Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 2/19/23 Homeless: Give Up or Surrender

Episode Date: February 18, 2023

Homily from the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time. The difference between giving up and surrender is one word: trust. There are so many circumstances in life that are beyond our control. We can easily feel powerless as we realize that we cannot control all outcomes. Christ's words in the Gospel might look like giving up, but they are something vastly different...and far more hopeful. Mass Readings from February 19, 2023: Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18 Psalm 103:1-4, 8, 10, 12-131 Corinthians 3:16-23 Matthew 5:38-48

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. You can also follow or subscribe on your podcast app for weekly notifications. God bless. The Lord be with you.

In reading from the Holy Gospel, according to Matthew. Chapter 5 verses 38 through 48. Jesus said to his disciples, You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other one as well.

If anyone goes to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile? Go for two miles. give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly father, who makes his son rise on the just and on the unjust,

and causes rain to fall on the good and on the bad. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect. The Gospel of the Lord. So some of you might be familiar with the name Louis Zamperini.

I don't know if any of you know the story of Louis Zamperini. I came across his story in a book about 10 years ago. And he was kind of a normal kid. He grew up in California back in the beginning of the last century. But he was a bit of a hooligan. He got in trouble, not like just one of those ill hooligans where he kind of gets in trouble. He was so much in trouble in high school that the principal was going to kick him out of high school. That's a little more trouble than I got into.

But his older brother went to bat for him and said, basically, give him another chance. I think if I could redirect his energy, then he would be a good kid, maybe even a great kid. So his brother got him involved in track and field. And Louis Zamperini ended up becoming not just a decent runner. he became an incredible runner. He actually, by the senior year, he had set the world record for high school mile. So, okay.

And when he was 19 years old, he made it to the Olympics in Berlin, in the 1936 Olympics. He didn't win, but he did go ahead to know notoriety because in the course of him touring Berlin, he stole a Nazi flag and kind of bragged about it. Anyways, made it back to the States.

He was the kind of guy who, you know, when he got on track, kind of had this motto, and the motto is basically, no matter what you're doing, do all that you can. But whatever it is that you're doing, just do all that you can. And that's what brought him success on the track. It was what brought him success in life. When the U.S. entered World War II, Louis joined the Navy, became a bombardier over the South Pacific. And went on a number of missions.

At one point, though, his plane was shot down. Crash landed in the South Pacific, and most people on the crew immediately died. Louis was one of only three men who survived and they climbed aboard this canvas life raft the three men survived for 33 days on the 33rd day one of the men died well they were adrift at one point I mean they were starving obviously in the middle of the ocean

this Japanese zero Japanese fighter plane spotted them in the ocean and just started strafing them flying back and forth shooting at this whenever the plane would come they jump into the ocean no of course the ocean was like this shark infested thing so they jump in the ocean like punch sharks, and then when the plane passed, they'd jump back in the boat, and they would come back again for half an hour. They just did this, jump in the water, punch a shark, get back out of the water, into a boat.

The plane didn't hit one of them, but there were over 50 bullet holes in their life raft, and so they patched them up and kept floating. They floated for 47 days, which is actually a world record for survival aboard a life raft in case you're up for the Guinness Book. on the 47th day they saw land for the first time and so they paddled with their hands Louis and this other guy paddled to shore but before they were even actually able to step out of the life raft

and put their feet on ground a Japanese patrol boat came around the corner and they were picked up they were immediately again arrested and they were put into a POW camp for the next two years Louis was starved he was tortured he was tormented some of the prison guards were decent most of them many of them many of them were incredibly cruel. In fact, there was one man, they called him the bird, that he had a

particular, he was particularly vindictive to Louis because Louis was this Olympic track star, so he thought, if I could just break this man that would be an accomplishment for him, but he couldn't. In fact, he seemed the more that he tortured, the more that he tormented Louis, the stronger Louis became. Louis lost over 100 pounds. At one point, he was only 61 pounds as a fully grown man. Hours before Louis was about to be executed with everyone else in the POW W camp, the Japanese Emperor declared an unqualified and unconditional surrender to the Allies. And Louis survived. He survived by doing this thing.

