← Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
02/16/25 How Do I Know if I Have Faith?
00:25:54
Homily from the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. We live in this life, but we live for the next life. Jesus turns our fears and our hopes upside down...because through the Resurrection, Jesus has turned the world upside down.
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Fr. Mike Schmitz
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 Glory to you, oh Lord. Chapter 6, verses 16 and verses 2026 Jesus came down with the 12 and stood on a stretch of level ground with a great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. And raising his eyes toward his disciples, he said, blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man, rejoice and leap for joy on that day. Behold, your reward will be great in heaven, for their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in the same way. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ I want you to have a seat. So the response to Earl Psalms said, blessed are they who hope in the Lord. How do you know if you're hoping in the Lord? The first reading says, cursed is those who put their trust in human beings. The blessed is the one who puts his trust in the Lord. How do you know that you're trusting in the Lord? That we are justified by faith, by grace, through faith, working Himself out in love? How do you know you have faith? That's the big question. All these questions. How do you know if you hope in the Lord? How do you know if you trust in the Lord? How do we know if we have faith in Jesus? I don't know if you've ever asked that question of yourself, but that question, I think, comes back to me all the time. Because I think sometimes that, well, if I Hope in the Lord, then. Then I have nothing to fear. If I had faith, then I would never be afraid. And if I trusted in God, then I wouldn't ever feel insecure. Because, you know, it's fascinating. I was praying about this gospel today. It's Luke hears Jesus sermon on the plane, and he has the Beatitudes. Today, in looking at the group of things Jesus is talking about, he lists a bunch of things that we fear. He says, you know, those of you when you are poor, when you have poverty, when you're hungry, when you have scarcity, right? When you're weeping, when you're hated, excluded, when you're insulted, all these things are things that we fear. None of us like these things. And I thought, like, well, yeah, but if I. If I hoped in Jesus, then I wouldn't ever experience these things. If I had faith in Jesus, then I wouldn't ever experience this fear. But is that true? How do you know if you hope in the Lord? How do you know if you have faith in Jesus? Jesus, in the first half of the Sermon on the Mount, he lists all those things that we fear. And these are the sources of my anxiety, poverty and abandonment and exclusion and being insulted and mourning and grieving and losing. And then he names a bunch of things that are the source of my security, like the things that we take our security in, like wealth and abundance and pleasure and reputation. But how Jesus looks at them, he has a whole different perspective, right? He says that blessed are those who have the things that we fear, and cursed are those who have the things that we trust. Jesus points to the source of my anxiety, and he points the source of my security. I have to ask the question about myself is, in what do I find my security? You know, Jesus mentions wealth, he mentions money. And I remember hearing a man talk about this, and he said, you know, when it comes to money, when it comes to wealth, the people fall into one of two categories. Typically, that's according to him. He said, you either look at money as the source of your status, like it gives me, tells me my worth, or tells other people my worth, tells them what I have to offer. So money or wealth is a source of my status. For others, money is a source of security. It tells me I'm okay. That if it's a source of my status, it tells me my worth. And if it's a source of my security, it tells me that I'm okay. And what we do, we find ourselves doing. What if that's our source of security, if that's our Source of status. Then we find ourselves putting our trust in this. And so what do we do? I mean, this is what we do on campus, is we work hard now, we put it away now. We save now so that we can be safe later. Like, all these students are on campus right now. They're working hard now so they can be taken care of later. I'm going to put all this time in now, all this effort in now so that I can be secure later. It's not wrong. It's not a bad way to live. But sometimes I fear losing what I trust in, and I trust in what's going to happen. What I mean by that is, you know, Jesus says, blessed are you when you're hated or excluded or insulted. I think, how often am I afraid of that? How often are we afraid of that? How often do we remain silent? Because I think if I speak and say what I think, I might be on the outside. How often will I not speak the truth that I know to be true? Because I didn't want to be excluded. And so here I am trading this. I'll be silent now so that people will think well of me later. Why? Because that's what we fear. We all fear being hated. We all fear being excluded. We all fear being insulted. And so I put my trust in my reputation, and I trade my present integrity for my future reputation. So as Jesus is highlighting these things, right, he's highlighting these things we fear and these things we trust in. I think one of the things he's offering us is perspective. Because he says, okay, what are those things you fear? Poverty and hunger and weeping and being hated? Well, they may come, but they're not the end. Again, this is the perspective of Jesus. These things that we let guide our lives. These things I fear Jesus says, yeah, they'll come, but that won't be the end. And he also points out those things you trust in. You might have them, wealth and abundance and pleasure