02/15/26 Put Your Heart Into It

I hope today's homily inspires and motivates you, and I also hope that it leaves you hungry for the one who gave everything to feed you.

“If you want to get this, another Sunday Mass Resources sent straight to your inbox, sign”

up at ascensionpress.com/sunday, or by texting Sunday 2-3-3-7-7-7-7-7. You can also follow or subscribe on your podcast app for weekly notifications, God bless. The Lord be with you, a reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Chapter 5 verses 17-37, Jesus said to His disciples, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I have come not to abolish but to fulfill Him and I say to you until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law until all things have taken place." Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I tell you, unless you're righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, "You shall not kill and whoever kills will

be liable to judgment but I say to you whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment." And whoever says to his brother, "Rakha will be answerable to the Sanhedrin." And whoever says, "You fool will be liable to fiery Gahena." Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there we call that your brother has

anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar.

Go first and he reconciled with your brother and then come and offer your gift.

Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court, otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge and the judge will hand you over to the guard and the guard will be throw you into prison." Amen. I say to you, "You will not be released until you have paid the last penny."

You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery but I say to you, "Whoever looks everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown

into Gahena. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gahena." It was also said, "Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife unless the marriage is unlawful, causes her

to commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery." Again, you have heard it was said to your ancestors, "Do not make a false oath. But make good to the Lord all that you bow." But I say to you, "Do not swear at all.

Not by heaven for it is God's throne nor by the earth for it is his footstool. Nor by Jerusalem. For it is the city of the Great King. Do not swear by your head for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Put your yes, mean yes, and your no, mean no.

Anything more is from the evil one. The gospel of the Lord. Wait, should I have a seat?"

“So I don't know if you have heard of a place called Legionville, is it not heard of the camp?”

It's called Legionville. So maybe you have, you know the kids who stand at the crosswalk and help you have the

flags, the crossing guard kids, you know what I know, they said, "Okay, so basically Legionville

is a camp where those kids get trained." So when I was a fifth grade, I got to be a crossing guard captain, so I went to Legionville. Then when I was 17 years old, as like a junior senior high school, I had my first job. My first real job was I was a camp counselor at Legionville. And it was the best, you guys, it was so much fun.

It was, I would be assigned, as a 17-year-old, I'd be assigned up to 35th graders for the entire week. They would arrive at 1 o'clock on Sunday, they'd leave around 10 or 11 o'clock Saturday morning. So basically, the entire time, I was in charge from morning through the night we slept

in the same cabins as them. I was, that's 17-year-old me, was in charge of up to 35th graders. It was awesome. I was so bad at it, I was really, really bad, I loved it, I loved the job, I mean, we

“did them at the one point, I think we figured out we were making 23 cents an hour.”

But they were getting trained, so they had, you know, canoeing, we had waterfront, they

were getting trained to be on the crosswalk, so they had first day, they had safety training.

We had a, I stayed true, we would come in every week, so I was like laying the groundwork for being friends with troopers was awesome, because I knew what my future would hold, seeing a lot of them on the side of the road, and I was just like, it was awesome. And I was so bad at it. Oh, so the greatest men I've ever known in my life were my bosses, they're one man in

Tim Peabody, which is his real name, a Tim Peabody, another hero, a guy Tom Sanford, Tom Sanford had been an army, Jill instructor, and then he put him in charge of fifth graders, and me, and it was great.

And again, I was so bad at that first summer, it was just, I was, and it was like I was doing

“something wrong, I did, here's the thing, I did everything they asked me to do, like”

I showed up when they asked me to show up, I did literally everything they said, "Kate go do this, I did it." And I was so bad at it. It was one of the situations where, again, whatever they asked me to do, I would do, but here's the problem, the problem was I knew the summer would be long, and I knew that

I was in charge of up to 30 fifth graders for the entire summer, every week after week. And so I thought, okay, I'm going into the week, going into the summer, I'm going to pace myself. I don't want to burn out, I don't want to, I don't want to get all in and just be at the end of the summer, just completely fried, so I'm just going to, I'm going to ease

in, I'm just going to, I'll do everything they asked me to do, and that's all. But there was another guy, he was in my grade, his name was Justin Isle, and Justin I've

been in camp for the year before me, my first year, it was his second year, and Justin showed

up, and he just, he did it differently, it was just one of the situations, now here's a thing, I and Justin, we did the exact same things, but Justin did it differently. He did what they asked, I did what they asked, it wasn't what we were doing, it was how we were doing it. Again, he showed up differently, we both wanted to be there, but Justin wanted to be there.

