Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 3/1/26 Autobiography: Title

Episode Date: February 28, 2026

Homily from the Second Sunday of Lent Every story has a title. Does one moment define the whole thing? There is often a speech that lives inside each of us. That speech can become the title of our story. Is that title marked by resentment? Or is there a larger event that can define our lives? Mass Readings from March 1, 2026: Genesis 12:1-4a Psalm 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 222 Timothy 1:8b-10 Matthew 17:1-9

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 33777.7. 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 17 verses 1 through 9 Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother and led them up a high mountain by themselves and he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.

And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them. And then from the cloud came a voice that said,

This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them saying, rise, and do not be afraid. And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone. as they were coming down from the mountain Jesus charged them do not tell the vision to anyone

until the son of man has been raised from the dead the gospel of the Lord but you should have a seat so as you know last week when we started Lent we also started a new series and the series is called autobiography and it's called autobiography because of this reality the reality of course is that every life is a story

and every person is an author and the only question is is who will we be at the end of the story? And so we talked about last week, we talked about the fact that every story has a beginning. Like when we start writing our story, we either choose to write our story

with God as our co-author, or we get to actually choose. We can say, God, no, I want to write this on my own. I want to write this apart from me. In fact, we talked about how every sin is an attempt to be happy apart from God. But every story needs a co-author, right? Because if it's your autobiography,

every life is a story, every person is an author. the only question is, who will I be at the end of the story? So not only does, here's the thing, not only does every story have a beginning, every story has a title. Think about how important the title is. Not only just how important a title is in general,

but how important the title of an autobiography is. Because basically, when you choose the title of your autobiography, what you're saying is this, you're saying, this is the lens through which you can understand my story. That's what the title does, right? The title becomes that this is the perspective through which people can understand who you are. This is the perspective people can understand your story. Because the reality, of course, is that how we summarize that speech that goes in our heads,

because every one of us has one of these, right? Every one of us has this speech in our minds that replays over and over. And that speech is the way we understand the world. If you distill that speech into a couple words, that speech becomes the title of our autobiography. So two years ago, during Lent, we followed it. followed someone's autobiography. We followed the story of a man named Father Walter Chiszek. So Father Chisak, he was born in 1904 in Pennsylvania, son of a couple of Polish immigrants, and this man was like driven. He wanted to serve the Lord so badly. He not only wanted to serve

the Lord, he went to seminary. And while in seminary, the Pope at the time said, we need missionaries who are willing to go to Russia to bring the gospel back to Russia because under the communist oppression, I mean, religion was just destroyed in Russia. So Father Chizek, dedicated years and years of his life to becoming trained. He learned Russian. He learned how to save mass in the way of the East. He did all these things, gets ordained, goes to Poland, tries to find a way into Russia. Russia invades Poland. He's like, well, I guess I'm here. So he's living in Poland-occupied Russia. He's going to be on mission, and then what happens after two weeks of being there, he gets arrested by communist authorities on the charge of being a Vatican spy. He's in solitary

confinement for one year. And every single day he's interrogated, every day he's interrogated, Every day, he's tortured every day. They tried to break him until after a year of constant torture and interrogation, he breaks. They were able to break him emotionally. They were able to break him mentally, spiritually, physically broken. And he just basically told him whatever they wanted to hear. He just signed every paper they put it in front of him. After they got everything they wanted out of him, they sent him to Siberia,

and he worked in the gulags, labor camps for over 20 years. Years after this, he was finally kind of had this extra. tradition thing where he's brought back to the States. Now, when he starts writing his autobiography, because he did, when he starts writing the story about what was it like to be abandoned in Russia? Imagine the speech that could have gone through his head. Like how he interpreted that time, he could have said like, yeah, the speech is this. Speech is, you give God everything and he takes it all. The speech could have been through his head like, yeah, I tried to serve the Lord and he abandoned me. His title of his book could have been abandoned in Russia. The title of his book could have

Ben, don't trust God. But the speech going through Father Chisak's head again and again every day, there's a bunch of really great words in his book, but one line just stuck with me years ago, and I think about it probably every week, especially if I'm ever facing something that's really daunting, kind of thing like I don't want to come, I don't want tomorrow to come.

There's this line from Father Chiswick. He said this. He says, there will be it tomorrow, and we have to live in it. And God will be there as well. There's a speech going through Father Chiswick's mind. It's that. How do I understand my life?

