The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 60: God Sends His Only Son (2024)

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

Fr. Mike emphasizes that God did not have to do anything for us after the Fall, yet he sent us his only Son, and through his Son, we have received grace upon grace. We learn that the transmission of the Christian faith consists of proclaiming Jesus Christ to lead others to faith in him. If we are called to teach him, we must first have a relationship with him. Just as the Apostles burned with a desire to spread the Good News, we too are called to catechize and deliver the word of Christ as his spokesmen on Earth. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 422-429. 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 to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. It is day 60. You guys, well done. Two complete months. Well, I mean, if there's 31 days in one of these months, that's okay. Anyways, two times 30. Well done. We're reading paragraphs 422 to 429. 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 own Catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. And you can also click follow or subscribe or whatever and your podcast app for daily updates, daily notifications to follow along and subscribe. Also, just a quick thank you to everyone who has supported the production of this podcast with your prayers, with your spiritual support, with your emotional, with by the fact that you've impressed play, as well as for your financial gifts, we couldn't do this podcast without you.

Super grateful. Today is awesome. You know, we just concluded chapter one on the father and now we're into chapter two on the son. And so you guys, these first chapters, 422 to 429 today, they start off with just, here is what we believe about Jesus. And one of the things you're gonna see here

in paragraph 423 is how rooted in history the reality of Jesus is. And you probably already know this, but Christianity is a historical religion. It is deeply rooted in history. And so we're gonna say things like we believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth, born of a Jew, of a daughter of Israel, at Bethlehem, at the time of King Herod the Great, and the Emperor Caesar Augustus, etc. etc.

It just reveals that we know that the claims Jesus made about himself, that he is God, are verifiable. I mean, the resurrection demonstrates that Jesus was telling the truth when He testified to His own being. And it's so incredible. Again, it's historical. It's not just one of those kind of things that didn't drop out of the sky.

It happened here on this earth in time. And it's incredible. But also moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit and drawn by the Father. We believe in Jesus and confess you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And this is just remarkable. I love this. These first couple paragraphs are just... Well, the subtitle of it is, The Good News, God Has Sent His Son. And it highlights paragraphs 422 to 424, highlights the good news that God has sent his son.

It's incredible. And our response to that good news. Then we were gonna hit paragraph 425 and following all the way to the end of 429. And it's about Catechesis. So there's a couple quotes that are coming from Catechesis Tridenti, which was written by John Paul II early on in his being Pope, or AKA in his pontificate.

And in it, so Catechesis Tridenti essentially means Catechesis in our time, you know, catechesis in our day. And it comes after, well, came in 1979, essentially. And the Holy Father, John Paul II, he was wanting to highlight the fact that we need to continue to pass on the faith. We need to hear, here's what we believe about Jesus. Here's what we believe about the Trinity. Here's what we believe about. We believe about the church and truth. And at the heart of what we need to do is pass that on. We need to be able to express this and communicate this to other people. And so I love this paragraph 426. It says, at the heart of Catechesis is Christ. We find in essence a person, the person of Jesus

of Nazareth, the only son from the Father. And it goes on and the recognition is we want to seek to understand who God is and his eternal design reaching fulfillment in his person, right? And also to pass that on. And it's remarkable. Paragraph 428 says, whoever is called to teach Christ must first seek the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. It just makes sense, right? And so,

you know, here is John Paul's one of his many, many, many influences over this writing of the Catechism of the Catholic Church here is that a lot of these quotes are taken. Again, Catechese Tridenti, whoever is called to teach Christ must first seek the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus and also goes on to say, he must suffer the loss of all things in order to gain Christ and be found in him, and to know him and the power of his resurrection, and to share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible, he may attain the resurrection from the dead. And this is so remarkable. You know, catechists is typically you call a catechist someone who, you know, teaches the catechism, someone Someone who teaches the faith and that could be anyone from a professor somewhere at a university to your volunteer on your

Wednesday night religious education classes that kind of situation and if the heart of catechesis is Jesus himself and the heart of the catechist Has to be someone who first seeks the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus and being willing to suffer the loss of all things in order to gain Christ and be found in Him. And this is just so remarkable. This is a high call, you guys. This is a massively high call that we're receiving today. Now, we end today with paragraph 429 and in it it notes that we're gonna go through a couple different steps. Here we are starting today with, here's what we believe,

good news, God sent his son. Remember we talked in the last couple of days about the bad news, original sin. Here's the good news, God sent his son. The next couple articles are gonna highlight that Jesus' principal titles, so Christ, Son of God, Lord, that's what we're hitting on next. Also, the Creed confesses the chief mysteries

of Christ's life. His incarnation, that's Article 3, Pascal mystery, Articles 4 and 5, and glorification, Articles 6 and 7. So basically the Catechism in paragraph 429 spells out. Here's the next steps we're gonna take. But today, we're taking this first step of the good news, God has sent his son,

and we're called to preach and to teach the unsearchable riches of Christ. So let's get started and say it, let's say a prayer today. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you so much for sending us your son. Thank you so much for revealing to us your heart by giving us your son. Thank you for sending us your Holy Spirit that we can continue to walk as your son walked.

