← The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Revealed by the Holy Spirit (2025)
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Jesus Christ established the Church, but the Holy Spirit continually sanctifies the Church with wisdom, guidance, and charismatic gifts. The Church’s mission is to proclaim and establish the beginning of God’s Kingdom on earth, and we participate in this mission through charity, humility, and self-denial. Fr. Mike helps us understand the seemingly paradoxical idea that the Church is visible and spiritual, both human and Divine. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 767-771.
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Father Mike Schmitz
Foreign 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 in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. It is day 108. We are reading paragraphs 6, 767 to 771. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach. 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 ciy and lastly, you can click Follow or subscribe or whatever. You're listening to this podcast for daily updates and daily notifications. As I said, Today is day 108. We are reading paragraph 767 to 771. Yesterday we talked about how that God's plan was a church, right? This is a plan born of the Father's heart, that God has always willed that there would be this gathering of peoples. We call it the church, or convocation is another word that we use today in paragraph 767. Yesterday we also heard that Jesus Christ instituted the church. Now, we didn't talk about the historical reality of that in the sense that I remember years ago. I think it was a Dear Abbey column. You remember Abigail Van Buren. And someone wrote to Dear Abby and said, dear Abby, who founded all the churches of the world. And so Abigail Van Buren, I think, who was born, or at least culturally Jewish. I'm not sure if she was religiously Jewish, but she didn't have a dog in the hunt. Basically, she says, you know, well, Confucianism was started by Confucius in this year and Judaism was started by Abraham in this year. And she said that Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church was started in the year 33 by Jesus Christ. And. And I was like, oh, my gosh. Yeah, here is this secular source just describing history. We talked about that history Yesterday in paragraphs 763 to 766 without really kind of highlighting God. This was a moment in time and it has changed all of reality. We talked about them. We talked really about the mystery yesterday. Now today we're talking about how the church is. Here's three points The Church is revealed by the Holy Spirit. So yesterday instituted by Christ, today the Church revealed by the Holy Spirit. Second point, the Church is perfected in glory, meaning here on this earth, there's this mystery, and this is the third point as well, that the Church will be perfected in glory. This Body of Christ will be glorified, just like Jesus actual body transformed after his death and resurrection, right? It's a glorified body now. Well, the Church, being the body of Christ, will ultimately be glorified. But here's the third point is the Church, being both visible and spiritual, also is human and divine, right? There's human realities and divine realities. And. And so because of that, we're going to live in this imperfect state, but at the same time, a state that is buoyed up by the Holy Spirit. So you and I, we know what it is to live in the church. We know that sometimes we're just so consoled by the power of the Holy Spirit, right? When we go to confession, we experience God's healing, we go to Mass, and we just were fed by the Lord in the Eucharist. We know that when we. When we receive the Bible, when we receive the Church's teaching in its fullness, this is just a consolation of the Lord. It's so good. We also know in time what it's like to live in the Church. We know that there are people in the church who fail us. I'm one of those people. I fail people all of the time. Even in these podcasts, I fail. We fail each other as Christians. We fail each other as Catholics. We fail each other as followers of Christ. And so the Body of Christ has this divine reality. Of course, the Body of Christ also has this very human reality. We have this glorious reality and also a very broken reality. We're going to talk about both of those today. So again, these three points to keep in mind. The church, you know, instituted by Jesus, but is revealed by the Holy Spirit. Secondly, it's going to be perfected in glory. And thirdly, the Church is church. It's easy for me to say the Church is both visible and spiritual. It is both human and divine. We're talking about that today. So let's say a prayer as we launch into this day. Father in Heaven, we thank you so much. Thank you for bringing us to this place in time where we get to actually touch eternity. Thank you for bringing us to this church where wherever we're standing in the church, whether we stand in humble subm. Whether we stand in love, we stand even in maybe a posture of skepticism or a posture of cynicism, a posture of rebellion. Lord God, keep us engaged with your church, because I don't want to leave your body. I don't want to leave the family that you have anointed and established so that you can be known and so that we can be saved. Father, keep us close to your heart. Keep us close in your church, and help us to love one another in ways that we don't yet love. We ask this all in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, it's day 108. We're reading paragraphs 767, 771. The church revealed by the Holy Spirit when the work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth was accomplished, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost. And in order that he might continually sanctify the Church. Then the Church was openly displayed to the crowds and the spread of the Gospel among the nations through preaching was begun as the convocation of all men for salvation. The Church in her very nature is missionary, sent by Christ to all the nations to make disciples of them so that she can fulfill her mission. The Holy Spirit bestows upon the Church varied hierarchic and charismatic gifts and and in this way directs her. Henceforward, the Church, endowed with the gifts of her founder and