← Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
02/22/26 Autobiography: Co-Author
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Homily from the First Sunday of Lent. Every story has a beginning. As we begin Lent, we are faced with the question: If I live the next 25 years of my life the way I've lived the past seven days, where will I end up? Who will I become? We are writing our life story with every choice that we make. Are we writing in rebellion? Or with God as the Co-Author?
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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, oh Lord. Chapter four, verses one through eleven at that time, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached him and said to him, if you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread. Jesus said in reply, it is written, one does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him up to the holy city and made him stand on the parapet of the temple and said to him, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone. Jesus answered him, again, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence. And he said to him, all these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me. At this Jesus said to him, get away, Satan. It is written, the Lord your God shall you worship, and him alone shall you serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Might you have a seat? So I came across this question, and I think it's, I think it's a good question, but it is the question, have you ever, have you ever wanted to write a book? And just, you know, the chances are, if you're listening to this, chances are, yes, you've wanted to write a book because they did some studies and repeatedly people will say that over 80% of people, at least in this country, 80% of people plus, have wanted to write a book at some point. They've considered and even some have even planned to write. Somebody have even begun to write a book and you ask the question, like, if you want to write a book, what kind of book would it be? Would it be something like nonfiction, where it's something you're passionate about, you get to, like, really dive into. Would it be thriller? Would it be, like, you really love reading mystery novels. You love to be able to write, like, incredible whodunit or fantasy, whatever that kind of thing is. I think that's really fascinating. What's even more fascinating, not only that over 80% of people want to write a book, less than 1% of people actually end up doing it. Like, less than 1% of people actually write a manuscript, get it published, and have this thing that over 80% of people want, less than 1% of people actually do. In fact, something even more striking is less than 15% of people even start. This is one of those situations where we want to do this thing, but we don't. And so here's the question. If someone was writing your biography, because that's one of the kinds of books we could have, right? A biography. If someone was writing your biography, would they include anything about this season of your life? And not because in this season you're extremely popular, or you have a lot of influence, or that you necessarily have a lot of fame in the season or this significance, but could someone look at this season in your life or my life and say, they've already started. Like, whatever it is, they're going to become, like, they've already begun. No way to say this. Here we're at Lent, the beginning of Lent. I think it's a great time to reassess and look at our lives and say, okay, if I live the next 10 years, if I live the next 30 years the way I've lived the last seven days, who will I become? Like, if I. If I live the next 25 years of my life the way I've lived the last seven days of my life, who will I be at the end of the story? Because the reality, of course, is that every life is a story. And the reality is every person is an author. The question is, who will you become at the end of the story? So here, at the beginning of Lent, we're going to do this series. The series is called Autobiography. And the reality is this, is that because it's called autobiography, because why? Because no one may write a biography of our lives, but our story, our life story is being written. And it's an autobiography. Though what I mean by that is, you and I are writing it, of course. Great God. God's the co. Author, Right. He's the ultimate author. But what God wants is God wants us to be co authors with him. This is one of his. This is one of God's plans for our lives. He is the ultimate author. He wants us to be co authors with him. And the crazy thing is the story is already ongoing. This is remarkable. The story is already your story. My story is already ongoing. But there's this moment. And this is why it's critical for us at the beginning of Lent to look at this. Because remember, every life is a story. Every person is an author. Who will you become at the end of the story? But we realize there's always a moment in every story when someone picks up the pen and begins to write on purpose. That moment where the story becomes your life story, where it actually becomes an autobiography because you finally made the decision, okay, I'm going to be the co author. I'm not just going to kind of, like, be a passenger in my life. I'm making the decision to actually be the co author. What I mean to say is every story has a beginning. Even. Even if, like, you've already been living. Even if there's already stuff that's happened in your life. Every story has a beginning, a significant start. A moment where the character acts. A moment where the character chooses. A moment where the character decides to move. So one of the, I would imagine, one of the greatest novels of all time, Lord of the Rings, there is a character, his name is Frodo. And in the story, a lot has happening. A lot is going on. In fact, for a lot of the beginning of the story, Frodo is active, but he's reactive. He is watching the Ring because Gandalf told him to. He's taking the Ring to the Prancing Pony because Gandalf told him to. He's going with Aragorn to Rivendell because someone else told him to do this. But there's a moment in the story where all of a sudden the story becomes his life story. It's a moment where they don't know what to do with the Ring. Who's going to take this Ring to Mordor? And basically, in this moment, Frodo stands up and he simply says, I'll do it. I'll take the Ring to Mordor. That is a strong start. That's the beginning. That's the moment. And every story has a beginning for Frodo. This is the beginning. Why? Because every strong start has four elements to it. The step has irreversibility. One's identity is at stake. There's risk and there's agency. It's