← Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
10/26/25 I Got Nothin'
00:20:26
Homily from the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Nothing to Offer. Nothing to Prove. Nothing to Hide. When we stand before the gates of Heaven and we are asked why we should be let in...what is our answer? How would we approach Heaven? How do we approach God now? We might approach God with our resume, or as an audition, or with perfection...but we need to approach in a different way.
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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 Glory to you, oh Lord. Chapter 18, verses 9 through 14 Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. Two people went up to the temple area to pray. One was a Pharisee and one was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity, greedy, dishonest, adulterous, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and I pay tithes on my whole income. But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast and prayed, O God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Invite you to have a seat. So my last year in seminary, we were ordained deacons, and so that meant that we had the opportunity and the obligation to preach on weekends. And so we go out to our teaching parish parishes and, and we got to preach. And so it happened virtually every week where especially the weekends we had to preach was, you know, we're working on it all week. Get to Friday night, still stressed out, get to Saturday morning, and at some point someone would either come to my door, my dorm room, or I would go to someone else's door or their dorm room. And we walk in and we announce, I got nothing. That this is the phrase that was schwitze. I can remember my best friend, he'd be knocking there and say, schmitzie, I got nothing. I got nothing, man. I'm like, I know, I know the exact feeling. Because there's that sense of like, we know, like the deadline's coming. At some point they're going to expect you to get up and stand up and start to say some words and sometimes just all you have is, I got. I got nothing. What is it? What would it be like to be able to declare confidently, I got nothing? I don't know if you've ever heard this question. The question. I remember this last summer we ran a camp and I asked the question of these middle schoolers and high schoolers, and basically anyone there asked the question. The question is this. Maybe you've heard it before. When you die and you're standing before the gates of heaven and they ask you one question. The question is, why should we let you in? What's your answer? Because every one of us is going to die. Every one of us is going to stand before the throne of God, the throne of his judgment. And if they were just simply to ask that one question, why, why should we let you in? What would your answer be? I think a lot of us would say this. We'd say, well, I don't know. I try to be a good person. I go to mass on Sundays, I read my Bible, I pray, and I try to follow the commandments. No, keep in mind, all of those things are good things to do. Every one of those things is a good thing to do. But as an answer to why should we let you into heaven? All of those answers are wrong. It's the wrong answer. I try to be a good person. That's the good thing to do. Try to be a good person. But as an answer to the question, why should we let you into heaven? That's the wrong answer. And not only that, it's not just, that's not just the wrong answer for why should we let you to heaven? It's the wrong answer for the question, hey, how do you approach God? I think a lot of times that's how we do this. It's not just about how we approach God or how we will approach God at the end of our lives, but how do you and I approach God today? Like, how do you and I approach God now? Cause I think this, I think maybe I could be wrong. But a lot of us approach God in a prayer with our resume. We show up, you know what a resume is. Obviously you bring your resume to a college application or to a job application. And basically what you're saying is, here's the list of all the reasons why you should let me into your college. Or here's a list of all the reasons why you should hire me. Here's a list of all the reasons, all the things that I've done that show you that you should choose me. And a lot of times I Think when it comes to prayer, a lot of us have resume faith. Like again, question, how often do we come before God with all of the reasons why he should love us? Here's all the things I do. This is the reason why you should choose me. Now, here's what I do for you. Here are the reasons why you should listen to me. Here's why you should hear me. Why? Because, well, I try to be a good boy, try to be a good girl. Because I pray, I go to mass, I. I obey the commandments. And in those moments, we are the Pharisee in the gospel today. Because I would say