← The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: The Holy Spirit Recalls Christ’s Mystery (2025)
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Fr. Mike examines how the Holy Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ. We explore how the Holy Spirit both inspires the Word of God and recalls the Word of God. Fr. Mike emphasizes that it is the Holy Spirit that helps us hear and understand God’s Word. It is the Holy Spirit that helps elicit a response of consent and commitment within us. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1099-1103.
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Foreign 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 it down to 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's easy for me to say, this is day 149. We're reading paragraphs 1099 to 1103. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach that 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. Good, because Today is day 149. We're one day shy of day 150. Yeah, I don't know if you caught that. That's what that means for those math nerds out there. We're reading paragraph 1099-1103. Today, we're talking about how the Holy Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ. Remember yesterday, the Holy Spirit prepares for the reception of Christ, right? We talk about. We talked about the economy of salvation, the history of salvation. With that, God prepared the chosen people, right? He called the people of Israel the Jewish people, and how the Jewish liturgy is fulfilled in the Christian liturgy, which is just remarkable. Now, here's the Holy Spirit preparing the people. Today, the Holy Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ. What we're going to talk about in that is the liturgy is the memorial of the mystery of salvation. But that word memorial, it's not just something we remember. Like we have a memorial Day where we remember those who are fallen, or we remember Thanksgiving Day, remember the pilgrims and Native Americans coming together in the New World, that kind of thing. The Jewish concept or the Scriptural concept of memorial is in paragraph 1103. It's the Greek word anamnesis or anemnesis, I'll say, because that's. That's how I like to say it. So anamnesis is this recalling. It's this remembrance, and it's a remembrance that is completely unique. It's remembrance that you're not simply remembering a past event, but in calling that past event to mind, you are present to it once again. That's why the Holy Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ. All that Jesus has done is brought to us here and now. And so that's what we're going to talk about today in Scripture and in the sacraments. So in order to prepare ourselves for this, just let's say a prayer and call upon our Heavenly Father as we pray. Father in Heaven, we trust you, we love you, and we dedicate this day to you. Whether this is the beginning of the day for us, the middle of the day for us, or the very end of the day, this day is yours. And by the power of your Holy Spirit, we ask that you please help us to remember, to never forget all that you've done for us, not not only in the past, through your Son, Jesus Christ, but also what you've done for us yesterday in that past, the recent past, what you've done for us at these beats and moments in our. In our own life, what you're doing for us right now. Help us to never ever forget. Help us to always remember that you are present, that you are here, and your Holy Spirit makes present and actual what your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, made possible. We make this prayer in the mighty name of that same Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as we pray in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It's day 149. We're reading paragraphs 1099 to 1103. The Holy Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ. The Spirit and the Church cooperate to manifest Christ and his work of salvation in the liturgy, primarily in the Eucharist and by analogy in the other sacraments. The liturgy is the memorial of the mystery of salvation. The Holy Spirit is the Church's living memory, the Word of God. The Holy Spirit first recalls the meaning of the salvation event to the liturgical assembly by giving life to the Word of God, which is proclaimed so that it may be received and lived. As Sacrosanctum Concilium states in the celebration of the liturgy, Sacred Scripture is extremely important. From it come the lessons that are read and explained in the homily and the psalms that are sung. It is from the Scriptures that the prayers collects and hymns draw their inspiration and their force, and that actions and signs derive their meaning. The Holy Spirit gives a spiritual understanding of the Word of God to those who read or hear it according to the disposition of their hearts, by means of the words, actions, and symbols that form the structure of a celebration. The Spirit puts both the faithful and the ministers into a living relationship with Christ, the word and image of the Father, so that they can live out the meaning of what