← The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 208: Completing the Earthly Pilgrimage (2025)
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The effects of the Anointing of the Sick are numerous and deeply transformative. In times of great need and temptation, this sacrament brings us strength, courage, peace, and the forgiveness of sins. Fr. Mike explains that these effects aren’t only for the individual recipient but for the whole ecclesial community. We learn that when a person approaches the threshold of death, joining this anointing with Reconciliation and the Eucharist as viaticum constitute “the sacraments that complete the earthly pilgrimage.” Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1520-1525.
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Father Mike Schmitz
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 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 will 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 208. We're reading paragraphs 1520 to 1525. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes a 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. Because Today is day 208, paragraphs 1520 to 1525. This is the last little section before the in brief, before the nuggets and before chapter three, the sacraments at the service of Communion, which are Sacrament of Matrimony and Holy orders that we're talking about that in the I don't know, we'll say the day after tomorrow. Yeah, the day after tomorrow. But today we have the effects of the celebration of this sacrament. So if you recall this at all back I was going to say back in the day, but it's a couple weeks away. We talked about the effects of confirmation and how I kind of shared how powerful, how profound that was for me to hear. Oh my gosh, this is what the sacrament does. Kind of the same thing when it comes to the sacrament. The effects of the celebration of the sacrament of confession reconciliation we talked about a couple days ago, the effects of the sacrament of the anointing of the sick is remarkable. In fact, there are a couple that just will bullet point them and then we'll launch you into a prayer and then launch into the reading today. First, it's a particular gift of the Holy Spirit. It's a very special gift of the Holy Spirit at the end of one's life or for healing. Secondly, there's union with the passion of Christ. That's another effect. We're even more united to the passion, right? The suffering and death of Jesus. Also, it's an ecclesial grace where God pours out the grace of the Church upon the person, brings them even more. I don't want to say even more closely in the church, because it already fully initiated, hopefully, but brings them kind of to the heart of the church in some ways. Right? Because the church, as the body of Christ, continues on this earth to suffer for and with Christ. Also, it's preparation for the final journey. And that last note gets highlighted in the last two paragraphs, 1524 and 1525, where we talk about viaticum, which is when you receive Holy Communion at the very end of your life. That last time, receiving Holy Communion, that bread for the journey, that food for the way. And so we're going to talk about those things today as we talk about this incredible and holy moment. Yeah, holy moment at the end of one's life, or even holy moment, when someone's in the midst of suffering, that has the capacity, right, it has the capacity to be life changing, life transforming. Not just the end of one's life, which obviously is life changing and life transforming, but those dark moments of life, those. Those difficult moments of life, those. Those moments of sickness, those moments of suffering where all we can do sometimes is just. Just suffer all. Sometimes all it feels like we can do is just be in the midst of it. Here is Jesus, who's also in the midst of it. Here is the church, who's in the midst of it. And so we call upon our Father right now as we pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this moment. Thank you for this day. We know that so many of our brothers and sisters who are part of this podcast, they on this day are experiencing a great trial. They're experiencing suffering, they're experiencing sickness. Lord, on this day, many of those who are listening to this podcast may themselves be in danger of death at the moment of their deaths or facing death of someone they love. Because of that, we ask you, please, Lord God, be with us not only on our mountaintops, not only in our joys and our victories, be there in our failures, in our falls, be there in our sufferings, in our weakness. Lord God, be there in our sickness and use it. Use our valleys, use our falls, use our weakness so that you may be glorified, that you may be known, that you may be loved, and that we can do our small part to carry a particle of your cross for the salvation of the world. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 208. We're reading paragraphs 1520 to 1525. The effects of the celebration of this sacrament, a particular gift of The Holy Spirit. The first grace of this sacrament is one of strengthening peace and courage to overcome the difficulties that go with the condition of serious illness or the frailty of old age. This grace is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who renews trust and faith in God and strengthens against the temptations of the evil one, the temptation to discouragement and anguish in the face of death. This assistance from the Lord by the power of His Spirit is meant to lead the sick person to healing of the soul, but also of the body, if such is God's will. Furthermore, if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven union with the Passion of Christ. By the grace of this sacrament, the sick