Every camper, we just go down, all the, all the, all the counters, just, when you're near Justin, you just had fun, which I hear is actually the point of camp, and I learned something, watching Justin that first year, that idea is basically this, if I ever come back, if I ever make this, like my career, at least for the next 10 years, if I ever make this my job, what I need to do is I need to do it just like Justin, because how Justin

did it, I don't know how to say it other than this, he showed up, and he put his heart into it, that, that for him, it wasn't about just checking a box, it was about changing lives, for me it was about living, for him was about living, and there was one difference, the one difference between me, that first year, and Justin, was one step. We did the exact same what's, it was how he showed up, he showed up, and he put his heart

into it, and realized how much of life is this, how much of life is just showing up,

“how much of life is just, hey, do the thing, I mean, honestly, think about here we are”

Sunday night, tomorrow, all of the tasks that you have to do tomorrow, all the work we have to do tomorrow, what you're going to be asked to do, the rest of this week is show up, do the work, show up, do the task, show up, do the thing, all of that is good, the question is not, will you show up, the question is how will you show up, because a lot of times I'm like, hey, I'm here, it's good enough, but I think in the gospel today, Jesus

is breaking through to another level, here we have the sermon on the Mount Right, we've listening to the sermon for the last couple of weeks, and Jesus starts it off by saying today, don't think I've come to abolish the law, I've come to fulfill it, and this is thing about Jesus, Jesus completely fulfills the Old Testament, like all the Old Testament prophecies, Jesus fulfills them, the Old Testament sacrifices that Jesus on the cross

in the Eucharist, Jesus fulfills them, like everything that God wants to us to know about his heart and the Old Testament, Jesus fulfills every single one of those, so here's the thing, Jesus says, basically, I'm fulfilling all of the Old Testament prophecies,

“but here's the thing, you need to fulfill it too, that before this you have to come”

amments, great, there's more, that's why he says, you've heard it was said to the people of Old, don't murder, I go even further, you've heard it was said, don't come in the adultery, great, don't, go even further, basically Jesus is saying, don't just show up and

do the thing, here's what I need, I need you to put your heart into it, because I don't

know about you with, let's be honest, the first time I ever read the summer on the Mount, this gospel for today as a high schooler, it's kind of intimidating, I don't know if you've ever noticed that, remember thinking as a high schooler, like, okay, I'll show on that murder, check, easy, no problem, I've made it this far, and then Jesus, like, don't think it angry at your brother, I'm like, well, I was born angry at my brother, so I don't

know it, Jesus says, don't commit adultery, like, peace and cake, as a 17 year old, then he says, don't look lustfully at a person like, oh no, I'm cooked, because there's one thing, right, to be able to say, no, I'm doing all the things, at least I'm trying, we could look at Jesus and say, God, isn't it enough, like I'm showing up, isn't that why I'm supposed to do, we have to realize, in the gospel today, Jesus is calling us to something

us a new weight to carry the weight, he's not giving us a new commandment, he's giving

us a new weight to live, here's the problem, how do we usually show up, how do we usually show up to do the thing, how do we usually show up to do the task, I think we have one of three things we usually choose, I show up and I want to do the minimum, or I show up with resistance, or I show up and I just want to get through, I just want to endure it, so we show up and do the minimum, like I do the right thing, but I keep my heart my own,

I don't know if any of you are like box checkers, like you like checklists, I like checklists,

“like all of my life is, I'm surrounded by checklists, I have like, here's the list”

for today, here's the task for today, I love the box checking because it gets helps get

things done. Check the box. The problem is when I bring box checking into relationships.

And again, it's efficient. It's a productive way to get your work done. But imagine being a box checker when a Valentine's day. Flowers ordered check, dinner reservations, check, dinner eaten, check, set out I love you three times, check, check, check. Wonder romantic. Imagine taking that box checking mentality into our relationship with God. Some of us will do that. Some of us are actually planning on doing that starting on Wednesday. When it comes to Ash Wednesday,

we're like, "Okay, here are the things, here are the boxes I'm going to check for length." And if I do those, I'm good. Again, that's not a bad thing. Say I want to pray every day, check. I want to give up something every day, check. I want to do something good. That's wonderful.

The problem is this. The problem is when we make box checking the point. In fact, there was this woman who wrote

about this. She, like me, likes making boxes. She said it like this. She said, "I am a professional box checker." Which has helped me grow and get things done. But sometimes, the action of checking those boxes becomes the entire mission. How many of us are in that place? Where the action of checking the box, that becomes the whole point. And so what are we saying when it comes to Jesus,

“what's minimum is this? What's the least I can do and not get in trouble?”

