Fr. Mike Schmitz "The Marks of a True Christian Man" — Arlington Diocese Men's Conference 2018

Our first speaker is a priest of the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota prior to his ordination in 2003 he served as a lay missionary in Central America with the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity a lover of sports he has completed not one, not two, but three Ironman triathlons in the past Known nationally for his inspiring homilies he has become one of the most celebrated Catholic speakers especially in the world of social media every Wednesday he appears on Ascension Press which is an online evangelistic platform providing faith-filled content and reflections on all things Catholic he has preached across the country about the love of God and the call of Jesus Christ for Saints to be raised up in his Church it is his ardent desire he says that these Saints will someday redeem the whole world for Christ at present he's the Director of the Office of Youth Ministry for his home Diocese and the chaplain for the Newman Catholic Campus Ministry for the University of Minnesota and Duluth gentlemen it is my honor to introduce father Mike Schmitz thank you all one thing I'm gonna put this down and then I'm gonna use it later also I don't mean to embarrass Nico at all but I clarification so sometimes when people will say hey Father how many ironmans have you done I used to have the policy of saying well two or three knowing that the answer is actually two but my response wasn't dishonest I mean it's two or three and so we just to clarify it's only two so you could say next time like not zero not one but two I know we already prayed but is it okay I mean I hope you don't mind if we just pray again just helps me out cause I need the Holy Spirit and I think we just all ask the Holy Spirit to help all of us this morning to receive what it is God wants to give us because that's the reality is that every man here is here because the Lord wants you here he wants to give you something and I don't know what that is and you might not know what that is but he does want to give you something and let's just pray a prayer in addition to what our Vicar General had prayed just asking the Holy Spirit to open our minds and our hearts in the name of the Father Son Holy Spirit amen father and have we give you praise and glory we thank you so much for this day I think you promised so much bringing us here safely I ask that you please send your Holy Spirit upon the heart into the hearts into the minds of every man who's here send your spirit of the truth and clarity into our mind that we can know your will and and know who you are that we can know who we are in you it's in your Holy Spirit of fire of love into our hearts that we can love you as you deserve to be loved that we can love those in our lives as you call us to love them father please transform us by the power of your Holy Spirit help us to receive what it is you want to receive so we can become the people you want us to become we make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord amen name the Father Son Holy Spirit amen so a couple of things I want to thank everyone for being here this morning I know it probably was a sacrifice and there's probably a thousand places you could be right now other than right here right now and so just it's kind of like an exercise you might know that some of the people at your table already you might know that people you're sitting next to but that's kind of an exercise I won't make you do this again this is the one time if you can just turn to someone sitting next to you and answer the following question if you could be right now if you could be anywhere in the world right now doing anything in the world right now where would you be and what would you be doing so your game so if you could be anywhere in the world right now doing anything in the world right now where would you be and what would you be doing just couple moments they're just gonna discuss amongst yourselves ready go all right so I'm guessing I'm guessing a lot of you were able to answer that that question maybe not everyone's able to answer the question but one of the things I noticed was how awesome 700 men's voices how loudly that gets really quickly that was like I was gonna start talking to the guy next to me but I couldn't hear a thing so it's decided to sit quietly what I don't know if I want to ask but anyone here close by I want to kind of volunteer what what you were to what you would have said where what's that Aruba do you make a come on want to take it to Bermuda Bahama come on pretty mama yeah Aruba what any any around Iceland doing what wrong Iceland traveling around Iceland and eat nice and Iceland is green Greenland has ice I learned that from the Mighty Ducks 2 yeah dang it you ruined my joke no that's exactly funny thing is I would say that you know Aruba you've Iceland you have other places but there's also that that I'm gonna say 5% of people would say yeah this I mean whenever I asked that question it's roughly either the smart alecks or the or the completely dunno genuine 5% people would typically in in a group would say no I want to be right here right now that means 95% of us but honestly if you were to ask that if you were if you were to be asked that question of yourself virtually any time in your life if someone you know showed up at work and hey if you could be anywhere in world right now doing anything in the world right now where would you be what would you be doing they showed up you know normal Saturday if you could be anywhere in the world doing anything in the world where would you be what would you be doing almost all of us 95% of us not all of us but 95% of us would probably say the same exact answer somewhere else doing something else now think about that like at any given moment all of us if given the choice would be somewhere else doing something else like there's something off about that I think and it might be what we're doing is wrong where we are is wrong but it might be something deeper than that it might be might be the fact that our perspective is off I still kind of want to start this morning like that is our perspective dialed in for am I right here right now and do I see that as a gift because the perspective of a man of faith the perspective of a Catholic man essentially is this is that I've been given a gift that every single moment that we're living is a gift and that if I constantly am wanting to be somewhere else doing something else one of the things that means is I'm missing out on the gifts that the Lord is trying to give me at this moment in during this thing because the perspective of a Catholic is I can never find Christ in the past I can't find Christ in the future the only place I can find the Lord is right here and right now because the past is gone and the future doesn't exist yet but if I'm constantly look constantly either looking back or constantly looking forward I'm missing out on the gift of the present moment but especially as men how many times are we like not present and that's maybe what she says a lot to you where you're not there you're not here you're not with us right now and that's probably true because again we miss out on the gift our perspective might be a little bit skewed but there's respective of a disciple of Jesus is is right on and basically what it means our perspective is is nothing gets wasted nothing gets wasted maybe even in this moment is not the greatest moment in this place is not the greatest place but in