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Welcome to Sunday Homilies with me, Fr. 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@ascensionpress.com Sunday or by texting Sunday to 33777. You can also follow or subscribe in your podcast app for weekly notifications. God Bless the Lord be with you. A Reading from the Holy Gospel According To Luke chapter 2, verses 22:40 when the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. Just as it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons in accordance with the dictate of the law of the Lord. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death. Before he had seen the Christ of the Lord, he came in the Spirit to the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, he took him in his arms and blessed God, saying, now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all peoples a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory for your people Israel. The child's father and mother were amazed at what was said about him, and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, behold, this child is destined for the fall and the rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted, and you yourself a sword will pierce, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage, and then as a widow until she was 84. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer, and coming forward at that very time she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Israel. When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to Their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. I should have a seat. So here's a question. What is the greatest thing you think you'll ever do? Or even. You can say it like this. What is the greatest thing you think you ever could do? So I was thinking about this in relation to people's professions. Like, if you're a lawyer, what's the greatest thing you could do? Maybe it's make partner. Maybe it's to present a case before the Supreme Court. Maybe it's to be a judge. I'm not sure if that's a goal of lawyers, but maybe if you're a doctor, to pioneer some kind of new technique that would save lives, or even just to save life, maybe that would be the greatest thing you could do as a doctor. If you're an architect or an engineer, maybe the greatest thing you could do is design or build a cathedral or a skyscraper. If you're a teacher, maybe the greatest thing you could ever do is be, like, get an award. When I was in middle school, there was a teacher in the high school Brainerd who was the National Teacher of the Year. I remember thinking, like, oh, my gosh, how incredible is this? My own high school has the best teacher in this country. Maybe that could be the greatest thing. If you're a teacher. If you're an entertainer, maybe the greatest thing you could ever do is be on Broadway or get your own TV show or sell out an arena. If you're an athlete, you know, next weekend is Super Bowl. If you're a football player, the greatest thing you could ever do is compete in and win the Super Bowl. Or if you're here at umd, hockey player, be in the Frozen Four or maybe go to the Olympics. That could be one of the things you'd say, that's the greatest thing I could ever do. In fact, I was thinking about this. One of my kind of childhood heroes is a man named Eric Haydn. Eric Haydn. You might not know his name, but Eric Haydn was a speed skater for America. He was actually from Wisconsin. We don't hold that against him. But he competed in the 1980 Olympics. In fact, going into the 1980 Olympics, Eric Haydn had already won the world championship three times. But when he got to the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, he did something that was completely unprecedented. There's five events you can compete in in speed skating. The 500 meters up to the 10,000 meters, five events. And in the 1980 Winter Olympics, Eric Haydn did something no one's ever done before, and I don't think anyone's ever done it since, but he got gold in every single event. I remember hearing someone describe this, and they said, that is the speed skating equivalent of being in track and winning every event from the 100 meter dash to the marathon. And I thought about, well, maybe that's not true. Maybe it's winning every event from the 400 meter dash to the 10,000 meters. But that's still, it's. It is completely unprecedented. And after that, he actually, he barely missed qualifying that same summer, the Winter Olympics, that next Summer Olympics. In 1980, he barely missed qualifying for the Olympic cycling team. Just amazing. In 1985, he won the U.S. championships. And the next year he competed in the Tour de France. And the only thing that took him out of the Tour was he had a really bad crash and had to be pulled from the event. It's one of those things that. Here's a guy who's like, the greatest thing, greatest thing he'll ever do. Five Olympic gold medals in one Olympics. And yet I remember reading about Eric and how after he had done all of this, he even said, he said, I don't want to peak at 21. And so I don't want the best days of my life to be when I was in my early 20s. So he went on to Stanford Medical School and became orthopedic surgeon. And that's what he's been doing for the rest of his life until now. In fact, if you look for him online, type in Eric Haydn. It says American physician, not American speed skater, which is kind of cool. But at the same time, I wonder about this. Here's the greatest thing he's ever. Anyone could ever could have done. Five gold medals in speed skating. So he didn't want that to be the peak. So I'm going to be a great surgeon, and that's cool. But I wonder if he didn't just kind of trade in one accomplishment for another. So, you know, we're in the middle of this series called On Purpose. And one of the premises of this whole series is that God made us on purpose. He made each one of us for a purpose. And that purpose is to be great. And so we have to have that as our destination is to be great. Here's a question. What if being great is not connected to what we do as much as it's connected to who we become? Again, if that's the Goal. The goal is to be great. What if being great is not so much connected to what we do or what we accomplish as much as it is connected to who we become? Because we could