The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2023)

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

Fr. Mike reflects on the powerful reality that the sacrament of Baptism makes us partakers of God's Divine nature, fundamentally changing us into beloved sons and daughters of God the Father. He also highlights how the second coming of Christ will come like a thief in the night, how Christians grieve with hope, and how we have to test the prophecies we hear from seers. Today's readings are 2 Peter 1-3, 1 Thessalonians 4-5, and Proverbs 30:17-19. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 354, day 354. We're all reading the entire second letter of St. Peter, chapters 1 and 2 and 3, as well as the conclusion of the first letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, chapters 4 and

5, as well as Proverbs chapter 30, verses 17 through 19. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also subscribe in your podcast app to this podcast, because why not keep making this announcement here in the final days leading up to our conclusion of our scripture and our

second trip around the sun and second trip around through the Bible. It is day 354. We're reading 2 Peter chapters 1, 2, and 3, 1 Thessalonians chapters 4 and 5, and Proverbs chapter 30 verses 17 through 19. The second letter of Peter, chapter 1, Salutation. Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. The Christian's Call and Election His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,

through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion and become partakers of the divine nature. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For whoever lacks these things is blind and short-sighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never fall. So there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these things, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to arouse you by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. And I will see to it, that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. Eyewitnesses of

Christ's glory. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. We heard this voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain, and we have the prophetic word made more sure. You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all, you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of

one's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Chapter 2. False Prophets and Their Punishment But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

And many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them, the way of truth will be reviled. And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. From of old, their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been asleep. For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment. If he did not spare the ancient

world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven other persons, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly. And if he rescued righteous lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked, for by what the righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they are not afraid to revile the glorious ones, whereas angels, though

greater in might and power, do not pronounce a reviling judgment upon them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed, reviling in matters of which they are ignorant, will be destroyed in the same destruction with them, suffering wrong for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their dissipation, carousing with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed, accursed children. Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray.

They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression. A speechless donkey spoke with the human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them, the deepest gloom of darkness has been reserved. For uttering loud boasts of folly, they entice with licentious passions of the flesh men who have barely escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved.

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, the dog turns back to his own vomit, and the sow is washed only to wallow in the mire. Chapter 3 The Promise of the Lord's Coming This is now the second letter that I have written to you, beloved. And in both of them I have aroused your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember

the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. First of all, you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation. They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God, heavens existed long ago, and an earth formed out of water and by means of water, through which the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished, but by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a

thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved

and the elements will melt with fire? But according to his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Final Exhortation and Doxology Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace, and count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters.

There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware, lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians, chapter 4. A life pleasing to God. Finally, brethren, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you learn from us how you ought to walk and to please God,

just as you are now doing, you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathens who do not know God, that no man transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things,

as we solemnly forewarned you. For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this disregards not man, but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. But concerning love of the brethren, you have no need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. And indeed, you do love all the brethren throughout Macedonia. But we exhort you, brethren, to do so more and more, to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands as we charged you, so that you may command the respect

of outsiders and be dependent on nobody. The Coming of the Lord But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord,

shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with a cry of command, with the archangels call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. Chapter 5. But as to the times and seasons, brethren,

you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people say, there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a woman with child, and there will be no escape. But you are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day.

We are not of the night or of darkness. So then, let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

who died for us, so that whether we wake or sleep, we might live with him. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. Final Exhortations, Greetings, and Benediction But we beg you, brethren, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we exhort you, brethren, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always. Pray constantly. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophesying, but test everything. Hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I adjure you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. to all the brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. The book of Proverbs chapter 30 verses 17 through 19. The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures. Three things are too wonderful for me, for I do not understand. The way of the eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas,

and the way of a man with a maiden. Father in heaven, we give you praise. We ask you to please come and meet us with your grace, because you are good. You are God. We love you. We ask you to please come and meet us with your grace because you are good. You are God. We love you. We belong to you. You've rescued us from death and you brought us into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

You brought us into your kingdom. You brought us into your family. Help us to live as your beloved children. Help us to live with you as our father. Help us to live as good citizens of your kingdom, taking care of one another, being responsible for each other, enjoying all of the rights of a true adopted son or daughter of you, God, our Father.

May you be praised and glorified. We thank you so much. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So, gosh, here we are, second letter of St. Peter. Chapter one, there's a line in here that is, well, the whole thing obviously is very important, but here is St. Peter at one point in verse one, sorry, chapter one in verse four, I think it is here. Peter says this, he says, by which God has granted to us is precious and very great promises that through these, you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion. And here's the line and become partakers of the divine nature. This line is absolutely critical. It is, and it's also incredible. It is absolutely incredible. What is Peter talking about? He's talking about the fact that when we are baptized, when we are made into God's

adopted sons and daughters, we become partakers of the divine nature, basically become a new creation. And I mean, we've all heard that we become temples of the Holy Spirit, right? Of course, we've heard that. One of the things that means, of course, is that God abides because God's presence abides in his temple. Another thing it means is that what was the temple for? It wasn't just for the presence of God to be there.