irreversibility in the sense that after I take this step I can no longer go back to who I was before. One's identity is at stake in the sense that I don't know after this moment, I don't know who I'm going to become. There's a risk because the future is unclear. And there's agency because here's a moment where the person gets to choose. And this is when it comes to Frodo. Here's this moment where it's not his ring, it's not his burden. He could say it's someone else's responsibility, it's someone else's fault. But what does he do? He says, I'll do it. You have all four of those elements of a strong start. He can't go back. Irreversibility. He can't go back to how it was before. Identity's at stake. Who am I going to be if I take up this ring? There's a risk. The future is definitely unclear. But he has agency. He's making the decision to choose. That is a great start. Now of course, sometimes, sometimes the story isn't so great. Today we hear the beginning of another story. Right here is Genesis. Genesis chapter three. Genesis chapter where, where, where. Here's Adam and Eve and they're in the garden. Now imagine this scene. Here's Adam and Eve. Their story's already begun. But they, they're not agents, right? They're not yet autobiographers, they're not yet co authors with God until this moment where all they've ever known up to this point is they've only been loved. They've only been cared for. All they've ever known from each other is they've been loved. They've been cared for. All they've known from God is that God's good and he loves them and God wanted them to be his co authors. And what happens? We heard the story. The serpent comes into the garden. And in the face of the serpent's threats the man and woman, they have options. I mean, they literally, legitimately have options. They could fight. They could fight off the serpent. They could call out to the Lord, they could cry out to their Father and say, God, please help us. They could pray, they could trust, they could get killed. Or they could do what they did in facing that question, will you trust the Father? Because that's the, that's. We know this already. That's the temptation, right? The temptation is not does God Exist. The Temptation of the Serpent is. Is God good? Can you trust him? Is God a good dad? Or is he a dictator? Can you trust him? Or is he a tyrant? And here's Eve. She looks at the fruit and it describes it as we heard just a second ago. The food is pleasing to the eyes. It's good for gaining wisdom, delightful. And she takes it and she reaches out and in this moment, Adam and Eve start writing on their own. And this is a strong start. It's a bad start, but it's a strong start, right? Irreversibility. They cannot go back to where they were. They now have to live a different life. Their identity is at stake. Who are they going to be after this? There's risk. The future is absolutely unclear. And their agent, they have agency, right? They start writing. Here's the crazy thing. They started writing, but they started writing apart from God. That's what all sin is. Here's Eve. She sees the fruit. This is delightful. It's pleasing. It's good for food. This will make me happy. We realize that this is what all sin is. All sin is a desire to be happy. Just a desire to be happy apart from God. All sin is a desire to be happy. That's why it's so appealing. But it's the desire to be happy apart from God. And again, we know this. We know that this has changed our entire history. We cannot go back to who we were. Our identity is at stake. The future is unclear. And yet we still have to choose. Every sin is an attempt to be happy apart from God. But the question we all get to choose is this. In our lives, we. We get to answer the question, will we be co authors with God? And this Lent, we have get to ask the question, will I be a co author with God in writing this autobiography, or will I attempt to be happy apart from God? So throughout Lent, we're doing this. We're going to follow a story that Jesus tells in Luke's Gospel. It's in Luke chapter 15. It's a parable that you've heard before. It's a parable where Jesus says about a father and two of his sons. And again, this is a parable. The parable of the prodigal Son. You've heard it, you've heard it probably a thousand times. What we're going to do over the course of this whole Lent, over this course of this series autobiography, we're going to take a small part of that parable every single week and try to break it up. So this week, what we have is the beginning, right? Because every story has a beginning. And the beginning of this story is what Jesus says. A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, again, this is the moment. He's been given everything he needs. He's been given everything he wants, but what more does he want? We'll see it here. The younger son said to his father, father, give me a share of your estate. That should come to me. Now, Jesus audience as they're listening to this, you probably know this already, but Jesus audience would have been shocked, right? Because when would a person normally get an inheritance? You normally get someone's inheritance when they die. So here's the younger son saying to his father, I don't want to have to wait for you to die. So whatever you're going to give me after your death, you just give it to me now. I don't want to wait for you to die. Goes on to say, after a few days, you know the story, he collected all his belongings and went off to a distant country. Now, if it was already kind of insulting or majorly insulting for the younger son to say to his dad, just give me this year of the inheritance. I can't wait for you to die. This moment is actually devastating and we might miss it. After a few days, he gathered all his belongings. Jesus says he took everything he has. What's that mean? You know, I think sometimes we might imagine, like, divide up your property between us. Now, I'm going to farm this part of the land over here on the other side of the fence. I'm going to see you across the field. I'll still, you know, we'll still have a relationship. The younger son takes all of his belongings and went off to a distant country. Now, this is so important. Do you understand? Ancient Israel, we realized that if you have land, that's family land, like we know, right? When Joshua led the people of Israel into the Promised Land, all the tribes, all the families, they got land. And so this land is given to you from the Lord. And this land has been in your family for generations, hundreds, if not thousands of years by this point. And here, this guy, this kid, this younger son, he's taken his. Not just his dad's property, not just his property, he's taken his family for generations, all