The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 271: Love of God (2024)

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

We continue our overview of the Ten Commandments by looking at the two parts: love of God and love of neighbor. Together they form a “coherent whole,” and there is a unity between the two. While the Catechism shows us our obligation to follow the Commandments, it also reminds us that, “What God commands, he makes possible by his grace.” Fr. Mike emphasizes that even though it may be challenging at times, we are not alone. Jesus is here to help us keep his Commandments. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2064-2082. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down to the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 271. Amazing. We're reading paragraphs 2064 to 2082. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach,

but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism with the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications today. Day 271 paragraphs 2064 not 2064 yeah 2064 into 2082. We're talking about the decalogue. Remember the decalogue literally means the ten words and so first we're looking at the decalogue in the church's tradition. You might have noticed that yesterday when I read the 10 Commandments,

I read three different versions from the book of Exodus, from the book of Deuteronomy, and then the classical catechetical numbering and catechetical explanation of those 10 Commandments. Where did that come from? Great question, Camper. The short answer is St. Augustine. We'll give the longer answer in paragraphs 2065 and 2066, but we

highlight the fact that when we're looking at the Ten Commandments, we're looking at a whole, right? We're looking at not just a bunch of arbitrary dictates, right? Not just a bunch of kind of random suggestions or even random commands, but they have a coherent whole that the first three commandments have to do with love of God and the last seven commandments have to do with love of neighbor. And we recognize that from the early days of the church, there's a unity, that's the second section here, the unity in the decalogue, that to love God, I can't love God without loving my neighbor, and to love my neighbor because he's made a guy's image of likeness is to love God, right? So there's a connection,

there's a unity there. Now we also are looking at two or three more obligations here. One is, or not obligations, but headers, I guess you'd say. One is the Decalogue and the natural law, recognizing that the commandments that are found in the Decalogue could be things that people might be able to discover simply by looking at the human heart and looking at if I have a sense of what a human person is and if there is a God, then that God deserves my worship. And if the human being is made in God's image and likeness,

although we wouldn't know that naturally, but if that's true, I could discover that I should treat them in a certain way. So there's a unity between the Decalogue, right, the Ten Commandments, and the natural law. Also, there's an obligation, meaning that this is not an optional. In fact, I think my mom used to have a somewhat ironic slash sarcastic bumper sticker on the

back of her car that says something like, they're called the Ten Commandments, not the Ten Suggestions, or something like that. I don't know. It may have been something along those lines. We recognize that there's an obligation, that we have an obligation to follow God's commands and that we can't do it without Jesus. So that's what we're looking at today. So in order to look at all of these things, right?

From the decalogue and the church's tradition to the unity of the 10 commandments, the decalogue, the natural law, and also the obligation that we find ourselves in, we recognize we need God's help. And so we come to our Father with prayers. Father in heaven, we thank you. We thank you so much. Thank you for bringing us to this place. Thank you for speaking your word to us.

Your word above all words, the word, the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Your word made flesh. But also Lord God, thank you for speaking those 10 words to us. These words that reveal not only your will, but reveal your heart. They reveal you. So Lord, we ask that you please, as we come into contact once again with your heart, they reveal you. So Lord we ask that you please as we come into

contact once again with your words that we allow ourselves to be transformed by contact with you. In Jesus name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. It is day 271, we're reading paragraphs 2064 to 2082. The Decalogue in the Church's Tradition In fidelity to Scripture and in conformity with the example of Jesus, the tradition of the Church has acknowledged the primordial importance and significance of the Decalogue. Ever since St. Augustine, the Ten Commandments have occupied a predominant place in the catechesis of baptismal candidates and the faithful.

In the 15th century, the custom arose of expressing the commandments of the decalogue in rhymed formulae, easy to memorize, and in positive form. They are still in use today. The catechisms of the Church have often expounded Christian morality by following the order of the Ten Commandments. The division and numbering of the commandments have varied in the course of history. The present catechism follows the division of the commandments established by St. Augustine, which has become traditional in the Catholic Church. It is also that of the Lutheran confessions.

