"Ordinary Great Things" | 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Fr. Mike's Homily) #sundayhomily

so have this list uh of what things that like what do these things have in common um what does your iPhone your your car what do uh what does the discovery of North Central and South America what does indoor plumbing what does the Transcontinental Railroad what does your hometown all have in common I would say that um one thing that all those things have in common is every one of them was established or invented or discovered or built by someone with ambition I mean think everything from the iPhone right there's a there's someone with ambition

who said I see what's what I see I see what's in front of me I I can I can see something more the Transcontinental Railroad here is this people are driving across Oregon Trail everyone's dying with the wagons and so they said let's let's have a railroad that goes across here and that that was established by a person with ambition the people who discovered the new world whether that be the vikings originally right the nor Norwegian people or I guess even even the Native Americans who came across the bearing straight then the Vikings then the

Europeans all of those people who came to this continent these continents for the first time they were people of ambition the the the fact that we have modern medicine the fact that we have the ability to transplant organs all of that is because of people with ambition there are people who wanted to do something great people wanted to do great things and so you have this railroad because you have your vehicle because why because someone said I want to create a new vehicle or create a way to assemble this vehicle I want to do great

things I have ambition see the reality is every one of us is the recipient of blessings that come to us by from people who have had ambition that come to us from people who said I want to do something great I want to be great I want to do great things so we have to acknowledge right from the start that ambition is good let's clarify that we have to acknowledge right from the start that ambition can be good because we hear in the gospel today not only what true ambition should look like but we hear

in the second reading today to beware of selfish ambition because that's that's the key the key is not ambition the the the the danger is not ambition the danger ambition is a great thing the danger is selfish ambition why because selfish ambition is the kind of thing that ruins a life let's look at the gospels again let's here the apostles here all 12 of them apparently all 12 of them because they're arguing it doesn't say only a few of them they were arguing among themselves who is the greatest every one of them is gunning for

greatness every one of them wants to be great everyone one of them we imagine wants to do great things but there's a difference between Act excellence and selfish ambition there's a difference between ambition and selfish ambition why not only because you have the word selfish and we're TR we're we're called to transcend selfishness but because selfish ambition is not good for us I'm going to say that again ambition could be great can be the desire to be great to do great things can be good but selfish ambition is not good for us why because selfish

ambition is driven by selfed advancement and so it's marked all along the way by self- protection we see it in the gospels right twice the apostles are silent the first in the first case right they um they don't understand what Jesus is saying about his prediction of his passion and they don't understand but no one dared to ask him think about all the times when you've been afraid to ask the question why because I'm afraid because if I say if I say something if I ask the question I'm going to reveal my ignorance so this

is to my my silence is self- protection later on he says what were you arguing about what were you discussing along the way and they all know that that they were fighting about who was the greatest so they don't tell why because they're afraid that would reveal their interest it would reveal the thing that was Mo they're most interested in to be able to realize this so often if we're driven by selfish ambition that is marked by self- protection and we're afraid we're afraid of revealing our ignorance or we're afraid of revealing what we really

care about we're afraid of revealing our interest because if you're driven I'm driven by self selfish ambition I I can't reveal it's one of the reasons why a lot of our students when they graduate one of the things that they'll say when they get their first job or not just necessarily their first job but the first job with a lot of responsibilities is they'll say I I have this thing that's been termed impostor syndrome right that sense at some point someone said hey you have the capacity you have the capability you're competent and so here's

the job and yet here I am I'm just I'm just me and so what I need to do is or what I feel like I need to do is I need to protect my image I have this impostor syndrome and so I can't ask a question because that would reveal my ignorance I can't say what I really think because that because that would reveal my interest it would reveal me and so I find myself in this place of self- protection that's not a not a good place because why I think a lot of times this

selfish ambition is driven by a desire for admiration it's a question I I like to ask people um just kind of one of those discussion questions one of those kind of questions to ponder and the question is this would you rather it's a would you rather question and the question is would you rather be admired or loved because there's a difference and they can some wayse intersect a little bit but there is a big difference between being admired and loved the temptation to think that they're the same why why because well if someone's admired uh

then there's positive thoughts if someone's love there's positive thoughts so you're positive towards a person that you admire you're positive towards a person that you love but the reality is if I'm merely going to be admired if you're merely going to be admired that means that we admire Things From a Distance we love things up close we we admire things um we we admire the outside of a thing we admire the image of a thing we we admire the idea of a person so can admire their their accomplishments I can admire what they've done I