person receives the strength and the gift of uniting himself more closely to Christ's Passion. In a certain way he is consecrated to bear fruit by configuration to the Savior's redemptive passion. Suffering, a consequence of original sin, acquires a new meaning. It becomes a participation in the saving work of Jesus, an ecclesial grace. The sick who receive this sacrament, by freely uniting themselves to the passion and death of Christ, contribute to the good of the people of God. By celebrating this sacrament, the Church, in the communion of saints, intercedes for the benefit of the sick person, and he, for his part, through the grace of this sacrament, contributes to the sanctification of the Church and to the good of all men for whom the Church suffers and offers herself through Christ to God the Father, a preparation for the final journey. If the sacrament of anointing of the sick is given to all who suffer from serious illness and infirmity, even more rightly is it given to those at the point of departing this life. So it is also called Sacramentum Exuntium, the sacrament of those departing. The anointing of the sick completes our conformity to the death and resurrection of Christ. Just as baptism began it. It completes the holy anointings that mark the whole Christian life, that of baptism which sealed the new life in us, and that of Confirmation which strengthened us for the combat of this life. This last anointing fortifies the end of our earthly life like a solid rampart for the final struggles before entering the Father's house, the last sacrament of the Christian. In addition to the anointing of the sick, the Church offers those who are about to leave this life the Eucharist as viaticum. Communion in the Body and blood of Christ, received at this moment of passing over to the Father has a particular significance and importance. It is the seed of eternal life and the power of resurrection. According to the words of the he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day. The sacrament of Christ, once dead and now risen, the Eucharist is here, the sacrament of passing over from death to life, from. From this world to the Father. Thus, just as the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist form a unity called the sacraments of Christian initiation, so too it can be said that penance, the anointing of the sick and the Eucharist as viaticum constitute, at the end of Christian life, the sacraments that prepare for our heavenly homeland, or the sacraments that complete the earthly pilgrimage. All right, there we have it, day 208. We only have nuggets left for the anointing of the sick. But these last paragraphs for 1520-1525, there's so much beauty in them. And I just. Because as we face death, as we face suffering, what we're facing is something profound, I think. You know, years ago I read this book by Dr. Peter Kreeft. He is a professor of philosophy at Boston College. He's written a ton of books, a couple books on death. One of the things that he had revealed, I guess revealed to me, because I did ever think about this. He revealed the fact that, yes, death is a horror. Death is horrible. Death is obscene. He even said that. He said death is an obscenity because we're not made for death. God made us for life. But he goes on to talk about the fact that we don't think about death very often in our culture. Now, you might have a culture in your family, a culture in maybe your community that keeps death before its eyes always. But we don't typically, in the west do that. We typically kind of put it off to the side. And yet it's the thing that is guaranteed, right? I mean, we've said this so many times that the mortality rate for human beings continues to hover roughly around 100%. And yet how often do we not reflect on our own death? You know, paragraph 1520 highlights something we've talked about a couple times in this section. It says, this grace is given to us. Why? It's a grace of strengthening. This sacrament is a sacrament of strengthening, strengthening peace and courage to overcome the difficulties that go with the condition of serious illness or the frailty of old age. So here's the church not saying, oh, you know, what, suffering has been redeemed by Jesus. So it's a piece of cake. Now. It's not saying that, you know, death is that gateway to the next life, life with God. So it's no big deal. No, it's actually. It's scary, it's difficult, it's trying, and it's troubling. Therefore, the very first grace of the sacrament is strengthening and peace and courage to overcome the difficulties that go along with this. I love this because the next sentence says this. This grace is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who renews trust and faith in God and strengthens against the temptations of the evil one, the temptation to discouragement and anguish in the face of death. We don't have to be in the face of death always to know whether or not our sickness makes us a better person or a bitter person. I think even we can look at how do I respond to a common cold? How do I respond to a sore throat? How do I respond to a stuffy nose? Because those are minor inconveniences, right? And yet we recognize that at some point in our lives, everything will be either slowly or quickly stripped away. And so I need this grace. I need the grace to not come discouraged, to not be given to anguish in the face of death. Because that's the temptation, right? The temptation is, will this suffering, will this sickness, will the end of my life leave me bitter, or will it help me become better? I mean, that's truly, truly in so many ways, the two options. And now, again, it's not to say that there isn't healing, because there is healing. A lot of times there can be a real healing. And 1520 