Fr. Mike Schmitz (0:05)

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 sure 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 143, you guys. We have reached the end of pillar one, which is amazing. We're reading paragraphs 1051 to 1065. 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. You can also download your own Catechism in a Year Reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com ciy and you can also Just a little quick reminder, you can click Follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Unless you're the kind of person who likes to hunt for the podcast every day, which, in which case that's kind of a little game you play, and when you found it, you found it. You win. Congratulations. Today is day 143. Speaking of congratulations, what a milestone. We have concluded, we are concluding today, Pillar one, the Creed, which is, I think, is pretty awesome. So congratulations, you guys. We're reading paragraphs 1051 to 1065. So 1051 starts out with nuggets, right? 1051 until 1060, those are all nuggets. So it's a little nugget day. But if you have your catechism in front of you, you'll see that after the nuggets we have a last section from paragraphs 1061 to 1065 on the Word Amen. And so we're going to talk about what that word amen means. We're also going to talk about not just what it means in itself, but also what it is when we say the word Amen. Also, Jesus Christ Himself is the Amen. He is the definitive Amen of the Father's love for us. But before we go into the Amen, we also have to talk about, as we noted, we talk about the nuggets. And the nuggets are all the way back to the fact that when we die, we are immediately judged. We get heaven or hell or purified to enter into heaven. And then there's that last day in which all the dead will rise and everything will be all in. All in Jesus Christ, in God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. You guys, as we launch into this day, let's say a prayer and just ask the Lord to come and meet us with his grace and with his truth and with his life. Father in heaven, we thank you so much. We give you praise and glory. Thank you for bringing us here to this day. Thank you for bringing us here to this moment. Thank you for bringing us here all the way through pillar one. We ask that you please, as we prepare ourselves for our death, as we prepare ourselves to give you our ultimate and final amen, that we trust in your Amen, your amen of faithfulness, our amen of belief, but your amen of faithfulness that we can trust who you are. Because you are the God of the Amen. You are the God of truth. You are the God who is faithful. And so, as we once again reflect on these nuggets of what it is to die in you, Jesus Christ, we ask that you please come and meet us. Because you, Christ, are the Father's definitive Amen. You're the Father's definitive word. You're the Father's definitive truth. Help us to give our Amen to you in Jesus name. We pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, it's day 143. We are reading paragraphs 1051-1065. In brief, every man receives his eternal recompense in his immortal soul from the moment of his death, in a particular judgment by Christ, the Judge of the living and the dead. As Pope Paul VI stated, we believe that the souls of all who die in Christ's grace are the people of God beyond death. On the day of Resurrection, death will be definitively conquered when these souls will be reunited with their bodies. Pope Paul VI Further, we believe that the multitude of those gathered around Jesus and Mary in paradise forms the Church of Heaven, where in eternal blessedness they see God as He is, and where they are also, to various degrees, associated with the Holy angels in the divine governance, exercised by Christ in glory by interceding for us and helping our weakness by their fraternal concern. Those who die in God's grace and friendship, imperfectly purified, although they are assured of their eternal salvation, undergo a purification after death so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of God. By virtue of the communion of saints, the Church commends the dead to God's mercy and offers her prayers especially the holy sacrifice of the Eucharist on their behalf. Following the example of Christ, the Church warns the faithful of the sad and lamentable reality of eternal death, also called Hell. Hell's principal punishment consists of eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can have the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs. The Church prays that no one should be lost. Lord, let me never be parted from you. If it is true that no one can save himself, it is also true that God desires all men to be saved and that for him all things are possible. The Second Council of Lyon the Holy Roman Church firmly believes and confesses that on the Day of Judgment all men will appear in their own bodies before Christ's tribunal to render an account of their own deeds. At the end of time, the kingdom of God will come in its fullness. Then the just will reign with Christ forever glorified in body and soul, and the material universe itself will be transformed. God will