← Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
03/09/25 The Place of the Way: The Desert
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Homily from the First Sunday of Lent. The only way out is through. As we enter into the desert, the desert takes away the things we tend to trust in...the things we use as comforts and crutches...and we are led through the "training place" to the place of being able to live like Christ.
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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 4, verses 1 through 13 filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for 40 days to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, he was hungry. The devil said to him, if you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. Jesus answered him, it is written, one does not live on bread alone. Then Satan took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, I shall give you all this power and glory, for it has been handed over to me that I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours if you worship me. Jesus said to him, in reply, it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve. Then he led him to Jerusalem and made him stand on the parapet of the temple and said to him, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and with their hands they will support you lest you dash your foot upon a stone. Jesus said to him, in reply, it also says, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ made you have a seat. So the question, I think a lot of times people ask at the beginning of Lent is, what are you going to do? What are you going to do for Lent? Or what are you going to give up for Lent? And I found that a lot of people, well, not everybody, but a number of people will say something along the lines of, I'm just gonna do the same thing. I'll do the same thing I did last year. And there's this kind of sense of, you know what, maybe I found my thing like this is the thing I like to do. It's kind of comfortable. It was just not bad. It's consistent. That's not Bad. I found something that kind of helps me. Wonderful. Those are all good, good things. But then if we go back to this series we started last week, the Place of the Way, right? We recognize that the heart of asceticism is not just giving up something. It's not just self denial. It's not just discipline. Heart of asceticism. The heart of asceticism is what as thesis means, right? It means training. And so we find ourselves in the inland, in a certain kind of like a dojo, right? The training room, the place of the way. Right? Dojo in Japanese, in English means the place of the way. Because why? Because at the end of this Lent, we want to be able to do something that we cannot currently do. At the end of this Lent, I want to be someone that I am currently not. And we know that the goal of Lent is, is again not to become slightly holier or slightly healthier or with fewer bad habits. The goal of Lent is to look like Jesus. And I currently don't look like Jesus. I currently don't think like Jesus. I currently don't love like Jesus. And so we have to realize this. If I'm just going to do the same thing I've always done, we really know the truth. In order to be able to do something I cannot currently do, I have to begin to do something that I've not yet done. We all know this because you've probably heard the phrase before. If you do what you've always done, you will get what you always got. If I want to be able to do something I can't currently do, right, this is training. There's a goal for Lent. That goal is to be like Jesus. Then I just can't do the same old thing, which I understand can be intimidating. I understand can be uncomfortable. I just want to be there. And that's. I thought it was fascinating. In the reading from Deuteronomy this morning, it says this, it says that, you know, here's Moses. He was reminding the people what God did. And he says, yeah, he took you from that place of slavery and brought you to the place of freedom. He took you from the place of slavery and brought you to the place of promise. What I find is kind of fascinating is Moses leaves out the middle part that, yeah, he took from. Took us from a place of slavery. And then what happened? They didn't just immediately go to the place of freedom. They. They had to go through the desert. He didn't just take them from here to there. They had to go through. And for Them, the desert was the dojo. Remember the place of the way. And for us, as we enter into Lent, the place of the way this week, the place of the way this week is the desert. So why couldn't he just take them from the place of slavery to. To the place of promise? Why'd they have to go through that place of the way? Why'd they have to go through the desert? Well, if you read the book of Exodus, you know, if you read the Book of Numbers or Deuteronomy, you realize this, that God wanted to. He wanted to immediately bring them to the promised land. But they got there, and they were too afraid. Why? Because they had spent 400 years living as a slave. They had spent 400 years living as not free people. And so they were fearful. They thought like slaves. That had gotten into their bones, that had gotten into the way. They saw everything. They saw themselves. And so they were fearful. They went up to the land of