the Lord nothing is wasted as some of you know who is the Blessed Stanley Rother is he Stanley Rother now or is he Blessed now? Blessed. Blessed Stanley Rother from Oklahoma our Bishop was our bishop was was telling me about him a couple weeks ago a couple months ago and one of the things he noted is he said yes Blessed Stanley Rother is life he knew grew up on a farm in Oklahoma and he really struggled in school and really struggled in seminary in fact I think they made him take a couple breaks because he was not the most academically sharp guy but during that time during those breaks you know imagine as a seminarian he'd be like what the I'm supposed to be a priest like how can I move forward how can God use me if I keep getting sent away from the seminary to go back to work on the farm they kept sending keep getting sent away from the seminary to go work on whatever this this project or that project ultimately when Father Stanley was was ordained they sent him down to Central America and because of this is remarkable because of the time that he spent not in formation because of the time that he said okay Stanley you have to go home and work the farm because at that time that he spent not where he wanted to be not doing what he wanted to do he was able to actually teach the indigenous people there the farming techniques that he learned in those breaks he was able to raise them up in a unique way that he wouldn't have been able to do unless he had been sent away from what he wanted to do being where he wanted to be why because the big takeaway and this whole thing is with God nothing is wasted nothing gets wasted if given to him and so again especially if this morning if I'd rather be in other places doing other things in different chairs nothing is wasted because what God is doing right now in your life and hopefully in my life he's trying to make us into the men he's called us to be because I don't think I think a lot of us maybe some of you are already the man God has called you to be but I think a lot of us are still becoming them in God is calling us to be and so one of the things you know this morning we're gonna talk about is what are the marks of that kind of man like not just like what are they where those men do because we could go through the list here's that you need to do with your checklist of like you do this do this do that but what are the more what are the characteristics what kind of a person kind of a man is a mature Catholic man I see that as one of the questions we want to answer this morning so all of us can be that I think the first question you have to ask of course is like what is it to be a man like ultimately at the heart of it what is it what is it what is it when do you know you're a man and I think if we just kind of take it took a took a beat and like looked inside he's asked the question those of you who are men that other men see you as men when did you know you are a man because in our culture there's very there's it's very rare that there's a moment where someone steps into a man's life and says okay you're a man now so we have to kind of guess at it we don't have a lot of those those kind of those rites of passage that in other cultures they rely upon to say okay you were a boy yesterday and now you're not anymore now we're bestowing manhood upon you so we have to guess at it we're like oh I was a man when I drove my own car like okay that's not true um we all know that's not true I'm a man when I turned 18 I can buy my own cigarettes or whatever the thing is sorry I got some scratchy tickets you know like no that's not being a man 18 years old I went to college maybe I became a man when I went to college maybe when you got your first job it's like that's when I knew I was a man had my first my first job maybe it was what I have a lot of our college students say my first big boy job but still then they're describing it as a big boy job maybe was getting married your first child with all that that those options like but what what's the one common factor what's the one common denominator the difference between I was a boy and now I'm a man and I don't think it's external I think it's internal I think the first mark of a man is very very simple it's um to be an adult is to take a responsibility like to be to take responsibility I think about the students that I work with the young men I work with on the college campus they can be anywhere from 18 years old to about 24 years old because some we have a graduate school in medical medical school on campus and look at some of those 18 year olds and I just think of all the scenes of D-Day that I've ever seen you know the beach of Normandy I think these guys are roughly the same age the whole you know 18 to 24 years old beyond I think in the Battle of the Bulge like reading those stories of those men who were there yeah in Europe or in the Pacific Theater I just think of like those men they're the exact same age and I think I wonder the question keeps coming up like what's the difference between those men who served and these men in front of me and I don't think it I don't think it's it's it's a difference of like wool these men back in the day they were facing battle they were facing in a conflict they were really thrown into it I think the difference is our forefathers took responsibility first thing the first thing we take responsibility for is a responsibility for ourselves because remember we think about when you were a child when you're a boy like you don't have to tell me where to go I'll go there which is one of the reasons why so many husbands and wives ultimately become a little bit grating on each other because at first he's like tell me where to go wife she's like great I will you know actually I'd be but one of the best sins for men is is gonna be passivity one of the things that men are at men are inclined what are inclined towards more inclined toward passivity and one of the settings sins that women are inclined towards is control and at first in a relationship that works out great you tell me what to do that's great you you're taking I don't have to do anything you're gonna take control wonderful awesome she's like great finally I can take control and like you're letting me take control this is wonderful and it works out well for a little while and then all of a sudden what happens is like what the heck how come I don't get to make any decisions and not she's saying what that why won't you take any responsibilities just start to do the thing mm-hmm testify because to be a man to ultimately be a man I need to reject passivity I need to embrace responsibility to be a man ultimately I need to reject that passivity that's in all of us and to embrace responsibility again first for myself and then for other people to embrace responsibility first for myself and then for other people but the problem of course with that is that um I'd rather be somewhere else doing something else but if that's you that's not a problem well it is a problem but it's not a new problem it's actually goes back to the its oldest it's a tailless all this time and it goes back to that the Desert Fathers say now have you ever heard of the you heard the the sin of sloth some people say sloth but that reminds me of that three-toed thing so the sin of sloth or the sin of acedia a lot of them people think that's a sin of just laziness it's not the sin of sloth ultimately comes down to this it comes down to I would rather be somewhere else doing something else rather than embracing this moment and embracing a respondent