The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Without our dignity that comes from God, we are just cosmic accidents. This is a humbling realization, but one that can also be empowering. Fr. Mike says we often misunderstand humility because we think it involves thinking less of ourselves. What it really involves is greater focus on God’s power and goodness, because he is the source of whatever power and goodness we have. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “A really humble man will not be thinking about humility. He will not be thinking about himself at all.” For more on C.S. Lewis, check out this article, C. S. Lewis on Humility, by Dr. Andrew Swafford.

Happiness is circumstantial. In fact, the word has the same root as the word “happenstance”. And yet, despite how fickle it is, many of us base our lives on the pursuit of happiness. Joy, on the other hand, is the abiding and pervasive sense of well-being. Fr. Mike explains that joy is, as G.K. Chesterton wrote, “the gigantic secret of the Christian.” The Christian understands that God knows his name, loves him, and is here with him now. This never changes, and it is what gives the Christian a perpetual joy to which happiness cannot compare.

The Karate Kid didn’t know waxing a car would teach him karate, but Miyagi knew. In a similar way the Church, in her wisdom, teaches us certain motions—kneeling at Mass, making the sign of the Cross, etcetera—so we may learn the deeper virtues that will lead us to holiness. In this video, Fr. Mike encourages us to keep going through the motions, if that’s all it feels like we’re doing at Mass, because it’s in times of desolation that our faith grows the most.

Sometimes it can be hard to respect the character of a person you really don’t like. That’s no problem, says Fr. Mike, because you can still respect them as a human being and—if they are in a position of authority—you can still respect their position. Not everyone in our lives is going to earn the kind of respect that Fr. Mike would equate with trust. Those who have a respectable character will earn that trust though, and that’s the kind of person we should strive to be in other people’s lives.

Sure, there are times when it’s just hard to believe what the Catholic Faith tells us, but when someone says “I’m losing my faith,” or “I lost my faith,” there’s something much more serious going on there. Fr. Mike examines this problem, but emphasizes that we actually can’t lose faith because it’s a gift from God. We can use that gift wrongly and put it into what Fr. Mike calls “God’s chief rivals” or, in other words, idols; but the faith is still there and we can still put it in God if we simply choose to. Maybe God is giving you the gift of faith right now, and maybe you just have to use it the way he intends.

Anyone can and should condemn the sins of the priests and cardinals that have been all over the news. The real challenge is to ask God what he is expecting us to do within this time, our time, in history. If he has created us to live in these difficult times for Catholics, he must be calling us to some great task to help bring renewal to his Church and individual souls. Here's a link to last week's episode. (https://media.ascensionpress.com/podcast/pennsylvania-sex-abuse-scandal/)

The wisdom he shares here is akin to that of many successful, insightful writers such as Cal Newport and Josef Pieper. You can find the works Fr. Mike references here: Cal Newport's Deep Work (http://calnewport.com/books/deep-work/) Josef Pieper's Leisure, the Basis of Culture (https://bit.ly/2Je5FwU)