and good reputation, but they're not the end. This is one of the incredible things about Jesus, is that he gives us this perspective of those things that we fear may come, but they won't be the end. And these things that we trust in may be there, but they won't be the end. We might have these things now, pains, but we'll have something else later. We might have these things now, the pleasures and good things, but something else will come later. You know, it's so fascinating when you meet people with this perspective, when you meet people or see them who have this perspective of Jesus that whatever I've been given, that whether I have to handle the thing I fear is not the end, or whether I've been given the thing that I long for, I trust in. And it's not the end. You know, the LA wildfires, there was this story kind of went semi viral of this family, had Catholic family that lost everything it was coming. They had film of them standing at their plot of land now, which was completely desolate, except for one image of Our lady of Guadalupe. And this family, the video was of them just standing around this image of Our lady of Guadalupe singing the song Regina Cheli, basically praising Mary as Queen of Heaven. That even in the midst of losing everything, this is not the end. Even in the midst of this is what we feared, but this is not the end. You know, I remember Lou Holtz, who coached for Notre Dame for a long time, a Catholic guy as well. Lou Holtz, late in his life, he and his wife had a horrible fire that destroyed their entire home. Everything they owned that was in that home was completely obliterated. And it. His wife was crying, and Lou Holtz, he just. He turned to his wife, whom he loves very much, and he basically said, we wouldn't have been able to take anything that we lost with us after we died, that everything that actually matters to us, if we want to, we can replace it. We wouldn't have been able to take anything that we lost with us when we died. This is God giving us a chance to let go of it now rather than having to let go of it later. This is the perspective, and this is the one of the many things that following Christ gives us this perspective. In fact, because we realize that there's a lot of good that you have if you have hope in Christ in this life. There's a lot of good that comes to us in our lives if we have faith in Jesus Christ in this life. For example, one thing is joy. Now, you might not. That might be strange. One of the things Catholics are not really known for is joy. I think you might not say, oh, yeah, Catholic joy. Clearly, usually we think of Catholic guilt. But GK Chesterton, back in the day, at one point he said this phrase, this quote that just struck me, and it stuck with me. He said, joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian, that joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian. And he pointed out he was someone who studied history. He pointed out, and he said, no, listen, think about this. Life before Jesus was life in a pagan world. And in a pagan world, there are no good gods. There's no good goddesses, there's the gods and goddesses, there's fate. You are simply a tumbleweed across the sands of fate. And you have no control of your life. You have no power in your life. You have no influence in your life. And you also have no one who's going to look out for you. You have no worth, you have no value, they have no purpose. And along comes Jesus and reveals to these people, to every person, that not only is there a God, but that God is good. And that God knows you, he cares about you, he loves you, and that God is with you. And so that's why joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian. Because no matter what my circumstances, no matter what my seasons, no matter what's going on in my life right now or later, no matter what will happen, I will have this abiding sense of well being. That's joy. That's what joy is. Joy is an abiding sense of well being. And so if you are Christian, what you get in this life, if you hope in Christ, what you get in this life is you get joy. And another thing that we get in this life is if you have faith in Jesus Christ is you have moral guidance. What I mean by that is, I mean think about the reality that the introduction of Christianity to the world transformed the world. Until Christianity came on the scene, there was no real sense of the dignity of the human person, that there was no sense that human life had any sense of value. Now, some lives might be valuable, but not all lives are valuable. And then along comes Jesus with this message that actually each and every human being has been made not only by God, but in his image and likeness. And every human being therefore has to be treated as a being that's made in God's image and likeness. That you, no matter whether you're on top of the food chain or the bottom of the food chain, you have worth, you have dignity, you have value. That changes how we live. And it actually has transformed the world, has made this world a better place. Again, hope in Jesus has made this life a better place. Another example could be the fact that we talked about this last four weeks. Faith in Jesus is enough to give a person purpose, right? Give a person meaning, that sense of. Okay, listen, I know. I'm convinced that I've been made on purpose. Therefore I'm going to live on purpose and to be able to live every single day with the truth that your life and your choices matter. Why? Because you're not an accident. You've been made on Purpose. So all these, the four things that Jesus gives us in this life, gives us perspective, he gives us joy, he gives us moral guidance, he gives us meaning and purpose. All of that is so good. But just like the things we fear and just like the things we trust, even those things end. Why? Because this life ends. Everything we fear at some point comes to us and everything we trust in at some point goes away. So what then? What are we living for? St. Paul, in his second reading