that. I would say the Pharisee in the gospel today. He's coming before the Lord God. He's coming before the throne of God in the temple and he's bringing his resume. Okay, God, here's the thing. I'm not adulterous, I'm not greedy. I pay tithes more than on my whole income. I fast twice a week. He's going through all of the reasons why. Here's God, here's all the reasons why you should be loving me. And the reality of course, is for the Pharisee, those are all good things. That is pretty impressive actually. Fasting twice a week, paying tithes on his entire income. It's a big deal. Those are not the wrong things to do. But it is the wrong way to approach God for a couple reasons. One reason is this. If we approach God with our resume, if we approach God with here's all the reasons why you should love me, God, here's all the reasons why you should hear me. Here's all the reasons why you should choose me. Then if I fail to do those things, well, then here are all the reasons why, God, you shouldn't love me when I fail to do those things. God, here's all the reasons why you shouldn't hear my prayer, God, if I fail to do all those things, God, here's all the reasons why you shouldn't choose me. If we bring to God a resume and say, God, this is why you should love me. Our resume, the resume that qualifies us is the exact same resume that disqualifies us when we fail. That's why we can't rely on resume faith. Why? Because, say God used all the things I've done. That's self reliance. And here's the thing about self reliance. Have you ever tried to be a Christian with self reliance on your good days? Not so bad. We're like the Pharisee. Here's all the things that I've done. But on our bad days, we realize, God, here's all the things that I've done. And self reliance almost always leads to self condemnation virtually every time we say, okay, God, here are all the reasons why you should choose me, hear me, love me, accept me when we fail God, here's all the reasons why I am condemned. And this is, I convinced myself that you don't love me, you don't hear me, you don't choose me, you don't accept me. So how do we approach God? We approach God like my buddies in seminary, but not in that sense, like, I got nothing. I'm lost to be able to approach God and say, God, I have nothing to offer. Imagine being able to humbly but confidently approach God in this life, not just at the end of our lives, but in this life and say, God, I got nothing. I've got nothing to offer. That's the first step. There's three, but there's this. The first step to be able to come before God and say, I've got nothing to offer. Second way is I'd say this. I don't know if you've ever been to, like a store out. This happens to me a lot. When I was growing up, I would go to outdoor stores. You know, outdoor stores, like, you know, camping and climbing and all that kind of equipment. They hire the coolest people on the planet. Honestly, like, the guys are the coolest people. The girls are like the cool outdoor girls and like to walk into some of those outdoor stores. Maybe you've been to like a really fancy restaurant or another, like, expensive store. I don't know if you've ever had this experience where you walk into these kinds of stores or this kind of restaurant and the vibe you get from the people working there is prove to us that you're cool enough to shop here, prove to us that you're cool enough to eat at our fancy restaurant or prove to us that you're cool enough or good enough, whatever. The thing is, you. You have to prove to us why we should let you in here. And I have to tell you, I've always, again, I've always been intimidated by those people who actually prove to us why you're cool enough proves. Prove to us why you're good enough. I remember the day I stopped doing that. Not that I stopped doing it permanently. I remember the day I actually chose to. It was the day I decided, I'm not going to try and prove anything. I was a deacon, it was that same year. And I was up in Ely, Minnesota at one of their outdoor stores. And it was again a super cool store. All the people working there, super cool. All the patrons there were way cooler than me. And what I would normally do is I would pretend, right? What I normally do is I would like pose and be like, oh yeah, I know all these things. I just decided, no, not today. I wanted to look at kayaks and the guy helped me, said, hey, have you kayaked much? And I'd kayaked twice before this, but rather than going, well I've kayaked twice. I just said, you know what, I don't know anything about kayaking, but it seems like a lot of fun. At that moment. I just decided I am not going to try and prove that I deserve to be here. The idea was this. I'm going to stop auditioning for acceptance. So it's not when we come before the Lord, it's not just I got nothing to offer, it's also I've got nothing to prove. This is how we have to approach the Lord. This