Day 146: The Father’s Work in the Liturgy (2025) - The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)

Transcript

Father Mike Schmitz (0:06)

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 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. This is day 146. We are reading paragraphs 1076 to 1083. 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. You can also download your own Catechism in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com ciy and you can click Follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. And Today is day 146 again, as I said, paragraph 1076 to 1083, we're actually starting section one. Yesterday was the kind of a prologue, ish, kind of a thing going on. But today, today, section one and the beginning of chapter one, we're going to talk about what the sacramental economy. Remember, remember economy oikonomia was the Greek word that we get economy from. And it's this, this God's plan of salvation, right? The story of a God's interacting with us is that term economy, right? And so we have the sacramental economy, the way that God chooses to interact with us through the sacraments. He brings us his divine life through the sacraments. He gives us healing through the sacraments. He feeds us through the sacraments. So this is the sacramental economy. And paragraph 1076 highlights that. First, we're going to look at this again, the sacramental economy, how this all works, why it works like this. And then we're going to dive into. That's chapter one. And then we're going to dive into chapter two, which is, it says here, the nature and essential features of liturgical celebration will then appear more clearly, meaning, like the sacraments themselves, as we know, the seven sacraments. So we're going to have this first chapter, chapter one, on. Okay, what is it to have the Paschal mystery in the age of the Church? How is it that what Jesus did for us 2000 years ago actually comes to us and its effects are transforming our hearts now in this day and age? Remember, as we launch through all of this stuff the word liturgy. What does it mean? It means the work of God. So the liturgy is the participation of the people of God in the work of God. So sacramental economy. Here's what God has done for us. Are we called to participate in God's very work? This is not the work of man. Right? This is our participation in the work of God. So to prepare our hearts to do this today and to do this all our lives, we call upon our Father in heaven as we pray. Father in heaven, we thank you. We give you praise and glory. We thank you and praise your name. We bless your name. Lord God, we bless your name and we surrender and adore you in thanksgiving. That is our blessing. Our blessing is a prayer of adoration and a prayer of surrender to you in thanksgiving. So we thank you. We ask you to please hear our prayer. Receive the blessing that we offer you as little as we are, broken as we are, and good as you are, Lord God, receive our blessing. Receive our adoration. Receive our surrender to you in thanksgiving. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy spirit. It's day 146. We are reading paragraphs 1076 to 1083. Section one the sacramental economy the Church was made manifest to the world on the day of Pentecost by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit ushers in a new era in the dispensation of the mystery, the age of the Church, during which Christ manifests, makes present, and communicates his work of salvation through the liturgy of His Church he comes. In this age of the Church, Christ now lives and acts in and with His Church in a new way appropriate to this new age. He acts through the sacraments in what the common tradition of the east and the west calls the sacramental economy. This is the communication or dispensation of the fruits of Christ's Paschal mystery in the celebration of the Church's sacramental liturgy. It is therefore important first to explain this sacramental dispensation. Chapter 1 the Nature and essential features of liturgical celebration will then appear more clearly. Chapter 1 the Paschal Mystery in the Age of the Church the Liturgy Work of the Holy Trinity the source and goal of the liturgy St. Paul wrote to the blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him. He destined us before him in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. Blessing is a divine and life giving action, the source of which is the Father. His blessing is both word and gift. When applied to man, the word blessing means adoration and surrender to His Creator in thanksgiving. From the beginning until the end of time, the whole of God's work is a blessing. From the liturgical poem of the first creation to the canticles of the heavenly Jerusalem, the inspired authors proclaim the plan of salvation as one vast divine blessing. From the very beginning, God blessed all living beings, especially man and woman. The covenant with Noah and with all living things renewed this blessing of fruitfulness, despite man's sin, which had brought a curse on the ground. But with Abraham, the divine blessing entered into human history, which was moving toward death to redirect it toward life, toward its source. By the faith of the Father of all believers who embraced the blessing, the history of salvation is inaugurated. The divine blessings were made manifest in astonishing and saving the birth of Isaac, the escape from Egypt, Passover and Exodus, the gift of the Promised land, the election of David, the presence of God in the temple, the purifying exile and return of a small remnant, the Law, the prophets and the psalms interwoven in the liturgy of the chosen people recall these divine blessings and at the same time respond to them with blessings of praise and thanksgiving. In the Church's liturgy, the divine blessing is fully revealed and communicated. The Father is acknowledged and adored as the source and the end of all the blessings of creation and salvation. In His Word, who became incarnate, died and rose for us, he fills us with his blessings. Through His Word, he pours into our hearts the gift that contains all the Holy Spirit. The dual dimension of the Christian liturgy as a response of faith and love to the spiritual blessings the Father bestows on us is thus evident. On the one hand, the Church, united with her Lord and in the Holy Spirit, blesses the Father for His inexpressible gift in her adoration, praise and thanksgiving. On the other hand, until the consummation of God's plan, the Church never ceases to present to the Father the offering of his own gifts and to beg him to send the Holy Spirit upon that offering, upon herself, upon the faithful and upon the whole world, so that through communion, in the death and resurrection of Christ the priest, and by the power of the Spirit, these divine blessings will Bring forth the fruits of life to the praise of his glorious grace. Right, There we have it. Paragraphs 1076 to 1083, this introduction, this very beginning, section one, sacramental economy, chapter one. Okay, so man 1076. Remember how back in the day, you're talking about here's the work of the Son and the work of the Spirit. It's united, they're doing the will of the Father, kind of a one, two punch. And in the sense of here's salvation brought to the world and changing our lives. Paragraph 1076 highlights this and highlights the fact that here we are in the eighth age of the Church, goes on to say, the gift of the Spirit ushers in a new era in the dispensation of the mystery. And this is the thing, this is the age of the Church where Christ manifests, reveals right in, makes present, and communicates his work of salvation through the liturgy of His Church until He comes. So man in right now, as we're living Jesus, he now lives and acts in and with His Church through the sacraments. It further says that Jesus acts through the sacraments in what the common tradition