The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 105: Christ’s Church and its Mission (2026)

Episode Date: April 15, 2026

The Church has no other light than Christ's, and the Holy Spirit is the source of all its holiness. We believe that the Church is "holy," "catholic," "one," and "apostolic." Fr. Mike explains that Jesus has promised to guide the Church in the truth. Members of the Church are called and uniquely belong to the Lord. We also learn that the word 'church' has three inseparable meanings: the liturgical assembly, the local community, and the universal community of believers. The Church draws her life from the body of Christ and so becomes Christ's body. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 748-752. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

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 in God's family as we journeyed together toward our heavenly home. This is Day 105. Congratulations. You made it to this day. We're reading paragraphs 748 to 752. As always, the Bible. Nope, I'm reading the Catechism, as always. I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach.

You can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which you might have already discovered by now. You can also download your free catechism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CI. And you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Also, just a quick thank you to all those who have supported the production of this podcast with your prayers, your financial gifts. It's incredible. Thank you so much. We could not do this without you. But, of course, also thank you so much for your prayers overall.

It's just a gift. As I said, today's paragraph 748 to 752 with only five short paragraphs. But we're reading a new section or a new article. Article 9, I believe in the Holy Catholic Church. One of the things you're going to hear in paragraphs 748 and 749 is the fact that what we established the last couple of days. Remember, the church has been establishing here in the catechism that the mission of Christ and the mission of the Holy Spirit are the same mission, that they are. their mission is inseparable. And one of the things we're going to establish here is that all of the churches' connections to the Lord are absolutely inseparable from the mission of Christ and the

mission of the Holy Spirit. In fact, paragraph 748 will say that the starting point, the starting point for understanding the church is Christ Jesus. In fact, right in the middle of that paragraph, it says, by choosing this starting point, we're going to read a quote from the Second Vatican Council on the dogmatic constitution of the church. That's going to be the starting point. And the catechism says, By choosing this starting point, the council demonstrates that the article of faith about the church depends entirely on the articles concerning Christ Jesus. So everything, the truth goes on to say, the church has no other light than Christ's. And that's this remarkable.

Of course, I mean, for all of us, we'd say, duh. And yet at the same time, the Getticism is meant to reveal, I meant to teach, meant to remind us of things that maybe we didn't know. And maybe we didn't know. And so, yeah, the church has no light other than Christ. and that's paragraph 748 establishing Jesus is the everything we believe about the church definitely definitely flows from what we believe about Christ Jesus now paragraph 749 it will say that the article concerning the church also depends entirely on the article about the Holy Spirit and so this is just well it makes sense right we've been talking about how the mission of Christ and the mission of the

spirit are inseparable they're united and of course because of that we've been saying for the last couple days, like even yesterday when we talked about the Holy Spirit and the Church, where we said the mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to completion in the church. And so the church is essentially a sacrament of that joint mission between the Son and the Spirit. So it's remarkable. Now, paragraphs 750, 71, and 752 will talk about basically kind of some words. And the words we're going to talk about in 750 are uttering the fact that we believe that the church is holy, Catholic, one, and apostolic. Those are the four marks of the church. The church, the church, is holy, the church is Catholic, Church is one, and apostolic. Those come from the Nicene Creed,

and we're going to die more deeply into that at some point. But we also say, in paragraph 751, what's the origin of the word church? And it comes from the Latin, ecclesia, which means the called out ones are to call out of. But also there's the word kirka, right? The German Kirka, which means what belongs to the Lord. So here are these words that we use, again, ecclesia in the Latin and Ekkalen, which is the Greek, to call out of, but also the word church, which is the calling together and means what belongs to the Lord. Lastly, again, this is kind of almost like a vocabulary lesson today. Lastly, in paragraph 752, we recognize, so what does that word church mean when we say that in our Christian usage of the word church? And there are three levels, essentially.

There's the liturgical assembly when we come together for mass in the liturgy, there's the liturgy, There's also the local community, which is the diocese made up of parishes. And then there's the whole universal community of believers. And so these three levels, whenever we use the term church, we're talking about those three levels. So that's where we're highlighting today on day 105 as we read paragraph 748 to 752. And then, of course, we're going to launch for the next few days into a deeper and deeper dive into understanding.