has to become the way we come before our Father to say, God, I've got nothing to prove. I think, you know, about a year, year and a half ago, I came across this in Matthew's gospel. What I think is probably one of the most revolutionary teachings of Jesus in the entire Gospels. You know, in Matthew chapter six, it's the middle of the Sermon on the Mount and it's where Jesus says, you know, when you, when you give alms, when you pray, when you fast, don't do it so other people see it, do it so your father who sees it, and he says this, he says, your father who sees in secret will repay you. He even goes on to say this. He says in praying, when you pray, don't babble like the pagans who think that because of their many words they'll be heard. I don't know if you know this, but in the ancient world, if you believed in the Greco Roman gods or any of the gods anywhere in the world, you would have to basically fight to get the gods attention. You would have to somehow demonstrate that you were worthy of the gods noticing you. And Jesus says, actually here's the truth. You don't have to convince God to notice you. You don't have to convince God that you're worth paying attention to. You don't have to convince God to listen, says when you pray, don't babble like the pagans who think that because of their many words they'll be heard. He says, no Your Father sees and your father knows what you need even before you ask. Here is Jesus saying, you. You do not have to convince God to listen. You do not have to audition for an audience. You have nothing to prove. Here's the question for all of us today. Could I say that? Could I come before the Lord realizing, okay, I got nothing. I got nothing to prove? Another way to say it is, are you aware and convinced of God's love for you? Are you aware and convinced of God's love? I think a lot of us are aware in the sense of this. Like, I've said this before, but I'm gonna say it again. When talking to people who are raised Christian, raised Catholic, there's a lot of people who like, no, no, no. I've been told my entire life that God loves me. And I believe that. If you raised Catholic, you would say, yeah, my entire life, Jesus loves me. This I know. For the Bible tells me. I know that. But here's the thing. I found so many people who were raised with this truth. God loves you, but what they actually believe is that God merely tolerates me. Are you aware and convinced that God actually loves you? That word, convinced. Latin word, right? Con vincere. It means with victory. Are you convinced? Meaning, have you been conquered with victory? Have you been conquered by the truth that God loves you? Have you been conquered by the reality that you already are loved? Are you conquered by the reality that you have nothing to prove? Because I know people. I know people who have been raised Catholic their entire lives and they still come to Mass or they still come to prayer, or they avoid prayer because they still believe that they're auditioning for God's acceptance. But that's not you. You got nothing. You got nothing to offer, you got nothing to prove. And lastly, you got nothing to hide. This is how we approach God. You got nothing to hide. And that doesn't mean. That doesn't mean that everything you are or I am is amazing. It doesn't mean we have no faults or no flaws. All it means is that all of me, with all the good stuff and all the bad stuff, with all the awesome, with all the awful, with all the strengths and with all the brokenness. I'm not going to hide any of it. You got nothing to hide? Yeah, that's our temptation. Our temptation is to hide our weakness. Temptation is to hide our sadness. Our temptation is to hide our fears. Like, just. No, no, God, it's fine. You know, I remember talking with a young woman, and she was sharing how she was struggled in Prayer. She said, my prayer is just empty. It's hollow. It just seems so. So stale and just not going anywhere. She said, what am I doing? Cause she was still showing up. She was showing up every single day and parking herself in front of the Lord for at least an hour a day. And she's like, but it just isn't going anywhere. So we talked, and I said, well, how are you praying? And she talked about how there were all these fears she had, all these concerns she had all these uncertainties about the future that she had, all the things that were currently breaking her heart. I was like, well, have you talked to God about those things? Have you prayed about that? And she's like, well, no, God's not interested in those things. Like, okay, I think we've narrowed down the problem. I think part of the problem is you're talking to God about all the things you think he wants you to talk about, as opposed to just saying, okay, God, here's my heart. Here are the things that I'm actually afraid of. Here are the things I actually am worried about without saying, well, I shouldn't be afraid. I