Day 3: What We Believe (Part 1 Introduction with Jeff Cavins) (2025)

Summary

Podcast Summary: "The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)" – Day 3: What We Believe (Part 1 Introduction with Jeff Cavins)

Introduction

In the third episode of The Catechism in a Year podcast, hosted by Ascension and featuring Father Mike Schmitz alongside guest Jeff Cavins, listeners embark deeper into understanding the foundations of the Catholic faith. This episode, released on January 3, 2025, focuses on the first pillar of the Catechism: The Creed – What We Believe. Father Mike and Jeff Cavins engage in a rich dialogue, unpacking the significance of the Creed, its role as the cornerstone of Catholic belief, and its practical application in the lives of believers.

Opening Prayer and Setting the Stage

The episode begins with Father Mike leading a heartfelt prayer inviting God’s presence into the discussion. He emphasizes the journey of discovering one's identity within God's family, setting a contemplative tone for the episode.

Father Mike Schmitz [00:31]: "We are adopting by baptism and made into your sons and your daughters... Help us to know you as our Father."

Introducing the Four Pillars of the Catechism

Father Mike introduces the Catechism's structure, highlighting its division into four pillars: What We Believe (The Creed), How We Worship, How We Live, and How We Pray. This color-coded approach, inspired by Ascension's Foundations of Faith, is designed to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of Catholic teachings.

Jeff Cavins [02:26]: "The Catechism presents our faith in four pillars... The Creed is the plan of God, the plan of sheer goodness in miniature."

Deep Dive into the Creed

Jeff Cavins elaborates on the first pillar, explaining that the Creed encapsulates the entirety of God’s plan for humanity, from Genesis to the Church. He likens the Catechism to a teaching tool that moves beyond mere knowledge, fostering a relationship with God through understanding His revelations.

Jeff Cavins [04:25]: "The Creed is this whole great big plan of sure goodness in miniature... God is sharing Himself with us so that we can share in His divine life."

Understanding Divine Revelation

The conversation transitions to the nature of divine revelation, where Jeff outlines the Catechism's explanation of how God reveals Himself through creation, human longing, reason, and ultimately through divine intervention. They draw an analogy to "The Truman Show" to illustrate the moment of divine revelation.

Jeff Cavins [08:43]: "That’s divine revelation. God is revealing Himself to us, not hiding."

Challenges in Engaging with the Catechism

Father Mike and Jeff discuss potential obstacles listeners might encounter when delving into the Catechism, such as encountering unfamiliar terms and complex theological concepts. They encourage patience and eagerness, likening the experience to an orchestra where the Holy Spirit directs the symphony of faith.

Jeff Cavins [11:12]: "People are going to read with you and listen to you, and they're going to come across words they've never heard before... Listen with the heart of a son, the heart of a daughter who wants to know more about Dad."

Faith: Beyond Believism

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on the concept of faith as presented in the Catechism. Jeff differentiates between mere <i>believism</i> and the deeper, more relational understanding of faith (emunah in Hebrew and pistis in Greek). He emphasizes that faith involves both intellectual assent and personal entrusting of oneself to God.

Jeff Cavins [20:34]: "Faith is divided into two movements... Intellectual ascent and personal entrusting of yourself to that truth."

The Living Tradition and Apostolic Succession

Jeff highlights the importance of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, explaining that the Catechism serves as a bridge connecting believers to the teachings of the early Church Fathers through apostolic succession. This continuity ensures that the faith remains unaltered and faithfully transmitted through generations.

Jeff Cavins [16:04]: "We are not people of the book... We are people of the Word, specifically the living Word, Jesus."

Application: The Creed in Daily Life

Father Mike and Jeff discuss the practical implications of the Creed, distinguishing between its communal recitation during Mass and its personal significance. They share anecdotes illustrating how entrusting oneself to God, beyond merely acknowledging beliefs, transforms one's life.

Jeff Cavins [24:56]: "It's not a checklist to see if you're still in the camp. It's what we're entrusting our lives to."

Guidelines for Studying Scripture

Jeff outlines the Catechism’s guidelines for studying Scripture, emphasizing the importance of context, unity, and the analogy of faith. These principles help believers interpret the Bible accurately and in harmony with Church teachings.

Jeff Cavins [29:01]: "Be especially attentive to the content and unity of the whole Scripture... Read the scripture within the living tradition of the whole church."

The Role of Church Councils and Historical Continuity

The discussion touches on how Church councils have historically addressed heresies to clarify and define core beliefs, such as the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ. Jeff underscores the Catechism's timeline feature, which maps out ecclesiastical writers and councils, showcasing the continuous development of Catholic doctrine.

Jeff Cavins [33:18]: "It's a visual of the continuity of the faith from the beginning all the way till now."

Final Reflections and Encouragement

As the episode concludes, Jeff offers encouragement to listeners embarking on this catechism journey. He stresses the Catechism’s foundational role in anchoring the other three pillars and urges listeners to approach their study with an open heart, ready to entrust themselves fully to God.

Jeff Cavins [44:07]: "Consider this first pillar as an anchor... Anchor for pillars two, three, and four."

Closing Prayer and Mutual Support

Father Mike wraps up the episode with a mutual prayer for perseverance and divine guidance, highlighting the importance of communal support and prayer for both the hosts and the listeners.

Father Mike Schmitz [46:05]: "Please pray for each other... God bless."

