The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 12: Receiving Dogmas (2026)

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

How do we come to accept the binding truths of the Faith? Fr. Mike explains how the dogmas of the Faith are boundaries designed to help us know God and ourselves accurately. He invites us to see these boundaries as lights along our path that enable us to love God and fully do his will. If we can understand that these dogmas are guided by love, we can come to receive them as gifts for the salvation of our souls. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 88-95. 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 passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in E. 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 12. I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism.

I don't know if you knew that, but that's what I'm using. That includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along in that version or in any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Also, if you want to download your own catechism in your year reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. Also, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily notifications. It is day 12. We're reading paragraphs 88 to 95.

And in this, it's just so, gosh, you guys, so good. I am, I mentioned this yesterday, but I'm going to mention it again today. Maybe the last three days. I don't even know. I'm so grateful that here we are kind of getting into some more of the meat. It's like, what's the transmission of divine revelation? And it goes through the apostolic tradition, right? The apostolic preaching, those orally and in writing,

continued through apostolic succession, right? The bishops who came after those original bishops, the apostles, who laid hands on the next generation, the next generation, and it's come down to us. And we have, again, one common source of revelation, but that's given to us through sacred scripture and sacred tradition. And then, of course, is interpreted by the magistrarium. So the bishops united with the pope.

Now, today, the catechism is going to highlight a couple more things. One is that we have dogmas. And dogmas are those definitive beliefs that have been clearly and explicitly taught that we are bound to believe. So those dogmas of the faith are given to us. And they're good. Sometimes we can look at dogmas and say, oh, you have to believe this. I don't know anyone who believes all these things. But here's where we're at.

It gives light to our lives and actually is meant to be received with a heart that is grateful for light, right, for truth. We also have this supernatural appreciation of faith, the senses fidei, that is just, that sense of the faith that is received by the whole people of God. We have the magistrate, right? The bishops united with the pope. That there's the official teaching office. But then there's also the body of Christ, right?

There's the people of God. There's the church that we're meant to not only receive the dogments that have been given to us, receive the sacred scripture, receive sacred tradition, but also we're called to enter into it. And the more deeply that we, as believers in Jesus Christ and followers of Christ, members of the church, members of the body of Christ, the more that we enter into those dogmas, the more we enter into that light that's given to us, it's remarkable that the catechism highlights, the more we do that, the more light there is, essentially, that the more we enter into

and allow those dogmas to transform our lives, the more those dogmas become even clearer, It's kind of like it's that sense of you can read something on the page, but then when you see someone living it out, that's the difference, right? And so that's when we receive the supernatural sense of faith, that senses feed those gifts of the dogmas, it changes everything. So we're going to talk about that today as well. Hopefully that makes sense. Let's say a prayer because the catechism is clear, but sometimes our minds are muddy. So let's pray, Father in heaven, we thank you. We thank you for this day. We thank you for bringing us to day 12, bring us to the end of this. second week of listening and learning about how you've spoken to us, how much you love us,

that in a plan of sheer goodness, that you sent your only begotten son, and you've given us your Holy Spirit, you've given us a church, and you've given us your word, both in fleshed and in scripture, and you've made us members of your body. And so, Lord God, we ask you to please, help us be faithful. Help us to be faithful to what you've called us to. Help us to receive the dogmas that you have made explicit. Help us to live out the truth that does not just be hearers of the word, but doers of the word as well. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

As I said, it is day 12. We're reading paragraphs 88 to 95. The dogmas of the faith. The Churcher's Magisterium exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the fullest. extent, when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes in a form obliging the Christian people to an irrevocable adherence of faith, truths contained in divine revelation, or also, when it proposes in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection with these. There is an organic connection between our spiritual life and the dogmas.

Dogmas are lights along the path of faith. They illuminate it and make it secure. Conversely, if our life is upright, our intellect and heart will be open to welcome the light shed by the dogmas of faith. The mutual connections between dogmas, their coherence, can be found in the whole of the revelation of the mystery of Christ. In Catholic doctrine, there exists an order or hierarchy of truths, since they vary in their relation to the foundation of the Christian faith. The supernatural sense of faith.

All the faithful share in understanding and handing on revealed truth. They have received the anointing of the Holy Spirit who instructs them and guides them into all truth. The document Lumen Gensium from the Second Vatican Council states, The whole body of the faithful cannot err in matters of belief. This characteristic is shown in the supernatural appreciation of faith, census fidei, on the part of the whole people, when, from the bishops to the last of the faithful, they manifest a universal consent in matters of faith and morals. Lumigencium further states, by this appreciation of the faith, aroused and sustained by the spirit of truth, the people of God, guided by the sacred teaching authority, the magistrarium,

receives the faith once for all delivered to the saints. The people unfailingly adheres to this faith, penetrates it more deeply with right judgment, and applies it more fully in daily life. Growth in understanding the faith. Thanks to the assistance. of the Holy Spirit, the understanding of both the realities and the words of the heritage of faith is able to grow in the life of the church. First, through the contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their hearts. It is in particular theological research which deepens knowledge of revealed truth. Second, from the intimate sense of spiritual realities which believers experience, the sacred scriptures grow with the one who reads them. Third, from the preaching of those who have

received, along with their right succession in the Episcopet, the sure charism of truth. Finally, the Arabim also states, It is clear, therefore, that in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred tradition, sacred scripture, and the magisterium of the church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls. Okay, so there we are, paragraph's 88 to 95.

Okay, as I mentioned before, we have dogmas, we have the supernatural sense of faith, the sense is Fidei, and we have this growth in understanding of the faith. So let's start with the dogmas. The dogmas of the faith, what are those? So maybe a simple way to say this is it's a truth revealed by God, which the Magisterium of the Church declared as binding. As we read in the Catechism just a second ago, the Church's Magisterium asserts that it exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the fullest extent when it defines dogmas.

