Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz

Homily from the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time. What you've been holding on to ends up holding on to you. Anything can keep us from Heaven. Anything that we prefer over and over (and anything that we defer putting down over and over) can end up holding on to us. There are times when we've chosen so often that we no longer have a choice. And there are times when we have put off letting go so...

Homily from the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time. "Because I said I would." We are not yet who we are called to be. Sometimes, in order to become the person we are called to be, we need to stop holding on to what is holding us back. Other times, we need to keep holding on. The ability to make and keep a promise is one of the ways we are called to become who we are created and redeemed to be....

Homily from the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. What if the biggest obstacle to being the person you were created to be is the person you are currently choosing to be? There are things that we need to stop holding on to if we are going to allow Christ to change our lives. Often, we know exactly what those things are. The things that our hands reach for, our eyes look at, and our feet lead us...

Homily from the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Edit, Convince, and Worry. Or Honesty, Trust, and Thanking God ahead of time. The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation." We do not merely desire, we have inordinate desire driven by fear. We do not merely have ambition, we have selfish ambition in which we can only envision one possible outcome. To escape this trap, we must lean into hon...

Homily from the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Faith must be lived, not merely believed. It is wise to take responsibility for one’s own time, resources, and family. And yet, we must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. This demands faith. Real faith is more than belief, but involves renunciation of any claim we might have on our lives in favor of the absolute claim Jesus...

Homily from the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time. Transition always involves destruction. Jesus heals the man who was deaf and mute. In doing this, He was destroying something in the man’s life…his identity. Jesus has to take away the false identity in order to tell us who we truly are. Mass Readings from September 5, 2021: Isaiah 35:4-7 Psalms 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10James 2:1-5 Mark 7:31-37

Homily from the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time. Am I doing “everything but”? Often we avoid doing what is essential by filling our lives with many things that are optional. Mass Readings from August 29, 2021: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8 Psalms 15:2-5James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Homily from the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. Everything I like and nothing that I don't. The temptation to create a God in our own image and have a church in our own image is strong. But God has revealed Himself to us, which means we either choose Him…or we choose “not Him.” We don’t get to create our own personally curated version. Mass Readings from August 22, 2021: Joshua 24:1-2, 15-18...

Homily from the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. You are your body. The Assumption of Mary reveals many things. One of the things it reveals is that our destiny is to be reunited with our resurrected bodies forever. Our bodies are good, and an essential part of what it is to be human. Mass Readings from August 15, 2021: Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6, 10 Psalms 45:10-12, 161 Corin...

Homily from the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The best of your life is ahead of you...you will need food for the journey. The worst days of our life often come after the best days of our life. But even in those "worst days", you are not done yet. God has more for you to do and further for you to go. He wants to feed you with what you are going to need to have enough strength for the journey....

Homily from the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Choose God over the works of God. The signs point to Jesus and Jesus is the point of the signs. When we are challenged to merely consume… When we are challenged to want the gifts more than the Giver of the gift, we must allow ourselves to be trained in a trust in God. To be trained in freedom. Mass Readings from August 1, 2021: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-...

Homily from the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Nothing given to God is wasted. The Apostles asked the question, "What good are these for so many?" Yet, Jesus invited them to give what they had and to trust Him with all of it. Jesus invites us to do the same: Give everything and know that nothing will be wasted. Mass Readings from July 25, 2021: 2 Kings 4:42-44 Psalms 145:10-11, 15-18Ephesian...

Homily from the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Indifference does not mean you don’t care; it just means you don’t care enough to move. There are many opportunities to waste one’s life. One of those ways is to allow one’s circle of interest to outstrip one’s circle of influence. Mass Readings from July 18, 2021: Jeremiah 23:1-6 Psalms 23:1-6Ephesians 2:13-18 Mark 6:30-34

Homily from the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. You are wanted and set apart. You are special. We’ve heard that for so much of our lives that we’ve either grown numb to it or no longer believe it. But what if it is true? Mass Readings from July 11, 2021: Amos 7:12-15 Psalms 85:9-14Ephesians 1:3-14 Mark 6:7-13

Homily from the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The beauty is in the broken. Too often, when we encounter our own brokenness and woundedness, we either pretend it isn’t there or we just want it to be taken away. But surrendered to God, our weakness is more than replaced and more than erased, they are redeemed. Mass Readings from July 4, 2021: Ezekiel 2:2-5 Psalms 123:1-42 Corinthians 12:7-10 M...

Homily from the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Love requires risk. Risk requires courage. Many of us make plans. And many of those plans don’t end up working out the way that we had expected. Fortunately, God calls us to be courageous even when things don’t work out as we had expected. Mass Readings from June 27, 2021: Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24 Psalms 30:2, 4-6, 11, 12, 132 Corinthians 8:7, 9,...

Homily from the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time. God is in the storm. There are times when we do everything God has asked us to do…and we still find ourselves in the midst of a storm. In those moments, we are called to resist resentment and embrace courage. In those moments, we are called to run into the storm, confident that God is in the storm. Mass Readings from June 20, 2021: Ezekiel 17:22-24...

Homily from the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time. Everyday courage simply does what is necessary. Courage is not merely needed for the big moments of life, but is required for each moment of a life well-lived. Courage is all of the other virtues the moment they are needed the most. Mass Readings from June 13, 2021: Ezekiel 17:22-24 Psalm 92:2-3, 13-162 Corinthians 5:6-10 Mark 4:26-34

Homily from The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Do we lack faith? Or do we lack love? Most people who call themselves Catholic do not believe one of the most central and most powerful teaching in the Church. Is it because they lack hearing? Do they lack the opportunity to know about this teaching? Do they lack faith? Or is something else missing? Mass Readings from June 6, 202...

Homily from the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. What is God's deepest secret? What is yours? What we are is shaped and revealed by what we choose. Who we are is established by relationships. Mass Readings from May 30, 2021: Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40 Psalms 33:4-6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22Romans 8:14-17 Matthew 28:16-20

Homily from Pentecost Sunday. Am I willing to use the gifts that God has already given? At Pentecost, the disciples received the Holy Spirit and the subsequent gifts of the Holy Spirit. These gifts glorify the Father and have changed the world. If we were given these gifts, we could also glorify the Father and change the world…but would we? Mass Readings from May 23, 2021: Acts 2:1-11 Psalms 104:1...

Homily from the Mass of the Ascension of the Lord. Nice is different than good. Jesus doesn't call us to simply be "nice people." Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit so that we can be more than we are now...so that we can do more than we can do now. Jesus sends His Holy Spirit so that we can have the strength to be the kind of people who can bear witness to Him and His love in this world. He gi...

Homily from the Sixth Sunday of Easter. Joy is rooted in confidence and comes as a consequence. We can choose joy only insofar as we can choose the source of our joy. Joy comes as a consequence; it is a fruit. And the depth and permanence of our joy is only going to be as deep and long lasting as what we place our confidence in. Only when we surrender to the love of God can we have a joy that is d...

Homily from the Fifth Sunday of Easter. Practice making the promise. We find ourselves always moving and never done. We have so many options that we experience decision paralysis and subsequent decision dissatisfaction. But we are made for a full life. A full life is only possible when we intentionally limit ourselves by making the decision to love this person or to root ourselves in this place. U...

Homily from the Fourth Sunday of Easter. Inclusive means neither passive nor permissive. To be included is an incredible gift. To be inclusive is powerful. It means more than being “welcome”, it means being radically open and desperately fighting to bring people in. The Church is as inclusive as God’s love. And yet, Jesus is also exclusive in His claim. Jesus has made an exclusive claim about Hims...