Canaan. They said, no, we could never win. They didn't have the strength to fight. They didn't have the courage to fight. They didn't have the ability to fight. They were. In fact, they were willing to settle for bondage as long as they had the promise of security. To read back in numbers, chapter 10, there's one of the times that they complain is they go to Moses and they say, moses, you know, back in Egypt, we had all this. All these vegetables. We had onions, and we had leeks, and we had melons, we had garlic. We had. We had meat, like. And yet here we have. We have nothing but this wretched food, right? We have. Here, we. In the wilderness, we have nothing but this manna. And I always pause on that and think, like, okay, in this wilderness, we have nothing but miraculous bread that shows up for us every single day. Okay, fine. But the other thing is. But back in Egypt, we had fruit, we had vegetables. We had these things they called flesh pots, right? Where they would be able to. Where they kept their meat. And I would say, yes, you also had slavery. You also didn't have freedom. So why did God have to lead them now? He couldn't just lead them from there to there. Why do you have to lead them through the desert? Because they needed training. They didn't know how to live as free people. They wouldn't have been ready to enter the Promised land. Because the promised land isn't just the promised Land. It's a place of battle. And so they needed to be led through the desert in order to be able to be trained and that's why God is giving us this desert of Lent, because we're the same. I know. I just want to be done. I just want to just. Lord, just tap me on the head and make me look like Jesus automatically. But we need this train. We need this dojo. We need this place of the way. Because we are called to be people that we're currently not able to do something that we currently cannot. So God is leading us into the desert, into the place where all of the things that we have trusted in are finally put down. That's what Lent is. We were led into the desert where all of the things that you and I have trusted in, we're invited to just put them down. So the first dojo, the first place of the way, the desert, because why? Because the desert is a place of training. The desert is a place of testing. The desert is a place of trial. But it's also the place where all the things that I've trusted in are absent. Here's the Jewish people, right? They trusted in the melons and the leeks and the onions. They trusted in the fact that every single day the Egyptian, Egyptian slavers would provide for them all the things that they trusted in, all their comforts, all their crutches were absent. And for us, the desert, the place of the way Lent, is where you and I put down our comforts and we put down our crutches. What are our comforts? What are our crutches? Our comforts and our crutches are those things that we use to buffer between us and life, right? The distractions, they're the noise, they're diversions, they're all the things that we hold onto that we hope will insulate us from having to acknowledge that we are not yet who we should be. And so here in Lent, the beginning of Lent, the question is, what you going to give up for Lent? What are you going to do for Lent? Remember, whatever it is, whatever you decided, you can always change it. You are entering into a place of training. You're entering into a place of testing. So it can't just be the usual, right? It can't just be the status quo. It can't just be the normal thing. I always give up. I can't just do the same thing I always have done and expect a different result. Because we are called to do something new. You and I are called to go somewhere new, and that means putting down something old. So as we move forward in the desert, you and I have to put down the comforts you and I have to put down the crutches. So what is that? Maybe it's the device that I use to insulate myself from having to think. Maybe it's the. Maybe it's drink, maybe it's food. Maybe it's distractions. What are the things that you and I cling to? We put our trust in them. We think, as long as I have this, I'll be fine. Whatever you and I find ourselves trusting in more than God alone. That's. I'm inviting us all, that's what we have to this Lent, be willing to put down. Because this is the desert. This is the place of the way. And it's going to be difficult. You know, I always hesitate this. I always hesitate to invite people to do the hard thing for Lent. One of the reasons is because I don't want to burden anyone. But on the other hand, I mean, think about this. It is the desert. So it's supposed to be difficult. It is the. Not just for difficulty's sake. It's the desert. It's training. The question, what am I training for? What am I trying to become? You know, one of the big popular words these days is resilience. And if a young person or old person, any person has resilience, it's something that's powerful. It's almost like a superpower when you find someone who has this grit or has this resilience. I was listening to a talk by a woman, she's an American psychologist named Dr. Becky Kennedy. She was giving a talk to students at Duke. She asked the question. She said, what does resilience feel like? Like if you're a resilient person or you see yourself as a resilient person. She asked