Father Mike Schmitz (0:00)

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and I'd like to invite you to join me this upcoming Advent on the Ascension app. Here's a question. What if you knew that December 25th Christmas Day was the day that you were going to wake up dead? I know that sounds morbid, but there's a reality of our life would have to change, right? The way we would live Advent would have to change. We'd have to live it with intentionality. We have to live it with purpose. We have to live it with grace. If you want to join me every day of this upcoming advent from December 1st to to December 25th, download the Ascension app and join the waitlist. Or you could go to ascensionpress.com fathermikeadvent to join Download the Ascension app Today the Lord be with you. A reading from the Holy Gospel According to Luke, chapter 3, verses 10 through 18 the crowds asked John the Baptist, what should we do? He said to them in reply, whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none, and whoever has food should do likewise. Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him, teacher, what should we do? He answered them, stop collecting more than is prescribed. Soldiers also asked him, and what is it that we should do? He told them, do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone and and be satisfied with your wages. Now the people were filled with expectation and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to have a seat. So when it comes to my family, this happened at Thanksgiving. We do this thing as adults where all the siblings, we draw names for each other to see who gets who gets. We get presents for each other. And it's one of those situations where no one wants me. And I understand this and I know it's my fault because I don't know if you remember back with the day when you used to make Christmas lists. I don't know if you made Christmas lists as kids, but like as a kid, I think sometimes there's a lot of freedom. Like, yeah, here's all the things that I want. And I think 80 to 90% of them, my parents were like, yeah, no, I don't think so. I always wanted those little trucks you could, like, drive with, you know, like the kid trucks or a little more motorcycle. It's fine. I'm past it. I can buy my own now. The point is this. The point is my siblings do not like getting my name. Why? Because I don't like making Christmas lists or like. Or having a thing of like, here's my problem. My problem is either I don't want to tell them what I want, or I don't know what I want. I think both. Both realities are there. Because I don't know if you've had this experience where someone says, well, what is it? You know, what is it you want for Christmas? What do you want for your birthday? What do you want to do this weekend? And sometimes it's like, well, I'd rather not tell you. I feel weird about telling you because if you knew what I wanted, if you knew what I wanted to do, like, you might not like it. You might think less of me. You might think different of me, whatever that is. Or sometimes the reality is, I don't know, I have no idea what I want. And this is not just when it comes to Christmas, I actually. I remember talking with a couple. You know, I work with a lot of marriage prep couples. And a lot of times, part of the process of getting married is to go to Target or wherever and get on the gift registry. And a lot of times it's really, really, really fun. I've talked to couples who are like, no, it was so much fun. We had put together this whole list. Here's all the things we want as we, like, set up our new apartment, our new house, whatever that thing is. It can be really, really fun. But sometimes it's not fun. In fact, one couple I worked with years ago, their biggest fight of their relationship up to that point was over a cast iron skillet. What they had done is they went out to the store, whatever store was, and he saw this cast iron skillet. This is it. This is awesome. He pictured himself, you know, cast iron skilleting, like, all day. And she saw the price, and the price was very expensive. I think they said it was $500. I looked online. I don't know any $500 cast iron skillets. Maybe they might have been exaggerating, but that was the number in her mind. She was like, it was a $500 cast iron skillet. And she's like, we can't put this on a registry. He's like, why not? And she said, because what will people think if we put a $500 cast iron skillet on our registry? And he, he, he said, well, they'll think maybe we'll pass on that and get them a $20 hand towels. Like, he, he was like, no big deal. Maybe people, maybe our siblings will all want to join in and buy us this cast iron skillet together. She's like, yeah, but what kind of people will they think we are if we put this $500 cast iron skillet on our registry? And it was, it was the biggest fight. Because why? Because her, her fear was what all of our fears are. Look, if I tell you what I actually want, I'm now revealing my heart to you. And I don't know if I really want to reveal my heart to you. Because what will you think if you actually see me? What will you think if you actually see what's in my heart? What will you think if you actually know me? Here's the third Sunday of Advent. You know, we've been doing this series for the last bunch of weeks where we realized the whole goal of Advent is to prepare ourselves, right, for the three arrivals of Christ. To prepare ourselves to celebrate Christ's first coming into the world at Christmas. To prepare ourselves to recognize his coming into the world now in prayer, in scripture, and daily lives. But above all, to prepare ourselves to be