The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 45: Summary of Creation (2024)

Episode Date: February 14, 2024

In this “In Brief” section of the Catechism, we review that only God has the power to create, that is, to call into existence something from nothing. God made man and the entire universe as a manifestation of his love, and he keeps the world and all of us in existence by his will. Fr. Mike discusses one of the greatest mysteries of our faith: God bringing good out of evil. He says we won’t fully understand this mystery until we are united with God in heaven. In a broken world, we are called to trust in the goodness of God. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 315-324. 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 45, we're reading paragraphs 315 to 324. I'm using the Ascension Edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundation's Faith Approach, but you can follow along with any recent version

of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Also, you can download your Catechism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y and you can follow or you can subscribe to this podcast in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Also just two things, I wanna thank you, everyone who's supported the production of this podcast

with prayers and financial gifts. We couldn't do it without you. And also thank you for being with us. I mean, I know, you know, tomorrow we're gonna, this is a nugget day. I don't know if you know that. Today's a nugget day. Nugget day at the end of this whole section.

We're gonna have the in brief of paragraphs 315 to 324 It's incredible because we summarize the catechism summarizes in these short paragraphs Everything we've been diving deeply into for the last number of days But also I am so grateful because here we go like I kind of feel like I don't know if I keep saying this I don't know if you feel this way too, but I just gosh. It's like We're finally underway. It feels like we're really moving. I don't know if I keep saying this, I don't know if you feel this way too, but I just, gosh, it's like we're finally underway. It feels like we're really moving. I don't know if it feels like that to you, but we are moving and it feels like, so I don't know.

Hey guys, by the way, if you like angels, we're talking about angels tomorrow. And I know people are like, oh my gosh, let's talk about angels, let's hear about those. Why are we talking about angels tomorrow? Well, we're talking about angels tomorrow because we talked about creation for the last few days. And among the first things that God created are the angels, which is amazing

Maybe even the very first thing the very first thing we know about I guess Anyways, let's open this out day up with a prayer and then what we're gonna do is I'm gonna kind of highlight the what the nuggets are The in brief then we're gonna launch into them today. Let's pray father in heaven We give you praise and thanks. Thank you for Continuing to reveal yourself to us. Thank you for continuing to speak to us. Thank you for giving us your word in scripture. And thank you for giving us the way to clearly understand your word through the interpretive lens of the church

and the voice of the church that continues to speak truth in this world. We thank you. Thank you for creating this world. Thank you for creating us. Thank you for walking with us, even in the midst of our pain and our suffering, our grief and our loss. We trust in you this day.

We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, we're just kind of some summary of the summary. We're gonna cover the fact that, yes,

God created the world on his own without any help. He didn't need any help and didn't take any help, didn't ask for any help, but also this recognition that God created this world good in order to show forth His glory, to communicate Himself, right? To actually be able to give Himself to His creatures.

This is one of the things that we've been highlighting that scripture declares, and the church reminds us of, is that God didn't create this world arbitrarily, right? That God didn't create this world because He was right? God didn't create this world because he was bored. God created this world because he desired, because he is love. He desired to be able to share that love with free creatures he made in his image and likeness. And that's just remarkable.

The whole universe is meant to proclaim God's glory and communicate his divine life to us, which is just it's incredible. It just like gosh. Oh wow. I mean, that's why you know day 45 here we are. It's one of those things like the fact that you've been pressing play for 45 days is remarkable. Not only this, but we also are talking today, last couple days, about the fact that God keeps the world in existence by his word, that he holds us in being. So God didn't just, again, remember deism? He didn't just make the universe like a clockmaker, which makes a clock, winds it up and then leaves it. He's present to us and he holds us in existence. That's how close God is. How transcendent, remember how transcendent God is that, yeah, he exists

outside of time and outside of space, but he also is very, he's present to every moment. He's present in every place at the same time. And lastly, of course, you know, yesterday, we had, what I thought, maybe was most, some of the most challenging, but also beautiful days of reading the Catechism, where we talked about the mystery of suffering, and that, again, as we said yesterday, that no simple answer will suffice in response to the problem of pain. And the church declares that the Christian message as a whole is the only answer. In fact, remember that quote, there is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil. And that is consoling to me.

Anyways, we're going to get started today. And we're going to, again, nug. Anyways, we're gonna get started today. And we're gonna get again, nugget day, paragraphs 315 and 324, this in brief tomorrow we're talking about angels, but today we're summarizing what we've been hearing for the last couple days. Here we go. In brief, in the creation of the world and of man, God gave the first and universal witness to his almighty love and his wisdom, the first proclamation of the plan of his loving goodness which finds its goal in the new creation in Christ. Though the work of creation is attributed to the Father in particular,

it is equally a truth of faith that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together are the one indivisible principle of creation. God alone created the universe freely, directly, and without any help. No creature has the infinite power necessary to create in the proper sense of the word, that is, to produce and give being to that which had in no way possessed it, to call into existence out of nothing. God created the world to show forth and communicate His glory. That His creatures should share in His truth, goodness, and beauty. This is the glory for which God created them. God created the universe and keeps it in existence by His word, the

Son, upholding the universe by His word of power and by His Creator Spirit, the giver of life. Divine Providence consists of the dispositions by which God guides all His creatures with wisdom and love to their ultimate end. Christ invites us to fillial trust in the providence of our Heavenly Father, and St. Peter the Apostle repeats, Cast all your anxieties on Him, for He cares about you. Divine Providence works also through the actions of creatures. To human beings, God grants the ability to cooperate freely with His plans.

