Having a Touchstone Scripture
Mark Schissler, a community member at St. Marys Star of the Sea, shared a personal story about his life transformation through the passage from Luke 8:16-18. He emphasized the importance of being the light and the significance of genuine confession and understanding one's worth in the context of faith. Mark highlighted the concept of a 'touchstone' as a guiding principle in daily life and encouraged reflection on the passage to find stability and meaning. He concluded by suggesting contemplation of the passage as an anchor and provided questions for reflection. Mark's talk focused on the impact of faith on personal growth and service to others.
MC: Joseph Gruber
Presenter: Mark Schissler
Deacon: Rick Freedberg
Brought to you By: The Knights of Columbus
Audio Trasnscription
participantOne:(0-14299): I would be happy to introduce to you Mark Schissler, who has passed Grand Night here at St. Mary's Star of the Sea. He is a pillar of the St. Mary community, and he has some words to offer to us about Scripture.
participantOne:(20520-45100): Good morning, gentlemen. I'm going to take a little different approach to Scripture than what we did in the first couple weeks. As you heard, John and Joseph are very, very informed on these Scriptures. I'm taking a little different approach. I'm just going to focus on one passage. A passage that has become very important in my life and has really helped turn my life around. So...
participantOne:(45300-73360): I'm going to read that passage to you first and then share with you my journey. Some of you may have been through the same journey. Some of you may be in the midst of that or it will be coming your way. Because we're all continuing to learn. So the passage that is my touchstone or my anchor, my foundation, is from Luke 8, verses 16 through 18.
participantOne:(74640-101760): to familiarize yourself with this because we all heard these over the years but I'm going to be talking about how this has really provided new meaning to me and my life. So let the verses go. No one after letting a lamp covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hid that shall not be made manifest.
participantOne:(102000-121080): nor anything secret that shall not be known come to life take heed then how you hear for to whom who has will more be given and from him who has not even what he thinks he has will be taken away
participantOne:(122260-149880): So, I think a lot of you know that I'm one of 12 children, I'm cradle Catholic. And so, I've been hearing the gospel and the passages all my life. And my best role models, my mom and dad, were exemplary exhibitors of service to others, being kind, and even the service to others seemed to the point of self-sacrifice.
participantOne:(150880-173739): So I had done that throughout my life. And looking back, there were some really amazing things that came out of that because of what I did. An example, on a cold Christmas Eve, my wife and I were driving into early mass. It happened to be a weekend. It was on a Saturday. We were going to early mass on Christmas Eve. And...
participantOne:(174100-198640): On the side of the road in the gas station there was a car that was parked. It was parked like any entrance drive to the... But it was not in the city, it was out more in the country. So there was a car parked in the pulling ramp. We'd go home from church an hour and a half later and it's still there. Well I was also going to be going to midnight mass that year.
participantOne:(199020-231120): And so I'm going into midnight mass, that car's still sitting there and right now it's starting, it's really cold and it's snowing. So I said, well that's really interesting, I wonder what happened to that car, vehicle, I hope they're okay. On the way home from mass, the car's still there. So I went by and I went back and I checked and I turned so my headlights were on the car and it wasn't running or anything and I knock on the window and there's a guy in there. And it's like,
participantOne:(231820-264420): you've been i could i said i've gone past you a couple of times you've been here for hours are you okay he goes my car won't start and by now it's like 1 1 15 at night it's like well what does someone come to help you it goes no my phone's dead it's like bizarre so where are you trying to get to he goes i was down in ohio i'm trying to get to jackson um there's uh i don't know if there's an apartment right next to the jackson county community uh
participantOne:(265340-290440): Jackson County Care facility over on Lansing. There's a big boarding house. So he's trying I said I'm trying to get there I said well, I'll take you there. So I call my wife said hey I've got a head back into Jackson go into Jackson drop him off come home Well a couple days later. I find out that I was sitting there in my car His wallet had fallen out and it was in the side of
participantOne:(290740-321320): side on the between the door to see so I want to get that wallet back to him so I go over and They have a sign in place and I have his name and his card and everything and it's like this man was here a couple Nights ago. I need to get him his wallet and the lady looks at me goes No one signed in but again It just it was just coincidental that I happened to be there and and the
participantOne:(321800-349880): see that he was stranded and he needed help. And so I look back over my life, there were good things that have happened. And I thought it was, yeah, I did good things, but it really wasn't I, because God's in charge of everything. And so I went through the process of being kind, servicing others, and I'm a good guy. But the third little secret is I had given into temptation
participantOne:(350180-380680): And there was things that I was doing that really dragged me down. They were bad things. And some of us have been there, you start doing some bad things and then it's like an endless cycle and you do more things. But you feel, and one of our weaknesses as human is self-deception. We think, well, if I've done something, nobody else finds out. Over enough time, it's like it never happened.