irresponsibility that's been given to me in this moment so the Desert Fathers would write about this they called acedia the noonday devil because they they were out in the in the wilderness or how it is in a desert in there a little Hut and they had already gotten up you know that in the cool of the morning they'd already said their morning prayers and now what they had to do between 10 o'clock in the morning and roughly 2 in the afternoon these had to sit there and pray in the desert under the Sun in a hut they hadn't yet had the meal at the end of the day but the coolness of the morning has worn off and burned away and now it's that middle of the day where it's just like nothing seems to be happening I just want to go somewhere else they said those are the moments when they had all the great ideas of like you know what I could do I can go back into the town and I can help so many people and I give you right now is that good I could go and do this it'll be such a great idea you know I should do right now I should go and do something else somewhere else which is one of the reasons why acedia or sloth is not foreign to us we might experience it every day we definitely experience it in our lifetime since the called a midlife crisis I mean think about the beginning of one's life there's so much promise it's fresh it's new it's like what could I possibly do and then you start a course and chart this course and here in the middle of that day from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock it seems like nothing's changing nothing's happening I don't know how to get up and I go to work and I do the thing and like yeah promotions where it used to happen and innovation used to happen and excitement used to be there and now it's kind of the same people doing the same thing every day until I retire not yet there I'm not where I was and something in this makes me just want to be somewhere else doing something else the desert Father said when it when a man experiences that in his life the best thing you can do is to embrace it the best thing you can do is just like say no I'm planted here like I'm not moving I'm going to engage with this with everything I've got why because member with the Lord nothing's wasted in one of the things that gets so frustrating is that everyone's counting on me now I actually I can not only can I not choose to leave like I can't leave I imagine a lot of men in this room have experienced this it's one thing you know it's a it's like it's like Lent right it's one thing to not eat meat on Friday because you just don't want some it's another thing to not eat meat because someone else told you not to eat meat and now they're saying no no it's not an option anymore you can't and you feel like all stifled like I don't I don't like this as much I'm not free and that's again this mid life this this is time of acedia I'd rather be somewhere else doing something else but I can't why because I have to be here I don't I don't even have a choice anymore if that's you I got I gotta ask you please for your own sake for the sake of your family for the sake of your parish for the sake of like society don't leave don't run like embrace it because this is that's when mature men are formed there's taking responsibility as young man it's exciting being given responsibility and embracing it as a middle-aged or older man is less glamorous it's less fun but it's more important it's more important why because so many of us so many of us happen by that midday had been lulled to sleep so many missed by the midday band lulled to sleep and I think I was thinking about this because um in in the Scriptures in in first Peter chapter 5 St. Peter's writing to the community but let's say he's just writing to us he's writing to you and he says he says as he says came in be sober and vigilant your opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion lion looking for someone to devour resist him steadfast in your faith knowing that your fellow believers in this context your fellow men throughout the world undergo the same suffering so you think about this your point of the devil's probably like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour resist him solid in your faith we realize you know we have an enemy we have we have the world we have the flesh as our enemies we also have the devil we have the evil one as our enemy as well as well as Saint Peter says that he prowls like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour but it's interesting because I was looking at like a National Geographic type TV show and it was following a pride of lions and it was showing how how Lions actually fight so imagine here's a pride of lions and there's like the alpha lion like that the lead male at one you know numerous points in that lead males life one of the young lions the young male lions will come up and and challenge the older lion for to lead the pride right and it's interesting because they they highlighted this see how they kind of challenge each other it's really interesting because it's kind of like how human beings challenge each other at first at least because what they'll do is the young guy the young lion will kind of walk by the older line I just got give my shoulder and I was like that's like in the bar that doesn't happen at a bar you're standing there all of a sudden some guy walks by and just kind of I'm not gonna move you're like what is this what we're doing now okay I guess you know but that's all it is it's basically saying what are you gonna do the young lion comes by little shoulder what are you gonna do and it always starts subtle doesn't it like when it comes to that battle the battle we experienced the battle we face especially particularly when it comes to evil when it comes after us it always starts with like that what are you gonna do I'm gonna back down you're gonna run away are you gonna engage if we're lulled to sleep in this kind of sense of like I want to I want to brace passivity and reject responsibility what are you gonna do but then the next step is so remarkable is when the lines and end up funny when that when the when the lead male says okay I'm gonna fight the young guy coming up and they attack each other what they noted was they don't go for the face they don't go for like each other's jugulars or anything when two lions two male lions fight they go for each other's genitals basically the basically they're trying to castrate the other lion that's that's that that's the fight right there is all I get that's what they know they write the male line now know is that if you're challenging me all I need to do is castrate you and then you're no longer a threat you can't lead this pride if you are emasculated so all I need to do that's all I need to do I don't even need I don't need to destroy you you know Scripture devil prowls like a like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour no I don't like the Satan doesn't even have to devour us as men all he has to do is castrate us all he has to do is render us powerless so we're no longer a threat and so what are the ways what are the ways they in your life in my life that I've allowed Satan to castrate me meaning I've allowed him to render me powerless that to Satan he looked at you were me and he says you're not even a threat are you kidding me you're not even willing to embrace normal responsibilities of a man much less a mature Catholic man you're no threat to me powerless that's a lot of us I think because we've allowed that strength with a lot of that power to be taken from