← Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
02/15/26 Put Your Heart Into It
00:24:31
Homily from the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Jesus didn't give us a new weight to carry, but a new way to carry the weight. We all have things that we NEED to do. When we show up knowing that we are doing what God has asked, there is the necessity to also do what God has asked us to do the WAY God has asked us to do it…with love.
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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 and with your spirit. A Reading from the Holy Gospel According to Matthew Glory to you, o Lord. Chapter 5, verses 17 through 37 Jesus said to his disciples, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill. Amen. I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest but letter, or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, you shall not kill, and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother Racha will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, you fool will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar and there recall that your brother has anything against you. Leave your gift there at the altar. Go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. So settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard and you will be thrown into prison. Amen. I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny. You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna. It was also said, whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, unless the marriage is unlawful, causes her to commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery again. You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all. Not by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. Anything more is from the evil one, the gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Might you guys have a seat? So one of my first jobs ever, I worked at a camp. This camp is called Legionville, which Teddy, you might know because you're from Minnesota. But Katie, you do not know because you're not from Minnesota, from St. Louis, but if you're from Minnesota, you know this Legionville. Maybe you know this. You know the kids that stand at the corner with the flags and let you help you cross the street. That's where they, that's where they go get trained. Not all of them, but the captains, like, you know. Anyways, I went there as a camper when I was like fifth grade. Me and my counselor, I think when I was 17 or 18 years old. And it was, it was, it was a great camp. And I was really bad at it. Like I was really bad at being a counselor. Like in fact I was. It was one of those situations where campers would show up at Sunday, at 1 o', clock, Sunday 1 o', clock, and we worked non stop. We were assigned 30 campers. As a 17, 18 year old, I was in charge of 30 fifth graders for the entire week. Like it was me in a cabin with up to 30 of them maybe. Sometimes I think we had 32, sometimes I have a light week, there's only 27. It was a lot. And we were with them constantly, all day, all night. Slept in the same place until they left around 10 o' clock on Saturday morning. We got out of there after we cleaned around noon. So basically we had 24 hours off. I think we did the math at one point. We got 23 cents an hour. It Was. It was just like constant stuff. The, these campers were there and they had, you know, they had canoeing and they had waterfront. They had first aid because they were taught to no first aid. They were taught safety on the road. We had a state trooper who was there every single week. It was great. Again, I was bad at it. So bad. We had great human beings. Some, some of my like mentors when I was younger, these three men. Todd Lisio, incredible guy, like one of my like heroes. Tim Peabody was his brother. Just incredible guy. Another Tom Sanford, this former like army drill sergeant who like just whipped those kids and us into shape. Like incredible men. And I was still really bad at this job because here's why. I would go into the, into, into the, into the week, every week for the whole summer. I'd be there like, okay, I'm do everything they asked me to do. But man, this is, these are long weeks. These are long days. So I'm going to do everything they asked me to do. But I'm going to pace myself. I mean, I remember into the summer, like, okay, it's a long summer. They get here at 1 o' clock on Sunday, they leave at 11 o' clock on Saturday. I need to pace myself. And I'm going to do everything they asked me to do. I'm going to do everything they asked me to do. I'm going to show up right on time. I'm going to take, make sure these kids are safe, make sure they're alive. You know, all these things fed and watered. And I was really bad at it. Why? Because again, I did everything they asked me to do, but I held back. I need to pace myself or else I'm going to get burned out by the, by the end of the summer, there was one guy, my grade, his name was Justin Eisel. And Justin, he just, he showed up differently. But he showed up as a counselor differently. Again, I did all of the things he did, but everyone, every one of his campers gravitated towards him. All of us, we just loved being around Justin. When he was around, we all had more fun, which is actually, I don't know if you know this, that's kind of the point of camp. I did everything he did. The only difference is he showed up differently. The only difference is that it seemed like, I mean, I wanted to be there, but it seemed like he wanted to be there. I would say this from the