participantOne:(381340-409700): Well, that is the devil's plan. Because then you say, well, maybe I'll do this, maybe I'll do that. And it's a downward cycle. And no matter what good I did, I always felt that was being dragged down, that it was not worthy enough. And then I don't know if it was a homily or I was just reading or someone was speaking, and that's when this passage came up.
participantOne:(410060-438700): We are to be the light. We have the light in us from when we were baptized. And I'll tell you more about after I started really committing to my faith. Some other things that happened. Now everything came to a new light for me. No pun intended. But one of the first things I thought I had to do is go and do a genuine deep confession.
participantOne:(438940-471900): to get the weight off my back so that I could get a fresh start. And this passage meant so much because it even says, anything in secret shall not, anything, nor anything secret shall not be known and come to life. And so once I did that, things that I heard had new meaning. For example, I was in a Bible study, and there was someone there, there was someone I have a lot of respect for in Jesus.
participantOne:(472120-500400): She was 60-some years old, and she goes, you know, what I've learned recently and over the years, I wish I had learned that at a much younger age so that I could help people. But now I'm going to take whatever years God has for me, and I'm going to be sharing what I have learned to help people start at a younger age to understand their worth and their value and the place for Jesus in their life.
participantOne:(502480-527100): So that was one of the things that really got me thinking. And then also looking more into the sacrament of confirmation. Because confirmation, when I went through it, is whatever grade that was, eighth, ninth grade. And cradle cackling, that's one of the things we do. It's confirmation. Did I really understand it? No. Was I going through the motions? Yes.
participantOne:(528099-557840): And it was like all the passages I had heard before I had my reawakening, is that I knew, yeah, I've heard that passage before. I could probably figure out most of the words to it, but it was all in my head. It was not in my heart. And so to get these things to start having impact on my heart, so that way when I work with other people and being genuine with them and trying to understand where they are,
participantOne:(559420-588620): It just made my life so much more meaningful that I was able to, I felt worthy that I could really help people in a genuine way rather than just stopping on the side of the road and help them fix their car, things like that. I go back to the story I told you about helping the guy in the stranded car. I didn't do that. That was all God's coordination. But I put so much value on what I thought I was going to do
participantOne:(588900-612200): that also played into that self-perception, self-deception, that the things that I did, if kept secret, it would be a secret. It's a very tough way to lead your life. In doing that also, I realized that the gifts that I have from God
participantOne:(612839-628160): I was not using them effectively. It's sort of like in the passage. I had these talents and skills, but they were under the bed, under the couch, under the basket. I wasn't truly helping people the way people truly needed to be helped.
participantOne:(628760-655700): And the opportunity is now for us to be those hands and feet for Jesus, because this is a very desperate world we're living in right now with a lot of despair, a lot of lack of hope. And to find that anchoring point, that helps me very much. So one of the things I have is some questions for reflection on that question.
participantOne:(656939-690540): I mean reference to a touchstone. Anyone know what a touchstone is? It is something that makes a connection to the stability. It's something that helps you measure the quality of something that's replicated. So the passage from the Bible, the touchstone, is what I go back to as I'm going through day-to-day, week-to-week. I go back to this and say, how does this impact...
participantOne:(690959-723740): my potential actions and my thoughts about a particular situation. So that's what a touchstone is. So there's some questions for reflection. And then on the back, if you don't already have one, some of you may have one, but on the back there are some examples of passages that you might want to contemplate that can be your anchor or your touchstone. And then there's also some quick...
participantOne:(723959-754960): daily anchors there that everyone maybe has a, I know in some of the other religions they have a mantra or a one-liner to help give you confidence and keep you centered. Well there's some others on here that are just one-liners. So it's just the touchstone or the anchor is a little bit deeper. The daily anchor is just very familiar thought in your mind. So we'll take the next five minutes to on page one,
participantOne:(755199-768380): There's a couple of questions for reflection. So if you would take a look at those, and then in five minutes we'll adjourn to the tables, and there's some discussion questions there. Thank you.