can admire what they said but if I'm going to love someone again we admire from a distance but we have to love up close we admire the outside but to love someone we have to at some point get to the inside that we can admire the idea of a person but you can only actually love a person and so if I'm going to actually say I can let go of being admired for the risk of being loved that means I have to allow a person to get close you have to allow a person to see

you off your white horse you have to allow a person to see your flaws in fact we whenever I do a marriage prep one of my favorite questions is it's it's a statement and both couples have to say agree disagree or uncertain and the statement is my my future spouse has certain behaviors and habits that sometimes annoy me and the reason I like it a lot is because the whole point of the question the preferred answer is yes the preferred answer is agree my future spouse has certain behaviors or habits that sometimes annoy me it's

a fun thing that I like talking about it because they're not they're not talking about me they're talking about each other one of the reasons why this is such a critical question and response should be agree is because you should have dated long enough and you should have trusted each other deeply enough that you're willing to actually let them see your flaws you actually spend enough time with each other that you're actually willing to actually to let go of being admired for the sake of being loved that you're actually willing to be annoying or love

someone who does things that are annoying rather than keep your distance and keep them on that white horse in order to be loved we have to sacrifice being admired in order to be loved we have to actually let someone see and know us the alternative of course with selfish selfish ambition is no I just want to be admired and so my life is self- protection and then my life becomes image management right cuz you only you admire the outside you admire the image you admire the idea of the person you can only love the person

but if I'm not letting them know who I am then the rest of my life becomes impression management what's the impression that I'm making on them how what do they think of me right now and it becomes a trap because there's all this whole list of things that they don't have access to a whole list of things that they can't see why because I prefer to be admired but to be to be loved means that you've allowed someone access it's one of the reasons again why Jesus and James are saying that that this selfish ambition

is a trap why because self- protection is a trap one of the markers of as selfish ambition is self- protection but another marker of selfish ambition is self- preoccupation which is another recipe for unhappiness in fact there was a a psychologist who talked about the more people are preoccupied with themselves the more miserable they are this is what he said he said The more you think about yourself the more unhappy you are goes and this is such a striking phenomena that if you look at this statistically there's almost no difference between self-conscious thoughts thoughts that

involve I for example and suffering from the ravages of negative emotion almost no difference between self-conscious thoughts or self- preoccupation and suffering from the ravages of negative emotion like like like depression so this obsessive self-centeredness he says just makes all of that suffering so much worse in in fact he went on to say that self-consciousness is literally a facet of Trace neuroticism that depressed and psychotic people use much more self-referential language selfish ambition is a trap again ambition great to do wanted to desire to do great things great to desire to be great wonderful but

selfish ambition is a trap I will I will say though again go back to this the desire to be great the desire to do great things that should be normal for Christians like let's go back to this the desire to be great the desire to do great things should be normal for Christians for Disciples of Jesus but we have to do that differently like to do great things but to do them differently Jesus even makes the point he says okay so so to be great the first must be the last of all the servant of

all the idea that that you can actually strive for greatness to have a great capacity for ambition to do great things freely in fact so CS Lewis I've been quoting him a lot lately CS Lewis in his book the screw tape letters if you know anything about the screwtape letters it's letters from a senior tempter Senor senior demon to his his his nephew a junior tempter and at one point screw tape is writing to his nephew warmwood and he's describing what humility looks like and he says the enemy the enemy is God in this case

right CU he's the devil and he says says the enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world and know it to be the best and rejoice in the fact without being any more or less glad at having done it than he would if it had been done by someone else think about that the enemy case God our Father in Heaven wants us to be in a state of mind where we could design the best cathedral in the world and we know it's

the best cathedral in the world he actually built the best cathedral in the world and we rejoice in that fact but we rejoice in it with the same degree of joy as if someone else had built it to be able to walk into the cathedral you built or the C cathedral built by someone else and take as much joy in both he goes on to say the enemy wants him in the end again God wants us in the end to be so free from any bias in our own favor that we can rejoice in our

own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbor's talents or in the sunrise or an elephant or a waterfall he wants each of us in the long run to be able to recognize that all creatures even ourselves as glorious and excellent things ambition the desire to be great the desire to do great things has marked Disciples of Jesus I mean I just was looking over I just I'm think I've been thinking about like the lives of the saints that I've always admired so St Francis of AI I mean just humble guy right super humble

joyful guy ambitious I don't know if you realize how ambitious St Francis AI was so I think he died in like 1222 at the age of 44 do you realize that when St Francis AI died at the age of 44 there were over 5,000 men only men there were a bunch of women too but 5,000 men who committed to a life of poverty Chastity and obedience based off his model now this isn't just people who became Christians people who became Catholic because of St francis's example but because of his example they literally gave away all

