The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 149: The Holy Spirit Recalls Christ’s Mystery

Episode Date: May 29, 2023

Fr. Mike examines how the Holy Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ. We explore how the Holy Spirit both inspires the Word of God and recalls the Word of God. Fr. Mike emphasizes that it is the Holy Spirit that helps us hear and understand God’s Word. It is the Holy Spirit that helps elicit a response of consent and commitment within us. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1099-1103. 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.

I have an name, it's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in the Year Podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed it down to the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in the 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 together together. Totally amazing. Easy for me to say.

This is day 149. We're reading paragraphs 1099 to 1103. 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. You can also download your own Catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C.I.Y. And you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications.

Because today is day 149. We're one day shy of day 150. I don't know if you got that. That's what that means. For those math nerds out there, we're reading paragraphs 1099 to 1103. Today, we're talking about how the Holy Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ. Remember yesterday, the Holy Spirit prepares for the reception of Christ, right? We talked about the economy of salvation, the history of salvation, that God prepared

that chosen people, right? He called the people of Israel and the Jewish people and how the Jewish liturgy is fulfilled in the Christian liturgy, which is just remarkable. Now here's the Holy Spirit preparing the people. Today, the Holy Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ. What we're going to talk about in that is the liturgy is the memorial of the mystery of salvation. But that word memorial, it's not just it's not just something we remember like we have a memorial day where we remember those who are fallen or we remember Thanksgiving day. Remember the pilgrims and the Americans coming together

in the New World, that kind of thing. The Jewish concept or the scriptural concept of memorial is in paragraph 1103. It's the Greek word NMNesis, or NMNesis. I'll say NMNesis because that's, that's all I like to say. So NMNesis is this recalling. It's this remembrance and it's a remembrance that is completely unique. It's a remembrance that you're not simply remembering a past event but in calling that past event to mind you are present to it once again. That's why the Holy Spirit

recalls the mystery of Christ. All that Jesus has done is brought to us here and now. And so that's where we're going to talk about today in Scripture and in the sacraments So in order to prepare ourselves for this just let's say a prayer and call upon our Heavenly Father as we pray Father in heaven. We trust you. We love you and we dedicate this day to you Whether this is the beginning of the day for us the middle of the day for us or the very end of the day This day is yours and by the power of your Holy Spirit, we ask that you please help us to remember, to never forget all that you've done for us, not only in the past, through your Son Jesus Christ, but also what you've done for us yesterday, and in that past,

the recent past, what you've done for us at these beats and moments in our own life history. What you're doing for us right now, help us to never ever forget, help us to always remember that you are present, that you are here and your Holy Spirit makes present and actual. What your son Jesus Christ, our Lord, made possible. We make this prayer in the mighty name of that same Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as we pray in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It's day 149, we are reading paragraphs 1099 to 1103. The Holy Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ.

The Spirit and the Church cooperate to manifest Christ and His work of salvation in the Liturgy. Primarily in the Eucharist, and by analogy in the other sacraments, the Liturgy is the memorial of the mystery of salvation. The Holy Spirit is the church's living memory, the Word of God. The Holy Spirit first recalls the meaning of the salvation event to the liturgical assembly by giving life to the Word of God, which is proclaimed so that it may be received and lived. As Sacrasoncumcantillium states, in the celebration of the liturgy,

sacred scripture is extremely important. From it come the lessons that are read and explained in the homily and the Psalms that are sung. It is from the scriptures that the prayers, collects and hymns, draw their inspiration and their force, and that actions and signs derive their meaning. The Holy Spirit gives a spiritual understanding of the Word of God to those who read or hear it, according to the disposition of their hearts. By means of the words, actions, and symbols that form the structure of a celebration, the

Spirit puts both the faithful and the ministers into a living relationship with Christ, the Word and image of the Father, so that they can live out the meaning of what they hear, contemplate, and do in the celebration. By the saving word of God, faith is nourished in the hearts of believers. By this faith, then, the congregation of the faithful begins and grows. The proclamation does not stop with the teaching. It elicits the response of faith as consent and commitment, directed at the covenant between

