The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 110: The People of God (2024)

Episode Date: April 19, 2024

God draws people to himself and makes them his own. The Catechism shows us what makes God’s people different from everyone else, and what it is that unites them. Fr. Mike hones in on what exactly it is that the People of God do, and exhorts us to start doing that right here, today. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 781-786. 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 sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture, and pass it down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 110, we are reading paragraphs 781-786. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations

of Faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Also, you can download your free Catechism in-ear reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. And you can also follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Once again, I just want to thank you all who have supported the production of this podcast with your prayers and financial gifts. It's so important.

We could not literally could not do this without you. Here we are day 110. We're in a new paragraph paragraph two. It's the church as the people of God, the body of Christ and the temple of the Holy spirit. So today we're going to talk about the church as the people of God and, and then tomorrow church as the temple of the Holy Spirit. So today we're gonna talk about the church as the people of God and and then tomorrow church as the body of Christ and so forth and so on, right? As they say. So the church as the people of God. Oh my goodness, you guys, we're gonna highlight

the first paragraph, 781. It is this beautiful paragraph from a document called Lumen Gentium. It's from the Second Vatican Council and the whole paragraph basically is a quote from Lumen Gentium, It's from the Second Vatican Council and the whole paragraph basically is a quote from Lumen Gentium paragraph 9 and It is just you know how when we started this whole catechism and we talked about God in a plan of sheer goodness You know just basically that the the macro level of this What God has done in this world who God is and how he wants to have a relationship with us and brings us into covenant relationship with us and brings us into covenant relationship with him Paragraph 781 is kind of very similar. It's reminiscent of that especially in terms of the role of the church one of the things we really want to highlight is

Paragraph 781 is just beautiful in saying okay. This is how God wants This is how God wants your heart. He wants your heart, yes, individually given to him, but he wants your heart individually given to him in communion with your brothers and sisters, as a people, not just individuals, although the individual is massively important. The community, the people of God, is also very important. And that is just, it's just really beautiful. Paragraph 781, we're going to look at that in a second. But also, paragraph 782 is kind of long

because there's a bunch of bullet points in there. And it's the characteristics of the people of God. It talks about that it's the people of God, that God's not the property of any one people, but he acquired a people for himself. So, and I love that. It's not like God is ours. He's not our property, not even slightly.

But he has acquired a people for himself from every nation from every race from every ethnicity From all around the world is amazing and will become a member of this people not by physical birth But by baptism all these bullet points there are about I think seven or so of these bullet points of the characteristics of the people of God and lastly, oh It's one of my favorite things to realize that not only when we're brought into the people of God, not only when we're brought into the church, are we made into sons and daughters of God,

we're also anointed. We share in Christ's anointing. And what was the anointing of Christ? He was anointed a priest, prophet, and king. And therefore, as you are brought into the people of God, this whole people is a priestly Prophetic and royal people and that's just such good news priestly prophetic and royal people now if you hold on to that We're gonna come back to that when we talk about the sacraments in the future when we talk about the life of the Christian in

The future this is so important. Not only are we made sons and daughters of God in baptism We're also made into a royal priesthood right a prophetic people and a royal people will talk About that a little bit today. We'll start talking about that today And of course, we'll continue talking about this in the days and weeks and months to come But today we're gonna start it. So let's say a prayer as we kick this day 110 off Father in heaven We give you praise and glory. Thank you so much. Thank you for bringing us to this day Thank you for inviting us to share in your divine life Thank you for giving us your Holy Spirit that spirit of anointing this written anointed Jesus Christ the anointed one

The priestly prophetic and kingly spirit we thank you so much And we ask you to please help us live up to that help us live up to this high call that you've extended to us This day today and every day. In Jesus' name we pray in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, it's day 110, we're reading paragraphs 781 to 786. Paragraph 2. The Church, People of God, Body of Christ, Temple of the Holy Spirit.

The Church, People of God. Lumen Gentium states, At all times and in every race, anyone who fears God and does what is right has been acceptable to him. He has, however, willed to make men holy and save them not as individuals without any bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people who might acknowledge him and serve him in holiness. He therefore chose the Israelite race to be his own people, and established a covenant with it. He gradually instructed this people.

All these things, however, happened as a preparation for and figure of that new and perfect covenant which was to be ratified in Christ, the new covenant in his blood. He called together a race made up of Jews and Gentiles which would be one not according to the flesh but in the spirit. Characteristics of the People of God. The people of God is marked by characteristics that clearly distinguish it from all other religious, ethnic, political, or cultural groups found in history. It is the people of God. God is not the property of any one people, but he acquired a people for himself from those who previously were not a people, a chosen race,

a royal priesthood, a holy nation. One becomes a member of this people not by physical birth, but by being born anew, a birth of water and the Spirit, that is, by faith in Christ and baptism. This people has for its head Jesus, the Christ, by faith in Christ and baptism. This people has for its head Jesus, the Christ, the Anointed, the Messiah. Because the same anointing, the Holy Spirit, flows from the head into the body, this is the Messianic people. The status of this people is that of the dignity and freedom of the sons of God in whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as in a temple.