then be all in all in eternal life. Amen. The Creed, like the last book of the Bible, ends with the Hebrew word Amen. This word frequently concludes prayers in the New Testament. The Church likewise ends her prayers with Amen In Hebrew, amen comes from the same root as the word believe. This root expresses solidity, trustworthiness, faithfulness. And so we can understand why Amen may express both God's faithfulness towards us and and our trust in Him. In the book of the prophet Isaiah, we find the expression God of truth, literally God of the Amen, that is, the God who is faithful to his promises. Isaiah 65 states, he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth. Amen. Our Lord often used the word Amen, sometimes repeated, to emphasize the trustworthiness of his teaching, his authority founded on God's truth. Thus the Creed's final Amen repeats and confirms its first I believe. To believe is to say Amen to God's words, promises and commandments, to entrust oneself completely to him who is the Amen of infinite love and perfect faithfulness. The Christian's everyday life will then be the Amen to the I believe of our baptismal profession of faith as St. Augustine. May your creed be for you as a mirror. Look at yourself in it to see if you believe everything you say you believe and rejoice in your faith each day. Jesus Christ himself is the Amen. He is the definitive Amen of the Father's love for us. He takes up and completes our Amen to the Father as 2 Corinthians states, for all the promises of God, find their yes in Him. That is why we utter the amen through him, to the glory of God and in the Roman missal we pray through him and with him and in him, O God, Almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours forever and ever. Amen. All right, so there we have it. The conclusion to the creed, the conclusion to pillar one. Oh, my gosh, you guys. Let's just recap quickly from 1051 to 1060. We do have again, our nuggets for today, which I just want to highlight the fact that, yes, here's what we believe. We truly believe that at the moment of our death, we receive our eternal recompense in our immortal soul. Right? Death is the separation of soul and body. Little recap there. Death is the separation of body and soul. In that immediate moment, we stand before our Lord and God and we get what we've chosen. I would say this, I would say a great spiritual practice for every one of us, every single one of us, would be to imagine our death a regular basis. I would say at least once a week, if not every day. I really mean that. To imagine not just like the death, whoever we are on this earth, but imagine the moment after our death while we come before God face to face. And what would his face look like as we come before our Lord and He sees us and he looks up and his gaze rests upon us and our gaze rests upon him as that look upon his face, one of pure joy? Is that look upon the Lord's face, one of just absolute thankfulness and praise and joy and good fatherly pride in the fact that we've done it? That he can look at us with joy as we stand before him at the moment after our death. And he can say to us, well done, good and faithful servant. Come receive your master's joy. Enter into your master's joy. Or when we stand face to face with God, will he look up and see us and know us as we are and love us so deeply? But will there be pain in his face? Will there be sorrow on his face as he looks at us and sees what we've chosen? And we stand before God in His goodness and his beauty and his love? Will he look at us and say, oh, I know that's what you've chosen. You've chosen, not me. We look upon him and realize, I've chosen, not him. I had a whole life, I had an entire life to choose him, and I didn't. I Had an entire life to say yes to. God, my Father, God my Savior, God, the Holy Spirit who dwells in me through baptism and confirmation. Every time I pray and ask the Father for the Holy Spirit in Jesus name, he gives it. I had all of those chances, all of those chances to just simply say, I'm sorry, please, Father, help me. And I didn't. Well, look upon the Father's face. Look upon the face of our judge, Jesus Christ, the Son, who is the judge of the living and the dead. And his face will be sad, sorrowful, grieved, and will walk away. Never to enter his presence ever, ever again. Never to gaze upon goodness ever again. Never to experience love ever again. It's worth it. It's worth meditating on our death. It's worth meditating on that moment right after our death. Will we stand before God and break into a smile of joy? Well done. Through all the weakness and all the pain and all the suffering, you realize it's all worth it. In fact, was it St. Teresa of Avila who said, at the end of our life, when we get to heaven, even the most miserable, most horrible of our lives, most painful and suffering filled life will seem like a night in a bad motel? I hope so. I hope so. Or will we stand before the Lord and see that sorrow in his eyes and feel nothing but regret, feel nothing but resentment towards him and know that when we walk away, we will never again see goodness? I hope and I pray that for myself we have the grace that I have the grace of final perseverance. I hope that you have the grace of final perseverance. It is something to pray for on a regular basis. It's one of the things we're praying for. When we pray the Hail Mary, we pray. