← The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Resurrection of the Body (2025)
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Fr. Mike explores the essential element of Christian Faith that we “look forward to the resurrection of the dead.” We examine how this belief in the resurrection of the dead means that both our mortal soul and our mortal body will come to life again, that eventually every single human being will get their body back. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 988-996.
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Fr. Mike Schmitz
Before we dive into today's episode, I want to tell you about an exciting new resource that will deepen your journey through the Catechism. Ascension has just come out with its newest study called Foundations of A Journey through the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is the only video based program that takes you to over 40 extraordinary places around the world, across 11 countries and four continents to bring the story of the Catechism to life. Led by voices you know like Dr. Ed Sri and Jeff Cavins, Dr. Marcelina D' Ambrosio and myself, Foundations of Faith takes you on a remarkable journey through the heart of our faith. If you've been enjoying this podcast, I know that this study will further enrich your understanding of the Catechism. Foundations of Faith is actually more than a study. It is a pilgrimage that will transform how you understand and live the Catholic faith. Check it out@ascensionpress.com CatechismStudy that's ascensionpress.com Catechismstudy and now let's get started. Hi, my name is Fr. 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 135. We're reading paragraphs 988 to 996. As always, I am 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. If you want to download your own catechism into your reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com ciy you also can click Follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. I know that some of you like to hunt for it every day on your own and that's great. That's just unique. Also, just a quick thank you for all those. You guys, it's day 135. Amazing. Thank you so much for not only being a part of this, but for your prayers. Thank you for your financial gifts. We couldn't do this without you. It's. It's. Yeah. Thank you so much. Day 135, you guys. Today we're talking about the resurrection of the Body, the resurrection of the dead. Article 11. So yesterday we had the whole article. Article 10. I believe in the forgiveness of sins. There's more to talk about that when we get to the sacraments today. Article 11. I believe in the resurrection of the body. I'm just going to start taking the steps into this because after today and tomorrow we're going to get to what is it to die in Christ? And also what is it to rise in Christ? What is it to face the judgment? But today we want to highlight very, very clearly that we believe in the resurrection of the body. And this is so critical for us. I think the catechism even notes that many people believe in what you might call the perdurance of the soul, that the soul will exist, exist after death in some way, shape or form. But Christian belief goes even further than that. Not only will our souls exist after death, but we believe that our bodies will be resurrected ultimately after death. That just as Jesus Christ was risen from the dead to the glory of the Father, you and I will get our bodies back and our bodies will be new, they will be redeemed, they'll be resurrected. They'll be like Christ's in that. We'll talk about that more tomorrow. Like who will rise? How will we rise? What is rising in the first place? But today we want to very, very clearly communicate. Here is what every Christian, every orthodox Christian has believed, the belief in the resurrection. The paragraph991 says, this belief in the resurrection of the dead has been an essential element of the Christian faith from its beginnings. So important. Tertullian, one of the early church fathers, said, the confidence of Christians is the resurrection of the dead. Believing this, we live. That is just so important. And even St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, he says, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there's no resurrection of the dead, then Christ hasn't been raised and your faith is in vain. The whole thing, the whole thing is just. It's all meaningless. But Christ has been resurrected from the dead, and you will be resurrected from the dead as well. And so let's just talk about that today. And we move into this. It's so powerful, it's so incredible. I don't know if you've ever, if many of us have ever really reflected deeply, what is it to note that you will get your body back and your body fully transformed, fully resurrected, fully redeemed, much like Jesus Christ, who is the first fruits of all, the resurrection of the body. And so we'll talk about that today. Let's say a prayer before we go any, any further and just call upon the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and we talk to you. Father, we beg you. We love you, we praise you. Today, we ask you, please receive our praise. Please receive our thanks. In the name of your Son, Jesus, we ask that you please be glorified that your name is known not only around the world by every heart and every mind, but by our hearts and by our minds. Help us to know you better, Father. Help us to love you better. Help us to follow you more closely. Help us to be disciples of your Son, Jesus Christ, and give us your Holy Spirit so that we can, we can experience in this life even a shadow of a foretaste of what it will be to walk with you in heaven forever. Help us to walk with you on this earth right now, so that we can walk with you in eternity forever. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, it's day 135. We're reading paragraphs 980, article 11. I believe in the resurrection of the body. The Christian creed, the profession of our faith in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and in God's creative saving and sanctifying action culminates in the proclamation of the resurrection of the dead on the last day and in life everlasting. We firmly believe, and hence we hope, that just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives forever, so after death, the righteous will live forever with the risen Christ, and He will raise them up on the last day. Our resurrection, like his own, will be the work of the Most Holy Trinity. