The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 147: Christ’s Work in the Liturgy (2026)

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

We continue our examination of Christ’s acts through the sacraments that he instituted. Fr. Mike emphasizes the importance of understanding that the sacraments are sacred signs that “make present efficaciously the grace they signify.” The sacraments specifically signify the Paschal mystery, Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. We also explore how the Paschal mystery cannot remain in the past. Though it occurred in time, it transcends all time and is made present in all time. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1084-1090. 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 Church. 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 journeyed together toward our heavenly home. This is Day 147. You guys, we are reading paragraphs 1084 to 1090. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach. It also includes a little red ribbon. That's where we're at in the second pillar right now, but you can

follow along with any recent version of the catechism of the Catholic Church or any ribbon you'd like. To download your own catechism in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash CIY. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. It is day 147 reading paragraphs 1084 to 1090. Just a couple quick reminders, easy for me to say. As we are walking through this second pillar, the kind of the, I want to say the primary document, the primary document's always going to be scripture, obviously. If you want to take a look at those footnotes on every single page, virtually every page has a reference from scripture because we get everything, you know, our data comes from script or data of what

we believe, our theology comes from scripture. But also in this second pillar, the document, sacrosanctum conchilium from the second Vatican Council is going to be one of those big ones we reference. I mentioned that, you know, me yesterday, the day before, that it's going to be a big one, kind of like Dave Irbum, kind of Dave Verbum was a big one. When it comes to what we're talking about now, it's going to be sacrosanctum, sacrosanctum, chilium. And so just keep that in mind. Yesterday we talked about how the whole thing,

the whole liturgical life of the church, the whole liturgical work of the church, that it is the work of the Holy Trinity. Yesterday, specifically is the father, source, and goal of the liturgy. Today is this is Christ's work in the liturgy, and you can guess what's happening. tomorrow, Holy Spirit, and the church in the liturgy.

But today is just a few paragraphs on what does Jesus do? And it's just remarkable to recognize that we're going to get a couple different definitions. We're going to get the definition of sacraments, which I'm really excited about in paragraph 1084. We're also going to get basically, how is Christ present in the earthly liturgy? And we recognize that Jesus is present in four distinct ways in the liturgy. We're going to hear about that in paragraph 1088 and everything else besides. So as we prepare our hearts to just see how is Jesus present, how is he active? What does Christ work in the liturgy in these next few paragraphs?

Let's just call upon our Father and call upon the name of our Lord Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. We pray, Father in heaven, thank you so much. Thank you for the gift of the fact that what Jesus had done for us, what he has done for us two thousand years ago, halfway around the world for many of us, comes to us now. It comes to us here in our little towns and our big cities. cities in our small parishes, in our giant churches. Lord God, what your son has done for us, we have access to. We have access to you. And you make yourself present. You make the Holy Trinity present at every single liturgy, Lord God. You make yourself completely accessible to us because

you're good and you love us. And we thank you. We thank you for everything you've done. We thank you for the paschal mystery, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, which comes to us in every liturgy, especially in the liturgy of the Eucharist. We thank you, Lord God. Please help us to have eyes that see, right? To help us, the Father, to have eyes that recognize your presence, your work, your son, your Holy Spirit in the liturgy, especially when our eyes can be so obscured by just seeing ordinary things.

But Lord God, you use ordinary things in an extraordinary way. You use ordinary things to give us extraordinary grace. You use ordinary things to give us yourself. And so help us have eyes to see and a faith that receives and worships and loves you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We are on day 147. We are reading paragraphs 1084 to 1090. Christ's work in the liturgy. Christ glorified. Seated at the right hand of the Father and pouring out the Holy Spirit on his body, which is the church, Christ now acts. through the sacraments he instituted to communicate his grace. The sacraments are perceptible signs, words and actions, accessible to our human nature.

By the action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, they make present efficaciously the grace that they signify. In the liturgy of the church, it is principally his own paschal mystery that Christ signifies and makes present. During his earthly life, Jesus announced his paschal mystery by his teaching and anticipated it by his actions. When his hour comes, he lives out the unique event of history which does not pass away. Jesus dies, is buried, rises from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of the Father once for all.

