Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 12/13/20 "I Am Not"

Episode Date: December 14, 2020

Homily from the Third Sunday of Advent. No one can take from you what doesn’t belong to you. We all have the temptation to pretend to be someone or something other than we are. To pass ourselves off as someone else…to be an imposter. We do this most often when we know the truth but live in fear of the truth. John the Baptist shows us what it looks like to know the truth and live in the freedom of the truth. Mass Readings from December 13, 2020: Isaiah 61:1-2, 10-11 Luke 1:46-50, 53-541 Thessalonians 5:16-24 John 1:6-8, 19-28

So this happened back in 1988 was kind of when it originated, and I know that's before some people were born here But back in 1988 there was these two guys one was named Rob Pilates the other one's name's fab Morvan They were both Europeans one was from France and the other from Germany They met each other at some point in 1988 1987 when they were at like a dance seminar in California and they're both entertainers They both kind of looked a lot alike and they got along really fast so when they back went back to Europe They started a band with each other kind of a duo performers and they were decent. They were okay. They had a couple, they had an album. They recorded

and people knew their names, but it wasn't huge until they met this guy named Frank Farian. And Frank Farian saw this group and said, they have the look. Like, they look exactly like stars. They have the look of people that we want to make massively famous. So he brought, Frank brings Robin Fabb into the studio and says, hey, do you think you can sing this song? And the song was called, Girl You Know It's True. And they were like, yeah, we totally can. It was already recorded and he had him listen to it. Can you sing the song? Yes we can. He said, okay, great. We don't have time to record it right now. We already have a concert next week. So could you just like learn the song and get up on stage and do like a dance number as well while you lip sync

to the song? So they didn't like it but they're like fine, well let's do it. And so they learned all the songs on this album and learned the choreography for all the songs and they didn't just kind of tour locally. They actually ended up touring all over the entire content of Europe. 1988, they signed the contract and went massive. By 1989, they crossed the ocean and made it to the United States and exploded. Five of their songs were top five hits, 1989. Three of them were number one hits. They were six-time platinum, and they were Grammy's Artist of the Year.

But things kind of start falling apart because at one point they were on MTV. I remember watching this because I was alive and watching MTV at the time. the time and they did this concert for a bunch of MTV fans and at one point the hard drive they had the song on it it started skipping and all you heard was girl you know it's girl you know it's girl you know it's and Rob like takes off runs off the stage downtown Julie Brown has to track him down bring him back on the stage they finished the concert they finished the lip-syncing to the rest of the album and no one seemed to care but they knew the gig was up right

they knew that the story was about to unravel and unfold and by the end of 1989 that's exactly what happened they were exposed to have having been like basically impostors. In fact, the band's name, Millie Vanilli, you guys know, Millie Vanilli, have you ever heard of this? Okay, so some of you who are older, we know. Millie Vanilli is like synonymous with fakes. The name, the term is synonymous with a poser.

It's synonymous with a phony. It's synonymous with being an imposter. At one point, Rob, when everything blew up, Rob did an interview and he said, the last two years of our lives have been a total nightmare. He said we've had to lie to everybody. He said, we're actual singers, but that maniac, our manager, Frank Farian, would never allow us to express ourselves.

Unfortunately in 1998, Fab, or Rob, he died of an overdose. But that line, the last two years of our lives have been a total nightmare. We've had to lie to everyone. I can't imagine how exhausting that would be. Can you imagine? Like, just trying to control the story, everyone, knowing that at any moment someone can find out that you are an imposter. At any moment, someone can find out that you're a complete fake,

that you're not who you say you are. So you have to control everything. You have to control other people's opinions. You have to control the situation. You have to control the results. You have to control the outcomes. And you live in constant, you know the truth. And you live in constant fear of the truth.

Because the truth is, again, that you're an imposter. I was thinking about that word, you know, the word imposter, you know, looked it up, dictionary, and it means one who passes himself off as another, one who passes themselves off as someone that they are not. I like to do etymology stuff, and so actually imposter comes from the Latin root, again, with languages, the Latin root of posit or the position you have, basically saying you have a position that isn't yours. You're holding a position that is not supposed, you're not where you ought to be. You're not doing what you ought to be doing. You're in a false position. Passing yourself.

