Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz

Episode: 11/23/25 The Moment of Victory – November 22, 2025
Host: Ascension | Preacher: Fr. Mike Schmitz

Episode Overview

In this powerful homily for the Solemnity of Christ the King, Fr. Mike Schmitz explores the paradox at the heart of Christian victory: through vulnerability, not strength, Christ wins our hearts. Drawing on Scripture, the Book of Esther, personal stories, and C.S. Lewis, he challenges listeners to see how moments of weakness—not worldly triumph—become moments of true victory. Fr. Mike invites us to allow Christ’s vulnerability to speak to our own hearts, asking if this will be the moment when we let Jesus truly be King in our lives.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Setting the Stage: Gratitude and Introduction

• Fr. Mike thanks listeners for their generous support of the student ministry at University of Minnesota Duluth.
• Expresses ongoing gratitude for prayerful and financial contributions, noting the impact on current and future students.
  • [00:00–01:37]

2. Scripture Reading: The Crucifixion – Christ the King

• Reads Luke 23:35-43, the story of Jesus on the cross, derided by rulers and soldiers, and the two thieves—one mocking, the other repentant.
• Emphasizes the church's surprising choice to use this Gospel, featuring Jesus at his most vulnerable, to celebrate Christ the King.
  • [01:37–04:00]

3. The Story of Esther: A Parable of Power and Vulnerability

• Retells the story of Esther, a Jewish woman who becomes queen in Persia under King Ahasuerus.
  • Describes Esther’s ascent through beauty and preparation, despite the troubling context.
  • Highlights Esther’s crucial moment: risking her life to plead for her people, despite the threat of death from the king.
  • Mordecai’s challenge: “Who knows, perhaps it was for such a time as this that you were made queen.”
    • [04:00–09:00]

4. The Vulnerability of Christ the King

• Contrasts Jesus’s invulnerability as God (“all powerful, all knowing, immutable, impassible, infinite, invulnerable”) with the depiction of his humiliation and wounding on the cross.
• Questions why the Church chose this image—not of power, but of defeat—on the day celebrating Christ’s kingship.
  • [09:00–11:30]
  • Key Quote:
    “Why would the Church, on the feast of Christ the King, Lord of the Universe, choose this Gospel, where Jesus is stripped naked…broken…unbeautiful…vulnerable?” — Fr. Mike [11:15]

5. Vulnerability as the Path to True Victory

• Explores the meaning of vulnerability, etymology ("vulnus" = wound), and its relation to love.

• Shares a passage from C.S. Lewis’s The Four Loves about the risks of love and how to avoid being hurt is to risk being damned.

  • [12:00–14:30]
  • Key Quote (C.S. Lewis):

    “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken…The only place outside of heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is hell.” — C.S. Lewis, read by Fr. Mike [13:00]

• Explains the difference between weakness (condition) and vulnerability (relationship, being seen in weakness).

• Notes how vulnerability goes against what the world sees as winning—strength, beauty, power.

6. Back to Esther: What Wins the Heart?

• Reads from Esther 4: Esther, radiant in beauty, faints in fear before the king; it is her weakness, not her beauty, that moves the king’s heart.
• “The moment of victory was the moment of vulnerability.”
  • [15:00–16:30]
  • Key Quote:
    “What won the king’s heart? It wasn’t her beauty, but her weakness, her vulnerability...The moment of victory was the moment of vulnerability.” — Fr. Mike [16:25]

7. Spiritual Application: Our Call to Vulnerability

• Refers to a quote from St. Catherine of Siena: “If you were who you were meant to be, you would set the world on fire.”
• Warns against misunderstanding this as a call to perfection or self-sufficiency.
• Shares a personal example: A successful man only truly leads others to Christ after becoming vulnerable through his recovery from alcoholism.
  • [17:00–19:30]

8. Final Reflection: The Choice at the Cross

• Invites listeners to see themselves in the two thieves beside Jesus.
• Frames the “moment of victory” as the point where we open ourselves to Christ’s vulnerability and let him win our hearts.
• “Is this the moment that Jesus wins your heart?...He does it to win your heart, to win my heart. This…could be his moment of victory.”
  • [19:30–end]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Christ’s Vulnerability and Kingship:
  “The King who has become vulnerable. He is the God who has made himself woundable. And his moment of victory is the moment that Jesus is most vulnerable.” — Fr. Mike [18:50]

• C.S. Lewis on Love and Risk:
  “To love at all is to be vulnerable…The only place outside of heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is hell.” — C.S. Lewis, via Fr. Mike [13:00]

• The Example of Esther:
  “What won the king’s heart? It wasn’t by her beauty, but it was by her weakness. … It was by her vulnerability.” — Fr. Mike [16:25]

• Personal Testimony:
  “He has led more people to Jesus, not as the handsome, not as the accomplished… but as the vulnerable man.” — Fr. Mike, about his friend’s recovery [18:15]

• The Ultimate Question:
  “The question remains, is he the Lord of you? … Is this the moment that Jesus wins your heart?” — Fr. Mike [20:15]

Important Timestamps

• [01:37] – Start of Gospel reading (Luke 23:35-43)
• [04:00] – Introduction and retelling of the Esther story
• [09:10] – Reflections on why the Church selected the Crucifixion scene for Christ the King
• [12:45] – Reading C.S. Lewis on vulnerability and love
• [15:05] – Esther’s vulnerability wins the king’s heart
• [17:50] – St. Catherine quote and reflection on “setting the world on fire”
• [18:15] – Personal story about evangelization through vulnerability
• [19:30] – Final comparison: the two thieves and our own response

Tone & Takeaways

Fr. Mike’s tone throughout the homily is warmly challenging, earnest, and deeply pastoral. He combines scriptural insight, historical narrative, and personal experience to convey that vulnerability—entrusting our weakness to God—is the true moment of Christian victory. The invitation is immediate and personal: allow Christ, who comes to us in vulnerability, to win your heart, not through domination, but through self-emptying love.

For listeners and non-listeners alike, this episode offers a transformative view of Christ the King and a moving call to let God’s loving vulnerability be victorious in our lives, even amidst our weakness.