Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
So back when I was in the seminary, at the end of every year,
for the graduating guys or the guys getting ordained,
the rest of the guys or actually, the class behind them,
would put on this party and would do kind of like a roast
but what they would do is they would kind of pick on the little idiosyncrasies every guy had
and kind of do a sket— a skit. Sketch? A sketch. Sketch-slash-skit—
a thing about each one of them.
And so I knew it was coming and I, truth be told, I kind of felt like Michael Scott,
in that one episode where he wants to be roasted
because I thought like, "Oh what's the funny thing they're gonna find about me?"
like, "What am i known for here at the seminary?"
And when the guy did it— he's an awesome guy, priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul Minneapolis—
what I was known for was, I was known for always biking or running or swimming.
I trained for a lot of triathlons back in the seminary.
I would be smarter now if I had not trained so much.
But that's what I did.
Anyways, I remember sitting there, thinking like, "Seriously, that's it?!?
Like that's all you can think of, when it comes to me, that's the impact that I've made here,
what I'm known for is I'm the guy who's always running or biking or swimming.
And I remember being a little disappointed.
Now this just completely reveals my own pride, my own vanity, my own self-centeredness, right?
Now I was thinking about this, because I think all of us want to be known for something.
It's the way that we see ourselves first.
I'm the funny one.
I am the smart one.
I am the outgoing one.
I'm the quiet one.
I am the— whatever. Fill in the blank.
And are those things worth it?
I was praying about the apostles the other day.
Not just the apostles everyone knows, like Peter. Everyone knows about Peter, right?
Peter's known for sticking his foot in his mouth.
Peter is known for being the rock upon which Jesus Christ built his Church.
Peter is known for denying Jesus. Peter is known for saying that he loves Jesus.
Peter is known for being crucified upside down.
Paul is known, not one of the twelve, but Paul's an apostle and he's known for all his teachings, right?
John the Beloved is known as being the beloved.
He's known for being the beloved disciple.
Thomas is known for doubting Jesus but also Thomas is known for being the evangelist of India.
All these different apostles are known for something
but there's a couple apostles we don't really know anything about.
We don't know anything about Bartholomew. We don't really know anything about James the Less.
In fact, think of James the Less.
All we know about the Apostle James the less is that he wasn't James the Greater.
He wasn't James, the son of Zebedee.
He was James, the son of Alphaeus.
We don't know anything about him.
All we know
about James and some of the other lesser-known apostles, all we know
is that they were friends of Jesus. That's it.
They were friends of Jesus.
Yeah, we maybe we know how they died. Maybe we know how they witnessed to Christ.
But when it comes down to it, all we know is that they were friends of Jesus.
I think back to myself, you know, fourteen years ago when I was ordained.
I wanted to be known for this or that or whatever.
Maybe yourself right now, watching this saying
what do you want to be known for?
And I would just say this at the end of my life and at the end of your life, I hope
that we can just be known as friends of Jesus
because everything else is good probably, right?
As a good dad, as a good mom, as a good husband, as a good wife,
as a good worker, as a good triathlete, whatever, I don't know.
But
to be known as a friend of Jesus,
I can't imagine that anything else would even come close.
I was known as a guy who ran, biked, and swam because I always ran, biked, and swam
but what if I always walked through this world as a friend of Jesus?
Then I'd be known as a person who was his friend.
And you would be known—
if you walked through this world as a friend of Jesus, you'd be known as someone who was his friend.
I think that's—
I think that's something to shoot for
because that's something worth being known for.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name is Father Mike.
God bless.