they hear, contemplate and do in the celebration by the saving word of God, faith is nourished in the hearts of believers by this faith. Then the congregation of the faithful begins and grows. The proclamation does not stop with the teaching. It elicits the response of faith as consent and commitment directed at the covenant between God and his people. Once again, it is the Holy Spirit who gives the grace of faith, strengthens it, and makes it grow in the community. The liturgical assembly is first of all a communion in faith. Anamnesis, the liturgical celebration always refers to God's saving interventions in history. The economy of revelation is realized by deeds and words which are intrinsically bound up with each other. The words, for their part, proclaim the works and bring to light the mystery they contain. In the Liturgy of the Word, the Holy Spirit recalls to the assembly all that Christ has done for us. In keeping with the nature of liturgical actions and the ritual traditions of the churches. The celebration makes a remembrance of the marvelous works of God in an anamnesis which may be more or less developed. The Holy Spirit, who thus awakens the memory of the Church, then inspires thanksgiving and praise. Doxology. Okay, so there we are, day 149, paragraphs 1099 to 1103. A couple things to just keep in mind, okay? The Holy Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ. Now we'll talk about tomorrow how the Holy Spirit makes present the mystery of Christ. But. And so that is in a sacramental way, right? The sacraments, we are the power of God, the action of God, the reality, the saving work of God is made present to us. It's brought to us here and now. That's tomorrow. But here in this section, paragraph 1099-1103, it highlights the fact that the Holy Spirit is the one who inspires the word of God. Right? So here is Sacred Scripture that is not only proclaimed in the Mass, but it's also explained in the Mass. So here we have. I love paragraph 1099. It is actually like every sentence, every little bit of every sentence. I think it's kind of pure gold. I love this. For example, the Spirit and the Church cooperate to manifest Christ and His work of salvation in the liturgy. I don't know if you've ever thought about this. So here's Jesus and His work of salvation that comes to us in the liturgy. How? Because the Holy Spirit again makes present what Jesus made possible, makes active, actual what Jesus made possible, and the Church cooperates with that. So as often as we celebrate this, as often as God's word is proclaimed, his works that he's done are proclaimed. There's this cooperation here, right? Where the Holy Spirit recalls all that Jesus has done and makes this present. His work of salvation is present to us, revealed to us in the liturgy. I love this next line. Primarily in the Eucharist and by analogy, the other sacraments, the liturgy is the memorial of the mystery of salvation. I mean, think about it. What do we say? We say the mystery of faith. At Mass, the priest says, mystery of faith, right? And everyone responds, we proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your resurrection until you come again, right? There's this, that, that, that is the memorial. That's the mystery of salvation. And the Holy Spirit is the Church's living memory. The Church has a living memory and it belongs to the Holy Spirit. You know, I just went through all paragraph 1099. I know. Sometimes people don't like, like, Father, why are you just repeating to us what we just heard? Well, I don't know. Sometimes we need to hear it again. Because what the paragraphs go on to describe is here is how the Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ, primary or principally, or first of all, in some ways in the Word of God. And so when we hear God's Word proclaimed, right, in the Scriptures and Mass, there is, the works of God are proclaimed, the words of God are proclaimed, and we remember this again, this is so important in par. In fact, paragraph 1100 says it's a quote from Sacrosanctum Concilium in the celebration of the liturgy. Sacred Scripture is extremely important. From Sacred Scripture come the lessons that are read and explained in the homily and the psalms that are sung writes from the Scripture that our prayers come, the collects come, the hymns, rather inspiration, their force and the actions and signs derive their meaning. We just recognize the Holy Spirit gives us an understanding to God's Word. Now, Holy Spirit makes God's Word present right through the Scriptures being proclaimed. But also the Holy Spirit gives us an understanding of the Word of God according to our disposition of our hearts. We're going to talk about this again and again. In fact, in the days to come, we'll talk about how this sacraments are always powerful, right? The sacraments are always what we call efficacious. They're always present, they're always doing something. But whether or not they do something in our hearts is based off of our disposition, the disposition of our hearts. And same thing is True, when it comes to God's Word being