His pastical mystery is a real event that occurred in our history, but it is unique. All other historical events happen once, and then they pass away, swallowed up in the past. The pascal mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot remain only in the past because by his death he destroyed, death and all that Christ is, all that He did and suffered for all men, participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times while being made present in them all. The event of the cross and resurrection abides and draws everything toward life. From the time of the Church of the Apostles, Sacrosanctum Conchillium states, Accordingly, just as Christ was sent by the Father, so also he sent the Apostles filled with the Holy Spirit. This he did so that they might

preach the gospel to every creature and proclaim that the Son of God by his death and resurrection has freed us from the power of Satan and from death and brought us into the kingdom of his father. But he also willed that the work of salvation which they preached should be set entrained through the sacrifice and sacraments around which the entire liturgical life revolves. Thus there is in Christ by giving the Holy Spirit to the apostles entrusted to them his power of sanctifying. They became sacramental signs of Christ. By the power of the same Holy Spirit, they entrusted this power to their successors. This apostolic succession structures the whole liturgical life of the church and is itself sacramental,

handed on by the sacrament of holy orders. Is present in the earthly liturgy. To accomplish so great a work, the dispensation or communication of his work of salvation, Christ is always present in his church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person, of his minister, the same now offering through the ministry of the priests, who were formerly offered himself on the cross, but especially in the Eucharistic species. By his power, he is present in the sacraments so that when anybody baptizes, it is really Christ himself who baptizes. He is present in his

word, since it is he himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the church. Lastly, he is present when the church prays and sings, for he has promised, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I. in the midst of them. Sacrosanctum Conchillium states, Christ indeed always associates the church with himself in this great work in which God is perfectly glorified and men are sanctified. The church is his beloved bride who calls to her Lord and through him offers worship

to the Eternal Father, which participates in the liturgy of heaven. Sacrosanctum Conchillium further states, in the earthly liturgy, we share in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle. With all the warriors of the heavenly army, we sing a hymn of glory to the Lord,

venerating the memory of the saints, we hope for some part in fellowship with them. We eagerly await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, until he, our life, shall appear, and we too, will appear with him in glory. Okay, so there it is. 147, paragraph 1084 to 1090. Oh my goodness gracious. You guys, holy smokes. This is just,

okay, I don't know if you caught it, but there are a number of different authors who contributed to the writing of the catechism. And, you know, the creed was written, I think, beautifully. It sings. It's beautiful. It's poetic. It's, I mean, so clear and concise. This, whoever the team was, who wrote this section, it's amazing. So far, it's just incredible. So here we go. 10-84. Let's highlight this. Oh, my goodness, gracious.

I said they're going to give us a definition of the sacraments. We recognize that Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he's pouring out the Holy Spirit on his body, which is the church, he now acts through the sacraments he instituted to communicate his grace. So what are sacraments? Middle of paragraph 1084. The sacraments are perceptible signs, aka words and actions here in the parentheses, perceptible signs accessible to our human nature by the action of Christ and the power

of the Holy Spirit, they make present efficaciously the grace that they signify. So we recognize this, right, that every sacrament is a sacred sign that causes what it signifies. Every great, every sacrament is a sacred sign that causes what it signifies. I'm not sure if we've talked about this before, but we'll talk about it now is we recognize, okay, what's a sacred sign? Well, you know, we know what a sign is. A sign is like, okay, there's a stop sign on the corner right outside my house here. Now, that signifies stop here. Okay, great. But it's a sign signify. Stop here. Okay, great. It doesn't cause you to stop, right? I have demonstrated this many times, just kind of rolled right through.

But you can imagine a stop sign that actually caused what it signified. It signifies stops. You can imagine that you pull up to the corner and regardless of what you want to do, the sign actually caused you to stop. That would be a sign that caused what it signified. So here we have the sacraments. And there are signs, sacred signs, that cause what they signify. Because of the action of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, they make present

efficaciously the grace that they signify. So baptism, what's, it's a sign of? It's a sign of washing. Well, it actually does wash away original sin. Baptism also a sign of new birth, right, as giving birth, of dying and rising. So it actually does make us into new creatures, right? It actually does make us into God's sons and daughters. The sign of reconciliation, right? Confession is a sign of God's forgiveness. It actually causes God's forgiveness. We participate efficaciously. That mercy of God is present efficaciously. It actually does forgive our sins. You know, the sign of signs, the Eucharist is a sign of Jesus' presence. It actually is Jesus' presence, right? And it's just so remarkable. You know, the sign of matrimony is to become one flesh will actually, to actually truly become

one flesh. And this is just so, so amazing that by the action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, the sacraments make present efficaciously the grace that they signify. Now, later on, we're going to highlight this, the paschal mystery. Paragraph 1085 is very important for us because we recognize that in the liturgy of the church, it is principally Jesus' paschal mystery that he signifies and makes present. What is that? His life, death, and resurrection. This is so incredibly important. Jesus dies, is buried, rises from the dead, ceded at the right hand of the Father once for all. That happened one time. The paschal mystery is a real event that occurred in our history, but it's the most unique event in the world because, as it says in 1085, all other historical events happen once, then they pass

