Father Mike Schmitz - Saturday Morning General Session - Steubenville San Diego 2014

last thing we talked about God is joy God is faithful God is present really here the whole weekend about more things about what God is what God is like what he is but the first thing we have to know is is God real like that's the big question right like is God real does he really exist because if he doesn't exist then we can say God is joy hooray whatever or God is faithful I don't know I don't feel them being faithful or you can be here today or last night or whatever and I could ask you the question how would you respond right now right now if I ask you the question right now if I were to say is God real okay would you say would you say yeah or would you say is God real now here's the thing I appreciate the fact that you made an effort that was really good of you thank you very much I appreciate that some people like yes and last night like if I were to ask you is God real then yeah yes I love it why cuz I explained music that means gods real man like no no here's the deal if my faith is based off of a feeling if my faith in God's existence or God's faithfulness is based off of a feeling then my faith is only going to be as strong as that feeling again if my faith is based off of an emotion I know God is real why because I feel him then my faith is only going to be as strong as that emotion so what we need to do as Catholic Christians we have to do this we have to we we have feelings we have emotions those things are good they're part of us but we can't we cannot come to truth by feeling our way towards there we just using the wrong we're using the wrong tool it's like this wait do you guys smell purple you smell pretty weekís you can't smell purple what in the same way that you can't feel the truth you can't feel your way to the truth you have to think your way to the truth you have to think your way to the truth now our feelings can sometimes correspond with the true for example I'm loved and I feel loved oh great great that's perfect but have you ever had this this your life where you know you're loved but you don't feel loved or have you ever had this thing where like you're trying to go to bed at night and you you've already checked under the bed and you've already checked in the closet and you know there's no one there but you still feel afraid yeah sometimes our feelings sometimes our feelings mislead us and so what we need to do is what we absolutely need to do is we need to think our way to the truth because we're gonna I'm gonna make this claim that God is real now if you're gonna believe that's true I'm gonna invite you to believe it for only one reason I would like you to believe in Jesus for only one reason because he is true because he actually is God because the only reason to believe anything is because it's true not because it makes you happy not because it makes you good not because it helps you sleep at night the only reason to believe anything is because it's true so there's a big question what is truth this is gonna be a little philosophy 101 so you get your brains going right so philosophy 101 what is truth how would you define truth I can define truth I wanted to find truth in two words just maybe can make it really simple or define truth by two words two words are this truth is what is okay so truth is simply what is and so a statement is either true or false to the degree that it conforms to what is to make sense so far so if I were to say there is a podium on this stage does that conform to what is yes so is that statement true yes if I were to say that there are there is a microphone on this stage does that conform to what is yes if I were to say there are eight microphones on this stage does that conform even more accurately to what is yes so that recognition of being able to say that again a statement is either true or false to the degree that it conforms to reality now here's the nail he's real a lot of times we have this thing where we say like I've ever heard this ever ever so ever I get so excited you guys I just can't control myself um I've ever heard someone say well that's fine that's your truth but my truth is something else you ever heard that someone say that last year if you believe in Jesus that's fine that's your truth I don't I don't that my truth is different no that's something real that's an actual thing there's two kinds of truth one kind of truth is called subjective truth that was a little philosophy here's a grammar lesson for this morning subjective truth is there are subjective statements subjective statements are things like this I like caribou coffee I like driving a little bit over the speed limit I like Papa John's Pizza all those statements are true but they're subjectively true because all those statements are about what they're about me exactly that well done they're about the subject they're about I and so oh if all we had was subjective truth could you ever argue with me no because I would say I like caribou coffee and you might say well I like Starbucks I'd say well I like caribou coffee well I like Starbucks well I like care about coffee I'm like okay fine you know walk away that's because if all we ever if all we have is subjective truth what I like what I'm feeling what I experience if all we had was that when it comes to conflict we only have three options