able to stand before the Lord face to face at his second coming and final coming. We don't know when that's going to be. So what we've been doing this whole Advent is, what if December 25th was the day you died and you knew it? How would we live Advent differently if we knew that on December 25th we would wake up dead? How would we live this Advent if we knew that on December 25th we would stand before the Lord face to face? So here's Dodete Sunday, which is rejoice. Would I rejoice? That's the big question. If I today or December 25, woke up and had to stand before the Lord face to face, would I rejoice? You know, in the reading today, it says, it says, rejoice, O Zion. Why? Because the Lord your God is in your midst. Like, that's the reason for rejoicing. But here's the big question. The big question is, do I want that? Do I want him to be near? Do I want him to be in my midst? Do I actually do. I even want to see the Lord face to face. Because I know that I know we know the right answer. Of course I do. But is that the true answer? Like I can tell myself, yeah, yeah, that's what I want. But here's. We have to. Like on this Sunday, let's stop and ask the question, is that really what I want? Because our capacity for self deception is very, very high. Which is one of the reasons why we have to be careful with the stories we tell ourselves. This is so important. We have to be careful with the stories we tell ourselves. Our tell ourselves. In order to be prepared to see the Lord face to face, I need to be aware of the story I'm telling myself. Because every one of us, we have a narrative running through our minds, right? Like this is how we see ourselves. This is how we see other people. We have this narrative. This is how God sees me. You have this narrative that says, this is how I have to be in order to be loved by God. This is how God sees us. The question we have to ask is, is that story? Is that narrative? Are those stories true? No. So it's no secret that my favorite movie of all time is Its Wonderful Life. Not Just for Christmas. I love it all the whole year round. I love It's a Wonderful Life, right? It's the story of George Bailey, this man who dreams of leaving his small, shabby, little burnt out Bedford Falls town and making it big, right? He wants to build skyscrapers. He wants to do something incredible with his life. He wants to make a name for himself. And yet every time he tries to leave Bedford Falls, he gets stuck. So what's he end up doing? He ends up saving his family's business and actually saving his family in the process. He saves many other people's businesses and their livelihoods and their families as well. He marries Mary Hatch and they have four kids. And the story that George Bailey tells himself is that he is a failure. The story that George Bailey tells himself, he sees all of this like, yeah, he saved his family's business, but it's some old rundown building alone. He tells himself the story that he really is a warped, frustrated young man. The story he tells himself is summed up when he states that everyone would have been better off without him, that he's worth more dead than he is alive. That's the story that George Bailey looked at his whole life through that lens. But in the movie, this is crazy. In the movie, we get to see George through the lens of God, right? God is revealing George's story to Clarence the angel in order to get him to save George Bailey. And we get to see the truth. The story George Bailey was telling himself is, my life is a failure. I'm a failure. But the story, from God's perspective, the true story, is, no, actually, George, you really had a wonderful life. Now imagine living our lives like this, because we do this all the time. Imagine going through life and telling yourself a story that isn't actually true or isn't the full truth. So we do this even if we don't realize it, because often we don't realize the story we're telling ourselves. In fact, I came across this man who was giving some examples, said, sometimes we interpret other people's behaviors, even our own behaviors, through a particular lens. The story we tell ourselves. And so maybe you're telling yourself the story. He gives the example of, like, you're a procrastinator. Like, that's what you do. That's how you see yourself. You're a procrastinator. And so you keep seeing yourself as one who fails to be disciplined. You see, like, no, I failed to work out when I said I would. I failed to complete the books that I thought I would complete. I have all these projects that I've never actually finished. Now, a different perspective might be that you see yourself as someone who has gotten some great things done in spite of being distracted. Another story you can tell yourself is that you're passionate about learning things, and that's taken priority over some of the other tasks that you're doing. You might tell the story that you see yourself as someone who acknowledges, actually, I'm just tired. I'm not a procrastinator. I'm not a failure. I just need some rest before I can begin the next thing. Another example could be, like, here you have a spouse, and here's someone who's upset with their spouse because they were rude or they were short that day or because they left this mess in the house. But someone else could have the exact same experience and tell themselves a story that's different about their spouse. Maybe that. Yeah, that makes sense. They were short because they've been working hard at their job. Yeah, there's a mess, but they really went out of the way to cook a nice meal. Yes, some things aren't perfect with them, but they're tired. Maybe they need some