Daniel. At one point later on in Daniel's life, he was a, praying next to a river. And it's Daniel chapter 10. And he says, I, Daniel, in that moment, I saw a vision. The vision was of an incredible battle, incredible war, with incredible devastation. When Daniel saw this vision, his heart was broken. Like, he just experienced this anguish. And he turned to prayer. He said this. He said, I, Daniel, mourned a full three weeks. I ate no

savory food. I took no meat or wine. And I did not anoint myself at all until the end of three weeks. So immediately here's Daniel who sees this vision, all this devastation, it breaks his heart, and he just immediately cries out to God. He cries out to God and he fasts, he does penance, all these things, and nothing happens. For over three weeks. Finally, it says, on the 24th day of the month, I was stood in the bank of the Great River again. And I looked up. And I saw a man dressed in linen with a belt of fine gold around his waist. His body was like chrysalite. His face shone like lightning and his eyes were like fiery torches. He sees an angel, a vision of an angel.

And the angel speaks. Daniel falls to the ground like he's dead. Then he says, the angel said to me, Daniel, beloved, understand the words I'm speaking to you. Stand up, for our mission is now to you. And then he goes on to say, fear not, Daniel. From the first day you made up your mind to acquire understanding and humble yourself before God, your prayer was heard. The moment you decided to pray, your prayer was heard. But he said, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia stood in my way. demon of some sort.

Stood in my way for 21 days, he fought me. Until finally Michael, one of the chief princes, you can always count on Michael. Team Michael, it's good. Until Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me. I left him there with the prince of the king of Persia, and I came to make you understand

that what shall happen to your people in the days to come. So think about this. You're Daniel. You've had this vision. It's broken your heart. And immediately you pray, you fast. You do all these things, and nothing happens.

But the angel said, actually, Daniel, what you didn't realize, from the moment you decided to pray, not even like after a day of fasting, after a day of prayer, for the moment you even decided to pray, God immediately heard your prayer. So what do we do when it feels like nothing's happening?

We realize God is closer than you think. You know, there's 29 minutes that we show up. We have to realize, okay, I cannot control when God will reveal himself. I cannot control how God will reveal himself. Don't rush him. not only because you can't rush him, but also because you don't have to.

He's closer than you think. The first reading today, Isaiah 35 says the same thing. In this time of devastation, Isaiah says, be strong, fear not. Here is your God. He comes to save you, basically saying, God is here, God is doing something. God is closer than you think.

And I know this for myself, maybe for a lot of us, we can hear this, we can know this, we can even believe it with everything, and still have the sense enough like, yeah, but really? Like, are you sure? I think of the gospel today, right? Here's John the Baptist. He says, John the Baptist, he's in jail,

and he sends his disciples to Jesus to ask him the question, are you the one who is to come? Are you the Messiah? Or should we look for someone else? And some people say that this is John saying, listen, I know my next step. My next step is I'm going to beheaded. So my disciples go to Jesus.

He's the one. Maybe he's just like pointing them in his direction. that's a real thing. I wonder, though, if it's not John being kind of like us. We're like, okay, I know that when I was in my mom's womb, the Holy Spirit came to me because here's Jesus in his mom's womb, I get that. I know that I was at the Jordan River baptizing Jesus,

and I heard the voice say this is my beloved son, and I saw the dove come upon Jesus. I know that, but you know what? It's not going fast enough, and it's not like I thought. so like Jesus, like, are you sure? Like, is it really you? Like, there seems to be like the possibility that maybe John was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But for real? Because that's what we can do all the time. God, I know you were closer than I think. But this isn't going fast enough. It's not how I expected. But in these moments, we have to just realize God is here. And God is doing something.

And God is closer than you think. We just have to be patient with the Lord because this is how it goes. This is how it goes. This is the process. That's the second thing. We not only have to be patient with the Lord. We have to be patient with the process. Because all of life is a process.

We realize this, right? Like all of life is a process. Your prayer life is a process. It doesn't automatically happen. Our relationships, our processes, like even getting better at anything in life is a process. And of course, we will say, if I want it done, though, I can't wait. And in that moment, we just have to hear the Lord say, can be patient with the Lord, be patient with the process.

