Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 8/20/23 More Knowledge or More Courage

Episode Date: August 19, 2023

Homily from the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Knowledge without action is useless. Too often, our problem as followers of Christ is not a lack of knowledge, but a lack of courage. In order for us to live the lives Jesus has made possible by his grace, we do not need to know more. We need to be brave enough to act on what we know.Mass Readings from August 20, 2023:Isaiah 56:1, 6-7Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8Romans 11:13-15, 29-32 Matthew 15:21-28

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 Matthew. Chapter 15 verses 21 through 28. At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyrant Sidon. And behold, the Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, Have pity on me, Lord, son of David. My daughter is tormented by a demon. But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her. Jesus' disciples came and asked him, sent her away,

for she keeps calling out after us. He said in reply, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But the woman came and did Jesus homage saying, Lord, help me. He said in reply, it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs. She said, please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters. Then Jesus said to her in reply, a woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you wish.

And the woman's daughter was healed from that hour. The Gospel of the Lord. made you to have a seat. So it is the 20th of August and also the 20th Sunday of ordinary time, which is great. I think that's fitting for some reason. But a couple weeks ago, we had the memorial of a saint named St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She was a Carmelite nun and a really amazing woman. She was born Edith Stein and she was raised Jewish in an observant Jewish family, but she became agnostic.

When she lived through World War I, just seeing suffering and seeing the brokenness of the world, brokenness of humanity. Yeah, she became agnostic and just said, I don't know what to believe. She became a nurse later on and was caring for people. She actually went on to get her PhD in philosophy from the University of Freiburg, which is just amazing to think of this woman in the turn of the last century, who was that driven to just pursue the truth. At one point, she was staying after she had her PhD in philosophy, like just big brain kind of a person. She was staying at the house of a friend. And this friend had this book on the life of St. Teresa of Avala, this other Carmelite Nun. And Edith Stein, she picked it up.

It was just Teresa of Avala's story of her life. And she just started reading it. And she read it all through the night. And as the sun was coming up, she closed this book. And she just uttered the words, this is the truth. And that set her on this journey. She became Catholic. She was baptized. In 1933, she became a Carmarolite nun and just dedicated her whole life to Jesus. In 1942, what happened as, you know, Nazism is spreading all throughout Europe. She as long as well as her blood sister, Rosa, they were both taken into Auschwitz. And in August of 1942, Sister Teresa Benedict of the Cross and her sister Rosa were both killed in Auschwitz. And I was just looking at this woman's life, Edith Stein's life, St. Teresa Benedict of the

cross, the same person, and asked the question like, what would mark her life? And of course, family was a really important part of her life. And so was war marked her life. And she's lived through World War I, died in World War II, suffering marked her life. Her intelligence, I mean, this brilliant woman, her love of learning, her study, her knowledge. All those are good things.

And I just kept thinking, though, I wonder what is it, though, that is the thing that marked her life? And I was reading the first reading today, it's Isaiah Chapter 56. And one of the first lines in Isaiah 56 is Isaiah says to the people, he says these two things, he says, observe what is right and do what is just. And the implication, of course, of Isaiah is he's talking to people who already know, right?

They already know what is right. They already know what is just. And so knowledge for those people that Isaiah was talking to, knowledge isn't the problem. Lack of knowledge isn't the problem. And I think that's for a lot of us too, like when it comes to living, lack of knowledge of what to do isn't the problem. I think from big things like faith to also just really small things,

I mean, even when it comes to diet, I mean, we know, everyone knows that McDonald's is not the best, it's not health food, right? We know that McDonald's is not health food. And we also probably know that if you've ever had McDonald's French fries, they taste really, really good. If you let them sit out for like an hour, they no longer taste any good. Why? Well, there's this doctor online, not, I'm not advocating online doctors, but this doctor who makes

YouTube videos, Dr. Paul Saladino, and he actually went through this and he pointed out that McDonald's French fries have 19 ingredients in them. He says, he points out that they should have three. It should be potatoes, tallow, beef tallow that you can fry these in and salt. Those should be the three ingredients. There's 19 ingredients, and four of those ingredients are seed oils, which are not good for any human being to put inside their bodies. And yet that's what they have.

