Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 12/12/21 Abounding Love: Large Hearted

Episode Date: December 13, 2021

Homily from the Third Sunday of Advent. Be Where Your Feet Are. Too often, what keeps our heart small is the fact that we do the minimum minimally. What we are called to do, we put the least amount of our heart into it. But to be magnanimous, we do even the minimum excellently. Which is often nothing more than simply doing one thing at a time. Abounding love is focused love. Mass Readings from December 12, 2021: Zephaniah 3:14-18 Isaiah 12:2-6Philippians 4:4-7 Luke 3:10-18

So I asked you about your favorite documentary because I wanted to tell you about my favorite documentary. About 10 years ago, I saw this documentary, about a documentary about a man named Yoro Ono. It's a show called Yuro Dreams of Sushi. I don't know if you ever saw this, but it was on Netflix for a while. Basically, the story of this man, at the time, 10 years ago, he was 85 years old. He was a master sushi chef, easy for me to say. He owned the most famous sushi restaurant in the world in a subway station in Tokyo, Japan. It was only served 10 people a night, and it was the first and only sushi place to have three

Michelin stars, Michelin stars, which I thought had something to do with car tires, but in fact doesn't. In fact, it's about great restaurants. I was fascinated, watch hours-long documentary about this man who all he does with his whole life is he selects and prepares and slices and serves raw fish. And it was absolutely, completely fascinating. There's also side stories. For example, he has his oldest son, is also a master of sushi.

sushi chef. And I think he's in his 60s and he's still second in command at the restaurant because his 95-year-old father is still in charge. And he will only be in charge when his dad leaves, which is only going to happen when he passes away. His youngest, his second son is also a master's sushi chef. And he had to open his own sushi restaurant because he's like, I'll never have a shot. My older brother will never be the boss. When he's the boss, I will never have a chance so he had to open his own. There was actually this other side story of one of the sushi chef they hired who had done sushi his entire life. But he gets hired by Yiro, and he said he made this egg sushi.

And he was good at it. He was an expert at it. But he made it, and Yero came by. He's like, no, no, no, no, no good. No good. He said for four months, he made four batches every day, and Yero would come by. Like, nope, that's not how it goes. Nope, that's no good. You have to throw it out. He said he made over 200 batches of egg sushi, and all of them were trashed by Yero until the one day he made a batch of egg sushi. And Yero came by and he said, Now, this is how egg sushi should be made. And he said, I was so happy that day.

I cried. And I think, like, that's great. That would be not necessarily the best boss. But absolutely fascinating. To watch the story of this man. I mean, honestly, I have dreamed of. I dream of sushi. And it's inspiring.

And who thought that raw fish could be so inspiring? I mean, I did because of soy sauce. But on its own, it's absolutely incredible because, I mean, think about this. This is true about almost anything. It's true about almost anything that anything done with excellence just grabs our attention.

Like anything done with excellence, it captures our imagination. I think one of the reasons is because so often we're surrounded by, I don't know, compromise. Like so often we're tempted to be adequate. Like we're tempted to mediocrity,

especially right now, I don't know if you feel this way, but right now leaning into the last week of school or finals, you kind of get this sense of like, you know what, it's just, I'm just going to turn it in. I've worked on this enough. I'm just going to hit submit and send it. Or when it comes to like, I'm studying and studying, you know what? I'm just going to take the test now.

In that kind of sense of like we just have this temptation in us and around us. Just it's fine. It's enough. It's adequate. And we even tell ourselves things like this that, you know, you probably heard this. You've probably heard this said before. But the question is, what do you call a graduate of medical school who graduates with a C average? doctor

we used to say that in seminary too what do you call a seminarian who gets ordained with a sea average father you know you even have a saying about it right you probably said this before Cs get degrees and it's true

they don't always get jobs but they get degrees at a friend who he was so committed to this my friend he said he'd always say this he said it more than once he said if the minimum weren't good enough it wouldn't be called the minimum and at times I'm like I like that if the minimum weren't good enough, it wouldn't be called the minimum.

You know, it's interesting because I was thinking about all this because of today's gospel, because here are these groups, these three groups, these three groups of people go to John the Baptist. There's the crowds, there's these tax collectors and their soldiers, and they all have the same question. And the question is, what should we do? Which is really good question. It's a really great question because there is something for them to do. It's not just, John the Baptist didn't just say, oh, we'll just believe. He didn't say, just be sorry.