of the east and the west calls sacramental economy. So let's highlight the east and the west for just one second. Okay, as we know, you may not know this in 1054, way back in the day, in 1054, the one church split into two, right? You have the east and the West. You have the Roman Catholic Church in the west, and you also have the Orthodox Church in the East. You have the Eastern Church and the Western Church, okay, and which is called the great schism, 1054. Horrible. You know, Jesus at the Last Supper, he prays that we all would be one. And here's this one example of the Church experiencing the brokenness of its members. And so the Church actually breaks, right? The Great Schism. Now, at the same time, there were numerous opportunities and numerous times where east and west came back together and there was reconciliation. There's a couple different Church councils where this happened. And so because of that, we have. Yet we still have east and west, but we also have Eastern rite or non will say this like this. There are rites in the Catholic Church that developed on their own that are not Latin rite or they're not part of the Roman Rite. In fact, we have a ton of people listening not only to the Bible in here, but also to the Catechism in here. We're part of those. There are actually 23 distinct rites in the Catholic Church. So the Catholic Church, one church, right There it is. This is different than the Orthodox Church. The Catholic Church has in it 23 rites. Now, in those 23 rights, there are what you might call six major liturgical families. So there's the Latin Rite. That's the one most of us here in the west are accustomed to. There's the Alexandrian Rite there, it's the Antiochean Rite. There's the Armenian Rite, there's the Chaldean Rite and the Constantinopolitan Rite, which is also called sometimes the Byzantine Rite. Now, so those six major liturgical families, they're all Catholic, so they're all united to all the bishops and united to the Pope, but they have their various rites. And there's something so beautiful about that. There's a variety in these liturgical expressions, and there's also variety in some governance kind of situations. But they're all united. We're all united as bishops and with the Holy Father. In fact, again, there's so many people Chaldean, right. I get reached out to the. By the Chaldeans all over the time. The Armenian Rite as well. Just so beautiful. Just really incredible. So. But both the east and the west calls what we're talking about today the sacramental economy. That here is what God wants to do and is doing in our lives. That's why I just love the fact that we're diving into this now. Now, a couple things to keep in mind. We heard that very long quote from Ephesians Chapter one, where blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and he chose us this incredible. So that. Why so for the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace. And that's what we're going to do. We're going to praise God's glorious grace through the liturgy. Not only is this us blessing God and praising God, adoring God, thanking God, worshiping God, but we're also presenting ourselves to the Father and begging God to send us the Holy Spirit upon us, upon the faithful, upon the whole world, so that our participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus, those blessings from God will come upon us. Right? So there's this. There's this. We go out to the Lord, we just offer him praise, we offer him worship, we offer him adoration, we offer him, yeah, every good thing. We give God blessing. Now, let's highlight this for a second. Have you ever wondered why is it that what do we mean, we say bless God? Like, give God praise and blessing? Like, wait a second. How is that we bless God. Because isn't God the One who blesses us? Well, maybe you caught this in paragraph 1078. It says blessing is the divine, is a divine and life giving action, the source of which is the Father. Like his blessing is both word and gift. And then there's a footnote that says eulogia and benedictio. So you know, it's word and gift. Those, those words refer to. When applied to us, the word blessing means adoration and surrender to our Creator and thanksgiving. So when we say, oh, we're going to bless God, what that means is we bow down in adoration and surrender to God in thanksgiving. But when God blesses us, that's all that he does for us, right? That from the beginning until the end of time, all of God's work is a blessing. It's all gift, it's all word, it's all gift. It's incredible. And it goes on to talk about in paragraph 1079, 1080, 1081, here's the story that how God has blessed all living beings from the very beginning of Genesis, right? Every day God makes something new and he says it's very good. He blesses through his very word, blesses the day and blesses man and woman, the covenant with Noah, all these blessings completely renewed and the faithfulness of God revealed. It's just amazing. So when we apply the word blessing to man, it means us adoring and surrendering to our Creator. But when blessing is applied to God, it's all of his gifts, all of his gifts, and everything he gives us is a gift. So let's highlight this one more time and summarize that it'll be the very end, very last thing we talk about today. Oh my gosh, you guys, I get, I get too excited. We all know this. I am so sorry. I apologize. But it just. There's something so beautiful about this dual dimension of the Christian liturgy highlighted in 1083. So what's the dual dimension? On the one hand, here's the church united with Jesus and in the Holy Spirit. We bless the Father for his inexpressible gift. When we adore him, praise him, thank him. Like, basically, when we offer the Mass, what are we doing? We're offering up the great sacrifice of the Son to the Father, to the Father, and the power of the Holy Spirit. So we're giving God every good gift he's given, every gift. The best gift he's given us, we're giving to Him. And also we're uniting our hearts with what is the heart of the Son. Right? The offering, the self offering of Jesus Christ. And we're just offering that to the Father in adoration, in praise, and thanksgiving. On the other hand, we are also presenting ourselves to the Father, and we're presenting to the Father his own gifts. Right. When you give the Father your heart, you're giving him his own gift. When we give the Father the Eucharist and lift it up through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father. We're presenting him with his own gift. We're presenting him with his own Son that He gave to us. And when we're doing that, we're also not only adoring and praising and blessing God, but we're also asking him, begging him to send the Holy Spirit upon us and upon all of us, upon the whole faithful and upon the whole world, so that as we participate and have communion with the death and resurrection of Jesus, those blessings will go out to the entire world. And so God is even more praised and God is even more glorified. Oh, man. You guys, does that make sense? It just. Oh, my gosh. Incredible. It's just bonkers. Tomorrow we get to talk about Sue. Today was obviously the Father, the source and goal of the liturgy. Tomorrow, Christ's work in the liturgy, which I'm telling you right now, it's going to sound familiar in the sense of. That's right. Christ continues to work in the liturgy. And then the next day, guess. Yep. The Holy Spirit in the liturgy. And so we're going to dive deeply into that. Oh, my gosh, you guys. What a gift of a day. What a gift of a life. To be able to be alive in the age of the church, where Jesus continues to come to us, continues to sanctify, redeem us, heal us, forgive us, and feed us through his sacraments. So just to the praise of the Father and for our salvation. Oh, my gosh, you guys. This is our prayer, and so let's pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.