today, 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, he says it really clearly. He says to him, points to the resurrection of Jesus, and I don't know if you caught this, but Paul says that the resurrection of Jesus, that everything we believe in, everything we are, everything we hope for, all of our faith hinges on this thing that he says. If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is in vain. I love the line he says, he says, if for this life only we have hoped in Christ. Remember, in this life, if you hoped in Christ, you get perspective and you get joy and moral guidance and you get meaning and purpose. But if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all. What Paul is talking about is he saying, okay, we live in this life, but we live for the next life that in this life, what is it like? What is it to have hope in Christ? What is it like to have faith in Jesus? That means that we live in this life, but we live for the next life. And the resurrection is absolutely crucial to this. If the resurrection didn't happen, then our faith is in vain. If the resurrection didn't happen, then Jesus isn't who he said he is. And there is no joy and there is no moral guidance and there is no purpose. And whatever perspective he offers us is a lie. But if Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, then his perspective is true and joy is real and moral guidance is how we're supposed to live. And it's true that you are made on purpose. So here's the question. Is the resurrection true? Can we even know this? Well, I think this is fascinating. I came across a story recently of a man named Sir Lionel Luke Lucku. Sir Lionel Lucku was a defense attorney and he was, he's literally the most successful defense attorney in history. He won 255 consecutive murder cases in a row. At one point he was in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the best lawyer of all time. And at one point he was a skeptic when it came to Jesus, when it came to Christianity, when it Came to the resurrection. He was a skeptic. That doesn't happen. People don't come back from the dead. And so at one point, someone said, well, sir Lionel, you are the greatest defense attorney of all time. You investigate the evidence and you come to a conclusion. Have you ever, ever investigated the evidence of whether or not Jesus rose from the dead or didn't rise from the dead? And he admitted that he had never. And so he was challenged. He was challenged to investigate the evidence. So he took years, and he went through all of the evidence in the scriptures, all the extra biblical evidence, and he came to the conclusion after looking at all of the evidence. The world's greatest defense attorney, looking at the evidence, declared this. He said, I can say unequivocally that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof, which leaves absolutely no room for doubt. He became a Christian, he lived as a Christian, and he died as a Christian with that hope, hoping in Christ. Though, here's the question, like, what's the proof? What are the reasons? You know, among many things, there are many ways, many reasons why we could. We believe in the resurrection. And there's a lot of proofs for this. And one is that it's very well documented and attested to. But there's three kinds of things I want to highlight. Just when it comes to the resurrection. If you're someone who's like, I don't even know, how do you know that this is true? Well, there's three things. One is some of the documents you have this thing that's called the criterion of embarrassment. I don't know if you've ever paid any attention to the crucifixion and resurrection story of Jesus. Crucifixion story is super embarrassing for the people who told the story. Right. Who told the story? The disciples. Who are the people who failed Jesus? The disciples. Who is the head of that band? Peter. Who betrayed him worse than almost anyone else other than Judas? Well, Peter did. So this is one of those things that. This is embarrassing. It's embarrassing detail to leave in the story if it was. And it wouldn't be left in the story if it wasn't true. Who is the person or the people who first announced the resurrection of Jesus on that first Easter Sunday? Who was it? It was the women. Now, in that culture, if you wanted to have someone whose testimony was paid attention to, whose testimony was valued, you wouldn't turn to a woman. You'd have to turn to a man. So why would the apostles, why did the disciples, why did they recount the story and say that not only were they embarrassing and they failed Jesus, but the people who first told them about the resurrection were women? If not because that's how it happened. So that criterion of embarrassment points out, like, wait a second, these details would be augmented. If you're creating a story, fabricating a story, that's the first thing, the criterion of embarrassment. The second thing is if you were creating and fabricating a story, you'd go somewhere other than Jerusalem. Remember, Pentecost happens 50 days after Jesus rises from the dead. Where do they start preaching the Resurrection? They don't leave Jerusalem and go, like, hundreds of miles away and say, yeah, way a long time ago into the galaxy Far, far away in the city of Jerusalem, to the people who may have seen Jesus on the cross, they say, that man Jesus that you saw die, we saw him alive. The fact that the apostles began preaching the resurrected Jesus in the very place that people saw him die and many, many people saw him rise is evidence that this story is true. And lastly, you know, there's a story even in the gospels that says that they circulated the story that the disciples actually snuck into the tomb and stole the body. And some people would say, like, well, yeah, that is kind of embarrassing. That that's probably. That's an option. An option is that the disciples actually snuck past the guards, went into the tomb and stole Jesus body. But that's very unlikely. Why? Well, one is. What it proves is