Make Small Sacrifices for a Big Change

The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Ascension

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

4.9 • 7.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2020

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Making small sacrifices is not just for Lent, because sacrifices and penance are necessary. As Christ said:

“If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

And this is true all year long. But when Jesus said to deny yourself, he didn’t mean to always go against what you want. Really. He meant there are things I want that will not make me more like him—a lot of things, actually. So following him often means dying to self by denying myself those things.

Mortifications—little deaths to self—make us more like Jesus and can be offered up for the sanctification of the world and others. Mortification can come in many different forms. It’s not always denying yourself something you want. Sometimes it means doing something you don’t want. Sloth or greed can cause us to not do things we should do. Choosing not to be slothful or greedy often means doing something for someone else—and this is a little death to self.

Love is the not-so-secret ingredient that helps us die to self. The entire gospel and Jesus’ life are about love. He is constantly telling us and showing us how to love one another and God. That’s because when we learn to love, dying to self becomes so much easier since we start living for God and others. Life is hard when we’re selfish, but when we live for love we see what Christ means when he says “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).

You may also like No Greater Love: A Biblical Walk Though Christ’s Passion (https://bit.ly/2BjgNu5)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the program. It is just we have a wonderful program for you today. It is going to be okay.
0:17.0	How many of you are proud of Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents. We're talking penance.
0:21.0	You're like, father, it's not even lint.
0:23.0	Oh, I know because you're Catholic. You have to always talk about the hard stuff, penitential things.
0:28.0	I know because it's a normal part of our lives. Why? Because penance is necessary.
0:32.0	What are you talking about, father? Here's what I'm talking about. The fact that Jesus said,
0:36.0	if you want to be my disciple, you must deny yourself. Pick up your cross daily and follow after me.
0:43.0	Penance is necessary. When you said penance, Jesus didn't even use the word penance there.
0:48.0	Yes, but he did say, deny yourself. Take up your cross daily and follow me.
0:52.0	That denying of self is not denying of everything I want, but everything that gets in the way of me being like Jesus.
0:59.0	Take up my cross, not every single cross, but the crosses that come up in my life.
1:03.0	Actually, slow down on this one quick. Sometimes people think that in order to follow Christ, I have to say no to everything.
1:10.0	That is not the case. If it's between something I want, something I don't want, I always have to choose the thing I don't want.
1:18.0	That honors God more. Not always the case. When Jesus says we must deny ourselves, one of the things he's saying,
1:25.0	the very first thing he's saying is, deny my fallen self. Because there's stuff in my nature that wants things that are contrary to my nature.
1:32.0	There's stuff in me that desires things that go against that are contrary to what God wants for me.
1:38.0	And that's in me. I have to deny that self. I have to deny that broken self, that fallen self, what St. Paul will call the flesh, right?
1:46.0	The fallen human nature. And I have to pick up my cross. Now again, keeping this in mind.
1:53.0	Jesus doesn't say, pick up other people's crosses, although that's something we get to share later on.
1:59.0	We get to bear one another's burdens. That's also in Scripture.
2:03.0	But Jesus says at the beginning here, as we're restarting this, pick up your cross daily.
2:08.0	Not someone else's cross necessarily, but your cross.
	...

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