hi my name is father Mike Schmidt and
this is ascension presents you know when
it comes to All Saints Day is one of the
great celebrations one of the great
feasts that the church gives us one of
the things I think sometimes we don't
get is like what what difference do the
Saints make in our lives and where do we
even get this idea that there's this you
know thing called we call like we call
the communion of saints well in simple
or the letter to the Hebrews chapter 11
it go talks all about these great heroes
of faith of me talks about Abraham it
talks about Moses and talks about Samson
and David and all these kind of people
about how amazing they are and then we
hit chapter 12 and the author writes
this he says therefore since we are
surrounded by so great a cloud of
witnesses like talking about those like
okay therefore all these people they're
surrounding us since therefore were
surrounded by so great a cloud of
witnesses let us also lay aside every
weight every sin which clings to us so
closely and let us run with perseverance
the race it's that is set before us now
there's something about that that just
it really fires me up when it comes to
like thinking about the race thinking
about like here the saints who have gone
before us and so let's let us also set
aside everything that holds us back
everything that holds us and slows us
down it reminds me of this this story
I'm the number of years ago I was my
whole family we used to love doing these
what they call Ironman triathlon so a
triathlon is obviously swimming biking
and running my family would do these
Ironman triathlons which is an Ironman
is it's a race that is 2.4 miles of
swimming 112 miles biking and then a
full marathon the 26.2 mile marathon at
the end and one of our favorite places
to do this race was in a small town
called Penticton British Columbia up in
Canada and um it was as Austin was such
a fantastic thing the entire the entire
town and the surrounding region would
come out for this race and they just
they were super fans I mean it's
incredible but they a deal is this you
start at 7 a.m. in the morning you have
to finish the whole race by midnight
that night you get that many hours and
if you finish even a second after
midnight you at the end of your name
bye-bye her name it says the nf did not
finish so even if you ran the whole race
erased the whole race but you came in
just a second after midnight you were
essentially disqualified was like you
hadn't run at all so one of
things is people finish like that people
finish all the way up until up until the
the cutoff time and so one of the things
that people do if you're in the race is
you could done with your race when we
did this one this one day with twenty
year we got done with all of her races
and we all you know gradual of each
other and stuff went back to the hotel
showered up got some food and then you
go back to the the finish line and you
cheer on the people who are still coming
in so we got back there I don't know 10
o'clock or so at night and so we're
cheering people and there's a sky in the
microphone and saying here comes number
you note one 245 cheering mind his
name's Joe Smith chairman kind of kind
of thing and so it's so cool because as
you're running into town so again the
whole marathon you weren't straight out
half marathon straight back into town
the second half of the marathon when you
hit like six miles to go like there are
people out there cheering six miles out
and then you get closer closer to town
in this little small town that the
streets were just aligned the whole
course was lined there are those last
miles like shoulder-to-shoulder with
people and then as you got even closer
it was like wall a wall of people just
people cheering on so you run down Main
Street and then what happens is the last
100 meters or so you take this like
90-degree left-hand turn and then
there's the finish line right in front
of you with them with the bleachers a
set up on either side of the road people
cheer and stuff so that's what you do so
as people are coming in where all my
family and I were in the bleachers we're
cheering people on you know way to go um
pretty soon like it's like 11:45 you
know it's like 15 minutes to the end of
the race and in the guy on the
microphone says there's somebody we just
got word there's someone out there he's
two miles out from the finish line you
know bring him in you guys kind of a
thing and I'm thinking two miles out 15
minutes to go this person's been racing
the entire day since 7:00 a.m. and
they're still racing there is no way
they're gonna finish the race two miles
in 15 minutes it's just impossible but
some people like you know they jumped
off the bleachers and started running
people who have finished the race
themselves they jumped up the bleachers
and started cutting across this little
part kind of behind us and and ran down
the course I'm so I'm like okay well I
can't believe this is my fam talking
with my family like I can't I don't
think this is gonna happen how could
this possibly happen you know his seven
or so minutes go by and the guys then
like again says okay you guys he's seven
minutes to go he's got a mile he just
did a mile we're like what he did a mile
in seven minutes that's remarkable after
after having been out the entire day so
he goes more people get out there get
out there so people
turn off the bleachers and they're
running across this part of this park
running down the road to cheer this guy
on and the time is just ticking ticking
by ticking by and it's getting so close
to midnight
pretty soon like this is a remarkable
like it I got 12 59 or something like
this I remember just I could just hear
this like dull roar growing from like
off back into my rikes I'm facing the
you know the finish lines right here
they're coming down this way here this
dull roar back to back into my right and
just listen this crowd of people just
get crying out and then I'm looking down
the road and I see all of a sudden this
guy just come and coming across the
corner and he's like he's leaning into
the corner he's like sprinting as fast
as he can behind him Darius is like wall
of people at this site because you know
deformation filling up the entire road
of all these racers who had they had
already finished their race but they ran
out and they're running Eckstrom of
course they can't run the race for him
they can just cheer him on and he comes
down he he's sprinting as fast again the
place is going crazy and he crosses the
finish line at like 11:59 and 47 seconds
something like this is just ridiculous
he like he finished the race 13 seconds
with sik 13 seconds to go I mean
everyone's crying you know cheering it's
remarkable and you think about this
these all these racers this guy on his
own he probably wouldn't have finished
the race on his own you probably
wouldn't have been able to do it I mean
because he was working hard he was doing
what he could but because all these
other racers they themselves have
finished the race and again they
couldn't run it for him they couldn't
pick him up they could just go out and
support him they did this and they ran
him in and I remember thinking him right
there thinking like this is the
communion of saints this is what All
Saints Day commemorates is we have all
of these all these people in the church
they have gone before us they're in
heaven now they've run their races and
they can't run out run our race for us
but what they can do is they can cheer
us on they can pray for us they can
intercede for us they're on our side and
there's reality that that the author to
the Hebrews says we're surrounded by
this great crowd of witnesses so I just
invite you do this if you ever feel if
you feel like you just running down the
road and there's a motors like all right
behind it or you feel like you're just
you just like that yet you can't go any
further you can't you don't think you're
gonna make it just to realize that you
were surrounded by this great
crowd of witnesses it's great cloud of
witnesses that's cheering you on of
course we have our Father in Heaven we
have Christ we have the Holy Spirit God
Himself wants you to win but he's also
giving you a family the saints and the
saints absolutely love you as well and
they're cheering you on so from myself
follow Mike Schmitz and from ascension
presents god bless you
you