--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: It is day 317. We're reading two chapters from the Gospel according to Luke. That's Luke chapters 11 and 12. Also, Proverbs chapter 26, verses 7 through 9.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: As always, the Bible translation we're reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year because you have about a page and a quarter to go, roughly, give or take.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: I think I'm estimating about that. If you want, gosh, you know, don't pass up this opportunity to be able to mark off every day, every day.
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--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Today is day 317. We're reading Luke chapters 11 and 12, Proverbs chapter 26, verses 7 through 9.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: The Gospel according to Luke, chapter 11, The Lord's Prayer. He was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And he said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Perseverance in prayer. And he said to them, Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And he will answer from within, Do not bother me. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And I tell you, ask and it will be given you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent, or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Jesus and Beelzebul. Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke and the people marveled.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But some of them said, He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, while others, to test him, sought from him a sign from heaven.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and house falls upon house.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Therefore, they shall be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when one stronger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: The Return of the Unclean Spirit When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none, he says, I will return to my house from which I came.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: True Blessedness As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that you sucked.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But he said, Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: The Sign of Jonah When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, This generation is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: For as Jonah became a sign to the men of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: The queen of the south will arise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: The men of Nineveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: The Light of the Body No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel, but on a stand, that those who enter may see the light.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But when it is not sound, your body is full of darkness. Therefore, be careful, lest the light in you be darkness.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Jesus denounces the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and lawyers. for alms those things which are within.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And behold, everything is clean for you. But woe to you, Pharisees, for you tithe mint and rue and every herb and neglect justice and the love of God.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Woe to you, Pharisees, for you love the best seat in the synagogues and salutations in the marketplaces.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Woe to you, for you are like graves which are not seen and men walk over them without knowing it.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: One of the lawyers answered him, Teacher, in saying this, you reproach us also.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And he said to them, Woe to you lawyers also, for you load men with burdens hard to bear and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Woe to you for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed So you are witnesses and consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute, that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves and you hindered those who were entering.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak of many things, lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Chapter 12. A Warning Against Hypocrisy. In the meantime, when so many thousands of the multitude had gathered together that they trod upon one another, he began to say to his disciples first, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Whom to fear? I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him who, after he is killed, has power to cast into hell.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Yes, I tell you, fear him.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how or what you are to answer or what you are to say.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: The Parable of the Rich Fool One of the multitude said to him, Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But he said to him, Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And he said to them, Take heed and beware of all covetousness, for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And he told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought to himself, What shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And he said, I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Do not be anxious. And he said to his disciples, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouses nor barn, and yet God feeds them.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Of how much more value are you than the birds?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And which of you, by being anxious, can add a cubit to a span of life?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O men of little faith?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be of anxious mind.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: For all the nations of the world seek these things and your father knows that you need them.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Instead, seek his kingdom and these things shall be yours as well.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Sell your possessions and give alms. Provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: The Necessity of Watchfulness Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Truly I say to you, he will put on his apron and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them so, blessed are those servants.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But know this, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would have been awake and would have not left his house to be broken into.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: The Faithful and the Unfaithful Servant Peter said, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his master will set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Truly I tell you, he will set him over all his possessions.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But if that servant says to himself, my master is delayed in coming and begins to beat the men's servants and the maid's servants and to eat and drink and get drunk,
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him and put him with the unfaithful.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And that servant who knew his master will but did not make ready or act according to his will shall receive a severe beating
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But he who did not know and did what deserved a beating shall receive a light beating
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Everyone to whom much is given of him will much be required
