Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 2/22/23 Prototype: Jesus is the Model

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

Homily from Ash Wednesday. The goal of the Christian life is to become like Christ. As we begin Lent, we often mistakenly choose arbitrary things to give up or arbitrary ways to pray. But the goal of Lent is more than "doing something difficult" or "getting better". The goal of lent is the imitation of Christ. Mass Readings from February 22, 2023: Joel 2:12-18 Psalms 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-14 and 172 Corinthians 5:20—6:2 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

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.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Chapter 6, 1 through 6, verses 16 through 18. Jesus said to his disciples, Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that others may see them. Otherwise, you will have no recompense from your Heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, to win the praise of others.

And then I say to you, they have already received the reward. But when you give you, alms. Do not let your left hand to know what your right hand is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret, and your father, who sees in secret, will repay you. When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who will up to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your father in secret, and your father who sees in secret will repay you. When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their

appearance so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that you may not appear to be fasting except to your father who is hidden. And your father who sees what is hidden will repay you. The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. You guys, it's just so good. It's just so good. It's Start lent like this. I don't know. You know, I don't know.

I keep coming back to the same question every single lent, and the question is kind of like, what do you do? I don't know if you already have your thing picked out or your things picked out of like, yeah, what do you do? What do you do? But then there's also the bigger question, not just what do you do and what do you give up? The kind of bigger question, like, what's the point?

I'm what I mean by that. What the point is like, why do we do anything? I mean, like, why would we do any of these things? Like, why in the world would we choose something to give up? Why would we choose something to do during Lent? Like, I mean, I literally ask the question. Whatever it is that you chose or are choosing right now, maybe you're figuring it out before the end of the day.

What is the goal? I think one of the goals that we have is change. Just that sense of I just, I want to change it. Meaning at the end of this season of Lent, I don't want to be the same as I currently am. I think there's only one way to fail, It's not because like, oh, I wanted to do this thing, but I stopped doing it. It's not, you know, I really started doing this thing, but then I fell down or whatever.

That's not failing Lent. I think the only way we can fail Lent is if we get to the end of this season and we're exactly the same as we are right now. That's the only way to fail. Because I think that's the big goal. The goal is change. That's what we do these, like these three spiritual disciplines. We heard about them in the gospel today. Jesus says, you are going to fast, you are going to pray, you're all going to give alms.

those are the three things. And so prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, my invitation for every one of us is to choose one thing from each one of these. So prayer, basically, what am I going to do to get closer to God? So that in 40 days from now, I'm actually closer to Jesus than I currently am right now.

So how am I going to pray in a different way that at the end of this season, I know God better. I'm closer to God. That's one question. What am I going to do? The other is fasting. And this is the one where it's like, okay, candy and cookies and sweets,

everything like sweet. Apparently we're addicted to sugar. But sometimes we just choose an arbitrary thing. Like, I'm just going to give up, I don't know. I like, I don't know. I like comic books. I'm going to give up comic books. Like, okay, maybe.

But the big question is, what is holding me back from being the person that God is calling me towards? Like, what are those things that are in my life that actually, you know, they consistently take me off track. Like they regular, or even this, they regularly slow me down. They don't even have to be awful things. They can just be the kind of thing that is just, I hold on to it and I'm afraid to let what's the thing I'm afraid to let go?

Maybe that's the thing. Again, not arbitrary, but like closer to my heart. So prayer, what's one way I can pray that at the end of this season, I'm going to know God better than I do right now? What's fasting? What's one thing I can let go of that is just slowing me down or holding me back? And then the almsgiving, like what's, who are the people around me that I can help? What's one thing I can do that just love the people who are closest to me?

We love the people who around me need to be loved. And again, alms giving doesn't have to be money. It can be anything from your time to your attention. It could be a thank you note. It could be just a text. It could be, like, I'm going to text my mom every day. Whatever that. If that's the thing that you think that would actually bless someone,

then why not do it? Because that's the thing. Because we're trying to change, which is awesome. But then there's the next question. Fair or fasting, Almsgiving, fine. It's going to change. Super good. But change into what?

So just change for change. Just like, again, the question is what's the goal? So back in the first century, if you were a student of a rabbi, it would happen at some point the rabbi would come into your life and they would say these words, they would say, come follow me. So you become the student of the rabbi, you become the disciple of the rabbi. And so your goal, the goal of your life from that moment was to learn from the rabbi. Because rabbi means teacher, right?

