← The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
If You’re Discouraged This Christmas, You Are Not Alone
00:08:33
Just because it's "the most wonderful time of the year" doesn't mean that everything is working out for you. But if tough times have actually given way to full-blown discouragement for you this Christmas, Fr. Mike has a word for you: "Emmanuel". On behalf of Fr. Mike and everyone here at Ascension, Merry Christmas to you and all of your loved ones. God bless you this Jubilee Year 2025!
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Merry Christmas. I'll say something that I probably have said a thousand times, which is, when it comes to Christmas movies, my favorite Christmas movie of all time is. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension presents It's a Wonderful Life. It's the story of George Bailey. I mean, how many times have I brought this up around Christmas. Story of George Bailey. George Bailey, this man who wants to, with everything he has, leave Bedford Falls and make his way. He wants to build skyscrapers, wants to develop modern cities. He wants to do something in incredible with his life. But he's. Because of circumstances, he chooses. He's forced to, but he also chooses right. He chooses to be noble. He chooses to be a man of character. He chooses to stay in his hometown in order to help people. He has a smaller life than he thought, and he doesn't accomplish the things that he wanted to accomplish. Again, this has come back to our heart, right Here we are on Christmas Day. He doesn't accomplish what he wanted to accomplish. He doesn't achieve what he wanted to achieve. He doesn't live the life that he dreamed of living. And so at one point, he's tempted to believe that it would be better if he had never been born. It would be better for others, for himself, if he had never existed. And that's kind of the crux moment, right? But it opens up on that moment. It opens up on this night where here's George with all of his dreams crashing down around him, plus a bunch of other things. Bills to pay and people to take care of. And everyone's praying. And this is the opening scene of the whole movie. Again, first place, I get tears. I don't know who it is. It's Joseph. And maybe God or something. I don't know who Joseph is. Maybe Saint Joseph. I don't really exactly know who all of our characters are in this moment, but at one point, that question is asked. There's a problem down in Bedford Falls, you know, and on earth, a man named George Bailey. And the question is, what? Is he sick? And the answer is worse. He's discouraged. And again, see, here we go. Gosh. I mean, I know as you listen to this, as you watch this, that there are real pains, there are real sufferings, there's death. There actually is real illness. And those things are real. Those things are hard to carry. Loss. Being with someone as they are suffering, seeing someone walk away from you, someone walking away from the faith, all of those things can be so incredibly painful. But nothing, maybe nothing is as more as painful as now, worse. He's discouraged because I've said this before. I will say this until the day I die. I believe this to be true. If you're someone who knows the truth. Like, if you're someone. Okay, I know what I know intellectually. I know that God exists. I know that Jesus is God. I know that Jesus established the Catholic Church. I know that no matter what, he wants to forgive me, right? He's given us confession as a sacrament of healing and restoration, reconciliation. I know he's given me the anointing. I know that every time I pray, he hears me. If you know that. If you know that here on Christmas Day, here is God so loved the world that he gave his only beloved son that all those who believe in him would not perish, would have eternal life, you might know that. And if you know that, then the devil also knows the evil one also knows there's only one way he can ever steal your heart away from God. There's only one way he can never beat you, and that is if he gets you so discouraged that you're not willing to ask for help. That's really it. I think the devil's biggest tool in his arsenal is discouragement. Because again, let's go back to this. If you know that God loves you, if you know that God has given us the Church, he's given us reconciliation, he's given us himself, then you know that he wants you to come back. The thing is, like Pope Francis had once said, it's not that God gets tired of forgiving us. We get tired of asking for forgiveness. We get tired of trying again. We get tired of saying, God, pick me back up. And we say, you know what? I imagine you're tired of this. I'm tired of this. I'm just going to stop. This is the invitation to not stop. Why? Because heaven knows. I mean, the Lord God himself knows. All the angels and saints know, the body of Christ knows. The Church knows this, that there's something worse than the suffering you might be going through, the grief you might be going through, the disease you might be going through, the illness you might be going through, the pain you might be experiencing right now, the loss you might be experiencing. It's discouragement. What is discouragement? I mean, courage. You know, coragio comes cor comes from that Latin word, you know, coraggio or cor, which means heart. And so to take heart is to be courageous, right? To take heart is to say, okay, there is still hope. There's still somewhere to go. There's still, something to do. To be discouraged is to lose heart, right? To be discouraged is to be in the face of life, whatever the difficulties and unfairness and battles of life, even in the face of your own weakness, is to lose heart. And they say, okay, in this case, I'm just going to take back my heart. In this case, my heart has been so wounded. In this case, my heart has been so broken. In this case, my heart has been so torn that it's gone. I'm alone and there's no hope. Which is why I love It's a Wonderful Life. Because who says worse he's discouraged? But Heaven, right? Whoever that is, God or Joseph or whatever that is, it's heaven. Heaven knows. Meaning the Lord God Himself knows this, which is why at Christmas, what does God do? He says, you're not alone. He doesn't say, you're not alone from a distance. He doesn't say, up in the sky. He just, hey, I declared it. You're not alone. He just, well, you know, you're not alone. He comes and dwells among us, right, Emmanuel? God with us. That God came and tabernacled among us. This is the great news of Christianity. The great news is, even if we life has rejected you and people have rejected you, even if you find yourself alone, there's that voice. The one thing you can never forget is that you can sit here if you want to, even if you get so discouraged that it's like no one else pays attention to me. No one else cares to hear this truth. The Lord God says, I'm here. That's actually my name. My name, Emmanuel, means I'm here. God is with us. And God willing, maybe you're not in a place of discouragement right now, right? Maybe not in a place of distress. Maybe you're in a place of just like, oh, my life is full. My heart is full. This is so good. Praise the Lord for that. But also to know God's name is still the same. His name, I'm here is still the same. God's name of God is with us, is still the same. So into that joy, God is here into your heart being full. Okay, I'm here. And into those relationships that are abundant and there are full of grace and love and truth and joy, God still declares, I'm here. So whether you spend this Christmas or this Christmas season alone and in pain, God's name is I'm here. Or you spend this Christmas and this Christmas season with people you love and people who love you back, God's name is I'm here again, Emmanuel, Meaning God is with us is true. Whether we have courage or whether we're discouraged, whether our heart is full or whether we've lost heart on this day and in this season. Remember, you've not been forgotten. You are not rejected. It's not true that it would be better for others and be better for yourself if you had never been born. What is true is you're wanted. You have a place, and God's name in your life is Emmanuel. God is with us. His name is. I'm here. Merry Christmas from all of us here at Ascension. Presents and God bless. Whole tripod got messed up, and I think this is okay, right? This is okay. This is okay. Hopefully it's okay. Okay.