The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 46: Heaven and Earth (2024)

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

God created heaven and earth — all that we see and all that we don’t see. We learn that the earth is filled with men and many things we can see, but our faith tells us that there are many things on earth that we cannot see, including the presence of God and angels. Fr. Mike explains how human beings are spiritual and corporeal creatures, but angels are immortal, purely spiritual creatures. He tells us more about the role of angels and how, possessing intellect and will, they too are created to glorify God. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 325-330. 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 pure 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 in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. It is day 46. You guys were reading paragraphs 325 to 330. 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 of the Catholic Church. Also, you can download your Catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com

slash C-I-Y. That stands for Catechism in a year. If you haven't picked that up yet in 46 days. Also, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily updates and daily notifications. You guys today, I think you're gonna be happy. Today and tomorrow, in fact, sorry, that's not the kind of radio hosty. Today and tomorrow, here we go.

But today and tomorrow, we're gonna be going through this paragraph five called Heaven and Earth. Now, I noted this before, but we're reading paragraphs 325 to 330, but in the Catechism, you know, which refers to each number, right? In front of each paragraph, but in the Catechism, they also have a thing called paragraphs. They have paragraphs and then they have paragraphs, but you know, that's what we have.

So this is paragraph five, heaven and earth. And so we're going to talk about all things visible and invisible. The fact that there is, there is the earth, there is this world, there's things visible, and there's also the heavens or heaven itself. We're talking about that. Just briefly, we're just only going to kind of highlight that a little bit, but then we're also going to mention the fact that they're also in creation are things called angels. Angels are created beings, pure spirits that God created when He created all things visible and invisible. We're going to talk about, we're going to begin talking about that. In fact, we're going to note that the fact that the existence of angels is a truth of faith.

Like it's one of those things, you might even say that the witness of Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of tradition, meaning the Scripture bears witness to the reality of angels and our tradition bears witness to the reality of angels, which is pretty remarkable. We're also going to talk about kind of like what are angels or who are angels. They're purely spiritual creatures. They have intelligence. They have will. They're personal. They're immortal. They surpass and perfection all visible creatures as the splendor of their glory bears witness That's from paragraph 330. I just literally just read that to you

But this reality of course as we begin talking about not only all things visible You know when we talked about creation for the last few days now when talking about God's what he how did he do it? He did it freely without any help. He created out of nothing and We're gonna highlight is the fact that when God created all things did he do it? He did it freely without any help. He created out of nothing. And what we're going to highlight is the fact that when God created all things, He created what is visible. Yes, this incredible, beautiful, glorious world around us. He also created all that we don't see. But we know it exists. We know that angels exist. We know that these beings of pure spirit exist. We know that there's more that exists than we actually see. And so what we're gonna kind of be diving into

over the course of the next few days is that spiritual reality. And I just invite us all, like as we begin this day, as we begin this section, to kind of just even just be where you're at right now and recognize, okay, so I have a guardian angel in your guardian angel is literally with you right now. Obviously, our Lord God himself, Father, Son and Holy spirit is completely present, right? God is transcendent and imminent that he is.

He is outside of creation, but he's also completely present to creation. So he is present to you right now and as man incredible as one of his gifts to you whom he loves he has a guardian angel he has an angel for you this is also a truth of faith and so to realize that as you're driving or as you're doing whatever you're doing right now not only is our Lord God present to you, of course, that is a thing we have to keep in mind always, but also as you look around right now, where you are,

and you see all these things, like here's stuff, there's also so much that you don't see right now. There's so much, as I'm looking around this room, there is so much that I don't see. There's even some one that I don't see. Not only God, but also this angel. And so as we kind of enter into this, this reflection on heaven and earth, on things visible and invisible, realize we're not talking about something distant, we're talking about something very, very near to us, very, very present to us, our God and all that

He's created. And so we just turn to God now in prayer, Father in heaven, we love you and we thank you. You know, we know that you have made more than we can see, more than I can see, more than ear can hear, more than the human heart and mind can understand. You have made all. And we ask you, Father in heaven, to reveal to us the world that you created, the world that is visible, help us, give us eyes to see the world that's visible, and give us the faith to walk in and possess, to understand in a new way the world that we don't see. You made it all, and you've made it for your glory and to communicate your divine life to us.

