← The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
My Message For All Catholics (w/ Fr. Mike Schmitz)
00:11:44
Happy Easter! In this joyful season, as we celebrate the beauty of our faith, we’re also reminded of our human brokenness, and how at times, that brokenness can reflect poorly on the Church. Fr. Mike Schmitz encourages us not to get discouraged nor walk away, whether we’re new to the Church or have been Catholic our whole lives, but instead to refocus on what makes our faith truly unique, Jesus Christ, fully present in the Eucharist: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.
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Hallelujah, Easter. He's risen. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension presents. So this last Easter, we had, I don't want to say unprecedented number of people coming to the church, but we had a. An incredible number of people coming into the church. It's just really remarkable. Not only here up in northern Minnesota, but across the country, there are so many people who heard the call of Jesus Christ and found that no Jesus, who truly is God, risen from the dead. Hallelujah, Easter, He's Risen also established a church, and that Christ invites all of us to be part of his church, his holy Catholic church. And so, so many people said yes. Now, here's an interesting thing. I find this sometimes is the case. I will encounter a lot of our students sometimes up here in Duluth, on campus, a lot of our students who will have read their way into the church. I would say this. There's maybe three routes, maybe four routes. Sometimes we have students up here who have read their way into the church. They've studied everything, and we say, hey, come to ocia. And they're like, listen, find Father. I could actually teach your class for you. I've been studying this enough, and actually they could. So next year we probably should invite them to teach. Why would they still have to go through the process? Why would they still have to be invited into ocia? Part of it is because of this. I can read my way into the church, but then it's sanitary. Does that make sense? I can say, no. These are the truths. The Catholic Church is true. It teaches truth. The Bible is true. But it can often be very sanitary and in the sense of it is based off of this truth. Here's the picture of the church I have in my mind, or I can be loved through relationship, but I still need to go through the process. Because why? Because there's some rough edges too, in the church. And living in a community, we realize the church is that it's the assembly. It's the gathering of all people from all social strata. It doesn't matter what kind of place you come from or what kind of race or what kind of socioeconomic place you find yourself at and what kind of nationality or what your creed was before. It's like, everybody get in. We want everyone to come to the knowledge and love and truth of Jesus Christ. And so that because of that, when you encounter the real church, it's like, oh, this has more brokenness than I thought, or this is not as shiny as I assumed it would be. Or this has More rough edges than I thought it would have. Same thing with the beauty part. Like, I can look online and see this is amazing, incredible liturgy. And the choir is just. I mean, they are world class. And the incense and the architecture and everything is just over the top. And then I go to the local parish at the corner and like, oh, oh, oh. This is kind of how the liturgy is celebrated. This is how the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered just in my small town. Now, the reality, of course, is it's all true. Like, the reality is it's all true that you read your way into the church. It's still true. You are loved into the church. That's true. You're again attracted by beauty into the church. It's true. And then when you get to the ordinary parish, it's still true. And yet sometimes. Here's what happens. Sometimes it's like, well, the priest doesn't know as much as I do. I read my way into the church. That might be true. I was loved into the church, but now I'm in a different town than my Catholic friends and where do I find community? They're not the same. And that's going to be true. Or there was this beauty that drew me to look at the Catholic Church and I realize this liturgy and its beauty is true. And then I go to the normal parish and it might not be that it's all still true. It's all still the Catholic Church. What do we do then? What we're called to do then is we're called to embrace all of it. What I mean by that is, is that you say, yep, yeah, it is. It is the intellectual greatness of the giants of the faith. And it's also the simplicity of those of us who don't grasp as much. It is the magnanimous love of the people who loved you into the church. It's also the coolness of people who might not be. Can't be bothered to visit on the way in or the way out of. Of Mass. It is the grander of the beauty of the Divine Liturgy, right? The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And it's also the simple Mass that is offered in a simple small town in Minnesota or wherever you live. It's all of it. All of it can be used for God to help you take that next step. So if you're someone, I read my way into the church. And now it's like, man, where's the. Where's the knowledge? Where's the intellect? I was loved into the church. Where are the people I was beautified my way into the church. Where's the beauty? God might be doing something unique, really unique with this next step. There's a man, his name was J.R.R. tolkien. He wrote the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. Of course, he was Catholic. In fact, Tolkien maintained that his mother was a martyr for the faith because she converted to be Catholic, and then her family really abandoned her, deserted her. And