one option is this I like caribou I like Starbucks I like Carrie but whatever leave good walk away the other option is this I like caribou I like Starbucks I like here but I like Starbucks I'm right because I'm stronger or it's this third option is either we walk away we fight each other or we say this y'all know who what Caribou Coffee is okay some of you do huh we'd say this I would say okay you guys everyone in this in this arena who thinks star brush is better than caribou raise your hand okay who thinks curious better to the Starbucks okay so then what we have is basically mob rule so whatever you know the most people say that's right and then that's right that's not right is it that's not a way to come to truth so if all we have is subjective truth it never brings anyone together it only brings us apart because we either we walk away we hurt each other or we just have a mob against another mob but the great news is there's not just subjective truth there's also a thing called objective truth an object of truth is something like this you can get a medium coffee at Caribou for two dollars and sixteen cents the speed limit outside of this on the street outside of USD it's 30 miles per hour or you can get a medium pizza at Papa John's for $15.99 now those statements are all objective statements because their statements about an object outside of me now keep tracking with me their statements that are true independent of me for example if the speed limit outside University of San Diego is 30 miles an hour if I don't know that it's 30 miles an hour does it cease to be 30 miles an hour for me no I have actually have a student at our University that I work at she got pulled over by the police officer and she was going like 45 and a 30 and her excuse was this I didn't know and he wasn't like Oh in that case I understand he was like it's your job to know like if you're on the road new drivers if you're on the road it's your job to know the speed limit right and the thing is this the speed limit is 30 miles per hour whether I like it whether I know it or whether I believe it that's the thing about objective statements if they're true if they're true they're true independent of me they're true whether or not I like it whether or not I know it or whether or not but I believe it for example we're all here inside if it was snowing outside this is you can tell him from Minnesota if it was snowing outside you could say I don't like the snow would that change the fact that it was snowing outside if you didn't know that it was snowing outside would that change whether or not was snowing outside if you didn't like the fact that it was snowing outside would that change whether or not was snowing outside no because it's if something's objectively true it's true regardless of whether you know it liked it or believe it so here's this this deep profound thing when it comes to the truth of God is God real here's the question if I were to say the phrase the statement God exists is that a subjective statement or is that an objective statement its objective exactly now some people will say like well that's subjective why because people disagree well yeah exactly some people say objectively God doesn't exist other people say objectively God does exist question for all y'all both of them be right no not at all okay here's here's the second little philosophy lesson of the morning there's this thing called the principle of non-contradiction now if you get this right you will get so much in your life right it's called the principle of non-contradiction which means this again get your ready pens already you know type it out in your phones it means this thing cannot both be and not be at the same time it in the same way I will repeat that four more times I think I think you're not both B and not B at the same time and in the same way no because I always say this my students I always have to say the in the same way thing as well because I'll always have like the smart alecks student you know which is what I used to be what someone will say like okay what about if you had the lamp a lamp that was on a table but it was turned off it's both on and a busted father like no at the same time and in the same way so if the lamp is on the table it can't also be off the table amen so God cannot both exist and not exist and here's the crazy thing about this sometimes we just like to say well that's fine if God doesn't exist for you then that's whatever but God exists for me we can't both be right no no so people don't care some people don't care about whether or not God exists in fact I was doing a marriage prep with this couple and and she was raised Catholic and she was trying to live out her faith a little bit he was raised Catholic but he left and he said I'm an atheist I do not believe that exists this kept coming up in our marriage preparation it was like every time I kept bringing it up like you realize you're marrying each other you really disagree you really disagree finally one night we're talking and I said you realize I'm really concerned about this because you're about to coven it yourselves to someone who believes that when it comes the most important question in life they actually believe that you are wrong you're about to marry someone who when it comes to those important question of life whether God exists or not they actually think that