The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 152: Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi (2024)

Episode Date: May 31, 2024

The Catechism makes clear to us that evangelization and the sacraments go hand in hand. An ancient saying is highlighted, linking the two: lex orandi, lex credendi—or, the law of prayer is the law of faith. Fr. Mike illustrates this connection by showing us that, when you change the sign that points to an invisible reality, you risk changing where it’s pointing. This is why “no sacramental rite may be modified or manipulated at the will of the minister or the community.” Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1122-1126. 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 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 152. We are reading paragraphs 1122 to 1126.

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 Catechism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today is day 152 reading paragraphs 11, 22 to 1126.

Just a short, you know, I don't five paragraphs, not as short as tomorrow though. Stay tuned. But today we have five paragraphs, 11, 22 to 1126, the sacraments of faith. Remember yesterday, we talked about how these are the sacraments instituted by Christ and they're also sacraments of faith. Remember yesterday, we talked about how these are the sacraments instituted by Christ. And they're also sacraments of the church, right? They're by the church, they're for the church, they're by the church because the church is the sacrament of Christ's action at work in her,

through the mission of the Holy Spirit. They're also for the church in the sense that the sacraments make the church, but they're also the sacraments of faith. And the purpose of the sacraments is to do what? Is to sanctify human beings, right? To sanctify men, it says in 11.23, to build up the body of Christ and finally to give worship to God. If we miss anything else from today, remember this piece, the purpose of the sacraments. They're not just rites and rituals that are empty. They're not meant to be hollow.

They're not just simply things we repeat over and over again because they're common to us. The purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify men, to build up the body of Christ and finally to give worship to God. This is what they are for. This is what they do. And this is incredible because why? Because as often as you and I approach them, those three things happen when you and I participate in them, those three things happen, the world is sanctified,

the church is built up and God is glorified. And so as we enter into these five paragraphs today, this is called to mind the Holy Spirit and call upon the Holy Spirit as we talk to our Father in prayer. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you. We ask that you please help us to participate in the sacraments in such a way that yes, this world is sanctified, that we are sanctified, that your church, the body of Christ is built up and strengthened and mobilized. We also pray that you may be glorified above all in everything, Father. May you be known, may you be loved, may you be worshiped.

May we give our hearts to you the way you have given your heart to us. Help us love you the way you love us. Help us love each other the way you've called us to and help us to be yours. Help us to respond and walk in faith. Help us to do this in every moment of our lives and particularly help us to do this when we encounter you in your sacraments in Jesus name We pray amen in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen. It is day 152 We are reading paragraphs 1122 to 1126

The sacraments of faith Christ sent his apostles so that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all nations. He said, Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The mission to baptize, and so the sacramental mission, is implied in the mission to evangelize, because the sacrament is prepared for by the Word of God and by the faith which is assent to this Word. The people of God is formed into one in the first place by the Word of the living God. The preaching of the Word is required for

the sacramental ministry itself, since the sacraments are sacraments of faith drawing their origin and nourishment from the Word. The purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify men, nourishment from the Word. The purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify men, to build up the body of Christ, and finally, to give worship to God. Because they are signs they also instruct, they not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish, strengthen, and express it. That is why they are called sacraments of faith. The Church's faith precedes the faith of the believer who is invited to adhere to it.

When the Church celebrates the sacraments, she confesses the faith received from the Apostles, whence the ancient saying, Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, or Legum Credendi, Lex Statuat, Suplicandi, according to the Prosper of Aquitaine in the 5th century. The law of prayer is the law of faith. The Church believes as she prays. Liturgy is a constitutive element of the holy and living tradition. For this reason, no sacramental rite may be modified or manipulated at the will of the minister or the community.

Even the supreme authority in the Church may not change the liturgy arbitrarily, but only in the obedience of faith and with religious respect for the mystery change the liturgy arbitrarily, but only in the obedience of faith and with religious respect for the mystery of the liturgy. Likewise, since the sacraments express and develop the communion of faith in the church, the lex orandi is one of the essential criteria of the dialogue that seeks to restore the unity of Christians. Okay, there we have it, paragraphs 1122 to 1126, day 152. Okay, I think this is pretty remarkable.

