← The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 187: The Church’s Sacrificial Unity (2026)
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Together, we continue our exploration of the sacrificial memorial of the sacrament of the Eucharist. Fr. Mike reiterates that the whole Church, both visible and invisible, is united in the Sacrifice of the Eucharist. He also further unpacks the importance of a quote from St. Ignatius of Antioch, which states that the offering of the sacrifice of the Eucharist must be united with the apostolic succession of our Pope and bishop. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1369-1372.
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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 Year is brought to you by ascension. In 365 days, we'll read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 187. We're reading paragraphs 1369 to 1372, just a couple short paragraphs. Today, 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. Today187 Again, as I said, kind of a short, short little section. It's a continuation of yesterday. Remember yesterday we started talking about the sacrificial memorial of Christ and of his body, the Church. And so we kind of concluded yesterday talking about how as members of the Church, as members of the Body of Christ, we not only offer the sacrifice united with Christ, we also have to be the sacrifice united with Christ. And so we're going to talk about that a little bit today. But also we recognize and are reminded of the fact that, remember, the Church is not just the visible Church. It's not just the Church that we see here on earth. There's also all the saints in Glory in Heaven and the faithful departed in Purgatory. And they are all part of this great sacrifice as well. Those saints in heaven who continually cry out and praise to the Lord, they continually lift up the join in the praise and glory of God the Father and also the saints in Purgatory who receive the benefits. They receive the graces of this great sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. And so we're going to talk about that a bit more today as we launch into today. Let's say a prayer. Father in Heaven, we give you praise and glory and thank you. We thank you for your universal Church. We thank you for the Church that is visible, that we have a structure, that we are united with our Bishop. Thank you that we are united with the Holy Father, our Pope that you gave to us. Lord God, thank you for giving us this visible structure of the Church that we can point to, that we can look to, that we can hear from, and we can be led and taught by. We also thank you, God, for the invisible Church, your invisible body that we cannot see, but we do know is even more real than anything we can see. All the saints and angels in heaven that continually give you praise, we thank you and unite our prayers with their prayers. We thank you for all the souls in Purgatory who by your great love are being purified at this very moment so that they can see you face to face for eternity. Lord God, may you be glorified. Please care for those, purify those souls in Purgatory. Help them to become they have hearts like yours, so that they can see your face and experience your glory. Help us the same way, Lord God, help us in that same way that purify our hearts, mend our broken hearts, strengthen us so that we can race towards you with your grace, with your help, with your love as our fuel. 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. It is day 187. We are reading paragraphs 1369 to 1372. The whole church is united with the offering and intercession of Christ, since he has the ministry of Peter in the Church. The Pope is associated with every celebration of the Eucharist, wherein he is named as the sign and servant of the unity of the universal Church. The Bishop of the place is always responsible for the Eucharist. Even when a priest presides, the Bishop's name is mentioned to signify his presidency over the particular Church. In the midst of his presbyterium and with the assistance of deacons, the community intercedes also for all ministers who for it and with it offer the eucharistic sacrifice. As St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote in the year 107, Let only that Eucharist be regarded as legitimate, which is celebrated under the presidency of the Bishop, or him to whom he has entrusted it. Through the ministry of priests, the spiritual sacrifice of the faithful is completed in union with the sacrifice of Christ, the only mediator which in the Eucharist is offered through the priest's hands in the name of the whole Church, in an unbloody and sacramental manner, until the Lord himself comes to the offering of Christ, are united not only the members still here on earth, but also those already in the glory of Heaven, in communion with and commemorating the blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, the Church offers the Eucharistic sacrifice. In the Eucharist the Church is, as it were, at the foot of the cross with Mary united with the offering and intercession of Christ. The Eucharistic sacrifice is also offered for the faithful departed who have died in Christ but are not yet wholly purified, so that they may be able to enter into the light and peace of Christ, as St. Monica, before her death, said to her sons, St. Augustine and his put this body anywhere, don't trouble yourselves about it. I simply ask you to remember me at the Lord's altar, wherever you are. