← The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: The Temple of the Holy Spirit (2025)
00:17:35
“What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church.” The Catechism uncovers how the Holy Spirit truly builds up the whole Church in the name of Jesus. Fr. Mike dives into the incredibly diverse gifts that the Holy Spirit gives up for the building up of the Kingdom—the charisms. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 797-810.
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Father Mike Schmitz
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 in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 113 and, and we're reading paragraphs 797 to paragraph 810. The end of this section. We have some nuggets, kind of like a little quasi actual paragraph day and some nugget day. 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. You can also download your own Catechism in a Year Reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com ciy and also you can click follow or subscribe on your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today is day 113. Reading paragraphs 797 to the end of this section, paragraph 800. We're talking about the Church is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And I love this, you guys. How many times, and I've mentioned this before, how many times have we said that the mission of the Son and the mission of the Spirit are the same mission? And this is, I think if there's one maybe overarching takeaway that I maybe have underestimated as a human being and maybe underestimated as a Christian, underestimated as a priest is that is the fact that the Son's mission and the Spirit's mission are the same mission. We're talking today in paragraph 797 and 798 about how the Church is the temple of the Holy Spirit. There is something so powerful about the fact that the Holy Spirit makes the Church the temple of the living God, just like the Holy Spirit makes each individual Christian a temple of the Spirit, Temple of God. Now paragraph 798 is going to highlight a number of different ways that the Holy Spirit. Well, I'll say this, here's the quote, number of different ways that the Holy Spirit is the principle of every vital and truly saving action in each part of the body. Here's what it means. The Holy Spirit is the principle, the foundation, right? The acting principle, the acting agent, the active agent. We'll say it like that, the principle of every vital and truly saving action in each part of the body. That's the role, the mission, the power of the Holy Spirit. And then paragraph 798 goes on to say, how does the Holy Spirit work? Like that? And names them just bam, bam, bam. Let by God's word, he builds people up in love by baptism, by the sacraments, by the grace of the apostles, by the virtues, by special graces called charisms. And we're going to end, well, we're going to end the section before the in brief by looking at three paragraphs on charisms. I am so excited for you to hear about the way in which the Church says yes. These charisms of the Holy Spirit given to each person, given to each Christian in the body of Christ, as temples of the Holy Spirit are meant to be used to build up the body, meant to be used to build up God's kingdom on earth. And so those three paragraphs are kind of short paragraphs, right? Kind of smack dab in the middle of what we're reading today. Because then at the end we have a bunch of little bullet in briefs, little nuggets at the end. So let's launch in today and say a prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you, we give you praise. We ask you to please receive our prayer, receive our gratitude, receive our praise for who you are and what you have done. We ask you to please send your Holy Spirit into our lives. Send your Holy Spirit of unity, your Holy Spirit of sanctity, your Holy Spirit of love. Because we know, Lord God, that no matter how many gifts any of us receive, no matter how many gifts any of us exercise, the greatest gift of your spirit is love. And without love we are nothing. So pour out your spirit of love in our hearts so that we can be your love in this world. Help us to say yes to you in this moment and every moment of our lives. In Jesus name we pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It's day 113. We're reading paragraphs 797 to paragraph 810. The church is the temple of the Holy Spirit. What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the body of Christ, which is the Church. To this Spirit of Christ, as an invisible principle, is to be ascribed the fact that all the parts of the body are joined one with the other and with their exalted head. For the whole spirit of Christ is in the head, the whole spirit is in the body, and the Whole Spirit is in each of the members. The Holy Spirit makes the Church the temple of the living God, as St. Irenaeus wrote. Indeed, it is to the Church herself that the gift of God has been entrusted. It is in her that communion with Christ has been deposited, that is to say, the Holy Spirit, the pledge of incorruptibility, the strengthening of our faith, and the ladder of our ascent to God. For where the Church is, there also is God's Spirit. Where God's Spirit is, there is the Church and every grace. The Holy Spirit is the principle of every vital and truly saving action in each part of the Body. He works in many ways to build up the whole body in charity by God's word, which is able to build you up by baptism, through which he forms Christ's body by the sacraments which give growth and healing to Christ's members by the grace of the apostles, which holds first place among his gifts, by the virtues which make us act according to what is good. Finally, by the many special graces called charisms, by which he makes the faithful fit and ready to undertake various tasks and offices for the renewal and building up of the Church. Charisms, whether extraordinary or simple and humble, charisms are graces of the Holy Spirit which directly or indirectly benefit the Church, ordered