He says, okay, be changed. live differently. But have you ever noticed how, like, really unchallenging his messages? When they ask him, what should we do? He basically says, if you have more than you need, give it away. To the tax collectors, how you just don't steal? To the soldiers, just don't extort anyone. And I just think, like, that bar is so low.

Like, I've done all those things today. And he didn't have to tell me, like, I didn't steal. I didn't extort anyone. If I had extra, I shared it. It's almost one of those things where it sounds like John the Baptist is giving them a pass to be mediocre. Or he's just giving them a pass to just, what do you need to do? Just the minimum, that'd be fine. And we have to ask the question, okay, do we really believe that that's actually the message of the gospel?

That do we really believe that God himself became one of us? And that he suffered and died, rose from the dead, that he gave us His Holy Spirit so you and I could be absolutely adequate. Do we really believe that God did all of this stuff that he put us, created us, made us in his image and liked us, adopted us as his sons and daughters, so that we could be mediocre. Because I don't think so. In fact, I think that we're made for more. I think that you were made for more. Pope Benedict back in the day, he said this once, but people repeat it all the time because it's so powerful.

He said that, he said, the world offers you comfort. But you weren't made for comfort. You are made for greatness. The world offers you adequate. The world offers you the minimum. The world offers you mediocre. But you weren't made to be mediocre. You weren't made for adequate.

You weren't made for comfort. You were made for greatness. Like truly, and that's what we've been trying to talk about this entire Advent season. Right? We know that Advent is there. It's here to prepare us, not only to prepare us to celebrate the coming of Jesus in Christmas, but also to prepare ourselves to be able to stand before him at the end of our lives. Or to prepare ourselves to be able to stand before him at the end of time.

One of the reasons we're given Advent is so the day comes when we're able to stand in front of God and say, I didn't waste what you gave me. That's why we have Advent. So we can stand before a just judge and say, I didn't waste what you gave me. I became the person you wanted me to become. We know that, you know, St. John of the Cross, this quote we've been repeating again and again every single week. St. John of the Cross said, in the twilight of our lives, we will be judged on love, And because of that, we can't have a mediocre love.

Because of that, we can't have a comfortable, because of that, we have to have abounding love. So the last couple of weeks, we've been talking about those things that keep our heart small, right? The Grinch, like two sizes too small. The things that keep our heart, the word was pusillanimous, small-heartedness. And the first week we talked about the fact that our hearts are too small because our lives are too full. We just don't have any room to love people well. And last week, we noticed that we have to discern what's a lot of.

of value because the truth is we oftentimes love things that don't deserve our love. We give our hearts to things that don't deserve our hearts. So we have to be able to discern what is of value because an abounding love is a focused love. Those things keep our hearts pusillanimous. And so this week, let's look at the opposite of pusillanimity. The opposite of pusillanimity. I'm not going to say it anymore. The opposite of that word is magnanimity.

The opposite of being pusillanimous, small-hearted, is being magnanimity, which basically means large-hearted. In fact, in the second reading today, St. Paul's letter to the Philippians, he says, your kindness should be known to all. That word kindness is the Greek word epiakus. And that word epiacus actually is translated magnanimous. Your magnanimity should be known to all. What's magnanimity? To be magnanimous is to be the kind of person who strives for greatness. Magnanimity is greatness of soul. It's being large-hearted. And so the whole point of life, the whole point of Advent, is to learn how to live with a large heart, to learn how to love with a large heart.

I heard someone say this. They said, where the magnanimous person seeks what is best, the pusillanimous person, right? The small-hearted person shies away from what's arduous. They shy away from what's noble. They shy away from those tasks because they demand too much. So they just prefer the path of least resistance. And so what do we end up doing? If we're pusillanimous, we end up doing the minimum, minimally.

Our lives are marked by the minimum done minimally. But not only does the pusillanimous person do no more than necessary, but with the least amount of heart. And I think that I've been there many, many times. To do something with the least amount of heart. Basically, you know, we've been there where it's like, okay, I'm here because I need to be. That's all. That's it.

