The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 39: The Father Almighty (2024)

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

Together, with Fr. Mike, we explore the nature of God as Almighty. Fr. Mike discusses three important points to keep in mind about the reality of God’s power. The first is that God’s power is universal. God rules over everything; it is an infinite power. He is loving, he adopts us as his sons and daughters and shows us his mercy. Fr. Mike concludes with a reflection on God’s mysterious power in relation to the reality of the problem of evil and suffering in our world. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 268-278. 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 through 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 and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. It is day 39. We're reading paragraphs 268 to 278. You guys, we have 10, 11. I don't know how many paragraphs that is. It's quite a few. 268 to 278. Also, my gosh, you guys made it to day 39. This is pretty remarkable. I know that those first couple days were sloggy, if that's a good word, for it kind of just, okay, here's the introduction to the Catechism.

I know I brought this up before. I'm bringing it up again because I don't know today is amazing I'm pretty excited about today and also the days to follow we have so much my goodness so much goodness to Be have revealed to us about God quick things before we dive in I'm using the ascension edition of the catechism I don't know if you knew that it includes the foundations of faith approach You can follow along also with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I also am using a Catechism in your reading plan. You can get that if you visit ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y.

And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily notifications and daily updates and whatnot. Okay, so today, as I said, day 39, paragraphs 268 to 278. This section is about how God is almighty. So what we believe about God is that he is almighty. And what does that mean? What are we saying when we believe that God is almighty?

And so we're gonna dive deeply into this. I think it's fascinating. Tomorrow, we're gonna then talk about, okay, so if God the Father is almighty, he also is the creator of heaven and earth, right? So we're talking about how the fact that he's a creator tomorrow. But today, we are establishing the fact that God is almighty. So what does that mean?

That could be a fancy word for the word omnipotence, right? It could be a fancy word for the fact that God is all-powerful. The fact that God is almighty means that he can do anything. He can do whatever he wills. And nothing is impossible with God who disposes his works according to his will. That's one of the quotes we're going to get from Jeremiah in the Catechism today, paragraph 269. One of the things we need to highlight here today is not only that the Almighty power of God is one of his divine attributes, but also the fact that this reveals something to us about God's character. Because one of the things that's going to be stated here is that is this, in God, power, essence, will, intellect, wisdom, and justice are all identical.

Nothing therefore can be in God's power which could not be in His just will or His wise intellect. I know I just dove right into a quote from St. Thomas Aquinas. It's in paragraph 271. What we're saying is God's almighty power is in no way arbitrary. It means, essentially, that is establishing the fact that we would say God's goodness is an arbitrary. His power is an arbitrary. It's an essential aspect of what it means to be God.

And this is remarkable that Thomas Aquinas was able to highlight this, is that God is being itself, therefore, in God who's being. So he's not a kind of being. He's not a certain type of being. God is being itself. He's the ground, the foundation, the essence, if you can say it like this, of all being.

Because of that, one of the things we state about God is that he is simple not not in the sense that It's easy to understand or that God is easy to apprehend or comprehend. We already established that that is not the case But in the sense that God doesn't have parts Right, so there's not parts of him that are power or parts that are will, parts that are intellect, parts that have wisdom or justice. Well, no, God's power is part of his very existence and his very will is part of his very existence and his intellect is part of his existence. All one, it's all identical as Thomas Aquinas had said.

And so one of the things we can again continue to highlight is this is an essential aspect of what it means to be God. All of these qualities we were highlighting, right? So power, essence, will, intellect, wisdom, justice, they're all part of what it is to be God. It's just, it's pretty remarkable that people for thousands of years have reflected on and really hashed out the fact that God's identity is necessary. The God's identity is essential. And this part of

the, we say it like this, I say it like this, part of his identity, even though we recognize that as Thomas Aquinas had stated, all power, essence, will, intellect, wisdom wisdom justice. They're all identical That God's his identity is essential meaning he is a necessary being without the being of God Nothing else would exist He's a necessary being everyone else. We've talked to this before everything else is a contingent being but God is being itself and So he God can do whatever He pleases. And then He also reveals this. We're going to hear about this today.

God also then reveals that His almighty power, right? His omnipotence is as a Father. And that His omnipotence is part of His goodness. And think about this. His omnipotence is part of His goodness. The fact that He's the Father Almighty reveals that he is good. And so we're gonna look at it a little bit. The Catechism is going to bring up.