I have someone, as you're not, you know, I don't know if you know this, but that word, imposter has developed a term, there's a new term. It's called imposter syndrome. Maybe you've heard of imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is this feeling that actually over 70% of Americans, 70% of people around the world, experienced this thing called imposter syndrome, and it's this feeling of inadequacy, this feeling of, at some point people are going to find out that I shouldn't have the job I have. This imposter syndrome is, it hits almost all of us where we realize that we know the truth

about ourselves and we wonder, how long is it going to take for them to find out? I mean, this is the last Sunday before finals, and so a number of people right now this week are graduating. And if you've already graduated, you know this experience of, like, getting your degree and going into the workforce, and you're wondering, like, how soon will they realize that I don't know what I'm doing? Or have you ever gotten a promotion at work? You were good and it's one job, so they gave you a different job, and you're wondering, like,

how long until they realize that I can't handle this? Or maybe you're in a place where people think like, wow, you're a great mom, you're a great dad, you're a great Catholic, and you're just keeping this fear of like, okay, when will they figure out that I'm just scraping by? When will they figure out that I am not who they think I am? And I'm thinking a lot about this idea of imposter because of a character who's a lot of the nativity stories. He wasn't in the gospel today, but his name's King Herod. We know Herod the Great. And Herod the Great is an incredible example of an imposter. In his early life, he was first the governor of Galilee.

His brothers were kind of rulers around the rest of Judea, the rest of Israel. But at one point, they all died off. And so the Roman Senate named Herod the Great to be the Basilea or the king of Judea. So he was known as the king of the Jews. And so here's the thing. Herod knew that he wasn't actually the legitimate king of the Jews. He knew that he knew that he was just named that by the Roman. occupiers of the Holy Land. It's funny, we call him Herod the Great. His name also is Herod the

builder, because he was constantly building. If you go to Jerusalem now, go to Israel now, everywhere you go, like, Oh, Herod the Great, build that, Herod, build that, Herod built that, Herod built this. He didn't just build buildings. He actually built entire cities. And I wonder, like, why was he so preoccupied with just, with building? And I think it's because he was trying to control, he was trying to control his significance, trying to control his legacy. I think he was trying to control the Romans. because he would build something. He'd build a city and name it after, you know, Caesar, and named it after one of Caesar's family members.

He built the temple that was around during Jesus' time. Why? Because he's trying to control the Jews. That he kept on building, kept on moving because I believe that he knew that he was trying to control his false position. You know, he also even killed at least one of his wives. He killed at least two of his own sons, who he thought would try to take the king's life.

He lives in constant fear. He goes why? Because he knew the truth. And he lived in fear of the truth. He wasn't the king of the Jews. And so what happens when the wise men come, like the magi show up and they say, hey, where is the newborn king of the Jews? You can imagine that in that moment,

Herod is more confronted with the fact that he's an imposter than almost any other moment. Because they're looking for the newborn, true king of the Jews, and here he is claiming that he's the king of the Jews. Man, he was so desperate. we know the story. He's so desperate that he sent out the death warrant for the murder of every male under two years old throughout the region of Judea.

Because this is what we do. You might not have said not a death warrant for people, but this is what we do when we're caught pretending, right? This is what we do when we're pretending to be someone that I'm not. Then when we're pretending to be something other than we are. And one of the things I think so many of us, we fall into the trap of pretending, we sometimes end up pretending that we're an expert. Like we pretend that we have to be the expert. We pretend we have to be the one who has all the answers.

We have to pretend we have to be the person who knows more than we actually know. Again, it's so interesting when I talk with students who are recent graduates and they get hired and they get hired as a first-year teacher. And how often these first-year teachers are in the classroom and they're not asking other teachers for help, they're not asking the principal for help, they're not asking anyone for help because why? Because, well, you hired me, I have to be the expert. now or you're a first-year engineer and you're on the site, you're on the job and

you're like, well, I can't ask these people for help. Why? Because they hired me, I need, they hired me to be the expert. And so I, and you know what, what's wrong about being expert is to be expert, you have to have all the answers. To be the expert, that means you don't fail. To be the expert means you can't ask questions. And so what happens in that initial job, what do you find yourself doing? I just find myself, I find myself trapped because I think they hired me to be the expert. But here's the truth that here's just a little, hopefully it set you free a little bit. When they hired you, they did not hire you to be the expert. They hired you to be the first year teacher.

When they hired you, they did not hire you to be the expert. They hired you to be the first year engineer. They hired you to be the first year missionary. They hired you to be the first year whatever it is you are. So yes, that might mean you have to work harder. Yes, it might mean you have to take the menial jobs. Yes, it might mean you have to kind of bust your hump more than other people. But it does not mean that they hired you to be the expert.

They hired you to be the beginner. And there's something so good on what having permission to be a beginner. Because when you're the beginner, you get to ask questions. When you're a beginner, you get to not know the answers. When you're the beginner, you get to fail and you get to need help. But if I live with this illusion, I have to pretend to be someone I'm not, then we find ourselves trapped. And then we have to cover it up.