of their possessions made vows of poverty of Chastity and of obedience for the rest of their lives based off of his his example I mean that is someone who who's done great things uh in our country there's a woman here her name is St Katherine Drexel St Katherine Drexel was I mean she she started off pretty pretty uh fortunate she was pretty privileged growing up her her grandfather uh started JP Morgan Bank with the guy named JP Morgan her uncle founded Drexel University when her parents died she and her two sisters they used their their

wealth to basically transform the face of the United States she founded a religious community this this young woman Katherine Drexel founded a religious community I think starting out with maybe 15 other women but this religious community did so much incredible good she she founded a system of Catholic schools uh for black people in this country in more than 13 states when no one else was educating black people in our country St cathern drexell was 40 different Mission centers 23 rural schools St Katherine ALS not not only had black people on her in her heart she

wanted to care for them she knew realizing they're made in God's image and likeness and L them also Native Americans here in this country who she had seen were being treated unfairly as well and she founded I think it was something like uh 60 50 50 missions for Native Americans 16 other schools it was remarkable what she did and she did that because she had ambition because she want she wanted to do great things she wanted to be great in our dases there's a man his name is my senor Joseph Bo uh don't be too

scared it's B um my senior Joseph Buu he was he came to this country from Sylvania and in this dasis he had a massive heart for the Native Americans and for immigrants who had come to our dasis here in duth not only did he um translate and in invent essentially the written language of the original people who were here but in the course of his life he founded over 57 different parishes in dases including my home Parish now this this this this is someone who is driven to do great things and he actually in fact

did great things remarkable if you have ambition if you're driven to do great things we realize that maybe like a St Francis V or a St Katherine Drexel or M Senor Buu maybe we'll accomplish those things but maybe your life and my life will be marked by or ordinary great things what are ordinary great things ordinary great things are the things that that might not involve establishing numerous schools to take care of people who wouldn't be taken care of maybe ordinary great things wouldn't necessarily be founding a religious community or establishing 57 parishes in the

dases of Luth maybe ordinary great things is loving the person right next to you or loving the person in front of you but to do that that ambitiously we are all called to live with ambition not selfish ambition that is self protection and self- preoccupation but this desire to be great the desire to do great things last cus Lewis reference in the book The Great divorce C Lewis is being toured through the the outskirts of heaven and at one point he comes upon this par of animals and of young men and young women and old

men and old women all centered around this one woman and Lewis describes this parade of rejoicing and singing and just all of this Joy surrounding this one woman as she walks through this forest and Lewis turns to his guide and he says is that like is she like meaning is that Mary because you'd think that that all of the all of the the praise all the glory all the Holiness that's Joy that's coming off of this person would be that must be Mary and his guy looks at him and says oh no no no her

name is Sarah Smith she lived in golders green like well what'd she do well and he describes like well she he says essentially she loved her husband well and every because every young man her boy that met her became her son even if it was the only boy that only the boy that brought the meat or her back to her back door every girl that she met became her daughter he goes on to say all the animals like treated all the animal animals like they were hers as well that that love that she had she

did ordinary great things and just doing ordinary great things again and again and again make an ordinary but great life I think a lot of us are called to that exact thing and the question we have to ask and answer is are we content with that are we content with having an ordinary great life there's a Incredible Book it's a play called Man For All Seasons about St Thomas Moore at one point there's this young man named Richard Rich and Richard wants to be he wants to be important he has selfish ambition and he comes

to Thomas Moore who is the Lord Chancellor of England and asks him for some kind of like some kind of post like recommend me for some kind of job that he can Rich or Rich can achieve his goal his goal of being important his goal of being great and Thomas Moore looks at him and says well Richard I think you could be a great teacher even maybe even a great one You' be a good teacher even a great one rich rich looks him and says well so what if I if I were Who would know

it remember there's a difference between ambition and selfish ambition Mr Rich had selfish ambition and Thomas Moore said well why not be a teacher you'd be a fine teacher perhaps even a great one who would know it well you would your pupils would God would it's not a bad public every one of us is called to cultivate a spirit of ambition every one of us is called to be great every one of us is called to do great things even if they're merely ordinary great things but we do all those things free from self- Protection

free from self- preoccupation and free from selfish ambition because it's actually only then that we're free to be great it's only then that we're free to do great things and it is only then that we're free to live lives that are marked by ordinary great things