say great. Like I mentioned, great is. I'm good at this. But there's a better definition of to be great. I think to be great would be, I'm the person that God has called and created me to be, which is necessary for us, because that kind of call, to be great like that I'm the person God has called and created me to be, is beyond circumstances. It's beyond opportunities, it's beyond accomplishments. That rarely is God's call limited to, hey, do this thing or accomplish this task. Because if that was the case, then once you're done with that task, well, your life's basically worthless. If God's call in your life was, hey, do this thing, the greatest thing you ever could do, once that was accomplished, your life would be purposeless. I did the thing, so now I'm just waiting around to die. But your life isn't purposeless. You've been made on purpose. Therefore, your life is never purposeless. Your life is on purpose because you've been called. In fact, that word called is where we get the term vocation. Probably know this already, that vocation, vocare means call. And so I think sometimes we think like, you know, hey, you need to find your vocation, find that call. What's the call God has on your life that we limit it to the big four. The big four are, you know, marriage and family, the priesthood, religious life, or consecrated single life. We think that those are the big four. But in fact, the church actually has three different senses of call. And so the first sense of call is what we typically refer to as the universal call to holiness. What that means basically is that you've been made on purpose, which is to say you have a destiny. Now, when I say you have a destiny, I don't mean like fate. We don't believe in fate as Catholic Christians. But to say you have a destiny means you have a destination. Again, God made you on purpose so that you could spend eternity with him in heaven forever. Basically, God made you with a destiny, a destination is to become like Jesus. I'll say it like this. God's call on your life, the universal call to holiness. The reason God made you on purpose is to be a saint, like, nothing more, nothing less. That's the first sense of call, the universal call to holiness. The second sense of call is, again, as I said, the big four, right Big marriage and family, priesthood, religious life, or consecrated single life. Now that's important because that will change like once or twice in a person's life. The first one, that one that call to holiness that never changes. Like you could make a shipwreck of your life, like you could abandon the faith, you could reject God, and you're still made on purpose. You're still made for that purpose. You still have that as your destiny never changes. The second sense of call changes once or twice, right, in a person's life. And then the third sense of call is what are like the daily tasks, what are the daily or the seasons or kind of the moment to moment things that God has invited us or called us to do. So those are the three senses of vocation, three senses of call. Again, this one never changes. We're called to be a saint no matter what. This one always changes. We're called to engage with the Lord in different ways. That middle sense, though, sometimes I think when we discern that, like marriage and family, priesthood, religious life, etc. Sometimes I think we look at, okay, what are the tasks of that vocation? So do I like what a priest does, or do I like what married people do? And sometimes we miss the case because that's fine, it's fine. We need to factor in the tasks. But I remember talking with a young woman I was doing marriage prep with, she and her husband, and it was maybe two weeks before their wedding, and she wanted to have a private meeting, just the two of us, and okay, great. And so she comes in one day and she says, okay. So I'm a little nervous, I'm a little worried, I have a problem. What's your problem? She said, well, I think I might be called to be a nun. And I was like, two weeks before your wedding? Yeah, you do have a problem. And chuckled. But I said, okay. Why do you think you might be called to be a nun, a religious sister? She said, well, ever since I was a kid, I've really wanted to live a life of simplicity. And I wanted to live a life of poverty and I wanted to live a life where I get to serve people who no one else serves. And so I was listening to her taking that in and was able to point out to her, like, well, I know a lot of couples who live a life of simplicity. I know a lot of families who live a life of poverty, and I know a lot of parents who, they spend their lives taking care of their own children. People that if they didn't care for them, no one would Care for them. And so it's not so much the tasks we're discerning when we discern those middle and big four, right? What we're discerning is what is the primary relationship by which I'll become the saint God wants me to be. So that middle task, right? So I'm discerning marriage. You're discerning marriage because like, okay, is this the person? Is this the primary relationship by which I'll become the saint God made me to be? That's one of the reasons I say this again and again, is that whenever a couple gets married, they get married on July 14th to be able to say, okay, as of July 14th. Husbands, you have one job that's to help your wife get to heaven, and vice versa. Your wives, you have one job to help your husbands get to heaven. Because why? Because this is the primary relationship after Christ, of course, by which you'll become that person God has called you to be. For the priest, it's similar. He stands as the bridegroom in relation to the bride, the church, and so your parish priest, as often as he loves the parish, the people in the parish, as Christ loves them, he's becoming that man God's called him to be. Similarly with religious sisters, they're brides in relation to Christ, the bridegroom, as long as they love Christ as their bridegroom, and even their sisters, as sisters, brothers, or like as brothers, they're becoming the people God has called them to be. Those who have consecrated single, those consecrated singles, as often as they love the people closest to them, they're becoming the people God has called and created them to be, which is amazing. So what's the primary