So to learn from the rabbi, that becomes the goal. To learn what he knows, to learn who he is. But even more than that, it's not just like you show up. for class, to become a disciple of the rabbi means that you're literally going to follow him. You're going to watch what he does throughout the course of the day. So it's not just, when it comes to God, here's what my rabbi says. It's, when it comes to a family, here's how my rabbi treats his family. When it comes to strangers, here's how my rabbi treats strangers.

When it comes to people who can't help him, like people who are the poor, people who are the most powerless. Here's how my rabbi treats those who are poor and powerless. When it comes to dealing with insults, here's how my rabbi treats people who have insulted him. So, see, the whole thing about this is not just you would show up for class and watch him and learn from him. You would follow him throughout the course of the entire day and night. Because the goal isn't just to learn what the rabbi knows. It's to be like the rabbi. It's in fact to imitate the rabbi.

It's one of the reasons why St. Paul says, His beloved brothers and sisters, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. So, 600 years ago, there was this book. It still exists. And it's called The Imitation of Christ. In fact, it's the second bestselling book of all time after the Bible. It's the second bestselling book of all time after the Bible. Has anyone here ever heard of the book, The Imitation of Christ?

A couple people. So the second bestselling book, only five of us have heard of it? It needs to get some sales back up. But it was the first book I ever got when I had an encounter with Jesus that changed my life in high school. I just heard, well, the imitation of Christ by St. Thomas at Campus is the second best-selling book of all time. I was like, well, I'm going to get that. And it's, it is this, it's a treasure. I have a better term.

It is a treasure of just, here is what it is to imitate Jesus. Because that's the goal. because he's the model. Many of you just say this, that Jesus is the prototype. So, as you probably might expect, for the next six weeks, we have a new series. And the series during Lent is called prototype. Because what we're going to do over the next six weeks,

over these next 40 days, is we're going to say, okay, Jesus is he is the rabbi, he's the model, he's the prototype. The whole goal of my life, the whole goal of our Lent, is not just going to be, I'll give up some things, I'll start doing some things, I'll be a better person. The whole goal of Lent is I want to be like Jesus.

By the end of this, I mean, imagine this. Imagine if, how do we approach Lent right now? We approach Lent like we just said, like I'm going to give us some chocolate. What if we, as Catholic Christians said, every Lent, we're reminded like, oh my gosh, what are the areas where I'm not like Jesus and then we started to become like Jesus?

I think, I don't know about this, but I think we'd have a better reputation, A. I think we'd be more joyful. I think this world would be a lot brighter. And I think you and I would be a lot more free. Because that's what Jesus wants for us. He wants this love. He wants freedom.

He wants joy. He wants light in our lives. He wants us to be like him. And so, again, as I'm saying, for the next six weeks, we're going to do this thing. Now, we're not doing it just on Sundays. In fact, I think I sent in the group me a link to Hallow. And so the app, the app, the number one Christian prayer app in the world. They're doing this thing over the course of all of Lent,

where they're basing their teachings every single day off of the imitation of Christ. And so what we're going to do is we're going to base our Sundays off of this book, The Imitation of Christ and off the Gospels, and looking at Jesus and seeing how he lives, seeing how he treats people, seeing how he prays to his father. And like, we guess we're going to base this. But every day, every single day, you have access to this just, let me be reminded once again of how my rabbi walks.

Let me just be reminded every single day as I go to this app. Here's how my rabbi sees other people. We remind it every single day, here's how my rabbi lives among people who are like him and lives among people who aren't like him. Because that's our call. Again, to learn from the rabbi, but even more to follow him, to be like Jesus.

The prototype. And again, this is the last thing. I think the worst thing would be if we were sitting here and said, Father, it's a good idea. I don't know if I'm ready to start. Like, I think the worst thing would be like, that is, you know, I like that prototype thing. That was really clever of you, Father. But I don't know if I, maybe later, maybe like I'll do this later.

That's why I love St. Paul today, Second Corinthians. What does he say? He says, beloved brothers, and he says, now, now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation. I believe, truly, I believe that what Jesus wants to do in our life, individually and in our community collectively, over the course of these next 40 days is truly going to be transforming

and truly going to be transformative. Can you imagine what your life will look like if in 40 days you look more like Jesus? I mean, can you imagine what your prayer life would be that if in 40 days you pray to the Father like Jesus. Can you imagine what kind of like brokenness could be healed if you begin to walk like Jesus? You imagine the freedom that you'll experience.

If starting today, we begin to love like Jesus. He is the prototype. And this is the moment. This is the hour. This is the now that he's given us. I don't want any of us to say, I wish I would have started on Ash Wednesday. Because now is the time.

Now is the moment. Now is the day to start.