Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 12/19/21 Abounding Love: Love Commits

Episode Date: December 21, 2021

Homily from the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Love without a commitment remains an illusion. In order to truly grow in love, there needs to be the willingness to make a commitment. And there needs to be the ability to keep a commitment. Mass Readings from December 19, 2021: Micah 5:1-4 Psalms 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19Hebrews 10:5-10 Luke 1:39-45

So we have been, for the last four weeks, we've been faced with this problem. And our problem is that at the end of our lives, we're going to be judged on love. Right? In the twilight of our lives, we'll be judged on love alone. And that's a problem because as we've kind of established, maybe you already knew this going into this advent. You probably already knew that our hearts are small. That not only our hearts small, we keep them small. That's the hard part. Like that our hearts are two sizes too small, like the Grinch, right?

That's not a problem. I mean, it's okay, but our hearts are too small, and we keep them small. And so the first week we talked about, how do we keep them too small? Well, they're too full. There's no room for them to grow. We then also realized in the second week we said, the only way to grow them is to be able to discern what is a value and actually love the things that are worth loving. So we need to have abounding love. But abounding love is a focused love.

It's a love that says, okay, there are some things not worth my heart. There's some things that are worth my heart to love those things. And last week we talked about the fact that, okay, if I'm going to have a... and a focused love, that means that I'm going to have a magnanimous heart. And that magnanimous heart is going to be a large heartiness that says, okay, whatever I'm going to do, do it. And I'm going to do one thing at a time, and I'm going to be where my feet are. All of those things are very important.

And yet, at the same time, we can still keep our hearts small because we're so tempted by two things. I think you and are tempted by two things. We're tempted to be timid and we're tempted to be fickle. Or maybe even just that we have two wounds, and those wounds are timidity and fickleness. I mean, even think about this, last week, to even say, okay, I'm going to be here, I'm going to do this, that involves a decision. And that too many of us, our lives are determined by timidity, right?

They're kind of marked by timidity. And so we are full of hesitation. Now, this might not be you. So go with me on this. In some areas, you might be aggressive. You might be in some areas you might be all about, like, I pull the trigger out, I'm ready to go. But in other areas, so many of us, we don't love. well because we're full of hesitation.

We don't even live well because we're full of hesitation. I mean, think we live half-heartedly. I mean, think about, you can be, this happens to me, so this is a confession, but I know the other people, it happens to them too, where you're just exhausted. And maybe you have the opportunity, maybe there's a gap in the day where you could actually lie down and take a nap. But instead of lying down and taking, instead of deciding, I'm going to go to sleep, like, okay, I'm going to kind of quasi-sleep, kind of quasi-do something else.

And so rather than actually rest, or rather than being productive, you kind of just lay there scrolling on your phone or lay there watching something, you lay there, and you realize at the end of that time, because I didn't decide, because I'm so fickle, I'm neither rested nor was I productive. We are full of hesitation, and so we live these half-hearted lives. Again, too many of us, I think, are timid and fickle. We don't commit, and then when we do it, we don't keep our commitments. And I think, again, I think we've all been there.

This isn't like a pointing fingers kind of thing. This is a situation. We talk about with our students all of the time, where there's that sense of someone invites them here. Christmas party happening this weekend. Not for you guys because Christmas is this weekend. So by Christmas, last weekend, maybe, there's a Christmas party happening.

Do you want to come? Like, well, I'll let you know at the end of the week. I'll let you know the day of. Like, I want to keep my options open. I don't want to commit to that kind of thing. Because who knows, something better might come along or even talk to our students and you kind of see them spending a lot of time with each other and start asking like, so, are you guys, you know, together now?

And, well, we're talking. you know, we're hanging out. Like, okay, that's fine. But at some point, you need to make a decision. Like, at some point, it's like, okay, are you in or are you out? Like, at some point, are you a thing or not a thing? You know, I think that a temptation to be so timid and to refuse to commit because why, we know this.

