The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 149: The Holy Spirit Recalls Christ’s Mystery (2024)

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

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. 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 the 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 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 toward our heavenly home. It's 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 that 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 good because today is day 149. We're one day shy of day 150 Yeah, I don't know if you caught 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 member yesterday

The Holy Spirit prepares for the reception of Christ, right? We talk about, we talked about the economy of salvation, the history of salvation with that, that God prepared the chosen people, right? He called the people of Israel, 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 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 Native 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 the Greek word anamnesis or anemnesis. I'll say anamnesis because that's that's how I like to say it. So anamnesis 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 for 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 in that past, the recent past. What

you've done for us at these beats and moments in our 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 and the Holy Spirit. Amen. It's day 149, we're 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 Sacrosanctum Concilium 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 a 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. Anamnesis. 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 anamnesis 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, paragraphs 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 and so that is in a sacramental way, 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 work of God is made present to us is brought to us here and now that's tomorrow but here in this section paragraph 1099 to 1103

It highlights the fact that the 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 Like 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 and 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, 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. At Mass, the priest says mystery of faith, right? And everyone responds. We proclaim your death, oh Lord, and profess your resurrection until you come again, right? There's this, that, 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 the Holy Spirit. And no, I just went through all of paragraph 1099. 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, this is so important. In fact, paragraph 1100 says, it's a quote from Sacrosanctum Concilium, 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 colics 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 being proclaimed, but also the Holy Spirit gives us an understanding of the word of God according to our disposition of our hearts We're going to 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 being proclaimed. God's Word is living and effective, sharper than any true-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 ought 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 can we get to receive this and Faith gets to be nourished in our hearts, but this is so important in paragraph 1102 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 A, 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 me, speak Lord, your servant's 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 what does he say? He says, speak Lord, your servant is listening. To have that kind of open disposition when God's word is proclaimed, that is to receive his word with consent, right? To 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 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'll 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 speak Lord your servants listening There is consent even after wrestling to say amen and finally, there's this commitment now paragraph 1103. This is the last thing paragraph 1103 Talk about how the liturgy always refers to God saving saving interventions in history and the anamnesis, 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 epiclesis, another Greek word we're going to hear about tomorrow the Epiclesis brings down in so many ways you can say it like this, brings down the very presence of God upon the gifts of bread and wine that ultimately causes them to become the body and blood of Christ. But this anamnesis, this remembrance that happens in when the Word of God is proclaimed, we're there, we're present to this and the anamnesis, 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 gotta tell you guys, it's beautiful, remarkable and fascinating. So I need someone to help me invest in a thesaurus too many times but I tell you guys it's beautiful remarkable and fascinating so I live right around I need to someone help me invest in a thesaurus because also how to speak say the words say the word the source 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