you're wrong and the groom you looked at me and he said well I don't think it's the most important question in life and I was like exactly that's the point because you could sell a lot of times you have atheist you have new atheists and I'm not bagging on atheist because sincerely held belief but I want to say this I want I want a theist who are better atheists so what I mean by that is this if someone's going to be atheist I want them to take their atheism their statement that God does not exist I want them to take that to the conclusion what are some kook conclusions to the statement what if God didn't exist here's my groom who says I don't believe it's the most important question in life what changes if God doesn't exist I want to say three at least three things change here's the three things if God doesn't exist what does that mean about the universe it means that all there is in the world is just matter just stuff that all there's no spirit there's no soul there's no like there's no beings outside is all that's in the universe is just stuff if all there is in the universe is just stuff that means that at the moment of the Big Bang all of us just you know you've heard the theory of the Big Bang right so all the matter in the universe is super condensed in this ball the size of grapefruit or whatever and then it expands to this explosion rapidly expanding exponential rate at a certain temperature and a certain speed now if all there is is matter then all the matter in the universe existed at that moment which means this at the very first instant of the Big Bang the entire future of the universe was predetermined here's what I mean if all there is is matter then all there is it's physics I don't know I don't ever recommend playing pool with a physics major because they will kick your butt they're so good because why because they know how physics works it always works this way if you hit the ball or the you know the balls in this speed at that angle they will always do this so here's the thing if at the moment of the Big Bang the moment of personal recreation all there is this matter is just expands all there is for the rest of history is just stuff hitting stuff hitting stuff hitting stuff which means all is going to be is physics which means that the entire universe has been pre-programmed from the very first moment so here's the thing there's a crazy thing about that is this are you part of universe yes is your brain part of the universe yes which means that all there is is stuff there's no god you're simply a part of the universe and what you're thinking and what you're doing has been pre-programmed as well because your brain is simply atoms hitting atoms hitting atoms it's just stuff hitting stuff hitting stuff which means that there's essentially no such if there is no God all there is matter there's no such thing as free will no you might think though people don't really believe that there's a guy an atheist on our campus who believes that he's what they call a determinist which means that everything has been predetermined why because all there is this matter is just stuff hitting stuff hitting stuff it's just physics and he's at the point is crazy boggles my mind this guy is a professor at a university why it boggles my mind is this if you think that the whole universe is pre-programmed why would you teach because it's just kind of pre-programmed right not only that he teaches ethics which is like right human behavior but if you don't believe in such a thing as free will there's no such thing as right or wrong if there's no such thing as free will there's no such thing as right or wrong in death look that's the second second conclusion of no God if there is no God there is no free will but if there's no free will there's no such thing as right or wrong because you can't blame me for doing something I had no choice and you can't praise me for doing something I had no choice if there is no free will there's no right or wrong I'm just doing what I have to do let's think about this if you were up to a pop machine and your pop machine you put your money in you press the button and your pop machine doesn't give you your pop do you stand there and say now see here pop machine we had an agreement I was going to give you my two dollars you're gonna give me your pop so let's reason this out would you argue with the pop machine no what would you do you kick it exactly so so if there's no such thing as free will and you had a disagreement with someone where you say I think here but coffee is better and they say it's not what do you do with them do you try to reason with them or what do you do you kick them that's what you have to do again if there's no such thing as God there is no free will there's no free will there's no right or wrong there's just just what is the third consequence is this what is doesn't mean anything this is a redox redonkulous Wow take me back to 2007 right it's completely ridiculous if there's no god that means there's no meaning here's what I mean I'm number years ago I went down to North Carolina and I was with our we have focused missionaries on our campus that at the University of Minnesota Duluth and I was meeting our new team and so we want to do a team bonding exercise so they wanted they took me out they said father we're going to go to an art show at an art gallery in order to