← Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
04/13/25 The Place of the Way: Here
00:14:32
Homily from Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion. Thank God ahead of time. We often put off joy and praise and peace. We are tempted to be preoccupied with wanting to be "there" or wanting to be "done" with whatever we are working on or whatever we are doing. Yet, as Catholics, we are called to be "here". We can best live "on the way" when we don't wait to thank God; when we thank God before we are "there". We can thank God right here.
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Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz. I am so excited to be joining the Courage under fire gala on May 23rd in Nashville, Tennessee. And I would love for you to be there too. I believe that this world needs people of faith who are willing to live with clarity, conviction and compassion. That's what this night is all about. Standing in truth, rooted in Christ and unshaken by the storms around us. You know this. We weren't made for comfort.
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We weren't.
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We were made for courage. So go to the Courage Under Fire gala by grabbing your ticket@courageunderfiregala.org that's courageunderfiregala.org and God bless.
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So I would say this, I would say that for the most part, when it comes to just life, when it comes to how, what kind of person, you know, sometimes you have those two kinds of people in this world. I'm a person, I'm someone who likes, who kind of lives for done. What I mean by that is that when it comes to talk to me before I'm done, and I'm the worst person to talk to, like before I get to the gate in an airport, like, I'm the worst. Before the talk, I know I'm not helpful to be around before I get an answer. If I'm struggling with a question before that, I'm unpleasant before the meeting, before the conversation, before the thing. I'm kind of internally a mess because I live for done. I really like done. And the reason is because I think before the meeting, I get nervous. I'm not sure how it's going to go before the project gets done. I'm anxious because I'm uncertain of the outcome. When there's work to get done, I get stressed because there's still so much to do. And oftentimes I'm self preoccupied with like, okay, how well am I going to do? Or even that sense of until I'm done, I'm not in control because if I'm out of control because I have to make the result just so like, you know, I don't know if that makes any sense, but I just realized that I, and maybe a lot of us, we wait, like we wait until we're done or we wait until we're there. And so what I find myself doing is I find myself putting off a lot of joy until I'm there. I find myself putting off a lot of peace until I'm done. I find myself in some ways putting off life until I, until I get there. You know, this whole lent here we are On Palm Sunday, this whole Lent, we've been training, right? Because the season of Lent, we know the season of Lent is not just a time of self denial, not just time of self discipline. It's a time of asceticism, as thesis means training. And so we're training to become like Jesus. We want, in this week and up to next week with Easter, we want to be the kind of people that we weren't at the beginning of this, right? We want to be trained to be more and more like Jesus. And so we've. What have we done? We've entered that place of training, right? The place of the way. That dojo, the place of the way has been silenced. We entered into the desert. The place of the way was the crossroads. The place of the way was the valley. The place of the way was home. Last week, we realized the place of the way was the dead ends that the Lord leads us to. But I'd say this Sunday, this is the final place of the way. And I think it's maybe the most profound, maybe the most crucial place of the way. Especially for those of us who want to just be there, right? For those of us who want to just be done, the most important place of the way is here. For those of us who just want to be done, the most important place of the way is life on the way. I'd say this. I would say to be like Jesus. If we want to really, truly look like Jesus, want to have our focus like Jesus. We especially, again, if you're like me and you just want to be there, the place of the way is here. If I just want to be done, the place of the way is actually on the way. You know, so for the last couple years, I'm literally, for the last maybe two or three years, every day I've been struck by something. Maybe sometimes a couple times a day, I'm struck by something Jesus said. I just been turning it over and over in my mind, like virtually every day. And there's something that Jesus does that so few of us who just want to be done or who just want to be there, he does something that we rarely do. We hear it at every Mass, and you're going to hear it in a little bit. We say, on the night he was betrayed, He. He Himself took bread and giving you thanks. He said the blessing and gave it to his disciples. The thing that's been striking me every day for over two years is that line, I'm giving youg thanks that he took the chalice and giving youg thanks. And as I pause on this and ask the question, okay, when does Jesus seize the opportunity to give thanks? Like, what's the context for Jesus giving thanks? The context is on the night he was betrayed, he took the bread, said the blessing, giving thanks that. I realized that for myself, like, I want to give thanks. I want to make Thanksgiving a vital part of my life. I want to make it a regular part of my life. But I realized that when I want to give thanks, I want to give thanks when I get what I want, right? That kind of makes sense. You get what you want and give thanks. I want to give thanks when I'm not worried anymore. I want to give thanks when I'm not stressed out anymore. I want to give thanks when I'm done, right? When the work is finished, the task is finished. I want to give thanks after the end. I want to give thanks when things are all better, when I'm healed. I want to give thanks that when I'm answered, I want to give thanks that when I'm rested. I want to give thanks when I'm calm. I want to give thanks when things are complete. I want to give thanks when I'm there. When does Jesus give thanks? Jesus gives thanks in the midst of he gives thanks in the middle of the worst moment of his entire life. Jesus gives thanks as he enters into the worst pain of his life. Jesus gives thanks as he enters into the worst suffering. Jesus gives thanks on the night he was betrayed in the midst of betrayal, in the midst of denial, in the midst of being abandoned. In some ways, you realize that the depths of Jesus passion haven't even started yet. Basically, he has everything left to do. And here in this place, Jesus gives thanks. And this is the truth. This is the crucial part of the way. Not there, but here. The