We've all done it. We've all made the commitment and then we regretted it. We made the commitment and we said, shoot, I shouldn't have said I was going to do that thing. But we know this. Abounding love is a focused love. which means I have chosen. I have decided. And we see this in the gospel today.

I love this with Our Lady. The very first line. It said, Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste. How does she travel? She travels in haste. What's that mean? Well, obviously it means she went quickly. But that travel in haste is not just she moved fast.

She's a track star. And what it meant was it's an interior disposition. that she decided, she set out, she decided, she traveled in haste, and once she decided, she left without hesitation. Like once she decided, she moved without hesitation. Our lady, Mary, did not live half-heartedly. Once she decided, she didn't have to look around, she didn't have to wonder, she didn't have to drag her feet. We know this for ourselves, that love is felt, but love is more than a feeling, love is an action, love is a decision.

And love demands that we make the decision to love. Again, in the twilight of our lives, we judge on love alone, but love demands that we make the decision to love, which is to make a commitment, some kind of commitment. And here's the thing, that commitment will involve risk. Any commitment you guys, any commitment you and I make, it's going to involve risk. Because love always involves an element of risk.

Commitment involves some element of risk. And so yesterday on the 18th of December, a wedding of a former student here. He, you know some students when they show up to campus, they get done in three years. They're on a mission, they're ready to go in three years or less sometimes. He took twice that much to get through his college career. Because it's kind of one of those things.

His life in many ways was marked by like, maybe I'll do this, maybe I won't do this. I'm not going to commit. It's kind of like, I'm in, I'm out, I'm hot, I'm cold. Even after that, you know, he grew. When he finally graduated, he became a youth minister and it was great to work with him, but still kind of see those, and they became a focused mission. and it was incredible to see that, you know, from his first years here, through his last years here, to become that youth minister, to become this focus missionary, to yesterday see him commit his life.

Not to say, well, I'm kind of in, kind of out, but like, no, I'm in. Not maybe this, maybe that. It was like, no, this. And is an incredible gift because that's what it takes. So many of us were marked by that timidity, the same timidity that marked his life. but praise me the Lord to the Lord, what God did in his life was say, no, you're not made to live a timid life. You made to live a risky life, a life of abounding love,

which means focused love, which means you're going to have risk. Because now, obviously, not all of our commitments involve that level of commitment, that degree of commitment, that promise. But every one of them involves some level of, I'll do that, or I'll be there. So every commitment risks something, even if it's small, saying, look, a better option comes up later on. Like, no, but I said I was going to go to that thing.

I said I would help you with this. We do that. We make commitments, not knowing what's going to happen. Like, we make commitments, not knowing what will happen if I say yes to this? You don't know. And in fact, you don't get to know. That's why abounding love is risky.

because it's focused love. It's saying, this is where I'm going to pour myself out. This is where I'm going to pour my love out. This is where I'm going to pour my heart out. This is where I'm going to love like God loves. In fact, two weeks ago, we talked about how in the book of Exodus, God is described. And it says, the Lord, the Lord.

It's abounding in love and faithfulness. That word love that's used in the book of Exodus is the word Hesed. It's a Hebrew word Hesed. It's a lot like the Greek word agape. But this, it's a little bit different. abounding in Hecced is, Hecet is mercy, it's compassion, it's love, it's grace, but it's all those things taking action on behalf of someone who needs those things.

Does that make sense? So it's love, it's mercy, it's grace, it's faithfulness, taking action on behalf of someone who needs love. It's loving someone who needs love, is Hecad. It's giving mercy to those who need mercy. It's giving forgiveness to those who need forgiveness. It's giving, being kind to those who actually need kindness. That's how God loves.

And so if I'm going to say yes to something, anything, if I'm going to say yes to love, that means I'm also risking everything. I'm saying yes to all that that might entail. Because we know this. Love that loves only when it feels like loving is not love. Love that loves only when it feels like loving is not Hesed. It's not agape.

