AI Summary
5 min read“I just can’t be bothered.”
That Japanese phrase—mendukasai—captures something almost too ordinary to notice. In a 2011 study, 61 percent of men and 49 percent of women aged 18 to 34 in Japan reported not only being single but having no interest in a relationship. A 31-year-old man explained: “I find some of my female friends attractive, but I’ve learned to live without sex. Emotional entanglements are too complicated.” He just couldn’t be bothered. The invitation to a life-changing relationship was there. He ignored it.
Father Mike Schmitz uses this example to name a blind spot he believes underlies many others: practical atheism. Not atheism in the usual sense—only 5 percent of Americans say they don’t believe God exists, according to a 2023–2024 religious landscape survey. Practical atheism is something else. It’s believing in God, even professing faith in Jesus, but living as if God doesn’t exist. It’s not ignorance; it’s ignoring. You know you’ve been invited to the wedding feast (the Mass, the life of grace), but you act as if you didn’t hear.
The parable and the pattern
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:01) **Opening & Gospel Reading** - Fr. Mike introduces the homily and reads the Parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22:1-14).
- 2 (02:04) **Selective Hearing & Ignoring** - Fr. Mike opens with a humorous story about his brother's "selective hearing" to illustrate how we ignore what we don't want to deal with.
- 3 (04:39) **Blind Spots Series Introduction** - Fr. Mike introduces the final week of a six-part series on "Blind Spots," based on Psalm 19: "From hidden faults, O Lord, equip me."
- 4 (05:27) **The Parable's Overreaction & Our Blind Spot** - Fr. Mike examines the parable's detail that some guests ignored the invitation and went to their farm or business.
- 5 (06:23) **The "Can't Be Bothered" Attitude** - Fr. Mike introduces the Japanese term "Mendukasai," meaning "can't be bothered," and connects it to ignoring life-changing invitations.
- 6 (08:30) **Practical Atheism Defined** - Fr. Mike defines "practical atheism," a term from Pope John Paul II, as believing in God but living as if He doesn't exist.
- 7 (11:09) **Three Practical Tests: Speech, Schedule, Stuff** - Fr. Mike offers three concrete areas to diagnose practical atheism: speech, schedule, and stuff.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Homily from the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
I believe that God exists, but I do not live as if God exists.
Sometimes we become so comfortable with our words, our schedules, and our everyday choices that we ignore God's invitation to a life-changing relationship with Him. God has made Himself ignorable for the sake of love: but love pays attention. The remedy is to invite Him into each and every moment and ask, "God, right now, how would you have me be?"
Mass Readings from October 11, 2026: Isaiah 25:6-10 Psalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20Matthew 22:1-14
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