God and his people. Once again, it is the Holy Spirit who gives the grace of faith, strengthens it, and makes it grow in the community. The liturgical assembly is, first of all, a communion in faith, and amnesis. The liturgical celebration always refers to God's saving interventions in history. The economy of Revelation is realized by deeds and words which are intrinsically bound up with each other. The words for their part proclaim the works and bring to light the mystery they contain. In the liturgy of the word, the Holy Spirit recalls to the assembly all that Christ has

done for us. In keeping with the nature of liturgical actions and the ritual traditions of the churches, the celebration makes a remembrance of the marvelous works of God in an anemesis which may be more or less developed. The Holy Spirit who thus awakens the memory of the church then inspires thanksgiving and praise doxology. Okay, so there we are, day 149, paragraph 1099 to 1103. A couple things to just keep in mind. Okay, the Holy Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ.

Now, we're talking about tomorrow, how the Holy Spirit makes present the mystery of Christ. But, and so that is in a sacrament away, right? The sacraments, we are the power of God, the action of God, the reality, the saving work of God is made present to us. It's brought to us here and now that's tomorrow. But here in this section, paragraph 1099 to 1103, it highlights the fact that Holy Spirit is the one who inspires the word of God, right? So here is sacred scripture.

That is not only proclaimed in the mass, but it's also explained in the mass. So here we have, I love paragraph 1099. It is actually like every sentence, every little bit of every sentence. I think it's kind of pure gold. I love this for example. The Spirit and the Church cooperate to manifest Christ and His work of salvation in the liturgy. I don't know if you've ever thought about this. So here's Jesus in His work of salvation that comes to us in the liturgy. How? Because the Holy Spirit again makes present what Jesus made possible, makes active, what an actual, what Jesus made possible. And the church cooperates with that. So as often as we celebrate this, as often as God's word is proclaimed, his works that he's done are proclaimed. There's this

cooperation here, right? Where the Holy Spirit recalls all that Jesus has done and makes this present. His work of salvation is present to us, revealed to us in the liturgy. I love this next line. Primarily in the Eucharist and by analogy, the other sacraments, the liturgy is the memorial of the mystery of salvation. I mean, think about it. What do we say? We say the mystery of faith. Amaz, the priest says, mystery of faith, right? And everyone responds, we proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your resurrection until you come again, right? There's this, that, that is the memorial. That's the mystery of salvation.

And the Holy Spirit is the church's living memory. The church has a living memory, and it belongs to Holy Spirit. No, I just went through all paragraph 299. I know sometimes people don't like, like, Father, why are you just repeating to us what we just heard? Well, I don't know. Sometimes we need to hear it again because what the paragraphs go on to describe is, here is how the Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ. Primarily or principally, or first of all, in some ways, in the Word of God.

And so when we hear God's word proclaimed, right, in the scriptures and mass, there is the works of God are proclaimed, the words of God are proclaimed. And we remember this again, it's is so important in paragraph 1100 says, it's a quote from Saccharosanthus and Quinchillium in the celebration of the liturgy, sacred scripture is extremely important. from sacred scripture, come the lessons that are read and explained in the homily and the Psalms that are sung, right? From the scripture that our prayers come, the callics come, the hymns rather inspiration, their force and the actions and signs derive their meaning. We just recognize the Holy Spirit gives us an understanding to God's word. Now Holy Spirit makes God's word present, right? Through the scriptures, the preemproclaimed.

But also the Holy Spirit gives us an understanding of the word of God. According to our disposition of our hearts, we're gonna talk about this again and again. In fact, in the days to come, we'll talk about how the sacraments are always powerful, right? The sacraments are always what we call efficacious. They're always present, they're always doing something. But whether or not they do something in our hearts

is based off of our disposition, the disposition of our hearts. And same thing is true when it comes to God's word being proclaimed. God's word is living in effective, sharper than any two-edged sword. We know this. We also know that sometimes we are indifferent. We also know that sometimes we don't have an open disposition to really hear God's word, or we're not active, right?