as they are to her building up to the good of men and to the needs of the world. Charisms are to be accepted with gratitude by the person who receives them and by all members of the Church as well. They are a wonderfully rich grace for the apostolic vitality and for the holiness of the entire body of Christ, provided they really are genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit, and are used in full conformity with authentic promptings of this same Spirit. That is in keeping with charity, the true measure of all charisms. It is in this sense that discernment of charisms is always necessary. No charism is exempt from being referred and submitted to the Church's shepherds. Their office is not indeed to extinguish the Spirit, but to test all things and hold fast to what is good, so that all the diverse and complementary charisms work together for the common good. In brief, Christ Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for Himself a people of his own. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people. One enters into the people of God by faith and baptism. All men are called to belong to the new people of God, so that in Christ men may form one family and one people. Of God. The Church is the body of Christ through the Spirit and His action in the sacraments, above all the Eucharist. Christ, who once was dead and is now risen, establishes the community of believers as his own body. In the unity of this Body, there is a diversity of members and functions. All members are linked to one another, especially to those who are suffering to the poor and persecuted. The Church is this body of which Christ is the head. She lives from him, in him, and for him he lives with her. And in her. The Church is the bride of Christ. He loved her and handed Himself over for her. He has purified her by his blood and made her the fruitful mother of all God's children. The Church is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the soul, as it were, of the mystical body, the source of its life, of its unity and diversity, and of the riches of its gifts and charisms. Hence, the universal Church is seen to be a people brought into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Okay, that's it. Day 113, paragraphs 797, 810. Gosh, this is incredible. I love again, mission of the Son, Mission of the Holy Spirit. And here, is this so important, this paragraph or this quote we have from St. Augustine? It kicked off the whole day. Paragraph 797. What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the body of Christ, which is the Church. I've mentioned this before, but the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. Right? You know, our bodies, we can think of it like this. Our bodies are made up of a bunch of different parts. What brings them unity? Well, classically, what brings them unity is the fact that we're united by having a soul. And so here is the whole church with its massive diversity of people, individuals, all these things. What brings us unity is the fact that we share the spirit of Christ. We share that same soul, which is just incredible. Church as the temple of the Holy Spirit. Paragraph 798 again, has all of these ways of how does the Holy Spirit build up the whole body of Christ? Again, paragraph 798. We already quoted this, but it said, the Holy Spirit is the principle of every vital and truly saving action in each part of the body. That. You know, years ago, I was on campus and I was just like, how do we reach all of our students? How do we reach every student and every faculty member, every staff member on this college campus? I remember reading something from John Paul ii, and he said, evangelization cannot happen without The Holy Spirit. I remember thinking, well, we need the Holy Spirit. In that case, we need the Holy Spirit. And so we started doing these, you know, these retreats and started having these, these times of prayer where we specifically asked God to send us His Holy Spirit. Because it was this matter of we recognize we can do nothing. You know, we can do nothing without Christ. Unless our branches remaining on the vine, unless we remain in Christ, we can do nothing. But also without the Holy Spirit, we can do nothing. And so the Holy Spirit here is the principle of every vital and truly saving action. And so it goes on to enumerate the ways he says this. He works in many ways to build up the whole body in charity. So love number one. But. But how? Well, it says, first, by God's word, which is able to build you up. So Scripture, God's word, teaching, tradition, Sacred Scripture and sacred tradition. Secondly, by baptism, through which he forms Christ's body. Remember, we talk about how we are brought into this Church. We're brought into the body of Christ through faith and baptism. Going on to say, third, by the sacraments which give growth and healing to Christ members. Fourth, by the grace of the apostles, which holds first place among his gifts. So that's the grace of governance, that's the grace of teaching, that's the grace of sanctifying that grace that the apostles have and their successors, the bishops. Fifth, by the virtues. By the virtues which make us act according to what is good. You know, none of us are virtuous on our own. We're virtuous because of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the principle of every vital and truly saving action, including the virtues. Sixth, finally, by the many special graces called charisms. And I love this last line. It says, by which he makes the faithful, that's you and me. By which he makes the faithful fit and ready to undertake various tasks and offices for the renewal and building up of the Church. And as I mentioned at the top of this, the next three paragraphs, 799 to 801, talk about what are charisms. The purpose of charisms are to do what? To make us ready, fit and ready to undertake the various tasks and offices for the renewal and building up of the Church. This is so remarkable. I don't know if you've ever done anything thinking or any