So, Lord God send our angel to protect us and Hear our prayers through the intercession of every great saint and every angel 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 it is day 46. We're reading paragraphs 325 to 330. Paragraph 5. Heaven and Earth. Let's get started. Paragraph 5. Heaven and Earth. The Apostles Creed professes that God is Creator of heaven and earth. The Nicene Creed makes it explicit that this

profession includes all things visible and invisible. The scriptural expression heaven and earth means all that exists, creation in its entirety. It also indicates the bond, deep within creation, that both unites heaven and earth and distinguishes the one from the other. The earth is the world of men, while heaven, or the heavens, can designate both the firmament and God's own place, our Father in heaven, and consequently the heaven too which is eschatological glory. Finally, heaven refers to the saints and the place of the spiritual creatures, the angels,

who surround God. The profession of faith of the fourth laddering council in15, affirms that God, from the beginning of time, made at once, Sumul, out of nothing both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal, that is, the angelic and the earthly, and then, day and day, the human creature, who as it were, shares in both orders, being composed of spirit and body. The Angels. The existence of angels, a truth of faith. The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that sacred scripture usually calls angels is a truth of faith. The witness of scripture is as clear as the unanimity of tradition.

Who are they? St. Augustine says, Angel is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is spirit. If you seek the name of their office, it is angel. From what they are, spirit. From what they do, angel. With their whole being, the angels are servants and messengers of God, because they, as Jesus said,

Always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven. They are the mighty ones who do His Word, Harkening to the voice of His Word. As purely spiritual creatures, Angels have intelligence and will. They are personal and immortal creatures, Surpassing in perfection all visible creatures, As the splendor of their glory bears witness.

Okay, so there's a lot of beats here. There's a lot of important points that the Catechism is making today. One is that here is God. We know, yes, Apostles Creed, he's creator of heaven and earth. The Nicene Creed specifies and makes it explicit. All things visible and invisible. So there are things we see. There are things we don't see that that scriptural expression, heaven and earth, means everything. Right? So creation in its entirety. Time, it means time, it means space, it means heaven and earth means everything right so creation in its entirety time It means time. It means space means location means everything. Okay, where we go But earth is the world of human beings. Well heaven or the heavens can designate both the firmament, right? so the heavens above that kind of situation and

God's own place like that place that he shares with the angels and with the saints. So that place of spiritual creatures who surround God. Now this is fascinating in paragraph 327. So in 1215, the year 1215, the fourth ladder in council happened and it affirmed that from the beginning of time, remember God made time. So from the beginning of time, God made at once out of nothing, as we said before. Remember, Barah ex nihilo, Barah the Hebrew word, and then ex nihilo, that Latin term for out of nothing. From the beginning of time, when God made time, he

made at once out of nothing, both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal, that is the angelic and the earthly. And then he made the human creature. And this is that it highlights this in Fourth Ladder and Council. It highlights the fact that human being, the human creature, shares in both orders because you and I are spiritual beings and corporeal beings, right? We are made of both spirit and body. And this is just remarkable. So God first made the angels, but also made, so He made heaven and earth, right? So He made the spiritual world and the material world.

And then later on, God made the human person, the human being, who is composed of both body and spirit. And so we're kind of a unique being. One of the things sometimes people mistakenly think is that they think, oh, you know, when I die, I become an angel, which is not the case. When we die, yes, our soul and our body are separated for a time, but that's not the end. The end is that our bodies and our souls will be reunited in the resurrection

of the dead, that every one of us who has a body will get that body, a resurrected body back, some to eternal glory and some to eternal shame. So that recognition that we do not become angels when we die, our soul and our body, that spirit and the material, they separate only for a time though. We don't become angels. That's kind of very important. Then the pachyricism goes on to talk about the existence of angels, which is a truth of faith. Again, I read this whole paragraph, made of two sentences, at the beginning of this, where it says, the existence of spiritual, non-corporeal, meaning without bodies, beings that sacred scripture usually calls angels is a truth of faith. The witness of scripture is as clear as the unanimity of tradition. So we recognize here that, yes, scripture points to the reality of angels and our tradition points to the reality of angels.

I think that there has been, you know, at various moments in time, moments in history, there's been a really big emphasis on angels and there has been a really big de-emphasis, if you want to say it like that, on angels. I think I remember back in the day at school, they talked about the scholastic period. And during the scholastic period, they were asking big questions, but people kind of make fun of those big questions, like how many angels can fit on the head of a pin? Now, that sounds ridiculous to some of us. Like how many angels can fit on the head of a pin?

You're having a debate about this, you're having a discussion about this. What does it even matter? Well, it's not about angels, sorry, it's not about pins. It's about the spiritual world. And the spiritual world doesn't take up any space, right? So, wow, how many, if it doesn't, if a spirit, if an angel, right, being like this doesn't take up any space at all, how many of those could you fit on the head of a pin in a very, very small space?