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem Then we pray in the Anaphora for the holy fathers and bishops who have fallen asleep, and in general, for all who have fallen asleep before us, in the belief that it is a great benefit to the souls on whose behalf the supplication is offered, while the holy and tremendous victim is present by offering to God our supplications for those who have fallen asleep, if they have sinned, we offer Christ sacrifice for the sins of all, and so render favorable for them and for us, the God who loves man. St. Augustine admirably summed up this doctrine that moves us to an ever more complete participation in our Redeemer's sacrifice, which we celebrate in the Eucharist. This holy redeemed city, the assembly and society of the saints, is offered to God as a universal sacrifice by the High Priest, who in the form of a slave, went so far as to offer himself for us in his passion to make us the body of so great a head. Such is the sacrifice of Christians. We, who are many, are one body in Christ. The Church continues to reproduce this sacrifice in the sacrament of the altar, so well known to believers, wherein it is evident to them that in what she offers, she herself is offered. Okay, so there we are. Paragraphs 1369 to 1372. We recognized this yesterday. We pointed it out yesterday, and we're going to say it again today. The whole Church is united with the offering and intercession of Christ, and not just the invisible church, the visible Church as well. So we have the Pope and the Bishop in particular. They're mentioned at every single Mass. Why? Well, for a number of reasons. One is because here is the visible Church. Here is the fact that we realize it's not just one person's local parish or their local diocese. That is the Church. It is the universal Catholic Church that is represented, and not just represented, is participating in and is being offered to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit in Christ, right as the body of Christ. So much so that there's this quote from St. Ignatius of Antioch that this unity with our Bishop is so critical, the unity with the Pope is so critical that it goes all the way back to the year 107. Think about this. Saint Ignatius of Antioch in the year 107, Ignatius was a student of Polycarp, who was a student of John, the beloved disciple. And so there is this living faith, this living tradition. And St. Ignatius says, Let only that Eucharist be regarded as legitimate, which is celebrated under the presidency of the Bishop or him to whom he has entrusted it. Now this is kind of important for us. We'll talk about this later, I'm sure many, many other times. But we recognize that there are some people who would say, oh yeah, I totally read John chapter 6 where Jesus said this, you know, my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink. I believe that, you know, Holy Communion, that that really is Jesus. Jesus said at the Last Supper, take this all of you and eat of it. This is my body. Take this, drink of it. This is the new covenant in my blood. I can believe that. But if a person doesn't have the priesthood, if they don't have the ministerial priesthood united with the apostolic succession, connected to apostolic succession, then it is not legitimate Eucharist. This is one of those things we just have to recognize. One of the reasons why I'm kind of highlighting this is there's a relatively well known Christian who has been convicted. He's been convicted in a really powerful way. Said, I've been reading the Gospels and what I discovered was that this is really Jesus. I mean, he says, I've been, he's been blown away by Jesus's declaration in John chapter six about how his flesh is true food, his blood is true drink, how at the Last Supper, he didn't say, take this, this is a symbol of my body, this is a symbol of my blood. But this is my body, this is my blood. And people, a lot of Catholics got super excited going, oh my gosh, this guy. This is amazing. And it is amazing. It's because whenever anyone takes that next step in faith, it's incredible. But kind of the issue is here's a person who doesn't have any sense of the sacraments, has no sense of what apostolic tradition, apostolic succession is all about. And so you have that sense of like, oh wow, Jesus said this. So I could just do this. I could just get some unleavened Bread, I could just get some wine and I could say, this is my body, this is my blood. And it really is. And that would be false. From the very beginning, the power, the capacity to confect to the Eucharist, to offer the sacrifice, that the Eucharist is transformed, bread and wine is transformed into the body and blood of Christ, has always been done by those validly ordained in apostolic succession. And again, this is not a medieval invention. This is not Father Mike saying, how dare someone say such and such. No, this is incredible. It's beautiful that someone's realizing the truth about the Eucharist. But there's this really critical piece. The Eucharist has to be united with the Bishop, has to be united with the universal Church, has to be connected to apostolic succession. And that isn't, again, as I said, not a medieval invention. That goes all the way back to the year 107. Here is St. Ignatius saying, Let only that Eucharist be regarded as legitimate, which is celebrated under the presidency of the Bishop or him to whom he has entrusted it. This is pretty important, and that's a pretty critical thing for us. Moving on from that point at the beginning, I mentioned this. Paragraph 1370 to the offering of Christ are united not only the members still here on earth, but also those already in the glory of heaven. And so we recognize, oh, it's so beautiful. Commemorating the fact that the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints with them, the Church offers the Eucharistic sacrifice. And this is just so beautiful. I love that it's in the Catechism, because I've thought of it many, many times. But to hear the Catechism saying this, it's just. It's almost poetic. It's just beautiful. In the Eucharist, the Church is, as it were, at the foot of the Cross with Mary, united with the offering and intercession of Christ, which is just, ah, so good. At every Mass. That's where we're at. At every Mass, we are, as it were, at the foot of the cross with mary. Now, paragraph 1371, the Eucharistic sacrifice is also offered for the faithful departed who have died in Christ but