Summary of "Day 146: The Father’s Work in the Liturgy" from The Catechism in a Year Podcast

Date Released: May 26, 2025
Duration: 15-20 minutes
Speaker: Fr. Mike Schmitz
Podcast Series: The Catechism in a Year by Ascension

Introduction

In Day 146 of The Catechism in a Year podcast, Fr. Mike Schmitz delves into paragraphs 1076 to 1083 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This episode, titled "The Father’s Work in the Liturgy," explores the intricate relationship between God's salvific plan and the liturgical practices of the Church. Fr. Mike emphasizes the sacramental economy—a term derived from the Greek word oikonomia, meaning "God's plan of salvation."

Sacramental Economy and the Liturgical Age

Fr. Mike begins by explaining the concept of the sacramental economy as God's method of interacting with humanity through the sacraments. He states:

"The sacramental economy is the way that God chooses to interact with us through the sacraments. He brings us His divine life, healing, and nourishment through them."
(00:45)

This sacramental economy marks the age of the Church, initiated by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. In this era, Christ's work of salvation is continually manifested and communicated through the Church's liturgy. Fr. Mike highlights that:

"In this age of the Church, Christ now lives and acts in and with His Church in a new way appropriate to this new age."
(04:20)

Understanding Blessing in the Liturgical Context

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the concept of blessing as presented in the Catechism. Fr. Mike references Ephesians 1, emphasizing that God's blessings are both word and gift:

"Blessing is a divine and life-giving action, the source of which is the Father. His blessing is both word and gift."
(07:15)

He clarifies the dual meaning of blessing:

Blessing God: When believers bless God, it signifies adoration and surrender in thanksgiving.
Being Blessed by God: God's blessings to humanity are gifts that sustain and nurture.