In fact, he points out that it says natural beef flavor is part of the McDonald's ingredients, but that, again, doesn't come from tallow. What that comes from is wheat and milk in this strange combination that's your beef flavor. In fact, the salt, even the salt that McDonald's uses in all of their products as three ingredients. One is salt, the other is sugar, and the third is silica aluminate, which is basically an aluminum-filled kind of salt, that we just taste and think, this tastes good, and yes, and it's not good for us. One of the things he points out that is in McDonald's French fries that I thought, this is, this is strange. I don't know if I can enjoy this ever again, is he says McDonald's French fries, one of the 19 ingredients,

is polydymethylosyloxane, which is basically a form of silicone that they use in silly putty as an anti-foaming agent that they put in the McDonald's French fries so that when they, when they fry them, they don't explode essentially. And I think, like, okay, I know that, and I still want them. Like, I, yeah, I've told this to many people over the last four weeks, because that's when I first saw the little video, I'm like, did you know that there's 19 ingredients of McDonald's French fries? People are like, so? Because that's us, right? I mean, how many times, again, big things and small things. Knowledge is not the problem, or lack of knowledge is not the problem.

One of my favorite personalities online, favorite podcasts, favorite YouTube channels is Dave Ramsey. I love Dave Ramsey, not only just for myself, but also for our students who are trying to get out of debt. Or maybe they don't have much debt, but they're trying to, like, get themselves in a place where they're able to live like no one else, right? So they can give like no one else. They want to do things with their money to help people. Dave Ramsey's such an incredible counselor. And he even says this. He regularly points out regularly in his show points out that what he's teaching is not,

complex that I've heard him say so many times says people this is sixth grade math when it comes to making a budget this is sixth grade math it's not lack of knowledge that's the problem he says he knows this he knows that the real issue is not the knowing he knows the real issue is the doing because it's sixth grade math but it's like fully grown decision making and I think this is the reason why st. Teresa benedicta of the cross is so amazing that she encountered Jesus She read the book, she encountered the life of Christ, and she said, these four words, this is the truth. And then she allowed that truth to completely redirect and redefine her life. And I see her, I see how she acted.

And I look at myself and I wonder, do I need more knowledge or do I need more courage? Remember Isaiah, he said, observe what is right. Do what is just. And I have to wonder, like, I don't know if my problem is a lack of knowledge. I wonder if my problem when it comes to following Jesus is a lack of courage. In the last couple of weeks, I know a diocese put on a camp for middle schoolers. It's run by high schoolers and adults. And it's great.

This year, the theme was the virtues. In fact, the cardinal virtues. Just a quick little recap. The first three cardinal virtues, justice, prudence, temperance. So justice is just giving someone what you owe them. Like giving someone their due. That's justice. Prudence, it's like practical wisdom, right?

You know the goal. You take the wise steps to reach them. the goals. That's what it is to be prudent, not prudish, but it's like, okay, I'm going to be, if I know what I'm supposed to be, I'm going to take those wise steps to get there. And temperance is very simply, it's doing the right thing at the right time and the right way, or using the right thing at the right time and the right way. So coffee is a good thing, the right time to drink it, is not midnight, right? So doing the right thing at the right time and the right way, or using that right thing and the right time in the right way. Those are the first three cardinal of virtues,

just as prudence temperance. But the fourth cardinal virtue is I keep going back to our campers and to so many people, I think the fourth cardinal virtue of fortitude is possibly the most important of all the cardinal virtues. Why? Because fortitude is all of the other virtues when they're needed the most. I'll tell this to our campers and anyone who listens that the reason why fortitude is so necessary is because it's easy to be good when being good is easy. It's easy to be just and have that virtue when being just as easy. It's easy to be honest when being honest is easy. I mean, to think about how often it's easy to tell the truth when I know that, no, there are no bad consequences out of this. But to know that, oh, if I tell the truth in this situation, it's going to cost me