That's what happens when you're trapped and try to be someone else. We have to cover it up. There's this man, his name was Nick Leeson. Nick Leeson, when he was 26 years old, everything came undone for him. Back in 1995, he was hired right out of college. to work for a merchant bank, British merchant bank, known as Bering's. Berings was a bank that had existed for 233 years up until 1995. But Nick, in his first-year job right out of college, he made a mistake.

And rather than owning up to his mistake, he tried to cover up his mistake. What would have been something that maybe it would have cost him some discipline, maybe it would have cost him his job, ended up with Nick doing this thing where he started to forge documents, He started to mislead auditors. He started to make false statements to hide his mounting losses. And in the end, at this whole thing, while Nick Leeson has completely trapped,

he ended up costing this bank $1.3 billion. And this 233-year-old bank had to be sold to ING for one pound. When he was 26 years old, 1,200 people lost their jobs because of him. Not because of his small error, because he kept on trying to control the story. He kept on trying to control how this ends. He just thought, if I just pull this off, then it'll be fine.

If I just pull this off, it'll be fine. If I just keep on pretending, I'll get away with it. Because he's so afraid of what people would think. If they found out that he's not who they thought he was. It's so interesting, we have Herod the Great, Herod the Builder, right from what I've been talking about. There's also Herod Antipus. Herod Antibus is he was the king or that he was the Herod at the time when Jesus was an adult, when John was an adult. And at one point Herod Antipus was getting scolded and preached at by John the Baptist.

Because Herodontas had married the wife of his brother, a woman named Herodius. And at one point you know the story, right? It was Herod's birthday. And so Herodius, this woman, sent in her daughter, Salomi, to dance in front of Herod and his guests. And it says in scripture that Herod and his guests were delighted. by her dance. And so Herod made this rash vow and he said, ask of me whatever you want, to half of my kingdom. And Salomi asked her mom, what should I ask for? And she said, ask for the head of John the Baptist. And here's Herod, Antipus, not Herod the Great. And he's just convicted

because he realizes he doesn't want to kill John the Baptist, but it says in scripture, it says, but because he feared what his guests would think, he went and had John murdered. He's just trapped. How often have we been trapped? Because we're an imposter. We're trapped. We're because I'm pretending to be someone that I'm not. I know the truth and I fear the truth. And so we're just like Rob and Fav and saying we've had to lie to everybody about who we are. So with all that being said, I just think today about today's gospel and John the Baptist.

Because if Herod is like the perfect example of an imposter, if Herod's a perfect example of someone who is trying to control other people think, how they see him, John the Baptist is the example of the exact opposite. Now, I don't know if we understand how important John the Baptist was. What I mean by that is, I don't know if we understand how influential he was, how powerful he was, how much, how much, like, influence he had. Because I didn't realize this, realize this until I did a bunch of research on John the Baptist, and I realized in that research that I kind of overlooked the fact that John the Baptist is the first prophet

in hundreds of years. There has not been, in the nation of Israel and the people of God, there had not been a prophet, a single prophet for hundreds upon hundreds of years. And here's John the Baptist, and everyone, everyone realizes, dude, this is a prophet. He's a real prophet. Not only that, he's a prophet whose life bore fruit.

Like, he had so many people that says in Scripture. It says people came from everywhere out to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. Like, they experienced, like, true conversion. Not only Jewish people, it said even Roman soldiers, like the occupiers of Israel would go to John and say, John, what do we have to do? Like, how do we convert our lives?

Even more, there's a man his name is Josephus. Josephus is a Jewish historian who wrote history of this time period. He writes more about John than he does about Jesus. So John the Baptist is massively, massively influential. And in one verse, he gives it all away. Here's John, who is the most single most important person in the history of Israel, up to this point. And in one verse, he gives it all away. When the scribes and the priests come to John and say,

are you the Christ? He responds with these three simple words. He just says, I am not. And he just gives it away. I wonder sometimes if John was ever tempted to kind of like let people believe that maybe he was. You ever do that? You can picture the scene, right? You can hear people out of the corner of your ear sometimes.

They're saying, maybe John's the Messiah. maybe he's the Christ, you know, and he's just kind of like going like, I'm not going to say anything. Like, you know, that kind of thing? Like, I don't have to correct you right away. I mean, I'm not going to claim to be the Christ, but I also don't have to like argue you on it. Because that's a real temptation, isn't it, like, to let people live with the illusion that they have of you? You ever have that temptation where you just, I just want to, sure, I'll let people live with that illusion that you're not. It's not that bad.

