Check out YOU. Check YOU ... check ... dude, check YOU out.
(Laughs) YOU, there it is.
Hi ,my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents. So one of the things I hate one of the things you probably hate is like
when we find weakness in ourselves or when we just find ourselves like
powerless in so many ways like powerless to do what we want to do you know where
maybe it's because our circumstances our situation I'm in a relationship like
this or have a job that just is crushing in it I'm in a situation I just can't
get out of and I find myself weak powerless or maybe it's a situation
where it's kind of deeper it's internal and when you experience is we experience
some kind of physical illness a physical weakness sickness or make a mental
illness I know people who struggle with anxiety
and depression or bipolar and they just they just like I hate the fact that I'm
weak I hate the fact that I mean I feel weak meaning you're like I hate the fact
that I feel powerless against this or maybe there's someone who says like no I
have this the settings in like this kind of this virtual Center keep coming back
to I can't seem to break free of it and I just in all of this I just feel so
powerless I feel so weak and if only is it the thing is that if only God would
take that away then I can become the person he wants me to be this is
interesting sometimes that means we conceive of freedom in one particular
way freedom is the ability to love to do what I want but john paul ii and others
had said this they said that freedom is not the ability to do what i want
freedom is the power to do what I ought freedom is the power to do what I ought
to do and one of the things that we recognize as Christians is is that God
gives the power in any circumstance in any interior situation amidst illness
amidst woundedness and in the midst of any temptation we have the power Jesus
gives us the power to do what we ought to do in that moment the God doesn't
just heal us from our wounds he can heal us through our wounds whoever here's
what I mean years ago we have a Catholic household
on campus we had men's household women's household and not number of this women
one year did this big devotion to st. Catherine of Siena who's just this
phenomenal Saint right she is a saint as I said she's a doctor of
the church just this incredible powerful holy woman who died when she was 33 she
did these incredible penances since she like I think she lived off the Eucharist
for a while and and she you know got the Pope from Avignon back to Rome this
whole big thing Catherine's Anna she kind of like a stud of the world right
so these women in the household they loved loved her because they were
phenomenal woman to the right we can relate to this woman and then one night
they had a crisis one day you know late afternoon early evening that this crisis
and their father you've gotta get over the house right now everyone's freaking
out like okay that go over there they'd come upon this book and this one book
written like relatively recently was psychoanalyzing from a distance of
history like hundreds of years Saint Catherine of Siena and in this book the
person was maintaining that you know it looked like say Catherine of Siena was
holy with her penances with her fastings but probably she just had an eating
disorder like that was the conclusion they were his making it and so these
girls were like is that the case I mean is that is that true is it is it that
you know she didn't um fast and she didn't do penance because she was holy
but what if it was a mental illness what if it was like even something this like
self-loathing what if she hated her body would if she was masochistic what what
if that's why she did all these penances was what at that what if that is what
drove her to do these incredible penances I know there's a lot of people
maybe people watching and you might be in that same situation where you hate
your body say if I could just have a different body if I could just be
delivered from this self-hatred this self-loathing ascension press put out
this a new updated theology of the body for teens and Jason Everett Kristalina
effort brought Evert Brian Butler they made this and just incredible it's
called you and the idea sometimes people think that the theology of the body is
just about sex it's not it's about the body and one of the things that comes
against us as human beings with bodies is not just like sexual issues but our
issues of like how do I see myself do I hate my body how do I live even in midst
of suffering so if you're if I mention the Catherine of Siena thing and you're
like yeah that's me I what if she didn't hate her body that
that it that that's I can relate to that this might be really incredibly helpful
for someone like you so anyways these girls are panicking
what if that wound caused her early death so I'm like I don't know so I
talked to my spiritual director my spiritual director is this amazing his
genius theologian philosopher he's a hermit who lives up in northern
Minnesota I mean just like he's like Gandalf when I could have visit him you
know and so um I go and I say father what does it mean for her sanctity and
priests my spiritual father he looks at me he goes so like no no my what if like
you know she this you know she died at 33 what if that contributed to her early
death he's like and well he's like because that means he said all that
means is that God was able to sanctify her in the midst of her woundedness the
guy was able to make her into the woman he was calling her to be in the middle
of her circumstances in the middle of for whatever wounds she may have had in
middle of whatever kind of temptation she may have had that in the midst of
all this God can make her holy so I think a lot of us what we do is we dis
we say okay God here's the deal you just take away by circumstance you just take
away my illness my weakness my woundedness
my sin and then and then I'll be able to be free to be the person you want me to
be and God can say God says no actually in the midst of this I'm gonna make you
holy this is actually what st. Paul discovered in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12
he says he had this thorn in the flesh and it was something about his life
something about himself that he absolutely hated and he says three times
I begged the Lord to free me from this to deliver me from this and finally God
said essentially no he says this God said my grace is sufficient for you
Jesus and grace is sufficient for you for power is made perfect in weakness
power is made perfect in weakness so st. Paul was so convicted by this he says so
therefore I'm content with weaknesses like I'm fine
God you don't have to take them away no we can still we can still really wrestle
with them we can still really struggle with them but he's like I think 10 God
if you want to keep them running me if you use your will that I live in the
midst of the circum if your will that I don't get healed
from my mental or physical illness if it's your will that I experienced this
woundedness in this one particular area of sin then I'm content with my weakness
because for the sake of Christ I'm condone the weakness for the sake of
Christ for when I'm weak then I'm strong I might not have the ability to be free
from that thing but I have the power to do what I ought in the midst of that I
have the power to take my meds and the power to talk to my counselor even
though I just feel like I'm not getting anything out of this if I experience the
temptation towards a sin I may not be free of that temptation but I am you
have the power to do what I ought which means I can avoid the near occasion of
sin I can go to confession when I fall in you have freedom right now you have
power right now not not because your wounds are gone in the midst of your
wounds because here's the big thing God wants your heart more than he wants your
healing and we have to get used to that our wounds are often God's access points
to our hearts my circumstance is terrible and drives me to pray I
struggle with this physical or mental wound and it leads me to him it humbles
me and brings me to Jesus I struggle with this sin and every time I have to
choose hope every time I go to confession for that thing I have to
choose hope perseverance and humility that oftentimes our wounds are God's
access points to our hearts and he wants your heart more than he wants your
healing I know that it's so hard so hard for many people to hear so hard for
maybe for you to hear right now but hear the truth in that
the truth is then if God wants your heart more than he wants your healing
then you can have your heart right now you have freedom you have power you can
start living that freedom and start living that power today realm of souter
ascension presents my name's father Mike god bless
you