Here to check the box. I'm just here to run out the clock. That's all I'm doing. I'm not putting my heart into this. I'm just here to run out the clock. No, let me pause on this. Because I think this is important. There is actually a great grace

in simply doing what you're supposed to do and not doing anything more. That's actually a gift. It is a real gift to be able to say, okay, I'm doing exactly what I should be doing. If the minimum wasn't good enough, it wouldn't be called the minimum. That is actually true.

And there is a grace with knowing that I'm exactly where I need to be. I shouldn't be somewhere else. There's a grace with knowing, like, I'm doing exactly what I need to be doing and nothing more because there's something, I don't know if you've experienced this anxiety that can pull out of hearts when we always think, maybe I should be doing something more. Maybe I should be doing something differently. In fact, in the gospel, when John the Baptist looks at the crowd, the tax collectors and the soldiers,

and he tells them, listen, all you have to do is this. You can imagine the peace they experienced of, okay, that's it. Now I can rest. Because too often, we don't know how to rest. years ago I was I was training for a cross-crundy ski race it was a 24-hour ski race where you're supposed to ski around a 10 kilometer loop for 24 hours straight without stopping

and um because I'm not very smart and I was training for this race and I would go ski like four hours every morning and then if I had like an hour break or two hour break or three hour break in the afternoon I'm like I have to go back out I have to start running I have to get on a Nordic track and like fake ski or I have to

I felt like I was never done because even if I skied four hours, it's like, well, the race, though, race is six times, six times that? Math is hard. It's, the race is six times that long. And I always felt like I was never done. I always felt like I should be doing more. I don't know if you ever feel like that. When it comes to your schoolwork, when it comes to your spiritual lives, that sense of like,

I'm never done. It's not good enough. And so what happened was my older sister. She worked at the Olympic Training Center in Finland for a long time. And so she's a really good coach, really good trainer. And so she wrote a program. She said, if you want to get a really good. ready for the race, to be able to ski and race 24 hours, just do this program. And it was such

a relief to look at the workout for the day and say, if I do this workout consistently every single day, this and nothing more, I'll be ready come race day. Same thing is true for a lot of our medical students who are with us. You know, in about a week or maybe last week or in a month from now, you'll be studying for the biggest test of your life, right? I'm studying for boards. And that's one of those things that you always feel like I always think I should be doing something more. That's why they have boards prep, where basically people have done this before say, all you have to do is this. If you study like this, when the test day comes, you'll be fine. And there's something so powerful about this, I'm doing what I need to be doing. I don't need

to be doing anything, especially when it comes to our spiritual lives. It can really feel easy to think, like, maybe I should be doing more, maybe I should be praying more, maybe I should be doing all these other things. But to know, I'm doing exactly what I need to be doing. And nothing more. is a massive grace. That those small things, those ordinary things, doing them and nothing more. But here's the thing. Here's what the magnanimous person does.

Those small things are ordinary things, but to do them with excellence. To do the ordinary things with excellence changes them into something more. So Dionne Sanders is arguably the best football player of all time, according to Wikipedia. And he was in NFL for 14 seasons. He actually played Major League Baseball for nine seasons.

He's in the Hall of Fame and everything. At one point recently, he said this. He said, the problem with most athletes today, he said, we don't practice to be great. We just practice to practice. We don't practice to be great, just practice to practice. He says, we practice just to get through practice. And so we have to ask the question,

what's the purpose for your practice? not just for sports, but in life. People in relationships. What's the purpose for putting all this work into your relationship, for your occupation? What's the purpose for putting all this time into your occupation? For any endeavor, Deion Sanders says, you have to know what is your purpose for practice.

And he said, I practiced to be the best ever. Some people just practice to get through practice. Some of us just show up to mass and check the box. Some of us study just to get to the test. But Dionne Sanders said, no, I practiced to be the best ever. That's called magnanimity. He's doing the same things as everyone else, but he's doing them differently. He's doing the same things, but in a different way.

He's pursuing excellence. And this is just so important, because you can hear that word. I can say that word excellence. People can get really intimidated, but this is a moment where excellence, keep this in mind. Excellence does not mean perfection. So we can't be timid in face of this word excellence. Because excellence is really simple. Excellence is so simple.