comforting. See, we can look at the same event and tell ourselves different stories. The stories we tell ourselves are critically important. And when we stand before God again. When we stand before God Face to face, we have to stand before God as we are, not as we think we are, not as we wish we were. We have to stand before God with the true story. That's the whole goal, right? The whole goal is to stand before the Lord face to face with our true faces. But here's the reality. How can I stand before the Lord face to face if I'm not willing to actually come before him as I actually am, as my face actually is right now? You know, my favorite story, my favorite novel of all time is CS Lewis's Till we have Faces. And it's a story of. It's an interesting story. Whenever I recommend it to people, I need to give them some caveats. And the caveats are that this is CS Lewis doing a modern retelling of an ancient Greek myth of Eros and Psyche, because they read it like this is weird and bizarre. It's set in this pagan kingdom named Gloam in a pagan world. And it follows the protagonist, who is the princess of Gloam, who ultimately becomes the queen of Gloam. Her name is Oriol. And Oriwell, one of the first things you learn about her is that Oriwell is ugly. She's reminded of this her whole entire life, that she's ugly. Father will remind her again and again how ugly she is. She's hideous. She has a younger sister named Redival, and Redefal is pretty, but she's shallow. And they don't really get along very well. The two of them ultimately get another half sister named Psyche. And as Psyche is born, she is as graceful as she is beautiful. She's as gracious as she is beautiful. And Oriwell, rather than resenting the beauty of her little sister, loves her little sister. And Psyche loves Oriwel back. And they have this incredible, just deep and powerful relationship that Oriwel sees herself almost as a substitute mom for Psyche. And Psyche returns her love with. With such authenticity and honesty. They love each other very, very deeply. But at one point, Psyche has to be offered, has to be sacrificed to what they call the God of the mountain. And so Oriwell is convinced that as Psyche's offered to the God of the mountain, that they thought maybe the God of the mountain is a beast or some kind of monster. And she thinks that as Psyche's sacrifice to the God of the mountain, that she's going to be destroyed or devoured. Well, it turns out that the God of the mountain was not a monster. The God of the mountain is Eros, right The God of the mountain is the God of love. That the God of the mountain is love. And as Psyche is given to him, he loves Psyche and Psyche loves him back. And at some point, Oriwell finds out that Psyche's not dead, that she hasn't been ripped apart by some monster or some beast, that she actually is in love with the God of the mountain. And even more, she's happy with the God of the mountain. And even worse, she's happy with the God of the mountain without Orewell. And that leads Orduel to have this resentment and this bitterness, both towards this sister that she loved, and also toward this God of the mountain, blaming him for stealing her sister's heart from her. So she does this manipulation that means that Psyche loses her love, means that she cannot any longer live with the God of the mountain. She has to, actually. She's doomed to spend the rest of her life on earth, walking alone through this life. But here's the thing. As she goes off, Oriwel also sees herself as being doomed. In the story she tells herself is that the gods have stripped her of the only one she's ever really loved in her life. The story she tells herself is that the gods are cruel, the gods don't care about her, and the gods are willing to strip her and take her only love away, because she's able to say up to that point that her little sister was hers. The most beautiful woman in the world, the most gracious woman in the world, loved her like a mom. And at the end of Oriwell's life. This is fascinating. It's such a good book. Oriwell has become a virtuous old woman, but she doesn't realize she'd become virtuous. And she spent the last part of her life writing her book. This is her, like, Magnus opus, right? This is the story of her life. This is her accusation against the gods. These are all the ways that the gods have done her wrong, that they've been unjust to her, they've been cruel to her, they've been harsh to her. And she has this massive book. And at one point she's written this whole thing with her case against. Again, her accusation against the gods, her case against the gods. And she's going to present it to them. At one point she has this vision where she actually is standing among the pantheon of God. She can't see them in their faces, but she knows that they are there. She wants to read her book, but then she looks down and she sees that what's in her hand isn't her big book. What's in her hand is this scraggly little scroll. That's her writing. But it doesn't even. Doesn't even look like her writing. She said the writing even looked like her. Like her. As harsh as her father's words. She says. She looks at this and she says, I looked at the scroll in my hand and saw at once that it was not the book that I had written. It couldn't be. It was far too small and too old. A little shabby, crumpled thing. Nothing like my great book that I worked on all day, right? This is the story that she'd been telling. This is the story. This is how I see the world, how I see myself, and how I see the gods, she said. I thought I would fling it down and trample upon it. Yet I found myself unrolling it. It was written