So what is the church and what is the church's role in our lives? But today, we have these first five paragraphs. And so let's just call upon the Lord and ask for His Holy Spirit to come upon us and to enlighten our minds and enliven our hearts. Father in heaven, in the name of your Son Jesus Christ, we pray. We ask you to please, no matter where we're at right now, send your Holy Spirit. Wherever we are right now, Lord, if we're a place of discouragement, we ask you to please meet us in our discouragement. If we're in a place of confusion, we ask you to please meet us in that place of confusion. If you're in a place of joy and a place of deep peace, please meet us.

meet us in your joy, meet us in your peace. We know that we can trust you. We love you and we dedicate our lives to you. Thank you for giving us the gift of your Holy Catholic, Apostolic, and one church. We thank you and we praise your name. In Jesus' name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Once again, it's day 105. We are reading paragraphs 748 to 752. Article 9. I believe in the Holy Catholic Church. Christ is the light of humanity. And it is accordingly. the heartfelt desire of this sacred council being gathered together in the Holy Spirit that by proclaiming his gospel to every creature, it may bring to all men that light of Christ

which shines out visibly from the church. These words open the Second Vatican Council's dogmatic constitution on the church. By choosing this starting point, the council demonstrates that the article of faith about the church depends entirely on the articles concerning Christ Jesus. The church has no other light than Christ's. According to a favorite image of the church fathers, the church is like, the moon, all its light reflected from the sun. The article concerning the church also depends entirely on the article about the Holy Spirit,

which immediately precedes it, stating, indeed, having shown that the Spirit is the source and giver of all holiness, we now confess that it is he who has endowed the Church with holiness. The Church is, in a phrase used by the Father's, the place where the Spirit flourishes. To believe that the Church is holy and Catholic, and that she is one and apostolic, as the Nicene Creed adds, is inseparable from belief in God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the Apostles' Creed, we profess one Holy Church, Cratow Ecclesium, and not to believe in the church,

so as not to confuse God with His works, and to attribute clearly to God's goodness all the gifts he has bestowed on his church. Paragraph 1. The Church in God's Plan. names and images of the church. The word church, Latin Ecclesia, from the Greek Eccalene, to call out of, means a convocation or an assembly. It designates the assemblies of the people, usually for a religious purpose. Ecclesia is used frequently in the Greek Old Testament for the assembly of the chosen people before God, above all for their assembly on Mount Sinai, where Israel received the law and was established by God as his holy people.

By calling itself Church, the first community of Christian believers recognized itself as heir to that assembly. In the church, God is calling together his people from all the ends of the earth. The equivalent Greek term Kiriak, from which the English word church and the German Kyrka are derived, means what belongs to the Lord. In Christian usage, the word church designates the liturgical assembly, but also the local community or the whole universal community of believers. These three meanings are inseparable. The church is the people of God that gathers in the whole world. She exists in local communities and is made real as a liturgical, above all, a eucharistic assembly. She draws her life from the Word and the Body of Christ, and so herself becomes Christ's body.

Okay, so there we are. Again, those five paragraphs are so good. And again, the first two highlighting the fact that what we're going to state about the church have everything to do. They all completely flow from Jesus and they flow from the Holy Spirit. Of course, which in so many ways also is directly connected to the Father. And so obviously, what we state about, well, maybe it's not so obvious. What we state about the church has everything to do with what we have stated about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, particularly the mission of the Son and the Spirit, which is carried out even now in our day and age in this life,

in this world through the church. So we highlighted that. And it is, of course, the presence of the Holy Spirit, the working of the Holy Spirit that makes the church holy in. In fact, that's article, again, 740, or paragraph 749, that says the Holy Spirit is the source and giver of all holiness. And so we now confess that it is he who has endowed the church with holiness. Last sentence of paragraph 749 says, the church is in a phrase used by the fathers, the place where the spirit flourishes. And that's the whole goal, right? Sometimes that's not our experience. Sometimes our experience is that the humanness, the humanity of the church has maybe gotten in the way of the divinity of the church.

Now, obviously, it does not, the humanity of the church, or when I say humanity, basically, I mean the brokenness, which maybe is giving the humanity a bad rap. Because here is God's divinity that has come to sanctify our humanity, right? God's divinity has come to make holy where we live and how we live. And so I guess I shouldn't just say that the humanity always equals the broken part of the church. And yet at the same time, the broken part doesn't come from God. And so we recognize that where human beings have shown up, you know, there can be hurt feelings. There can be the reality, the divine nature of the church can be obfuscated, right? It can be obscured.

And so we recognize that it isn't always our experience. And so as we continue to move forward and talk about the church, you know, when we talk about the mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit, When we talk about the identity of the father, son and Holy Spirit, it's all good, right? There's no darkness. There's no shadow of change. There's no brokenness. There's no evil. And yet when we talk about the church, we recognize that, yes, while the Holy Spirit is the soul of the church.