That's his motto. Doing this thing of like, whatever you're doing, do all that you can. In a difficult situation, if you can change the situation, change the situation. It's easy for me to say. If you're in a difficult situation, change the situation if you can. Yeah, I don't know if you ever thought about this, but sometimes, like, looking at Christians, it can sometimes seem like they're like fatalists as kind of a heresy. Fatalism is a heresy in Christianity,

but basically says that wherever you are in your situation, whatever kind of environment you're in, just stay there. Just kind of suck it up, just kind of take it. That's actually not Christianity. That's not Catholicism. We would basically say, no, whatever situation you're in, if you can change the situation, change the situation. Basically, you know, do all that you can. Actively engage in life.

In fact, one of the big temptations for so many of us is to become passive observers of our own life. rather than actively engaging, rather than being active participants. In fact, the first reading, Leviticus, these first books of Moses, what's it all about? It's all about, here's the rules. The rules are, if you see injustice, do something. If you see people suffering, you can do something about it, do something about it. If you see something going wrong, and you can actually change the situation, change the situation.

If someone around you, someone near you, needs help, then give them help. Basically, wherever you are. If you can do something, do it. It's so good, right? Wherever your situation, do all that you can do. But here's the problem. But what happens when you've done all that you can and nothing's changed? What happens when you've done everything you can and you're still powerless?

What happens when you've done all that you can and you're still stuck? What happens when you've done all that you can and you're still homeless? And this is the last weekend we're doing this series called Homeless. It's been six weeks. We've been walking through this biblical. theme of exile, right? This reality that here's God who's good, who makes this world good, he puts us in this world. It's supposed to be our home, but because of sin, this world that was supposed to be our home now becomes a foreign place. And we, who are supposed to live here,

we don't feel like we belong here anymore. And so our experience of life is, okay, this isn't home, but I have to figure out a way to live. And we know that in exile, it's so easy to forget. They forget who you are. In exile, it's so easy to forget whose you are. In exile, it's so easy to become discouraged because, okay, I'm not home and I have no way to get home. So what do we do when we've done all that we can and we're still homeless? When Louis Zamperini got back to the United States, he was a hero. In fact, they wrote a book about him. That's the book I read about 10 years ago. It's called Unbroken by a woman named Laura Hildenbrand. They made a movie about it. And it's just remarkable. It's incredible story. But it's ironic because the same man who made it through

South Pacific and a boat of life raft for 47 days, the same man that made it through two years of torture and torment. The same man, they named his book Unbroken. When he got back to the States, he was anything but unbroken. When he got back to the States, he was a broken man. When he got back to the States, he was immediately celebrated. I mean, he was incredibly famous. Here is this Olympic hero who everyone thought he was dead for two years.

They thought he was dead. All of a sudden, this guy's alive. And everyone wanted to hear his story. Everyone wanted to hear the stories of his courage, the stories of his boldness, the stories of his perseverance and endurance, incredible man. So he was brought all of his story. over the country. Just tell his story. While he was touring, he met this young woman, fell instantly in love with her. She fell in love with him, love at first sight. He proposed to

her after only knowing her for 10 days and not recommending that. I'm just noting it as a fact of history. They got married, but Louis had a problem, and the problem was every night he had these nightmares. The nightmares were of either him being tortured or of him taking his vengeance on the bird upon the other guys, men who had tortured and tormented him. So the only way he realized he could drown out the nightmares is if he just blackout drunk, got blackout drunk every night. He was filled, this man who was so positive, so, so full of this, I can do this attitude. He was hateful. He was constantly angry. He was vengeful. He just, all he wanted to do was take out his anger, his revenge upon those who had hurt him.

He was a drunk. He was on the verge of divorce. He was powerless. He was stuck. He was homeless. And what do you do when you've done all that you can and you're still stuck? The guy, that's a question for us, right? What's our response?

