A few months back I had the opportunity to see Fr. Mike Schmitz speak. Fr. Mike Schmitz, a Catholic priest who ministers to students at the University of Minnesota in Duluth and has been spotted giving national talks on the Steubenville circuit.
While his talk focused on the sacrament of confirmation, there was one question he asked that really stuck with me back then and still sticks with me to this day:
When was the last time you changed your schedule for God?
I consider myself to be a good and practicing Catholic. I go to Mass. I give to charities. I work in youth ministry. I attend Bible studies and fellowship with other Catholics. But these are all things that I have incorporated into my daily schedule. I haven’t changed my schedule for God, but I don’t think that hours, minutes and seconds were necessarily what Fr. Mike had in mind. (Or maybe it was…but I got something a little more profound out of it. And given my belief that he’s wiser than I am, I have to assume that he wanted us to go a little deeper than literal time.)
What Fr. Mike was really talking about was the “inconvenience” of of being a Christian. Perhaps for some people, this is about making time for Mass on Sunday mornings or praying at times when they’re outside of the Church. But for me, it was about what I do when I don’t get what I want, even when I am making time for God. What do I do when following God isn’t consistent with what I want? Do I go about my merry way, believing that I’m right and he’s wrong? Or do I change my attitude and submit to his will? I wish I could say that I am always obedient to him, but I know that the latter is more true.
How many times in my life have I looked at what’s going on around me (or even more truthfully, who is around me) and simply wished it away because it was in my way? How many times have I been in a position to help someone (just look on any street corner if yo want to see a child of God in need) and turned a blind eye because stopping to help just wasn’t on my calendar?
Jesus Christ undoubtedly did things that he may not have been on the schedule for the day. I have to wonder…was saving an adulteress from an angry crowd ready to stone her on his “to-do list?” How surprised was every time lepers or demoniacs or the sick needed his help? How much was he anticipating rejection and opposition from the Pharisees? Did he think he’d have to “start all over” with disciple recruitment when crowds left after hearing him say “I am the Bread of Life?”
I hesitate to say that people welcome inconvenience. But from inconvenience comes virtue. Through inconvenience we bear fruits. I think about the woman at the well who had to fetch water during the hot part of the day. There were probably other places she would have rather been. But if she had not been there, she wouldn’t have met Jesus. I think about St. Paul who was blinded on the way to Damascus, inconvenienced by the lack of sight. But had he not been blinded he wouldn’t have come to know Christ, and the Gentiles would not have heard about Jesus. I can’t imagine the inconveniences that the saints went through to point the world back to Christ. Martyrdom, suffering, torture, ridicule. But God used it. He has a way of doing that, doesn’t he? After all, he used death to defeat death.
So perhaps what Fr. Mike Schmitz was trying to say wasn’t just “change your schedule for God,” but perhaps he was encouraging us to see inconvenience not as something uncomfortable but as an opportunity that can indeed be used to bring the Good News to others.
Roamin' Catholic 