very first moment the first camper showed up, Justin made a decision. He put his heart into it. That was it. After watching him for one summer. I was like, I have to do this differently. I have to do it like Justin. Because it's one thing to go through the. Not even going through the motions. Like, I'll do exactly what you're asking me to do. But the difference between checking the box and changing a life, the difference between, no, I'm living, and I'm living is that one step, you make the decision, you put your heart into it. I think so much of life is this. Like, there's so much. So much of life is you gotta show up, you gotta do the thing. I mean, this is all of us, right? I'm sure. Monday. Gotta show up. You gotta do the thing. You gotta show up, you gotta do the task, you gotta show up, you gotta do the work. Like every single one of us. And when you do that, when we do that, that's good. We show up, we do the work. Such a good thing. The question is this, how do I show up? Because this is. This is life. I've got to do the task, I've got to do the work, I've got to do the job. How am I showing up? I think a lot of us show up like, okay, I'm here. I'll do it. In the Gospel today, here's Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. He continues this amazing teaching, right? And at the beginning of today's reading, Jesus makes a point. He says, okay, listen, I haven't come to abolish the law. I've come to fulfill it. So about Jesus, this is so important. We realize Jesus fulfills all of the Old Testament, like all the Old Testament prophecies. That's fulfilled in Jesus, like all the Old Testament sacrifices. That's fulfilled in Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Like all that the Old Testament, like, hinted at about God's heart. Jesus fulfills and reveals all of that. So Jesus fulfills all of what God had been trying to get his people to do and to become. He's like, it's all fulfilled in me. But there's more. He goes on to teach us today. He says, okay, but here's the deal. You need to fulfill it, too. What I mean by that is he says, you've heard that it was said, don't murder. Great, you're not doing that. Awesome. But you need fulfill that. You heard it was said, don't commit adultery. I hope you're not doing that. Great. You've heard it was said, you have to be faithful to your spouse. Hope you're doing that. You heard it was said when it comes to oaths, hope you're doing that. But here's what Jesus is saying. I need you to fulfill this. What he basically is saying is, he's saying, I need you to not just do the thing. Don't just show up and do the task. I need you to put your heart into it. Listen, let's be honest. I don't know if I remember the very first time I ever heard Jesus teaching today in the Sermon on the Mount, where he's talking about, you know, don't commit murder. I'm like, great. No, I'm clear. But don't get angry with your brother. I'm like, shoot. Don't call your brother names like, okay, that's bad. When it comes to adultery. Like, yeah, no problem. Got it covered. No problem. Lust in my brain and lust in my heart. Like, oh, my gosh, what's. It's so intimidating. But here's the thing. I think sometimes Jesus is teaching today. It's not just intimidating, it's potentially discouraging. Because we could be thinking, no, I'm doing the thing. Like, I'm doing what you're asking of me. Or at least I'm trying. Like, isn't that enough? I'm showing up? Isn't that what I'm supposed to do? And today, Jesus is calling all of us to something new. And here's the thing. He's not. He's not giving us a new weight to carry. He's giving us a new weight to carry the weight. This is so important for all of us to understand, because typically, here's how we show up. Here's how we show up typically, whether it comes to our work, our lives, or the Lord, we show up with one of three things. We show up and do the minimum. We show up with resistance, and we show up just to endure the whole thing. So realizing this, I mean, how many of us show up just to do the minimum when it comes to work is like, I mean, okay, so here's the deal. I love checking boxes. I love having lists. Lists are very helpful for me. Lists make me help more productive than I am. I came across someone who's reflecting on their own checking boxes. Here's the thing. Because so often people can say, okay, for my work, here's my tasks for today. I have a whole list. I want to check these boxes. Not a bad thing. What happens when that comes to our relationships? I gotta check these boxes. I gotta do these things. What happens when it comes to. That's my relationship with the Lord. Well, no, it's important to have goals. And so I'm gonna. I need to. I'm called to pray every day. So here's a box that says, I pray. Did I pray? Great, check the box. Did I make some kind of penance? Great, check the box. Did I try to do something nice for someone? Okay, great. Check the box. That's not a horrible thing. But in that, we can find ourselves being tempted to doing the minimum. So this person was reflecting on how she said, I'm a professional box checker. She said, that's helped me grow and get things done. But sometimes the act of checking boxes becomes the entire mission. How often can we say that when it comes to the spiritual life? That's it. That's it. I have the box. I have the boxes, and I'm checking them, and that becomes the entire point. I prayed today. Good. Check that off the list. When we show up and do the minimum, we're asking that question, what is the least that I can do and not get in trouble? There's been this rise, at least