us but the first mark of a Catholic man is he takes responsibility and he's willing to fight takes responsibility he's willing he's willing to engage takes responsibility he says okay I'm not gonna be lulled to sleep I'm not gonna choose comfort over truly choosing heroism like truly choosing heroism so what's the Catholic man gonna do he's gonna strive to neck in that second second mark of a Catholic man he's gonna strive to be competent because we need to be responsible but we have to also strive to be competent in fact we must strive to be competent because we need to be men who are men of freedom and men of power need to be men of freedom and of power but how often do we can feel powerless why because I've been taken out I've been I don't know what to do I mean I've been driving embracing passivity for so long that now it comes time someone says 'hey men got to lead your family like I do it she does it what does it mean lead my family okay kids were going to church now for now on that's what we're doing you lay down the law done I told them told them I'm going to church I need to be calm I need to become competence which means I need to train myself there's this church word let's now it's Church word but used to not be a church word if the church the word is asceticism you guys heard of asceticism asceticism basically means penance you know the penances we pick up whether it's in Lent or and other times we're alive but I said as an asceticism originally didn't mean penance ascesis ASCESIS, asceticism, actually is a Greek word that means training so asceticism is training so Lent, a time of asceticism not just a hold of time opponents oh gosh I gave up sweetener in my coffee well really good for you that's wonderful but is it training because it helped me become as it helping me become more and more free more and more powerful more and more competent we need to become men of competence when men of training that's why I'm say St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians chapter 9 he writes this he says don't you know that all the runners in the stadium they all run the race but only one wins the prize run so as to win every athlete exercises discipline in every way they do it to win a perishable crown but we an imperishable one thus I do not run aimlessly I do not fight as if I were shadow boxing no I drive my body and I train it ascesis so that after having preached to others I myself may not be disqualified this recognition of like okay that's what I need to do my ascesis my self-denial my training is oriented towards becoming a man of competence doesn't have to be competence in any one particular area because some of you are really good at computers some of you really got to teach so we are great at administration some are really good at coaching or whatever the thing is that you're good at that's wonderful and every man needs to become competent in something but every single one of us needs become competent in this one thing in this training of sainthood this discipline of being able to act when it's time to act people to fight when it's time to fight to be able to lead the people in our circle when it's time to lead them and also yes the ability to serve when it's time to serve them because competence isn't just being that you know the the Big Shot on the block you know competence isn't just being the one who can do the the big grandstanding thing competence is I'm able to serve my bride when she needs me to serve her I'm able to serve my children when they need me to serve them I'm able to serve I perish when they need me to serve them you're single guy I need to be able to serve my friends my parents when they need me to serve them that's competence and that competence is power that that power ultimately is freedom but I can't get there unless I become a man of ascesis a man of asceticism a man of training and everything I love that there's a young man here as well like younger guys because the Good News is it's you're not you're never too late to start you're also you're not too young to start it when it comes to becoming competent when comes that training you're not it's never too late to start but guys it is also you are not too young to start this training you start this training in asceticism this training of competence is training of like I don't want it what I want to do now is live in such a way that when the Lord calls me to something that where he needs me to be there he needs me to show up ready that I can show up ready so one of my favorite stories one of here four people in the whole Bible is David from you know the Old Testament David I love this guy and so you all know the story right there when David comes on the scene and his first kind of big moment is the Philistine Giants his name is gonna lie you're awake still um that y'all look away I'm just kidding um well Goliath challenges the zero Israelite army and he not only insults the Israelites he insults the Lord and David here's this is like oh no oh no oh no you are not not only are you not insulting the Israelite army you are not insulting my God you know the challenge of course was like let's not have these two armies fight let's just have two guys fight that way no one else one guy has to die that's it Goliath comes out and says just send one guy out nobody goes out there no one was ready to move everyone else what are they someone else is gonna do it someone else is gonna do it I can embrace passivity and reject responsibility because someone else is gonna they would be a better fighter anyways than I am I mean I don't want to say that I'm the guy so you have this passivity have an inability passivity and powerlessness in the whole Israeli army and then David comes up and he was just a kid and he says well I'll fight him and I love this is from First Samuel chapter 17 he goes to sking Saul and he says I'll fight Goliath and in Saul says this Saul says actually David's first says let your Majesty not lose courage I'm at your service to go and fight this Philistine just put yourself in Saul's shoes for just one moment you've been kind of holed up on this one Hill a looking across the valley of a lot at the other monstrous army of the Philistines and the monster Goliath has come down to challenge for weeks and months now and this boy comes up don't be afraid I'm here and so Saul responds in the way we didn't imagine him to respond he said you can't go up against this Philistine and fight with him because you're only a youth he's been a warrior since his youth but then David gives this answer that just like it this is what makes me love David then David told Saul well I used to attend my father's sheep and whenever a lion or a bear came to carry off a sheep from the flock I would go after it and attack it and rescue its prey from its mouth like oh yeah like this out David spends his summers weights now that kind of it's like I played a lot Xbox so like I know how to do this you know you have no idea on what level and call duty I'm at like I'm like super like I've been in battle you know whenever a lion or a bear would come up I would go after it and attack it and risk his prey for his mouth then he goes on to say if it attacked me I would seize it by the jaw strike it and kill it and I've served I've killed both the lion and a bear and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them because he has insulted the armies of the Living God I mean think of that boldness but think of that competence he did not waste his youth period he'd mean that waste is youth he didn't waste