Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 12/24/23 Main Character: No Small Parts

Episode Date: December 23, 2023

Homily from the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Whatever You ask of me, the answer is yes. One of the more challenging reminders of this series is that God is the point of all of this. He is not only the Main Character, but this is also His Story. Nonetheless, we have been given a role; we have been created and redeemed in order to play our part. Mass Readings from December 24, 2023: 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16 Psalms 89:2-5, 27, 29Romans 16:25-27 Luke 1:26-38

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 and other Sunday Mass resources sent straight to your inbox, sign up at ascensionpress.com slash Sunday or by texting Sunday to 33777. You can also follow or subscribe on your podcast app for weekly notifications. God bless. The Lord be with you.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. Chapter 1, verses 26 through 38. The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, Hail full of grace, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at what was said,

and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David, his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. But Mary said to the angel, how can this be, since I have no relations with a man? And the angel said to her in reply, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the son of God.

And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month for her who was called barren, for nothing will be impossible for God. Neri said, Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word. Then the angel departed from her. The gospel of the Lord. Wait you to have a seat. So, as I mentioned, it's Christmas Eve Day.

And so we're going to keep it simple, relatively simple. But whenever we get to Christmas Eve or even Christmas, I always think of, like, when I was growing up as a kid, we always had Christmas pageants. I don't know if you guys had Christmas pageants, and we all had this kind of thing where there was, like, you know, the role you wanted in the Christmas pageant. One of the Christmas pageants that I can remember so, so very clearly,

Mrs. Binfield, he was the director of this whole show. It was called Angels Aware. And the show itself, Angels Aware, one of the parts, you know, they had a lot of different opportunities for solo, the opportunities for like singing together. And I know I had a little solo in a song. I remember being so, like, proud of the fact that I had this particular role in the show. But it's really fascinating.

I think about this, when it comes to any Christmas play or any Christmas pageant, it's incredibly rare that there's like a main character. I mean, the main character is Jesus, right? The main character of the whole story is Jesus. And yet no one gets cast in that role. Usually it's a doll. Or maybe, maybe. you're going to be like in the greatest Christmas pageant ever or whatever it was called,

and you're going to try to get a real baby. But no one ever gets cast in that role. No one ever actually gets cast in the role of the main character. The question is, is that a problem? What I mean by that is, you know, we've been doing the series all the way from the first Sunday of Advent to this last Sunday of Advent. And the reality that we all suffer to some degree from main character syndrome. And a good part about main character syndrome is that we realize we have an active role.

We have a part to play in our lives, right? We're not meant to be passive observers. We're not NPCs in our lives. We're meant to be active participants. But the distorted version of main character's syndrome is where we just think about ourselves, where we see ourselves as the star of the story. In fact, in this pageant I was in as a kid,

Angels Aware, one of the songs is in my head, I would say at least I'm on a monthly basis, if not on biweekly basis. It was a song called Eye Trouble, and I, not E, Y, E, but I, and in the sense of like me, myself, And that was how the song went. It was, we have eye trouble.

Everyone's looking out for number one. Me and myself, an eye trouble, what's going to become of all this eye trouble? That's part of the lyrics. Because the reality is, we all have this eye trouble. We all have this main character syndrome to some degree or another. And so maybe at the beginning of this Advent, when we talked about those six words that can begin to cure us of main character syndrome, it was kind of a neat, neat thing. To have those six words, you are God, I am not.

but what if we really took that seriously? Like, what if we really, really drilled down and acknowledged that actually, no, I am not the star, truly, and I'm not called to be perfect, and I'm not in control, and I'm not called to just simply serve my plan. Someone else is the star, someone else is the main character. How do we respond to that? Because I think, you know, the reality, of course, is that every one of us has a brokenness when it comes to this.

I think the reality is all of us think of ourselves first. What happens? Question. What happens when we're confronted with the main character? What happens to our hearts? When we have to answer the question, what's the point of life? You know, even as a Christian, you know, sometimes there's Christians, and I've repeated this saying many, many times in my own life. But sometimes we, as Christians say that, you know,

the goal of your life is to become the best version of yourself. And again, that phrase, that phrase, the idea is great, it kind of captures a little bit of like, we're made for more. That's wonderful. But that's actually not the point of life. Again, let's clarify this. The idea of, you know, the whole point of life, the Christian life has become the best version of yourself. That's part of the story, but that's not the point of the story. I like that idea, but there's a deeper point when it comes to the point of life. What if I were to say that the point of life is not for you to become the best version of yourself. What if I were to say that the point of

life is God. That this is not my story. And this is not your story. This is his story. The whole thing. This whole show, everything, it's about him. You know, even the second reading today that was read to us, it's just so good because it goes on and on.

I think it's like, I think it's one sentence. But it goes on. It's St. Paul. These are the last words of the book of the letter of St. Paul to the Romans. You know, the letter to the Romans is just this powerful, like, deep theological treatises. It's incredible. But the last words that St. Paul writes to those Christians in Rome is he says, to him who can strengthen you. So to him who can strengthen you, Jesus, God himself. And he goes on, according to my gospel, proclamation of Jesus Christ, and goes all these lines,

all these lines, all these lines, all these lines. The last words are, be glory forever and ever. So if you just want to summarize the whole thing, St. Paul is saying, the whole point of this whole letter, the whole point of all of our lives is, to him who can strengthen you, be glory forever and ever. to God be glory forever and ever. That's the point of life. He's that God is glorified, that He is known, that he is loved. So the question, what do we do if that's the point?

