The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 49: We Are Created For Worship (2024)

Episode Date: February 18, 2024

There is a solidarity among all of God’s creatures because all are oriented to give glory to God. We learn that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day, sanctifying it and blessing it. Fr. Mike tells us that all creatures were made with a view to the Sabbath, created for the worship and adoration of God. We are all called to the sacred task of worshiping God and nothing else should take precedence over it. We end with an “In Brief” review of all we have learned in recent sessions about the physical world, the spiritual world, angels, and creation. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 344-354. 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.

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 49. You guys, we are one day shy of 50. That's incredible. We're reading paragraphs 344 to 354, the end of that section on heaven and earth. I'm using, if you don't know, the Ascension Edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundation of faith approach. It is, you know, you can use any recent version of the Catechism

of the Catholic Church and you'll get so much out of it. I love this. I don't want to gush, but I really love the Ascension Edition. It just... anyways, that's all. I love it. To download your own Catechism and your reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. You can also click follow or subscribe if you like to receive daily updates and daily notifications. As I said, it's day 49, paragraphs 344 to 354. We're concluding that paragraph five on heaven and earth. We talked about angels.

We talked about how angels in the life of the church. We also talked about the visible world that God created. And today, we're continuing what we said yesterday. There is an interdependence among all creatures, right? We talked about that. We talked about how man is the summit of the creator's work. Today in paragraph 344, we recognize that there's also a solidarity among all creatures, not noting that we all have the same source, right? We all have the same Creator and we all have the same end. That's so important.

Recognizing that all of creation, like everything from us human beings, many God's image and likeness, down to minerals, down to atoms, we all have the same Creator, down to time. And we're all ordered toward the same end. And that same end is from all of us, human beings, Manic God's image and likeness, destined for eternity. And subatomic particles are all ordered towards God's glory. And now, so atoms, they have to do it, right?

Atoms have to, minerals have to, we talked about this before, like creatures of the earth and of the water and of the sky, they automatically, by their very nature, glorify God in themselves. We get to choose, we get to choose. I mean, our being, of course, glorifies God. The fact that you exist, it actually, pause on that one.

The fact that you exist gives glory to God. But we have a choice, right? So we go on in paragraph 345 and 346, as we're talking about this, heaven and earth, we recognize that God who created time, he created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day. This is from Genesis chapter one.

We recognize that that is poetic, but also very true language. And one of the things that it highlights to us, for us, is that in those six days, God created this place, this world that's oriented towards worship. That's what the seventh day is. Seventh day is this place that we're invited into. In fact, if you remember going back to Genesis chapter one, and you have the story of creation, you know, on day one, two, and three, you have God making these places, right, the space.

And in days four, five, and six, God makes the beings that occupy those places, those spaces. So if God makes the heaven and earth, you have the sun that rules and the moon that rules. What do they rule? They rule the heavens, essentially, right? And then you have the water. And what's made in five is is the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, water and sky. And then on day three, you have the land that's made. And what rules the land is creatures and man. And so you have this this sense of it's it's poetic language that reveals a

truth. And what the truth is, is that God has created, in creation, he's created what he might call a cosmic temple. This is how the early readers of the scriptures, we sometimes get so preoccupied with our cosmology, our vision of what the world is, which oftentimes is strictly material. Here's the stuff that we forget that all of creation is ordered towards God's glory and all of creation is oriented towards the worship of God. That's what the seventh day is, the Sabbath day. So we're going to talk about that today. That in paragraph 346, God in creation, God laid a foundation and established laws that remain firm on which we can rely with confidence. Then we're called to be faithful to that foundation

and faithful to those laws. And it's so incredible that all of creation was fashioned with a view towards Sabbath. It was all creation was fashioned with a view towards worship. In fact, we're gonna hear a quote from Saint Benedict that says, nothing should take precedence over the work of God, AKA solemn worship.