relationship God's calling you to? Now here's the problem. What if you don't know the primary relationship God's calling you to? What if you don't have an opportunity for that? What if you wanted to go to seminary but they said no? What if you wanted to get married but you never had the chance to do this? What if you did get married but something changes because of death or divorce? Like question, what do you do then? What do you do when you don't know that primary relationship? The answer is in today's feast, you do what you know where you are. Here's what I mean. Today's feast, right? You have where Mary and Joseph, and here's their call. The call is to be parents of God, basically, right? That here's Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus. Here's Mary, the true mother of God. That their child is the second person of the Trinity, that this one they have to raise is God incarnate. Here's the question. You're in that position. That's what you're called to. What do you do? Like, how do you like. Okay, here's the. There's no book, no parenting book on how to raise God. Why? Because it's never happened before, never happened since. And so you can imagine Mary and Joseph will be absolutely clueless in how to raise Jesus. And yet they're not entirely clueless. Why? Because they knew this truth. Do what you know where you are. So today, what do they do? Well, okay, Jesus is this age. We know that the child that opens the womb, we bring them to the temple and we offer the sacrifice that Moses required. So I know that I could do this. I just do what I know where I am. And that's for every single one of us, whether I know my vocation or not, whether I know my primary vocation, my primary relationship or not. Just do what you know where you are, and there you will find God's call. Remember, there's a theologian, his name is Frederick Buechner. And he said that. He said it in a really fascinating way. He said. He said, vocation is the place where your deep longing meets the world's deep need. You find your vocation in the place where your deep longing meets the world's deep need. I've always liked that, ever since college, because it highlights that you've been made on purpose. Your deep longing meets the world's great deep need. But I like a variation of this that I just was praying with, and I would say this. I say vocation can be found where what you have to offer matches up with the need near you. I think that's. That's one of vocations is found where what you have to offer matches up with the need near you. Many of you might have heard of a guy named Jan Ternowski. Jan Ternowski was a Polish man, just a normal Catholic guy, young man who. His first occupation, he wanted to be a bookkeeper, but he failed at that. And so he kind of, like, had to settle to be a tailor like his father. And he was, as I said, just a normal Catholic. Didn't really think much of living life like a saint until one day he was in church and he heard a priest say, it is easy to be a saint. And so, for whatever reason, that just pierced his heart. So he asked the priest, what do I do? The priest said, well, pray, study, learn. God's word, learn how to hear his voice. And so Jan Trenowski, just as a young man, started praying, started studying, started learning to hear God's voice. Now, he never married, and I don't know why. Maybe he never had the chance to marry. Maybe he wanted to get married, but there was no opportunity. But he just kept on doing what he knew where he was. Pretty soon, that priest said, hey, there's a number of men our parish who have no one to lead them, no one to serve them, no one to mentor them. He said, jan, I want you to do that. I want you to mentor these young men. And Jan Szernowski is like, well, I don't have any gifts. I don't have a degree. I don't have any capabilities. And the priest essentially said, no, do what you know where you are. And so Jan Trierowski knew how to pray. So he taught these men how to pray. Jan Trinowski had been reading about the spiritual life. So he just shared with these young men what he had learned about the spiritual life from a book. And slowly, just by doing what he knew where he was. Jan Trenowski, who was not married, who was not a priest, was not a monk, who was not a religious. He did what he knew where he was, and he changed these young men's lives. Out of this group, there were at least five men who became priests. One of those men who became a priest is known as St. John Paul the Great. In fact, later on, a good friend of John Paul's said, I do not think that John Paul or I would be priests if it wasn't for Jan Chernowski. Just do what you can where you are. And it's not glamorous. It's often hidden, it's often small, but it's always right here. Do what you know where you are. The vocation is where what you have to offer matches the need near you. And that's so important. We don't have to run off. We don't have to race off to find our vocation somewhere else. Sometimes, in fact, what God is asking us to do is, like, right where you are. Again, do what you know where you are. Second Samuel has a story at the end of David's life. We heard about David last week. At the end of David's life, as he's dying, he in Second Samuel, at the end of two Samuel, he's recounting the stories of the amazing warriors he fought with. And he goes, actually, he talks about three, what they're called, three. David's three Mighty men. And one of these mighty men is a man named Shema, the son of Eggy the herorite. In scripture, how David describes Shema as one of these mighty men describes him like this. It says, when the Philistines banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils, Israel's troops fled from them. But Shema took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down. And the Lord brought about a great victory. What did Shema do that was great? He's one of David's mighty men. This man who spent his whole life fighting said, yeah, Shema, he's one of the great fighters. What did he do? Well, he did what? He knew where he was. What did he fight for? I don't know if you caught this. The Israelites, Philistines, banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils. And Shema planted himself there and defended it. What did he fight for? Literally, he fought for a hill of beans. And for us, we