And yes, while Jesus has promised to guide the church into all truth, we also recognize that as human beings who are broken, there is going to be shadow. There is going to be darkness. There's going to be history that is shady. That is evil, in fact, human beings in the name. of Jesus doing evil things, which of course dates all the way back to the beginning of the Bible. You know, here's people in the name of God doing things that God does not endorse that the God, in fact, condemns. And yet at the same time, paragraph 750, to believe that the church is holy and Catholic, and that she is one and apostolic, is inseparable from belief in God, the Father,

Son, and Holy Spirit. And in fact, the paragraph 750 is very important because it highlights the fact that we're not believing in the church, right? So we believe in God. We believe in God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We don't believe in the church in the same way because we don't confuse God with his works. The church is God's work, right? And, of course, in many ways, the church is the body of Christ as well and the Temple of the Holy Spirit. We already established that many, many times.

But we don't believe in the church in the same way that we believe in God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so that's just really important for us to not forget, to not lose sight of. The church is God's work. And so we recognize that, yeah, we attribute to God. all the gifts he's be sold on the church. So that's an important thing.

Now, last couple things is, last couple notes are the fact that we have names and images of the church. And in paragraph 751 and 752, we have names. And then later on, in 753 and following, we're going to have images.

That's tomorrow, symbols of the church. But today, we have that, again, that word in Latin, ecclesia, and Greek, Ek Kalen, to call out of. Which means, you know,

people who are called out, right? People called together the convocation or assembly. And so we, sometimes we'll hear that people will make the point. And it's true that church means like assembly, those who are gathered, those who are called out, the called out ones are members of the church, which is completely true. But also, there's this incredible other term, that the Greek term, Kariak. That's what we get the word church and obviously the German word Kyrka, if you know anything about,

if you know anything about German. And that is a unique term, which means what belongs to the Lord. And that's one of the things that we are trying to emphasize again and again is that the church belongs to the Lord. Though members of the church are those who belong to the Lord, those who have been called out, right? They've been called together. They've been called out. And they belong to the Lord in a unique way, in a powerful way, in a very real way. And that's you. That if you're baptized, if you've been brought into the people of God, brought into the family of God, if you've been made into a temple of the Holy Spirit, then you're part of the church.

You're part of what belongs to the Lord. In fact, we recognize that when we consecrate something, right? When we bless something, we're giving it a new purpose. We're giving a new end. We are setting it aside for the Lord. And so therefore, we would say that the church and all those who belong in the church, everything that belongs to the church is what belongs to the Lord. Now, last little point here.

I already made this before in the introduction, but in paragraph 752, it's important for us to understand that in Christian usage, this term church designates three kind of levels or three realities, three meanings, but those three meanings are inseparable. So first church designates, here is the liturgical assembly. So people gather particularly for the Eucharist, for the celebration of the mass. Secondly, there is the diocese, which is the local community. And thirdly, the whole universal community of believers. So this is going to be important just for us to understand, like, what are we talking about when we're talking about when we are talking about the church. And what we're going to be talking about is all three of those levels, but they're always all connected.

So remember the Eucharistic Assembly. So that liturgy right there of the mass, essentially, that's the most pronounced way. The local community, that is the diocese made up of individual parishes. And then also we have the universal church, the universal belonging of the believers throughout the whole world. And the church exists in those three areas. She's made real in those three ways. I'm on this world, which is remarkable. And so as last words here in paragraph 752, she draws her life from the word and the body of

Christ, and so herself becomes Christ's body. And that's what the church means. So that might have been what you already knew. Also it might have been something that's kind of like, oh, I did not understand or not fully. I would not have been able to fully articulate what has been articulated in these first five paragraphs in the article in the section on the church. And so that's where we're out now. You know, tomorrow, as I said, we're going to go more deeply into what are some of the symbols of the church.

And these are going to be things that we'll say it tomorrow, but you can pray with. Sometimes we can pray with these symbols because I don't know if you have, if we ever taken the time to pray about the church or even pray with those images of the church that the church has used by itself, that scripture has used about the church, that God has revealed to us. And that's important because you're part of this. This is part of your life. You're in this. And so that means you are what belongs to the Lord. And as a member of that body of Christ, it's worth meditating deeply on. So what am I part of?

And how is this body that has authority over me, that has authority in my life? How is it going to continue to feed me? How is it going to continue to lead me? And how is it going to continue to guide me so that I can then, in turn, serve this church? How can I in turn live in this church? How can I in turn help others be less? and be fed and be guided. And that's what we're going to be talking about in the days to come.

So anyways, I'm so grateful. Day 105, well done, you guys. What a gift to be able to just enter into this reflection and this teaching as we begin talking about the church today, day 105. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow.

God bless.