That he's the main character. You can really, if there's any kind of resentment there, your heart or my heart about this whole thing. This is tense for us. We can kind of relate to Lucifer, right? When Lucifer rebelled against God, what was his saying? The saying was, I will not serve, right?

Non-Servium. Because if this is all about him, I don't want it. If the whole story is about his story, then I don't want to be a part of it. And if there's something in our heart, right, we have eye trouble, if there's something in our heart that rebels against this,

then we can identify a little bit with that rebellion of Lucifer. But what if there is this real sense, that all of this, your whole life is not your story. That you've been created, you've been redeemed, you've been invited to be a part of his story. What happens in our hearts? Is it resentment or is it joy?

Or is it resentment of like, no, I want my, I want to be the main character, I want to be part of my own story, or are we honored? Because yes, it's his story. And no, you and I are not the main character. Yes, he is. the main character, and yet you belong. Yes, this is his story, and yet you have a role. Yes, God, you are God, I am not. And yet you have a part to play. And that's the gospel today.

So beautiful. It's incredible, right? Remember, average is not insignificant. And here is Mary, who is, for all intents of purposes, is an average person. I mean, aside from being immacally conceived, but other than that, she's an completely average person. But average is not insignificant. What happens? The God shows up and he reveals that he's the star, right? God shows up and he, well, through the angel Gabriel, God shows up and he reveals, like, no, there is a massive story going on. And you have a part to play. What's Mary's response to this knowledge that, okay, this is not your story? What's Mary's response to this, to the news that, no, you're invited to be part of his story.

In humility, she says, I'm the handmaid of the law. Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word. Basically, she says, whatever he wants me to do, yes. Whatever he's asking me, the answer is yes. Whatever part he wants me to play, joy. I mean, she even says it in the gospel later on. She says, my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. Whatever he wants me to do, the answer is yes, and it's a yes in joy. It reminds me of a viral video, a recent video that came out. A little boy, I think he's English. And he was just cast in the school play, the school Christmas play. And he tells his mom, he says, mom, guess what part I have? She's like, what part? He says, it's a classic role. He says, it's a classic part. She says,

what, Joseph? No, no, no, no, it's a classic part. The angels? No, no, no. It's a classic role, mom. It's a classic role. The shepherds? No, she's like, well, who? What's your part? She says, he says, I'm door holder number three. And she's just like, yeah, that is. That's great. She says, are you happy about that? He says, yes. I get to hold. I get to slam the door, I get to open the door. This recognition, he has, he's not the main character. And he's not Joseph, and he's not the angels. He's not the shepherds.

I'm doorholder number three, and it's awesome. Why? Because I have a part. Because I have a role in the story. And this is the truth for you and for me. We are not the main character. We're not the star. This is not even our story.

And yet, you have a part in this story. You have a role. You've been cast. He was joyful. that he gets to be doorholder number three. Mary rejoices. It's be the mother of the Savior. No, you might hear that and say,

well, of course she rejoiced in that. I mean, she was given a big role. She may not be the star, but she is, you know, the very, very high, you know, supporting cast. She's going to get nominated for sure. You know, I don't know if you realize this. In the tradition of the church,

this invitation from God through the angel Gabriel to Mary is a huge monkey wrench in her plans. that the tradition of the church is, and it's a small tea tradition, but it's a tradition. The tradition is that Mary and Joseph were planning on remaining celibate for the rest of their entire lives. Mary was not planning on being anyone's mom for her entire life. Now, say, where does that come from? It comes from a number of places in the Bible, but one of the places in the Bible that it comes from is the gospel today. Danger Gabriel appears.

It says, here's God's plan for your life. And she says, how can this be since I have no relations with a man? Now, here's the thing. Mary, that question makes no sense because Mary is, if she wasn't planning on being celibate the rest of her life, because two things. One, Mary was betrothed. So, and then secondly, she had a basic understanding of biology. She knew where babies come from. So for the angel Gabriel to say, you'll be the mother of the Messiah, and for her to say, how can this be, since I have no relations with a man, is not because she didn't, she forgot that she was betrothed to a man, or because she didn't know where babies came from, it's because it must have been because she had

some other plan, that she had actually previously consecrated her virginity with Joseph to the Lord. And then here comes God with his plan, new plan. You thought that your virginity was going to be consecrated and you would never become a mother. I'm going to use what you gave me for a different purpose. And this is so important for all of us because this is what God does, right? It's his story. he steps in. And a lot of times we're like, no, no, no, this is going to be the plan.

This is what I like for my life. And he says, okay, this is, this was your yes. This is where you said you want to do whatever he wants you to do. And then God says, I'm going to use that in a new way. Can you adapt? I'm blown away by how quickly Mary adapts to this new call. God, I thought that I would consecrate my virginity to you for this other purpose. but you want to use it for a new purpose.

So yes. The answer is yes. Whatever you want me to do, the answer is yes in joy. And this is the last thing. You and I, we're not the main character. We're not the star. This isn't even our story.

This is his story, and he's the main character. And yet you and I have been created and redeemed and invited to be a part of his story. your role is not insignificant. Your yes, to be part of his story, it radiates not only through time. Your yes will radiate through eternity. To be able to say,

you are God, I am not. To be able to say, God, whatever you want me to do, yes. Whatever you ask of me, the answer is yes. Yes. You're the main character. Whatever rule you have for me, my answer is yes.