Why? Because the process does two things. Process does at least two things. The process prepares and the process reveals. This is what the process does every time. The process prepares and the process reveals. The process prepares us, I don't know if you know the story of David in the Old Testament. I think everyone probably knows the story of David. So when David's a kid, the prophet Samuel comes to his father's house.

His father's name is Jesse. And David has all these brothers. And Jesse looks at all the older brothers like, nope, none of these. And finally, he sees the kid. He sees David. And the Lord God says, that's the one. That's the next king of Israel, anoint him. And so here is David.

As a child, he gets anointed the king. And then immediately, where does he go? He doesn't go to the throne. He doesn't go to the kingdom. He immediately goes back out into the field. And imagine if you're David, like, no, no, no, no. Wait, I'm not a shepherd anymore. I was anointed a king.

But when he goes into the field, he does a couple things. He goes into the field and while he's there taking care of the sheep, he brings a liar, like a harp with him. And as he's taking care of the sheep every day, day after day, every night, night after night, he plays the liar. He sings songs. He writes songs. He becomes excellent at the liar.

So that later on when King Saul, the actual king, is having a kind of a nervous breakdown, someone says, you know what, I know of a shepherd boy who like can really sing really well, plays the liar amazingly. like we should bring him and he'll sing to Saul and soothe his mind. So that's what they do. Here's David, the one who's already been anointed, but he's not king yet, but he knows how to sing a song and he goes and sings in Saul's place and sees. Like, oh, this is how you run a courtroom or this aren't run a court.

This is how you lead a country. He's been preparing for this. Goes back to the field. What does he do? He protects the sheep. even like he fights off bears and he fights off lions and he fights off all these animals so that when Goliath shows up and challenges the people of Israel, David's like, oh no, I know how to fight stuff because I've been prepared for this.

Later on, he's made the general. And he's being prepared this whole time. He's not the king yet. You know, he's been anointed the king years ago, but now he's a general and he's learning how to lead soldiers. Last thing happens, I think it's maybe the most devastating thing that happens. at one point Saul tries to kill him, so David has to run into the wilderness. He has no soldiers. He has no job. He has no nothing. He has this group of bandits, basically a group of hooligans that are surrounding him.

And he has to learn how to lead these people who are unleadable. This whole time, what's happening? What's happening? He's being prepared. He's being prepared to see, this is what it's like to lead a country. This is what it's like to lead people in battle. This is what it's like to be a king. until finally he becomes king. Now, David was anointed a king as a kid. He doesn't become king until he's 30. But this whole time, the process prepared him.

And that's what it does for us. That's the whole point of the process. The process prepares. So every time you and I take a step, that's preparing us. Last week we talked about this, right? Just begin. Just take that step. Just make that decision.

And if you fell, begin again. Why? Because God is in that step. every time you take a step. Every choice you make, God is in that choice. And every choice makes you stronger. Every step makes you stronger. Of course, maybe I don't want to be stronger.

Like, right? Like maybe I want immediate results. I get that because I too want a microwavable life where it just automatically happens. But there's no such thing. There's no such thing. as a destination without a journey. Or even more pointedly,

there's no such thing as a worthwhile destination without a meaningful journey. There's no such thing as a destination that's worth getting to without a difficult journey, without a difficult process. So this is what we need to know right now, tonight. Where you are right now in life matters.

Like what you're going through tonight, that matters. Where you are right now is important. but it is not where you will always be. Right now, I know some of us are so preoccupied, but I have so much stuff to do. I have so many things to do. There are so much that has to get done. Just imagine where you will be next Sunday night.

A lot of those, not all of those things, but a lot of the things that right now just feel like the weight of the world will be done. Now, where you are matters right now. What you're doing right now is important. But you won't be in this place forever. God is here. God is closer than you're thinking. God is doing something. In fact, God is doing something in this that he couldn't do without it. Whatever you're going through

right now. God is doing something in this that he couldn't do without it. And so we have to be patient because this is the process. The process prepares, but also the process reveals. You're even deciding to take a step, reveal something. Even deciding to begin, reveal something. I think this. I think to choose to enter into the process is to choose to wake up. Like to choose to enter into the process is to refuse to remain oblivious. Because I think a lot of us, a lot of times we're oblivious to ourselves. Like we don't even know. You know, sometimes we think that C.S. Lewis writes about this.