that the tomb was empty. What it proves is that beyond a doubt, no one claimed that there was still a body in that tomb. Now, the guards claimed that it was stolen. The disciples came, that it was raised. What did the guards get by claiming it was stolen? Well, they got to keep their jobs. What did the disciples get for claiming that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead? They got power. No, they didn't. What they got is they got hated and excluded and insulted and rejected, and they got to lose everything they ever had. I mean, think about every single one of those apostles, except for John, was a martyr. Even John himself was tortured almost to death. Every one of them had all of their property confiscated. Every one of them had their families ripped apart. Every single one of them, almost every single one of them who said, I saw Jesus rise from the dead was killed for saying that. But not one of them ever wavered. Now, someone you might find who would live a lie, but no one in history has ever died for something that they knew was a lie. The tomb was empty. And they said they saw the one who was in the tomb alive, resurrected and glorified. And they went to their graves saying this. This once again is proof that this whole thing is true. Like St. Paul said, if for only this life we have hoped in Christ, we're the most pitiable of men, we live in this world, but we live for the next world because of the resurrection, because this story is true. We profess your death, O Lord, and we profess your resurrection. So here's the thing. How do I know if I have faith in that? How do I know if I hope in the Lord? Well, there's a man. His name is George McDonald. George McDonald, you might know he was very influential in C.S. lewis becoming Christian. George McDonald asked that question too. He. He asked the question. He said, do you ask, what is faith in Jesus? What is faith in Jesus? And he says, well, I'll tell you. Leaving faith in Jesus is leaving your own way, your objects, and leaving yourself. Goes on to say, he says, I can find no words strong enough to serve for the weight of this necessity. Faith in Jesus is obedience. If I want to know, if I hope in Jesus, I get to ask the question, do I obey him? George? And the Donald goes on to say, he says, it's the terrible heresy of the Church that it's always been presenting something else than obedience as faith in Jesus. He said, it's better to be an atheist who does the will of God than a so called Christian who does not. He asks, do you want to live by faith? Do you want to know Christ aright? Do you want to awake and arise and live but don't know how. I'll tell you how. Get up and do something. The Master tells you the moment you do, you instantly make yourself a disciple. Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether you have this day done one single thing because he said do it or abstain from one single thing because he said do not do it. Guys, the first question of this whole thing, how do I know if I've hoped in the Lord? How do I know if I have faith in Jesus? Don't ask, how do I feel? What do I think? Ask the question, how do I act? Is there one single thing I've done today because Jesus asked me to do it? Or one thing I've not done today because he's asked me not to do it? He goes on to say, he says, I will not say. I do not say, you will have, as a matter of course done this thing or that good thing to form the harmony with Jesus Words. But have you done or not done any act as a conscious decision made simply because he said do it or do not do is simply absurd. To say that you believe or even want to believe in him if you do not do anything that he tells you. So how do I know if I hope in the Lord? How do I know if I have faith in the Resurrection? Last thing he goes on to say, okay, at once you can begin to be a disciple of the Living One. How? By obeying him in the first thing you can think of in which you are now not obeying Him. We must learn to obey him in everything, and so we have to begin somewhere. So questions. Have you or I today dismissed even once, an anxious thought for tomorrow because Jesus told us to do that? Have you ever ministered to the needy in soul or body and kept your right hand from knowing what your left hand did, telling nobody of your actions because he told you to do that? Have you kept this? Have you this day begun to leave all and follow Him? Do you set yourself out not to criticize or talk against or judge others? Did you bring fair and righteous judgment to your decisions? Are you wary of covetousness? Did you forgive your enemy and do good to him or show him kindness? Have you this day given money or time or possessions or skill or compassion to someone who asked of you? Have you shown consideration or done good or returned kindness for a wrong, extended patience, been a servant, rejoiced in adversity, taking the role of humility before others, or prayed for someone you don't like simply because you knew that Jesus had asked you to? When was the last time I did something because Jesus asked me to do it? If I've done that, I have hoped in Him. When was the last time I did not do something because Jesus asked me not to do it? If I've done that, I have faith in Him. When was the last time I moved simply because Jesus asked me to move? If I've done that, then I have not only lived for this life, I'm living for the next life because of the resurrection. George MacDonald's last words are, tell me something you have done or are doing or are trying to do because he told you. If you cannot, it's no wonder you have difficulty trusting Him. Of course, I know no man or woman who can do what Christ tells them. All right, but are you trying? Obedience is not perfection. It's making an effort. So do you want to believe in the Resurrection? Do you want to have faith in Jesus? Do you want to place all of your hope in the Lord, the next step is easy. Just do what he's asked you to do. The answer is easy. If you want to have faith in Jesus, just start.