What's the least I can do and not get in trouble? I don't know if you heard of this. It's a kind of a new, newly named phenomena called quiet quitting. If you got sort of quiet quitting, it's on the internet the last couple of years. But quiet quitting is this. Someone's at their work and they don't want to leave their job because they get a paycheck. They also don't want to stay. And so they keep showing up to work and they keep doing the minimum. But entirely,

they've kind of quit. So as I do the least amount, I possibly can without getting fired. What's the least amount I can do in not get in trouble. Again, they don't want to leave, but they don't want to work. It's called quiet quitting. Actually, I have a friend like this. I have a friend who got a job and it's a great company over 10 years ago. For a decade, they work so hard. For a decade,

“their motto was above and beyond. For a decade, their motto was more than they ask.”

And then after a decade of doing this, the people in charge kind of revealed that they don't really care about her work. They revealed that this is our team. You're not really part of the team. They're revealed that, yeah, we can we can bleed to dry and we'll go on to the next person. And so they said, okay, after that was very clear, you don't want my above and beyond. You don't want my everything. I will not give you my everything. I will give you my minimum. Which maybe is an okay

way to live in the company? I mean, you don't have to sell your sold your company. That's probably not wise. What happens when we do that with the Lord? What happens when we come before Jesus? What happens when we're in the course of length? Like, okay, God, I'm going to do the exact absolute minimum. I can do and not get in trouble. But you don't get my heart. You don't get my surrender. I give you the minimum. As opposed to my friend Justin at camp,

who showed up and didn't give the minimum. He pointed his heart into it. Imagine here's Jesus. Once again, today in the gospel, don't keep in the adultery. God it. Okay, every poison of anger that still lives in your heart, get rid of that. Don't keep in the adultery. Okay, great, no problem. Okay, every amount of toxic presence of lust in your heart, get rid of that. What we're all called to is this to put our, when we're tempted to give the minimum,

we're all called to put our heart into it. That's one of the ways we show up with minimum. Then the way we show up is with resistance. I don't know if you're, if you experience this. But a lot of times, I know that in this church tonight, there are people who have real suffering. Like, right now, there are people right now sitting next to us in front of us behind us,

we're in the midst of real grief. We spend so much energy in time just wishing it was otherwise.

“We spend so much energy just wanting it to be different. And we look at other people like,”

"Well, their life isn't like mine. They're not struggling the way I'm struggling. How come I have to be the one to go through what I'm going through?" And we can spend so much time, so much energy, so much of our lives just becoming bitter. I don't want it to be like this. It's one of the reasons why we know this, that Jesus, when he, in the gospel of today,

he didn't come to give us a new weight to carry, but a new weight to carry the weight. Now imagine, imagine, what if every burden we experience in our life, whether that be an external burden, or even an internal brokenness? What if we looked at it as if this was God's will for my life right now? Whatever you're going through, real tragedy, real suffering, real brokenness. What if we looked at that and said, "Okay, this is God's will for my life right now."

“We know this. We know that people who are smart have talked about the two wheels of God”

that's God's perfect will and God's promise of will. So, God's perfect will is that God's perfect will is all he wants to give us is good things. I call He wants to give us his perfect will. He wants to, God is love, He wants to give us love. God is joy, He wants to give us joy. God is life, He wants to give us life. All those things are God's perfect will, but we live in a broken world. We're we're free to hurt other people and they're free to hurt us.

We live in a broken world where earthquakes and catastrophes happen in this world. God will allow those things to happen. That's His permissive will. Imagine if we realize this truth, that everything that comes to us comes to us from the hand of God. Imagine how free we would be. Community realizes, right? There is no one more free than the person who can say, "Yes, to God's will at every moment." No one.

None of us is more free than when we can look at whatever it is even in our own hearts. The brokenness of our hearts, we look inside and say, "God, I wish things were different. I wish this was not part of my story, but to be able to say, "Okay, God, I accept this as if you're giving it to me from your hand." Because what we're saying at those times when we say that is,

“God, I believe you're entrusting me with this brokenness. You're entrusting me with this burden.”

