← The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 213: Bishops and the Episcopacy (2025)
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There are three degrees within the sacrament of Holy Orders: the episcopacy (bishops), the presbyterate (priests), and the diaconate (deacons). The Catechism begins unpacking ordination with the bishops. Fr. Mike speaks on the special role that bishops play in the life of the Church. Today’s readings are from Catechism paragraphs 1554-1561.
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Fr. Mike Schmitz
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 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 213. We're reading paragraphs 1554, 1561. 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.comciy you can also. You can also. You could also, if you wanted to click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Because Today is day 213, reading paragraphs 1554-1561. As I said yesterday, we started talking nine not alm. Yesterday, just yesterday. Yesterday we started, we continued yesterday talking about the Sacrament of Holy Orders and the recognition that the ways in which the priest represents Christ the Head, he acts in Persona Christi capitis. Also, he's been given a power, but that power is to serve. And that's highly, highly important. The priest continues to be flawed. The priest continues to be broken in many ways, but at the same time he's given the Spirit of God in a unique way to act in Persona Christi capitis, in the person of Christ the head. Now, today we're going on to talk about to begin talking about the three degrees of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. So the episcopate, the presbyterate and the diaconate. Today we're just going to talk about the episcopate. Basically being bishops, we're going to talk about the fullness of the Sacrament of Holy orders, episcopal ordination. So the bishop in the bishop, he participates fully in in that one great high priesthood of Jesus. We'll talk about that today. Tomorrow we'll talk about the presbyterate, the next day the diaconate. But today the fancy word episcopate. And so how the bishop participates in the fullness of Christ's priesthood. So let's, as we launch into today, let us just gather ourselves in the power of the Holy Spirit, the name of Jesus Christ, and present ourselves to God the Father as we pray, Father in Heaven, we give you praise and glory. Thank you. Thank you so much for bringing us to this day. Thank you for bringing us into your church and for giving us the gift of Holy Orders. Thank you for giving us the gift of our local bishop and the universal Bishop, our Holy Father, the Pope. We ask that you please, on this day, please bless this man in a powerful and unique way. You've called him to serve. You've called him to participate fully, as fully as possible in your great priesthood, your high priesthood. Please preserve and protect him. Give him zeal and love. Lord God, make up for what he lacks and give him every good gift that he can teach, sanctify and govern your Church as you would teach, sanctify and govern your Church. We pray for him and all bishops in Jesus name. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 213. Reading paragraphs 1554-1561 the 3 degrees of the Sacrament of Holy Orders the divinely instituted ecclesiastical ministry, is exercised in different degrees by those who, even from ancient times, have been called bishops, priests and deacons. Catholic doctrine, expressed in the liturgy, the magisterium, and the constant practice of the Church, recognizes that there are two degrees of ministerial participation in the priesthood of Christ, the episcopacy and the presbyterate. The diaconate is intended to help and serve them. For this reason, the term sacerdos in current usage denotes bishops and priests, but not deacons. Yet Catholic doctrine teaches that the degrees of priestly participation and the degree of service diaconate are all three conferred by a sacramental act called ordination, that is, by the sacrament of holy orders. As St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote, let everyone revere the deacons as Jesus Christ, the Bishop, as the image of the Father, and the presbyters as the Senate of God and the assembly of the apostles, for without them one cannot speak of the Church. Episcopal ordination Fullness of the Sacrament of Holy Orders Amongst those various offices which have been exercised in the Church from the earliest times, the chief place, according to the witness of traditional, is held by the function of those who, through their appointment to the dignity and responsibility of bishop, and in virtue, consequently, of the unbroken succession going back to the beginning, are regarded as transmitters of the apostolic line. To fulfill their exalted mission, the apostles were endowed by Christ with a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit coming upon them, and by the imposition of hands they passed on to their auxiliaries the gift of the Spirit which is transmitted down to our day through episcopal consecration. The Second Vatican Council teaches that the fulness of the sacrament of holy orders is conferred by episcopal consecration, that fullness, namely, which both in the liturgical tradition of the Church and the language of the Fathers of the Church is called the high priesthood, the acme of the sacred ministry. Episcopal consecration confers together with the office of sanctifying, also the offices of teaching and ruling. In fact, by the imposition of hands and through the words of the consecration, the grace of the Holy Spirit is given and a sacred character is impressed in such wise that