← Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz
12/22/24 Face to Face: Fear to Fiat
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Want to walk through Advent with Fr. Mike?</p> <p>Join us for daily video Advent reflections in the Ascension App: https://ascensionpress.com/pages/frmikeadvent Homily from the Fourth Sunday of Advent. I'm not going to fear what I don't know, I am going to trust who I do know. We can wait in excitement and joy...we can also wait in fear. We fear the dark and might fear death for the same reason: the unknown. We can fear the unknown in the afterlife and we can fear the unknown of our own inner life. God's mercy leads us to a place of trust.
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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 25, 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. Glory to you, Lord. Chapter one, verses 39 through 45. Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled the Gospel of the Lord. Praise be Lord Jesus Christ. Why don't you have a seat? So I, you know, on a day like today, obviously, as Christmas is like three days away, I always think about Christmas Eve two days away from now. And as a kid, Christmas Eve was just one of those. One of those nights where, you know, I'd lay awake and we had so much excitement, so much joy, so much anticipation, so much just like that, that sense of, like, I couldn't wait until it got light, because when it got light, we could go down the hallway, wake up our parents. And it was just one of those situations where there was this yearning for the day to arrive, right? I couldn't wait for the light. I couldn't wait for the sun, couldn't wait when it'd be light enough to get out of bed and wake up my parents. It was exciting and it was a lot of fun. But when I was thinking about that, getting ready for today, this Sunday, I was thinking about how many other nights there were like that. What I mean by that, how many other nights there were as a kid when I couldn't sleep and I couldn't wait for the sun to come up, but not because I was excited, not because I was, like, joyful, because I was afraid. I mean, I don't know if this is a normal thing, if this is just me, but there are a lot of nights when I was a kid and I just. And I couldn't sleep because I was just so scared. And I just wanted the night to be over. And I wanted the sun to rise so that I didn't have to be alone anymore. I wanted the sun to rise so I didn't have to be afraid anymore. And look back on that and think, like, what was I afraid of? Because there wasn't a lot to be scared of. What was I looking forward to? What I was looking forward to was, again, the daylight when I. When I wasn't alone, when I could see. That was the thing. That's what I was looking forward to. I was looking forward to when the sun would come up and then I would be able to see because I realized that I was afraid of the dark. That's it. You know, it's such a common fear. In fact, I read this article. A man, Dr. Martin Anthony, he had noted this. He said that this is a common fear for all human beings. He said, in the dark, our visual sense vanishes and we're unable to detect who or what is around us. We rely on our visual system to help protect us from harm. He said being scared of the dark is a prepared fear. I was like, oh, yeah? What is that? It's a prepared fear. What is it to have a prepared fear? Prepared for what? Is the question? I think it's this. Prepared for what we can't see, prepared for the unknown that we can't know. And in the dark, I don't know what's there. So the question is, how can I be prepared for what's there if I don't know what's there? How can I be prepared for what I can't see if I can't see it? How can I be prepared for the unknown? You know, for this last four weeks of Advent we've been preparing. That's the whole point of Advent, right? It's the season of preparation for three things, right? The season to prepare to celebrate Christ's first coming at Christmas, to prepare to recognize him as he comes into our daily lives. And thirdly, to prepare for his second coming, that final coming. So this whole season of advent from December 1st until tomorrow. Today we've been asking that question, like, what if we knew. What if we knew that December 25th was the last, our last day on this planet? What if we knew that December 25 was the day that we were going to die? What if we knew that on December 25th we would wake up dead? We would wake up and see the Lord face to face. And so the first week, we talked about this need that if that was going to happen, if we were going to get ready to see the Lord face to face, if we were going to spend all of Advent getting ready to see the Lord face to face, then we have to deal with our shame. We have to be able to be willing to step out from behind our shame and come into the Lord's presence. That was the first week. The second week we talked about how the one who began a good work in us will continue to bring it to completion. So there's so much in us that. That fact that we don't have hearts that love God the way he needs to be loved, that it's incomplete, but God makes up for what's incomplete in us. And last week we talked about the reality that we cannot see the Lord face to face till we have faces, until we are willing to acknowledge the truth about ourselves and we're willing to know the truth about ourselves. That's the only time when we can have faces with which we'll come before the Lord face to face. And today, just days before Christmas, here's the question. What if the notion of dying and seeing the Lord face to face doesn't give rise in our hearts to joy or to excitement? But what if the thought that in three days, December 25, we're afraid? And I ask the question, like, what would be the reality that would elicit this kind of fear in our hearts? And I think it's the same reason we're afraid of the dark. Because it's the unknown, right? Death, in so many ways, is the unknown. I'm afraid of what I don't know. I'm afraid of what's there, and I don't know what's there. And this is often. This is often our fear, right? Our fear is, I don't know what's there. I don't know about life after this life, what's it like, what's going to happen? And I