something, that's when I need fortitude, right? If I don't have fortitude, I won't be just in it, or won't be honest. And you have to ask, wait, am I, am I just in the first place? If I can't be honest, when being honest is hard, am I honest at all? Like, if I can't be kind, when being being kind is hard. How kind am I? If I can't be generous when being generous is hard, how generous am I actually just? Am I actually honest? I'm actually kind or am I only, am I only kind when it suits me? Because that's not being virtuous. That just means I'm having a good day, right? That just might mean I slept well last night. And I realize this for this is for all of us and I need to be able to act on what I know. I need to be able to do what I know is good.

or else I'm a slave. Things get hard enough if they're just, I'm just back to being me. I need to be able to act on what I know or I'm powerless. I'm just powerless. I think about that term powerless. If you've seen anyone who's powerless, there's the woman in the gospel today.

Matthew's Gospel, this woman, the Canaanite Woman, she is powerless. Why? Because she's not Jewish. She's coming upon Jesus. And she has no, there's no status in her life. And not only that, but she is stuck. her daughter is possessed by a demon and I just think like there's there's no way you could on your own deliver someone from possession from a demon she is powerless and all she knows is is Jesus is here that's all she knows and she doesn't even know that much about him I mean if you

follow the story Matthews Gospel Jesus as he goes into this territory of the Canaanites he hasn't done any miracles yet he hasn't done any amazing signs or wonders she calls him she says the Lord, son of David. I'm guessing she doesn't even know what that really, really means. All she knows is this is a holy man, maybe even, the anointed one of God, and that's it. She's powerless. And all she knows is that Jesus has some kind of power. And she acts on that.

I think about this. I think what you and I know about Jesus would have dwarfed what she knows about Jesus. But the difference between her and us is that she acted on what she knew. Because we know this. We know that knowledge without action is useless. Knowledge without action is useless. In this moment, here's this woman who has fortitude. She knows a little, but she has so much fortitude.

She has so much bravery. You know, fortitude has a couple different aspects to it. One is bravery. And bravery is nothing more, nothing less than doing the right thing in the midst of of fear, like doing the good in the face of fear, like knowing what I need to do and then doing it regardless of my emotions, regardless of the danger that I'm facing. And that's what you and I are called to. If I know the next step I need to take, then how do I do it?

That's a big question. I ask myself. When I know that it's time to move forward, how do I do it? I sometimes stand still. I sometimes I'm going to wait for life to come to me. I'm going to wait for this thing to come at me rather than running to the battle. Or even sometimes I'm tempted to sidestep the whole thing. When it's time to stand up, I am tempted to sit down.

That's when I just like probably all of us need bravery. This fortitude that this woman has of like, here is Jesus, here is the chance. And I am going to call out after him. I'm going to act on what I know because knowledge without action is useless. And I'm reminded of one of my guys from the Old Testament. His name is David. Remember that one of the early stories of David, after he gets anointed by the prophet, his brothers go off.

They're going to fight against the Philistines. and you probably know the story that Goliath comes out, the champion of the Philistines, and he challenges the armies of Israel to a battle. But basically he says, we're not going to have armies come together and fight, then a lot of people will die. How about this?

We'll make it simple. I will fight on behalf of the Philistines. You Israelites, find one person who will fight on your behalf, and then we'll face each other. That way, only one person gets killed. And if I kill him, then we win. And if he kills me, unlikely, then you win. And so he does this for 40 days.

No one takes him up on this. No one is brave. No one sees this challenge. No one sees the reality that someone needs to do this good thing. Someone needs to fight. And no one does until young David shows up. And as the story goes on, you know, David's just like, what's going on here? And he volunteers, basically, and King Saul questions about this.

This whole, it's incredible story. But the part I want to highlight today is as David goes into the battlefield, it says that he stops by this dried up riverbed, a wadi, and he picks up five smooth stones. And he puts him in his pouch and he has a sling. in this line here, this is in 1st Samuel chapter 17, verse 48 and 49. It says this. It says, the Philistine then moved to meet David at close quarters. And this is the line.