We continue to live as he lived. We continue to love as he loved with the power that comes from you, with the power that comes from the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us. We ask you please help us, not only to know you better and to love you better, but help us also to represent you

and communicate you to pass you on better this day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. As I said, it's day 60. Congratulations once again. And we're reading paragraphs 422 to 429. Chapter two, I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. The good news, God has sent His Son. But when the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God has visited His people. He has fulfilled the promise He made to Abraham and his descendants. He acted far beyond all expectation. He has sent His own beloved Son. We believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth, born of a Jew, of a daughter of Israel at Bethlehem at the time of King Herod the Great and the Emperor Caesar Augustus, a carpenter by trade, who died crucified in Jerusalem under the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, is the eternal Son of God made man. He came from God, descended from heaven,

and came in the flesh. For the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. We have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, and from his fullness have we all received grace upon grace. Moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit and drawn by the Father, we believe in Jesus and confess you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. On the rock of this faith confessed by St. Peter, Christ built his church to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. The transmission of the Christian faith consists primarily in proclaiming Jesus Christ in order to lead others to faith in him. From the beginning, the first disciples burned with the desire to proclaim Christ.

They said, We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. And they invite people of every era to enter into the joy of their communion with Christ, as is written in 1 John. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life. The life was made manifest, and we saw it and testified to it, and proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing this that our joy may be complete.

At the heart of Catechesis, Christ. Catechesis Tridenti states, At the heart of Catechesis, we find, in essence, a person. The person of Jesus of Nazareth, the only Son from the Father who suffered and died for us and who now, after rising, is living with us forever. To Catechize is to reveal in the person of Christ the whole of God's eternal design reaching fulfillment in that person.

It is to seek to understand the meaning of Christ's actions and words and of the signs worked by Him. Catechesis aims at putting people in communion with Jesus Christ. Only he can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity. In Catechesis, Christ, the Incarnate Word and Son of God, is taught. Everything else is taught with reference to Him, and it is Christ alone who teaches. Anyone else teaches to the extent that he is Christ's spokesman, enabling Christ to teach with his lips. Every catechist should be able to apply

to himself the mysterious words of Jesus, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. Whoever is called to teach Christ must first seek the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. He must suffer the loss of all things in order to gain Christ and be found in Him, and to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and to share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that if possible, He may attain the resurrection from the dead. From this loving knowledge of Christ springs the desire to proclaim Him, to evangelize, and to lead others to the yes of faith in Jesus Christ. But at the same time, the need to know this faith better makes itself felt.

To this end, following the order of the Creed, Jesus's principal titles, Christ, Son of God, and Lord, Article 2, will be presented. The Creed next confesses the chief mysteries of his life, those of his incarnation, Article 3, Pascal Mystery, Articles 4 and 5, and Glorification, Articles 6 and 7. Okay, there we are. You guys, this is incredible. I love this. Oh my gosh. This paragraph 422, 4023, and 424 is just the summary of the gospel, right?

It's the summary of, I mean, obviously, the very first quote is from Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 and 5, where basically it says, But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That second quote is from Mark chapter one, verse one. But this next statement is remarkable. It says, he acted far beyond all expectation. God has acted far beyond all expectation.

He has visited his people. He has fulfilled the promise he made to Abraham in his descendants. He has sent his own beloved son. I don't know, maybe this is something you've experienced. I know it's something that I have to be reminded of at times and that is God didn't have to do any of this. Right? God didn't have to do any of this. Like we went over the beginning of creation that here's God who made this world good. We

talked about this before. He didn't make this world because he needed to make this world. He made this world because he wanted to and then when we broke it, right? When humanity broke the world, he didn't have to come to us. He didn't have to love us and this is remarkable yet. He still does like it's the truth. God doesn't have to forgive us, but he chooses to. It's in his heart to want to love us, to want to be in relationship with us. And so here, paragraphs 422, 423, 424, just talk about how incredible this is. God has acted far, far beyond all expectation. It would have been foolish to expect that God would have done this.

And yet again, 423, this just the nuts and bolts we believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth, born of a Jew, a daughter of Israel at Bethlehem, at the time of King Herod the Great, and the emperor Caesar Augustus, a carpenter by trade who died crucified in Jerusalem under the procurator Pontius Pilate, during the reign of the emperor Tiberius. Okay, all those things just, yep,

this is what happened in time. And then we have this last line of this sentence, is this person who was born of a Jew in Nazareth, under King Herod the Great, etc., etc., Carpenter by trade, that this Jesus is the eternal Son of God made man. This is just incredible. And from His fullness, we have all received grace upon grace because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only son from the father, right?

