I'm giving up being stupid for Lent. Hi my
name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents. Let's talk about Lent. When it comes to Lent you know we have to do something, we have to
give up something for Lent, obviously, we all have this. But one of the things that
we typically can do, we can fall into the trap of either seeing Lent as like this is
the time I really just challenge myself and try to do something impossible not
because it's like a good thing for me to do, but just kind of like I wonder if I
can do something difficult. Or we do the opposite, we like we do something so
minimal that it actually makes no difference in our life and hardly even
noticed it. I once knew a woman who would give up eating watermelon for Lent in
Minnesota in the wintertime. She may or may not have been one of my sisters. Or
or we do that with a whole twofer the twofer thing like, "Well I mean I guess
I've been meaning to lose some weight anyways and I'm ... if I gave up snacking
then maybe I get you know two-for-one," kind of thing. No, that's not bad but it
misses the point. The point of Lent is what? Well, where's the origin of Lent?
Back in the day like like almost 2000 years ago, almost—only a couple
centuries shy—people came into the Church, it was a long process. In the last
little stretch of time in that coming into the Church was a season called the
season of purification and enlightenment. The whole idea was this, "OK, what's still in my life that can't be in my life if I'm going to follow
after Jesus. So I need be purified of that." Second thing, that enlightenment, is
"What are the ways which I need to take steps to follow after Jesus to get
closer to him and to start conforming them, conforming my life, to his." How can I let
God use this time in me to make me the person he wants me to be? How do I be a
saint? So you can realize this. OK, so giving up some M&Ms might not make me a
saint. What will? Jesus would often talk about these three areas: prayer, fasting,
and almsgiving. My invitation to you is pick one thing in these three areas—
prayer, fasting, and almsgiving—and do that thing, but when you do it be really
intentional. So when it comes to prayer, OK, what's one thing? What's one kind of
way in which you can develop your relationship with Jesus through prayer
this Lent? So sometimes again people say, "Well I, you know, I'm gonna pray 12
Rosaries a day." Why? "Because it's really tough and I think I'd probably grow." Well
if you think that that is actually what
God's calling you to, then fantastic. Maybe go ahead and try that. I like to
just take time aside and have just 15 minutes, not forever, but just 15 minutes
of reading the Gospels; or I'll listen to them and I'll listen to like the audio
Bible, whatever. You just listen to the Gospels and just kind of sit with Jesus
and walk with him through the Gospels. I'll press pause or I'll stop reading and
just kind of pray and sit with Jesus. Those 15 minutes are so helpful. They're
not like deal breakers in the sense that they're not so difficult, but they are
incredibly helpful because I know that they get me closer to Jesus. So what's
one prayer thing you could do it would actually help you get closer to Jesus.
Second thing: fasting. Now keeping in mind that the Church only asks us to actually
fast on two days: Ash Wednesday at the beginning of Lent and Good Friday, the
day after the end of Lent, or the first day of the Tridium. Good Friday and Ash
Wednesday, and that fast also—I mean you've probably heard about this—it's like what
two small meals and one regular sized meal it's not bigger than both to size
meals, you know, two small meals combined. Whatever. It's not really a fast. It's fun
because I mean the fasting isn't about how hard it is. It's about how is it, how
does it conform our hearts to Jesus. So what kind of fast do you need to
have in your life? You're fast doesn't have to have anything to do with food.
Maybe you'd say well I want to fast from social media, or I want to fast from
something even more particular, from checking my phone all the time. I want to
fast from texting. I mean, I imagine if you're living with someone, if you're living with
your family, if you have some friends, one of the things that they probably notice
is how often you're on your phone. Maybe a fantastic thing to do for you during
Lent is to say, "I'm gonna fast from that I'm only gonna check my phone maybe ..." whatever the thing is. You set it up for yourself, but what's something that you
could get out of your life that will purify your life. I know so many of my
college students—and not just our college students, but college students or
just people young adults—who they're go to, "I'm not doing
anything, Netflix, I'm supposed to be doing something, Netflix." Maybe, maybe if
you say I need to purify my life from some things that are keeping me from the
Lord and Netflix is or Facebook or Twitter, or Instagram, whatever the thing is, it's
keeping me from being present so maybe that's something
you need to fast from. So prayer, fasting. Third thing: almsgiving. The first two are
kind of about you so what do I need to be purified from, what do I ... how do I need
to get close to the Lord? Almsgiving is all about how can I allow
this time, how can I how can I let God use me during this time to bless others.