faithfully observing his precepts of charity, humility and self denial, receives the mission of proclaiming and establishing among all peoples the kingdom of Christ and of God. And she is on earth the seed and the beginning of that kingdom. The Church perfected in glory. The Church will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven at the time of Christ's glorious return. Until that day, the Church progresses on her pilgrimage amidst this world's persecutions and God's consolations. Here below, she knows that she is in exile, far from the Lord, and longs for the full coming of the kingdom, when she will be united in glory with her King, the Church. And through her the world will not be perfected in glory without great trials. Only then will all the just, from the time of Adam, from Abel the the Just One, to the last of the elect, be gathered together in the universal Church in the Father's presence. The mystery of the Church the Church is in history, but at the same time she transcends it. It is only with the eyes of faith that one can see her in her visible reality. And at the same time in her spiritual reality as bearer of divine life, the Church, both visible and spiritual, the one Mediator Christ established and ever sustains here on earth his holy Church, the community of faith, hope and charity. As a visible organization through which he communicates truth and grace to all men. The Church is at the same time a society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical body of Christ, the visible society and the spiritual community, the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches. These dimensions together constitute one complex reality which comes together from a human and a divine element. As the document Sacrosanctum Concilium states, the Church is essentially both human and divine, visible but endowed with invisible realities, zealous in action and dedicated to contemplation present in the world, but as a pilgrim, so constituted that in her the human is directed toward and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to contemplation, and this present world to that city yet to come. The object of our quest as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux once O humility, O sublimity. Both Tabernacle of Cedar and Sanctuary of God, earthly dwelling and celestial palace, House of Clay and royal hall, Body of Death and Temple of Light. And at last, both object of scorn to the proud and bride of Christ. She is black but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem. For even if the labor and pain of her long exile may have discolored her, yet Heaven's beauty has adorned her. Okay, so there we have it. Oh, my gosh. Okay, we're going to get to this. Both. And you know, one of the things that we recognize that in the Catholic Church, in the world there exists this, but especially in the Church, there exists what we call paradox. Now, paradox is an apparent contradiction, a seeming contradiction that actually isn't a contradiction. So it's the both and rather than either or, it's both. And so is the Church visible? Yes. Is the Church spiritual? Yes. So it's both. And it's both spiritual and visible. That's where we're going to get to that in just a second. But the first thing, paragraph 767 and 768 are so powerful, I don't want to just gloss over them. It talks about this, the very first line, when the work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth was accomplished. So here's Jesus. He did all that work, the work of salvation, the work of establishing a Church. The Holy Spirit was sent on the Day of Pentecost in order that he might continually sanctify the Church. Now, this is. I think this is just Bananas. It's so good. Here is Jesus Christ to establish that kingdom. Remember, the promise from the ages was that God would give, through Abraham and through his descendants, the world. This. This kingdom of world that would bless the world forever. Jesus establishes that kingdom, but also God then sends the Spirit. Remember, we talked so often the last bunch of days about how the mission of the Son and the mission of the Spirit are the same mission. This is part of that. So on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was sent in order that the Lord might continually sanctify the Church. And so this is the. The thing is, God did not leave us orphans. He did not just say, okay, here's a loose organization of some people. You are my disciples. I taught you a bunch of stuff. Now go do your best. Now, they did go do their best, but they did their best with the power of the Holy Spirit, with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, with the guidance and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. And that is so, so important. We do not do this on our own. This. The Church has the Holy Spirit as her very soul. Now, it goes on to say, I love this paragraph 768, so that she can fulfill her mission. The Holy Spirit bestows upon the Church. These two things varied, hierarchic and charismatic gifts. And I think this is just. This is so important. What are hierarchic gifts? Well, there could be a number of things, but they're things like the gifts of holy orders, right? We have the gift of the Pope. We're going to talk about that later on. We have the gift of bishops, apostolic succession. We have the gifts of priests and diaconate. We have these. There's a hierarchy here. So we have those gifts, hierarchic gifts. And because of those all together, right? We have the magisterium. We have written tradition, we have oral tradition, but also there are charismatic gifts and charismatic gifts. You know, charism comes from the word charis, which means essentially, is grace. So these charismatic gifts are these free gifts. Well, all gifts from the Lord are free. But these free gifts from the Lord that he uses to build up his church. Now, you and I have experienced, have received charismatic gifts. You and I, if you have the Holy Spirit in you, you have a charismatic gift, Some. Some gift that God has given to you to build up the body of Christ, to build up the Church. Those gifts are things like, you know, the charismatic gift of faith, charismatic gift of counsel, the charismatic gift of knowledge, of words, of the Lord, of mighty works, of miracles, of tongues. Like