away. The paschal mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot remain only in the past because by his death, he destroyed death, and all that Christ is, all that he did, he suffered for all men, it participates in the divine eternity. So why? What do you mean with that? Okay, what is Jesus doing when he's suffering, when he's dying, when he's rising, when he extends to heaven? He is offering all of that to the father. He's offering himself to the father. This is so important. He's offering himself to the father. He does not cease offering himself to the father in eternity. And so this event that occurred in time, once for all, right?

Occurs in eternity constantly. It transcends all times while being made present in all times. And just, man, they think about this. That moment in time, which now exists in eternity, transcends all times while being made present in all times. And it's just incredible. So then what does Jesus do? In order to communicate that grace, what he's done for us to all times, to us, he gives the ability to the apostles, not just to preach.

He does that, definitely gives them the ability to preach the gospel to every creature, but he also wanted the work of salvation, which they preached, to be continued through the sacrifice and sacraments. And so what does he do? Well, we know this in John chapter 20. That's one of the moments in John chapter 20, where Jesus, he's risen from the dead, and he breathes on the Holy Spirit,

and he says, peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so no, I send you. Receive the Holy Spirit. Those who sins you forgive are forgiven. Those who sins you hold bound are held bound. He's given, he's entrusted to the apostles, his power of sanctifying. And they become sacramental signs of Christ, right?

Efficacious. They actually, they're not just kind of like a little reminder. They're actually efficacious in the fact that they communicate the grace of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Spirit, which does that make sense? I just, oh my gosh, you guys, ah, so exciting. Lastly, well, maybe lastly, almost lastly, paragraph 1088. Jesus is present. He's always present in his church. He's always present in the church, especially in our liturgical sacraments, celebrations, right? Did Jesus is present in the sacrifice of the mass in the person of the minister? So the priest is,

Jesus is present in the person of the priest. That's, that's one way he's present. He's especially present in the Eucharist, and that we're going to talk about that so fully that Jesus is exceptionally present, especially present in the Eucharist. He's present in the sacraments so that when anybody baptizes, this really Christ himself who baptizes, you might not be ordained listening to this. If you ever baptized someone, we would say it's actually Jesus who baptizes through you, baptizes through you. So it's really Christ himself. Jesus is present, Christ is present in the Word. is when the Holy Scriptures are proclaimed. There he is.

And also Jesus is present whenever two or three gathering in his name. So we have this. Jesus is present in the person of the minister. He's present most above all in the Eucharist. He's present in his word when it's proclaimed. And he's present in the gathering among the people when they gather in his name. Which is, isn't that incredible? Just here these four ways in which Jesus Christ is present to us.

And not only this, this last little note. Oh, my goodness gracious. Okay, you guys, I said this a thousand times, right, goodness gracious or wawi, Kaziariagraph 1090. What are we doing in the earthly liturgy? Well, we're going to Mass. Mm-hmm. That's good.

What are we doing in the earthly liturgy? Well, what's happening is the Father is being glorified and the people of God are being sanctified. Hugely important. This is it. Every single time you go to Mass. God is being glorified, perfectly glorified. And human beings are being sanctified.

but the earthly liturgy is also a share in the foretaste of what the heavenly liturgy is occurring there that basically we are joined at every single mass we are joined with Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of God the Father we're joined with all the warriors of the heavenly army we sing a hymn of glory to the Lord we venerate the memory of the saints and we hope for some part in fellowship with them we eagerly await the Savior our Lord Jesus Christ until he our life shall appear and we too will appear with him in glory. That is for the future. I mean, that's happening right now in eternity. And that's for the future where we get to participate fully in that in heaven, God willing. But think about this. The next time you go to Mass, which might even be today, we're participating in that already

here on earth. The earthly liturgy participates in the liturgy of heaven. And this is not something you have to wait to do. You actually could even do this today or maybe tomorrow. What a gift. Holy smokes. What a gift. God wants us to be part of this. Anyways, man, we have a long journey ahead of us, which is awesome. Tomorrow we're talking about the Holy Spirit and the church in the liturgy.

And then again, we keep going off to the races because this is our life. This is how God wants us to become holy. And this is how God has asked us to come into contact with him on a regular, maybe even daily basis. Oh, man, you guys, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.

Thank you.