could say the same thing. Like, oh, my gosh, honestly, my corner of the world, my little part of the garden that God has put me in, like, it's so small, it just. It means nothing. It's just here. It's just this hill of beans. But here, where you are right now is where God has planted you. So do what you know where you are, even if you don't know what's coming next. So years ago, I was a young man who was at school here in Duluth. He graduated from the university, and he discerned to go to seminary. So he went to seminary, and he's, okay, God's called me to be a priest. Got to the seminary and relatively quickly discerned that God was not calling him to be a priest. And he said, okay, well, in that case, leaving the seminary, he left the seminary and then started dating a woman. And he was convinced going into this relationship that this is going to be a pretty serious relationship. Maybe God's calling him to marry her. And then after a bit of time, it was clear that God wasn't calling them to get married. And so they broke up. And he found himself in this place of like, wait, I tried the seminary. That wasn't the answer. I tried the marriage of this or dating this person. I thought we were going to marry. That didn't work out. What do I do now? I have no idea what God wants me to do. I have no idea what he's calling me to. I have no idea. My vocation Right, those middle, the big four, I have no idea my vocation. But he said this, he said, no matter what, I know whatever that the big four are, whatever the middle vocation is, God wants me to be a saint. And no matter what he's calling me to, priesthood, marriage, family, whatever, when I show up, I'm going to need to be a man of prayer. So I know right now, I pray whatever God's calling me to in the future, I'm going to need to be a man of character. So right now I'm going to choose honesty. Wherever I show up, wherever God's calling me to, when I get there, I'm going to need to be a man of virtue. And so right now, I'm going to choose virtue. And that's every single one of us. Do what you know where you are. You know, even if you don't know your vocation, you know when you get there, you're going to need to be a person of prayer. Even if you don't know your vocation, when you get there, you're going to need to be a person of virtue. So right now, choose prayer. Right now, choose virtue. Right now choose the Lord. Because it's not about what you accomplish, it's about who you become. This is the last thing I know. This question keeps coming up, though. People say, yeah, okay, fine, that's fine. But what if I miss it? Like, what if God's called me to one of these big four, right? And what if I just miss out on the purpose that he's made me for? I'll say, okay, great question. How can you live in such a way that you are guaranteed to not miss out on God's call in your life, on God's purpose for your life? I would say two things, three questions, two things. First thing is this. God made you on purpose, which means he knows you better than you know yourself. So God knows how you think. He knows how you respond. He knows what brings you joy. He knows what makes you sad. He also knows why you're made. He knows that purpose. So God knows you better than you know yourself. Second point is, God loves you better than you love yourself. So that thing he made you for, he wants you to know it. Sometimes we look at this discernment of vocation as if, like, it's God's treating us like Sherlock Holmes. As if, like, he's just sprinkling out little clues and he's like, they're never going to find it. You know, we die and go to heaven and he's like you're way off. I can't believe this. That's not the case. God loves you, knows you better than you know yourself. He loves you better than you love yourself. Therefore you can trust him. All you have to do. I would say this is on a regular basis. Ask yourself three questions. If you know that God knows and loves you better than you know and love yourself, just simply ask these three questions. Number one, Am I in a state of grace? Right. Am I conscious of mortal sin or am I not aware of mortal sin? If I'm not in a state of grace, go to confession. If you are in a state of grace, move on to question number two. Question number two is, am I doing my daily duties? Am I doing my daily tasks? Like, am I doing what I said I would do? If I'm not, we'll start if you are, move on to question number three. And question number three is, am I praying regularly? If I'm not, start praying. And if you are, be at peace. Because this is these three things. If you know that you can trust God because He knows and loves you better than you know and love yourself, then you say, okay. Am I a state of grace? Well, if I'm not in a state of grace, God can always break through. But if I am in a state of grace, we're better prepared to hear his voice. So if I'm conscious of mortal sin, go to confession. Am I doing my daily tasks? You know, again, remember, this one never changes. God's always called us to be saints. This middle one rarely changes. These daily tasks, God calls, always change. And so I look at my calendar and I say, okay, God, here's what you've set out for me. I go to class at this time. I go to work at this time. I said yes to this agreement arrangement. I'm going to show up on time. And every one of those yeses is not just a yes to your calendar, it's a yes to God. And if you get prepared, get practiced in being able to say yes to God on a regular basis. Then when he says, okay, here's your next step, here's the big vocation, well, you say yes to him every day. And that yes becomes easy. And then lastly, am I praying regularly? It doesn't make any sense to say, what does God want me to do? What's God want me to do? What's God want me to do? And not actually give him a chance to tell you what he wants you to do, and even more importantly, who he wants you to be. I'm promising you that if you regularly ask these three questions, you will never miss out on your vocation. You will never, ever miss out on your purpose, which is not about doing great things, but it's about becoming great. It's not about accomplishing anything, but it's about becoming a certain kind of person. The kind of person who does what they know where they are. In other words, it's about becoming a saint.