The Greek Fathers worked out a slightly different division, which is found in the Orthodox churches and Reformed communities. The Ten Commandments state what is required in the love of God and love of neighbor. The first three concern love of God, and the other seven love of neighbor. St. Augustine writes, As charity comprises the two commandments to which the Lord related the whole law and the prophets, so the Ten Commandments were themselves given on two tablets. Three were written on one tablet, and seven on the other. The Council of Trent teaches that the Ten Commandments are obligatory for Christians and that the justified man is still bound to keep them.

The Second Vatican Council confirms, The bishops, successors of the apostles, receive from the Lord the mission of teaching all peoples and of preaching the gospel to every creature, so that all men may attain salvation through faith, baptism, and the observance of the commandments. The Unity of the Decalogue The Decalogue forms a coherent whole. Each word refers to each of the others and to all of them. They reciprocally condition one another.

The two tablets shed light on one another. They form an organic unity. To transgress one commandment is to infringe all the others. One cannot honor another person without blessing God his Creator. One cannot adore God without loving all men his creatures. The Decalogue brings man's religious and social life into unity. The Decalogue and the Natural Law. The Ten Commandments belong to God's revelation.

At the same time, they teach us the true humanity of man. They bring to light the essential duties and therefore, indirectly, the fundamental rights inherent in the nature of the human person. The Decalogue contains a privileged expression of the natural law. Saint Irenaeus wrote, From the beginning, God had implanted in the heart of man the precepts of the natural law. Then he was content to remind him of them. This was the Decalogue.

The commandments of the Decalogue, although accessible to reason alone, have been revealed. To attain a complete and certain understanding of the requirements of the natural law, sinful humanity needed this revelation. St. Bonaventure wrote, A full explanation of the commandments of the Decalogue became necessary in the state of sin, because the light of reason was obscured and the will had gone astray. We know God's commandments through the divine revelation proposed to us in the Church and through the voice of moral conscience. The Obligation of the Decalogue

Since they express man's fundamental duties towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten Commandments reveal in their primordial content grave obligations. They are fundamentally immutable, and they oblige always and everywhere. No one can dispense from them. The Ten Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart. Obedience to the commandments also implies obligations in matter which is in itself light. Thus abusive language is forbidden by the Fifth Commandment, but would be a grave offense only as a result of circumstances or the offender's intention. Apart from Me, you can do nothing.

Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from Me, you can do nothing. The fruit referred to in this saying is the holiness of a life made fruitful by union with Christ. When we believe in Jesus Christ, partake of His mysteries, and keep His commandments, the Savior Himself comes to love in us, His Father and His brethren, our Father and our brethren.

His person becomes, through the Spirit, the living and interior rule of our activity. Jesus stated, This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. In brief, What good deed must I do to have eternal life? If you would enter into life, keep the commandments. By his life and by his preaching, Jesus attested to the permanent validity of the Decalogue. The gift of the Decalogue is bestowed from within the covenant concluded by God with His people. God's commandments take on their true meaning in and through this covenant.

In fidelity to Scripture, and in conformity with Jesus' example, the tradition of the Church has always acknowledged the primordial importance and significance of the Decalogue. The Decalogue forms an organic unity in which each word or commandment refers to all the others taken together. To transgress one commandment is to infringe the whole law. The Decalogue contains a privileged expression of the natural law. It is made known to us by divine revelation and by human reason. The Ten Commandments, in their fundamental content, state grave obligations.