Key Takeaways

1. The Creed as Foundation: The Creed encapsulates the entirety of Catholic belief, serving as the cornerstone from which all other teachings spring.
2. Relationship Over Knowledge: The Catechism aims to foster a personal relationship with God, not just impart theological knowledge.
3. Faith as Trust: Authentic faith involves both intellectual acceptance and personal entrusting to God.
4. Living Tradition: Understanding the Catechism requires engaging with both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, maintained through apostolic succession.
5. Guided Study: The Catechism provides structured guidelines for studying Scripture, ensuring a coherent and unified understanding of the faith.
6. Historical Continuity: Church councils and ecclesiastical writings demonstrate the faithful transmission and clarification of core beliefs over centuries.
7. Transformative Journey: Engaging with the Catechism is portrayed as a transformative journey, deepening one’s relationship with God and enriching one’s spiritual life.

Conclusion

Day 3 of The Catechism in a Year podcast offers listeners a profound exploration of the Creed and its pivotal role in Catholic theology. Through insightful dialogue between Father Mike Schmitz and Jeff Cavins, the episode not only elucidates the Catechism’s structure and purpose but also inspires believers to engage deeply with their faith, fostering both understanding and personal transformation.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign. 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 and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day three. Congratulations. You made it to day three. And today we are introducing the very first picture pillar of the Catechism. And to that I want to welcome back, for those who are Bible year listeners, Jeff Cavins.

[B]

Good to be with you.

[A]

I'm so glad that you're here. Exciting to introduce and we had for our first two days already. I'm so grateful that you're here to introduce the. The first pillar. How's your voice doing? Oh, you know, it's. I gotta. I got a cup of coffee here. I'm ready to keep. Keep on trucking away. So with this introduction we have. The Catechism has four pillars, right? And so for each one of those pillars, we're. We're gonna explain those in a second. But, um, you. We're people introduce those. And so you're the one to introduce the very first pillar on the Creed, what we believe. Um, as we begin, is it okay if I just open us up with a prayer?

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

Awesome. Father in Heaven, we give youe praise and glory. Thank you for bringing us to day three. Thank you for bringing us to this place where we can learn more about yout, or we can know youw identity and know our deepest identity as yous beloved creation, as those who have been adopted by you in baptism and made into your sons and your daughters. Help us to know you as our Father. Help us to know you, God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and be drawn into your love this day. We ask you to please bless this conversation. Bless Jeff, bless me. And please bless everyone who's listening us. Listening to us today. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, it's day three and I'm. I'm using. For when it comes to the catechism, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach, which you're going to talk about in a second. Those who are listening, if you like, you can download your own catechism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com ciy the C is for catechism in here also, if you want to, you can like, you can follow, you can subscribe, whatever that is, whatever. However, you're listening to this podcast. It's only day three and so why not, why not subscribe today? Why not follow today? I think it's worth it. Okay, so, Jeff Pillar 1.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

What, what have we gotten into here on day three as we're starting this catechism?

[B]

Sure. Well, first thing we need to do really is to kind of go zoom back and look at the big picture, you know, and the beautiful thing about the catechism is that it presents our faith in four pillars. And you might remember that great quote of Frank Sheets. He talked about one of the problems with Catholicism is that kids go from kindergarten all the way to high school and they graduate and they've got what? They've got a pile, big pile, a big pile of Catholicism and they're not quite sure what to do with it.

[A]

I remember when you said this, you're like, someone asked you like, hey, do Catholics believe in, in such and such? And you're like, well, looking at the pile, like, I think it's in there. I don't know.

[B]

Gotta be in there.

[A]

I heard of that.

[B]

I got an A in that class. You're right. It's got this pile of Catholicism. And what the catechism does is brilliantly, brilliantly separate all of this out so that we can understand our faith. And even the separation into four pillars is a teaching, It's a teaching tool in itself. And so in this new catechism, the Ascensions catechism, they brilliantly laid it out and they color coded it into four areas. And that is blue is what we believe. That's the first one. The Creed. That's what we're going to talk about. The second is how we worship, and the third is how we live and then how we pray. That's prayer. And so it's laid out in a beautiful way. And you could say it this way, in some ways you could say, well, what we believe is the Creed. And the Creed is from Genesis all the way to Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the Church. And so the Creed is the plan of God, the plan of sheer goodness. The first paragraph of the catechism says in miniature. And so the Creed is this whole great big plan of sure goodness in miniature, you know, and, and so that, that's what we believe. And then you're going to be looking at how we worship. And that's, that's how you get into God's amazing plan. And then what do we live in the plan? How do we live. We live the life of Christ, the third pillar, and the fourth is prayer. So in the, in the words of Frank Sheed, who was from Great Britain. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. You know, so, yeah, so we're going to be taking a look at the creed here, what we believe. And this is really, really exciting because it begins with this plan of sheer goodness that God is going to come looking for us and he is going to bring us into his blessed life. And that's the very first paragraph. The very first paragraph just says it all. And that is that we are destined for a plan and that's God's plan and he wants us in it.

[A]

That's so interesting. I mean, just are brilliant. As you're noting, here is what we believe about God. But it's not just, here's a list of things we believe about God or that we believe about revelation or we believe about faith, but it's that God wants to bring us into that relationship. He wants to bring us into a covenant community with. With Him. And that's just, I mean, and, and almost every section of the catechism, when it does introduce a new article of faith. Right. Another thing we believe, it always goes back to that. And God shares this with us so that he can share Himself with us, that he doesn't just reveal it so we know. Can check that box is what I know. But it's because he wants to share his own divine life and he wants us to participate in that life, which is, again, it makes what might be. You've said it before, like an encyclopedia into something very, very different than encyclopedia.

