Why You Can’t Put Your Faith in People

hi my name is hi my name is father mike hi honest father my expenses okay [Music] hi my name's brother mike schmitz and this is ascension presents i've been thinking a lot recently about um some things i've seen in the news i guess for probably a couple years maybe my whole life here's some influential christians i guess you say like that or influential uh christian authors speakers writers teachers that kind of thing who um either disavow christianity like they say like are no longer i'm following christ or i know or believe or have like fallen into some kind of scandal like they've failed to live up to uh what they professed or failed to live up to um in their private life what they proclaimed in their public life what i find maybe more troubling than that is the number of other christians who say because of that i'm really struggling with my faith so because of this the fact that this person who was influential as a christian is now uh struggling like i'm struggling now or because this person who's influential in my life and leading me to christ because they've uh demonstrated that their private life did they did not live what they professed in their public life then now i'm struggling with this and and on one hand again on the other hand again how many hands we have here on one hand you recognize this is this is reality this is why it's called scandal right this is one of the reasons why jesus has these words they're so man so striking where he says if one of you uh leave one of these little ones to sin it'd be better for a millstone giant millstone to be placed around your neck and you're thrown into the sea which is a very graphic image about how serious it is to cause scandal to cause another to stumble to cause another to um uh say what is wrong is right and what is right is wrong so serious in fact one of the more uh poignant moments of seminary for me is we had a class of moral theology uh taught by one of the late professors dr thompson and i remember what he said he said something along the lines we were talking about this he was talking about moral uprightness and in living in integrity and he says i have one word for you men and that word is millstones and it was like just like cut me to the heart like oh my goodness lord there is a line in psalm 69 where it says let not those who hope in you lose faith through me o lord let not those who open you lose faith through me o lord whenever i pray that we pray pretty regularly when we pray the liturgy of the hours it just always just pierces me and i just like lord yeah please you know make these videos and stuff but i know myself like this is the thing i know myself that i want my my interior life to match my exterior life i want how i live in private to completely match up with the call that christ has placed in my heart and that i try to live out in public like but i also know my own woundedness and my own weakness and so here's the thing when i see that in other people when i see the fall when i see the scandal when i see those other things it doesn't surprise me what i mean by that is it can hurt me like i it saddens me and it makes me grieve especially when through the actions of other christians or you know catholic leaders that others are wounded definitely right that that it hurts all of us in fact saint paul said that he said when one of us suffers we all suffer when one of us is strong we all get stronger so we're never isolated we're never it's completely individualistic we're always part of this body and when we choose virtue the whole body gets strengthened and when we choose vice and we are do not live up to what we profess the whole body is wounded whole body suffers and this on a personal note i remember the very first priest i ever like kind of looked up to um i was a kid i remember even him preaching at a thing for world youth day for our diocese and going like oh my gosh hey that's that really awesome priest that used to be in my hometown and then not too long after that hearing that he had done some really serious serious off seriously awful things involving abuse and it was heart-wrenching to hear that um because of the you think of the people that were hurt um and you also think of like oh but i thought ah but he seemed so much better than that you know but i never once that never once made me think wait is christianity true i remember um there was a a priest who came to our my home my hometown my parish a number of times to do parish missions and he was the first priest to ever like call out my vocation in public that he that when i say call out i mean like he through his ministry i was invited to respond in a public way to this reality that i was discerning if god was calling me to be a priest and i went to all his missions and just and just he just convicted my heart and i read a bunch of his books and it just like really helped me along that path and then again same kind of thing later on it turned out that he wasn't living in his private life what he was professing in his public life and again that hard so hard to hear but i never thought wait does that does that does that challenge my vocation is that me it never even occurred to me that i would have to like reassess and discern wait was that real why because i didn't believe in father i didn't put my faith in this priest i knew that they had said words and they had told me things that were true and i was convicted by the reality and the truth of jesus christ i was convicted um and and moved to to discern because of the reality that jesus has founded the church this church that was founded upon 12 apostles all of whom were broken this church was founded upon these these leaders all of whom needed redemption themselves and so one of the things that just i keep going back to is i've never put my faith is here's psalm 149 psalm 49 says put no trust in princes immortal men in whom there is no help so put no trust in princes and mortal men in whom there is no help and have to realize that yeah i've never i've never had faith in a person other than the person of christ i've never had faith in oh here here is this particular pope is the one who he has to be perfect or else i can't believe or this particular priest who has to be perfect or like also can't believe or this particular you know religious education teacher or whoever it is you know that they have to be this influential christian writer or preacher or teacher they have to be perfect or else i won't believe it's like no put no trust in princes and whom a mortal man who in whom there is no help that i realized oh my gosh lord thank you so much i have only placed my faith in you and i just want to invite everyone watching this listening to this reassess and say okay um who are those people who have helped me to christ who who are those people who have if they've proclaimed the truth to me and they've led me to jesus when i find out because here's what's going to happen at some point you're going to find out that they are not the people you thought they were again say this at some point you're going to find out they're you are they are not the people you thought they were in some areas maybe they are more heroic in other areas maybe they're more far more broken and someday all of us will find out that the people who have helped us the most on our way to the lord are not the people we thought they were that might be in this life where you know our our wounds our sins our the evil choices we make are exposed or it will be at the last judgment when all of those decisions when our the story of our lives are laid there at some point every one of us will know that every single person who helped us come to the lord is not who we thought they were both good and for bad but their failings don't need to be an obstacle to your faith their failings don't need to be an obstacle to your faith and someday i'll know your failings and it won't be an obstacle in my faith and someday i know this you will know my feelings but i beg you don't let that be an obstacle to your faith because we put no trust in princes and mortal men in whom there is no help we place our trust in our hope in the lord jesus christ and the father the holy spirit in the church that he founded that is broken but also beautiful that is human but also holy and we say lord in all these things let me put my faith in you let me not be shaken by the failings of others but let them put their hope in you jesus and put their trust in you jesus knowing that we're surrounded by broken people as a broken person anyways i don't just that's that's what i've been reflecting on a lot lately so i don't know maybe that's easier said than done maybe it's it's impossible to do maybe it's being naive maybe it sounds like letting people off the hook for their actions i don't know let me know in the comments below like share subscribe hit that ring that notif note that bell that anyways from all of us here at ascension presents my name's father mike god bless

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 94,434

Rating: 4.9706602 out of 5

Keywords: Fr. Mike, Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Presents, Ascension, Ascension Youtube, Ascension Press, Father Mike Schmitz, Fr. Mike advice, Father Mike advice, fr. mike schmidt, putting your faith in people, faith in man, can’t trust people, trust in god, trust god first, church scandal, betraying trust, catholic celebrities, faith is shaken, challenge your faith, reason for your faith, worshipping idols, false idols

Id: p9XqXH5CU2U

Length: 9min 55sec (595 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 14 2020