I'm not going to correct you, but we've fallen to this trap of impression management. We have to just kind of manage how people see us. We can control how they see by controlling what they see. We can control how they see us by controlling who they see. We can control what they think of us by wearing whatever kind of mask we think will help the most. But that's a trap. It's such a trap. Our pal, St. Francis de Sales, remember from the Roadmap series,

he says this about it. he's about the masks. He says, he says, don't let people make friends with the mask you wear because then they will be friends with your mask and not you. Don't let people be friends with the mask you wear because then they will be friends with your mask and not you. So Herod, the imposter, he knew the truth and he feared the truth. But John the Baptist, he knew the truth and he was free in the truth of being able to say, no, I am not. Because he can't lose what doesn't belong to you. No one can take away from you. No one can steal what doesn't belong to you and nothing that you know and accept about who you are not and who you are can ever be

used as a weapon to bring you down. Again, it's important to know this. Nothing you ever know about yourself and accept about yourself about who you are and who you're not can ever be used as a weapon against you to bring you down. Because John knew. Here's who I am not. I'm not the Christ. I'm not Elijah. I'm not the prophet. But he also knew who he was. It's like, yeah, I'm not the message. I'm the messenger. I'm the voice. I'm not the word. I'm the, I'm the guest of the bridegroom. I'm not the bridegroom. And I think it's just so powerful when we can say that when we can just have that freedom of being able to say, I know the truth and I live in the freedom of the truth. It's what St. Paul is saying in the second reading today. What's he say? These hard words,

he says, rejoice always, pray unceasingly, in all things give thanks. And at some point I want to do like, want to see more about that. But I've been reflecting on these words because I always come back to this. Thessalonians. It's so, so powerful. Rejoice always. Pray unceasingly in all things to give thanks. And I want to do that. All day, I'm like, yeah, do that. Rejoice always. Pray unceasingly. And all things to give thanks. But I recognize something in myself. I recognize that when I'm stressed, I stop. When I'm like nervous about something, I stop rejoicing always. I stop praying unceasingly except for Lord help me right now. I stop doing all those things. And I think about what makes me most stressed? And I got a little confession tonight. What makes me most most stressed

is this, like literally right now, preaching. It makes me so, I get, you guys, I'm the worst person to live with or be around, like before I have to give a homily, before I have to preach or give a talk. Like, I'm so preoccupied into my head. And whenever I tell someone that, they're like, wow, why are you so anxious? Why are you so stressed? I'm like, because I just want to, I want to do well. And here's what they always say. Like grandma types. They always say, grandma types say this. They say, I'm sure it'll be just fine. Or after the fact, like after Mass, they were like, That was just fine. Okay, I don't know.

Like when it comes to time, I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, there are some people when it comes to being on time that like early is on time, on time is late, late is unacceptable, that kind of thing. I'm more like on time is on time. I'm more like generally speaking in the general ballpark is on time. But when you have the standard of like excellence, you have the standard of like, no, this should be awesome. When someone says it was just fine, you're like, you're basically saying I suck.

Like that's kind of, that's how it feels, right? you just, you want to be excellent. And so I know so many of you are the same way when it comes to a lot of stuff in life. You're like, no, just fine is not just fine. Average is not passing. It is excellent or failure. But the truth is, maybe it is just fine. Maybe it was just average.

Maybe it's just okay. See, John the Baptist, he could hear the truth. and be free in the truth. So why can't we hear the truth? And maybe it is. That was just fine. And be free in that truth. Rather than try to be someone that we're not. Rather than me, try to be someone that I'm not.

I think we can escape this in two ways. One is gratitude. Gratitude always. Gratitude's always the answer. Gratitude is the way we escape from so much of the stuff that gives us so much stress. Gratitude is the way we can escape from being an imposter because it's like, no, I'm going to tell the truth of what I'm not and what I don't have and the truth of who I am and what I do have. And I'm going to give thanks to the Lord for that. Just like it's so clear and something we can do at any moment. But the other thing that sets us free from imposter syndrome. So it sets us free from even holding on to clinging to the idea that I have to pretend to be someone I'm not is something deeper than gratitude.

It's called grace. and this is the last thing. What does grace look like in this? I think it looks like sitting right where you are and placing yourself under the father's gaze. It's just that it's the grace of being able to just be where you are and who you are and who you are not and just place yourself under the father's gaze

and let him look upon you and delight in you. Let him look upon you and rejoice in you. You realize that scripture says again and again and again it says, I delight in you my daughter. I delight in you myself. son, I rejoice in you. Here's the thing. The Lord God, the Father, under his gaze, he rejoices over you unceasingly. So what does that mean? That means that you get to rejoice beneath his gaze unceasingly. So this week, this week, to be able to know your worth, to know that the Father

speaks over you as he looks upon you, he gazes out on you and says, you are worth the life and the death of my son. And I rejoice in you. To play you. To play a face. place yourself beneath the gaze of the Father and realize that he rejoices unceasingly in the fact that you are his son, that you are his daughter. And because of that grace, you can know the truth and that you can be free in the truth about who you are. And you can know the truth and be free about who you are not.