his life he didn't say well my brothers are off you know fighting but I have to be the shepherd here no this is training why because perspective God doesn't waste anything there's no experience in your life that if handed over to the Lord he can't use transform and make into something incredible here's David I have to be a shepherd so I'm you know I'm gonna do I'm gonna fight I'm gonna train I'm gonna be competent I become a competent Shepherd so the later on I can become a competent warrior and later on can become a competent King everything everything can be used in your life say well I wasted up till now to then change even handing your past as broken as it might be over to the Lord means okay Lord you have it now now you can use it take that straw of mine and weave it something amazing you can allow him to use this so you and I can become a kind of people through acesis through asceticism through training the kind of people that he wants us to meet made us to be it doesn't have to be huge actually here's the here's a little freebie um it can be something small it could be something really small could be something so easy that you hate me for it there's a saint named St. Josemaria Escriva and he's awesome he's so great but he proposed a thing called the heroic minute and it's one it's really big one moment really big among our college students who are trying to grow in competence and trying to grow in that freedom that power because the aerobic heroic men minute is something that happens at least once every day and it doesn't hurt anyone to do it but it's incredibly difficult Josemaria Escriva said the heroic minute is the moment the alarm goes off in the morning you wake up and get out of bed he was very anti snooze button what am I think about think about what goes into that first of all he says it doesn't hurt it's the kind of penance acesis training that anyone can do and it will never hurt you like sometimes well I don't want to fast too much because you know I need to keep my strength up like oh I don't want to give up this or that because I need to like getting up on time doesn't hurt anybody but it's very very difficult because it involves at least at least two things it involved taking responsibility for deciding ahead of time when I'm going to get up that tomorrow how many times no maybe some of you men are like listen that was the decision I made fifty years ago I'm good I figured that problem out like wonderful that's good but not everyone in this room is where you're at because many people many of us when we go to bed the night before unless there's something we have to do we don't decide when we're gonna wake up I'm gonna get up wrong this time maybe if I want to work out maybe I was at the alarm for early in case I want to say feel like getting up and working out newsflash you're not gonna feel like getting up and working out I'm gonna set my alarm because maybe I'll get up and pray tomorrow morning you know if I have extra time again just this just in you will not feel like getting up and praying tomorrow morning but the night before in the heroic minute involves means the night before I decided this is what I'm gonna do this is when I'm going to get up taking responsibility for my life and the second thing that involves is integrity in the moment of choice I've decided ahead of time this is the kind of man I want to be the one who gets up at 5:15 that's that is me then when the alarm goes off at 5:15 okay this is this is it this is integrity in the moment of choice because that's the third that's the third mark of a Catholic man responsibility competence and integrity integrity I was I was thinking about myself you know in to praying over this and talking about where I lead a group of men on campus and we were talking about what is it what what are the character what's the character of a Catholic man Oh a man that you know I'm grown up and one of the one of the things was the ability the ability to look another man whom you respect in the eyes and just meet his gaze like and then seven the young men were like what do you mean I said because you know Phil came out you're looking into the eyes of a man you respect and you know if you have some fracture in yourself you want to look away you want to maybe is this also true with your brides it is also true with your wife whom you probably love and respect then if you feel this fracture in your own life and she's looking at you right in the eyes just like I can't meet your gaze why because I lack this thing called integrity but there's something about again there's something about the power of like knowing I've embraced responsibility even as imperfect as I am and breaks responsibility I've strived to become a a man of competence in this area of just like no I can tell myself to move and I will move I have the ability to do what I said I was gonna do competence not only to have the ability I do it integrity because competence is the ability to do what you said you're gonna do integrity is doing what you said you were gonna do every man in this room has been consecrated by Jesus Christ as a son of God every man in this room has been anointed by the Holy Spirit and set on mission I don't I don't I don't know if you I don't know how well all of us have been in pure eyes that but every man in this room has been consecrated and sent on mission you've all been anointed right because we know when you were baptized priest places hand on you or the Deacon of the Bishop with holy oil instead I know you priest prophet and King you're anointed that anointed one is Christ right Christ means anointed one straw a little anointed ones a little like Christitoes all consecrated for a mission you know David was also an anointed one when San where the Prophet came along and he said no your anointed the next king of Israel and he gave David this mission and David grew incompetence took responsibility and tried to walk in integrity but that what happened was something later on as David got older David stopped walking in integrity and it's also one of the reasons I love David but it's also one of the reasons it's hard to love David because David started out so well without embracing responsibility and growing in competence training himself asceticism and having integrity but then what happened was this is just it gets deadly you know you you fast-forward a couple chapters and then what you find is who exchanged in second Samuel second Samuel chapter 11 you see David who's been consecrated and put on mission living off mission here's what it looks like doesn't happen it doesn't happen all at once Chapter eleven second samuel at the turn of the year when Kings go out on campaign David sent out Joab along with his officers and the army of Israel so pause sometimes I think a lot of times when we think of Kings of you know kingdoms or nations whatever we often have the maybe not you but I often have the image of like the the king was sits back you know on his big throne and they have the palm fronds and they kind of fan him and feeding him grapes kind of a thing but the real vision of kingship back in the ancient world was that the king was the one who defended his people the king was a warrior for his people the king didn't send his people into battle the king led his people into battle so the king was a warrior for the people and so then you have this first line in chapter 11 where at the turn of the year when Kings go out in battle David sent out Joab and his armor bearers while he himself remained in Jerusalem red flag number one David