And that's so, so important for all of us. We recognize that everything God made, heaven and earth, is oriented towards worship of Him, bringing us into relationship with Him. Remember, this is not a new idea for us who've been following the catechism for the last 49 days, because remember in a plan of sure goodness God willed to create this world. Why? So that He might share His goodness with us. And that's what worship is all about. God bringing us into deeper and deeper relationship with them. It's not for God. We know this, right? When we hit the section of the Catechism on worship specifically, we're going to be reminded of that again and again. Worship is not

for God. It is God's way of bringing us into deeper and deeper relationship with them. And then in paragraph 349, we're going to highlight the eighth day. Right? The eighth day is the day of the resurrection and how powerful that is. And then we also have a little nugget day. So it's a combo of paragraphs 344 to 349, which are the end of this section. And then nuggets of 350 to 354. If you're following along in your Catechism, you can see that very clearly. But we're going to start by praying and then we're gonna launch in to today's reading. Father in heaven, we give you praise and thank you. Thank you so much for covenanting yourself to us,

for giving yourself to us, for making us your children, for calling us to be part of your family. Lord God, in making us for worship, you have made us for joy, in making us for worship and orienting our lives towards worship of you, you've extended the invitation for us to dwell in your presence. Help us to live each day, to live each day with you. Help us to live each day for you.

Help us to see in this work of creation, the invitation to be in relationship with you. Never let us be parted from 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, in day 49 we are reading paragraphs 344 to 354. There is a solidarity among all creatures arising from the fact that all have the same Creator and are all ordered toward His glory. As St. Francis of Assisi prayed, May you be praised, O Lord, in all your creatures, especially brother's son, by whom you give us light for the day. He is beautiful, radiating great splendor and offering us a symbol

of you the most high. May you be praised, my Lord, for sister water, who is very useful and humble, precious and chaste. May you be praised, my Lord, for sister earth our mother who bears and feeds us and produces the variety of fruits and dappled flowers and grasses. Praise and bless, my Lord. Give thanks and serve him in all humility." The Sabbath, the end of the work of the six days. The sacred text says that, on the seventh day, God finished his work which he had done, that the heavens and the earth were finished, and that God rested on this day, and sanctified, and blessed it. These inspired words are rich in profitable instruction. In creation, God laid a foundation, and established laws that remain firm, on which the believer

can rely with confidence, for they are the sign and pledge of the unshakable faithfulness of God's covenant. For his part, man must remain faithful to this foundation and respect the laws which the Creator has written into it. Creation was fashioned with a view to the Sabbath, and therefore for the worship and adoration of God. Worship is inscribed in the order of creation. As the rule of St. Benedict says, nothing should take precedence over the work of God that is solemn worship. This indicates the right order of human concerns. The Sabbath is at the heart of Israel's law. To keep the commandments is to correspond to

the wisdom and the will of God as expressed in His work of creation. The eighth day. But for us, a new day has dawned, the day of Christ's resurrection. The seventh day completes the first creation. The eighth day begins the new creation. Thus the work of creation culminates in the greater work of redemption. The first creation finds its meaning and its summit in the greater work of redemption. The first creation finds its meaning and its summit in the new creation in Christ, the splendor of which surpasses that of the first creation. In brief, angels are spiritual creatures who glorify God without ceasing and who serve his

saving plans for other creatures. As Saint Thomas Aquinas stated, the angels work together for the benefit of us all. The angels surround Christ their Lord. They serve Him especially in the accomplishment of His saving mission to men. The church venerates the angels who help her on her earthly pilgrimage and protect every human being. God willed the diversity of His creatures and their own particular goodness, their interdependence, and their order. He destined all material creatures for the good of the human race. Man and through him all creation is destined for the glory of God. Respect for laws inscribed in creation and the relations which derive from the nature

of things is a principle of wisdom and a foundation for morality." Okay, as we said, there's the reading today. Little nuggets at the end, which is so good. That last piece reminding us of the reality of angels and the fact that the angels surround Christ their Lord. Remember that the angels are all oriented toward their whole heart, their whole lives. Their angels have hearts, you know, but, you know, their whole selves, their whole beings are devoted to the Lord, fully surrendered, fully given to the Lord.