The fact that God permits physical and even moral evil is a mystery that God illuminates by His Son Jesus Christ, who died and rose to vanquish evil. Faith gives us the certainty that God would not permit an evil if he did not cause a good to come from that very evil by ways that we shall fully know only in eternal life." Okay, as I said, it's nugget day and so we got a bunch of incredible, incredible nuggets. Again, just a reminder of what we've been hearing for the last few days is that in the creation of the world, remember the reality that God created the world proclaims His almighty love and His wisdom. Remember that creation is the beginning

of His plan of His loving goodness, which of course is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. But also remember how we talked about the Trinity and how even though creation is attributed to the Father in particular, but equally true of faith that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together are the one indivisible principle of creation. And what does that mean? Well, we recognize, of course, that, yes, the Father is the Creator in a particular way, but also remember that St. Paul's letter to the Colossians also says that all things were created through him, and John, in the Gospel of John, chapter one also says that all things were created through him and and John in the Gospel of John chapter 1 says that that he was with God in the beginning that through him all things are made without him nothing was made that has been made that we recognize that the Son is a definite you

know where the Father is there is the Son and the Holy Spirit where the Son is there is the Father in the Holy Spirit and where the Holy Spirit is there is the Father and the Holy Spirit, and where the Holy Spirit is, there is the Father and the Son. We recognize that the Trinity is one in being, right, and three divine persons, yet they're not, they're separate but not separated, right? If that is a way to understand this, they're separate persons. But again, when one divine being, when one divine person acts, all the other two divine persons act, so particularly when it comes to creation, the other two divine persons act. So particularly when it comes to creation. Then the creation of the world, again with this reminder that God created God alone.

He didn't need any help. He created this universe freely and directly. Right? Remember, he's the primary cause of all things that exist. And also this fact that God creates in a unique way. Remember that Hebrew word, B-A-R-A, bara, that would mean to create, essentially, to create out of nothing, or the

Latin term would be ex nihilo, right? Out of nothing. No creature has the power to create what our God can create, because we all create using stuff that previously exists. But God creates in that unique way, right? God creates out of nothing. And so that's again, incredible. But there, because of that, that means that everything again, comes from Him, space, time, everything. And He created that all to communicate His glory. We talked about this already so many times, but it's so important for us.

I mean, at this moment, wherever you're at, maybe you're driving, maybe you're in your kitchen, I don't know where you are, but to look around and realize, this is the universe that God created. And he created that tree. Why? To show forth and communicate his glory.

And he wants us to share in his truth, his goodness, and his beauty. That's the glory for which God created you. Which is, again, just incredible. And he holds that, that this creation in being. Now the last thing is in paragraph 322, we're reminded of this, we're reminded that Jesus Christ invites us to filial trust. Filial trust means like the trust of a of a son to the father, right?

Trust of a child to their parent. Christ invites us to filial trust in the providence of a heavenly father. Meaning that we trust that yeah, even in the midst of danger, even in the midst of suffering, even in the midst of uncertainty that we can trust in God as our Father. And we're reminded of what St. Peter said, cast all your anxieties on him for he cares about you. Another translation would say cast, cast all your cares on him for he cares for you. Actually,

I like that little double use of the word cares. Cast all your anxieties on him, cast all your cares on him for he cares for you. Actually, I like that little double use of the word cares. Cast all your anxieties on him. Cast all your cares on him because he cares for you. And of course, lastly, we talked about this yesterday, the reality of evil and the fact that God permits physical evil, right? The fact that we get sick, we grow old, we die, and God permits moral evil,

that we can actually choose the wrong. We can choose not good. We can choose to use and abuse each other. And he permits those evils, physical and moral evil, moral evil. It's a mystery that we could never possibly understand, but God illuminates that. God illuminates that mystery. He doesn't solve the mystery. Remember when we're talking mystery in the religious sense We're not talking about you know Sherlock Holmes cracking a case. We're talking about this this depth of understanding that we're called to enter into that we will never be able to plum But God illuminates that mystery in Jesus Christ who entered into our suffering

He entered into both physical evil and he entered into moral evil He allowed physical evil to afflict him. He allowed moral evil to destroy him. And in the resurrection he conquered that, transformed it, redeemed it, didn't remove it, didn't take it away, but transformed and redeemed. And remember that the only reasons why God would permit this evil is for twofold, to preserve our freedom, and because he knows he can bring about a greater good. And that's why we have to have that filial trust. That's why we have to just lean in and say,

okay, God, I will cast my cares on you because you care for me. I will cast my anxieties on you because you care for me. I will cast my sorrows, my griefs. In my sorrow and my grief, I'm not gonna stay away from you. In my sorrow and my grief, I'm going to draw close to you because you have revealed ultimately that you don't stay away from my grief. You don't stay away from what hurts us. You've entered into our grief. You've entered into what hurts us. You allowed it to overwhelm you. You allowed it to kill you. And then you took it

and transformed it. So now it is power. We're gonna talk more about that in the days ahead about how is it possible that Jesus can actually transform evil? Not that it's a good, but he can transform evil into something that's powerful. It can be actually a source of redemption. Again, remember we talked about this before.

I wanna clarify this as we close, that even though God can bring good out of evil, that in no way makes evil itself good. That's so important for us to understand, right? Even though God can create, can bring good out of evil, that does not mean that evil thing is no longer evil. It is always evil. It has been redeemed.

Does that make sense? Okay, if it doesn't, that's okay. Because as we said, it is a mystery. It's a mystery that we live though. It's one thing to hear about it right now. It's another thing to live it. It's another thing to live in it. And so I'm not to my imitation. Just to pick up pick up your cross today. Like I'm trying to pick up my cross today and follow after the Lord and just say, okay, God, I'm gonna trust you in the midst of this world that is good, you created good, but it's broken. I trust you. So that's our prayer today. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.