are not holy yet wholly purified. We talked about purgatory, and so there's the faithful departed that, yes, they, they are. They have a relationship with the Lord, they have a relationship with God. There's not, not mortal sin that has broken or corrupted that, that relationship. But at the same time, they need to be perfected. They're not yet wholly purified. And so we offer the Mass for them, the Mass actually has. Is efficacious. It does something. And again, why? What. What are the two things the Mass does every time? Gives the Father glory and saves the world. Right? It sanctifies the world. The salvation of the world, redemption of the world. These are the two things that happen at every Mass. And so part of that is who belongs to the Church, who belongs to the body of Christ? Well, not only the souls on earth, not only the souls in heaven, but also the holy souls in Purgatory. And so from the very beginning, once again, from the very beginning, the Church has recognized that we offer the sacrifice of the Mass for those who have died. And this is St. Cyril of Jerusalem, says this in 1371. One of my favorites, though, is from St. Augustine. It's just such a beautiful thing where at one point in St. Augustine's book Confessions, his mom is dying, and St. Augustine and his brother have both had their conversions and they are now Christians, and she's dying. And at one point, her other son, St. Augustine's brother, says something to his mom along the effect of, mom, you know, after you die, we're gonna get your body back home. We'll get your body back to our homeland. He's. And the way Augustine describes this, he says, my mom looked at me as if to say, is this guy crazy? Don't listen to this kid. And then she goes on to say, put this body anywhere. Don't trouble yourself about it. So it doesn't matter where I'm buried. It doesn't matter if it's here wherever I die, or if it's you cart me back to our homeland. Don't worry about that at all. Here's the one thing I ask. She said, I simply ask you to remember me at the Lord's altar, wherever you are. From the very beginning here, that's the fourth century, from the very beginning, it was a custom of the Church. It was common in the Church to be able to say, we are offering the Eucharistic sacrifice for all the holy souls in Purgatory. Because there was a belief in purgatory. I mean, the early Christians, again, what did the early Church believe? Well, at least in seminal form, they believed in this. They believed in heaven, they believed in hell, they believed in life on earth, and they believed in purgatory. And they believed that our prayers actually assist those people in that process of purification in Purgatory. So much so that as Santa Monica says this to her son, it's just. Yeah, of course. Of course. It's just It's a given. And to that end, I'll say that not only is that a common belief of all Christians for so long, but also it's not just a common belief. It's common practice. And so the invitation is, you may have loved ones who have died. You know, when loved ones die, we feel so helpless. I can do nothing more. There's nothing else I can do for this person. And that's actually not true. What you can do for this person that you love is you can pray for them. You yourself can offer rosaries or the chaplet of divine mercy. You can pray in any way you want, but you can also have the mass offered for them. And this is a powerful thing to be able to do. It is a powerful thing to be able to say, okay, this is one of the ways I can express my love for this person and my faith in Jesus Christ who has conquered death. And I just think that too often we have funerals and we just look at them as if they're merely a celebration of life. And that's fine. They can be a celebration of life. They can be a way to say goodbye. That's wonderful. That's beautiful. Sometimes it's so necessary for us. But ultimately at the heart, funerals are prayers for those who have died because we believe. I can't imagine how common it would be for someone to die and go right to heaven. Right? Jesus said the road is wide that leads to hell and the road is narrow that leads to heaven. Not only that, though, if someone does die in God's grace, that's amazing. What a gift. I mean, incredible. But the assumption that, oh yeah, they don't need our prayers because they're just in heaven right now, that seems to me to be a little bit premature because I know that there's in my own heart and probably all of our hearts at this moment. There are things that we love more than we love God and don't have to be bad things, but there are things in our heart that we're attached to more than we're attached to God. And again, they don't have to be bad things, but our hearts have to be purified by small loves so that the great love, the great commandment, right to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. How many of us do that right now? Probably very, very few, if any. And yet that's what we need to have. We need to have hearts that love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. And if we don't then Purgatory is this incredible gift of the Lord, gift of the Lord's mercy that purifies our hearts so we can love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. And the Mass, the offering of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it assists in this. It actually is efficacious. It does something, and it helps people have that kind of heart. So please, please, please continue to pray for those souls who have died. Don't just place them in heaven, because it's. I don't know what to say. It's probably not true and doesn't help them at all. But you can help those you love by offering up prayers for them and by having the holy sacrifice of the Mass being offered for them as well. So today we pray for all the holy souls in Purgatory, those of our loved ones, those of our friends, our family, and those who have no one to pray for them. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.