However, obedience to these precepts also implies obligations in matter which is in itself light. What God commands, He makes possible by His grace. All right, there we have it, paragraphs 2064 to 2082. Wow, there's just so much here, obviously, because there's a lot of paragraphs here, including some nuggets at the end,

including that amazing final nugget. We'll get to that at the very end. But okay, yesterday you might have noticed, as I said at the beginning of this episode, you might have noticed that there's three versions of the decalogue. We have the one from Exodus 20, from Deuteroneronomy 5 as well as this classical catechetical Version of the Ten Commandments. You also might have noticed I mentioned this yesterday

I believe that other denominations other as it says other confessions They have a different numbering or different ordering of those Ten Commandments. Where does that come from? Well We have st. Augustine to thank for some of these. In the fourth century, you have Saint Augustine who was attempting to communicate these Ten Commandments, synthesizing both the book of Exodus and the book of Deuteronomy into a way that was memorable, right? So not taking anything away, not leaving anything out of the commandments of God, but numbering them according to what he thought would be most helpful for people to accept, understand, and embrace, live out, remember, right? So we also share this with Lutheran Confessions.

Goes on to talk about how the Greek fathers worked out a slightly different division. So here's Augustine, right? He's in the West, he's a Latin father. The Greek fathers worked out a slightly different division, again, looking at Exodus, looking at Deuteronomy, which is found in the Orthodox churches and in Reformed communities.

So Reformed communities like Calvinist communities and some other maybe evangelical free type communities, they'll have a different numbering at times unless they default to Augustine's version of numbering the commandments. So that's all that comes from. Moving on, as I mentioned before, the commandments, 10 of them,

are divided into two kinds, right? Remember the great commandment. The great commandment is to love the Lord God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. The first three commandments, all about love of God. The last seven commandments, all about love of neighbor. And we recognize and it's so powerful, so incredible

that the catechism here makes that point of saying, that's a unity because if I'm gonna honor the Lord God, then I need to love my neighbor. And when I do love my neighbor, I therefore honor God. And so it's just this, there's a whole, it says this, the Decalogue brings man's religious and social life into unity. And that sense of like, you're not called to have again, our private faith. We said this so many times,

not called to have some simply a private faith that they don't live in relationship with others, but a personal faith that I live in community, that I live in all of my areas, all the aspects of my life. Moving on, the decalogue, we're kind of going through fast, I don't mean to, the decalogue in the natural law. Remember that God has inscribed in the human heart a sense of right and a sense of wrong,

and that we can come to know good and evil, we can come to know right and wrong to varying degrees simply by human reason. Remember St. Paul writing to the Romans, chapter one, he talks about this, he says, no, that again, since we've been granted reason, we've been given an intellect, one of the things we can do is we can discern good and evil,

we can discern right and wrong. At the same time, because we're fallen, our intellect is darkened, and because we're fallen, our will has been weakened. And so we absolutely need revelation. So not only could we know this, we can know these truths by natural reason, it's God's revelation that clarifies.

If you wanna say it like this, we can see like your eyeballs, your eyeballs can see. But if your vision isn't perfect, if your vision isn't 2020, and in the fall, in some ways like this, our spiritual vision or our intellect is not 2020. You can still see stuff. Most people can still see things. So you can see, but it's like, ah, it's not crisp. It's not clear. You put on your glasses. That's like revelation where

here is the natural law. Okay. I can see that there is a tree in front of me, but you put on those glasses and realize, okay, here's the detail of the tree. Similarly, I can see that treating others with respect and dignity is a good thing. We put on God's revelation and we can see clearly not only the reason why it's a good thing, but how deeply that reason goes. That make sense?

How is that analogy for you guys? The last two things, the obligation of the Decalogue. This is, I love how the church is getting into this in these last two paragraphs here, 2072 and 2073. It says this, since they express man's fundamental duties toward God and his neighbor, the Ten Commandments reveal, in their primordial content,

grave obligations. These are fundamentally immutable and they oblige always and everywhere. So no one can dispense from them that these are engraved by God in the human heart. So they are serious. To violate these sins is grave, is grave matter. Remember this does grave obligation,

these 10 commandments. At the same time, obedience to the commandments also implies obligations and matters which are themselves light. So we've talked in the past about mortal sin and venial sin, about how mortal sin requires grave matter and full knowledge of the grave matter and full consent of the will regarding the grave matter Now not all of the ways in which we could violate the Ten Commandments Would necessarily be grave matter for example to take the Fifth Commandment