the question, what does resilience feel like? And she pointed out, and one of the students pointed this out, that it doesn't feel resilient. That notion of I want to know something, right? I want to be able to do something for us in Lent is that I want to be able to live like Jesus. I want to be able to love like Jesus. I want to be able to trust like Jesus. That means I have to go from not knowing to knowing. I mean, I have to go from not being able to being able. And that space, Dr. Kennedy says that space between not knowing and knowing, that space between not being able and being able is really, really painful. I just want to be there. It's like the Jews in the wilderness. Like, no, I just want to go from the place of slavery to the place of promise. She says that space, though, between not knowing and knowing, not being able and being able. She says it's painful. She calls it the learning space, that space between not knowing and knowing. It's a learning space. Not being able and being able. I would call that the training space for our tents and purposes. And she said that. She said, what's the emotion that's most often associated? In fact, she said there's a single emotion that's associated with that training space. There's one single emotion that's associated with the learning space. And she said that one emotion that's associated with this space is frustration. It's, I just want to give up. Because that space between the land of slavery and the land of promise, that place of slavery and that place of God's will, is difficult. It is painful. The emotion is frustration. And so what has to happen? I want to skip it. I want to skip the training space. I want to skip the learning space. But we realize that if we're in the midst of it, and you and I are in the midst of it, right here we are in the midst of Lent right now. Here we are in a place where I'm not able to live like Jesus, not able to look at. To be able to become. To be able to look like Jesus, to live like Jesus. We realize, I don't want to be in this place, okay? But the truth is this. The truth is the only way out is through. Just in the same way that God was leading his people from here to there, the only way from here to there was through. And when you and I find ourselves in that place of frustration, that place of learning, that place of training, we realize the only way out is through. And so what Dr. Becky Kennedy invites people to do, she said, how about this? When you experience frustration, let yourself remind yourself. That's called learning. Whenever you and I experience that frustration in that learning space, in that training space, tell yourself, no, this is learning. This is me growing. This is me training. And so what we can develop is we can develop what she calls for frustration tolerance. So we find ourselves in that training space. And it's difficult, and I want to get out of this, okay? The only way out is through. And we experience this frustration tolerance. And she said this. She said, I have to learn to love the feeling of frustration. So people almost always associate success with getting from not knowing to knowing as fast as possible. The success in accomplishment is getting from not being able to to being able to as quickly as possible. She said, that's not true. She said, success, greatness comes from the length of time you and I can spend in that learning space. Success comes from the length of time you and I can spend in that training space. Like Jesus in the Gospel today, Jesus in the desert. He doesn't just visit, he doesn't sprint through. He spends 40 days and 40 nights in the training space. He spends 40 days and 40 Nights, and he's not in a rush to get through. And we can't be either. He shows us the way. You know, There was a 17th century philosopher and mathematician, scientist, inventor, Catholic man. His name is Blaise Pascal. And Blaise Pascal, once he had the question, he said, you want to find faith, but you don't know the way. Ever find yourself in that place? Like, I want to have trust, but I don't know the way. I want to be able to look at Jesus, but I don't know the way. Well, we realize that the only way to grow in trust is to put down the comforts or put down the crutches that I've been trusting in and trust. The only way to grow in trust is to put down my crutches and trust. Our friend from last week, Takashi Nagai, remember the Japanese Catholic man who a little bit of his story mentioned last week, that he was born in Japan in the early part of the last century, and he was raised Shinto by his mom and dad. He had loving parents. Incredible, actually. Incredible. Mom and dad. At one point, Takashi Nagai, in high school, he went off to study, and he studied science, was very good at science and science, Western science had just come to Japan. And so along with Western science coming to Japan, also Western ideas of atheism had to come to Japan. Now, Takashi Nagai was raised Shinto, and so just all these myths. And so as he encountered science, all of the myths that he was raised with were kind of exposed for just simply being myths. And so rather than looking for a true religion, Tekashi basically said, yeah, well, the religion I was raised with is just clearly myths as opposed to science. And so he became an atheist, pretty committed atheist, in fact. He talked about