[B]

Yeah, it's not an encyclopedia. Even though you could use it for that. You could see it there in a reference book. I want to know more about confession. Okay. I'm going to look it up in the, you know, in the, in the catechism. But the way that it's put together is that it's a teaching tool in itself. And Pope Benedict really brought this. He brought this out. It's more than knowledge. It's a relationship. The catechism is more than knowledge. It's a relationship. And God is calling us to intimacy. And so the very first pillar, the creed, talks about this quest for God, our search for God who's wooing us and calling us. And it really begins and talks about man's capacity for God and how we can come to know something of God. And so it kind of brings everybody in on an equal playing field. And it gives us three ways that we can know something of God. You know, we can know something of God through creation. Certainly, you can look at creation, the laws of the universe, even gravity. You can look at the stars, and you can know that there is a creator. And then the second one is the human. The human being.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Our own longing for God, what we call God. And then the third way that we can come to know something of God is reason. But then we hit a wall, Right?

[A]

It's. It's. It's like this. We can know some things, but at some point, God has to. God has to act.

[B]

Exactly. And that's the. That's the. That's the fourth thing. That's the thing that. That the catechism is really all about, is the catechism is saying to every reader, look, we know you can. You can know something of God through creation, and we know through the human person. Yes. You're smart, you can reason, but you hit the end of the road. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of. Remember the movie Truman?

[A]

Absolutely.

[B]

The Truman Show.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. And Jim Carrey.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And. And he doesn't know it, but the Hollywood set is his whole life.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Everyone else is watching him. Everybody else has popcorn and drinks, and they're watching him every week. And they're sponsors for the show and everything else. And he begins to search. He begins to ask questions. There's gotta be more. There's gotta be more. And he looks at the ocean, which is only about 100 yards long. He doesn't know it. And the director's like, oh, we got a problem. We got a problem here. And he gets into the boat. Oh, no. Send a storm. Send a storm. And they can't stop him. And finally he runs into the end of his world.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And what do the directors say?

[A]

He comes over the loudspeaker.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And he says. And he says. He says, truman. And Truman says, who are you? And the director says, I'm the creator. Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

That's divine revelation.

[A]

It is. Because at some point, you know, God speaks through his creation, but at some point, he speaks to man. How does it say in the catechism? It says God's divine condescension. He speaks.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

To us as a father, to his children.

[B]

Exactly. Yeah. He comes down to our level and he adjusts his language to our weakness.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And he speaks to us. And that's the beautiful thing about, about the Creed. Here we. In the, in the Ascension Catechism, they divided up into divine revelation and the Creed. And then under divine revelation, it's the search.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And that's the, that's the Truman thing, you know, that's. We're searching for God. But then in divine revelation, what God does is he. He pulls back the curtain and he begins to reveal Himself. And so the catechism talks about how he begins to reveal himself in scripture, in words and deeds, in. And as he. As he reveals himself, we come to know more of the Father and what's he like? What can we depend on? And it becomes. It becomes very, very exciting, you know, to. To know that he's actually revealing himself to me. He's not hiding. He's saying, here I am.

[A]

Right. He's the opposite of hiding. Yeah, he's revealing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, so interest. Interesting as you're mentioning this, I think some of the. The. Here is the man's capacity for God, as you said. Here's the. Our hunger, our search, our longing for God. And here he is responding to us. In those first paragraphs. We had the beginning yesterday, we had the prologue, that whole. The words before. And then tomorrow we're going to start with the next piece again, this beginning of the search. In your experience of getting into the catechism, just even that, those beginning paragraphs, are there any challenges or difficulties that you found in those? Because I. I know that it pretty soon starts ramping up and starts getting into, as you mentioned, here's God revealing himself, revealing his heart. And sometimes as he does that, our hearts get on fire, you know, but sometimes before that, there can be, I don't know, maybe. How would I say this? There can be a little bit of wind up where it's not sweeping me off my feet immediately. And I want to just ask if you have any, because you've been teaching the catechism in the Catechetical institute for, for 15 years. Yeah. And so leading people through the catechism, just before we go into, like, the rest of the, the map here of the Creed, what are some, like, obstacles right away people might find right at the beginning.

[B]

That's a good question. That's a really good question. Because as you begin that reading of the first paragraph that God has a plan of sheer goodness, you're going to start reading and people are going to be reading with you and listening to you, and they're going to come across words that they've never heard before, and, and they're Gonna be like, oh, whoa, this is. This is too much for not for me. Yeah, this is Bible.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Jesus with a lamb, Ross. I get that. But, you know this word divinization, what's that about?

[A]

Right.

[B]

And so I think people need to relax and. And go along for the ride and take as much as you can in. I mean, you gotta think about this. We're not talking about how to put some kind of little plastic car together or something. We're talking about the God of the universe disclosing himself, but in a way that we can understand. And you have to be, I think, a little bit. A little patient with it and realize you're not going to get everything the first time. But you listen with the heart of a son, the heart of a daughter who wants to know more about dad, wants to know more about their father. And so that eager heart is important. You're not just kind of casually reading about this, but you are giving yourself to it with the hopes that you can learn more about them and discover more about yourself.

[A]

Yeah, that makes sense. Eagerness. And you also kind of mentioned some patience. Yeah, right. That sense of being able to say, okay, if I don't get it, that's one of the reasons I love podcasts and audiobooks, is because if I'm reading something with my own eyeballs and I might get hung up on a sentence that I'm like, I don't know what this is.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

I don't know what that just said. I stopped. But if it's being read to me, it's. We keep moving. And then what usually happens is, as I keep hearing, I get more. More context clues and like, oh, okay, now I more or less get the gist. And so that's why I think that eagerness. God is. He wants to reveal himself to me. Patience. And I would say maybe even patience not only with myself and my own limitations, but also maybe some patience with the fact that today's reading or whatever the day it is, might not answer all the questions that I have, but we're going to get to those. I think there's something about that, too, that's just like, okay, we're on. Like you said, we're on this journey. Just continue to let yourself be led.