bishops, in an eminent and visible manner take the place of Christ himself, teacher, shepherd and priest, and act as his representative in a Persona agant. By virtue, therefore, of the Holy Spirit who has been given to them, bishops have been constituted true and authentic teachers of the faith and have been made pontiffs and pastors. One is constituted a member of the episcopal body in virtue of the sacramental consecration and by the hierarchical communion with the head and members of the college. The character and collegial nature of the episcopal order are evidenced, among other ways, by the Church's ancient practice which calls for several bishops to participate in the consecration of a new bishop. In our day, the lawful ordination of a bishop requires a special intervention of the Bishop of Rome, because he is the supreme visible bond of the communion of the particular churches in the one Church and the guarantor of their freedom. As Christ's Vicar, each bishop has the pastoral care of the particular Church entrusted to him, but at the same time he bears collegially with all his brothers in the episcopacy, the solicitude for all the churches. Though each bishop is the lawful pastor only of the portion of the flock entrusted to his care. As a legitimate successor of the Apostles, he is the by divine institution and precept responsible with the other bishops for the apostolic mission of the Church. The above considerations explain why the Eucharist celebrated by the bishop has a quite special significance as an expression of the Church gathered around the altar, with the one who represents Christ, the Good shepherd and Head of His Church presiding. Alright, there we are. Day 2, 13 paragraphs 1554-1561 just this is. I don't know. I don't know if you're approaching this like I'm approaching this. This is just one of those. As we unpack the Sacrament of Holy Orders, it is kind of. Kind of like anointing of the sick, maybe like matrimony coming up soon. One of those sacraments that maybe you don't do a lot of thinking about. Maybe I don't do a lot of thinking about, at least not in this particular way. I reflect on my own priesthood a lot, but not necessarily on here is the way in which God has established. He established his church in this way. And also these details that just. I'm reminded of many of the details. Some of them I learned at some point in school, but I'm reminded of them in such a way they just kind of get my heart on fire a little bit. And just as an example, you know, in paragraph 1554, it highlights that, yeah, from ancient times, this ecclesial ministry, divinely instituted, right, God did this is exercised in bishops, priests and deacons. And so this recognition that here are two degrees of ministerial participation in the priesthood of Christ, the episcopacy and the presbyterate. So the 2 degrees of participation in priesthood are the bishop and the priest, like that. And then the deacons are intended to help and serve them. Now, why does that set my heart on fire? Not because I'm like, yeah, man, I made it. Not that at all. It just starts doing something because I start making these connections and. Or just I'm reminded of the connections between what I just read here is these degrees of holy orders and here's this participation in the ministerial priesthood of Jesus Christ. And here's the call to service by going back to the Bible. And remember when the tribe of Levi was made, the priests, essentially, it wasn't the entire tribe that was called to serve at the altar. It was, yeah, some of the people, those of the household of Aaron, they were going to be the priests. They were going to be the ones who offer the sacrifice. The other Levites who had different degrees, right. Different families. And some of them were in charge of the vessels, some of them were in charge of the tent, some of them were in charge of service. Right? So all of these different degrees that were there, even in the Old Covenant Priesthood, and here we have in this New Covenant Priesthood, these different degrees. And it's just one of those things that just reminds me of, wow, it's even back when God himself established the Levitical priesthood, there were those who would offer the sacrifice, and there were those who would serve those who were offering the sacrifice. And I just think, wow, this is amazing, you know, just really incredible. I don't know if that's. If that's something exciting for you. It is very exciting for me just to recognize that this is something, the priesthood that Jesus Christ gives to us The New Testament priesthood has its root and seeds in the old covenant. And this is the fulfillment. You know, Jesus is the absolute fulfillment, but he gives the priesthood to us to continue to serve the church. In fact, as this quote from St. Ignatius of Antioch is so clear about now, St. Ignatius of Antioch, he died roughly around the year 107, 110, somewhere in there. So right away, I mean, this is St. Ignatius of Antioch. The tradition says that he's a disciple of Saint Polycarp, and Saint Polycarp is a disciple of Saint John the Evangelist. So the one who wrote the Gospel of John, the Book of Revelation, was taught Polycarp, who taught Ignatius. And here's what Ignatius says. Let everyone revere the deacons as Jesus Christ, the bishop, as the image of the Father, and the presbyters as the Senate of God in the assembly of the Apostles. Okay, so you have deacons, bishops, priests. In this last sentence, he says, for without them, one cannot speak of the church. This is kind of a big deal. Without them, one cannot speak of the church. Without bishop, priest and deacon, you don't have a church. Why? Because you need the