In fact, sometimes I cover this with some of our young couples getting married is I'll say that, you know, I've come across this where people, rewrite their vows and they rewrite the vows. They have to start out with all the great things like, you know, promised to be faithful to you in good times and bad, in sickness and health, rich or for poor, all those things are great, awesome.

But then the last line, they change the last word. Typically it's for long as we both shall live. But I've heard of couples who have changed that last word to be, yeah, I promise you, faithfulness and to be true and to love you. In good times and bad, sickness and health, for richer for poor, for better for worse, as long as we both shall love.

And it's so interesting when I share that with the students, like the looks on their face are like, oh, barf, like what the heck? Like, why would anyone ever say that? You're not even making a promise. Like, I promise to love you as long as I feel like loving you. I promise to be with you as long as I feel like being with you. We know that love that only when it feels like loving is not Hecet.

But love that says, I'm going to love you no matter what happens. That's Hecet. That's risky. That's abounding love. Because think about, whenever we say as to ask anything. We don't know what we're saying yes to. Like really? We don't know what's going to happen. In fact, we can't know what we're saying yes to, but we must know who we're saying yes to. This is true when it comes to marriage. This is true when it comes to committing to anything.

It's true when it comes to the Lord. To say yes to him, I have no idea what I'm saying yes to. But I have to have a sense of who I'm saying yes to. That's one of the reasons why the thing that gives the person the courage to risk is that they trust. The escape from timidity is courage rooted in trust. So we have Mary. Elizabeth says to her, Blessed are you who believed? Once a year you can go back to this,

Blessed are you who trusted in the Lord? The one you said yes to me. But thinking, not knowing she did this, she said yes, she trusted not knowing what would happen after this. We cover this all the time. Whenever I pray about the enunciation where Gabriel goes to Mary and says, you know how this goes down, right? Gabriel says to Mary, yeah, the Lord God wants to have you be the mother of his son.

And Mary asks the clarifying question, like, how can this be, since I have no relation to the man? And then the angel Gabriel says, well, the power of the most high will overshadow you, and therefore the child will be born, will be holy, the son of God. And Mary says, okay, you know, basically, fine, fiat, behold, the handmaid of the Lord, be it done it to be according to your word. And then the very next line in Luke's gospel is, then the angel departed from her, which is just so mean, it's so cruel. like that sense of she didn't know what she was saying yes to.

She had no idea what she was saying yes to. But she absolutely knew who she was saying yes to. See, Mary was not timid. She made her decision and there was no hesitation. That's why today's gospel is the very next line. Then the angel departed from her. So then Mary left, set off to the hill country of Judah in haste. There's no hesitation.

There's no looking back. There's no looking around. There's no dragging her feet, which is completely the opposite of what I would do, completely the opposite of what I would do, because this is a bounding love, this is focused love, it's commitment over timidity. But here's the thing, I might be able to commit, right?

I might be able to say us to things. In fact, I said, I think the first week, you were talking about this, that maybe I over-commit, I over-say-yes. My problem is over-committing, that's one thing. But the next thing, my next problem in the list is, after I've committed, I go, oh, man, why did I say yes to that?

This is like the story of my life. and all the people around here heard her me say this a thousand times like even something oh my gosh even as a kid i used to do this you know we had chores and i didn't even say yes to it it was my job to do like we'd have things like you'd have to you know sweep the floor mop or vacuum or clean your room and i would be my mom would come in the room and she's like what are you doing just pushing the dirt around because i wasn't actually sweeping i was like this is what i have to do right now but i'm just kind of i don't want to be here i want to be somewhere else i mean how many times maybe this happened to you too where you had to clean something whether it was clean your car

clean, your house clean, whatever, because someone else told you to. You could have been done hours before if you had just done it. But instead of doing the thing you said you were going to do or you were told to do, you just kind of, you know, just kind of, I have all these words when I have to, you wasted time, basically. And looked all around, looked back, dragged your feet and didn't do it. Our two problems, we have, we're timid. and we're fickle.