[B]

Yeah. And constantly hear the words in the back of your. Of your mind. God. Saying, I want to know you, and I want you to know me. I want you to know.

[A]

And this is part. This is part of that. Even I can go back to that. You know, sometimes in our Prayer, My prayer. Maybe not yours. I want to. Maybe this was even the Bible I go to. I approach God wanting a certain thing. So whether that's reading the Bible, I want to be inspired or I'm in prayer and I want to be consoled. And that might not be what God wants for me at that moment. Maybe he just wants. But he's. He might say, but I have this word for you. And I think part of that is also trusting each day. Even if I wasn't blown away by this article of faith or by this, this teaching we just got today, but that's what he had for me today.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And so I think that, that. I think it goes hand in hand right here with the search revelation of God revealing himself to us, that trusting that we're going to get it.

[B]

And you're going to be stretched in this study. Yeah, you're going to be stretched because you come into the study, you come into the catechism in the Bible and many people went through the Bible in a year, and you come into it with this sort of. Okay, I think I kind of figured, I know what's going on here, you know, and God, you know, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. All right, I'm comfortable. And then prepare for your world to expand. Expand and your understanding of God will understand. You're like, oh, my gosh, this is so much bigger than I thought. Yeah, you are so much bigger. It's so great. What a family. You're the Mary, the saints, the sacraments is. Wow.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, and it reminds me of. There was a book written, I think it was in the 60s, I think it was in the late 60s by J.B. phillips, and it's called your God is too Small.

[A]

Too small. Yeah.

[B]

And that's what I would encourage people in at the beginning of this is, I think by the time you're done, you're going to find out your God was too small.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, and that he's much bigger and. And be open to that.

[A]

Yeah. That. That makes so much sense. And that I think, again, addresses some of those initial obstacles that people are going to experience. I think, you know, we get to like the moral life. This, I think, might be a challenge every day when it gets to the sacramental life. Something illumination every day. The part of this God revealing himself.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Is. Is. Is both.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Both challenging, both revealing, illuminating. So going back to. As you're highlighting the foundations of faith on this, the catechism, in your chart, you talked about how God reveals himself in a unique way and Then the next section is pretty remarkable, too. Oh, and actually, no, in that section is transmission of.

[B]

Yeah. He reveals himself, and it's very specific in the catechism that God reveals himself in word, indeed in Sacred Scripture, but he also reveals himself in Sacred tradition, which may be new to some.

[A]

New to some people. Yeah.

[B]

You know, and you have to realize that we, as Christians, we are not people of the book, although we love the book. We're not people of the book. We're people of the Word, and specifically the living Word, Jesus. And this revelation, what we call the deposit of faith that Jesus gave to the apostles, that was given in written scripture and in the sacred Tradition. Sacred Scripture. Sacred Tradition. And a lot of people say, well, man, I wish I could have been back there.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Oh, that'd be so cool to know it, to hear all of this. You know, like, you hear people read Luke 24 with the Emmaus Road, and Jesus gives this talk, and they think, I wish I had a seat. You know, and we want to be back there. We want to hear what the disciples and the disciples of the disciples heard and taught. Well, guess what? You get to get to. Yeah, you get to.

[A]

And more.

[B]

Yes, and more. And so we. We understand that God is revealing himself in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, but then comes the. The part of, well, yeah, that was them, but what about me? How does it get to me? And that's where we have apostolic succession, which is so important that these early disciples, they. They ordained bishops who were entrusted with the same deposit of faith. Not to change it, not to add subtract, but to keep this deposit of faith and to systematically and organically keep passing this on to the next generation. And so we are very confident now that we are hearing the teachings of Jesus that he gave to the disciples, and we are getting the collective input from giants who also got it and said, let me tell you a little bit more about this.

[A]

They live this whole thing. Yeah. An entire life, lifetimes of people praying with this, thinking, wrestling with it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And also being God, better guided by the Holy Spirit in that, in passing it on to us, we just get to receive it. I mean, even the. The reality here is Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man. Duh, of course, like. No, not duh. Of course. Like, this was something that was wrestled with in the early church that every Christian just takes for granted at times. Yeah, but that was giants.

[B]

So as you're reading over the next year, we're going to be sitting at the feet of giants and listening to all kinds of this teaching you what it's similar to. It's like you've been to an orchestra before. Well, you go to the orchestra, hardly anybody knows the names of the people in the orchestra. But they know who the director is.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And they know who the director is. And the director's name is on the, on the front of the program and everything. Well, there's all kinds of people in this orchestra. The director is the Holy Spirit. And, and that's why we're confident.

[A]

Yeah. You know, that's so good.

[B]

So we got apostolic succession. But then we get into, we get into what is our, what is our response to this revelation that's been given.

[A]

To us, which is right away, I mean, here in the very first section, section one is. Here's God revealing himself to us in all these ways, as you said in creation and the human person in reason. And then revelation. And then what say you? Exactly what's our response?

[B]

Right. And the response is, is a beautiful thing. And this is an important point. God revealed himself in words and deeds. Everybody can agree on that. I don't care what background. You can agree that God revealed himself in words and deeds. And so the response to that revelation is in kind in words and deeds. Words alone are not enough.

[A]

Right.

[B]

It has to be words and deeds.

[A]

Not everyone who says to me, lord, Lord, lecture the kingdom of heaven. Yeah, but only those who do the will of my Father in heaven.