shouldn't be worried. She ended up talking about everything but what mattered to her. So I invited her to do that. A couple weeks later. She's like, yeah, that was it. I was hiding. But you have nothing to hide. Not even our sin. You have nothing to hide. Not even your sin. We know this, right? You've heard this in the past, that what's the only sin God can't forgive? It's the sins against the Holy Spirit. What is the sin against the Holy Spirit? Well, the church, for 2,000 years has said the sin against the Holy Spirit is any sin that we don't allow God to forgive. So any sin could be the sin against the Holy Spirit. From the greatest, most grave sin to the smallest sin. But the only sin God can't forgive is the sin I won't allow him to forgive. The sin that I just hold onto and hide. Sin I hide from Him. And not just at the end of our lives, but here in this life. Have you ever tried to have a relationship with someone when you know that you're hiding something from them? A couple weeks ago, we had our clergy conference. The priests all got together, and at one point, I had to leave the clergy conference because we had an OCIA class and had a meeting back here in Duluth. And so I left. I just left. I didn't ask permission. My uncle infected my mind with this dictum that I've embraced, which Is better to beg forgiveness and ask permission. I'm not blaming him. I'm just saying that I really embraced that wholeheartedly. So I left. And as I left, I texted the bishop and said, bishop, I got called away. I'll be back tomorrow, et cetera, et cetera. And he was like, no problem. A missionary priest. We have missionary diocese. A missionary priest has got to be flexible. And I was like, shoot. I left that text intentionally vague enough that he could think I was called away for an emergency. It was not an emergency. It was planned. And I just. Oh, my gosh. I gotta tell you. The next day, I got back, and he's like, hey, welcome back. Hope everything's okay back in Duluth. I'm like, mm, yeah. Oh. And every time he looked at me, I was just like, I can't. Oh, my gosh. We had mass, and I was like, I don't even know I should receive communion because I deceived my bishop. And every time he looked at me, peace be with you. I'm like, no. I just. I was like, oh, my gosh, Lord. Ah. So I kind of cornered him before supper. I was like, bishop, I have to tell you something. I'm so sorry. I haven't asked you for forgiveness. But I. And I told. I said, you know, I made it sound like it was an emergency. It wasn't. I knew it was gonna. And he was like, no problem. Okay. Yeah, we still. You're still a mission priest. You still gotta be flexible. All these things. Like, okay, good. But there's something about this. There's something about realizing in that day of just pain, this is what it is to hide. See, the bishop gets to be my spiritual father. And in that moment, I realized, man, I am hiding from you. And it was painful. That's how so many of us are with God our Father. We hide so we can ask the question, why should God let you in? I don't know. I'm hiding. Or ask the question, how do you approach God? I hide. But you have nothing to hide. This is the last thing. When you die and you get to the gates of heaven and ask you, why should we let you in? What will you say? Well, a, not your resume. Here's all the reasons. No. Why? Because I got nothing to offer. Why should we let you in? Not audition. I've got nothing to prove. Why should we let you in? It's not because of my perfection, but even in my brokenness and weakness and sin, I've got nothing to hide. You realize this. Realize there's Only one reason. Say, why should we let you into heaven? The answer is because of what Jesus Christ has done for me. That's the only answer. The right answer is that Jesus is the reason that Jesus. He's offered it all. I got nothing to offer. Jesus offered it all. I've got nothing to prove. Why? Because Jesus has purchased us at a price. I've got nothing to hide. Because Jesus Christ has conquered death and sin and everything that could keep us away from the Father and he's given us new life. Because that's the thing. If we get to heaven and we try to give any answer other than Jesus, it's the wrong answer. It's not our resume, it's not our audition, it's not our perfection. But we train for heaven by approaching God like that. Now, why should we let you to heaven? The answer is because Jesus has died for me and now I live for Him. That is the answer. How can you approach God the Father? Because Jesus has died for me and now I live for him. But in your brokenness, how do you come before the Lord in prayer? Because Jesus has died for me and now I live for him and everything. Every day, every moment I approach the Lord, I can confidently say, I got nothing. I got nothing to offer, I've got nothing to prove and I've got nothing to hide. Because Jesus has died for me and now I live for Him.