I've seen it online, in the last maybe two or three years, called quiet quitting. I don't know if you guys have heard of quiet quitting. Quiet quitting is where you're in your work or your occupation, I guess, or a relationship, and you don't want to leave, but you don't want to do anything more than the very least you have to do. And typically this comes. I mean, actually I know someone who, like, that's. This is part of their life. And they. When they got hired, the first 10 years of the working for this company, they were like, oh, oh, above and beyond. That was actually their mindset. Their mindset was above and beyond. Above and beyond. I'm going to do everything they asked me and more. I'm going to be their best employee. And at one point, people in charge revealed to them that, hey, all we value is the fact that you show up and you do the work. Like, when it came to other people getting bonuses, other people getting encouragement, other people even getting acknowledgement of just, hey, this is the team. They weren't treated like part of the team. So they said, okay, that's it. I mean, I'll do exactly what you asked me to do and nothing more. It's quiet quitting. What is the least I can do not get in trouble again? There could be good reasons for this. I gave you everything and got nothing back. So I'm not going to leave, but I'm not going to give you my heart it may be okay when it comes to a company, but how many of us come to mass? How many of us show up to prayer? And that's us, God. I'm going to do the work, but I'm not going to give you my heart, Lord. I'm going to do exactly what you ask me, but I'm not going to surrender or give you access to my heart. And yet, here's Justin, my friend from camp. He would show up and just do it differently. How are you showing up? He'd put his heart into it. And this is what Jesus is asking of us, okay? Don't just stop at the minimum demands of the law, okay? Don't murder, don't commit adultery. How about this? Root out even the poison of anger. Root out the toxic presence of lust. To actually not just do the task, but to give the Lord your heart is to rise above the minimum. The second obstacle we have, right? The second way we do it, where we don't put our heart into it, is resistance. I mean, how many times, how many times are we in the midst of something? Whether that be following the Lord or the challenge of real suffering or the challenge of the struggle, whatever the obstacle is that we're facing. And we just think this, we just think, ah, I just wish it was different. I just wish my situation was otherwise. We look to the person next to us and we think like, damn it, so easy. Why is my life so difficult? Why do I have to go through this? And we have this resistance. We think it shouldn't be this hard. Remember, Jesus did not come to give us a new weight to carry. He came to give us a new way to carry the weight, to be able to put down resistance. What? What? How do you put down resistan resistance? Basically, it's this. It's realizing that everything comes to us from the hand of God. Here's what I mean. We can fall into this trap of thinking like, well, it's God's plan. That's God's will. And thinking that, wait, God wanted me to get cancer. God wanted my child to die. God wanted these horrible things to happen. No, we need to understand that there's two kind of, what do you call, wills of God. There's God's perfect will and God's permissive will. God's perfect will is those things. But here's the thing. God's perfect will, he always wills life. He always wills love, joy, peace. He always lives all the wills, all those good things, that's his perfect will. That's what he wants for every one of us directly. But because we live in a broken world where we get to choose evil and other people get to choose evil. And we live in a world. Natural disasters, all these things. There are certain things that God permits. There are certain things God allows to happen. There are certain struggles that God allows to rise up inside of it. And certain God will struggles that God allows to come at us from the outside. But he permits them. That's God's permissible. He doesn't want them to happen, but he permits them to happen for two reasons. One is to preserve our free will. The other one is because he knows he can do something incredible out of this. But how much time do we waste? How much energy do we waste by wishing it was different? As opposed to realizing this? This is when it comes to resistance sometimes this is one of the reasons why people don't put their heart into it. Because we don't realize that every single moment, every single thing that comes to us comes to us directly from the hand of God. That even every burden and struggle, that's God trusting you with that burden. That's God trusting you with that struggle. I'll tell you this. There is no one more free than the person who can say yes to God in every moment. Not with that resistance, not with that resentment, not with that bitterness, but with freedom. Because here's the thing. Until we. Until you learn how to receive every moment as if from the very hand of God, we'll be carrying an extra burden that he never wanted for us. And that's one of the reasons why we'd say this. It's not the load, it's. It's how you carry it. It's not the burden, it's how we carry it. And Jesus did not come to give us a new weight to carry. He came to give us a new way to carry this weight. Imagine the freedom you could have. There is no one more free than the person who can say yes to the Lord at each and every moment. God's entrusted