That's quote from the very beginning of John's gospel. And moved by grace and the Holy spirit, this paragraph 424, and drawn by the father, we believe in Jesus and we confess, you're the Christ, the son of the living God. Remember when St. Peter said that in Matthew chapter 16, this is remarkable. So because of this, because we believe this,

because this is the great news, right? This is the good news. The next paragraph, therefore, the transmission of the Christian faith consists primarily in proclaiming Jesus Christ in order to lead others to faith in Him. Let's listen to that again. The transmission of the Christian faith consists primarily in proclaiming Jesus Christ in order to lead others to faith in Him. You know, gosh, you know, when we believe this, we believe this truth that God has revealed Himself, that God has come to us, He's redeemed us, He's reconciled us to the Father. What we want to do is we want to let other people know about this. And that's why the Catechism says, from the beginning, the first disciples burned with the desire to proclaim Christ, saying in Acts the

Apostles, we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. And they invite people of every era to enter into the joy of their communion with Christ. This is the heart of evangelization. This is the heart of Catechesis. And this is just so important for every one of us to understand this, that at the heart of Catechesis is the person of Jesus Christ. And in our heart, we have to have Him. He has to dwell in our hearts in this way. As we say in paragraph 428, whoever is called to teach Christ must first seek the surpassing

worth of knowing Christ Jesus. That there is this truth that we have a relationship with Him. If we're called to teach Him, then we already have a relationship with Him. We already know Him. And not just knowing Him in the sense of intellectually, that's why the paragraph 4.28 goes on to say, you must suffer the loss of all things in order to gain Christ and be found in Him. And to know him and the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. That if possible, he may attain the resurrection from the dead. That we're called to conform our entire lives to his. And what did Jesus's life look like? It looked like an act of complete self-giving love. And this is what we're called to.

This is crazy. That catechesis isn't just, okay, I know some things about Jesus and I'll tell those things about Jesus to others. It's, yes, it's those things, but even more deeply, Catechesis aims at putting people, this is paragraph 426, at putting people in communion with Jesus Christ, because only he can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity.

And so to Catechize is to reveal in the person of Jesus, the person of Christ, the whole of God's eternal design. So we have to have that, the hymn in our hearts where we have to, like right, we have to be walking like him. It's not just to be talking like him. We have to be living like him. And I just, I know this is maybe the high call. This might be the one of those like, okay, I'm super intimidated now.

I don't think I could ever talk about Jesus to anyone else. And yet, just like it says, back in paragraph 425, from the beginning, the first disciples burned with the desire to proclaim Christ, not because they knew Him perfectly, not because they understood everything thoroughly, but because they loved Him. And here we are again on day 60 here, just saying, okay, Lord, this is what I want. I want to love you even more. And if I love you even more, I will be unafraid to speak of you. If I love you even more, it will actually be the desire of my heart to speak of you, to share you.

I can not just, not to beat people over the head with the truth of you, but to simply and clearly, gently and lovingly, boldly and powerfully share the message of who Jesus Christ is in himself and what he has done for us, leading people, leading all of us to that intimate relationship with the Trinity. It's incredible, so incredible. Okay, the last two points. Paragraph 427 says this, in Catechesis, Christ the incarnate word and Son of God is taught, right?

So everything's taught in reference to Christ. And this is important. It is Christ alone who teaches. Anyone else teaches to the extent that he is Christ's spokesman, enabling Christ to teach with his lips. So I remember hearing it said that we are not God's editors. We are God's mailmen. Right? We are not the ones who we are here to deliver the message of Jesus Christ, not to say, well here's my personal version of Jesus. Here's my personal version of who God is or how

he's called us to live. It's simply to say, okay, this is who God has revealed Himself to be. And so if I'm going to teach, I'm teaching the extent that I'm merely Christ's spokesman. I'm enabling Jesus to use my lips to speak. And that's, I think, it's so humbling and it's honest and it's also effective. Now, last thing I said, there's two last things. This is the last thing. Paragraph 429 sets up where we're going from here We want to be led to say yes to faith in Jesus want to help lead others to faith in Jesus

And so we're gonna follow the order of the creed so tomorrow We're gonna be following the right Christ's principal titles. There's three of them Christ son of God and Lord So we're gonna start there that's article. And then we go on from there to the chief mysteries of Jesus' life. Specifically, his incarnation, Article 3, the Paschal mystery, right? His death and resurrection, Articles 4 and 5, and glorification, Articles 6 and 7. So that's kind of the layout for the rest of the time we're going to spend here in the Catechism on Jesus. First, his titles, then the chief mysteries of his life, and then also the glorification of his glorification.

Does that make sense? Hope it does, because that's what we're going from now on. You guys, this is, I'm so excited. I was actually gonna use the word stoked. I am so stoked because what a gift it is to be able to journey with you like this. Here we are, day 60. We're plugging away.

I think this is the community, you guys. At this point, you know what it says? They say it takes 30 days to make a habit. Actually, I think it takes something like 90 days to make a habit. Here we are kind of in this mid between 30 and 90. Day 60. Here we are with this habit, this community, just praying and learning and praying for each other. Because please, we definitely need that. I need your prayers and I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow.

God bless.