We're sometimes passive listeners instead of receptive listeners to God's word. And so we recognize that the Holy Spirit helps us because we don't know how to pray as we go up We don't even know how to hear God's word as we ought to and so God's word is proclaimed and then in the homily God's word is explained and this is this is again We get to receive this and faith gets to be nourished in our hearts But this is so important in paragraph 11.02. It says the proclamation what God is doing, right?

does not stop with a teaching. It elicits the response of faith as consent and commitment. That is, oh man, this is so vital for all of us. Especially when we're hearing God's word in Mass or reading God's word or listening to something like the Bible in the air, the proclamation doesn't stop with the teaching. So we have the word of God proclaimed and then explained, right? The teaching. But that's not the end.

What it's supposed to do is it's supposed to elicit a response of faith, of consent and commitment. What does that mean? Well, that means that we hear God's word and say, yes, right? We hear God's word and we say, not just, hey, we're not indifferent. B, we're not argumentative. No, it's okay to wrestle with faith, right? It's okay to wrestle with what God's Word is saying to us. But we want to arrive at this place of, okay, Lord,

teach, teach me, speak, Lord, your servants listening. Remember what the prophet Samuel said. He wakes up in the middle of the night. The voice of God says, Samuel, Samuel, finally, Samuel realizes it's God's voice. And in what does he say? He says, speak, Lord, your servant is listening. To have that kind of open disposition,

when God's work is, word is proclaimed. that is to receive His word with consent, right? It's receive His word with consent. And then the next level is not just, okay, here I am, I'm listening to God's word, I'm consenting to it, I'm agreeing, I'm saying amen to that. It also says consent and commitment. And this is one of the things that sometimes we miss out on. Sometimes even if we are attentive, we're listening to God's Word with our heart, mind, soul, and strength. And we're saying, okay, even if we're wrestling, we're saying, yes,

we're saying, Amen. Sometimes we forget this commitment part, which is, God, what are you asking of me? What are you inviting me to do? What kind of commitment can I make as a result of your word being proclaimed and explained? So this is going to be really, really critical for all of us as we move forward. My invitation for all of us is whenever we approach the scriptures, whether that's privately or in the liturgy, to be able to say, okay, speak for your servants listening, right? I'm open to this. To be able to say, okay, even if I'm wrestling with this, I would give consent. I agree with this. I give my amen to this. And then ultimately, to make some kind of commitment, saying, okay, God, you have spoken, Lord, you have spoken.

And I was listening. Here is what you're calling me to do. Maybe you're calling me to purify my heart in one way. Maybe you're calling me to stop doing something. Maybe you're calling me to start doing something. Maybe you're calling me to just simply stay the course. Whatever that is, there's a response. So it's receptivity, right? I'm speaking Lord your servants listening. There's consent, even after wrestling to say amen. And finally, there's this commitment. Now paragraph 11 or 3, this is the last thing. paragraph 11 or 3. Talk about how the liturgy always refers to God's saving interventions in history and the enemesis, right? That remembrance, that recalling brings the events of the past present to the community as often as those words are proclaimed. And there's this massively mysterious thing.

Now tomorrow, again, we're going to talk about how God really truly is present, like the Epiclecis, another Greek word we're going to hear about tomorrow. Epiclysis brings down, in so many ways, you need to say it like this, brings down the very presence of God upon the gifts of bread and wine. It ultimately causes them to become the body of the Lord of Christ. But this anemnesus, this remembrance that happens in, when the Word of God is proclaimed, we're there. We're present to this.

And the anemnesus, of course, when the sacrament is lived out, when that sacrament is made present to us as well, here we are present to the reality, we're present to the saving action of Jesus. Hope this makes sense. I think it's just, maybe I say beautiful, remarkable, fascinating, too many times,

but I'm gonna tell you guys, it's beautiful, remarkable, and fascinating. So I live around, I need to, but I'm gonna tell you guys, it's beautiful, remarkable, and fascinating. So I don't know what to do. I need someone to help me invest in a Thessaurous because also I ought to speak, say the word, say the word Thessaurous. Oh, what a day, you guys, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me.

My name is Father Mike and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.