What do I do when I've done all that I can do and I'm still homeless? What then? I think Jesus actually tells us today in the gospel. So the context for Jesus, you know, we know this story, this teaching of Jesus. The context, of course, Jesus is speaking to us right now, but immediately he was speaking to these Jewish people living in the first century in Israel. Of course, he's speaking to a people who are suffering under Roman occupation, right? They've been, their whole entire lives.

Everyone, every person listening to Jesus speak in today's gospel, their whole life, all they've known is Roman domination, Roman occupation, and subjugation to the Roman Empire. And before that, it was subjugation to the Greek Empire. Before that, it was subjugation to the Persian Empire. Before that, it was subjugation to the Babylonian Empire. For hundreds of years, that's all that they've known. all they've known is being stuck, all they've known is being powerless, all they've known is being homeless,

and what does Jesus tell people who all they've known, all they've known is being stuck. What he tells them is this, you've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn your other one. When someone asks for your cloak, give them your tunic.

When someone presses you into service for one mile, go two miles. And I read this, I hear this, and I don't know about you. But this could look like Jesus is telling them to give up. You know, you've been under domination for so long. Just give up. Because what kind of behavior is this? This looks like the behavior of someone who's defeated, right? This looks like the behavior.

This looks like the way someone who is broken would act. This looks like what a psychologist names is Martin Seligman. What Martin Seligman would call learned helplessness. I don't know if you've even know if you've ever heard of Martin Seligman. Again, he's a psychologist who did these experiments on animals and on human beings, and he put them in a place where there was an uncontrollable environment and asked the question, if people are brought up against this uncontrollable environment often enough,

what happens? What happens is they end up learning helplessness. What happens is they end up believing that there's nothing they can ever do to make things better. There's, in fact, three steps. First step is a series of uncontrollable bad events. Second step is a perceived lack of control. there's nothing I can do. And so because of that, there's this third step, this conclusion, which is I have this generalized, helpless behavior. No matter what I do, nothing matters. So I might

as well give up. I think it's really interesting. The idea of giving up is really fascinating, I think. Because what are we doing when we give up? We all do it, right? We're all tempted to do it. So what are we doing when we give up? When things get too big for us, when we feel out of control, I think our temptation is to escape. Right? Like that sense of like, I don't know what to do, that this is too big for me to control. And so I'm just going to escape. I'm just going to avoid. I'm just going to give up. So I'm going to avoid making the call that I know I need to make.

I'm going to avoid having that hard conversation that I know I need to have. I'm going to avoid sitting down and doing the thing, whatever the thing is, whether that's the paper or practice or even facing my own self. I'm going to avoid facing my own grief. Just going to escape it. That's what it is to give up. It's to escape. And we do this.

We do this in big ways. We also do this in really small ways sometimes, right? We just, I don't know, binge, scroll, escape. That's our recipe. Isn't it ironic that in order to escape reality, we binge on reality shows? Isn't ironic that in order to escape my life, I scroll through someone else's life? That's ironic that to avoid doing what I know I need to do, I log on to YouTube and watch other people do things.

It's ironic that in order to avoid living my own life, I escape and watch someone else's life. And what happens? I end up turning away from the issue, right? I end up turning away from the obstacle. I end up turning away from the challenge. I end up turning away from the grief. And in doing that, I end up turning my back on life. That's giving up.

Of course, I understand. I know this. There are people here in the church tonight who are like, I know people do that, Father. That's not me. Like you're the kind of person, you might be the kind of person who like, when there's an obstacle, you're like, let's get past this thing. Like when there is an issue, you're like, I deal with it. When there's a challenge, like, I'm the kind of person I address this.

When there's a problem, like, you solve it. You're like, that's what I do. That's just, and that's great. If that's you, that's awesome. But again, what happens when you can't solve it? What happens when you can't get past it? What happens when you're still homeless? you've done all that you can and you're still in exile.

Well, no, that's when you have to figure this out. I have to figure out a way to get back home. I have to fix this. I have to solve this problem. You know, there's a problem with that. I don't know if you've ever stopped to think about that. There's a problem with whatever it is, I have to solve it. The problem is, no matter what the grief is,

no matter what the suffering is, no matter what the struggle is, and what the fear is, it's all, all of those things. They're just a part of life. And you can't solve life. Life is not a problem to be solved. It's a story to be lived. And so the story we've been following this last six weeks are the story in the book of Daniel, right?