[B]

Exactly. So it's kind of fun. You mentioned it. It's, it's interesting, I think, is that God kind of laid it on the table at the beginning. You know, he's. Look, I'm going to share a lot with you, but I want you to know I want something back here.

[A]

You're critical. I want your heart.

[B]

I want you.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so that, that's what we're learning in this first, in this first pillar. What we believe is we are learning about this revelation, prepared to respond to God. And the, the name for that, that the Church gives us is the obedience of faith.

[A]

Right. Which comes from first chapter of Romans. Right.

[B]

The obedience of faith.

[A]

Obedience of faith.

[B]

Yeah. And just to unpack that a little bit because this will be important for pillars 2, 3 and 4 as well. When we talk about the obedience of faith, we're not talking about the obedience of believism.

[A]

Yeah, Say more about that.

[B]

Yeah, Believism is. I believe. I believe.

[A]

You got kind of like grit your teeth.

[B]

I really believe.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Can't you see how much you're face.

[A]

They should hopefully has faith.

[B]

No, we're not talking about the power of believism. We're talking about faith. And when you look at faith from a Hebraic perspective, that is the Hebrew perspective in the Greek. You've got emunah in Hebrew, pistis in Greek. This concept of faith is not mere believism. But as Pope Benedict brings out so well, it is divided into two movements. The first is intellectual ascent. I believe it.

[A]

Yeah, it's true.

[B]

I believe it. So as you're reading for the next 362 days, people are going to listen to it and they're going to have to make a decision. Do I believe it?

[A]

Right.

[B]

Do I believe that? Okay. Okay, check. I'm going to send Father an email. I believe it. That's not. That's part of it. You make intellectual assent. Check. The second part is a personal entrusting of yourself to that truth. And so, for example, if you believe that, that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the mother of God as an intercessor and an advocate given to you, you believe that. Yay. Entrust yourself.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Start praying. Start asking her to intercede for you and pray for you if you truly believe it, you know. And so I love this, because faith without works is dead. And we have to respond by saying, yes, I believe it, Lord, but now I'm going to entrust myself to you. That's what biblical faith is, Right. It will always be that. And so then when you move into the actual Creed in the first pillar, you're going to have. You're going to have material that is, if you go to church, it's very familiar.

[A]

Right?

[B]

Because it's gonna mean familiar, you know.

[A]

Because that whole section is based off of the Apostles Creed.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

Yeah. Hopefully. We all know, right?

[B]

But you know, what's really interesting is you go to Mass and when you hear the Apostles Creed in Mass, everybody, they read it together collectively, because that's easy. But if you had to do it on your own, that's more difficult.

[A]

Have to read it.

[B]

Yeah. And it's we, you know, I believe. We believe. I remember it was a funny thing that happened a few years ago. And this, this tells you how much we are together in the body of Christ. But it has to be brought down to the personal level. I believe. You know, I do believe. I was at. I was with Father Mitch Pacwa once, and he invited me over. I said, I said, are you gonna say Mass this morning? He said, yeah. So I said, can I come? And he said, yeah. And I Thought it was gonna be like 30 other people. And of course, with 30 other people, we can all do the heavy lifting together with response.

[A]

I know the lines every time. Exactly. I know my lyrics.

[B]

And I got over there, I. The only one.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I realized I didn't know Mass the way I thought I knew Mass.

[A]

The first time I ever went to mass when I was the only person in the congregation, quote, unquote. How is. Oh, my gosh, what do I say? The Lord be with you. I'm not sure.

[B]

Yeah, right. Yeah. I've been doing this a long time, but that's the way it is here, is that the creed is something that we all recite in the mass we believe. And you can, you know, you can look at this, you know, in the, in the beginning of the catechism, the very beginning, you can see the creed is broken down so well. In the. In the catechism on page, Roman numeral 10 is, I believe in God the Father, and then I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son. And then third, I believe in the Holy Spirit. And so you've got. You got the creed broken down into these three areas and then all of the sub points of what we believe. And what's funny is we go to mass and we just sort of recite it, you know, And I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator.

[A]

You know, mine's wandering.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You're looking at all the words.

[B]

Yeah. And someone says, well, do you believe it? Yeah, I said it, didn't I? I mean, yeah, of course. Check.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And it's like the first year to get all excited about God. You listen to the creed. I believe that five years later, I believe that 10 years later. Yeah. I believe that 20 years later, I'm still here. And that's not what it's for. It's not a checklist to see if you're still in the camp. The reason that we recite the creed is because it's what we not only believe intellectually, but it's what we're entrusting our life to. And if you entrust your life to that, every part of that creed, you're going to live differently.

[A]

Yeah. That makes so much. I mean, because like you said it here's in words and in deeds that God reveals Himself and we respond in words and in deeds. I had a friend who once who said, when it came to the creed, sometimes that's what we believe. It's describing what we believe. He said, sometimes I just. I say the creed. And what I think is, no this is in whom I believe, or this is in whom I trust. This is the one I'm describing, the one who I trust as I'm describing the one that I believe in, that I have surrendered my life to. And that would be. I look because it makes it. It's not just. Again, these are the. This is the data that I say is true.

[B]

Right.

[A]

But it's. Here is the one in whom I have this relationship that I again used to. Entrusting.

[B]

I think I heard a great analogy from one of our friends. I'll make it quick. He was a great analogy. He talked about the. I think it was the Wallenda brothers. You know, we're going to walk across the great Blondini. Yeah. Is that what it was?

[A]

Yeah. And some people say Blondin, but I. The first time I've read it was the Blondini.