That's the example they used in 2073 the fifth commandment thou shall not kill which strictly speaking is the Hebrew and Greek term murder, right? To not, thou shall not take an innocent human life To say that like yet to violate that to take an innocent human life. That's always gonna be grave matter But there are also variations about this prohibition to murder for example Using harsh language against someone else or abusive language towards someone else that would fall under the umbrella of murdering your neighbor Jesus makes that connection when he says he've heard it was said thou shall not kill but I say to you anyone who grows

Angry with her brother is liable to judgment and who says rocker or you fool to your brother and be liable to the Sanhedrin So Jesus makes it clear that yes murder is always gonna be that grave matter But there are some other sins underneath this umbrella. As it's noted here in 2073, it says this, "'Thus abusive language is forbidden "'by the fifth commandment.'" Makes sense. But it would be a grave offense

only as a result of circumstances or the offender's intention. So someone could use abusive language and that wouldn't necessarily be grave matter. But you can imagine the circumstance or the offenders intention where that would be great matter. For example, if you were to say, here's abusive language that is, I don't want to say what's not great. What is you're in your car, someone else is in their car and you kind of

shouted out some abusive language. They don't hear it. No one else hears it, but you've done that. Okay. That would not be a good thing right that would be a sin but it wouldn't necessarily be grave matter now see you take those exact same words and you say them to your mom you say them to your dad now that's those circumstances in the dynamic of that relationship, that could make those same words

that exactly said the same way, it could elevate that to becoming grave matter. So there are some things, again, under the category of these grave sins that wouldn't be grave necessarily, except as a result of circumstances or the offender's intention. I hope that makes some sense. Now, before we conclude today,

and before we jump into tomorrow, where we're gonna talk about the First Commandment, about just love of God, so great, I'm so excited about this, we are reminded in 2074 and later on in 2082, apart from me, you can do nothing. This is going to be necessary for us. Let's look at this more closely. Remember Jesus' words in John's gospel, I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. You guys, we are called to the heights of holiness. These commandments we're gonna dive deeply into are going to be

challenging. Not necessarily everyone, but they're going to be challenging. They're going to challenge our complacency, they're going to challenge what we're accustomed to. They're going to challenge our preconceived ideas. They're even going to challenge our will. Like, do I want this? Do I want holiness? That's, that's going to be a big question. In all of this, we need to be reminded that apart from Jesus, we can do none of

this, that we absolutely need Jesus and his help and the power of his Holy Spirit in order to move forward. It says this, this is so important again, because this is not just about you becoming holier. It says, when we believe in Jesus Christ, partake of his mysteries and keep his commandments, the Savior himself comes to love in us, his father and his brethren, our father and our brethren."

And they realize this, this is so important. When we say yes to the Lord in virtue, the Savior Himself comes to love in us, His father and his brethren, our father and our brethren. And we can't do that on our own. We can't, we absolutely, it's impossible. Which is one of the reasons why if you want another highlightable verse, another underlinable verse, is 2082. What God commands, He makes possible by His grace. What God commands, He makes possible by His grace.

We are going to face a number of commandments over the next coming weeks. Some of them, again as I said this before, maybe many times, but I know I just said it like two minutes ago. Some of them, no problem. Got it, Lord, dial it in. No big deal. Some of them incredibly daunting.

Some of them, I don't know how in the world I'm gonna live this way. Yet, God will never command us to do something that we're unable to do. God will never ask of us anything that's impossible. What God commands, He makes possible by His grace. This is one of those things to stitch on a pillow and sleep on it every night. What God commands, He makes possible by His grace.

You do not have to do this alone. Not only can't you, we can't do it alone. You do not have to do this alone. Not only can't you, we can't do it alone. You don't have to do it alone. Because God is going to meet us with His commands starting tomorrow. We already has for the last 271 days. But tomorrow He'll meet us with even more commands. Maybe they're reviews for us. Maybe they're new to us.

But what He commands, He makes possible by His grace. So do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. Have courage. The Lord is with you. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.