And that, again, it can sound like a ludicrous question for us at times, but what the people who are asking the question we're trying to get to the heart of is, what is the relationship between the spiritual reality, you know, heaven and the material reality, earth. And so there's been times where it's been de-emphasized, but also there's been times when angels have been very emphasized and maybe misunderstood. For example, Saint Augustine talks about this. He says, the angel is the name of their office, not of their nature. So angel means messenger, essentially. So Saint Augustine said, if

you seek the name of their nature, it's spirit. If you seek the name of their office, it is angel. So that's very important. So spirit is what they are and angels what they do, They're messengers, right? But this next statement is so beautiful and paragraph 329. With their whole being, Angels are the servants and messengers of God. This is one of the things we're going to talk about tomorrow as we move forward is with their whole being, Angels are servants and messengers of God. They belong completely. They are surrendered entirely to the Lord. Even your guardian angel that I mentioned at the beginning of this, your guardian angel isn't your angel, right? It's the Lord's angel. It's God's angel. And to recognize that

that they belong wholly to the Lord, that they love Him with their entire self, it goes on in paragraph 330 to note that as spiritual creatures, angels have intelligence and will. They can know and they can choose. They're personal and immortal. So it's not, just like you and I are not robots, angels are also not robots. They're personal and they're immortal creatures,

surpassing in perfection all visible creatures as the splendor of their glory bears witness. This is just incredible. So what we would sometimes think of, the distortion or the misunderstanding what angels are, is they're not mine, right? They're not ours. They belong to the Lord. But they're also not like, you know, fat little babies with wings. They're not kind of this indifferent. That's one of the things that I think sometimes we can fall into the trap of imagining angels are kind of these indifferent beings who just kind of impassive and have no,

I don't know that angels have emotions because that's another scholastic type question, right? If you're pure spirit, do you have any emotions? Where do your emotions reside? Do they reside in your body, in your brain, or do emotions reside in your body, in your brain, or do emotions reside in your soul? And yet at the same time, we recognize that angels do have intellect. They do have a will. So they can think and they can choose. And they can choose with their whole

self, which seems to mean to indicate that angels definitely can love. Angels can choose not to love. That's what the fallen angels are. We're going to talk about those like maybe 10 days from now. But what we recognize is that angels have fully surrendered their hearts to God. They're fully His and that just is incredible that there's these beings that God created that have complete intellect and a will. And with that intellect and with that will, they have chosen to love God with everything they are, which I think is just, is beautiful and powerful. And we realize that that is actually

what God has created us to do too. God has created us to love Him with everything we have. God has created us with an intellect and with a will. He's also given us bodies. So that's a whole other monkey you know, monkey wrench thrown in there In a gift that's thrown in there. That's clear. That's just monkey wrench but a gift And as those angels were created to know God until love him We were created to know God until love him. I

Think is this really remarkable. I was I was reading an article About there's this priest is his name's Father Serge Thomas Bonino, and he is kind of an expert in angels. And one of the points he had made in this article is he said, you know, sometimes human beings, we recognize that, yes, as physical creatures, right? As material creatures, we all say that, you know, our distant cousins are monkeys, that kind of situation.

And so we teach our children that human beings, he said, we teach our children that human beings are a sort of improved monkey. And he says, yeah, it's true that we have a rooting in the animal world, of course. But he says, recalling the fact that we also have a rooting in the spiritual world, Recalling the fact that we also have a rooting in the spiritual world, our closest cousins might not be chimpanzees, but angels. And that's, I was like, wow, that is, that's remarkable. But the reality of course, our faith declares very, very powerfully that we are, we have a rooting in the spiritual world.

And so as Father Bonino says, our closest cousins may not be chimpanzees, but angels. And I think that is incredible. It goes on to say that our Lord says that we will be like the angels in heaven. He doesn't say that we will be like the chimpanzees and the banana trees, but like angels. You have been given a body and it's made for God's glory. It's made to know God, to love God, and to serve Him. You've been given a soul Just like the angels have art you have a spirit inside of you and That that body and soul is unique

Yes, the angels are created to glorify God and they do and they do it's amazing They're fully given over to the Lord to the Lord But you also have been created to glorify God in a way that angels can't. Angels can't glorify God in their bodies because they don't have bodies. But you and I can. And so this day we rejoice in our soul, the fact that we are spirit like the angels, and we rejoice in our bodies that we are like but different, that we are like the angels. And in some ways, in some ways more. And it all comes from God, creator of heaven and earth, things visible and invisible.

So we just give God praise today. Man, yeah. Wow, okay. I'm gonna pray about that. So please pray for me. I am praying for you. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow.

God bless.