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. That grace of final perseverance is necessary for all of us. When I say final perseverance, what I'm referring to is. I'm referring to this particular grace, right? It is unique. It's part of what, obviously God's goodness, God's plan, God's love for us. But it's that grace of in that moment of death, being able to choose the Lord. And I remember years ago, my parish priest, he had shared the story of a man who had committed himself to at least, the very least, praying the Hail Mary three times every single day. And this man did not live a life close to the Lord. He lived a life very far from God. But every day he prayed the Hail Mary Three times a day. And he prayed that at the hour of his death, a priest would be at his side. That was the prayer, that was the intention of those three Hail Marys, that he'd have a happy death, essentially, that at the hour of his death. And it wasn't like he didn't try. I mean, he tried, but he failed so miserably, failed so regularly. At one point, he was in the hospital and he was actively dying. And my priest came to his bedside and his father gave him confession, right? He went to confession. He gave him the anointing of the sick, gave him viaticum, like the last time he ever received the Holy Communion. And this man, he said this. He said, father, I have lived such a bad life. I've lived so far away from the Lord, but. But I prayed to Hail Mary every day, three Hail Marys every day, that when I died, I wouldn't die alone. But there a priest would come and he would give me God's grace. And my priest from when I was a child, Father, looked at him and he said, and here I am. We're praying for that grace in our lives. And that's what you know in so many ways, to be able to close our eyes and say Amen. That word you know, as it says in 1062 in Hebrew, Amen comes from the same root as the word believe. And so the root expresses solidity, trustworthiness, faithfulness. And so Amen both expresses God's faithfulness to us and our trust in Him. In fact, I always say that in so many ways. I mean, yes, amen means believe. And it mirrors the beginning of the Creed where we say, I believe in one God, the Father Almighty. Of course I believe in God the Father Almighty. Yes, I believe in that. The end. Amen. But Amen in so many ways captures something so much deeper. And the phrase that I love to hear in my heart when I say the word amen, of course, which means I believe is the word, the words, I stake my life on it whenever we say Amen. And I stake my life on this. So we get to the end of the Creed today and we say, I believe all these things, and I stake my life on it. Amen. I believe, but it's not just I intellectually believe, but it's like my whole self is wrapped up in this. I stake my life on this same thing. When it comes to receiving our Lord in the Eucharist, the priest, or the extraordinary minister of Holy Communion raises the body of Christ aloft and says, the body of Christ, and we say Amen. What I always think of is, again, yes, it's I believe, but in such a deeper way. It means I stake my life on that. I stake my life on this truth that you, God, are faithful. You are the God of truth, and that is truly you. You are truly present in the Eucharist. And so when I say Amen, I'm saying I realize that if you are not present in the Eucharist, then I am worshiping a piece of bread. I am worshiping something that doesn't deserve worship. And so literally, truly, I'm committing the worst form of idolatry. So I am staking my life on this. Every time I come forward and receive Holy Communion. It's so powerful. It's such a real thing. Because this Amen causes us. When it's more than just I believe. I mean, of course, again, let me reiterate, it does mean I believe, but when it means more than just simply I believe intellectually, it's what St. Augustine said. May your creed be for you as a mirror. Look at yourself in it to see if you believe everything you say you believe and rejoice in your faith each day. And I just. Let's just praise God for a moment before we conclude this pillar of the Creed and move on to the pillar of how we worship the liturgy and recognize that Jesus Christ is the Amen. You know, God is the God of truth, meaning the God of the Amen. Jesus Christ is the definitive Amen of the Father's love for us. And he takes up and completes our Amen to the Father. And so we just give God praise. Yes. At the end of every day, every week, at the end of our life, we will see God face to face. We'll see him as he is, and we will know ourselves as we are. We will know what we've chosen. We pray that God gives us the grace of final perseverance. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Give us that grace of final perseverance. Amen. Let there be a priest at our bedside to give us the anointing of the sick. Reconciliation viaticum. Amen. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless and Amen.