And that's, that is, that's incredible. You know, I know people so, so often will say like, ah, you know, we become angels when we die. We, A, we don't, we have already said that we've already established that. But in some ways we become like the angels. You know, Jesus says something along those lines in what way? Well, at least in this way that if we in this way, that if we're in heaven, that means we're wholly surrendered, wholly given, are over. Our whole lives, our whole everything we are

is given to the Lord, is oriented towards love of him. And in that sense, that's one of the ways in which, yeah, in death, those who enter heaven are like the angels, because we get to be fully devoted to the Lord, which is incredible. And also, I love this reminder that the angels help the church on her earthly pilgrimage and protect every human being. You know, we didn't necessarily specify the reality of guardian angels yet, but, but that hints at it at least. Now, let's go back to paragraph 344 and following. This is important.

We already talked, as I mentioned at the beginning of this, about the interdependence of creatures, right? So the sun and the moon, the cedar and the little flower, this is from paragraph 340 from yesterday. Eagle and the sparrow, the spectacle of the countless diversities and inequalities tell us that no creature in itself is self-sufficient. Yes, so we interdependent.

But also, there's this solidarity among all Yes, so we're interdependent. But also there's this solidarity among all creatures. So we're interdependent. And also there's this sense of we're held together, right? We're held together by the fact that we all come from God and we're all oriented towards, ordered towards the glory of God. And that's why I love St. Francis of Assisi's prayer. It reminds me of the prayer of the book of Daniel

that, you know, sun and moon praise the Lord. It goes goes that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego or Henanai, Azri, and Meshail. If you remember those three men in the fiery furnace from the fiery furnace, they lift up their voices and they praise God from the midst of the fiery furnace. And part of what they praise God for is, you know, for cold and chill, for frost and snow, for dew and rain, all these things. And here's St. Francis, who's kind of extending that, when he has his praise and prayer of the Lord because of his creatures, but the brother, son, sister, moon, sister, water,

sister, earth, those kind of things, which is incredible. But all of that, and the even more incredible thing is that all of creation, everything that exists is oriented towards worship. I mentioned this before, but we recognize that here is God who created the world in six days, according to Genesis chapter 1, which is, again, poetic language, but it is a poetic language that reveals some powerful and really, really powerful truth. For example, we have this.

We have this recognition that in the first three days, just a reminder, I know I said this at the beginning, but let's be reminded of it. In the first three days of creation, God solves the problem of formlessness. Remember, there's this book. It's a great book called Walking with God by Tim Gray and Jeff Kevins, and they say this, that God solves the problem of formlessness in those first three days. So he separates light from darkness, sky from ocean, and land from the waters. But the next three days, they parallel those first three and they solve the problem of emptiness, right? So formlessness is solved by the separating of light from darkness, sky from ocean, land from waters. The next three days solve the problem of emptiness.

So God fills the form he'd given. Fourth day fills the first day. The day and night are filled with the sun, moon and stars. The fifth day fills the second day. The sky and the ocean are filled with birds and fish. Finally, the sixth day, the land, is filled with animals, plants and human beings. And that's neat for us, but what we don't catch often is that the temple structure of creation is built in the first three days and then furnished in the second set of three days.

But it's not completed until the seventh day. And this is so vastly important. When it says the heavens and the earth were finished, this cosmic temple, God rested on that day, sanctified it and blessed it. What it's revealing is it's all oriented towards worship. In fact, the word seven in the Jewish world, in the Hebrew world, is the word Shabbat. In fact, the Hebrew word for swearing an oath is Sheva. And it's related to the number seven because in Hebrew seven is Sheva. So Sheva and Sheva. The word Shevat, which means Sabbath, has a connection then. Shevat, Sheva and Sheva have a

