← Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
08/09/26 In the Storm
00:21:38
Homily from the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. God still speaks in storms. God's children can still step in storms. Life is filled with storms. From massive tragedies to normal, everyday battles, every person will regularly find ourselves in the midst of storms. We can often forget that God still speaks in the midst of storms. And God's children are not orphan in the midst of storms. We can still act in the midst of the storm....and discover that saints are made in storms.
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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 Matthew Glory to you, o Lord. Chapter 14, verses 22 through 33 after he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening, he was there alone. Meanwhile, the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. It is a ghost, they said, and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, take courage, it is I. Do not be afraid. Peter said to him in reply, lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. He said, come. Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was, he became frightened and beginning to sink. He cried out, lord, save me. Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter and said to him, are you of little faith? Why did you doubt? After they got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, truly you are the Son of God. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ. I should have a seat so Joshua Slocum was 51 years old when he left Boston harbor in 1895. At 51 years old he got on a 27, 30, 37 foot oyster boat and he began to sail around the world completely by himself. Took him three years, three years and two months. 1895 left Boston and traveled over the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and he did all of this. The first person to do this alone to sail around the world solo. Joshua Slocum came back to Boston and Massachusetts in 1898 and he had so many incredible teachings, things to say, insights of what it takes to sail around the world by yourself. He has a lot of insights. When it Comes to fear. We can imagine. You can imagine that on like a really nice day out on the ocean. Just amazing. Blue skies, just enough wind to keep you going, but not too much wind to make it scary. That would be something like, oh, I would love doing that. That would be amazing to do for a few hours. He did it for three years. But to be in the middle of the night, in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of a storm is something else entirely. In fact, he would just. He described how he was in the middle of the ocean and he said waves were, were as tall as mountains. And that is. I mean, there's so many waves that can be hundreds of feet. Imagine being on a 37 foot boat by yourself in the middle of the ocean in the middle of the night, and you see a crack of lightning and that illuminates that all around you are waves as tall as mountains. See, I think a lot of us, when it comes to the idea of like, you know, a rainy day or storms even, like, we like the idea of a rainy day. Well, I like the idea of a storm. I like the sound of thunder. As long as I'm inside. I love all of that. It's like, oh, the sound of rain on the roof, great. Or even like a snowstorm. As long as I've got enough food and got enough warmth in the house, that's great. Or when it comes to lightning and thunder, all those things. I like the idea of storms as provided. Not just the idea. I love storms as long as I'm in this place that I'm protected. But imagine where you're not protected. Imagine again, you're on a bobber in the middle of the ocean in the middle of a storm. That's when I think we want to quit. I think that's when it's like, just take me back, take me back to the dock. Take me back home. I don't like storms. I say that because here in the first reading and of the gospel today, we have two men, Elijah and Peter. And both of them find themselves in storms. Elijah finds himself in this cave in the middle of this storm, listening for the voice of God. And Peter finds himself in this storm on the Sea of Galilee. I imagine wondering, what do I do now? And this is one of the things, one of the lessons or two of the lessons from these readings today is that when it comes to storms, not storms where we're protected from the storms, but when we're actually in the storms, when like Joshua Slocum, the waves are as high as mountains, we know these two truths, that in storms God can still speak, and in storms, God's children can still step. Because again, this is our lives. I think sometimes, sometimes in our lives we have storms in our lives that are like massive and unique. We have tragedies that are happening to us. We have big, big things. That's just, how am I going to make this through? But I think a lot of times most of our storms can often just be like the busyness of life. Or sometimes the things we think are big storms are just like, no, this is life where it's just, you know, we say things like, well, things are just so chaotic right now. And that can be true. Those are storms again, not just the massive tragedies that happen a couple times a year, a couple times in a life, but the daily storms of I'm so busy, I'm so stressed. Again, things are so chaotic in those kinds of storms as well as in the big tragedy storms. We need to do this again. We need to do these things in the storm. We need to realize that God's voice isn't necessary necessarily louder than the storm. But we have to keep listening. This is the first step. This is the first thing we need to do when it comes to prayer. I was listening to a man named Alex Jones. Alex is one of the co founders of an app called Hallow, which is the world's largest prayer app and, or at least Catholic prayer app. And Alex was talking about prayer and he said, when it comes to talking with God, he said, a lot of times it's like me coming home from work and talking to my wife. He said, it's really good if I come home and talk to my wife and tell her how my day was. And that's how we. We do prayer. A lot of times he come to God, okay, God, this is what's going on. I can tell my wife, okay, these are the struggles of the day. These are the triumphs, these are the wins, these are the losses. These are the things that frustrate me. These are the things I really, really want. He said I could come to my wife and tell her all these things and that would be great. And if it comes to prayer with us, you come to the Lord and you tell him, like, here's what's going on in my day, and here are the struggles I have and