It was for the place of worship, right? So if we're temples of the Holy Spirit, it also means that we're meant to be a place of worship. That's why I believe St. Paul had said, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and beloved, your spiritual worship, right? So your body's a temple, not only God's presence, also worship there, but also if you have the Holy Spirit of God, then the Holy Spirit of God is united to you in a unique way that you share in the divine nature. Now, as a human being, as made in God's image and likeness, you are a beloved creature of God, of course. But as one who's been baptized,

you've been transformed and you actually don't just have a human nature. Yes, it's basically God gives you a share in his divine nature. We're not like Jesus in the sense that Jesus is one divine person with a human and divine nature, but we get to participate, get to share in the divine nature. The example I always like to give is the example of Pinocchio and Geppetto. I'm not sure if I used this this year. Shoot, it's been 353 days, 354 days, crying out loud. But here is Geppetto, right? He's the marionette maker. He's the creator and he loves Pinocchio. He makes Pinocchio in his image and likeness. He gives him arms and legs like Geppetto. He can talk like Geppetto and walk like Geppetto, but he's not Geppetto's son. He's Geppetto's beloved creature. He's Geppetto's beloved creation. Now, Geppetto

loves him, of course, but in order for Pinocchio to be able to look at Geppetto and say, not just my maker, but my father, what has to happen in order for Geppetto to look at Pinocchio and not just say my creation, but my son, what has to happen is that Pinocchio has to have the same nature as Geppetto. And so what happens? He becomes a real boy, right? In the course of the story. And this is the same thing with us. Any unbaptized person can look at God and say, that's my creator who loves me. I'm a beloved creation of the incredible creator. But only when you're baptized, do you become a partaker in the divine nature that you're here. In some ways, you're you're what you are changes so that God can truly

look at you and say, this is my son, this is my daughter. And we can truly look at God the Father and say, he is our dad. He's truly our father. And that's something so, so important here in 2 Peter. It's just, again, bonkers to realize this. Now, Peter is writing to people who are saying, how come there's such a delay in God coming to us? You know, how come Jesus said he'd come back, but he's not, I haven't seen him. Um, where is he? And Peter says, essentially, don't consider this delay. This is the final chapter, chapter three. Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years are as one day. God's not slow about his promises, but he's forbearing, meaning he's not, he doesn't wish

that anyone should perish, but that all should reach repentance. The idea is that God is giving us more time so more people can repent. But he says the day of the Lord will come like a thief. So we have to be prepared. We have to be ready for that day that's coming upon us. In fact, there was something similar happening in St. Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, because what's happened for them is that they were concerned because people were dying and the Christians were dying. And they thought, wait, shoot, does this mean that they won't be able to receive the fullness of God's glory? Because they're already dead. We're waiting. We're expecting Jesus to come back in our lifetimes. But here is St. Paul in chapter four, who's able to say, we would not have you ignorant brethren

concerning those who are asleep. Again, those who have died, that you may not grieve as others who do not have hope. This is so incredible. We do grieve as Christians. We grieve, but we don't grieve as those who have no hope. We don't grieve as those who think that death is the end. Death is this place of transition. It's this passage into eternal life for those who are to be saved. And so we do grieve, but we don't grieve as those who have no hope. We don't grieve like the rest.

But St. Paul goes on to say, for this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For when the Lord comes, the dead will rise, the dead in Christ will rise. And then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. And that's incredible, incredible word of comfort for all of us is that those who have died, those who have passed on, we'll meet them again. Those who have passed on in Christ, we'll meet them again is the hope we have. St. Paul concludes this first letter with these words of exhortation, which are so great. Rejoice always,

pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. I love this line, this last thing here. He says, do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything. Hold fast to what is good. There's that piece of, yep, people have a word from the Lord. Okay, great. Let's test it. That's so important for us to do because too many people can be too easily misled if they just say, oh, that's from God. I guess I'll believe it. Nope. If someone is given a word, given a word of prophecy, we've read the entire Bible, you guys. We know that there were prophets who spoke false prophecy. And so what we need to do is test everything

and retain what is good. Ah, so good. What an incredible, incredible gift today has been, concluding that second letter of St. Peter and concluding the first letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians. Tomorrow we have 1 John and we have 2 Thessalonians and we're on our way.

What a gift, what a gift it's been to be part of this community and what a gift it is to be able to pray for you. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.