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And of him to whom men commit much, they will demand the more.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Jesus, the cause of division. I came to cast fire upon the earth, and would that it were already kindled.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am constrained until it is accomplished.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: For henceforth, in one house, there will be five divided, three against two, and two against three.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: They will be divided father against son, and son against father, mother against daughter, and daughter against her mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: interpreting the present time. He also said to the multitudes, when you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, a shower is coming, and so it happens.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, there will be scorching heat, and it happens.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: You hypocrites, you know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Settling with your accuser. And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: I tell you, you will never get out till you have paid the very last copper.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: The book of Proverbs chapter 26 verses 7 through 9. Like a lame man's legs which hang useless is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Like one who binds the stone in the sling is he who gives honor to a fool.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Father in heaven, we give you praise and thank you so much for this day.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Thank you so much for just the ability to be able to hear Jesus, your word, speak words.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Thank you for the teaching of Jesus. Thank you for his example. Thank you for his coming, as we prayed before, his coming to fight for us.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But not only that, he's coming to teach us and give us this wisdom.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Lord God, we ask you, please, be with us this day and help us to pray in the way that Jesus taught his disciples to pray.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Give us your spirit so that we can talk to you and listen to you the way that you deserve and the way that gives you glory and a way that just transforms our hearts and our lives.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Gosh, you guys, there's so much to talk about, but a couple of things that I think are worth noting.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: One thing is when it comes to perseverance in prayer, I came across something, you know, so this is chapter 11, the beginning where Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray the Lord's Prayer, but then also he goes on to perseverance.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: A couple of things about this, because I think this is so important. One is that when Jesus uses the term persistence, it comes from, it's a word that essentially means, and this was the definition given to me, the shameless refusal to quit.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: That the persistent prayer, right? The person who's coming back to his friend, which is the image Jesus gives us to come to prayer, that persistence, that shameless refusal to quit is just, I don't know about you, but something in me just responds to that really powerfully.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: That sense of, okay, God, what you've invited me to do, what you invited us to do, what you commanded us to do is to have this persistence, this shameless refusal to quit, that sense of, I'm going to keep coming back.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: I'm going to keep coming back. I'm going to trust you throughout this whole thing.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Now, also along with that persistence, along with that shameless refusal to quit, I don't know if I mentioned this in the other gospels, but when Jesus teaches, ask and it will be given you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: We don't get this very clearly in our English translation, but in the original Greek, It isn't just ask like ask once or seek like seek once or knock.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: It is keep asking and it will be given. Keep seeking and you will find. Keep knocking and it will be opened to you.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And there's something about that that just, again, it highlights the shameless refusal to quit. It highlights the fact that God wants us to keep coming back to him.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Now, only one style of prayer, one way of prayer is petition or intercession where we ask for something for ourselves or for someone else.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But when we do, God has said, I want you to. And that's really important.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Why? Because he says that, yes, would you, any of you, if your son asks for a fish, would give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, give him a scorpion?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: If you then who are evil know how to give your children good things, the Father in heaven knows how to give good things.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: In fact, not just good things, some of the best things. In fact, the Holy Spirit.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And this is one of the big key things. God doesn't promise to give us everything we ask for.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And this is really important because if we were to believe that, that God just gives us whatever we ask for, then God becomes kind of like, no offense, I don't mean to use this term, our sugar daddy in heaven, right?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: He's not our father in heaven. He's our sugar daddy in heaven. And that is not who he reveals himself to be.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: He wants our good. And so he says, the heavenly father will give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks, which means that if you ask for the Holy Spirit today, right now, in this moment, the father will give you his Holy Spirit.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And I don't know, you guys, I just, we need the Holy Spirit. Maybe, I don't want to say more than ever, but we definitely do now.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: I know I need the Holy Spirit in abundance. And I think that, my friends, I think we all do.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: So moving on, throughout this chapter, there's also this kind of, I don't know, a complicated teaching, or maybe it's confusing teaching, about the return of the unclean spirit in chapter 11, verse 24 and following.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: and it says when an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest, finding none, he says, I will return to my house from which I came.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Basically it goes back to that same person and when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order and then he goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself and they enter and dwell there and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: I remember being so confused by this, thinking how in the world, what does this even mean?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And there is a priest, his name is Monsignor Charles Pope, just genius, he's incredible and at one point he wrote on this and he went back again to the original language.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: He's kind of an expert in a lot of languages, and he an expert in scripture And at some point Monsignor Pope which is I know an ironic name what if he was elected to be the Holy Father He be Pope Pope But Monsignor Charles Pope he explains what this means