He said, sometimes we think that it's the people who sin a lot that they know like the power of sin. He's like, no, that's not true. He said, only the people who resist sin know how strong temptation is. In the same way, only someone who stands against the wind can actually know how strong the wind is. I would say, I can't know the strength or the weakness of my heart until I make a decision and then attempt to hold fast to it.

I can't know how reliable I am until I make a promise and then try to keep it. I can't know how deep my love is or how shallow my love is until I say, okay, God, 29 minutes every day, and then nothing happens. And do I keep showing up? Or do I stop showing up? Because we realize that the process reveals, process reveals something about my own heart. And that takes time.

So we have to be patient. I mean, when it comes to relationships, I've been asked a couple of times. I've been asked a couple times by people if that would do their wedding on the one year anniversary of their first date. Does that make sense? So today's December 11th, right?

So someone's saying, hey, our first date was December 11th, 2021. Would you do our wedding on December 11th, 2022? And I've done my best to say no to that. I just think, you know, and whenever I say, I think you need more time. Whenever I say that, people are like, well, you know my grandparents. My grandparents met and married within six weeks, and they just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, and they're the happiest couple I've ever met. And I would say that is wonderful.

I believe you. I've also heard of people who have gone over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survived. I don't recommend it as a reliable way of travel. I just don't think that's a good way to live. Because why? Because I think there are some things that only time can reach. deal. There's some things that only time will show. That's the process. And we can't rush it. You can only enter into it. Right now, you're in the process. We can't rush it. We can only enter

into it. So we have to be patient with the Lord, with the process, and lastly with ourselves. Do you be patient with yourself? This is the last thing. I don't know if you've had this experience, but I know so often, like when we try to start following the Lord, we really quickly realized, like, how much more broken we are than we thought. Like, we tried to get close to Jesus and we realize, oh, my gosh, it is so much more painful because I thought I was doing really, really well. And now I realize all of the brokenness that I find in my life, I start seeing all the ways I'm failing. I start seeing all the weeds in my heart.

Do you remember back in elementary school when you, like, cut in half a milk carton and put some soil in it, like planted a seed, and you like try to grow something? I'm the worst. I remember leaving that thing on the window sill on Friday thinking, like, I can't wait. Monday, it's going to be all different in rushing back on Monday and nothing. And so I did exactly what they told us not to do. I was going to dig down there a little bit and see what's going on. Maybe the seed needs a little massage or something like, and I would always, everyone else's

after two weeks, three weeks, be growing and mine would be dead. Because I wanted mine to grow faster than was able. I wanted mine to be able to grow faster than I was able to grow. There's this man named Brother Lawrence. He was a monk back in the day. He wasn't a very accomplished guy. Back to his job in the monastery, he had two jobs in the monastery. One was to answer the door, and the other was to wash the bottles.

They had a brewery in the monastery. It was kind of neat. Makes a vocation more attractive. But it was to answer the door and to wash the bottles. So it wasn't very big, wasn't glamorous. But he wanted to grow faster than he could. In fact, he said, for 10 years, I was worried that my walk with the Lord wasn't good enough. For 10 years, he said, sometimes we get so bad that I thought I was on my way to hell.

I thought it was going so slow that I was going backwards. He said, everything changed. Everything changed. When I stopped expecting to grow any faster than grace would allow. Everything changed. when I stopped expecting to grow faster than grace would allow. So he had this freedom when he realized, he resolved, I will not grow any faster than grace allows.

So when we look at ourselves and when we find weeds growing, to not freak out, that's what happens. Even in the best gardens, even the best soil, will not only grow incredible fruit, but the best soil grows a lot of weeds. and it's a really, really strange gardener who gets so discouraged. I weeded last week. Why do I have to weed again?

I'm done with this. That's a very bad gardener. A good gardener says, oh, I expect weeds. So St. Francis de Sills said that. He said two things. When you get close to the Lord, two things, expect two things. One is expect the weeds. Secondly, let the Lord take the weeds out and help him sometimes.

Don't be shocked by the person. presence of weeds. But be patient. Be patient. It's so hard to be patient. In fact, the word patience means long suffering. Like you guys tonight, right now. The word patience means long suffering. But God is here. God is closer than you think. And because of that, and for no other reason, we know that he's doing something. So be patient with the Lord. and be patient with the process. And be patient with yourself because God is patient with you.