of that property, sells it and then leaves to a distant land. Basically, here he is, he's saying this. He's saying, I don't just want your stuff. I want nothing to do with you. Now, this is absolutely devastating. I just want your I don't just want your stuff. I do not want to be associated with you in any way, with our family in any way, with you. My father, in any way. What does he want? I want to be happy apart from the father. This is every one of our hearts. The younger son goes off and looks for happiness apart from the father. And this is again that strong start. Why? Irreversibility. I can't go back. His identity is at stake. Like who, who is he going to be? Now there's this risk. His future is completely unclear. And the agency, the character, the younger son he chooses. Basically he's saying, I don't want God to be my co author. I want to write this story apart from God. Now I've. I've shared the story with our students at times. About former student here. This. He was, he was kind of raised kind of sort of Catholic, but not really. He came to school here and at one point he was going to study abroad. And when he decided to study abroad, he studied abroad. He had an intention behind the study abroad. He had a goal. And his goal was he was going to party as much as he could. He was going to drink as much as he could, smoke as much as he could, and have as many sexual relationships as he possibly could when he was abroad. And so he did. But before he left, before he left Minnesota, he described this. He said he had a crucifix someone had given him. Someplace in some time in his life, someone had given him a crucifixion. Before he left, he knew what he wanted to do. So he walked into his bedroom, he opened up his sock drawer, he took off his crucifix, he put it in the sock drawer, shut the drawer, as if to basically say, God, I'm going to go be happy without you. I'm going to go do this thing. I'm going to go live the kind of life that I want to live. I'm just going to live it without you. And again, that's what he did after he came back to Minnesota. Um, a couple months later, one of his friends and brought him over around here, brought him around to Newman and this guy who had. He had heard about God before he encountered God in a real way. He. I remember, I remember the moment he became convinced that God is real. Because we were having a conversation. He was like, oh my gosh, he's real. This is incredible. And the moment that he was convinced, he became convinced that Jesus loved him. Because in that moment, it was this moment of great joy, but also moment of Devastation, this joy of, oh, my gosh, God is real and he loves me. But also, he looked at what he had written, he looked at who he had become, and he was just like, oh, my gosh, that's not me. He's just overwhelmed by, this is who I've become. This is who I've written. That's not me. You remember the four elements of a strong start. That second element is your identity is at stake. Who am I going to be? That's the risk of the beginning, right? My identity. The risk is the future is unclear. And then there's that other, that first part, the irreversibility. If I take this step, if I make this decision, if I move, if I start writing, I can't go back. Or can we? You know, Jesus tells that story. He says, that younger son, at some point now, after he had squandered all of his possessions, he found himself in dire need. And the line that Jesus says, he says, coming to his senses. Another translation says, coming to himself. My favorite translation says, remembering himself, he thought, how many of my father's hired men have more than enough food to eat here I am, dying of hunger. I'm going to go back to my father now. This is really key. He says he remembers himself now. I just think this is remarkable. I imagine he might have had the conviction, I can't go back to who I was. I can't do it. I imagine he had that conviction, I don't know who I'm going to be, right? This identity is at stake. When it came to himself, I imagine he did not know who he was or who he could be. But here's what he did know. He knew, I can go to my father again. Remember, a strong start is, I can't go back to who I was. Strong start is, I don't know who I'm going to be. Here is the younger son saying, I don't know who I am, but I know who he is. The younger son is saying, I don't know my identity, but I know his. And the proof is this. The proof that he knew his father's heart is the beginning of the story. When he. When he had the gall, right? When he had the audacity to ask his father, hey, give me the share of your property that should come to me. He already knew his father was kind. He already knew his father was generous. He already knew that his father loved him. And it wasn't because himself. It wasn't because he's like, I know myself. It's because I know him that I know I can go back. It wasn't because he believed in himself, but because I believe in the heart of my father. I don't have to write this on my own. And he knew he could go home. This is the last thing. Your story is an autobiography. And what that means is you have to start writing. You have to start writing even if it's risky, even if it's scary. Every story has a beginning. And today in the Gospel for Jesus, this is the beginning, right? Of course. It's kind of unique because he's the second person in the Trinity. He's existed for all time. I say it's unique. It's unique because he lived for 30 years in silence. And that silence, violent time of 30 years, means something. But this moment, right when Jesus gets baptized by John in the Jordan and he goes into the wilderness and does battle with the evil One, this has all four elements of a great start. There's this irreversibility. I can't go back to life in Nazareth. Has that notion of risk. I don't know. The future is unclear. Has this notion of agency. He can choose. But this is the key Number two, identity. His identity is at stake. You know why? Because Satan, when he approaches Jesus, what does he say? He says, if you are the Son of God, he goes right for his identity. If you're the Son of the Father, then do this. Jesus passed the test. Why? Because Jesus started, but he hadn't left the Father. He left with the Father. He started with the Father. And you can, too, because this is. This life, is your autobiography. And maybe you tried to write on your own. Maybe we've tried to be happy apart from the Father. But today's a new start. This Sunday, this first Sunday of Lent is a new start. It gives us the opportunity to remember who you are, to remember who he is, to come back to the Father and to realize that every story, every autobiography has a beginning. And your beginning starts now.