crucial part of the way is not when we're done. The crucial part of the way is on the way, in the midst. And the question we have to ask is, can I live here? That if I'm like Jesus, can I stay? Can I remain here? Now the question to ask is, can I stand in the middle of it all and thank God before it's over? Can I stand in the middle of everything and thank God before I'm done? The question is, can I thank God here? You know, this whole Lent, we've been following that Japanese Catholic man, Takashi Nagai. And if you read his story here, his story, I know so many people have listened to this, and I've been so inspired by Takashi Nagai. He's Moved my heart so much. But you realize that he's a very ordinary person. He's just a very ordinary Catholic, basically. There's nothing overtly remarkable about his accomplishments. Yahoo. Is a great doctor, radiologist, and yes, he sacrificed himself to save people's lives, but he would have said, he's just doing his job. Yeah, he had a great relationship. He loved his wife, Midori, he loved their two kids. But again, if you asked him, he'd just say no, this is just what a husband does. This is just what a father does. And yes, he survived Nagasaki. He survived the atomic bomb, but so did other people. So the question is, like, why him? Why is this man so inspiring? And I think the reason, one of the many reasons, is because even though he was like us, he's pulled in so many different directions. Even he talks about this in Bells for Nagasaki. In the book A Song for Nagasaki, he talks about how. How distracted he was, how he wrestled with being distracted, that when he was at home, he was constantly torn back to. He wanted to go to his work, and when he was at work, he wanted to be home. But he battled that out and he fought to be right here, that he actually fought for that by giving thanks here. In fact, one of his sayings was, for all that has been, thanks for all that will be. Yes. And he tried to live that every day. Again, he, just like us, he was distracted. He wanted to be there, he wanted to be done. But, okay, for all that has been thanks for all that will be. Yes. And the remarkable thing is that by choosing or trying to give thanks in ordinary moments, that paved the way for him to be able to give thanks in extraordinary moments. For him to basically just give thanks when things were very, very normal, it made it possible for him to give thanks when things were completely out of the ordinary. In fact, there's this moment in his book where when he finds his wife's Midori, his wife Midori's body among the ruins of their home, and it says this. It says that he could see he found her body, the ashes of her body, the ruins of her body, the remains of her body. It said he could see that she died in the kitchen, that she loved. Sobbing, he picked up a heat buckled pail and knelt to gather her bones. What was that dull glint among the powdered bones of her right hand? Though the beads were melted into a blob, the chain and cross identified it as the rosary that he had seen slipping through her fingers so often. And he bowed his head and sobbed. Dearest God, thank you for allowing her to die. Praying Mother of Sorrows, thank you for being with faithful Midori at the hour of her death. And as he carefully scooped the bones into the pail, he murmured, ah, gracious Jesus, our Savior, you once sweat blood and bore the heavy cross for your crucifixion, and now you have shed peaceful light on the mystery of suffering and death. On Midori's and on my own. And he concluded that whole prayer by saying, lord, receive her with my gratitude. That he could give thanks while his heart was breaking. That he could thank God in the midst of his sobs. And that's why his life is extraordinary. This is why his life was extraordinary, that he saw and he recognized God here. He recognized God on the way. And in recognizing God, he was able to give thanks before he was healed. He was able to give thanks while he was weeping. He was able to give thanks before he got there. He was able to give thanks right here. It reminds me, in fact, of the wisdom of a man named Blessed Solanus Casey. Solanus Casey once said, he said, give thanks ahead of time again, especially for us, for you and me, who want to be there, who want to be done. Salonis Casey. No. Give God thanks ahead of time. We realize we don't have to wait, that we can thank God here, we can thank God on the way. That even in the midst of the challenge, even in the midst of the pain, in the difficulty, this is what Tekashi said. Tekashi, he said this. He said, each day is a gift. He said, I give thanks even for the pain. Remember, he was dying of leukemia. I give thanks for the pain because it reminds me that I'm alive to love. Each day is a gift. I give thanks even for the pain, because it reminds me that I'm alive to love. And it reminds us, too, of Jesus, that Jesus is able. Jesus, in this moment, on the night he was betrayed, what does he do ahead of time? He gives thanks. What's he do in the midst of his passion? He gives thanks. What does Jesus do while he's on the way? He gives thanks. And this is the last thing. I think it's profound that the phrase thank you in Takashi Nagai's Japanese language is the word arigato. You might know that word arigato. It means thank you. But in fact, doing some research on this, in fact, it says in the book the Song for Nagasaki, it says that arigato is more than just casual, like thanks, or even more than just a casual thank you, that the word arigato comes from two Japanese characters that put together mean, this came into existence with difficulty. That's what arigato means. Thank you means this came into existence with difficulty. So Takashi says, every day is a gift. Why? Because basically, arigato acknowledges and recognizes the giftedness of this moment. Essentially, it's saying if you say arigato to someone, you're saying what you've done is rare. What you're saying is, it didn't have to happen. You're saying it was not owed. And I want to honor that. Every time we say thank you, every time we say that, like Tekashi would say that arigato it is. This came into existence with difficulty. It was not owed to me. It was rare. And I want to honor that. And that's us. That's where we find ourselves today, on this Palm Sunday, on this day that we walk with Jesus through his passion. We recognize that each day, each moment, each breath, and each heartbeat, all of it is undeserved. That what Jesus has done for us, it didn't have to happen. And yet here we are. Here we are receiving God's grace. And this came into existence with difficulty. New life that you and I have in Jesus, that came into existence with difficulty. Therefore, I would say this. I would say, like Jesus, we give God thanks ahead of time because of this. Like Jesus, we give God thanks in the midst. Like Jesus, we give God thanks before that we're. Before we're there. Like Jesus, we give God thanks on the way. And like Jesus, we give God thanks right here. Because the place of the way is here.