How do I understand what God is doing? There'll be a tomorrow. And we have to live in it. And God will be there as well. That speech running through Father Chisick's mind and heart, that became his title. In fact, again, after all that pain, all that disappointment, all that, all that brokenness. Here's Father Chisick who said, if you want to understand me, if you want to understand how I see the world, here's the title of his autobiographical. biography. The title is three words. The words are, he leadeth me. After all of that, Father

Chisach's speech, his title of his mind, of his life story is God did not abandon me. I was not abandoned in Russia. The title of his story is this. He leads me. And there's the reality. There's a speech inside of every one of us right now. There's a way that we all see our lives. There's a way that you and I, we see other people. Are they after us? Are they on our side? There's a way we see God, is he after us? Is he on our side? Does he even care? There's the way we see the world, and our speech reveals how you and I see the world, how we see ourselves. And if we distill that speech, we get our title. We get the title of our life story. You know, speaking of stories, this Lent, we're following a story in the Bible. We're following the story of the Parable

the Prodical Son. We looked at it a little bit last week. One of the things I think we might, actually, it's pre-printed in your bulletin. If you want to follow along, you can follow along in your bulletin. But we look at it. we didn't reprint today is we didn't reprint the first lines of Luke 15. So Luke 15 is the whole context of the parable. And if we don't know the context of the parable, we won't understand what's really going on in the parable. The context is this. The first lines of Luke chapter 15 are this. It says, tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus. But the scribes and Pharisees began to complain saying, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them. So the context

of the parable Jesus tells is this. Jesus is hanging out with the bad kid. and the good kids don't like it. But Jesus is, he wants to spend his time with the kids who like smoke under the bleachers after school. And the church kids are annoyed by this. This is the context. And then it says, so to them, he addressed this parable. He asked the question, to who? Well, to both of groups, to both groups.

Why? Because both groups, both the good kids and the bad kids, the church kids and the under the bleachers kids, every one of them has a speech that's going through their head. Every one of them has a speech running through their minds, and both groups, they have a title to their own autobiography. The younger son, we talked about the younger son last week. We'll revisit him. What was his story?

His story of the younger son is, at one point he goes to his father and says, father, give me the share of the estate, your estate, that should come to me. He doesn't want to wait for his dad to die. Just give me the inheritance now. Takes the inheritance after a couple days. He goes and spends it all. That's where we ended kind of last week. The story goes on, it says, when he had freely squandered all of his property,

there was a severe famine that struck that country, and he found himself in dire need, so he hired himself out to tend a farmer's swine. Now, here's the thing. Not only did he cut himself off from the father. God, Dad, give me your stuff. Then he cut himself off from the family, right? He went away.

And then he cuts himself off even from the Jewish community. Here he is. Here's a Jewish person. All he can do is live among pigs. Like, there's no place lower he could get. But it's that place that the bad kid remembers how good God is. Remember, he remembers his father's generosity. He remembers his father's kindness.

So he develops his speech, and this is his speech. He says this. He says, how much food do my father's servants have? Here I'm dying of hunger. I'm going to get up. Here's what I'm going to say. I'm going to go to my father and I'll say, Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you.

I no longer deserve to be called your son. Treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers. That's his speech. You can imagine. That's the thing running through his mind. You can imagine, here's the younger son. He's walking all the way from this faraway place, all the way to his dad's place every single day, every footstep, he's thinking,

I've sin against heaven against you, I don't deserve me called your son, I don't deserve this anymore, I've lost my sonship, you're not my dad anymore, I'm just a slave. You can think, this is the speech going through the younger son's head. And that speech could be summarized in a title like, uh, fatherless, helpless. His title could be hopeless. His title could be disappointment. The title of his autobiography could be disqualified. Now remember, Jesus is speaking to people.

They've rebelled and they want to be with Jesus because they regret the fact that, yeah, I took my inheritance and I squandered it. Now they regret it. Now they're in pain. Now they're alone. And every one of them has that speech going through their minds that says, I don't deserve his goodness anymore.

I don't deserve his love anymore. And it's to them that Jesus says, the story goes on. The younger son shows up and he starts to state his speech. Father's sin against heaven against you. The father runs to him. This is Jesus' word. Father runs to him, he throws himself on his son's shoulders. He grabs him around his neck.