believe that one of the reasons why fear of the dark and fear of death, fear of the future, is connected because it's all fear of the unknown. We don't know what's better? To stay here in this life or to go to the next. If you went through junior high school in America, you probably at some point had to read Shakespeare's play Hamlet. Maybe you didn't even read the whole thing, but at some point you might have been asked to memorize Hamlet's soliloquy, right? This famous to be or not to be. That is the question. And if you know anything about the play. I remember memorizing this and having no idea what Hamlet was talking about. I had no context whatsoever for what he was asking. But what he was asking is the big question is what's better to be to go on living or to not be to die? That's the question at the heart of every person in the midst of pain and suffering. I know there's so many people who have been joining us, who journey with us. That's you. That's right. Now, in the midst of pain and suffering. Here's the question. What's better to be in the midst of pain and suffering or not to be to? The context of Hamlet's pain and suffering is the fact that in the play, his uncle has murdered his father and then has married his mother. And that Hamlet's father's ghost has appeared to Hamlet and has told him to avenge his death by killing his uncle. That's his suffering. If you've seen the Lion King, you know the story that is exactly the same story. And so Hamlet goes on, after he says, to be or not to be. That's the question, he says, whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. Basically, should I keep on living? Should I keep on battling? Because this life is a battle. Should I keep on struggling? Because this life is a struggle? He goes on to say, to die, to sleep, no more. And by sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. He goes on to say, like, how awesome would it be to just not. To not have. To keep fighting, to not have. To keep battling, to not have to go through this torment he had knowing that his father was murdered by his uncle, knowing that he's supposed to take that next step and actually avenge his father. It would be so much better, so much better if I was just done. And I know so many of us can be in that place where you've lived through so much pain that you might Think so much better if it was just over. But when we say that I want the night to be over, I want the struggle to be over the reality. Of course, Hamlet goes on, he says, to die, to sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub. For in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause. And this is the khen, this reality must give us pause, meaning, what's going to be there? What is it that is in the unknown? What is it that's part of this life after this life? Because we don't know what that is. It is unknown. I don't know what comes next. So I'm afraid we have this fear. And I think that fear brings us to this fourth Sunday of Advent. You know, in the Gospel today, we have Mary who visits Elizabeth and Mary. The only reason Mary visits Elizabeth is because just before this, the Archangel Gabriel visited Mary. And we know that story. The archangel visits Mary and tells her this massive news. He tells her that God's plan is that Mary will be the mother of the Messiah, that Mary will be the. The Holy Spirit will come upon her, and she'll be the mother of the Holy One, the Anointed One, the Holy One of God. And you can imagine that in that moment, here is Mary and she could have some fear. We know she has questions. She pondered what sort of greeting this might be, and she asked the question, how can this happen to me since I have no relations with the man? She asks her clarifying question and the angel just says, you know, power of most high will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy. He tells her God's plan, but virtually everything else is a mystery. Virtually everything else, other than the fact that she'll conceive God's son is completely and totally unknown. So we can imagine, here's Mary greatly troubled. You can imagine here's Mary maybe even experiencing fear. But here's the remarkable thing. What is her response, even in the face of maybe, maybe possibly her experiencing overwhelming fear of anger and not having any idea how this is all going to work out? How is she going to walk forward? How is she supposed to live like this? Her response is, behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word. The fear becomes a fiat. That fiat, that word in Latin is a word in English that means let it be done. Ultimately, Mary's response to fear is trust. Ultimately, Mary's response to this unknown is let it be done to me. Mary's response to fear is a fiat. And she could have experienced fear of what she did not know. She could have responded to that fear. She could have lived in that fear. She could have walked in that fear of what she didn't know. But she doesn't. She chooses another way. Fear becomes fiat. And she's basically saying, I'm not going to fear what I don't know. I am going to trust what I do know. And this is the same thing for us. December 25th, our own death. Seeing the Lord face to face is moments away. And we can realize, okay, let's tell the truth. I want to be ready, but I'm afraid what we're called to do is we're called to allow that fear to be transformed. We are called to transform that fear into fiat as well, to transform the fear of the unknown into I'm afraid of what I don't know. But I know I can trust what I do know. Even more. I know I can trust the one who I do know. And of course, that makes sense for every one of us who follow Jesus. For the last 22 days, you've been spending time with Jesus every single day. So in some degree, maybe even for most of your life, you've you know who Jesus is, you know who the Father is. You know the power of the Holy Spirit. So you can say, like, with confidence, no, no, I know God. I know that God is good. I know that he knows my name. I know that God loves me. And so, yes, I'm faced with this unknown. I'm not afraid of the unknown out there. I'm afraid of the unknown in here. Like, when it comes to death, you might say, no, actually, I know I can trust God. I'm not afraid