here are the desires I have. That's all good. But he said, if I just got done, like, kind of dumping on my wife and saying, like, here's all the things I'VE got going on and then just left and said, that was a good talk. That would only be part of a conversation. The other half of it is to be able to stop and say, and how are you? And then to listen. I think sometimes when it comes to prayer, we get. Hopefully we get the first part right. The first part of being able to share our hearts with the Lord. The first part of. First part of being able to say, God, here's what's going on in my life. But then all of us need to take that moment and we need to stop and listen. Alex said, I need to stop and ask my wife and say, so, and how are you? And then I need to listen to her. And this is prayer for us. You know, it's funny. I came across this video the other day. It was kind of like a man on the street video, you know, where people don't always look their best. So this guy was asking this young woman a question, and he asked the question of who's better at communication, men or women. And she's like, oh, women are way better at communication than men are. She's okay, well, you know, why are men so bad? And she said, well, because men don't. They don't read between the lines. Like, they don't get it. Like, I'll say something, and they don't get what I'm really trying to say. And so he was kind of playing with her and he said, oh, so men should be mind readers? And he's like, she said, yes. And he said, well, how fair is it to expect for a man to do something that's physically impossible for him? And she was like, well, no, he should be able to do that kind of thing and go back to that question, who's better at communication, men or women? And basically, what she's saying is he should be able to know what I'm saying and understand what I'm saying, even if I'm not going to say the exact thing that I mean. He should be able to read between the lines. And ultimately, again, this is a joke, but ultimately what it comes down to is I assume that whatever I'm saying, you should be able to hear what I really mean. And. Yeah, and vice versa. But so often is that sense of, like, I'm not actually going to say what I want, or even this. You know, we can be frustrated because someone's not talking to us the way we want them to talk to us, even if we tell them how to talk to us. Like, listen, when it comes to me, I Just need you to give it to me straight. Like, you don't have to sugarcoat it. And then someone actually does that for once, and you're like, wow, they're really rude. Because sometimes we don't even know how we want to be talked to. And so, of course, when it comes to each other, we have to work at it. We have to work at, okay, how is this person saying this thing? Or how am I saying this thing? In a way that they actually can understand, the way they can actually hear. Because when it comes to prayer, sometimes I think we fall into this trap of, well, I'm listening to God, but I can't hear his voice. I'm listening to God, but I don't know what he's saying. As human beings, of course, if someone doesn't understand what we're saying, we need to change the way we're speaking. So they do know. But when it comes to God, God is going to always speak in the way that we need. God is always going to speak in. In. In a way that. That. That we need to hear. Even in storms, even in the busyness of life, even when things are chaotic, even in great pain, we have to be like, Elijah. What did Elijah do? Elijah was listening in the storm, and the world went. In the earthquake. We have to listen attentively. And this is so key for us. How many times in prayer do we, okay, God, go, like, say whatever you need to say. And we give him about three seconds instead of just letting that silence exist. You know, it's often been said that silence is God's first language. And so when it comes to that silence, that Elijah, that still small voice, that even in storms, we get to listen attentively. That even in. We realize that we get the chance to take time in the midst of storms. Because in the stor. In storms, we always have moments when God is speaking. Because why? Because even in the busyness of life, even in chaos, even in tragedy, God gives us these kind of like pauses every day. We all have them. I mean, regardless of how busy any of us are, God gives us these pauses. And sometimes the pauses are in strange places. Sometimes the pauses are when you're getting into bed. That's a moment of quiet. Sometimes the pauses are in the bathroom where maybe there's a moment of quiet. Sometimes those pauses are those moments in your house or in your apartment when things get quiet. And the question is that in that quiet, in that silence, in that time of Elijah, right in the middle of the storm, here's a moment of Quiet. I think in those moments, in those pauses, we're often tempted to cover those moments with noise. We're tempted to fill those moments with distractions. But God is speaking in the storm. God is speaking in those pauses. I was. I was talking with a man recently who's. He's just a. He's really good, and he's a really holy man. But in the last year and a half, he has had real tragedy. Some of us have tragedy that comes to us from the outside, and some of us have tragedy that comes from the inside. In the last year and a half, he has battled heroically with mental illness. He's battled heroically with incredible depression and just other really amazing, overwhelming struggles. And to his credit, this is something so important. When he realized this was happening, he almost immediately reached out for help. I think sometimes we might experiences. Many of us could experience this mental illness. We could experience these mental challenges or these emotional challenges. And just like, why I have to soldier on, they need me to do it on my own. To his credit, again, he heroically and immediately asked for help because he needed help. So good for all of us if we need help, he asked for. So he asked for help, but things didn't get any better. He asked for help, but it's been a long, long road for him. But part of his. His. Part of the tools that he's been given, part of his recovery has been this. Whenever he hear. He told me this. He said whenever he hears something or reads something that he knows is true. Again, this is in the midst of, like, internal storms, not just external storms where things are chaotic outside. For inside, he's like, I'm not even myself anymore. My brain isn't even my own anymore. He felt. My emotions, he says, are. I'm not feeling like myself anymore. And so he feels so unmoored, right? So. So