sent a mission to be anointed what to fight for his people but he's asked them where else is gonna do this does that look at David's embracing responsibility no he's embracing passivity you're gonna do that you're faithful to me you're loyal to me awesome yeah go out and take care of that meanwhile David remain in Jerusalem first - one evening David rose from his siesta okay it's not like David had to stay back listen guys I need to stay back in Jerusalem because there's a lot of stuff going on I got I got budget meetings I've got some other strategic we have planning a building like he rose from his siesta while all of his men are out in the back in battle like what the heck David strike two now do what you should be doing rose from a siesta and strolled about the roof of the palace from the roof he saw a woman woman bathing who was very beautiful red like number three okay walking on your roof like whoa oh gosh okay ceiling scene you know ceiling scene when I was growing up we watching a movie if there's ever like something inappropriate on the on the screen my parents would always say ceiling scene way to look up so David strolling around the roof of the palace sees a woman bathing she was very beautiful okay whoa oh gosh okay never mind what is it was David knew him David that enquiries made about the woman and was told well she's Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Joab's armor-bearer Uriah the Hittite and that woman you think they say okay gosh I didn't realize married woman okay whatever just cold shower go home you know kind of a thing but then it says David sent for her think about this like this is here's David anointed on mission like meant to be great what's the theme call it to greatness made for greatness and actually embracing that responsibility and living in that confidence and living an integrity for so long but all doesn't he just starts to slide all of a sudden he just starts to slide and that slide starts with I'm not gonna do what I'm supposed to do I'm just gonna stay here and then when I'm here I'm not even gonna do this I'm just gonna see what else is on Netflix and it's kind of binge watch some shows and order in and then there's okay that's inappropriate I should look away now I'm not gonna then it's like oh no she's off-limits like I don't care he sent for her have relations with her and then sent her home that's this is the story he sent for her have relations with her and then sent her home now we have a problem today with men treating women badly but even this hero in the Bible had a problem treating women badly that's why again if you this is a description or maybe a chapter of your life maybe it's a chapter you're living in right now David still a hero in the Bible because something else happens but it gets worse before it gets better because he'd probably know the story comes back who Bathsheba sends word to him and says I'm with child and so David freaks out David says how am I gonna cover this up so he tells Joab to send Uriah the husband back to Jerusalem to report to him how things are going so David eats with Uriah husband of the woman that he just slept with him got pregnant tries to get him drunk and send him back home but Uriah is man who's on mission and lives on mission a man of integrity who lived with integrity and Uriah says no man asleep at the gates because I can't go home to my wife when my brothers are out in battle David hears about this and calls him says why didn't you go back to your wife and he says that he says because far be it for me I'm just a I'm faithful to my brothers I can't go to see my wife right now because that won't be fair to them so that night David tries to get him drunk again it sends him back home he'll get him drunk it got a little frisky and have to go back home but Uriah still a man of integrity says no I can't I'm living on mission so you have this man has made for Mission who's living off mission and this man was made for mission Uriah who's living on mission so much so that what's david do david has to arrange to have Uriah killed he sends a note with Uriah to give to Joab saying put Uriah at the front and when the fighting gets fiercest pull back and let him get struck down and so here's this great king who from his youth has been a man of God from his youth there's been a man of responsibility competence and integrity who in this moment has become now an adulterer and a murderer how to start you didn't start with adultery and didn't start with murder it started with I just don't want to do what I'm supposed to be doing I don't want to be where I'm supposed to be doing what I'm supposed to be doing and it becomes this slide the great news is for us and and and for David is that God stopped the slide God stop the slide and David but it meant something had to be broken is there a slide going on in your life right now where you find yourself just like yeah I'm getting closer and closer to that edge I'm getting I'm not you know I'm not the man I thought I was gonna be if you look at the mark of a true Catholic man like I don't know I don't know I'm trying to embrace responsibility I try to become a man of competence but right now I don't know if I'm a man of integrity because I think I'm a man living on a shadow mission they were hearing that term for the first time shadow mission years ago I was reading a book and is recounted the story of this these men on retreat he's a men's retreat kind of like this but like days and they talked about the idea of being made for mission but not living on mission and living for a shadow mission like giving your life to be on this shadow mission instead and and one of the men it talks about this and prayed about this and that night I'd run a campfire but when things kind of got quiet he was sat there and he's poking at the fire with a stick and he said out of nowhere he said just my shadow mission guys you need to know this my shadow mission is when late at night when my wife and kids have gone to sleep I go to our computer and I engage in destructive behavior while the rest of the world can go to hell and the guys that never on the circle kind of chuckled like haha too much information but he stopped he said no you you need to know this while my wife and my kids are in bed I go to our family computer and I engage in destructive behavior while the rest of the world can go to hell and that's my shadow mission here's a man of Jesus a man of Christ a Catholic man is meant to live for others it meant to live on mission yet so many of us have been taken away castrated MIT rendered powerless by that shadow mission we're gonna dig n again it doesn't have to be that doesn't have to be that way that's the fourth mark fourth mark talking with this young man he's a senior this year he gratis graduating in two months I said Peter when will you know that you're grown up when will you know that you're a man after God's own heart and he said I think this I think I think when I have a hold of my sexuality in such a way that I never want to use another human being I'm holding my sexuality and I never want to look at a woman never want to use a woman in the wrong way then up they don't know that I'm grown up I'm no longer a child nor a boy no longer moved by my emotions about my hormones but I have control of that of course I'll have sexual thoughts course on sexual desires but um they're not in control of me another guy said when I can look at other people and not ask what can they do for me but when I look at other people and say how can I serve them and I took