bond because there's nothing that Bond's people better than shared misery and and so no it was great but I love art I just don't like postmodern art because postmodern art is kind of like here's a toilet seat I did that and like look inside I did that um like this this recognition of like what does it mean so I'm walking through this thing go and like I don't know what anything means here and then finally I stumbled upon this painting it was huge was like 15 feet by 15 feet and all it was was the color red and it was striking it was beautiful you guys so I see I mean honestly I stood there I was like wow I stood there for 15 minutes I'm not exaggerating looking at the color red I didn't just stand there like who I stood there like an art person you know how are people stand one hand kind of around the waist the other one's stroking your chin kind of nodding art so I must look like I knew what I was doing because these two guys walk up to me and they walked up they're like the shamans look so and asked me what do you see I'm embarrassed but for the next 15 minutes I described the color red well here it is I mean this is red it just as passionate and there's a couple smudges there that's probably like you know brokenness of the human condition of it I mean for 30 minutes of my life that I will never get back I looked at the color red now I talked about for 15 minutes what the painting meant but if I really wanted to know what the painting meant who would I have to talk to the artist exactly if I really wanted to know what the painting meant I would have to talk to the artist so imagine she walked up it was a woman mentioned she walked up and I said okay I just went off about what this painting means what does it really mean what if she looked at me and she said actually it was a funny story about that painting it was just a canvas I had laid out I was going to paint something else but I've got cats and they knocked over this red paint hung it up to dry it and just kind of I was like that's pretty so I hung it up in the gallery so basically the painting means nothing the painting was an accident I mean if the painting was an accident even if I find meaning in it does it mean anything no because if it's an accident there is no meaning in it yeah I might say but I see something when it comes to the universe if the universe is just an accident it was a random thing that has happened to like explode at one moment in time and now here we are even if I find what I feel like is meaning like I love this person or I'm suffering in this way or whatever I have this kind of joy if the universe is an accident does it have any meaning no if there is no God that means the whole universe is just an accident if you ever have a younger siblings who are like 2 years old and they have an accident do you look into that for meaning no you don't let's say like what is this what does it mean it's a double rainbow almost a triple rainbow like like you wouldn't look into an accident for meaning and if the whole universe is accident that means basically the who universe is just a dirty diaper if the universe is accident if God doesn't exist that means this whole planet is simply a pot literally well virtually a pile of crap and you are a nice little speck on that pile of crap so I don't believe it's a most important question in life okay either I'm not talking to the Brydon at this point I'm like okay so your husband doesn't believe or efreet your husband doesn't believe that God exists which means he doesn't believe in free will but in a couple weeks he's gonna promise to love you forever maybe him he hasn't believed in right or wrong but he's promises he's gonna be good and faithful to you what does that mean and he doesn't believe that there's actually a meaning to the universe but at some point he's going to hold look you in the eyes and tell you that he loves you he's gonna hold your child and say this means something but not them none of it means anything if there is no God there's no free will there is no right or wrong and there is no meaning but the great thing is this I would say that's false I would say God does exist I would say that God is real not only because of this not only because we realize you realize right you had a choice this morning of whether you're gonna have orange juice or milk your choice this morning whether you're going to get up or stand you're gonna chase this morning of what if you're going to stay awake right now or going to sleep right now you have a choice of whether you're going to listen to that urge that says I have to go to the bathroom we're gonna say no this is so amazing that I want to stay here you have a choice we realize we have an experience of free wealth second thing is this you know there's a difference between right and wrong sometimes we disagree with what that is but you know you know that there are some things I just should not do and there are some things I should always do you know this and at the heart of hearts we sometimes realize that this world is confusing we don't know what it means but we always have the sense that it's got to mean something our experience tells us that there is meaning that there is right or wrong and that there is free will which tells us what God is real the God is real I mean in the greatest some of the greatest minds in history I mean I'm talking the best