praying on the reality that God has not only given you the gift of faith, the gift of hope, the gift of love, you know, the gift of eternal life and bringing you into his church and making you a son or daughter of God, if you're baptized. But this recognition here, it goes on to say in 799, whether extraordinary, because there are some pretty extraordinary charisms out there. Charisms of healing, charisms of mighty works, of miracle working. You know, it's amazing. But whether extraordinary or simple and humble, because there's also pretty humble gifts. They're pretty humble charisms. There's the, you know, people talk about the charism of administration or the charism of hospitality, the charism of writing or the charism of teaching. The charism of, you know, the spiritual gift of counsel. Sometimes that can be underrated. But when you need a word of counsel, sometimes it's not underrated at all. So these gifts are extraordinary and sometimes they're simple and humble. But at all times, charisms are graces of the Holy Spirit which directly or indirectly benefit the church because they're ordered to the building up of the church, to the good of people around us, and to the needs of the world. And so this is the whole point. Charisms aren't a sign that a person is holier. This is one of those things we need to understand. Charisms aren't given to just like the super saints. Charisms are given to every member of the body of Christ. Why not for them, but to build up the church? And that's why I typically like to call charisms kingdom gifts. I call them kingdom gifts because I realize if I've been given a charism, it's not for me, it's not a gift for me. It is a gift to build up the kingdom. That's why they're ordered as they are to building up the church for the good of people around the world and for the needs of the world. Now, paragraph 800 and 801 give us some qualifications, like what do we do with charisms? How do we accept them? Well, paragraph 800 right off the bat says charisms are to be accepted with gratitude by the person who received them and all members of the church as well. So I know sometimes I'm like, well, I want the extraordinary gifts. I want the extraordinary charisms. And the church says, well, essentially all charisms are to be accepted with gratitude, like be grateful to the Lord, be thankful to the Lord by the person who receives them. And also when you see someone who has charisms, to be thankful to the Lord for their gifts. This is so remarkable how crazy it is that we can find ourselves becoming jealous or envious of the gifts that someone else has been given for the building up of the church. But even St. Paul said this would happen, right? He says, can the eyes say to the foot, I don't need you? Or I say to the ear, can the hand say to the foot, I don't need you? We all need each other. Goes on to say, these charisms are a wonderfully rich grace for the apostolic vitality and the holiness of the entire body of Christ. So this is, again, it's so helpful for all of us. Imagine the Church if every person who had been given charisms, which is basically every person, used those charisms for the glory of the Lord, for the service of our fellow brothers and sisters and people outside the Church as well, think about the way in the world would be changed, their wonderfully rich grace for apostolic vitality. And we can ask God to give us these gifts. We actually should ask God to give us these gifts. So they're wonderfully rich, provided they really are genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit. And that's a good qualification. We have to discern, and that's so important, we have to discern between what is a genuine spiritual gift and what is not. We also have to discern when is the time to use this genuine spiritual gift and when is it not. And this is so important for us because there are times when someone might claim a spiritual gift when it's not really. So we have to have that discernment of spirits. There are also times when someone actually has a gift of the Holy Spirit, a gift from God, but there are times when it's not appropriate for them to use that gift. And there are times we recognize that we need to refer and submit our gifts in our action, using these gifts to the authority of the Church's shepherds. That's just a reality, because why? Because the office of the Church's shepherds, right, the office of the bishops, is not to extinguish the spirit, but like St. Paul tells us, to test all things and hold fast to what is good so that all the diverse and complementary charisms work together for the common good. Now, is their discernment always going to be perfect? No. But if we place ourselves in a posture of humility and receptivity and teachability, right? Docility is teachability. We place ourselves in that kind of situation, then all of these gifts will flourish. So my prayer right now, and just inviting all of us to do this, to ask the Lord to either pour out these charisms on your life and the lives of the people around you, or that God, you might have already given me these charisms, reveal what those charisms are. Give me a chance to exercise them, give me a chance to use them, and also give me a humble heart that I can refer and submit all these gifts, all my actions, everything I do to the authority of the church, to the shepherds of the church that you have. You've appointed to care for us and to lead us and to guide us and also to. To guard us. Because there are people in the history of the church, there are people who had real and genuine charisms, but who used those charisms in such a way, I want to say, at their own peril. And so, God, please help us, protect us. If we submit all these gifts that you give to us, to the leadership of our shepherds, then we know we'll be safe. I'm praying for you. I'm praying that God just reveals the charisms he's given to you and also gives you a chance, gives you an opportunity to use those charisms. This day and every day, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.