[B]

I'll go with you.

[A]

About Niagara Falls.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

And you know that story.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I love it because it's. He goes across, you know, it's very dramatic. Going tightrope across, tight rope, and gets on the other side. Someone yells out, do it again. Yeah, yeah, do it again. Go back the other way, you know, And. And I think from what I understand of the story, you might correct me, is that he. He says, do you think I can do it again? To the crowd? And I go, yes, we believe. Do you think I can do it again pushing a wheelbarrow? Yes, we believe. You think I can do it pushing a wheelbarrow blindfolded? Yes. Do you think I can put a human being in the wheelbarrow? And they're going, yes, yes. And he says, I need a volunteer. Nobody believes crickets. Nobody believed. Nobody believed.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And that's the way it is with our faith. You know, we can stand up and say, I believe all these things, but do you entrust yourself? And it's the entrusting of yourself that is going to make the biggest difference in your life. You can go through the whole catechism in a year and agree to everything. You're going to be reading everything.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But unless you entrust yourself to God, your life will not look different.

[A]

Yeah. This is not about just more information or not information transfer, about transformation. Exactly that sense. Yeah. Whenever we start rcia, people becoming Catholic or learning more about the Catholic Church, it's like, we don't just want to pass on data. It's about conversion of heart. It's actually about not just getting to know the one who has created and redeemed us, but also having been Drawn more deeply into relationship with him.

[B]

Yeah, not information, transformation. And that's, that's what people need to keep, keep focused on as they, as they go through it. And there's going to be some things that they hear about where they're going to say, man, I just don't understand quite. You know, all right, it's okay. Make a note of it. You can get back to it. But take as much as you possibly can in and, and everything that you learn. Ask yourself how you can entrust yourself. You know, going back just a little bit about this, this revelation in Scripture. There's a whole section in this first pillar about the nature of Scripture, how we go about studying Scripture, how we approach interpreting Scripture. And this should give people a real sense of joy and certitude to know that, you know, a lot of people are like, I'm afraid of that. I don't know if I'm going to mess it up. I know I'll mess up the Bible. And, and what God is saying is, no, come on in.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Come on in. I'll give you some hints on how to, how to do this. And so very early on in the catechism, in, in paragraphs, I think it's 1:12. In paragraph 112, 113 and 114, the church teaches us three things that will ensure that, that you're not going to miss the mark in your study. For example, to be especially attentive to the content and unity of the whole Scripture. In other words, when you're studying second Timothy, make sure that you're taking into consideration the Gospel of Mark.

[A]

Right.

[B]

You're in Exodus, even Leviticus.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, and so the content and unity of this divine revelation is very important.

[A]

You don't want to take a text out of context that's for anything for a problem.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. Paragraph 113. Read the scripture within the living tradition of the whole church. Well, why should I do that? You know, is the Bible the Bible or not? But the truth is the Bible comes from. It's a tradition that comes from the church and the church. As you and I have talked about before, the church is the pillar in support of truth. And it's the church that said that's the inspired word of God. And St. Augustine said, I wouldn't even know that this was the word of God unless the Church had told me. So it's important to stay within the tradition, the full tradition, that is sacred scripture and sacred tradition. And then the third is to be attentive to the analogy of faith, or that is the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of revelation. So it, it gives us some simple guidelines there on, you know, what, what to. What to, you know, I think you said it before, you know, it's like a. It's like a big sandbox or something. And, and it gives you the corners, right. To stay. And stay there.

[A]

You'll be fine. But inside you can, you can play around, you can dive deep, you can, you can even use your imagination.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

In many ways.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That sense of being able to say, maybe, what about this? But you round up against the wall, like, okay, I guess that's as far as we go.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

The church has said that's off, off base. And yeah, it's so good to be able to have all those three when we read Scripture and even as we move forward this year with catechism.

[B]

And it even gives you the recipe here, like in paragraphs. It's 1, 16, 117, 118. It gives you the recipe here on how to, in a sense, squeeze all the juice out of the. Right, out of the orange, you know, and get as much out of the word of God as you possibly can by instructing us to, first of all, look at the literal sense. That's not a big complicated thing. That just means what. What was the intention of the author? And then, then we get to look at what people really like to do. And that's the spiritual sense.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And that's in three. In three different ways. That's the allegorical sense. And this is big words, but write them down. The allegorical sense means how does this relate to Christ? Moral sense, how does it relate to me and my life and conduct? Anagogical sense, how does it relate to the. To the future? So you can see here that the church is. Is giving us some very simple instruction on going after this revelation and trying to understand it for ourselves. And then it talks about the relationship between the Old and the New and typology. And it just really equips you to.

[A]

Dig in, which is fascinating, that recognition, a typology. Right. So that in the Old Testament there are types or foreshadows of what Jesus fulfills in the New Testament or in the New Covenant and how. Not all Christians know about that. Not all Christians know that that in the Scripture is a unified whole and that it's a story. How's the line that the Old Testament is revealed in the New and the New Testament is hidden in the Old. And that sense of like yeah, there's this connection that is so powerful when we. When we know that that connection exists, which is. Am.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, I love it.

[A]

Also, I think that there'll be something worthwhile noting that in. In looking at this, especially the Creed, that some of the ways. And on the back of the. The catechism, at a glance, you know, the catechism timeline. There actually is a timeline on the back of this.

[B]

I know, I love it.

[A]

And, and, and some of the.

[B]

I'm wired that way.