Here's Daniel and the three bros, Daniel and Hananiah, Azari, Michael. And they find themselves stuck, they find themselves homeless. They find themselves exiled, and they're absolutely powerless. And so remember what Jeremiah said to do in Jeremiah 29? He said, okay, you're going to go to exile, build houses, and live in them, and plant gardens and eat the produce, and get married and have kids, and increase, don't decrease.

So that's what they do. Hanani, Azari, Mishal. All of them are doing them. this. And then all of a sudden, Daniel chapter three happens. And what happens in Daniel chapter three is King Nebuchadnezzar sets up this golden statue and says this, he says, whenever you hear the song, like the sound of bagpipes, the sound of the liar, the loot, whatever the thing is, what you have to do, no matter who you are, you need to stop what you're doing, bow down, and worship my God and worship this golden statue. Here are these guys who are in exile and like,

what do we do we do now? Do we ignore it? Do we avoid it? Do we escape it? Do we give up? What they decided to do is they decided to say, I know who I belong to. I know I belong to the Lord in Daniel chapter 3. It says this, Nebuchadnezzar, hears about the fact that Hennon and I, Asriah, Mishael, are not going to bow down in worship. So he basically calls them in before him. He knows these three guys. He calls them in before him.

And he asks them the question. He's asked the question. He says, is it true, Han and I, Azraa Mishail? Is it true that you will not serve my God or worship the golden statue that I set up? He goes on to say, he says, be ready now to fall down and worship the statue I made whenever you hear the song played. otherwise, here's the consequence. Otherwise, you shall be instantly cast into the white-hot furnace.

And who is the God who can deliver you out of my hands? So maybe they should just give up, right? There's a problem. The problem with giving up is the problem with choosing to avoid the difficult parts of life. The problem with choosing to avoid the painful parts of life. The problem with choosing to avoid the unknown parts of life, the problem with choosing to avoid the uncertainties of life, The problem with choosing to avoid the parts of life I can't control is I just end up avoiding life.

That when I've done all that I can, the answer is not just give up. Also, sidebar, the answer is also not the answer that a lot of us get. I don't know if you've ever been really working hard at something, you're trying to get past it, and you're like just really digging in and just like it's failing. And someone comes along and says, have you tried, have you considered trying harder? Also, that's not the answer. The answers are neither, give up. or just try harder.

It's the answer Jesus gives us in the gospel today. And the answer Jesus gives us in the gospel today is surrender. And those moments, surrender. Now I know you're like, Father, I don't know if you know this. But give up and surrender are what they call synonyms. Those mean the same thing. If you look up and I get it. They're spelled differently, pronounced differently,

it mean the same thing. Yes. But the way Jesus uses these words, they're not the same thing. In fact, the way Jesus uses these terms, they're the exact opposite. To give up and to surrender are two completely different things, because to give up is to escape. But to surrender is to actively engage. To surrender is what part of it is saying yes to this present moment.

To surrender is to say yes to this present reality. To surrender, a part of surrender, the first step of surrender, is in the face of the reality of life to accept the situation as it actually is. giving up is marked by a loss of hope, but surrender is marked by this one word that changes everything. Surrender is marked by trust. To give up is to give in to hopelessness, but to surrender is to trust. And you guys, we all know this, the strength that it takes to surrender, to truly surrender, the gospel. The strength that it takes to say, I've done all that I can, all I can do now is trust that Jesus sees this and that matters to him.

here's my other cheek. The strength it takes, the trust it takes to surrender and say, okay, you took my cloak. All right, Jesus sees this. God, it matters to God. I'll also give you my tunic. The strength that takes to trust in the midst of life is the difference between hopelessness and hope.