While David ran quickly toward the battle line in the direction of the Philistine. And in that part of a sentence, and David move quickly toward the battle line and the direction of the Philistine, that's bravery. Again, when you and I are faced with like, okay, I know I need to move. I'm just going to stand here and wait for the battle to come to me. Well, I know I need to move, I'm just going to sidestep. It's time to stand up. I'm going to sit down. I know enough.

I know enough to move. But I need to be brave enough to move. In so many parts of our lives, this is us. We know enough to move. We need to be brave enough to move. And of course, we could say, yeah, but I've tried that. I tried and I failed. I've tried and I've fallen.

That's why another aspect of fortitude is not just bravery. willingness to do the good in the face of fear. But another aspect of fortitude is perseverance. You know, in the gospel, going back to the gospel with the woman, the disciples say, send her away, she keeps on calling out after us. It wasn't like she was brave one time. She was brave again and again. She was rejected and brave again and again.

She was dismissed and brave again and again. Here is this incredible woman who had not just bravery to do the good in the face of fear. She had perseverance. And what is perseverance? Basically, it's persisting in the good for a long time. And this is one of the things that's just so important for us. To have this virtue of fortitude means that we're going to persevere. Now the temptation, of course, for a lot of us is, okay, I'm going to persevere.

I'm going to be stubborn. So St. Thomas Aquinas, when he talks about virtues, he says there's always extremes. And the extremes we want to avoid, we always virtualized in the middle. So one extreme of perseverance is stubbornness, a pertinacity is the fancy word that Thomas Aquinas uses. So stubbornness, and that's just thick-headedness. That is, I said I was going to do it. I'm gonna do it even if it's not the right thing to do anymore.

We need to realize sometimes that like, okay, I'm just doing this out of my own pride, my own ego. I'm doing this because people will think such and such of me, as opposed to I'm doing this because it's the right thing. Remember, perseverance is persisting in the good for a long time, not just stubbornness. The opposite extreme of perseverance is basically a fear of challenge. I'm gonna shrink back because I'm afraid of the challenge

or I'm afraid of suffering or I'm afraid of failure. That's why I look to this woman and think, Oh my goodness. She's not afraid. She has this knowledge that Jesus is her only hope. And so she acts in bravery and then she persists. And she needs to. She needs to persist in the good.

And that's the thing about saints. Like this is remarkable. This is coming to the end here. The thing about saints is that saints aren't saints because they had some kind of special willpower that you and I don't have. That's not what makes a saint a saint. Because holiness is not about never falling or never failing.

holiness is about trusting in Jesus. This woman, she knew that here is a holy man. That's it. Here's the anointed one. That's it. But she knew that she needed to trust in him. She needed to call out to him. And she needed to continue to call out to him.

And that's us too right now in this moment. She persisted and she needed to. I don't know. I don't know the reason why Jesus has like these challenges. Like I didn't come here for the lost sheep. I came here for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Didn't come for Gentiles. and why he says, you know, the thing about the dogs

and the scraps and all these kind of things, I'm not sure. Other than, I wonder if Jesus is doing something more in this situation. He wasn't just healing her daughter, he was doing something in her. That he was allowing her to grow in trust, that even being challenged,

he was allowing her to grow in hope, that in not immediately responding to her, he was helping her to become even more, more brave by helping her to be brave. Right? So the more she had to be brave, the more she became brave. And I think that's where you and I are as well. That here is God in this moment. And I have to ask myself, do I need more knowledge to do God's will, to observe what is

just and do what is right? Do I need more knowledge or do I simply need more courage? That I know enough to do this. the next step to take the next step to run to the battle line. I think too often I need to simply be brave enough to take the next step and to run toward the battle line. It's not an act of willpower, it is an act of trust saying I will continue to call out. I will continue to move forward. I will continue to fight because I'm not moving forward alone. When I cry out, I am hurt. and I'm not fighting alone and you are not fighting alone.

Jesus Christ is with you in the battle. He hears you when you cry out and you know enough. Now it's time to be brave enough.