in that, in poverty, in sickness, she died. And he saw that she could have abandoned the Catholic faith and gone back to the faith of her family, but she refused. And that's why he saw her as a martyr, grasping on to, holding on to the truth. She knew the goodness and the beauty of the Catholic Church. Tolkien was raised by a priest, more or less, who took care of him. And he and his brother, they sent him off to boarding school and whatnot, but just paid his bills. And Tolkien had a great love, not only for the mystery, the beauty, the truth of the Catholic Church, but also for the way that God uses the ordinary, the way that God uses the everyday, the way that God uses actually the brokenness around us to make us holy, to get heaven into our hearts. I want to read something that Tolkien wrote to his sons, and here's what he wrote. He said, out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth, the Blessed Sacrament. There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth. And more than that, death by the divine paradox, that which ends life and demands the surrender of all. And yet, by the taste or foretaste of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationship, love, faithfulness, joy, be maintained or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance which every man's heart desires. The only cure for sagging or fainting faith is communion. Though always itself perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any one of us. Like the act of faith, it must be continuous and grow by exercise. Frequency is of the highest effect. Seven times a week is more nourishing than seven times at intervals. And then he wrote this to his son. Now, a couple of things he's going to say are they're kind of dated, a little bit culturally dated, and some of the words he's going to use are words we don't. Wouldn't necessarily use today, but get the gist. Also, I can recommend this as an exercise, alas, only too easy to find opportunity for. Make your Communion in circumstances that affront your taste. Choose a snuffling or gabbling priest, or a proud and vulgar friar and a church full of the usual bourgeoisie crowd, ill behaved children from those who yell to those products of Catholic schools who, the moment the tabernacle is opened, sit back and yawn, open necked and dirty youths, women in trousers and often with hair both unkempt and uncovered, go to communion with them and pray for them. It will be just the same or better than that as a Mass said beautifully by a visibly holy man and shared by a few devout and decorous people. It could not be worse than the mess of the feeding of the 5,000 after which our Lord propounded the feeding that was to come. What's wrong with trousers? You will show up, if you haven't already. You will show up to a parish and the priest will go on and on or might not even be very kind or very nice. The friends you had might not be the friends you have, and the beauty you saw might not be the beauty that you see, but that is actually good for us. That's good for you. Why? It reminds us of why we're there. We're there for Jesus. We're there because this is the church that he established. Tolkien was not ignorant of of bad priests. Tolkien was not ignorant of rotten parishes. In fact, he even said this. He said. This is another quote from Tolkien. He said, I have suffered grievously in my life from stupid, tired, dimmed and even bad priests. But I know now enough about myself to be aware that I should not leave the church, which for me would be leaving the allegiance to our Lord for any such reasons. I should leave because I did not believe and I should not believe anymore. Even if I had never met anyone in orders who was not both wise and saintly. I should, if I left, I should deny the Blessed Sacrament and that is, I'd be calling our Lord a fraud to his face. I know that that's the truth. I read my way into the church. I know it's true. But here's someone who doesn't know the truth very well. I'm not going to leave. I was loved into the church by good friends, but I'm not going to leave because I don't have friends there now. I was drawn by God's beauty. I'm not going to leave if I don't find beauty. Why? Because Jesus is there. And so that's where I'm going to be. We did a thing at Ascension where we created a new Ocia program, it's called Invited your journey into the Catholic Church. I'm a presenter and a bunch of other presenters, we know this ocia. It's a journey of discovery and it can unfold in the stages where you have questions to stages where you're like, okay, I know what now why? I know why now. How am I going to live this? And it invites people to. Invites you to explore and understand what the church actually teaches. Of course, then it's about encountering God through the sacraments and the church. And finally, it's about living out the faith and opening your heart in a way you've never had before. OCIA kickstarts a lifelong process of conversion or becoming more conformed to Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit. So that program, Invited, the presenters are incredible and they tie their own faith journeys into the videos and just it's a really amazing opportunity. But what it does is it always points us back, the people closest to us. Every good OCIA program helps us encounter the beauty, the truth and goodness of the church. But every good OCIA program also helps us know what to do when we encounter the reality, the messiness and the humanity of the church. And all of it can be used. This is a great thing. If you just came into the church last weekend or whenever, all of it can be used to make you holy. Check out Invited and then check out the OCI program in your parish. I invite you to learn a little bit more@ascensionpress.com invited and from all of us here at Ascension presents. My name is Father Mike. God bless.