And now it could actually be, "OK, who am I going to give money to? Could be
about money. But I know other people who will say this, they'll say, "I'm gonna give
time." How do you give time? You can volunteer of course, but that's not an
everyday kind of thing. I know some people who have taken Lent and what
they've done is they've decided that for every day during Lent they're gonna
write a small note short note of encouragement or so short note of
gratitude to people in their lives who they're thankful for, and so at the
beginning of Lent they write down 40 names so it's already decided and then
each day sit down, here's a note write it to the person,
send it in the mail, send it off. And that kind of thing is just like I'm taking
time to bless someone else so it's basically an almsgiving kind of thing.
Now you might decide that you actually want to give money, so a great thing to do
is to do that consistently throughout the entire season of Lent. One
of the most common things we have of course in our churches is we have Catholic
Relief Services and so you have those Operation Rice Bowl, the cardboard thing
you pop it into a box and it's really cool, sits on the on the countertop. Now
that's great but here's the thing, we have to do it
like Jesus would do it. So would Jesus throw his leftover pennies that he
didn't even want in Operation Rice Bowl, and be like, "Hey I'm a good person. I'm
Jesus." That's my voice for Jesus apparently. "I am a good person.
I put some pennies into a box." What is that? Let's be intentional about this. At
the end of Lent when you open up your Operation Rice Bowl, you should only see
silver and green, and white, like green ... dollars right because, because of this:
because how life-transforming for yourself is it if I just throw in what's
left over. Secondly, if we're actually called to be Christians. We're called to
not just give from our surplus. We're actually called to give from our need.
We're actually called to give from our substance, not just our surplus. So this
Lent, what's one thing you're going to do in the area of prayer
that will actually help you get closer to the Lord, one thing in the area of
fasting that will actually purify and get some really some things out
of your life that you just don't need, and what's one thing in your life, one
way that this line you're going to be giving alms or giving back or offering
to other people. Now here's the last thing: When it comes to what you're doing
for Lent should you ever tell anyone? And of course the first reading of the first
day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, is always about don't you left hand know what your
right hand is doing and keep your secret your holy beads private, that kind
of thing, which is awesome because that's what Jesus said. But here's my thing I
think people get a little too preoccupied a little too like sensitive
about, like, "Well I don't want to, you know, tell people what I'm doing for Lent because
that's one get a big head. I don't want to be prideful." Now, here's the thing. You might
be like the most hardcore Catholic on your block in your neighborhood and so
like, "Yeah I'm giving up beer for Lent." "Whoa dude you're hardcore." But if you
realize that there are saints throughout the history of the Church who like
literally gave up food for Lent the entire season of Lent. I'm not saying
that's a good thing to do but I'm just saying that like my, "Oh, I'm giving up coffee"
isn't as hardcore as I think it is and so if I think, "Oh I don't wanna get
prideful or get a big head," like, you won't. It's actually bit more humbling to
say, "What are you doing for Lent?" "Well I'm praying 15 minutes every night." "Oh, thank
you Father that's really intense." Well no it doesn't have to be intense. I know
that it helps. So for you, sometimes if someone asks what you're doing for Lent,
don't worry about being prideful. It's probably not that big of a deal. From all
of us here at Ascension Presents, my name is Father Mike. God bless.
A note about young people who ask Fr. Mike questions on YouTube and are disappointed when they don't get an answer. If you stopped to think about it you'd see how completely consumed his life would be if he spent all that time at the computer. I'll bet he prays quite intentionally every day for people who see his clips. And in fact I have noticed him just once answer a question posed on YouTube. It was after his comments on Indulgences when he didn't mention Purgatory. He responded that is was a complicated subject and we should just give him time. He only rose in my estimation when the one thing that brought him out of hiding was a question about Catholic doctrine.