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: So the demon is delivered from this person and his soul is left, he is left, empty, swept, and ordered.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Now, these all mean something. In fact, ordered is gonna be kind of not necessarily the most appropriate word, but every one of these things, these words mean something.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: So the house is empty. So here's the demon that's delivered from the person's soul. Of course, that's great. Or the person's body. I don't know what demons occupy, but it's empty.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Meaning the evil has been delivered, right? It's been removed, but nothing good has taken its place.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: It's simply empty. And we all know that nature abhors a vacuum. We all know that even supernature abhors a vacuum, that I can get rid of bad vices or I can rid of sins in my life.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But unless I replace those vices with virtues, unless I replace those sins with acts of charity and goodness, what's going to happen is other vices will come in.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: So here's this person who was delivered from evil, but didn't do anything to fill his life with good.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: It was empty and it was swept. And Monsignor Pope talks about this and says, well, if a good person has by God's grace, been able to sweep sin from his life, praise the Lord, but there's a temptation there that you think, wait, I cleaned myself up.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: You know, I did the work, I made it clean, the Satan was delivered and I tidied everything up and the sin of pride, which is one of the most deadly sins, maybe it's the deadliest sin, can come in and he can not only be empty, right?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: He hasn't brought virtue in, but also looks around and sees the cleanliness of his soul and says, I did that.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: So empty and swept. And the last word is ordered, but he believes a translation that's better is ornate.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And that word empty, swept, and ornate seems to indicate one of the things that Jesus is talking about when he talks about the scribes and Pharisees and lawyers who are hypocrites.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: That I want to appear to be a certain way but I don't want to be a certain way. That I want people to think that I have virtue but I don't want to actually live virtue.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And I want to be decorated, right? I want to have this facade, this ornate room or perception of me that sees me as being better than I actually am.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And so here's when Jesus tells this parable here, tells this teaching, it's less confusing once we realize it, break it down.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: It's empty. So it hasn't been filled with God or things of God. It is swept and there's a temptation to pride and it is ornate, meaning it can just be all a facade.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: It's all just surface and nothing is penetrated into the heart. And that can just be a way, hopefully, you can understand the parable that Jesus tells in chapter 11.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Now, one last thing when it comes to chapter 12, I think it'd be important to highlight.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: There are so many teachings here, but let me just highlight one at the end of chapter 12. And it is Jesus, a cause of division.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Jesus says, I came to cast fire upon the earth and would that it were already kindled.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Do you think I've come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And henceforth in one house, there'll be five divided three against two and two against three divided father against son, mother against daughter, et cetera.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: You know, one of the things that I've been reflecting on a lot lately has been that I think that there was a time in the history of Christianity when this few verses in Luke's gospel, when it was, you'd think like, oh, that's weird.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: We think like maybe at the, in the beginning of the church when people were converting to Christianity. Yeah, maybe there's division in family, you know, father against son and son against father and mother against daughter, but not now.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And yet right now we've entered a time, at least in the West, when this is completely true.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: When Jesus is a cause of division in so many people's families, when the teachings of Jesus are a cause of division in so many people's families.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And I think, you know, it's worth listening to the words of Jesus and taking heart, knowing that he said this would happen.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: I deal with college students every single day who are grieved when their parents aren't believers, right?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And they're grieved that their parents, maybe they were raised Catholic, maybe they raised them Catholic, maybe not.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: We have a lot of those who come into fullness of the Catholic church here on campus, but they're grieved by the fact that my mom and dad don't know Jesus.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: My mom and dad haven't been fully converted. And that's not meant to be a judgment against the parents as much as it is meant to be, you know, they go home and they wanna go to daily mass and their parents are like, why in the world?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: They go home and they don't want it. They're not trying to be weird, right? They're not trying to make a point, but they find that what they believe as believers in Jesus seems to contradict what their parents are professing to believe.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And that grieves them so much. And I know many parents who are part of this community.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: What grieves you is that your children have walked away or we just even look at the culture, right?
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And we realize that in our world, there is so much division. Jesus says, I'm going to be a cause. I'm going to be one of the sources of division in your families.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And I know that grieves us and breaks our hearts. And yet we can also take comfort.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: We can take courage to our hearts, knowing that, okay, he said this would happen. And so it's not like I rejoice in this. I'm not, I'm not proud of this. I'm not happy about it, but I knew it was coming.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And what we can do is we can pray for them. So I always invite our students. I said, gently, please be patient with your family, be patient with your parents, but just pray for them.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And parents, same thing. Be patient with your kids and just pray for them. Their story is not over yet.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: Your story is not over yet. My story is not over yet. We pray that we can be faithful and persevere until the end.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: The shameless refusal to quit until our last breath and we get to step into eternity with the Lord.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: But also your parents story or your children's story, your friend's story, your sibling's story, God willing is not over yet.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And if it is over, we don't know the ending. We don't know their hearts. We don't know how they ended up when it came to the Lord.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: And so we just keep praying. We just keep praying and ask the Lord, please meet them, meet us where we're at with his grace.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: We pray for them because we know we need it, right? I'm praying for you. Please, please pray for me.
--:-- Father Mike Schmitz: My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. Thank you.