scientist the guy who invented the Big Bang Theory he was a Catholic priest not the TV show but the actual like Big Bang Theory the the person who is the father of modern genetics was a Benedictine monk in a priest one of Albert Einstein's closest friends were Catholic priests who are scientists the Vatican has an observatory where they study physics and they study astronaut astronomy and like astrophysics they have the Catholic Church is a friend of the sciences it's amazing in fact as I don't know if I said this the scientific method was developed by guess ooh the Catholic Church I'm not taking credit for it I'm just saying you know but this reality is this is that faith in science or not are not opposed and the greatest minds the most intelligent people in the history of the universe the history of humanity many many many of them have been Catholics have been people who believed that God is real but here's a crazy thing God isn't just real God isn't just real he's here that isn't just real he's not just some this mysterious force he's not one of like he's either Shiva or he's Zeus or he's Apollo or he's you know Krishna but at one point in history God reveals that he has come on this earth as one of us this is crazy I want to make the point make the claim this I grew up in college I grew up and I was went to college I used to take a number of classes called comparative religions in in comparative religion class what you do is okay all these religions that believe that God exists of some short here's all the different so you look at Hinduism and Buddhism and Taoism and Hindu Hinduism and Islam and Judaism and Christianity and y'all look at them next to each other and all look at them as if they're the same thing but the crazy thing is this one of those religions is definitely not like the other out of all these religions the world in world history all the religions on the face of the earth one of them is entirely unique guess which one Christianity Christianity is entirely unique it's different than every other religion why because in every other world religions someone came along and they said this they said either I have a revelation from God God told me such-and-such or they would say I have insight from God or insight into God I've kind of peered into this I thought about it a lot and here it is but Jesus came on the scene and unlike anyone else he didn't just say I have insight from God or I've revelation from God Jesus came on the scene he said what I am God that God is real and that I am him so here's the thing we look at this book of comparative religions we have to say that okay here's one person who says I've realized revelation the other person who says I have revelation here's Jesus who says I am the revelation of God I am him he isn't just a look to my teachings he says look to me which is crazy I mean think about this if someone were to come out in this room right now if I were to come on the stage and say hello everyone I'm the way the truth and the life no one comes to me no one comes to the Father except through me would you say okay a lot of times that's what we think we think that when when Jesus was like when he's on the face of the earth that he came along and he said this he said um before Abraham was I am that Jesus came on the scene and he said if you want to live forever you must eat my flesh and drink my blood and people are like just picking their nose like okay that's great you know that's not people in because we all people back in the day they were so dumb I mean they didn't know how to use iPods they didn't know how to program VCRs they were to believe anything they didn't believe anything in fact if someone came into this room and said I'm God what would you make them do prove it exactly you'd say no no no no listen hold up you need to prove this so what does Jesus do he proves it all throughout the Gospels it's actually especially the Gospel of John John says that whenever Jesus has a miracle he doesn't call it a miracle he calls it a sign and a wonder which is crazy because what is being signed wonder what a signs do signs point to something Jesus makes that what do they point to they point to the claim that what he said is true Jesus comes on and says I have the ability to forgive sins I'm God I can do this remember that story of the paralyzed man his friends lower him on the mat Jesus looks at the guy and he says your sins are forgiven and they look at Jesus and say who but God can forgive sins and Jesus is like I know right he says but to prove to you that I can do this why cuz I'm God he just sees this is a guy rise pick up your mat and go home and the guy picks up his mat I love the fact not only can the guy move now he already knows how to walk double miracle two points like keeps going Jesus you know he talks to someone here's a guy who's who's deaf and he's mute he can't speak he can't hear and Jesus walked up to him and I love the story it says Jesus puts his fingers into the man's ear and touches this tongue imagine you for that deaf guy you see Jesus coming towards you you're like hey like what are you doing was doing day says and he touches the guy can hear there's a couple stories in the Bible where Jesus comes upon someone who's dead there's a little girl she's 12 years old there's this young man and there's also Jesus his best friend named Lazarus in John chapter 