hi my name is father Mike Schmitz and
this is ascension presents so I was over
Memorial Day weekend hanging out with my
family and one of my nephew's he um he
was he pretended he was a dog and you
know if he ever did it with a kid little
kid when they're like I'm a puppy and
like okay you have the ball and you
throw the ball and they come back with
it and you're playing around at one
point it's time for supper and so like
okay buddy you know time to get up wash
your hands get ready for separation no
no I'm a puppy I'm a puppy and you know
I mean I'm the fun uncle that's a pretty
startling chol so I'm like I'm not going
to correct this kid I just kind of
directed him to his parents and his
parents like listen you're a little boy
you're not a dog wash your hands and sit
at the table I thought all right that's
good that's good parenting right there
where you know here's the kid he may be
he really thinks he's a dog but the
reality is you're not a dog I was
thinking about this and thinking about
that that love that my nephew's parents
have for him when it comes to this big
thing in the news of course which is
Bruce Jenner or anyone else who
experiences the sense of being
transgendered the idea that this I have
a Bruce Jenner's case I have a man's
body but I'm not really a man I've
always felt like a woman you know people
say are you very judgmental here's what
I'm saying that I have no judgment on
this thing I just have an assessment I
don't not saying the press Jenner is is
evil I just think that that perception
of him saying I'm actually a woman I
just think that assessment or that
perception is off I think it's
inaccurate here's what I mean
let me just leaving that to the question
okay those of you who are men who are
watching this those who are women's are
watching this women what does it feel
like to be a woman guys what does it
feel like to be a man flip it around and
say men do you have any idea what it
feels like to be a woman and women do
you have any idea what it feels like to
be a man no the reality is of course we
don't we have no idea what it feels like
to be a member of the opposite sex all
we have all we have this crazy all we
have is gender stereotypes here's what I
mean there are stories about you know
here's the along young boy and his
parents say well you know we're treating
him like a girl he really is a girl
because he identifies as a girl why well
you know ever since he was little we
didn't have to tell him he liked dolls
more than like truck more than he liked
trucks
he liked um dresses more than like jeans
you liked pink more than he liked blue
and you think of that wait a second
that's how you know that your little boy
is actual
because he just happens to like things
that are traditionally associated with
girls it's just something that's
arbitrary skirts that women wear skirts
is arbitrary that women play with dolls
or over trucks is arbitrary in fact I
think about this might one of my older
sisters growing up she was what you'd
call back in the day since I'm old man
what the call back in the day they
called her a tomboy why cuz she loved
hunting she loved fishing she loved
she's incredible at sports the field the
minute that she's a medicine medicine
right now she's a doctor
heard the field that she's in right now
is a field traditionally associated
dominated by men her husband is a
stay-at-home dad now she is
hard-charging she does a lot of who
takes she's really smart she takes a
bull by the horns all these kinds of
things things are masculine traits no
wait you she she man know why cuz she's
a woman she's the mom of her kids my
brother-in-law he's patient he's kind
he's gentle with his kids stay-at-home
dad traditionally things associated with
women how do we know he's not a woman
because he looks at his body's body
reveals that he's actually actually a
man here's the crazy thing is if my
perception doesn't match up with reality
it's not reality that has to change it's
my perception of reality that has to
change we all know this when it comes to
I'm sure some of you have this
experience of people in your life who
have suffered from something like
another kind of body dysmorphia
something like anorexia there's young
woman that I remember working with years
ago it's a painful she's in the hospital
because she was so thin she was 98
pounds but she still perceived herself
as being fat say no I still feel fat I
still feel fat like wait a second but
your perception and reality is off so
it's not reality that's change it's your
perception of reality that has to change
that's an act of love in fact there's
this other version of body dysmorphia
this kind of misperception of of one's
body is called bi ID
stands for body integrity identity
disorder what bi ID is is it's when
someone looks at like saying something
like their hand and says this isn't my
hand this is it feels foreign to me or
these legs feel foreign to me in fact
there was a documentary I watched a
number of years ago about a woman who
she perceived herself to be a paraplegic
she perceived herself that her legs
didn't work that's how she lived her
actually got around in a wheelchair she
transferred herself from her bed to a
wheelchair with like a you know a pulley
system kind of a thing but the reality
is her legs do work her perception was
off and so what happens is this when
someone suffering from this kind of body
dysmorphia by b.i IV comes in and says
doctor this is not my hands on my real
hand can you amputate it doctors around
the world are instructed no that's
actually their hands don't amputate a
healthy limb the percept their
perception is wrong not the reality but
when it comes to sex we all lose our
brains and we all lose our minds and the
man goes in or a woman goes in and says
doctor these external genitalia are not
mine they're not actually a part of me I
perceive that they shouldn't be here and
apparently we're ok with doctors saying
ok well then we have sex reassignment
surgery or gender reassignment surgery
and yet that seems to be kind of
covering over the real problem just like
amputating a healthy limb be covering
over the real problem in fact that's the
conclusion that a guy named dr. dr. Paul
McHugh came to he was the chief
psychiatrist of Johns Hopkins hospitals
isn't like a crackpot doctor this is the
chief psychiatrist ex chief psychiatrist
of Johns Hopkins he dealt with a lot of
these cases of people who identified as
transgender they saw themselves as a
member of the opposite sex and with sex
reassignment surgery
he said yes some of these patients
experienced sad as a satisfaction of
that reassignment but they were still
disturbed they were still hurting
and he came to this conclusion he said
we had to stop doing sex reassignment
surgery because he says we found that um
he found that producing satisfied but a
still troubled patient seemed an
inadequate reason for surgically
amputating normal organs because I could
change these external factors but the
reality is at the heart of everything
I'm still a man or I'm still a woman and
when it comes down to it is that's
that's that's the message of love this
is not a message of judging this is not
a message of criticizing this is not
even a message of trying to blame anyone
or make the monster no absolutely not
these are people who are hurting anyone
the people in my life who have been
hurting through anorexia or any kind of
the kind of body dysmorphia or even this
kind of sense of identifying
with members of the opposite gender all
of that comes down to someone who's
hurting so what do we hold to do as
Catholics well we don't have to judge
because no one's calling us a judge and
no one wants us to judge we don't need
to judge what we're called to do is hold
to walk with people well that's the one
of the best things we do as Catholics is
we walk with people we listen to them we
hear what they're really saying and then
we're able to just not have to yell at
anyone and not have to criticize anyone
just be able to say let me walk with you
I don't have to give you what you want
in order to love you but I am called to
walk with you in order to love you
that's why it's easy for me to say this
on a video to say you're real called to
do this but what really happens is this
when Catholics when those who belong to
Jesus are willing to get into the
messiness of someone's you know
someone's brokenness someone's wound it
doesn't matter what it is listen to them
to love them and walk with them that's
what really called to do and when it
comes to Bruce Jenner when it comes to
anyone else comes any people in your
life and in my life the best thing we
can do is not simply share the truth
with them but it's also to walk with
them so who's God calling you to walk
with today doesn't have to be over it
with regard to this kind of stuff it can
be regard to anything who is the broken
person in your life
broken doesn't mean wreck doesn't mean
ruin doesn't mean bad just means wounded
who was the wounded person in your life
that God is calling you to listen to to
love and to walk with today from all of
us here at essentia presents my name's
father Mike god bless