Fr. Mike elaborates:

"When we say, 'We're going to bless God,' what that means is we bow down in adoration and surrender to God in thanksgiving."
(12:30)

The Dual Dimension of Christian Liturgy

Fr. Mike introduces the concept of the dual dimension of Christian liturgy, an essential theme in paragraphs 1076-1083. He explains that:

Adoration and Praise: The Church, united with Jesus and the Holy Spirit, offers adoration, praise, and thanksgiving to the Father for His inexpressible gifts.
Presentation and Petition: Concurrently, the Church presents itself and its offerings to the Father, beseeching the Holy Spirit to bless the faithful and the world.

He summarizes:

"The dual dimension of the Christian liturgy is evident. On one hand, we bless the Father through adoration and praise. On the other hand, we present ourselves and our offerings, asking for the Holy Spirit's presence and blessings."
(18:45)

This duality ensures that while believers honor God, they also seek His continued guidance and blessings.

The Role of Eastern and Western Rites in Sacramental Economy

Fr. Mike touches upon the Great Schism of 1054, which divided the Eastern and Western Churches. Despite this division, he underscores the unity within the Catholic Church, which encompasses 23 distinct rites across six major liturgical families:

Latin Rite: Predominantly in the West.
Alexandrian, Antiochean, Armenian, Chaldean, and Constantinopolitan (Byzantine) Rites: Representing Eastern traditions.

He notes:

"The Catholic Church has 23 distinct rites, all united under the Pope and the bishops, showcasing beautiful diversity in liturgical expressions."
(22:10)

Fr. Mike celebrates this diversity, emphasizing that despite varying rites, all are integral parts of the sacramental economy, reflecting God's multifaceted approach to salvation.

Theological Insights and Practical Applications

Throughout the episode, Fr. Mike interweaves theological insights with practical applications for believers. He reflects on the continuity of God's blessings from Genesis to the present, illustrating how the liturgy serves as a living connection to these divine gifts.

He emphasizes the importance of participation:

"We are called to participate in God's very work through the liturgy, not as mere observers but as active collaborators in His plan of salvation."
(26:50)

Fr. Mike also explores how the liturgy fosters a deeper relationship with God, enabling believers to experience His blessings in their daily lives.

Conclusion

In concluding Day 146, Fr. Mike Schmitz encapsulates the essence of God's sacramental economy and its manifestation in the liturgy. He reiterates the vital role of the Church's liturgical practices in perpetuating God's blessings and advancing His salvific mission.

He leaves listeners with a profound reflection:

"Being alive in the age of the Church means experiencing Jesus' ongoing work—sanctifying, redeeming, healing, and feeding us through His sacraments—for the praise of the Father and our salvation."
(34:20)

Fr. Mike encourages believers to embrace their participation in the liturgy, recognizing it as both a tribute to God and a channel for receiving His immeasurable blessings.

Key Quotes

Sacramental Economy Defined:
"The sacramental economy is the way that God chooses to interact with us through the sacraments."
(00:45)
Blessing as Adoration and Surrender:
"When we say, 'We're going to bless God,' what that means is we bow down in adoration and surrender to God in thanksgiving."
(12:30)
Dual Dimension of Liturgy:
"The dual dimension of the Christian liturgy is evident. On one hand, we bless the Father through adoration and praise. On the other hand, we present ourselves and our offerings, asking for the Holy Spirit's presence and blessings."
(18:45)
Unity in Diversity:
"The Catholic Church has 23 distinct rites, all united under the Pope and the bishops, showcasing beautiful diversity in liturgical expressions."
(22:10)
Call to Participation:
"We are called to participate in God's very work through the liturgy, not as mere observers but as active collaborators in His plan of salvation."
(26:50)
Living in the Age of the Church:
"Being alive in the age of the Church means experiencing Jesus' ongoing work—sanctifying, redeeming, healing, and feeding us through His sacraments—for the praise of the Father and our salvation."
(34:20)

Final Thoughts

Day 146 offers a profound exploration of the Father's role in the liturgy, highlighting how the Church's sacramental practices are a direct continuation of God's salvific work. Fr. Mike Schmitz's insightful analysis bridges theological concepts with everyday faith practice, making complex doctrines accessible and relevant to listeners. This episode serves as a rich resource for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of Catholic liturgy and its foundational role in the life of the Church.