all over inside. But the hand was not like mine. It was all vile scribble, each stroke meaning it savage. Like the snarl in my father's voice. A great terror and loathing came over me. And I said to myself, whatever they do to me, I will never read out this stuff. Give me back my book. She realizes again that what was in her hand was actually. Here's How I See Things. Her great book was this How I See Things. But this is actually the book of truth. In her hands was the true story. In her hands was the truth about her own heart. And so Oriwell's voice meant to accuse the gods, but this came out instead. This is what she wrote. But already I heard myself reading it. And what I read out was like, I know what you'll say. You'll say that I was shown a real God and not to know it. Hypocrites. I do know it. As if that would heal my wounds. You know well that I never really began to hate you until Psyche began talking of her palace and her lover and her husband. Why did you lie to me? You said that a brute would devour her. Well, why didn't it? I'd have wept for her and buried what was left of her and built a tomb. But to steal her love from me? It would be far better for us if you were foul and ravening. We'd rather you drank their blood than stole their hearts. We'd rather that they were ours and dead than yours and made immortal. She goes on. She goes on, and she is revealing the truth of her heart. And she kept claiming to love Psyche, but she would rather that Psyche be dead and hers than alive in someone else's. That's the truth of her heart. And this is the reality. Her whole life she had told herself, the truth is I love my little sister more than anyone's ever loved anyone in the world. But the truth is, she'd say, I don't care that the gods have taken her away. And to give her a life of bliss, a life of happiness, a life of joy. I don't care. That's the truth of her heart. In fact, she goes on to write, she says, what should I care for some horrible new happiness which I hadn't given her and which separates separated her from me? Do you think I wanted her to be happy that way? It would have been better if I'd seen the brute tear her in pieces before my eyes. You stole her to make her happy, did you? I'll thank you to let me feed my own. I need no t tidbits from your table. Did you remember whose the girl was? She was mine. Mine. Do you not know what the word means? Mine. And then there's this voice, the voice of the judge that says one word, and that word is enough. And in that moment, she realizes the truth. She realized that she had again, she told herself one story. And she says, the voice I read it in, that whole story was strange to my ears. There was given to me a certainty that this at last was my real voice. See, this is all of us right. We have a story that we tell ourselves. We have a story that we look at God through. We have a story lens that we look at ourselves through this whole thing. But at some point, we have to realize that at last, this is my true story. This is her speech. This is the true story. The true story is she didn't love like she claimed to love. At last the judge spoke and asked the question, are you answered? She said, yes. And this is the key, the key of the whole, entire book. C.S. lewis says this. He says the complaint was the answer. The complaint was the answer. Because why? Because the whole Magnus opus, right? Her accusation against the gods, that wasn't a true story. Her real complaint, the real truth of her heart, that was the answer. You know, all throughout scripture there are complaints. All throughout Scripture, there are speeches. All throughout Scripture, there's these times where people actually reveal their hearts. Luke, chapter 15. It's the story of the prodigal son. You know the story. Here's this man, he has two sons. And of course we know the story. We also know that both sons have their speeches. Both sons have their stories that they look at the father through that lens. So what's the younger son, right? The younger son goes off, and at one point he realizes he wants to come home, and he has his speech. He says, okay, this is what I'm going to do. I'll get up and go to my father. And he says, this is my speech. I'll say to my father, father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son. Treat me as you would treat one of the hired workers. So he gets up and does that, right? He's rehearsed his speech. You can imagine him all the way home, getting ready to give that speech. This is how I see the world. To his dad as he begins his speech, right? Father runs out to him, embraces him, kisses him, and he says, father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son. This is his lens. The lens is this. The lens is. I see myself as having been disqualified. So let me approach you as a slave. And his father speaks the truth. No, you're my son gives him a robe, a ring, sandals, a feast. Why? Because my son was dead and now he's alive again. This is what has to happen. We have to reveal to God what our true story is so he can reveal to us what the actual story is. We have to be willing to reveal to the Lord what's in our hearts so that. What do we really want? So that he can reveal to us the truth. The older son has a speech as well, right? The older son comes in from the field. Here's the celebration that his brother's alive now, refuses to come in. And when his father comes out to bring him in, he has his speech. And what's his speech? His speech says, look, all these years I have slaved for you, and not once did you give me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son arrives, who squandered your property with