Hi my name's Father Mike Schmitz
and this is Ascension Presents. So a couple weeks or months or last year I sent out a message saying that if you had any questions you could write in the comments section a little #askfrmike. So we got a bunch of questions so I'm going to try to rip through a couple of those right now. So let's launch into them.
The first question is from Skizi S. or Skeezi S. I'm thinking it's Skizi S., not Skeeki S.
The question is this: "If Lucifer is the Light Bearer,
since he's fallen who is the new Light Bearer?" That is a fantastic question Skizi S. Number one: Scripture doesn't specifically say if there is a replacement for Lucifer. Number two: Light Bearer wasn't necessarily Lucifer's job like someone needs to bear the light;
that probably wasn't his job. His name was meant to refer to, reveal, that he was the closest angel, closest created spiritual being to the Lord and that's an interesting thing, that point. So here's Lucifer, his role, or he was the
highest of God's created spiritual beings. You know, that's important for a couple reasons. One is because sometimes we think that it's like Lucifer versus Jesus and they're going head-to-head, mano a mano kind of a thing.
That's not necessarily the case because why? Because Jesus is the uncreated, only
begotten eternal God himself. Lucifer even though he's the highest of
God's created spiritual beings, he's still a created being. So it's not Jesus versus Lucifer as if they're equals or opposites or enemies. So you're saying, "Well, then who is Lucifer's opposite?" That's a good question.
Well, thank you Father Mike. Well Skizi, you brought it up so here's the thing: If Lucifer is the highest of God's created spiritual beings and he fell through disobedience and pride, let's follow this story, as the Bible unfolds
the story, what we see is, Who is God's highest created spiritual and material being? Mary She's the highest of God's created material and spiritual beings and what happens? Lucifer fell because of what?
Because of pride and disobedience. Mary is exalted, assumed into heaven, because of what? Because of humility and obedience. So if there's any kind of opposite to Lucifer now, it's not Jesus because Jesus is God. He is THE ... GOD, right? Lucifer, the highest of God's created
spiritual beings, who fell through pride and disobedience, is in a certain sense replaced, maybe in a certain sense, by Mary, who is God's highest created
spiritual material being who is exalted by God himself because of her humility and obedience. Great question though. Next question is this, I love this. From leetlelower93 Now I say "leetle" flower because it's "L-E-E-T-L-E", leetleflower93, who asked the question: "Does it bother the Father and the Spirit when we center our personal prayer mostly on Jesus the Son?" Great question.
Short answer: Nope, not not at all. Why? Well one is because God is one.
Two because God is love. God being one is honored whenever we honor the Son, we honor the Father and the Spirit. Whenever we glorify and worship the Spirit, we honor the Father and the Son. Since God is one when one is glorified, they're all glorified. In fact, there's a Catholic spiritual principle, theological principle, that says that when one Person of the Trinity is present, the entire Trinity is present. So God is One. Number two -TWO- God is love, which means this:
there is no animosity, there's no envy, there's no jealousy, there's no sadness
between the Persons of the Trinity, between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So when one Member is glorified, they're all glorified. Not only that, they all rejoice in the fact that the one Person is glorified because why? Because God is a Communion of Persons.
He is a mystery of love inside of himself. Now here's an interesting thing. Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that God is like us, which means this: that God WANTS the attention, that when we pray to God, He experiences joy because He's like, (Obviously NOT God's voice)
"Well, thanks guys for paying attention to Me.
So nice of ya." That's not what's happening. So, you know, the Son gets glorified and honored and praised and the Father's like, (Again, obviously NOT God's voice)
"Oh man, seriously?" Maybe the spirits like, "I serious ..." I can't do the Spirit's voice. I don't know what the Father's voice would be either. Sometimes we think that when the Son is paid attention to, that the Father can be like, (REALLY not God's voice)
"Well, that's OK.
I'll be fine." No, not at all, because why? Because God
doesn't increase when we pay attention to him. God actually doesn't want us to
pray or worship him so that he can get attention. God wants us to worship him
and to pray to him because of us, because he wants to draw us into a
relationship with him. So if we are in relationship with the Father, then we're in relationship with the Trinity. If we're relationship with the Son or the
Spirit, then we're in relationship with the whole God, not for his sake in the sense of like, this kind of like, (really pathetic "God" voice)
"Guys, tell me I'm good. Tell me I'm loved. Tell me I'm OK." God's not desperate, not desperate for our love in the same sense that you and I sometimes get desperate for love. That's a fantastic question leetleflower93 The last question for today, getInsects25,
and it's this question it says: "Fr. Mike, I have a hard time not working on Sundays. How would you guide someone out of this to make time to rest?" Fantastic question, getInsects25. Here's what I'd say. God has made us to work; it's one of the great ways we participate in God's nature as we work
just like God worked, but we're also called to leisure because of this huge
fact: we are not slaves. In the Old Testament, in the book of Exodus, when God sets His people free from slavery, while they were slaves, how many days off a week did they get off? They got ZERO days off a week. When he sets them free, he gives them the Commandment: Remember the Sabbath, keep it Holy which means one, worship God, so getInsects25 and everyone who's watching this, that means
Sunday Mass—absolutely necessary. We need to worship God on Sunday. For Christians, it's the Day of the Resurrection, it's a day where we have to go to Mass—it's irreplacable. But number two is we need to rest, meaning, doesn't mean you have to like sit on the couch and eat potato chips and watch football. It means, it doesn't mean you can't mow your lawn, doesn't mean you can't fix something. It means just rest from servile labor in the sense of this: Rest from being a slave to your work. Take some time away from what
you always have to do every other day and be a free human being, like be a free person. God set the Israelites free and said you have to now live like free people and I'm giving you a Commandment because you're gonna be tempted to live like slaves and to work seven days a week. but live like me, who on the seventh day, God rested. Here's the last little quick thing. I once talked to a priest. He worked on a campus as the rector of a seminary, the director of a college seminary. And these guys, like most college students, would rest on Saturday and then put off the work until Sunday because a lot of projects are due, a lot of papers are due on Monday. so they're asking, Father,
what do we do, how do we enter into Sabbath rest? He invited them to do this: He said it was hard, too hard for them to take the entire Sunday and rest. He invited them, he said, Start your Sabbath rest, start your Lord's Day at 4p.m. on Saturday night. So late Saturday afternoon, like when we get to have Vigil Mass, that time - 4 o'clock Enter into rest, like put your work to the
side and enter into the Lord's Day. That could be through play, could be through rest, through family time, through friend time, through just being a free human being, through the night, the next morning get up, go to Mass, obviously, in the worship part and then he said and then rest that morning until
like 1 or 2 o'clock in the afternoon. If you have to do work after that,
then go ahead and do that work. But what you did was you were intentional about
taking some time and setting it aside I'm gonna keep this recreation, this time, this free time, live like a free human being, like someone who's been set free by Jesus Christ through Mass and somewhere into the early afternoon. Hopefully that will help you enter into Sunday rest a little bit better. Do you have more questions? This is just three that we just picked really quick. Any more questions—in the comment section please just write #askfrmike. From all of us here at Ascension Presents,
my name is Father Mike.
God bless. I don't have accents of the Father, like
the Father, "The Father, just talking to the Son..." That's not even right, nope. (like Yogi Bear)
"Hey there. Hey there, BooBoo. Wanna go get a pic-a-nic basket?" I don't think the Father talks like Yogi Bear What would the Holy Spirit sound like? (whoosh)
The wind, right? "Ruach" - means breath? Holy Spirit? I'm so Bible funny