To be able to say, Jesus, I trust you. And not just Jesus, I trust you, but Jesus, I trust you unconditionally. So back to Daniels chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar, Hananiah, Ezerai, Michal. What's Nebuchadnezzar say? Is it true that you're not going to bow down and worship my statue? Don't you know that here's the deal? I'm going to throw into the white, hot furnace if you don't do this.

And who is the God who can deliver you out of my hands? That's when Hananiah, Azraa, Mishal, they stand up and they give, Nebuchadnezzar the best answer. This is actually one of my favorite parts of the entire Bible. Because in the face of certain death, they don't give up, but they do surrender. And listen to what they say. They basically say this. They say, there is no need for.

us to defend ourselves to you in this matter, O King, which I think, who, okay, bold. There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If our God whom we serve can save us from the white hot furnace and from your hands, O King, may he save us. That's called trust. If our God can save us, may he save us. That's trust.

But they don't stop there. If our God, whom we serve can save us, may he save us. Here's the line. but even if he will not, know, O King, that we will not serve your God or worship the golden statue that you set up. That's unconditional trust. To be able to say, if my God will save me, let him save me. That's surrender. To say, but even if he won't, I'm still his, that's unconditional surrender. That's unqualified surrender. That's what we do. When we do that, we're transforming learned helplessness into learned hopefulness.

And this is what Jesus is asking of every one of us tonight. As I said, when Louise Zamperini is the last thing, when Louis Amperini got back to the States broken, full of hatred, full of vengeance, full of rage. His wife was on the brink of divorcing him. Throughout in California, there was this tent revival that was happening with this young preacher, his name was Billy Graham.

And Louis' wife went to this tent revival. She came home and she told him two things, she said, number one, tonight, I heard the gospel and I gave my life to Jesus. Number two, I'm not going to give you a divorce, because we're going to figure this out. On the condition, number three, I guess, on the condition, you come with me to the tent. He didn't want to go. He went there the first night. He left so angry because he's full of hate, right? He's full of rage. And this guy was telling him about Jesus. I don't want to hear about this.

He went home and said, don't ever bring me back to something like that. The next night, she somehow got him back. And he said, fine, I'll go to this. but I'm telling you this, this, the once that fellow says, bow your heads and pray, I'm out the door. She said, okay, fine. He went there, and Louis talks about it. He says that he got up there and said,

you know, everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And he's like, I don't need you to tell me that I'm a sinner. I don't need you to tell me that I've done wrong. I know that already. Then he said, the preacher went on to say, many of you have broken marriages that you can't fix on your own. many of you have lives that have become unmanageable on your own many of you have something in your heart that is tearing you apart

and you can't do it on your own you can't fix it on your own you can't heal it on your own but jesus can't heal your marriage jesus can take this life that's broken and break it new jesus can take all those parts inside of you that are dead and bring them back to life and he said i now bow your heads and invite you to pray louis stood up and he started walking right to the door of that tent and he stopped there he said he stopped there in the doorway of this tent and the first for the first moment in his life his whole life flashed in front of him he said when I was on that life for after 47 days my life didn't flash in front of me when I was being tortured and starved almost to death in Japan my life didn't flash before my eyes but he said in that moment

my whole life passed in front of my eyes every moment from all the stupid things I did as a kid to all those moments where I was near death all those moments when I was at my wits end all those moments when I did all that I could do and I couldn't do anything more and I realized that Jesus was there in every one of those moments, that even in my most broken moments, Jesus was still there. He said he found himself walking down the aisle, till he got to the front of the stage and he fell to his knees, and he surrendered his life to Jesus.

He said that night he went home, and for the first time in years, he didn't have a nightmare. And until the day he died at, I think, 95 years old, he never had one more nightmare. Because Jesus had healed something in his heart. Why? Because he had surrendered. Because he had trusted. And given the Lord unconditional trust and unconditional surrender, so that's us right now.

Tonight, we find ourselves homeless. In this life, we find ourselves homeless. What do we call it to do? When we've done all that we can, we surrender. When we're tempted to escape, we're invited to engage, not to give up, but to say to Jesus, you have my unconditional trust. to say to Jesus, Jesus, you have my unconditional surrender.