That was a song I heard the other day because it is from back in the day

but it literally I heard it the other day. Yeah, OK.

Hi my name's Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.

So, I don't know if you saw, but recently I was interviewed for The Wall Street Journal

or the wall as I like to call it, Michael Scott. It was interesting. It was

an article that was about how many Christians Catholics these days

are using Lent as an opportunity to get fit.

You know, they're trying to increase some kind of healthy habits

and they're trying to— like a self-help Lent kind of a thing.

And you know what do I think about that and so after like a

30 minute interview there was like one little quote enough and I was like I had

not ... that is what I said but I didn't ... it wasn't what I kind of entirely meant.

You know, anyways it's fine. It was well-written. The person did a great job

with the article because a lot of people ... because the reality is a lot of people

look to lent for like as if it as if it's like a New Year's resolution. This

is when I'm gonna really hit it hard is what I'm gonna start living clean this

is what I'm gonna start you know eating well I'm gonna start doing all these

things that are good habits. I'm gonna start or stop doing all these things

that are bad habits. And there's nothing inherently wrong with that, but

ultimately why do we do the three practices of Lent: prayer, fasting and

almsgiving? Particularly the fasting, why? It's ultimately not because we're trying

to start a good habit or trying to kill a bad habit, although that's a

good thing. I would say the primary reason why we do penance, fasting,

that kind of thing, during Lent or anytime is for repentance and to give

God access. So repentance. We all realize you know that there's there's things in

our lives like we were sinners. Right? And so we repent by giving stuff up. If

that's gonna be the bad habit or if that's gonna be the bad sin, great, yes,

that's that. But we repent, but we turn away from the evil that we

do, that we choose and we turn towards the Lord. That's repentance. So we fast,

we do the penance for that sense of like

repentance. Right? So turning back to the Lord. We also do it to give the Father

access to our hearts. Why do I choose the thing I choose to do for Lent? It could

be because I want to feel better about myself because I want to live a

healthier life. But ultimately what it comes down to is I'm choosing this

because I believe that it'll it will give the father access to my heart. Yeah

there's also other things I made a video about it, like we do it to unite our

sufferings to sufferings of Jesus, and that's very important. But it's not about

repentance, turning away from sin and turning towards God, if it's not about

giving the Father access to our hearts then ultimately what it's about is about

ourselves, and our penance gets to be so ... gets to be about so much than

just ourselves. It gets to be about so much more than just I started a good

habit or I stopped a bad habit. I lost a few pounds or you know I got extra

sleep or whatever the thing is. It gets to be about him. You know I was thinking

about this particularly when it comes to fasting as it relates to repentance.

When I was reading The Book of Jonah, here's Jonah who goes through Nineveh

after his whole story with a great fish and everything he goes through Nineveh

and he says, "forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed." And the word gets to

the king of Nineveh, and the ruler of Nineveh then proclaims a fast. He

commands that everybody from the oldest the youngest, from the wealthiest to the

poorest, even the animals that they would be dressed in sackcloth and ashes and

not eat or drink anything. And it was really remarkable because I just think

about this, like, we read the story. We know the end we know that the Lord did

not carry out the justice he was going to inflict upon Nineveh, but the people

of Nineveh didn't know that. Like they didn't know when they started fasting,

when they started doing the penance, when they dressed in sackcloth and ashes, and

didn't eat or drink; they didn't know that the Lord God would a.) notice, b.) care

and c.) respond. But we know. This is the declaration of faith that

happens every single time you and I do an act of penance. We believe that God,

who is our Father who loves us, notices. The most amazing thing to being a

Catholic Christian is to realize that you matter

to God, that you don't have to do anything huge for him to notice. In fact,

your penance probably is something really really small. I mean it's probably

not like the amazing fasts of some of the great saints. It's probably

something very very insignificant in the big picture of things, but you believe

something about God. You believe that he cares about you so he notices.

And then, as I said, after he notices he cares and he responds. Now, it's not like

we moved to God to respond because God is ... he's always the initiator, we're

always the responders, right? He's always the one who moves and then we respond to

his movement. But there's something powerful about, "OK, Lord. I have changed

this at your at your ... by your request and by your grace, I've moved by this penance,

by this act of giving up something, by this act of fasting, I've moved.

You've noticed it, you care, and now you respond. There's something, there's a

massive act of faith and that act of faith is that you have a father and you

matter to him. It reminds me of a scene in one of my favorite movies, it's

relatively violent: Braveheart. Here's William Wallace and he's fighting

for Scotland and all this stuff, and his buddy, he says, "Why are you doing

this?" and he says, "I'm doing this for freedom." And his buddy says, "No

you're not. You're doing this for Murran!" His wife who had been murdered. "You're doing this

for Murran. You're doing this because you think she sees you."

William Wallace responds and he says, "No, I know she sees me." And this moment

is so incredibly important because, why are you doing the fast? Why are you

doing the penance thing you're doing? Well, it's because I want to lose weight,

it's because I want to do this, because I ... No. You're doing it because you think

the Father sees you, because you think, you're convinced, you

believe, no. You know the Father notices, that he cares and that he

responds. Ultimately our penance is about repentance while giving the Father

access to our hearts. From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name is Father

Mike. God bless. Also, be sure to like, subscribe, comment on stuff.

Comment on my Scottish accent if you want. If you want to comment, comment

my Scottish accent. It's alright. It's OK. it's alright. It's not very good but

it's mine, so there. OK. Peace out.