Its law is the new commandment to love as Christ loved us. This is the new law of the Holy Spirit. Its mission is to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. This people is a most sure seed of unity, hope, and salvation for the whole human race. Its destiny, finally, is the Kingdom of God, which has been begun by God Himself on earth and which must be further extended until it has been brought to perfection by Him at the end of time. A priestly, prophetic, and royal people. Jesus Christ is the one whom the Father anointed

with the Holy Spirit and established as priest, prophet, and king. The whole people of God participates in these three offices of Christ and bears the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them. On entering the people of God through faith and baptism, one receives a share in this people's unique priestly vocation. Lumen gentium states, Christ the Lord, High Priest taken from among men, has made this new people a kingdom of priests to God his Father.

The baptized, by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated to be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood. The Holy People of God shares also in Christ's prophetic office, above all, in the supernatural sense of faith that belongs to the whole people, lay and clergy, when it unfailingly adheres to this faith once for all delivered to the saints, and when it deepens its understanding and becomes Christ's witness in the midst of this world. Finally, the people of God shares in the royal office of Christ. He exercises his kingship by drawing all men to himself through his death and resurrection. Christ, King and Lord of the universe, made himself the servant

of all, for he came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. For the Christian, to reign is to serve him, particularly when serving the poor and the suffering, in whom the Church recognizes the image of her poor and suffering founder. The people of God fulfills its royal dignity by a life in keeping with its vocation to serve with Christ. As St. Leo the Great said, The sign of the cross makes kings of all those reborn in Christ, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit consecrates them as priests, so that, apart from the particular service of our ministry, all spiritual and rational Christians are recognized as members of this royal race and sharers in Christ's priestly office. What, indeed, is as royal for a soul as to govern the

body in obedience to God, and what is as priestly as to dedicate a pure conscience to the Lord and to offer the spotless offerings of devotion on the altar of the heart. Ok, so that's paragraphs 781 to 786. As I said, the beginning of this whole thing. So beautiful. This quote, paragraph 781 from Lumen Gentium, which is also known in English as the dogmatic constitution on the Church coming from Second Vatican Council. So the first line, so powerful, right?

At all times and in every race. So, you know, always and for everyone, anyone who fears God and does what is right has been acceptable to him. He has, however, willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people who might acknowledge him and serve him in holiness and just to realize if we had paid any attention to the Bible, if we paid any attention to salvation history, we realize that's how God has done this. Yes, of course, He called Abraham, but He called Abraham so that He could call Abraham's

family, so that He could call this whole tribe, this whole people, this whole nation and now the entire world. So, God calls us because he knows our hearts, right? He knows us as individuals, but he calls us to him as a body. He calls us to him as a community. That's why the images we use here for the church are the people of God, the body of Christ, temple of the Holy Spirit. It's not just the individual of God or the finger of Christ or the brick of the Holy Spirit, but it's the people of God, the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit. God loves us individually and he brings us to him,

of course, personally, but always as part of that people, as part of that body, as part of that temple. Now, moving on, what are some of the characteristics of the people of God? This is worth praying about. I honestly am telling you, that first bullet, it's the people of God. And I love how they immediately make it clear

that God is not the property of any one people, that we can't claim ownership of God. In the church, as Christians, we can't say, he's ours, he's not yours. Not at all. But he has, on the other hand, he has acquired a people for himself who previously were not a people.

And so, in fact, rather than God being our possession, we become, in many ways, His possession in some ways, right? The next note, one becomes a member of this people, not by physical birth, but by being born anew of water and the Holy Spirit. That is, by faith in Christ and baptism. So we recognize this, that we need faith. We need to profess our faith in Jesus Christ. We also need baptism. That's what brings us into the people of God. That's what brings us into the body of Christ. We have Jesus as our head and that anointing that he has this is the third bullet point. The Christ meaning the anointed one, the same

anointing the Holy Spirit that flowed upon Jesus has flowed into the body. This therefore we're actually a messianic people. That's why we're actually called Christians. If Christ means the anointed one and you're a Christian, that means you also are among the anointed ones, right? Makes sense. The status of this people, this is again, take this to prayer, the status of this people, every single baptized Christian.

Now we know this, that God loves every human being, regardless of whether they're baptized or not. But the status of this people is a new status. It's a new reality. And this new reality described here, it says the status of this people is that of the dignity and freedom of the sons of God. There's something new that happens.