unrooted. So one of his tools is he said, whenever I hear something or read something that is true, he does this. I pause. He says, I capture it, and I write it down. So anything he said, just said, we were talking at one point, something was said, and he said, oh, I need to write that down. He said, okay, that's true. Because again, internally, it's just chaos. Internally, there are storms. And so every place of substance, whether it's beautiful or is good, but for him, everything that was true, he would do those three things. He'd pause, he'd capture it, and he'd write it down. Because he knows this truth that God still speaks in the storm. So God speaks In the storm. And also God's children can take a step in the storm. I mean, this is so important for us. I think a lot of times I'm waiting for the conditions to be ideal. Like, I'm waiting for things to be the perfect time to start or either if the conditions aren't ideal, I kind of want to stop. I think in the gospel, that's maybe part of Peter's story, that in this gospel. Where's Peter? Well, Peter's with the other disciples. Why? Because Jesus told him. Told him to. Peter's in the boat. Why? Because Jesus told him to. Jesus is out on Peter's out on the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the night. Why? Because Jesus told him to. Peter's in the storm, in the night, in the boat. Why? Because for one reason, because Jesus told him to. And he's terrified and he is in danger and he's facing death because Jesus told them to. Why is Peter in the storm? There's only one reason. Because Jesus told him to. Again, this is one of the situations where in the storm, like, when I'm in a storm, I want to stop. I don't know if you've ever been in that place where you're in the middle of a storm and you're angry. You're angry because you're afraid, right? You're so uncomfortable. So we want to find someone to blame. Resentful of this. You can say, well, the reason I'm here is because of God, right? The reason I'm here is reason Peter's in the boat. Reason he's in danger, literally in danger of death is because Jesus told him to be. And in the middle of the storm, I want to stop. And this is the thing we need to remember. Even though I want to stop in the middle of the storm, this is the exact wrong time to stop. Even though this is where I want to turn around. This is the exact wrong time to turn around. There's a great saint. His name is Saint Ignatius of Loyola. He's the founder of the Jesuits. And he had this incredible insight about what to do in storms. Because in storms. Again, in storms, we either want to turn around or we want to stop. And Ignatius of Loyola would say this. He said, if you've discerned and you've made a decision, like you've known, okay, you've taken the step, and like, this is the route. This is the direction I'm headed. I made a decision. He said this. He said, in times. He said, in the storm, you do not change your mind or change your course. That in times of desolation, you don't abandon prayer or mass or the sacraments. That in the storm you don't make major spiritual changes or life changes. He said, do not trust every negative thought or every negative emotion, particularly in the storms. He said, in times of desolation, do not make a change that do not forget in the dark what you knew was true in the light. And do not stop and do not turn around even in the storm. Years ago, I had heard this kind of. This example about, or the difference between cattle and buffalo, that if your cattle, a bunch of cattle out in the prairie, cattle out in the field, if they're free to roam and they see a storm coming, cattle will often run away from the storm. Which makes sense. I mean, who wants to be in a storm? But what ends up happening is that if the storm is coming at you and you're running away from it, the fact that you're running away from it, from it means you are spending more time in the storm. You're delaying what was going to happen. You're extending what is happening. You're extending the storm because you're running away from it. Versus buffalo, apparently, buffalo. When the storm comes towards them, what buffalo do is they run into the storm. Which, again, doesn't make as much sense on the surface because who wants to be in a storm? But when buffalo ran into the storm, a couple things happen. One is they're accepting the fact that there's a storm happening. And the second thing is the storm ends up being shorter because of the fact that I'm not unwilling to act. I'm not trying to stop. I'm not trying to change direction. I'm not trying to go back. The fact is that you actually have the power to take steps into the storm. By charging into the storm, they're spending less time in the storm. And by taking steps in the storm, we realize you actually have the power to let the storm do what it's meant to do. Because this is the reality. The storm can do something incredible. Peter. If Peter had stopped in the storm, maybe he could have gotten to safety. If Peter would have turned around in the storm, maybe he could have gotten back home. But if Peter had stopped in the storm, he never would have ended up walking on water. So what did he do? Well, again, he did nothing more or nothing less than he already had done. Jesus said, go with the other disciples. So he did it. Jesus said, get in the boat. So he did it. Jesus said, go out in the water. In the night. So he did it. Jesus said, go into the storm. And so he did it. And then Jesus said, do not be afraid. Step out of the boat. And he heard the voice of God in the storm, and he did it. And this is the last thing. This is us. We know this. We know that storms do not stop God, and we know that storms do not stop God's children. What do we do in the storm? We listen. And there's that still small voice that can only be heard if we take the time. That can only be heard if we use those moments of pause that come to every one of us at some point in the midst of the day and don't try to cover them up with noise or fill them with distraction, but just simply listen and then simply step. Simply, just do what God has asked us to do. Because again, I say simply because it is simple. Saints are made in the storms. That's why God brings them into our lives. That's why God allows them to be in our lives, because he doesn't leave us in storms. Not because storms make saints extra tough, because God is in the storm. Saints are made in storms because they listened to God's voice in the storm and then they simply took a step in the storm. In this place of fear, in this place of trial, in this place of just the busyness of. Of life is the storm. And saints are made in the storms.