of the afterlife. But what if I'm afraid of myself? I'm not afraid of the afterlife. What if I'm afraid of my inner life? So when my mom was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and it was really serious, I remember talking with her just a couple weeks after the diagnosis, the serious diagnosis, where they realized, like, the stakes and realized that it was very lethal. And I remember her telling me, she's like, you know what? I'm not afraid. That was so powerful. There's that sense of like, I'm not afraid. She did say. She said, but I am sad. She told said more about it. She said, yeah, I'm sad. I'm sad that I'm not afraid of dying. I'm not afraid of death. I'm not afraid of coming before the Lord. But I am sad. I'm sad of missing out on Christmases we as y'all get together. I'm sad for missing out and seeing all the grandkids get married. I'm sad that I don't live to see the great grandkids get born or see them grow. He said, but I'm not afraid. Am I a little sad? And it was powerful. It was such a great witness. I remember being so. Just moved by that. But then, you know, a couple weeks before she died, I remember sitting on her bed in a room, and then it was something different. I remember her saying that, actually, she said, honestly, I am afraid. And we talked about what she was afraid of. And she was like, oh, no, no. I'm not afraid of God. I'm not afraid of Jesus. I'm not afraid of, you know, the afterlife. She said, what I'm afraid of is the question of, like, have I covered everything? She's like, well, I've been a confession, but the question keeps coming back to me. Have I surrendered everything to Jesus? Like, have I given him everything? Is there anything that I missed that was like. That was her fear? The fear was, is there anything that I missed? Is there anything that I haven't given him yet? Is there anything that I haven't said in confession that I'm supposed to say in confession? Again, she wasn't afraid of what's out there. She was afraid of what's in here. She wasn't afraid of, like, what might be coming in the afterlife. She was afraid of what might there be in my inner life that I haven't yet given to Jesus? What's inside? The question is this. Is there anything inside of me that might disqualify me from being able to see the Lord face to face again? Not because I'm afraid of the afterlife, but because I'm afraid of the inner life. And that's. That's nothing unusual. There's a man named St. John Henry Newman. He's the one that we named the Newman center after. And John Henry Newman, when he was a young priest, he has a sermon called Secret Faults. And that. He talks about this. He talks about the fact that for every single one of us, we have the capacity and the tendency to have these blind spots, right? Every one of us, we have this capacity. We have this tendency to deceive ourselves. We have this capacity to say, okay, I know some of my sins, but I absolutely don't know all of them. And my mom was at that place where she was like, no, no. I want to see the Lord face to face. But is there anything I've missed? Because I realize I have blind spots. I realize that I have secret faults. Kind of like last week we talked about Oriwel, right? Last week talked about the two sons of the Father, and they have their speeches, but all of them are blind to the truth of their own hearts, right? All of them are blind to what their faces really look like. And it's not a matter of what's hidden from other people. It's definitely not a matter of what's hidden from the Lord. Because nothing's hidden from the Lord. It's the fear of what's hidden from myself. What is there in me that I haven't given to Jesus? Because the reality, of course, is if I am going to stand before the Lord face to face, I need to know myself accurately. I need to be honest about myself. I need to have that moment, that clarifying moment, that clarity moment that Oriwal had, until we have faces, the clarifying moment that the two sons had when they gave their fathers their speeches and we realized that I cannot reveal my face to the Lord until I have a true sense of myself. So here's the question. What do I do? What do I do if I'm afraid? Well, we already know this. We transform that fear into fiat. Well, yeah, but the issue is this. The issue is I'm not afraid of the afterlife. I'm not afraid of what might happen. I'm not afraid of the unknown. I'm afraid that my sins are too big for his mercy. Because if we're going to be honest, that's what we're afraid of. We're afraid in some ways that, what if his mercy isn't strong enough to bear the weight of my sins? What if his mercy isn't strong enough to bear the weight of my shame? What if his mercy isn't strong enough to bear the weight of my guilt? What do I do then? The answer is still the same. I'm not afraid of the unknown because I know that I can trust in Him. Fear has to become fiat. What we're afraid of has to be discarded in the light of the One that we trust. Because Jesus is the One who handles our sins. I don't know if you ever realize this. We realize this is that every time we go to confession, he's the one who does the work. Whenever we come before the Lord in prayer, he's the one who's active. We can be attentive. We can be try to be a focus. We can try to give our best confession we can. But he's the One who's working. Jesus, working through the power of the Holy Spirit is the One who does all of the work. He's the One who forgives us. He's the One who redeems us. He's the One who knows us. He's the One who carries us. He's the One who helps us across that bridge from this life into the next life. And so the question is not whether I'm afraid of the unknown. It's do I trust in the One who. Whom I know? For these next couple days, that's what we're inviting all of us to do. To acknowledge our fear, to acknowledge the fear of the unknown and to replace it with a fiat, to turn that fear into fiat, to transform that fear of what I don't know into to trust of the One I do know. So that because of his grace and his mercy and his love for you, even the secret parts of your heart, even the nooks and crannies that you don't even know about, that even those can be healed and you and I can be prepared to see the Lord face to face.