Basically, he embraces him and starts kissing his own son. He says, bring a, the finest robe, put it on him, bring on his finger, sandals on his feet. And then he says, then slaughter the fat and calf. We have to celebrate. And he says, why? He says, because why? Because this son of mine was dead and now he's alive.

He was lost and he's found. Here's the thing. That younger son, he had a speech and he had a title. The speech was, I no longer deserve to be called your son. the title, my title, my story is disqualified. And the father, with his words, rewrites the son's speech. And the rewriting of his speech is, no, my son was dead and now he's alive. He was lost and now he's found.

Your new title is not, your title is not disqualified. Your title is claimed. Your title is, you're my son. A couple years ago, I was able to meet this incredible woman. Her name is Emaculay Ili Elibigiza. If you know anything about immaculate, she's from Rwanda. she was a college student in 1994 she went back to her village for Easter break

and that weekend over Easter break in 1994 was the Rwandan genocide where the Hutus was one of the tribes, the other tribe was the Tootsie, she was a Tootsie, the Hutus raised up and they began slaughtering their neighbors. These are people who lived amongst each other

and at one point the Hutus they picked up shovels and went to their neighbor's homes and killed murdered their neighbors they picked up machetes and picked up rocks they picked up the bare hands and they killed their tootsie neighbors so emaculay she fled she ran to the house of a lutheran pastor her dad said run go to this guy's house went to the house of the lutheran pastor he took her in and he put her in a three foot by four foot bathroom with seven other grown women for the next 91 days emacquely hid in this three foot by four foot bathroom with eight total women. They couldn't lie down. They had to stand. They took turns sitting. Constant fear. That someone would find them in. They actually, the Lutheran pastor, he didn't even

let his family know that he was hiding these eight women in this hidden bathroom. They lived in constant danger, constant threat of being discovered. So all she could do, all she can do is pray the rosary. But here's the problem. She kept getting to the Our Father and she'd start praying. She felt she couldn't finish the Our Father because in the Our Father there's that word, that line that says, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And she's like, I can't pray that because my neighbors killed my family. And I don't want them to be forgiven. So she just skipped over that part of the prayer. For weeks, she prayed all day, all night, the rosary, just skipped over that part of the prayer because I can't do it. I can't, I don't

want them to be forgiven until finally she just encountered God's love. And God had to rewrite her story. God had to rewrite the speech in her head. God had to do something so finally she could start praying, forgive them as, forgive me as you, I forgive them. She finally escaped. She discovered that virtually every member of her family had been murdered by someone she knew, someone who would have been a friend to her, to their family. And she wrote her autobiography. You can imagine, here's the question.

What do you think that autobiography would be? What would be the title of the autobiography? like vengeance, revenge, kill them all, left alone. The title of Immaculay's autobiography is simply three words as well. It's simply left to tell that she saw herself as not someone who's merely left to tell the story of brokenness and the story of violence and the story of destruction. But I'm here to tell you about the power of forgiveness. I've been left. I've been the only one of my family left alive.

Why? I've been left alive to tell you the story of God's mercy. I'm left to tell you the story that new life is possible. Because here's the thing. Every one of us has a speech living in our hearts. Every one of us has a title. And we have to do is you have to tell the father that speech so he can rewrite the speech. You know, the older son has a speech too.

Sometimes we think of the older son. Remember, there's two people, two groups of people. There's the good kids and the bad kids. There's the church kids. They have a story. That's the older son. You know, the story of the older son is this, is that the older son comes in from the field. Jesus. He tells the story. The older son comes in from the field and he hears the sound of music and

dancing. And he asks a servant, he says, what's going on? And the servant says, your brother is back. And your father is slaughtered the fat and calf because he has him back safe and sound. The next line is this. When he finds out that his little brother is not dead but alive, when he finds out his little brother has come home, when he finds out that his father is celebrating his brother, the next line is he became angry and he refused to go inside. He's one of the things we have to acknowledge. I think a lot of us, we hear the parable of prodigal son, we're like, oh man, I'm the younger son. I'm the younger son. I ran away and I came back, here I are. That might be true. That's probably true. But let's be honest, you guys, you're at church on a Sunday night. You're the older son too.