how in one of his classes, they looked at the cadaver. They were studying cadavers because he was studying to be a medical doctor. And the physician, the instructor said, this gentleman is, this is all there is, just cells and bone and tissue. This is all human beings are. And Dakashi Nagai embraced that. He embraced that as reality. You know, all there is is what I can see. There's nothing more here. Until something happened. At one point, he got a telegram from his dad instructing him to get home as quickly as possible. And he got home just as his mother was dying. And Takashi Nagai spent her last moments with her. And there's ways in which you can describe this moment, but maybe the best way is to say that as Tekashi was next to his mom, whom he loved so much, and as she gave her last breath and her heart beat for the last time and she died, this man who was a scientist and saying, no, all there is is what we can see. All there is is just stuff. He's a strict materialist. He saw his mom die, and he realized, oh, we are more. He realized in that moment when he. When he witnessed the death of his own mom, he realized, we're more. We're more than just cells. We're more than just tissue. We're more than just electron, you know, electrical circuits in our brain. He realized there is something more. And it wasn't because he had this wish fulfillment where he wanted to see his mom again. He just was overwhelmed by this conviction, but he didn't know what to do. So re. Enter Blaise Pascal. Takashi Ngai had, you know, he. He loved Western things and already appreciated Western things, Western thought. Here is Blaise Pascal, who was a Westerner, who also was a scientist. And Pascal admired the fact that he was an inventor. He admired the fact that. That. That Blaise Pascal not only was an inventor and a scientist and someone studying the natural world, we also like to think deeply. And Blaise Pascal wrote this book called Panses. It's not really a book. It's just a collection of ideas, of thoughts, Panses. And they kind of reminded Tekashi of some of the Japanese, like haikus and other kind of just short, insightful truths. So he picked up a copy of Pascal's Panses, and he'd read through and read through, especially at this moment where he had this encounter of there's more to this life. And he came to the. The conviction that maybe God exists, maybe actually Jesus is God. It was this whole long process. But at one point, he didn't know what else to do. He didn't know, how do I move forward in this? How do I move from here to there? And then he came upon one of Blaise Pascal's ponces, the one I started reading earlier. He said, you want to find faith, but you don't know the way. Here's Takashi Nagaya saying, yes, that's it. I either want to stay in my unbelief not knowing, or. Or I want to know how do I get there? How do I get from not knowing to knowing? How do I get from not being able to being able? Pascal goes on, you want to find faith, but you do not know the way. He said, learn from those who were once bound like you and who now stake everything on it. Follow the way by which they began, by acting as if they believed, by taking holy water, by having masses said and so on. This will naturally lead you to belief. So Blaise Pascal's advice for someone like Tekashi Nagai, maybe for all of us, was, you want to believe, you want to have faith. You don't have the way. He says, start acting as if you believe. Start walking, start moving. This is us for Lent, too, because as Tekashi Nagai started this, he didn't know how to pray. I mean, he had no idea that God was good, that God was one. He was just beginning to hear about this person named Jesus and asking the question. And so here is Blaise Pascal saying, tekashi, you want to know faith. You want to have faith, but don't know the way, how to get from there to here, from here to there. You have to go through this. What do you have to do? Start. Start praying, start going to mass, start fasting as if God notices your fast and responds. Start living as if you believe. This is for us too. You don't know. You aren't able. Well, then pray, go to mass, fast. Because you and I, just like Tekashi and the guy, we need to go from here to there, just like the Jewish people, we need to go from here to there. That means we must go through. So here's the last thing. Here's the invitation. This Lent, be bold. This Lent, be courageous. Like this Lent, try. Because I think that a lot of us have been slaves for too long. We need to learn, just like the Jewish people, we need to learn what it is to be free. So we have to enter the desert, and it has to be a real desert where we put down the comforts, we put down the crutches, and we're courageous. And not because we're trying to be tough, not because we're trying to, like, do a lot and be macho and be heroic about this. But because God is leading, the people of Israel could not have made it from the place of slavery to the place of promise. They could not have made it through the wilderness if God hadn't led them. Same with us. We will not be able to go from not being able to being able unless God continues to lead us, but he is leading us. He is training you. He is taking you somewhere. We find ourselves stuck in this place. The only way out is through, and it's through the desert, which is the place of the way.