Isn't there a mystery of God's apparent powerlessness? I mean, in the face of evil, in the face of suffering, is God incapable of addressing suffering? Is God incapable of stopping evil? And we're gonna talk about that today, which is really fascinating. But also, when we finally, this is gonna be stated,

one of the last bullets in paragraph 274, it's a quote from the Roman Catechism. And it says, but finally, if we come to faith, we come to believe in God's almighty power, right? The fact that he is almighty father, then we recognize that we can trust him in the deepest of ways. Once we come to this place of profession of,

yeah, no, I know that God is almighty, and I know that God is father. I know that he is power and omnipotence, but goodness as well as goodness itself, then there's nothing that we think he can't do then there's no claim he can make about himself that we don't give us sent to We know that we can trust him because we know that he can do all that he says and so we pray for that kind of faith So let's let's let's say a prayer now before we dive into Gatacism 268 to 278

Father Almighty you are the Almighty Father. You're simple. You are one. Lord God, you are justice and goodness itself. You are being itself. You are love itself. Every good thing flows from you. Every truth flows from you. All of our wills that can choose and can love are a gift from you. All of our intellects that can think and apprehend they're from you. So we ask you Lord, help us to think, help us to know, help us to love you

for you are wisdom and you are love. And we declare that you are good. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, it's day 39. We're reading paragraphs 268 to 278.

Paragraph 3, The Almighty. Of all the divine attributes, only God's omnipotence is named in the creed. To confess this power has great bearing on our lives. We believe that His might is universal. For God who created everything also rules everything and can do everything. God's power is loving. For he is our Father and mysterious, for only faith can discern it when it is made perfect in weakness.

He does whatever he pleases. The Holy Scriptures repeatedly confess the universal power of God. He is called the Mighty One of Jacob, the Lord of Hosts, the Strong and Mighty One. If God is almighty in heaven and on earth, it is because He made them. Nothing is impossible with God who disposes His works according to His will. He is the Lord of the universe, whose order he established and which remains wholly subject to him and at his disposal. He is master of history, governing hearts and events in keeping with his will.

As the book of wisdom states, it is always in your power to show great strength, and who can withstand the strength of your arm. You are merciful to all, for you can do all things. God is the Father Almighty, whose fatherhood and power shed light on one another. God reveals his fatherly omnipotence by the way he takes care of our needs, by the filial adoption that he gives us. As is stated in 2 Corinthians, I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters," says the Lord Almighty. Finally, by His infinite mercy, for He displays His power at its height by freely

forgiving sins. God's Almighty power is in no way arbitrary, as St. Thomas Aquinas stated, in God, power, essence, will, intellect, wisdom, and justice are all identical. Nothing therefore can be in God's power which could not be in His just will or His wise intellect. The Mystery of God's Apparent Powerlessness Faith in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the experience of evil and suffering. God can sometimes seem to be absent and incapable of stopping evil.

But in the most mysterious way, God the Father has revealed His almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and resurrection of His Son by which He conquered evil. Christ crucified is thus the power of God and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. It is in Christ's resurrection and exaltation that the Father has shown forth the immeasurable greatness of His power in us who believe. Only faith can embrace the mysterious ways of God's Almighty power. This faith glories in its weaknesses in order to draw to itself Christ's power.

The Virgin Mary is the supreme model of this faith, for she believed that nothing will be impossible with God, and was able to magnify the Lord, saying, For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. As the Roman Catechism states, Nothing is more apt to confirm our faith and hope than holding it fixed in our minds that nothing is impossible with God. Once our reason has grasped the idea of God's almighty power, it will easily and without any hesitation admit everything that the Creed will afterwards propose for us to believe, even if they be great and marvelous things, for above the ordinary laws of nature. In brief.

With Job the Just Man, we confess, I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Faithful to the witness of Scripture, the Church often addresses its prayer to the Almighty and Eternal God, Omnipotence Sampaterneus, believing firmly that nothing will be impossible with God. God shows forth His almighty power by converting us from our sins and restoring us to His friendship by grace. As a prayer in the Roman Missal states, O God, who manifest your almighty power above all by pardoning and showing mercy. If we do not believe that God's love is almighty,

how can we believe that the Father could create us, the Son redeem us, and the Holy Spirit sanctify us? Okay, so that is paragraphs 268 to 278. I am so grateful. Like I said, there's so much goodness in this. There's so much... I think it's very powerful to talk about God's power, right? To talk about the fact that God is almighty. So in paragraph 268, it highlights these three kind of aspects of God being almighty. One is, it's his power, his almighty power is universal, that his power, he is loving, and his power is mysterious. And that's what we're going to look at. So his power is universal. What that means, What's that mean? God creates everything He created everything he rules everything he can do everything and that

That I think is very important for us to just assert I mean obviously Because there's no God's power is infinite, right? It is almighty. It is omnipotent Which means there's no room for another God. I mean literally in in which means there's no room for another God. I mean, literally in the universe or outside the universe, in time or eternity, if God is himself, you know, infinite, being itself, if he has power itself, then there's no room for another God,

which I think is remarkable. But that might not be what you're preoccupied with right now. Maybe you're preoccupied with the question, wait, if God can do anything, and here's the question that everyone, not everyone, many people have asked, if God can do everything,

can he make a square circle, that kind of a thing, right? Well, here's the remarkable thing about how unremarkable that question is. While it is clever, and while it is maybe a, maybe a good thing to ask, it's got a natural question to ask, because we're establishing that, no, it says God who created everything also rules everything and can do everything. His power is universal.