me with this. So we have this. We have minimum, put your heart into it. We have this resentment. But I can say yes and see that this is actually from the hand of God. And the third is I just endure things. This is me. I mean, this is. If there's anything that I need to work on, need to struggle with, not that I am struggling with and need to get better at is enduring. Because why? Because I want to be very dutiful. I want to get my. I want to get the job done, that they're asking me to do so. I've mentioned this before. I think maybe last summer or the summer before, we're in the middle of this campaign to raise money to build a student center and church here, and we have to leave. I have to leave all of the time, all these students. And it's just the worst. It says, I hate it so much, but I have to do it. And so I just like, okay, here we go. I come back and students say, how was it? The missionary say, how was it? Like, it's fine. And I'm like, wait, no. I find myself being given a task from the Lord, right? And he's just enduring it. In fact, we're going to pray this prayer in just a few moments. We pray this campaign prayer. We say, we believe that in doing this work, we're saying yes to your will. So I'm actually making an act of faith, declaration of faith and doing this work. I'm saying yes to your will. Same thing with your tasks, with your work that you have to do the rest of the day, today or tomorrow. In doing this work, we're saying yes to your will. So how am I doing it? Am I simply enduring it, or am I doing it differently? So I was convicted by this, I don't know, two years ago, I was reading Two Corinthians. Two Corinthians, chapter nine. In Two Corinthians, chapter nine, St. Paul is talking about this. He says, God, he says, consider this. He's writing to the Corinthians who have decided they're going to give, that they're actually going to go out and they're going to give for the Lord. And he says this, consider this. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully. So, yeah, you want to get a little back, Just put a little down. Want to get a lot back, Put a lot down. But he goes on to say, this is about the heart. He says, each must do as already determined. And I'm like, yeah, that's what I'm doing. I'm giving exactly what you're asking, Lord, but I'm just enduring this. He says, each must do as already determined without sadness or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. And I ask the question, I'm doing what God's asking of me. How am I doing it? I'm showing up. Okay, question. How am I showing up? I gotta be here. Here we go. Am I doing it with sadness and compulsion? Gotta go again. Gotta Leave again, gotta show up again. Or God loves a cheerful giver, says on to say, goes on to say. Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, having all that you need, you may have an abundance for every good work. How am I showing up? Joyfully, cheerfully realizing, no, this task, this work, this moment is directly from the hand of God. That means this task, this work, this moment is his life. I mean, it's this crazy thing. I think sometimes we just, like, I just can't wait to get done, because when I'm done, then I'll be able to move on to the next thing. You have to realize life is made up of exactly what you did last week. Like, think about what you did last week. Think of all the tasks you had to do last week. Life is made up. That's what life is. Life is made up of all of the tasks you and I did last week. How did I show up? My dad is 84 years old, and every night before he goes to bed, he sits down and he writes out a task list. This is the checkbox. But he writes out a task list. He's like, what am I going to accomplish? What am I going to do? What am I going to get done tomorrow? Then he shows up and even at 84, is able to show up and say, okay, this is not just about what I'm doing. It's about how I'm doing it. So that's the question. How am I showing up? Because again, in giving us this teaching today, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is not giving us a new weight to carry. He's giving us a new way to carry the weight. How does he want us to care? What's the point of. Of the task? This is the last thing. What's the point of the task? Well, St. Paul, we heard in the second reading today, writing to the Corinthians, first letter to. To the Corinthians. But that's. This is like the first couple chapters in Chapter 13 of St. Paul's Letter to the Corinthians. He highlights the fact that it is not just what I do, it's how I do it. He says this, writing to the Corinthians. He says, if I speak in human and angelic tongues. That's amazing. That'd be incredible. Speak in angelic tongue, in tongues, but don't have love. I'm a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge and have all faith so as to move mountains. That'd be amazing getting the job done. You're doing incredible work. But don't have love. I'm nothing if I give away everything I own. Hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love I gain nothing. Here's the invitation. This show up and do the tasks, but do them as if love is the point. Because it is. And that's the thing we get to do where it's not the minimum no Put my heart into it. It's not met with resistance no it's not the weight, it's the way I carry it it's not the load, it's the way I carry it not the burden, it's the way I carry it. And to just endure it or to joyfully accomplish this task, how do I show up this week? Show up. Do the task as if love is the point. Do the task, do what's asked and put your heart into it.