proclaimed, God's Word is living and effective, sharper than any two edged sword. We know this. We also know that sometimes we're indifferent. We also know that sometimes we don't have an open disposition to really hear God's Word. Or we're not active, right? We're sometimes passive listeners instead of receptive listeners to God's Word. And so we recognize that the Holy Spirit helps us because we don't know how to pray as we ought. We don't even know how to hear God's Word as we ought to. And so God's Word is proclaimed. And then in the homily, God's Word is explained. And this is, this is again, we get to receive this and faith gets to be nourished in our hearts. But this is so important. In paragraph 1102 it says the proclamation, what God is doing right does not stop with a teaching. It elicits the response of faith as consent and commitment. That is, oh man, this is so vital for all of us, especially when we're hearing God's Word in mass, or reading God's Word or listening to something like the Bible in the air. So the proclamation doesn't stop with the teaching. So we have the Word of God proclaimed and then explained, right? The teaching, but that's not the end. What it's supposed to do is it's supposed to elicit a response of faith, of consent and commitment. What does that mean? Well, that means that we hear God's Word and say, yes, right? We hear God's Word and we say, not just A, we're not indifferent, B, we're not argumentative. Now it's okay to wrestle with faith, right? It's all, it's, it's okay to wrestle with what God's Word is saying to us. But we want to arrive at this place of okay, Lord, teach, teach me, Speak, Lord, your servant's listening. Remember what the prophet Samuel said? He wakes up in the middle of the night. The voice of God says, samuel, Samuel. Finally Samuel realizes it's God's voice. And what does he say? He says, speak, Lord, your servant is listening. To have that kind of open disposition when God's Word is proclaimed. That is to receive his Word with consent, right? To receive his Word with consent. And then the next level is not just okay, here I am, I'm listening to God's Word, I'm consenting to it. I'm agreeing. I'm saying amen to that. It also says consent and commitment. And this is one of the things that sometimes we miss out on. Sometimes, even if we are attentive, we're listening to God's word with our heart, mind, soul and strength, and we're saying, okay, even if we're wrestling, we're saying, yes, we're saying amen. Sometimes we forget this commitment part, which is, God, what are you asking of me? What are you inviting me to do? What kind of commitment can I make as a result of your word being proclaimed and explained? So this is going to be really, really critical for all of us as we move forward. My invitation for all of us is whenever we approach the Scriptures, whether that's privately or in the liturgy, to be able to say, okay, speak, Lord, your servants listening, right? I'm open to this. To be able to say, okay, even if I'm wrestling with this, I would give consent. I agree with this. I give my amen to this. And then ultimately to make some kind of commitment, saying, okay, God, you have spoken, Lord, you have spoken. And I was listening. Here is what you're calling me to do. Maybe you're calling me to purify my heart in one way, Maybe you're calling me to stop doing something. Maybe you're calling me to start doing something. Maybe you're calling me to just simply stay the course, whatever that is, there's a response. So it's receptivity, right? I'm speak, Lord, your servants listening. There's consent, even after wrestling, to say amen. And finally, there's this commitment. Now, paragraph 1103, this is the last thing, paragraph 1103. Talk about how the liturgy always refers to God's saving interventions in history. And the anamnesis, right? That. That remembrance, that recalling brings the events of the past present to the community as often as those words are proclaimed. And there's this. This massively mysterious thing. Now, tomorrow, again, we're going to talk about how God really, truly is present. Like the epiclesis, another Greek word we're going to hear about tomorrow. The epiclesis brings down in so many ways, you can say it like this brings down the very presence of God upon the gift of bread and wine that ultimately causes them to become the body and blood of Christ. But this anamnesis, this remembrance that happens in when the word of God is proclaimed, we're there, we're present to this. And the anamnesis, of course, when the sacrament is lived out, when that sacrament is made, made present to us as well. Here we are present to the reality we're present to the saving action of Jesus. Hope this makes sense. I. I think it's just. Maybe I say beautiful, remarkable, fascinating too many times, but gotta tell you guys, it's beautiful, remarkable and fascinating. So I literally, I don't know, I need to someone help me invest in a thesaurus because also how to speak. Say the words. Say the word thesaurus. Ah, what a day, you guys. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.