says this, that we're actually praying for healing, but we also are praying for a deeper healing, that deeper healing being the healing of the soul, the healing and forgiveness of sins. And so one of the effects of the sacrament of anointing of the sick is the forgiveness of sins. But also, we're not just praying for healing. We're praying for that strength and that faith to be able to say, okay, God, use this. Because that's the second effect of the sacrament of anointing of the sick is union with the passion of Christ. It gives us this grace to be able to say, okay, God, use this. God, configure my heart to the heart of your son, Jesus. Use what I'm going through in this moment, how small or how great it is. Use it for your glory. Use it for the salvation of the world. And that we recognize again, suffering is not a good. Suffering is something that is a mark of the brokenness of this world. And yet Jesus Christ has transformed suffering and into power, right? He's transformed suffering to something useful. And so we can unite this, our suffering, to Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world and the glory of the Father. Also, we can say for the good of the Church, we recognize that we're not alone in the midst of our suffering. We're also able to offer up the suffering for the good of the Church, the good of the Body of Christ, because we recognize none of us come to God alone, that we live in this community. And so here's this reality. Here we are, day 208. We're just listening to this podcast. And yet, as I mentioned in the opening prayer, in that opening section, every one of us is going through something right now. And you keep pressing play whatever day this is for you. I'm going to say 208 for you. But whatever date it is for you to recognize that whatever inconvenience you have in your life, whatever suffering or sickness, whatever reality that you wish were otherwise, that's happening in your life right now, God can use it all. He can use it all, and he wants to be part of it. That's the thing, is God doesn't just want to be part of the good times. He doesn't just want to be part of the strength, the strong moments or those moments of holiness that we would say, oh, that's clearly holy, that's clearly good, that's beautiful, that's lovely. He wants to be part of all of our lives from the very beginning to the very end, as 1523 recognizes that from the beginning. Here's God who wants to be there at our baptism. He wants to be there strengthening us through confirmation and the Eucharist throughout our entire lives. And that last anointing fortifies the end of our earthly life. And I love how it says it. It fortifies the end of our earthly life like a solid rampart for the final struggles before entering the Father's house. What's a rampart? Ramparts like that, those castle walls. So here is the anointing of the sick that fortifies us, like those castle walls that keep out the enemy and keep us strong. And then that strength comes from Jesus, right? The viaticum. Strength for the journey, food for the journey. There are two things. There's not only viaticum, which is that bread for the journey, food for the way. The last time we received the Eucharist, there is something called the Apostolic Pardon. The Apostolic Pardon is a prayer that priests have been delegated to be able to pray. I don't think it's limited to diocese, but They've been delegated to be able to pray with a person who is at the point of death. And this apostolic pardon is what you call a plenary indulgence that through the authority of the Church and the grace that Jesus Christ has given to his Church by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Church can, the priest can, at the danger at the moment of death, as a part of that rite of the anointing of the sick, can extend this apostolic pardon on all those people who are dying. And this apostolic pardon is such a powerful prayer. As I said, it's a plenary indulgence, which basically means that not only does God's grace in sacrament of reconciliation and the anointing of the sick remove all eternal consequences of sin. Remember Hell, eternal consequences of sin, but this apostolic pardon even removes temporal consequences of sin. Which means that, yes, purgatory is real. In purgatory, that purification of our hearts is real. And by the grace that Jesus Christ won for us in his life, death and resurrection. And he extends to the Church that through the Church, every dying person or a person in danger of death can receive this apostolic pardon, which also removes all temporal consequences due to sin. And I just encourage every person that if your loved one is in the hospital and the priest comes to visit to give the anointing of the sick. Amen. So good. Ask for the apostolic pardon. If they're in danger of death, please ask for the apostolic pardon. They might say, oh, they're not in danger of death yet. They might say, this is just a surgery, so we're not going to do that. Okay, that's all fine. There might be some prudential judgments happening there. But if your loved one is in danger of death, ask the priest if he can extend the apostolic pardon to that dear loved one who is. Who is dying. That just. What incredible gift? Incredible gift to be able to ask for. Incredible gift for the priest to be able to offer an incredible, incredible gift to that dying person. To be able to receive. Because the grace of God is an incredible gift. How about I say the word incredible words incredible gift five more times? But you know what else is an incredible gift? That we all made it here to day 208. I am proud of you. I am praying for you as well. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike and I can't wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.