I mean, again, that's when someone tells me what to do. I will even do this when I said I would do a thing. I mean, think about, you say, oh, sure, I'll pick you up. And then it happens to, you commit. And then what happens is there's a maybe snowstorm here in Minnesota. There's a snowstorm. And you're like, man, I have to drive out in the snow. I can't believe this.

Yeah, because you said you would do this thing. That's why you have to go do this thing. Or something gets in your way. It's some kind of obstacle that makes it less fun than the thing you thought you were saying yes to. And then what happens? Our fickle hearts just want to take back our yes. But when we said yes, we said yes to all that that entailed or all that it might entail, we have to do this because we have to overcome timidity and fickleness.

Why? Because love remains an illusion until it's attached to some level of commitment. It's just a dream. Love remains an illusion unless it's attached to some kind of commitment. and then love remains incomplete until we hold fast to that commitment. It's why there's this variation of H-S-ED, that love of God that just meets us

where we need that love. It's called H-E-S-E-D. So H-E-S-E-D. The other word H-E-S-I-D. And it's a word that means someone who keeps their commitments and lives faithfully against the odds if necessary.

Hasid is someone who keeps their commitments and lives faithfully against the odds if necessary. So you need Hesed, you need this love to be able to commit, but then you need Haseed, to be able to keep your commitments and live faithfully even against the odds. In fact, in the first reading from Micah, which says that about God, that God stands firm, that God keeps his commitments.

An abounding love is a focused love. And abounding love is an abiding love. It doesn't just focus, it remains there. It doesn't just focus, it remains focused. It doesn't just make a commitment. It keeps the commitments. And so here's my invitation for all of us. I mean, I found this.

This happened a couple months for me. The rosary, commitment to pray the rosary has been really big in my life. In fact, when I first encountered the Lord Jesus, Mary was a huge part of that. And praying the rosary was a massive part of this. And so there's been various seasons in my life where I prayed the rosary every day and very seasons in my life where I didn't pray the rosary very often at all. And then a couple months ago, it was the beginning of a month. And I remember just praying and thinking, you know what?

I'm going to commit to pray the rosary every single day, at least just this month. Because what would happen is I want to kind of, I kind of sort of want to pray the rosary, but I wouldn't commit. So if it was too late at night, like, oh, it's just too late. I'll go to bed. Or if it's too busy, I'm just too busy. I'll go on with the next thing. But at least for this month, what I want to do is I want to commit to praying the rosary

because I know that it's necessary. I know that it's so important for me, for my heart, to be able to belong to our lady. So just, okay, one month, pray the rosary every day no matter what. I have to tell you it was so good because it demanded a sacrifice. It was kind of a risky promise because I didn't know what the schedule would look like over the course of the next month. But it was a necessary promise. It was a necessary commitment.

And then to actually not just make that commitment, but also keep that commitment was, man, there's nothing that grows our hearts more than making a commitment and then keeping a commitment. This is my invitation for all of us is that, you know, the, you know, the, you know, the, you The year is coming to an end. Not too long from now. What's one commitment that you would say would be really, really helpful? What's one commitment that would grow your heart?

So this is the last thing. For the upcoming week, the upcoming year, maybe between now and Christmas, maybe between Christmas and New Year's, maybe between New Year's and the next year, is to make a commitment and keep the commitment. Those two things overcome timidity, they overcome fickleness,

and those two things grow our hearts, maybe more than anything else. and some sort of commitment and to keep any sort of commitment. Christmas is so close. The New Year is so close. Which means Jesus and his coming to us is getting closer with every passing day. It's getting closer with every heartbeat. So what is one decision that will grow your heart?

What's one decision that will enable you to focus your heart and give you abounding love? As we prepare for that day, the day, and we are judged on love alone.