all those are charismatic gifts. You might not have all of them. But there is in you these charismatic gifts, most likely. And if you don't necessarily notice them or recognize them, or know if you have them, pray to the Lord for them. Because here's what God has done so that she can fulfill her mission. The Holy Spirit bestows upon the church these gifts and in this way directs her. Now, with these charismatic gifts, we're meant to build up the church. The Holy Spirit working through us to build up the church. That very next line is just so powerful in 768, then we're going to move on. But it's this. Henceforward, from now on, the church endowed with the gifts of her founder, who was her founder, Jesus, and faithfully observing his precepts of charity, humility and self denial. So Jesus has these precepts, right? Of love, of humility, self denial. So we observe those things. We again highlight this. We're endowed with the gifts of Jesus, and now we're faithfully observing his precepts of love, humility and self denial. Then here's the church that receives the mission of proclaiming and establishing among all peoples the kingdom of Christ and of God. She is on earth, the seed and the beginning of that kingdom. And this is just so incredible. Why? Because God wants to draw all men to himself. God wants to bring every person into this kingdom. And so because of that, here is this church that exists in order to live in charity, humility and self denial. And we've been given the mission of proclaiming and establishing among all peoples the kingdom of Christ and of God. And just remarkable. Now, the last, not last thing, second to last thing, at the same time, the Church will receive this perfection only in the glory of heaven. That's paragraph 769. We recognize that as I mentioned before, just as Jesus body is resurrected and is glorified in heaven for all eternity, the body of Christ on earth, yes, it will be glorified. But it has to go through what you might even say, the same process that our King went through the body of Christ has to go through the same process that the head went through. Meaning we have to experience this rejection, persecutions. We have to experience the great trials. It says this, the church and through her the world will not be perfected in glory without great trials. And so here's the church that we have to. We have to embrace rejection. We have to embrace the ways in which the world hates us. You know, Jesus said that. He said, the world will hate you. The world's hated me. It will hate you as well, we have to experience this. It's not a matter of triumphalism. It's a matter of humble. Gosh, what is it? Humble service. In some ways, being strong enough to allow yourself to be stepped on. Now, I'm not saying that is a good counsel for every individual, right? Because there are times when someone has to say, like, actually, my dignity is such that, no, you should not step on me. That's why the grace of the martyr is so powerful. The grace of the martyr is not someone who couldn't do otherwise, someone who didn't. Who couldn't stick up for themselves. The grace of the martyr is someone who had the power to fight back, but for the sake of Jesus, chose not to. And this is something really important for us to know, because we have to have this balance, right? We have to. I know, I know. We kind of took a curve here. But we need to understand this. We need to have this balance between knowing your great dignity and knowing that in the midst of great dignity, no one has a right to abuse you. No one has a right to use you. No one has a right to step on you. There are times, though, when we say, okay, for the sake of Christ, for the sake of the love of my brothers and sisters, I will allow them to step on me so that Christ may be known and glorified. I will allow them to step on me so that they can know the love of God. Again. Very big difference between I'm a doormat and I'm. I'm laying down my life. Does that make sense? I hope it makes sense. Okay, so just wanted to wrap that up here. Now, the last big piece here is the mystery of the Church that we, yes, we see the Church with our eyes. At the same time, there is so much that we don't see. And I love this. This dichotomy here. Not dichotomy. The paradox. We already said this before. In the last paragraph, 771, it says this. This paradox. The church is both a society structured with hierarchical organs. That's one. And the mystical body of Christ. So we have the hierarchy, right? We have all these offices in the Vatican. We have parishes out throughout the world. We also have the mystical body of Christ. It is a visible society and spiritual community. It is the earthly church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches. So there's both of these things. And they get. This is articulated so powerfully in that document from the Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium. As it says, the Church is. This is the last word here. The Church is essentially both human and divine. Visible but endowed with invisible realities, zealous in action and dedicated to contemplation present in the world. But as a pilgrim, so constituted that in her the human is directed toward and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to contemplation. And this present world to that city yet to come, the object of our quest. And that's just so, so powerful and so real. I think it's so important for every one of us to understand this. Because of the fact that, yes, we live in a. In this broken world. And because of that, this church experience wounds, experiences, wounds. At the same time, we're made for another world. And this church experiences the consolation and the grace of being buoyed up, guided, directed, filled by the power of the Holy Spirit at every single moment. And that's reality of our lives. Oh, man. So, I don't know. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's difficult to be in this. In this earthly reality at the same time. That's where you've been called. That's where I've been called. And this church, a earthly reality, human reality, but also a spiritual reality and a divine reality. And this church is to what you have been called and where I have been called. And so we need to pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.