11 John in gospel Lazarus has been dead for how many days for exactly Bible scholars he's been dead for four days and Jesus goes to the tomb of Lazarus and he doesn't even go up to Lazarus like I would think Jesus if he was gonna resuscitate him like bring him back from the dead Jesus would go up and say okay plasmus you know CPR like you know queer breathe you know all he does he says this remote control resurrection where he just says roll away the stone not only people like no Lazarus has been dead he's as dead as any dead thing that's ever died Jesus we know what dead looks like an even Martha in the Bible she says um we also Jesus know what dead smells like and he my brother he's not gonna smell good jesus says roll away the stone and he looks into the tomb and he says Lazarus come out and then in John's Gospel John is like going nuts imagine if John was like me he would use like 12 exclamation marks and underlined the whole thing a bunch of smiley faces with a bunch of the you know parentheses parentheses parentheses like you know some innocence the dead man came out Jesus is like yeah I know Wow why because I am who I say I am who do I say I am I say that I am God and I'm proving that I am God so much so that the moment when Jesus poured himself out poured his life out and died for us that was not the end of the story because not only could he resurrect this little twelve year old girl not only could he resurrect that young man that only could he resurrect his friend Lazarus but Jesus Christ himself was raised from the dead and this is you guys have to realize this this is an historical fact our faith is not based off of our emotions or feelings I feel like Jesus at the lab good for you I know jesus is alive which is good for everyone that's the reality because your faith you guys you guys what we're gonna we're gonna grow it from this we're gonna go into mass and here's the reality we're not worshiping and experience we're gonna go to Mass in just a few minutes and we're not worshiping a feeling we're not worshiping an emotion we're worshiping the reality the truth is this that God is real Jesus is God and God loves you this is the absolute and ultimate truth of the world and if this is true how does it change your life this is the end this is the end last thing if that's true how does it change my life not if I feel it but if it actually is true did you know that over 90 percent of Americans over 90 percent of Americans say that they believe in God Jillette it'd be hard to believe that if you paid attention to University Professors hard to believe that if you paid attention to the media but over 90 percent of people in our country believe that God exists and I would say if you walked into an average Catholic Church on any given Sunday most of the people there would say God exists they would say are you an atheist God doesn't exist or are you a theist God does exist they would say I'm a theist God does exist but there's a problem in our church right now and our problem is this I believe that God exists I'm atheist but for all practical purposes I live like an atheist our problem is this not that my emotions aren't strong enough but I believe the truth that God is real Jesus is God and God loves me and he loves you but oftentimes I live like I'm what they call a practical atheism that means for all intents and purposes we live as if God didn't really exist and I think it's time to stop that I'm gonna invite us to stop that today what we're about to do is we're gonna weird ID make this transition we're gonna go actually we're going to be here and we're going to worship the true and the Living God the God that is real what I'm gonna invite us to take that into the next step and to be able to say this that not only is my worship going to be true it's going to be in the spirit it's going to be real because the god I worship is real but I want my life to look like God is real if someone were to look at your last seven days would it look like in the last seven days what your life looked like the life of a theist or would your life look like someone who didn't even believe that God existed was your life look like just the stuff you did what you were you and I spent our time in the last seven days what someone say there is a person who believed in God's that God is real or they look at our my life and look at your life and say I'm not sure if that person even believes that God is really real my invitation for all of us is this as Catholics I brought up some questions about I brought up some questions this morning about truth and about theism about God's existence about meaning but we have to keep running with that we have to keep walking with that we have to keep living with that because if God is gonna change this world he's not going to do it through people who just say oh yeah I feel like God exists he's not gonna do with people who say oh no I believe God exists he's only going to be able to do it through people who live like God Israel amen glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end Father Son Holy Spirit amen

Channel: Steubenville Youth Conferences

Views: 85,414

Rating: 4.9427791 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, Charismatic, Youth Conference, Evangelization

Id: 68FQV0iLFeA

Length: 32min 22sec (1942 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 23 2015