Let's be honest. You might be the bad kids smoking under the bleachers. You're also a bunch of church kids, no offense. You guys, it is 6 p.m. on a Sunday night. You're here. I look at myself. I'm like, yeah, some days I'm the church kids, some kids I'm the bad kid. Sometimes the older son, some days I'm the younger son. Here's the interesting thing. The older son and the younger son, they have the same heart. They have the exact same heart. Remember the younger son? He wants to be happy. He wants to be happy apart from the father. The older son, he also wants to be happy. He also wants be happy. He wants to be happy apart from the father. Where he sees his younger son. This is the thing. This is for older sons, if you're an older son, if you're one of the

older children here, you see others rebelling and then not getting disqualified. We see others rebelling and not being persecuted. We see others rebelling and then they don't get grounded. What the heck's going on, mom and dad? We see them being loved. We see them being restored. We see them being celebrated. And we look at ourselves and like, wait, I never rebelled. the older son wanted the exact same thing as the younger son. He wanted a life apart from the father as well. Here's the truth. It's possible to leave home and be lost.

That's true. That's the younger son. It is also possible to stay home and remain lost. It's possible to never leave the father's house and still be lost. Because the older son, he's lost. Jesus gives us hints. The younger son comes in from working at the field. Here's the son of a party. Now, if you heard a party in your own home,

this is your home where you live with your father. And there's a party inside, what would you do? You'd walk inside. What's going on, guys? What's he do? He doesn't walk in. He doesn't even ask his dad what's going on. He asks a fellow, he asks a servant what's going on.

What that reveals, it reveals that he identifies more with a servant than with a son. He hears about his brother being celebrated. He grows angry, he refuses to come in. His father comes out and pleads with him. And this is the older son's speech. Again, every one of us has a speech in our hearts. Everyone has, every one of us has, oh, this is the way I look at the world. And the older son's speech is this.

He looks at his father and says, look, all these years I've slaved for you. And then not once today to obey your orders. But when your son comes home, who squandered your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughtered the bat and calf, but for me, you never even gave me a kid to feast on with my friends. that last line is so important. You never even gave me a goat to feast him with my friends. This is, again, the older son, he has a heart just like the younger son.

He doesn't say this. He doesn't say, you never threw a feast for me. He never says, you never wanted to party or celebrate with me. Why? Because the older son does not want to celebrate with the father. He wanted to take the father's stuff, a goat, a kid, and celebrate away from his father. it's possible to stay home and still be lost. Here's the reality.

The older son believed the lie that so many church kids believe. The older son believe the lie that so many good kids believe. And the lie is this. My worth lies and my not being a problem. There might be some of us here tonight who maybe the speech going through your head is, I don't deserve me called your son. I'm disqualified, but also could be that some of us here tonight, we believe that lie, the speech going through my mind is my worth,

my value lies in the fact that I'm not a problem. I mentioned many times that I'm the fourth of six kids, and I will say, I'm so grateful that I have two older sisters and an older brother. I'm so grateful. I'm grateful for many reasons. One of the reasons is because they got to pave the way. I don't know if you're the oldest. If you're the oldest in your family, praise the Lord for you.

Because you had to pave the way. I here's how easy life was in the Schmidt's household as the fourth of six. I just saw what my sisters and brother did and did the opposite. I saw, I saw them making all these mistakes, getting in all this trouble, I'm like, okay, noted. Just don't do that. And now I'll say this, that's a wise way to live. Like, yeah, you can make a mess of your life. That's no problem.

I just know I'm not going to do that. It's wise. But here's the problem. they could also lead to a life of resentment. Because here's my brother and my sisters. They're messing up all over the place. My parents still love them. They're messing up all over the place, and they're still celebrated.

They're messing up all over the place. And wait a second, they're still welcomed home just like I'm welcomed home. And what can happen is this. What can happen is the poison of the good kid is resentment. Here's what resentment does. Resentment will slowly rewrite the story of what happened so that your wound becomes the lens to which you interpret everything.

So I rehearse that speech over and over again. The older son, I'm the victim hero of my life. Of this family, I'm the victim hero. Because why? Because I've slaved. I've never disobeyed your orders. Basically, Father, that's all you care about. All you care about is the fact that I do what you ask. And resentment becomes a poison. You guys, here's the thing.

Resentment is so deadly. Resentment is what happens when we let one chapter become the title of the whole book. Yeah, something painful happened. And maybe it deserves a paragraph, maybe even deserves a full chapter. But resentment turns that one thing into, this is my story. And don't just remember what happened. I let it narrate who I am.