He can do it all. But here's what God can't do. God can't contradict reason. Because as we established by saying Thomas Aquinas, in God, power, essence, will, intellect, wisdom, and justice are all identical. So God in creating a world in which there are such a things as squares, which have four corners, and those corners add up to 360 degrees, cannot make a square thing into a circle and let it be a square thing still. So it's one of those

things where God can't contradict himself because truth can't contradict truth and power can't contradict truth. And that's not the limitation of God's power. It's actually consistent, entirely consistent with God's power and with his being reason, right? God is not simply powerful, he's also reason itself. So we say that God can do everything, but to make a square circle is nothing.

Meaning the moment a square becomes a circle, it ceases to be a square. So in other words, you could kind of say it like this. The square circle is a circle that's not a circle. That is to say it is nothing whatsoever. I read that somewhere. That's a square circle is a circle that's not a circle. I read that somewhere. That's a swear circle. It's a circle. That's not a circle. Therefore, it's nothing. And we've established that God will not do nothing.

He can do all things, but he can't do nothing. Does that make sense? It is just a clever plan words. But what we're establishing is that God is the Lord of the universe, whose order He established, and the whole universe remains wholly subject to him and at his disposal, which is incredible. The next part, so not only is God's power universal, his power is loving.

And so in paragraphs 271, it says, God is the Father Almighty, whose fatherhood and power shed light on one another. That God reveals his fatherly omnipotence by the way he takes care of our needs, right? And then by the way, he adopts us as his sons and daughters. And finally, by his mercy. And this is just incredible that we have the most, I want to say the most powerful being in the university. That's one of the, and that's an incorrect way of saying it. You say like, who's the

strongest Avenger, right? Like, okay, it's Hulk, no, it's Thor. It's whatever. And sometimes, oh, no, it's God. God would be the strongest one. No, that God's not a character in this. And again, we sometimes, and then maybe you have never fallen into a trap, when we start talking about God's power, God's being almighty, God's being strong, God, you have strength. We sometimes think, well, how strong? Well, no, God has strength itself. There is, like I was saying, like God is the biggest being in the world. No, God is being. And so the trap we can fall into is to imagine God to be like Superman or like Thor, right? Oh, just really, really powerful. But that is, that's not the right way to think of this. The right way to think of this is that God is power, right? God is goodness. He is his will. He is being. And so, going back to

this, we recognize that that being, that that that power, he is good. And he's loving and he wants to use that is himself and give of himself to take care of us, to adopt us as his sons and daughters. And finally, by his mercy, which is incredible. And then lastly we have God's power is mysterious. And why do we say it's mysterious? Because, oh well, because here is God who's all powerful. And he's all good. We talked about this before. The mystery and the scandal of evil that says, wait a second, faith in God, the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the scandal of evil that says, wait a second, faith in God, the Father Almighty, can be put to the test by the experience of evil and suffering. 272 goes on to say, God can sometimes seem to be absent and incapable of stopping evil. And so we ask that question, God is He? God, are you incapable of stopping evil?

God, are you incapable of stopping evil? God, are you absent? And yet God's answer, and we're gonna talk about this so many times in the next number of days and weeks, God's answer is it says this in the most mysterious way. Again, God's power is mysterious. In the most mysterious way, God the Father has revealed his almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and resurrection of His Son by which He conquered evil.

So God's power is made manifest not by squashing evil, not by eliminating evil from the world. His power is evidenced by entering into evil, by allowing suffering to overwhelm him on the cross, through which he conquers evil. And that's why 273 says, only faith can embrace the mysterious ways of God's almighty power. Because I mean, that takes a lot of faith, it takes a lot of trust to be able to say,

God, I would rather that you take away the evil. I'd rather you take away the suffering. But God does not remove the suffering. He redeems the suffering. Once we get to that place, once we get that place of faith and hope, then we realize that nothing is impossible with God. And once our reason is grasped,

this idea of God's almighty power Roman Catechism states Then we will easily and without any hesitation Admit everything that's coming after this once we accept this. Yes, the God's power is universal God's power is loving and God's power is mysterious If we accept that have faith in that trust in him Then there's nothing that we could hesitate when He reveals about Himself. And that's my prayer for all of us, is that as we move forward, tomorrow, talking about creation, talking about how He created this

Almighty God, who is the Father Almighty, who created everything, heaven and earth, that we know that He created this in goodness, even though there was a great mystery to creation. So today, once again, God's power is universal. God's power is loving and God's power is mysterious. God's power is used. He uses it for you and for me to bring us mercy and to bring us redemption. So that's the question tonight. Today, just when you let that mercy and to bring us redemption. So that's the question tonight.

Today, just when you let that mercy come to meet you, will you let that loving power come into your life? And when you believe, just like all the great saints and all the characters in scripture that were faithful to the Lord, that nothing will be impossible for God. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me.

My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.