both of their answers and I said so basically both of those things are you'll know you're a man when you're no longer selfish they said yeah I don't want to use her from my own lusts I don't want to use this person for my own advancement I'm a longer selfish now but the Christian word for selflessness is called charity C.S. Lewis writes about this and he says back if you asked if you asked Christians these days this was back in 1920 or 1930 mass Christians these days what's the highest Christian virtue they would say selflessness but he says that's not actually accurate selflessness is a negative thing it's like holding yourself back from being selfish the positive Christian virtue is called charity or love it's the first mark forth mark of a Catholic man is love that he's he's the kind of man who can love and when I say love it I mean like Valentine's Day like you know like you've buy your wife flowers or whatever again it's I'm in power to be able to say I will not I cannot I do not permit myself to use another person for my own gain around pleasure I want to will the good of the others all those people around me I want to will their good it's an active thing right it's not passive I reject passivity I'm embracing responsibility of saying like no I become a man who actually can love it can love really really well I'm taking responsibility for this but to live like that would look very different it's live like that would would would make you look weird that's why it's one of the reasons I think that one of the things that gets us and though gets in the way of our being authentic Catholic men a mature Catholic men is because we don't like looking weird we want to look like everyone else I think of that I think of how how much that is that's that's driven so many of like so much of what we do what we wear what we drive where the house looks like the kind of job we chose say I don't want to blend and I kinda I just look like everyone else I don't want to stick out to love to truly love like Jesus it says you're gonna look different and I think that a lot of ways we don't want to look different in fact um when we start looking different people get freaked out I got an email but I must been a year ago I got an email from a mom and her son was in college not our college but at a different College and he had gone to a Catholic college students conference and she wrote to me cuz she said he came back from this conference you know she said my sent my sweet my husband and I sent our son our one son to Catholic high school K through 12 Catholic High School we paid a lot of money to go send the Catholic High School then we then he went to this other you know public school because it had a really good Newman Center and he went to this conference and all of a sudden explain this to me what happened because now he goes to daily Mass and now he's in a Bible study and now like in discipleship whatever that is and now he's looking at moving in with some other men who are Catholic next year looking at a lease with them and I didn't even know that about two weeks ago he went on the seminary visit and didn't even tell me till after he got back what did they do to my son as his member reading this going like okay I what is happening here I just like she was so upset she was so upset because her son was wanting to be a common disciple of Jesus and I just kept looking I had to write back and I honestly I wrote maybe 12 drafts of this email because I'm like calm down just calm down just calm just delete delete delete okay rewrite this how would I but basically I head right back and say um so you spent a lot of money K through 12 sending him to Catholic school because you wanted your son to be a nice boy you spent you sent your kids to Catholic school because he wanted to be wanted him to be a good kid you sent you spent all this time all this effort bringing him to Mass all this time because he wanted him to be a good citizen who paid his taxes and stayed out of jail but you didn't send him to this place cause you wanted him to be a disciple of Jesus you just wanted him to be nice you didn't want him to be someone who loves you wanted him to be someone who fit in think about that 12 years of Catholic education thousands and thousands of dollars so that my son would be a good kid that is aiming way too low way too low and now now that he actually is taking it seriously the call of Jesus Christ you're freaking out I said I think the problem isn't with your son I think the problem is with you and hit Send and then quickly rewrote another email saying I'm sorry if I was a little too harsh than that last email eight hours later she had already responded and to her credit to her credit her heart was open and she was like yeah you're right she I was just afraid all these other moms that had gone to the school you know high school with my son all the other moms were talking about how their their kids were you know living the college life and that was worried that if he lived like this then he would be weird that he'd be odd but I get it and that's the thing dads you know man college these days I've been on the college campus for the last 13 years camp college these these days is so much different than it was when even I graduated 20 live or 20 years ago so much different and if your sons or your daughters are not living the average college life experience that's a really good thing I don't want to be different I don't want to look if I don't want them to look different again that's nothing new either that's something new either because I mean think about Scripture in the Old Testament when when our Lord the Lord God delivered the people of Israel from slavery and he led them into the Promised Land after 40 years of wandering in the desert he gave them all these rules you're gonna have to wear different clothing you have to eat kind of different different ends of food let me think about you you're not going to be able to eat lobster or bacon then Jesus came and we can eat bacon now and life is good but you can't you have to have your hair a different way why because you have to look differently and talk differently you have to live differently because you're gonna want to fit in but you can't fit in again not because you're better but because you're mine and Catholic men telling you this is the truth that if we want to actually be Catholic men in this culture we're going to have to live differently that kind of love that love is going to look defiant that's the four plus one mark of a Catholic man in this culture is you're going to have to be defiant this won't this mom she wanted her son to be a nice boy she want him to be a good kid and you know what being agreeable and our culture is really nice being agreed people like people in our culture who are agreeable I like people I like being agreeable but if you're going to be a Catholic man you have to be defined as well have to be defined is the last thing you're going to have to be defiant yeah I live in Duluth Minnesota which is about as far from Washington DC as you can get I mean it is kind of the hub of politics and you know Midwest a lot of important people like rub elbows with you guys no way more than I do about the state of things I don't want to be alarmist but I think what's the next thing that's gonna be taken I think if we keep going the way we're going is religious liberty I mean has already been a number of assaults on that front but not a lot of push back a bit but not in proportion to the attack and again I don't want to be alarmist about