That is, when it proposes, here's the thing, in a form obliging Catholics to an irrevocable adherence of faith, truths contained in divine revelation, or also when it proposes, in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection with these. So the thing I think that we might be hesitant about when it comes to dogmas is, oh my gosh, I have to believe this. And don't have a choice to it? Well, it's one of those situations where the degree to which, you know, we kind of buck against it or kick against the goad, right? The degree to which we receive a dogma with hesitancy or resistance and the degree to which we receive a dogma with open arms and joy is going to reveal a lot about our hearts. It's going to reveal a lot about where we're at.

So it mentions in paragraph 89 it says, if our life is upright, our intellect and heart will be open to welcome the light shed by the dogmas of faith. And there's a reference of footnote there to John chapter 8, verses 31 and 32, where Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, he said, if you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. That's kind of the reference that is offered here when it comes to that if our life is upright, our intellect and heart will be open to welcome the light shed by the dogmas of faith. And when we have resistance to dogmas, you know, there's a history of people who We just want to get rid of the dogmas.

And they'll say, you know, can I just have a relationship with God? And the dogmas are so binding. They're hemming me in. There was a scholar back in the day. I think it was G.K. Chesterton, who gave this image. He said, imagine an island coming out of the ocean. And the island is coming straight up out of the ocean. So it's entirely a cliff, right?

On all sides, it is cliff drop off from the top, right down the rocks and the water below. He says, now along that cliff, though, surrounding the entire island is a fence. So people don't fall off the cliff into the rocks and water below. And so here's children. And on top of this island is this massive meadow, right? This is a huge field in which all these kids can be free to play. There's this fence so they don't have to worry about falling off the cliff. But say someone comes along and they say, I can't believe you put this fence that is hemming all these kids in.

Why wouldn't you just let them be free? And so you take down the fence. He said, if you left and came back, you would find all those kids huddled in the center of the island. for fear that they would fall off the island. So the image here, the upshot of the whole thing is when we have dogmas, yes, they give us boundaries, but they give us a boundary so A, we won't fall off the cliff, and B, that we can go anywhere we want within the boundaries. And that's the incredible thing is when you know that here's a dogma, or here are the

dogmas of the church, and I can go anywhere I want within that whole boundary. that the church is giving me and continue to run and play and whatever the thing is, you know, dive deeply into these truths that are revealed in the faith and not worry about falling off the cliff. But, but if I get rid of the dogmas, if I get rid of the boundaries, what will happen is you'll have these little camps, these little camps of people who will say, well, I'm going to hold on to this one. I'm going to hold on to this one over here. I'm going to hold on to that one over there.

And people will stop diving deeply into the reality of God. Isn't that just ironic? I want to just have a relationship with God, so I don't need any dogmas. But what happens then is I don't have a relationship with the true and living God. I have a relationship with one aspect of God typically. If that makes any sense, you can see that play out in many, many ways in the history of humanity, in history of the church, whenever people have come along and said, I'm rejecting the Catholic Church, I'm rejecting this dogma.

And then you find people, you just have little camps instead of having the entire field, the entire island to play on. They have little camps. Yeah, just kind of an interesting thing. But also, the dogmas are not merely boundaries. They're also, as the Catechism says in paragraph 89, they're lights along the path of faith. They illuminate it and make it secure.

So these dogmas or these lights, these boundaries are so, they're gifts from God through the church for us. And so what we need to do is receive them as gifts. And that's the next section, the supernatural sense of faith, right, the census fee dei, which, as it says in paragraph 92, is on the part of the whole people when, quote, from the bishops to the last of the faithful, they manifest universal consent and matters of faith and morals. And that is from Lumen Gensium, right? That's a document of the Second

Vatican Council that highlights this. It highlights the fact that when we receive the teaching of the church, sacred scripture and secret tradition and the magistrate of the church, what we do is we adhere to this faith, and then it says in paragraph 93, penetrate it more deeply with right judgment and apply it more fully in our daily life. And all of that leads to what, a growth in understanding the faith. So we, you know, we start with the dogmas, right, that come out of sacred scripture, sacred tradition, and the magistrarium. We have that reception, that supernatural sense of faith, receiving it as faithful. But then the more we receive it and live it out, there's this growth in understanding the faith that the church highlights. In paragraph 95 just puts that so beautifully and so

powerfully, paragraph 95 is essentially a long quote from Dave Erboum. And it goes like this. You heard it before. I'll say it again. It is clear, therefore, that in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred tradition, sacred scripture, and the magisterium of the church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others, working together each in its own way under the action the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls. And again, that just highlights so importantly the whole point of all of this. The point of this is not to say, okay, are you believing the right things? Or are you rejecting the right things? It's a matter of, am I receiving him? This is all about salvation of souls, right? It's all guided by love.

It's all guided by the very thing that even moved the Lord God to do what he has done in a plan of your goodness, out of love for us. He not only made this world, created it, redeemed us, and revealed himself to us. So it's love. The whole point of this is the salvation of souls. The whole point of this is that we can know God accurately, we can know ourselves accurately, and we can know His will more fully so that we can do it. And that's the point, right? That the point of all of saying all of this today, the whole point of dogmas, the whole point of revelation is so that you and I can know him. It is so that you and I can not just know him, but love him, like truly him, the Lord God,

as he is, and that you and I can do as well. The result of that is the salvation of souls. I just think that's incredible. But it's also daunting, right? It's also an incredible invitation, but an incredible challenge. And so we need prayers. We need to stay together as a community. We need to stay together as church.

We need to stay together and we need to pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.