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit who dwells in you. The term flesh refers to man in a state of weakness and mortality. The resurrection of the flesh, the literal formulation of the Apostles Creed, means not only that the immortal soul will live on after death, but that even our mortal body will come to life again. Belief in the resurrection of the dead has been an essential element of the Christian faith from its beginnings. As Tertullian stated, the confidence of Christians is the resurrection of the dead. Believing this, we live. And as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen. Christ's resurrection and ours. The progressive revelation of the resurrection. God revealed the resurrection of the dead to his people. Progressively, hope in the bodily resurrection of the dead established itself as a consequence intrinsic to faith in God as creator of the whole man, soul and body. The Creator of heaven and earth is also the one who faithfully maintains his covenant with Abraham and his posterity. It was in this double perspective that faith in the resurrection came to be expressed. In their trials, the Maccabean martyrs confessed, the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life because we have died for his laws. One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him. The Pharisees and many of the Lord's contemporaries hoped for the resurrection. Jesus teaches it firmly to the Sadducees who deny it. He is not this why you are wrong that you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. Faith in the resurrection rests on faith in God, who is not God of the dead, but of the living. But there is more. Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person, stating, I am the resurrection and the life. It is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his blood already. Now in this present life, he gives a sign and pledge of this by restoring some of the dead to life, announcing thereby his own resurrection, though it was to be of another order. He speaks of this unique event as the sign of Jonah, the sign of the temple. He announces that he will be put to death, but rise thereafter on the third day. To be a witness to Christ is to be a witness to his resurrection, to have eaten and drunk with him after he rose from the dead. Encounters with the risen Christ characterize the Christian hope of we shall rise like Christ, with him and through him. From the beginning, Christian faith in the resurrection has met with incomprehension and opposition. As St. Augustine on no point does the Christian faith encounter more opposition than on the resurrection of the body. It is very commonly accepted that the life of the human person continues in a spiritual fashion after death. But how can we believe that this body, so clearly mortal, could rise to everlasting life? Okay, so there we have it. Paragraphs 9, 88 to 9 96. Man, I just, if I go a little overboard here, I just. Because I think that many of us don't meditate enough on the gift that God has in store for us. I don't think we often reflect enough on what it is to be with God in heaven. I don't think we often reflect enough on what it is to believe, to really reflect on what is it we're saying every single Sunday or before every rosary, whenever we pray the Apostles Creed. I believe in the resurrection of the body. What are we really saying? We're saying that God's plan is so much more than most of us could ever imagine, so much more than most of us ever even reflect on. And yet we believe this. We believe that this is essential. It is, as I said, an essential part of Christian faith, an essential element of the Christian faith from the beginning. And this remarkable Tertullian. Again, this quote, the confidence of Christians is the resurrection of the dead. Believing this, we live. Now, I love the clarification that paragraph 990 makes. So it talks about the term the flesh. So the flesh in Scripture most many, many times refers to man in his state of weakness and mortality. So Jesus in John chapter six, he says, it's the Spirit that gives life. The flesh is of no avail. What he's talking about there is that. That fallen part of our human nature. That's what he refers to as the flesh. The flesh is of no availability. Now, the reason it's important to make a distinction, because Jesus also talks about eat my flesh and drink my blood. So he's not talking about that fallen part of human nature. He's literally talking about his flesh and blood. Right? So that's a key distinction to make. But paragraph 990 highlights this. The flesh here refers to human beings in our state of weakness and mortality. So the resurrection of the flesh means not only that our immortal soul will live on after death, but that even our mortal body will come to life again. And the catechism notes that there's a progressive revelation about the resurrection. So if you go to, like, what you might call, like early Jewish theology, there wouldn't be a very clear articulation of what happens after death or a clear articulation of what happens with the resurrection of the body. But as there's this progressive revelation, it becomes more and more clear that there's this. There is a true belief in having its roots in Judaism, in life after death as well as in the resurrection. Now, of course, there were some sects in Judaism, like the Sadducees who denied the resurrection of the dead, they denied the existence of angels. And Jesus to them, he tells them, this is why you're wrong. Is this, Is not this why you are wrong? That you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? He says that those who have died are alive. Why? Because he says he's the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He's not the God of the dead. He is the God of the living. So there's this, this further, deeper and more profound reality of resurrection. And I love how paragraph 994 says, but wait, there's more. Literally, the line is, but there's more. I just think it's funny. Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person. And he said, I'm the resurrection and the life. It is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his blood. And it's just remarkable, incredible. Now we shall rise. Paragraph 995 says this so, so critically, so clearly. How many times do I say critical in the course of a day? I think I say it a lot. He says this. He says, encounters with the risen Christ characterize the Christian hope of resurrection. And then it says, we shall rise like Christ with him and through him. Just stop for a moment and realize, like, even just. If you can, if you can move your hands, just flex your fingers, say this body, these hands, these arms, you can move these eyes, it will rise like Christ, with Christ and through Christ. You know, how does that happen? What is that? Who will do this? When is this going to happen? We're talking about that tomorrow. But the first piece we just get to embrace with every, every amount of amen we can, we can muster is ultimately, you know, death is what death is, a separation of body and soul. But ultimately, every single human being will get their body back. We believe in the resurrection of the body. And some will go on to live in glory, everlasting glory with God in heaven. And some will have their body back to live in everlasting shame and horror and disgrace. Our choice today gets to be, do I want to live with the Lord? Do I want to live eternity without him? My guess is that all of us are saying, lord, I want to live with you. So God, please come to our aid. God, please come to our assistance. Help us to say yes to you today. Help us to live in such a way today that we can live with you forever in eternity. God. That's my prayer today. I'm praying for all ya all y' all. All y' all who are part of this catechism. In a year, we need to pray for each other because the st are super high, right? The stakes are so.