[A]

You like the timelines. I wonder where we got that idea. But there's this piece not only of how here is Scripture coming to us, but also these professions of faith and these church councils. It's not every church council, but kind of some. Some of the significant ones. And how a lot of what we say is true comes out of, you know, maybe wrestling with error. Yeah, like that. That there were heresies that came up that were like, maybe that's true. I mean, even like the Council of nicaea. Right. In 3:25. I mentioned. We all know. Of course, we know Jesus is fully God and fully man, but that was formulated because some people were saying, no, that's not the case. And so a lot of what we believe as true in the Creed, in all of these, you know, church councils comes out of, what would you say? Error or heresy, I guess, for lack of a better term. Would that be accurate?

[B]

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Most of the. Most of the councils. Vatican II was a little different, but most of the councils were actually trying to settle a problem. Like, you know, for example, in the Council of Ephesus, when they declared that Mary is the Theotokos, she is the mother of God. And, and that that argument was actually over the divinity of Jesus.

[A]

Right. It's all about Jesus, about Jesus.

[B]

And, and they said, no, Mary is the mother of God. Jesus is.

[A]

Is God from the moment of his conception. Yes, He's.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Jesus fully God and fully man.

[B]

Fully God, fully man. We call that the big word now, hypostatic union, which means. And this is important. You know, these things are important and they do have ramifications, you know, results. Jesus isn't two people. He's one person, two natures, human and divine. And in the Council of Constantinople, even said he had two wills, a human and a divine will, which never were parted from one another.

[A]

And to realize that, that. That's not ex. Explicated in Scripture. Right. That's not necessarily like, given to us as the data of Scripture, but we have the data of. Wait a second. Here is Jesus, who is conforming his will to the Father's will. Here is Jesus, who at the same time experiences this. I don't say temptation necessarily, but he was tempted in the wilderness. He was tempted in every way that we are. Without sin. Without sin. And so the Church has been able to say, wait a second. If that is the case, and it is the case, then he would have not only human nature and a divine nature, but a human will and. And a divine will.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And. And just like, wow, I never thought of that. I would never even thought to ask the question, but I'm glad someone did.

[B]

Well, somebody did before. Do you know, one page in here. And I would just encourage your listeners to look at this. It's page 735. I love that page because it gives. It says it's a timeline of ecclesiastical writers. The following writers and authors arranged here by date, are cited in the catechism. And it goes from the second century, and it goes through a list of every century, the main ecclesiastical writers, and where in the catechism they're cited. And so it's basically. It's basically like going to the beginning of the history of baseball and saying in 1864, you know, and then it comes all the way up to the present with the stars.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And that's what's happening here. So it's. It's a visual of the continuity of the faith from the beginning all the way till now. Yeah, that blows my mind to just. I can just meditate on that page, you know, and say, wow, yeah, this.

[A]

Is part of the living character of tradition.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I'll tell you another. We could go on about so many different things, but I can tell you another part that I really, really like. In the first. In the first pillar, the Creed is paragraph 787. In 787, it. It says that from the beginning. And this is under the. The title the Church, the Body of Christ. And I love this because in the Creed we make certain statements about the Church. You know, we believe in this. This holy Catholic Church. The Church is a communion with Jesus. And I love this paragraph. It says from the beginning, Jesus associated his disciples with his own life, revealed the mystery of the kingdom to them, and gave them a share in his mission, joy and sufferings. That line, Father, right there in 787, that line should open up in people's minds and hearts an incredible world of opportunity to know that Jesus is. Is sharing everything with us. And so you can look at his work and his mission. One of two ways you can say, well, he's the Son of God, he's the king of Kings, he is the physician, he's the counselor, he's the healer. He's the one that suffered for the sins of the world. He's the one that died for the sins of the world. He's the one that rose from the dead. So what's my job? Well, I can either say, well, I'm just a beneficiary of all that receive it. All receive it. Or wait a minute, he shared everything with me. His mission, his joy, oh, and his sufferings, you know, and so I love this because for Jesus to share himself with the church, with us in this first pillar means. It means Satan was wrong in the Garden of Eden when he lied to Adam and Eve about God. Withholding God is not withholding anything from us. In fact, he's not withholding anything. He is in fact sharing everything with us. And not, not only do we get the divine revelation, we get the divine invitation to share in the divine life and the blessing of God. So this is big steak stuff.

[A]

It is. And that. And it's one of those things where I think that's one of the reasons why, as you're highlighting this in paragraph 787, I can't recommend enough having a catechism to follow along. Sometimes you can. One of the things that I found is when doing the Bible in a year, because we based it on the great adventure Bible timeline, which has that we're following the story, we're never going to lose the story or leave the story. So, you know, you press play the next day and it's, oh, yeah, we're still with, you know, even if we're with the prophets, we're still with Baruch. Great. No problem. Got introduced to him yesterday and carrying on where we left off. But sometimes with the catechism, it's here we are in a new article, and for me, if I'm not prepared, if I don't see it in front of me, like, what, what are we going to talk about today? I don't know yet. And so it's, it's, it's going to be, I think people are going to find that's going to be a little bit of a challenge that way that we don't necessarily, yes, this is our invitation into, into the story, into God's life. But I think what can really, really help people is if they get any catechism. But this, you know, obviously I love the ascension addition because Then you get to look at it and say, okay, I see here we're on. We are on day, whatever. And the section is. Oh, God is truth and God is love. Okay, now I'm prepared. Go ahead and read it to me. You know, there's something about that that I think it roots it more deeply in my mind and in my heart when I have some kind of frame of reference that I can also kind of see, I guess.