prostitutes for him, you slaughtered the fattened calf. That older son, he had a speech as well. And his speech was, I'm a slave. His speech was, yeah, I'm here, stuck at the home, but living with you. I'm living as a slave. And what happens? The father speaks into that as well and says, no, here's the true story. He says, son, you're with me always. Everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate. Both sons had their speeches, both sons had their stories that they said, this is the truth. And they both needed the Father to say, actually, here's the real truth. You know, I think is fascinating. One of the things I think is fascinating is that the older son, he's saying like, you've never feasted with me. You've never feasted for me. You've never thrown a party for me. He doesn't even actually want that. What's he say? He says, you've never even let me have a young goat to feast on with my friends. Those last three words, with my friends. The truth is, he doesn't want to be feasted by his father. He doesn't want to be celebrated by his father. He wants to have a life apart from his father. I don't want peace with you. I want to have peace with my friends. See, this is so critically important for every one of us. There's a story that's somewhere in our hearts. That's the true story. There's a speech somewhere in us that we always present before the Lord whenever we come into prayer. There is something in us that doesn't want to reveal our true heart to the Lord. Because our speeches, our stories, reveal ourselves. And unless we're paying attention, we won't even know what we think. We won't even know what we want. We won't even know our true face. Go back to Oriwell. Here's the line. She says. She says, the complaint was the answer to have heard myself making. It was to be answered lightly. Men talk of saying what they mean when the time comes at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have all the time, idiot like, been saying over and over, you will not talk about the joy of words. Then she says, what I believe is the most critical line of the entire novel. She says, I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer till that word can be dug out of us. Why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces? What do you want now? What do you think you want? What's the speech that has to be dug out of us? What is the speech? What are the words that live inside of us every single time we approach God in prayer? Because that's the true story. And that's the story that we need to allow the Lord to speak into. I think. I think this is interesting because I could say like, I don't know. I don't know what I want, or I'm not Willing to tell you. Going back to the Christmas lists, if I tell you what I really want, then you'll know my heart. And I don't know if I want you to know my heart. I think that's one of the reasons why St. Paul, in the second reading today, he says these words he says, have no anxiety at all, but in everything, make your requests known to God. Basically says, tell God what you want. That's what honest prayer is. Just honest prayer. Like, it's finally like the prayer of the younger son. It's finally like, who says, no, treat me as you would one of your hard workers. That's how I see myself. Or the prayer of the older son who says, actually, I don't even want to feast with you. I want to feast apart from you. Honest prayer means telling God what you want. Make your requests known to God, which is another way to say, make your heart known to God. Reveal your heart as it is. Reveal your desires as they are. Reveal yourself as you are, not as you think you would be. Because this is the key. No other version of you can stand before the Lord face to face because no other version of you exists. There's no other version. There's no you better. There's no you fixed. There's no you healed. No other version of you can stand before the Lord face to face because no other version of you exists. Only you can stand before God. And God can't love that version of you because that version doesn't exist. That version cannot stand before the Lord face to face because it doesn't exist. So what do we do? What do we do with that reality? What we do, what St. Paul said, we have honest prayer. We say, okay, God, this is what my heart actually wants. This is the story I'm actually telling myself. And this is the last thing. It's actually pretty simple. In the gospel today, you heard the crowds and the soldiers, and folks are coming before John the Baptist saying, hey, what do we need to do? You know, I don't know if you know this. He gave everyone the same answer. Yeah, to some, he said, share your cloak, share your food. Don't extort all those things. But basically, the answer that John gave every one of those three groups of people is, just start. Just do the minimum. Don't steal from people, don't extort them. Don't hoard your things to yourself. Just start. That's your first step. That's my first step. Today, on December 25, we want to be prepared to see the Lord face to face. But if I keep hiding. If I keep presenting God with here's my story, here's my speech. I don't know what the true story is. I don't know what the true speech is. I don't know what really is happening in my heart. Or. Or I'm not willing to reveal it to him. Then how? How could I possibly stand before the Lord face to face? We have to be honest. We have to have that moment where we say, okay, God, good or bad, shallow or deep, selfless or selfish, this is my heart. And that's the moment we can begin to see the Lord face to face. Because how can we see the Lord Jesus face to face till we have faces?