connection to the number seven and to the word oath pointing to the reality that the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant. And you can even see this in paragraph 21, 71 of the Catechism, which we're getting there. 21, 71 says, And remember that if you've ever studied anything about the covenant, it's about that deep relationship. If you were to cut a covenant with someone else or your tribe with another tribe or any groups of people would cut a covenant with each other, they're now family and they would establish this family bond. And here is God who takes the seventh day, the covenant day and rests on that covenant day. What he does is he in that he's inviting human beings to who are made on the seventh day, the covenant day, and rests on that covenant day, what he does is he

in that he's inviting human beings who are made on the sixth day, right? In this place, put in this temple, the seal of the temple, and he places them in this place, in the creation, right? That's oriented towards worship and invites them into the seventh day, into His rest, invites us into this worship of God. And that's why paragraph 347 says, creation was fashioned with a view to the Sabbath, right? Covenant, and therefore for the worship and adoration of God.

In St. Benedict, you know, the founder of Western monasticism, this very important influential figure, says that nothing should take precedence over solemn worship. That work of God is solemn worship. That's one of the things that we're just reminded of. You can see in the sidebar, there's a couple of different paragraphs, 1145 to 1152.

If you want to flip over to those paragraphs, you can see what the church is talking about when it highlights the fact that we are all called to this sacred task of worshiping God. It just is remarkable, incredible. And the last line in paragraph 347 says, this indicates the right order of human concerns, meaning nothing should take precedence over worship. Okay, if worship is the priority, right? If worship is the number one thing that indicates the right order of human concerns, there are so many things to be concerned about. But paragraph 348 reminds us the Sabbath is at the heart of Israel's law. And that's so important, right? That worship of God, we get that right, we can get everything else right. Because what's

the great commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength? because what's the great commandment? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength? How do we love God? We love God through worship. That's just so clear. Now lastly, the eighth day. Sometimes people ask the question, okay, so if Sabbath not only means covenant but also refers to Saturday, then why do we go to Mass? Why do Christians worship on Sunday? Well, that's because of paragraph 349. Not because of 349, but 349 begins to explain this. It's called the eighth day. But for us, a new day has dawned, the day of Christ's resurrection. So the seventh day, right? Cheva, the Sabbath day, Saturday, completes the first creation. The eighth day,

Sunday, begins the new creation. Thus the work of creation culminates in the greater work of redemption. This is incredible, right? So creation, amazing, incredible. Why we have the world? The temple is established, but the new day of creation, the eighth day is the fulfillment in so many ways because true worship has been given to us by Jesus Christ.

And true relationship, I mean, there's a false relationship, but a fuller relationship has been given to us by Jesus Christ. And true relationship, I mean, not the there's a false relationship, but a fuller relationship has been given to us in Christ, where we actually get to become God's sons and daughters adopted in the power of the Holy Spirit through baptism. It is really incredible. That's why the last line of paragraph 349 says, the first creation finds its meaning and its summit in the new creation in Christ. Man, that's amazing. And we get to experience this every single Sunday, as well as every single day, every time we go to the Mass, we get to re-participate.

We get to enter into that place where time and eternity meet, that place where time and eternity touch, that place where we're invited to be able to say I live in the world I could I live on day one through six, but I'm invited to at times to Step into eternity. I'm invited to step into day seven or even more clearly into day eight the day of the new creation The day of redemption and that is just such an incredible gift tomorrow We get to talk even more. I gosh, you guys, this is going to be so exciting. We get to talk about human beings. And if there's anything people like talking about is themselves.

And so tomorrow we get to talk about man, human beings, and how we're made in God's image and likeness, what all that means as we just continue to just praise God and glorify God. I am so thankful for you. It's 49 days and 49 days can be kind of tough, but here you are hanging with it and sticking with this whole thing. I am so, so proud of you. And thank you so much for sticking around because it's kind of a big deal. Sometimes just learning facts can be a little dry. But we know that we're not just learning facts that we now can recite or quote are allowing those truths to penetrate

not only our minds and transform them but to penetrate our hearts and set them on fire. So I'm praying that your heart becomes more and more on fire with the Lord as you and I are drawn into deeper and deeper worship of God, deeper and deeper love of God. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me for that too. Oh man, my name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.