We're gonna talk about this more when we get to the sacrament of baptism. But there's something new that happens in the people of God. Those who are baptized become children of God and they have a new dignity and they have a new freedom, which is incredible. The last three bullet points here

before we launch into the last piece. It's law, our law, is the new commandment to love as Christ has loved us. And actually we can jump to the very end here in paragraph 786. It's law is the new commandment to love as Christ has loved us. Now, oh man, this is remarkable and this is so important for us because the next little

section we read today is about how we're made into a priestly, prophetic, and royal people. That royal part, what does that mean? That doesn't mean we lord it over anyone. In fact, Jesus made it absolutely clear that the one who's gonna lead all or reign over all is the one who's gonna lead all or reign over all is the one who is gonna serve all. And he himself came not to be served, but to serve. In middle of paragraph 786, it says this very clearly, for the Christian to reign is to serve him. How? Well, particularly when serving the poor and the suffering, and whom the church recognizes the image of her poor and suffering founder. So

yes, we have this new law, the new commandment to love as Christ loved us. And what does that mean? Of course it means loving our neighbor. Of course it means loving the people around us. But also, very clearly, we exercise the royal office of Jesus Christ when we serve the poor and the suffering in whom we recognize our poor and suffering founder. The last two bullet points here. Its mission is to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. You have a mission, and this is remarkable because this is directly tied to paragraph 783. I don't mean to be bouncing around too much here,

but paragraph 783 says this so clearly that Jesus Christ is the one whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit and established as priest, prophet, and king. Yes, we got that. The whole people of God, we participate in these three offices of Christ, right? Priest, prophet, king, and bear the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them.

And this is so important. We've been given a mission by being made into the people of God, by being anointed, priest, prophet, and king. We were brought into the mission of Jesus and we're given the responsibility for the service and the mission that flow from being a priest, that flow from being a prophet and flow from being a royal people, which is remarkable. Last bullet point, its destiny is the kingdom of God which has been begun by God himself on earth and

which must be further extended until it's been brought to perfection by him at the end of time. So the mission of course is to extend God's salvation to the whole world, right? To bring unity, hope and salvation to the whole human race. And we have to, we have to continue to do this as best as we possibly can. And we haven't been unequipped, right? We are completely equipped because we've been given the Holy Spirit. You have been transformed into a priestly, prophetic and royal person and been brought into a priestly, prophetic and royal people.

And that's these last four bullet points or the last four paragraphs I mean, that we've already kind of talked about a couple of them. As I said, paragraph 783 says that Jesus is the one whom the Father anointed as priest, prophet and king. The whole people of God participate in those three offices, we bear their responsibilities. So, 784 talks with a priestly vocation that Jesus Christ the Lord. He's the high priest taken from among men

He's made this new people a kingdom of priests now We're gonna talk about this again as I said where we get into the sacraments But just to recognize that you have been anointed you've been consecrated you share in Christ's holy priesthood now been anointed, you've been consecrated, you share in Christ's holy priesthood. Now keep this, there's one great high priest, that's Jesus. There are ministerial priests like myself, we share in his priesthood in a unique way, but all the baptized faithful are what I like to call kingdom priests, right? You share in the royal priesthood of Jesus Christ himself and that's really important. We're going to come back to that, as I said, in the weeks and months to follow. himself and that's really important. We're going to come back to that as I said in the weeks and months to follow.

Secondly, paragraph 785, the holy people of God share also in Christ's prophetic office that Jesus Christ He has declared the good news. He's declared the truth. He is the truth. He's declared the truth in love and all those who share in the prophetic office of Jesus are called to profess the truth in love. And so you have, you, us, here we are, those baptized, those brought into the people of God, not only sharing Christ's priestly office, meaning we need to offer the sacrifice and even lay our down our lives as the sacrifice, but we also need to speak the truth in love when the truth needs to be spoken. If that makes any sense, that's that's that's our high call. And lastly, we already talked about this, paragraph 786,

the royal office of Christ is we reign when we serve. And so we're all called to this mission, we're all called to serve. No one's excluded from this, but rather than looking around and saying, where do I need to go in order to serve? The first place every one of us is called to serve is we're called to serve in our own backyard right we're called to serve the people immediately next to

us and everyone has someone close to them now that those people might not be the people we want to serve but they're the ones that we were called to serve and maybe that service doesn't mean that we're the one who's you know washing their feet literally it might not mean we're the ones who are feeding them literally it might mean we're the ones who are feeding them literally it might mean we're the ones who are listening to them because no one else will it might mean that we're the ones who are taking that time for them because no one else does here we are you guys we've made into the people of God and this is this is our call this is our

high call this is our responsibility this is our mission and this is our destiny and we're gonna again We're gonna keep unpacking this as we move forward but god wants all human beings on this planet to know his great love and you know, the truth is They won't They won't unless you and I Live this great commission we've been given unless we live out these three anointings that have been bestowed upon us the priestly prophetic and royal anointings that have been bestowed upon us. The priestly, prophetic, and royal anointing. Because we're the people of God, so we get to live like it.

And of course, it's a high call, and so we need God's grace. Please pray for each other. Because day 110, you guys trucking along, well done. But we need prayers, we need God's grace, and we have it. We just need to ask for it and be open to it. I'm praying for you, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.