bishop, priest and deacon. Well, you need the bishop and priest at least to have the Eucharist. You cannot speak of the church without talking about the episcopacy, the presbyterate and the diaconate. And this is, you know, the year 107, give or take. And that is, I don't know about you, but that's pretty remarkable for me because it reminds us that, yeah, the priesthood was not a latter invention. This has its roots in the Old Covenant. It's fulfilled in Jesus, and from the very, very beginning is given to us, and not just because of the Eucharist, although that's a really clear point, really clear exercise and function of the sacrament of Holy Orders. But the other two degrees, too, right? So here's the bishop. He has the fullness of holy orders. And what is his triple primary mission? Trimary. We'll say tri new word, trimary mission. His triple mission is the office of sanctifying, teaching and governing. In paragraph 1558, it says this so clearly. And we're reminded of this because this is kind of a thing that hopefully we all know about. But the bishop is supposed to be the one who's given this office of sanctifying, right? So, you know, bringing the people of God to God and bringing God to the people of God, Right? Sanctifying, teaching, that one of his jobs is to continue to teach. And there are so many great, great Bishops who do that so well, they try to communicate in such a way that just brings God's word to people, brings God's word alive to people. I have a bishop like that right now who's just so incredible about just teaching and reminding all of the people in our diocese of the fact that, no, this is the mission of Jesus. It is alive and well right now. So sanctifying, teaching and also governing. And that's the thing. It's the role of priest, prophet, and king, right? So priest sanctifying prophet, teaching and governing king. And we have to recognize that when the bishop exercises those things, when he actually makes a declaration in our diocese and says, okay, y', all, we're going to do this, or he has to make hard statement about, you know, I don't know, a public figure who's. Who's making a public sin or even a movement in our culture that goes contrary to the gospel and calling Catholics away from that movement and towards the Gospel. Like, he has to do that. That is. That's the task he's been given to do as part of that primary task, right? The triple office of sanctifying, teaching and governing. He has to do this. And if he doesn't do that, if he doesn't do that, he doesn't do it at the risk of his own soul and at the risk of every soul entrusted to him. You know, the bishop is responsible for every soul in his diocese. It goes on to say here in paragraph 1560, it does talk about the fact that as Christ's vicar, each bishop has the pastoral care of the particular church entrusted to him. So, yeah, he has to take care of the diocese of Sacramento or the Diocese of Omaha or the Diocese of Duluth. He has to take care of that. But he's not just responsible for the Catholics in that diocese. He's actually spiritually responsible for every person in that diocese. Now, that is. That's one of the reasons why. I believe it's one of the reasons why Scripture says one should not aspire to be a teacher. My brethren, that sense of. In James, chapter three, I think it is, don't aspire to be a teacher because you'll be liable to a more strict judgment. And there's something about the office of bishop, that triple office of sanctifying, teaching, governing, that carries a lot of responsibility. And so, yes, I mean, if he says yes to that, then that's the responsibility he said yes to. Just like man, the office of parent, right? The office of father or mother, that carries so much responsibility. And yet Here are these moms and dads all throughout the world, all throughout our country, all throughout the church, that have said yes to this. And so it's like, oh, okay. All of us saying yes to responsibility, all of us saying yes to the call of Jesus. And that's the crazy thing, is that in this first, you know, most full participation in Christ priesthood of the episcopacy, right? Being a bishop as well as the priesthood and diaconate, as well as being a mom or a dad, husband, wife, as well as being a true teacher, if you want to be. If you're a teacher or anyone who is responsible for other people in any whatever state in life, we recognize that. Wow, we're liable to a greater judgment. If you're responsible for anyone, we're liable to a greater judgment, which is one of the reasons why we're just so, so grateful to the Lord for having called these men to be bishops, to be our bishop. And that's also one of the reasons why not only do we have to pray for each other, pray for moms and dads who are responsible for their kids, pray for deacons and priests who are responsible for their parishes, but also pray for our bishops who are responsible for their entire diocese, responsible for every soul in the borders and boundaries of their diocese. We have to pray for them because this is a dangerous world. And this world needs. We need holy shepherds. That's the fact of the matter. Every one of us could probably name. Here's a bad. A deacon who hurt us, a priest who hurt us, a bishop who hurt us. Sometimes in small ways, sometimes in massively, massively horrible ways. But we all need each other. We all need God's grace. That's one of the reasons why at the end of every episode, I ask for your prayers because I'm also in need of God's grace. I'm also in need of prayers, and so is your bishop. So let's make a commitment today to pray for our local bishop, to pray for our Holy Father and pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.