this but I think the next thing is gonna be taken is gonna be religious liberty and I don't think it'll make a difference in the lives of most Catholic men because even if religious liberties taken away you'll still be able to go to Mass on Sunday that's what you're doing with your private time you keep in Mass inside the church walls even if religious liberties taken away you still be able to you know pray a rosary in private if you want it for religious liberty is taken away nope no problem it probably you'll still be able to send your kids to religious ahead and drop them off and not have any conversations with them about what they're learned or what they didn't learn I just pardon me things like yeah we're never taken away why because we have it now what the hell are you doing with it I mean everyone in this room we've had religious liberty for over 200 years what have you done with it I use it to go to church in the leave Church at church I use it again this is it the drop my kids off our lives ed let someone else teach them about who God is I use it to just kind of be like everyone else and you have I've had religious liberty our entire lives and I've done virtually I don't know about you're in dear interior life I don't know the details of your life but I've done virtually nothing with it why cuz we don't think we need to be defiant just want to live like everyone else hit this cultures winning there's a man um a couple years ago I heard his story incredible man he grew up in Luzon region of China and in the Lausanne region of China apparently it's still illegal to be Catholic like the real Catholic Church and so in order to have Mass they would have to have these clandestine Masses in the middle of the night or the priest would have to sneak under the cover of darkness over to their homes and their neighbors who are Catholic would would join them in secret and all throughout Mass in middle that 3 a.m. they'd have to have you know sentries position outside the homes watching to see if anyone was coming the authorities were coming one one night after Mass had wrapped up one of the sentries Ryan had ran in and sent sound of the alarm so everyone's scattered except this man who that was his even his family ran away but it was his home so he had to stay there authorities came in they could tell that Mass had been celebrated there so they arrested him for the next three to four weeks they stripped him naked they starved him they burned him and cut him any I want to point he said that they they had jerry-rigged you know what a cattle prod is? An electric cattle prod? They jerry-rigged it so you can you can you can mess with it so it has up to 1 million volts and they tied him to you know the wall and they just used that cattle prod on various parts of his body saying you just tell us who the priest is just tell us where the priest is let's just listen if you tell us where he is you can go home to your family if you tell us where he is this is all over with if you can tell us where he is then we get you you're free and this man he's amazing this man is a hero he didn't he didn't tell cause he knew he knew that if I told where the priest was then my family won't have Mass for the next who knows how many years and if I tell where the priest says my neighbors won't have Mass for who knows how many years and we can't I cannot live without the Mass when they found out they after he knows only couple weeks they will not break this guy they sent him home anything about this this man hero this is this was a couple years ago this isn't like 20 years ago this is more like 10 years ago this man like a hero for the Eucharist a hero for the church a hero for the Lord Jesus it's incredible the amount of pain he suffered in fighting for our Eucharist in fighting for our Lord pretty soon after they sent him back home he and his family escaped and they came to the United States they don't live very far from here couple hours and they got to the states in to me immediately was awesome he said it immediately it was just like we did not only can we go to Mass every day I can walk my family down the street and publicly walk into a Catholic Church so they would do that every morning they get up and he would just he would lead his wife he'd lead his family into mass just rejoicing the fact that I don't have to fight anyone to get here but he also realized that you know America is an awesome country and in America more or less if you work hard you can get more money and if you work harder you can get even more money so he said I want to provide for my family the way of opportunities here I never had back in China she started working so hard he's like listen I can't go to daily Mass with you guys anymore but you take the kids after a couple years of that I can't a couple months of that he found out that you get some extra overtime if he worked on Sundays too so we found himself occasionally missing Mass on Sunday and then it became he would only go to Mass on Christmas and Easter in the last I heard it was maybe two years ago Easter like two years ago he didn't even go to Mass and think about this this man is a hero for the Eucharist and he literally bled for Jesus's body blood soul and divinity I know he doesn't go to Mass and the man who shared that story with me he said I want you to pay attention to this and I'm fighting you to pay attention to this as well don't miss this or this country what communism couldn't do what torture couldn't do what being burned and being electrocuted and being starved couldn't do our culture was able to do and it didn't even have to try taking this hero of a man and making him absolutely powerless castrated no longer a threat that man in China was a threat Satan hate hated hates him that man could lead his family to heaven that man that man was dangerous and that man was the kind of man who was leading not only his family but people around him closer and closer to God in this culture he is powerless he's by this culture he's been castrated in this culture he's no longer a threat what that culture couldn't do and that battle couldn't do our culture did and didn't even have to try men here's the reality to be a Catholic man in this day and age be a Catholic man in this culture in this world and in this place we're gonna have to be men who reject passivity and embrace responsibility we have to be men who are actually deep in training and asceticism in ascesis and saying like every day I want to trained more and more to be like Jesus we trained more and more to be like the Son loving the Father men and women men who can not only not only can do what we need to do we need to do it but do what we need to do when we need to do it men of integrity and mineral willing to love enough to be different to love enough to look different to love enough to be defiant my guarantee is if we become men like that responsibility competence integrity love and defiance there is no way with our Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit there is no way that this culture this whole world and especially your families won't be redeemed for Jesus Christ I'll glory be to the Father to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen the Father Son Holy Spirit amen

Channel: Catholic Diocese of Arlington

Views: 202,955

Rating: 4.890686 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, Diocese, Arlington, church, Catholic Church, Father Mike Schmitz, priest, social media

Id: M7VkO9tNB5w

Length: 69min 34sec (4174 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 05 2018