[B]

Yeah. And I think adding to that, which is great, is that first paragraph.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Is if you open with that almost, you know, once a week at least, go back and open with it. And keep in mind that everything I'm reading back here in paragraph 1384, in paragraph 1815, in paragraph 2285, and paragraph 2705, all of it is for the aim of sharing in the life of the Trinity.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Now and for ever. It's what we're destined for. We're destined to live in the life of the Trinity. And this is the playbook. This is a map that will guide you in a. In a more sure way than I promise you, any book you can buy on Amazon anywhere. This is the book that will give you, really, the trail guide of. How do I do this? I want to share in the life of God. I want to be with God forever and ever and ever. Okay, well, if you really do, guess what. We got two books for you. Yeah. We got the Divine revelation, and we've got the continuation and the synopsis of the great revolution, riches and the inheritance that we have. And so when you hold the catechism in your hand, you might as well. Someone says, what are you reading there? You might as well say, it's my inheritance.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Is my inheritance.

[A]

You know, you know, you yesterday people. So the very first day we heard that paragraph one.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You mentioned in that planet your goodness. Yesterday. We concluded the day by listening by reading paragraph 25. And in the conclusion of the. The. The prologue. Is this from the Roman Catechism, which is so incredible. I love this. The whole concern of doctrine and its teaching must be directed to the love that never ends. So this whole thing we're going to do, doctrine teaching, whether something is proposed for belief, for hope, or for action, the love of our Lord must always be made accessible so that anyone can see that all the works of perfect Christian virtue spring from love and have no other objective than to arrive at love, which is just like. Okay, so this is the context that we're given. The very first paragraph of the planet your goodness. Hear God in his love. And then this. It's all meant to lead us to love.

[B]

And listen to the way the first pillar ends. If you want to take the first verse or first paragraph, I used to always call them verses because I'm so the first paragraph. But listen to the last paragraph in the in brief section, and that's something, you know, I want to bring out to our listeners, is that every section has a little area that is highlighted called in brief. It's like Cliff Notes right now. Don't just go to those.

[A]

Here's the bullet points.

[B]

But that's really what, you know, kind of the heart of it. But listen to what paragraph 1060 says. And this is at the end of pillar one. At the end of time, the kingdom of God will come in its fullness. Then the just will reign with Christ forever glorified in body and soul. And the material, material universe itself will be transformed. God will then be all in, all in eternal life. Oh, that sounds good. Yeah, I'm all for that. You know, so good news at the beginning, good news at the end.

[A]

Yeah, it's so good. And we get. And we. The thing is, if we're willing to kind of stick with this, again, it's day three and we're just getting started, but if we're willing to say, okay, I know, God, you're going to give me these crumbs, I think when I say crumbs, I mean you're going to keep leading me. You're going to. And again, not every day is going to blow my socks off. Some days I'm like, okay, well, there we go. Day 12. We're checking off the box. But I, I, I'm convinced that it's one of those things like, like the Bible, where if we keep pressing play, we miss a day, miss a week to keep pressing play, that God has something to say to us every single time we show up. And so kind of in conclusion, one last thing, just another question for someone. You've been teaching scripture, you've been teaching the catechism for so long. What's one last thing you'd want to just offer the people as they're going to go on this, you know, the journey of the creed, this first pillar, is the longest. It's the longest journey we have. What's one last word for them as they get started?

[B]

Sure. I think what I would share with you, Father, is, is what? Cardinal Ratzinger then became Pope Benedict, you know, had, had to share. And that was that there's a reason that the, the Creed is first.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And the reason, you know, you could have put it second or third or whatever, but it was first. Because pillar two, three, and four, all spring. Spring. Spring from this. From this amazing. This amazing story of salvation history and what we believe. So the second pillar springs from what we believe, the third pillar. The second is sacraments and liturgy. The third pillar is the moral law, life in Christ, that springs from what we believe, and prayer springs from what we believe. So consider this first pillar as an anchor. And. And the last thing I would say is that when you go to Mass, when you go to Mass and you recite the Creed, make sure it's not just column one that you agree.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

But say to the Lord, help me. Help me to entrust myself, trust myself.

[A]

Yeah. That's so good. Thank you so much. Yeah.

[B]

So fun.

[A]

So grateful. And I know that for everyone who's going to be joining us, everyone's going to be walking with us again. There can be the tendency to be discouraged and the tendency to say, what is this? What's happening? What's happening is I just think sometimes, you know, there's a. There was a early church father who described the action of the Holy Spirit. And sometimes the Holy Spirit comes upon us in power, like Pentecost us. Bam, there it is, you know, tongues of fire. And sometimes he said, the Holy Spirit comes upon us like a gentle dew, and it just, like, sinks, seeps into the ground, and just like, hey, the earth gets watered one way or the other. If it is, you know, huge storm with all this rain pelting the earth, or if it's just a gentle dew, it gets absorbed into the earth. And so I decided to say that some days. Some days are going to be like, oh, my gosh, that was amazing. Penetrated. And some days it's just like, okay, that was good. And it's just that do.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I think that if we just show up, keep listening, keep pressing play, keep just being faithful, we know that the Lord himself is faith. He's going to do something through this.

[B]

And I would encourage. I also would encourage our listeners to pray for you because. And thank you for what you are doing. You know, we don't know why God chose us to do what we're doing, but kind of like, Esther, for such a time as this, you know, you're the one that you're doing it, and. And we need to pray for you. Pray for you. Your voice, you eat right, you sleep right. But pray for protection with you, because God's using you in a very unusual way, but a beautiful way. And we stand with you. We're not just listening to you. We stand with you together. Yeah.

[A]

Which is awesome. Thanks, Jeff. Thanks a lot. That means a lot. So, yeah, please, let's pray for each other. Jeff said, please pray for me. I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.