God, you're entrusting me with this suffering. It's one of the reasons why resistance is so hard to carry because we're carrying it wrong. I would say like this, so often what drains us, it's not the load, it's the way we carry it. It's not the weight, it's actually the way we carry it. Because so often we carry it, resenting the fact that we have to carry it versus imagine waking up tomorrow with whatever grief, whatever brokenness. We're a part of your story. You just

wish wasn't true in saying, "God, you have permitted this to happen. I receive this sadness as if it's from your own hand." So not the minimum, but put your heart into it. Not resistance,

it's not the load, it's the way you carry it. And the third way we experience this is oftentimes

we simply endure the task. We simply endure the job, we simply endure the thing we have to do. This is me. The other two are me too, but this is really me. You guys know this. You know that for the last two years now, we were in the middle of a campaign to raise money to build a church and build a student center, and you're tired of the prayer by now, but I gotta tell you, every week is every week, I have to go somewhere else. Like every week, there's more people to talk to,

every week, there's more people to meet, every week, there's more people to say, "Hey, there's a bunch of college students in Duluth, Minnesota. They don't have a church of their own. Would you please help us out?" And what happens is when I leave, I come back and y'all say like, "Father, how was your trip?" I hate leaving you. And so so much of me just can't wait for this to be over. I don't have to, when I don't have to leave again.

I hate this process of having to ask people for help. It's this kind of a, I'll do it, but only because I have to. A couple years ago, I came across this, it really convicted me. How much I was doing it wrong.

It's a second Corinthians chapter nine. Same Paul said like this, he's writing the Corinthians,

"These Corinthians have, they've agreed to give. They've agreed to help. They've agreed to work." And he says this, so Paul says, "Consider this. Whoever soes, sparingly, will also reap sparingly." You want to give a little? You'll get a little. If we're soes abundantly, we'll reap abundantly. Want to give a lot? You're going to get a lot.

Basically, if you were decided to work, just go to work. If you decided to do the thing,

do the thing, he says, "Each must do what he's already determined. We're already decided to do without sadness or compulsion." Here I am. What a dummy. Here I am complaining about this task that God is entrusted to us, actually, because it's not just me. This is the generation of new men, people. This is the generation of college students that you're a sacrifice this year, and last year, maybe even next year, please Lord knows.

But you're a sacrifice this year. We'll bless so many generations of college students, who knows, maybe into the hundred years, hundred and fifty years of college students,

we'll be blessed because you're a sacrifice. And here's what Paul says. If you decided to do that,

do without sadness or compulsion. Why? Because God loves a cheerful giver. Here I am. The dummy going like, "I have to do with this." I can't wait for this to be over. How often are you as dumb as I am? You've been given a task, so I have to. I can't wait for this to be done. But the reality is what? This is life. This is actually life.

“And if I just want to be done, it realizes life is made up of exactly what you did last week.”

Whatever you did last week, that's what life is made up of. In the question I have to ask myself, in the question we all get to ask ourselves is, "Okay, you showed up. Awesome. How did you show up?" You know, every week we pray that every day we pray the campaign prayer. In that campaign prayer, which I wrote it. In the campaign prayer is the line we believe that in doing this work we're saying yes to your will. Do I believe it or not? In doing this work we're saying yes to your will. Okay,

I'm doing the work. You're doing the work. How are you doing it? In the summer of the Mount, Jesus is not giving us a new weight to carry. He's giving us a new weight to carry the weight. So here's the question. What is the point? Whatever your task is, what's the point of the task? Whatever your work is, what's the point of the work? Whatever your job is, what's the point of the job?

And this is the last thing. What is the point of the task? First Corinthians 13. Today we heard

first Corinthians chapter two. We're in a fast forward to first Corinthians 13 as Paul gives us the answer.

“Here is the point of every task we have to do tomorrow. This is the point of every task you have to do”

for the rest of this week. He says this, "If I speak in human and angelic tongues, that'd be awesome." But don't have love. I'm a without, without an ingong or a clashing symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge, if I have all faiths who has to move mountains, that would be awesome. Imagine getting, you get a lot done. But don't have love. I'm nothing. If I give away everything I own and I hand my body over so that that may be burned,

but don't have love, I gain nothing. Here's the invitation this week. You know what your tasks are. You know what your work is this week? You know what the job is. The invitation is, show up and do the tasks. But do them as if love is the point. So, not the minimum, put your heart into it. Not with resistance,

“but remember because it's not the load, it's the way I carry it. Not because we're called the”

simply endure tasks or endure life. No, we're called to joyfully accomplish this task. Question, "How do I show up?" This week, show up. This week, do the tasks. This week, do the thing and put your heart into it as if love is the point because it is.