No, a healthy autobiography. A healthy autobiography would integrate the worst chapter, but resentment canonizes it. And resentment turns a chapter into a monument. It names your book after your wound. Because resentment is powerful. resentment is so powerful. But resentment doesn't have power to move us. Resentment has the power to paralyze us.

A couple of years ago, Prince Harry wrote a book. Prince Harry, right? The son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. He wrote an autobiography. And the title of the autobiography is literally named after his wound. It's the speech, I'm guessing,

goes through Prince Harry's mind every single day that's become his identity. I think the title of Prince Harry's book is the lens to which he understood himself. The title of the book, maybe you know it. The title of Prince Harry's book is one word. It's just spare. Because that's how he saw himself.

He saw himself as I'm the second son of the future king. So I'm the spare kid. That he saw himself as the second son to Prince Charles, Princess Diana. Basically the speech in Prince Harry's mind is this, I'm the backup plan to the one who actually matters. You can see this in his life. This is the lens to which he says, if you want to understand me, that's who I am.

I'm the backup plan to the one who. matters, I'm the spare. And that could be us. Why? Because every one of us has a speech running through our minds. Every one of us has a title. So here's the question. What's the remedy? How do we, how do we get that fixed? Well, there's two steps. One step is this. Tell your speech. The first step is not get rid of your speech. The first step is, what's the speech going through your mind? Like to actually go into prayer and tell God the truth. What is that speech that runs through your mind that you say, this is how I see myself, this is how I see others, this is how I see life, this is how I see God. To actually go into prayer and talk to the father, why?

Because that's what both sons do, right? First son, younger son? Father, I've sinned against heaven against you. I no longer deserve me called your son. He tells his speech and what's the father say? My son is dead and he's alive again. The father rewrites the speech. Your title was disqualified?

No, no, no. Your new title is claimed. The older son has his speech. Look, all these years I've slayed for you. Never once I've disobeyed one of your orders. My title is used up. My title is my worth lies and that I'm not a problem. And what happens?

After he tells his speech, the father responds and says, basically, I love this. The father says, he says, my son, my son, you are with me always. Everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice because your brother was dead. now he's alive. He was dead in life, has watched a life again. Here's the father. The father reads into his speech, his son's speech, I've slave for you, I've never disobeyed you, I've served you. And the father's like, oh my gosh, I didn't, I wasn't trying to burden you. I was trusting you. That's what the father's saying. I wasn't trying to burden you. I didn't think

that I was putting a heavy load on you. I thought that in working with you on this farm, I was entrusting you with everything that I have. So the father rewrites the speech. I love the fact that he says, but now we must celebrate and rejoice. Why? When he says we, you guys, this is so important. When he says we, this is not like, hey, we on the farm.

He's like, no, you and me. Why? Because the father's saying, hey, we're the only two family members he has here. Everyone else is a servant. Everyone else is a hired worker. But you and I are the two family members. You and I are united.

you and I are a we. And if we're not willing to celebrate his coming home, no one will. Remember the context. Jesus is talking to these good kids who are upset that bad kids are finding him. Jesus is telling them, no, listen, we, you've been with me always.

You haven't run away. You haven't rebelled. So you're the one I'm trusting. That when they come home, it's us who gets to celebrate. in order to let the Father rewrite our speech and rewrite our story, we have to tell him our speech and tell him our title. And then listen.

And this is the last thing. So we have in the gospel today, Jesus goes up the mountain and what happens is Moses and Elijah, and then the Father speaks, what's he say? He says, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. Why does he do that? Because he knows what's coming next. Jesus is going to come down the mountain.

He's going to go to Jerusalem. He's going to get betrayed. denied, arrested, convicted, crucified, and killed. And the Father is saying, through all of that, this is the speech that needs to live in your mind and live in your heart. You are my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. Through all of that, through all the difficulty of life, at the end of your life, this is the title that you need to know

is declared over you. That title is not abandoned, son. It's beloved son. my brothers and sisters if resentment has marked your life we have to let it go if resentment has defined your speech and to find your title

we have to tell the father our speech honestly and boldly and then let him speak and in that silence listen to the father's voice and that voice is clear and that voice is strong and that voice is true and that voice is strong enough to rewrite your speech and that voice is strong enough to rewrite your title and that voice is true enough to give you a new title for your

autobiography.