All it means is being diligent. And what I mean by that is whatever you're doing, do it. That's all. That's what excellence is. Whatever it is you're doing, do it. Basically is whatever it is you're doing, do that one thing. To be magnanimous, to be excellent at anything.

Just do one thing at a time. Like imagine, imagine what? what your life would look like, what our lives would look like. If that's what we did, whatever we were doing, we just did it. And we just did one thing at a time. Our problem, right, is that we try to do more than one thing at a time. We try to do all these things. And so what happens is we have so much anxiety in our lives.

In fact, St. Paul, what's he says, have no anxiety at all. Have no anxiety at all. There's a Chinese philosopher, his name Lao Tzu. And he said this about anxiety and depression. He wasn't talking about clinical anxiety or medical depression, but just like kind of the daily ins and outs depression and anxiety. He said this. He said, if you're depressed, you're living in the past. If you're anxious, you're living in the future.

But if you're at peace, you're living in the present. I think too often we're anxious because we're seldom here. I think too often we're standing here, but we're living over there. I think too often we forget to do this one thing, which is just be where your feet are. imagine if that's what we actually have that if that's how we lived and we start getting anxious to be able to say no no no just i just need to be where my feet are then no matter what the task is we can do it with a large heart with an abounding love because the christian knows this the christian absolutely is convinced of this and abounding love is a focused love so whatever is you're doing do it whatever is you're doing

just do one thing at a time even if that's something as small as like taking out the trash this is the job of the moment. I'm doing this magnanimously. I'm going to take out the trash with a large heart. Even if it's washing your water bottle or your coffee cup, whatever that thing is, the magnanimous person does even the minimum differently. We all know of Helen Keller, right? Helen Keller was years ago. She was born blind. She was born deaf. And years into her life, at some point, finally someone showed her how to communicate. She had this whole world inside of her, this whole world outside of her. She could finally communicate. At one point, Helen Keller said this. She said, I long to accomplish a great and noble

task called magnanimity, right? This large-hearted, this striving after greatness. She said, I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty and joy to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. She knew her life. She knew herself. She knew that there weren't a lot of heroic moments in her life. I long to accomplish those, but my task is to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. She moved on. She said, the world has moved along, not only by mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker, to do even humble things as though they were great and noble, because what does the magnanimous person do? The magnanimous person does even the

minimum differently. Another incredible human being, another incredible woman is St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, right? You know, so many, so many parts of her life were marked by just incredible things that none of us could ever do. I mean, she founded a religious community. I haven't done that yet. She made headlines all over the world. She won the Nobel Prize.

She spoke to the UN. She traveled around the world. She started a home for the dying to take care of people off the streets as they were dying to treat them with dignity. Those are huge things. and noble tasks, but you know what she also did? She also washed rags on a daily basis to take care of those dying people. She also just cooked rice to feed her sisters and to feed those people dying. She also would remove and wash bedpans on a daily basis. All of those things are small things.

But she did them as if they were great and noble tasks. She put her heart into them. That's what a magnanimous person does. They do the ordinary things, the great and small task, but they put their heart into them. That's why she said, we must do small things with great love. To be saints, we have to do small things with great love. With abounding love. And we know this, right? Abounding love is a focused love.

That whatever it is you're doing, simply do it. To do one thing at a time. To be where your feet are. And this is the last thing. we know it's true that at the twilight of our lives, we will be judged on love alone. And I have to tell you, this might be overwhelming for you leading into finals, but this is the best week ever to do this.

This is the best week of your life to grow your heart because every single thing you need to do this week, whether that's write that paper, finish that assignment, work on that group project, group projects, love them, study for that test, whatever it is you have to do, every one of those things are potential heart growers. You don't have to be obsessed like Euro, but the call is still in there. That you and I might only do small things this week.

I mean, heck, we might only do small things for our entire lives. Like most of our life is made up of small things. But even if we're asked only to do the minimum, those of us who belong to Jesus, we do even the minimum differently. Because we do them with abounding love. You do that. This is how you do it. all week.

Whatever it is you need to do to do with abounding love because we know that abounding love is focused love. The saints lived with focused love. So, whatever it is, you need to do, do it.

Remember to do one thing at a time. To be where your feet are. To love the person right in front of you or the person right next to you. And to do small things. In fact, to do all things. with great love, with focused love, to do all things with abounding love.