If you're someone who is interested in evangelization, it's been a big deal in the last, I mean, 2000 years, but it seems like there's been a resurgence. You know, this idea of we're praying for a new Pentecost, we're praying for the new evangelization. So we recognize the evangelization is what? Evangelization is the proclaiming of the good news. That's what Eugenio is good news. The preaching of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Of course that's great. But

remember what Jesus said in the Great Commission at the end of Matthew's gospel. He said go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Yeah of course making disciples that's part of the evangelization. But he also said, right, he continues by saying, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. So Jesus himself connects the mission to evangelize with the mission to baptize, right, the sacramental mission. So go make disciples and have baptism, right? So there is this absolute connection. Pope Paul VI, back in the day, he wrote this document called Evangelia Inuziandi,

or evangelization in the modern world, and he makes it very, very clear that not only in evangelization do we proclaim the gospel, right? We proclaim Jesus as Lord, what he's done for us. That's so important. It's necessary. But also, evangelization is incomplete unless it also involves the sacraments. Not just because Pope Paul VI says so, but because this is completely implied, if not overtly stated in Matthew's gospel when Jesus says, go therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

and teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. So there is this this deep and powerful connection between evangelization and the sacraments. So important. Why? Because the sacraments are there to bring the very saving action of Jesus present to us. They sanctify us. They build up the body of Christ and they give worship to God. This is one of those things we're gonna talk about this hopefully a bunch of times over the course of Christ and they give worship to God. This is one of those things, we're gonna talk about this hopefully a bunch of times over the course of this pillar. But I'll always, we'll ask people, I say,

I would usually say two, you know, paragraph 1123 says three, but I usually say, what are two things that the mass always does, right? What are two things that the Eucharistic liturgy always accomplishes? And I say, actually, if you've gone to mass before, I guarantee you know the answer. What are two things that happens at every single mass?

I'm giving away my tricks right now. And I'll say, actually, I guarantee that everyone here at this talk, or everyone here at this place, you can tell me not only exactly what two things happen at every single mass, you could tell me word for word in unison with everyone else here in this building, in this room. And I usually say it like this. I okay if I were to say pray my brothers

and sisters that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Almighty Father you would say may the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of His name for our good and the good of all his holy church so that that's it those are the two purposes, right? May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands. One, for the praise and glory of his name. Two, for the good and good of all his church. I'm paraphrasing that right there. Right, so there's that the two things that happen at every Mass. For the praise and glory of God's name, God is glorified and for the holiness of the church, the good of all the church, the world is sanctified. This happens at every

single Mass. This is the purpose of the sac church the world is sanctified. This is happens at every single mass This is the purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify people to build up the body and to give worship to God That makes sense. But same is the crazy thing is When we approach the sacraments, we have a degree of faith We're gonna talk about that tomorrow actually that it's efficacious the sacraments do something So they presuppose faith but when we come to the sacraments again and again they also nourish our faith they strengthen our faith they express our faith so here's an example you might be struggling with something like I'm really

struggling to trust the Lord that might be a recurring theme or maybe even just a one-time theme in your life so I'm really struggling to trust the Lord and I just having a tough time be handing my over to him. So what do I do? Well you pray of course and wrestle with that but I find that people will sometimes bring that to confession. They'll bring that to the sacrament of reconciliation. I think yes this is exactly the right thing. The sacrament of reconciliation is a sacrament that, man, it's a sacrament of trust, right?

It is definitely a sacrament where I'm saying, okay, God, maybe even the God that I'm struggling to trust is the one that I trust with my sin, right? The God that I'm struggling to rely on and just lean into is the one that in every confession I am relying on and I'm leaning into or maybe my struggle is with despair, right? Maybe I'm struggling with hope. Maybe I'm just like, I'm so tired of this battle. I'm so tired of my own weakness. I'm so tired of my own sins.

I'm so tired of all of it. Right. And I might wrestle with despair. Again, going to confession is choosing hope. If I'm wrestling with trust, choosing confession is choosing to trust. If I'm wrestling with despair, choosing to go to confession is expressing hope. And see this is the crazy thing about 1123. When we encounter the sacraments, degree of faith of course, but they also

nourish our faith. They strengthen our faith. They express our faith. And so, no matter what you're feeling, maybe you don't feel like you love the Lord. Like, my love has grown shallow. Go to Mass. The Mass is the most incredible expression of God's love for us. When we participate in the Mass, I was gonna say even if we don't feel it,

but maybe especially if we don't feel it, there is something powerful that happens. Why? Because we recognize that love, while it can be a feeling, love is more than a feeling. I mean, there might even been a music group that got that right. Love is more than just a feeling. It is an action. So it's not just affective, right? Affection, but effective. It does something. And so when we go to mass, my heart is feeling low. I go to mass, I'm like, okay, God,

I'm choosing to love you, choosing to worship you. This is, you know, Eucharist, the sacrament of love. I'm choosing to love you as you have asked me to love you. I'm choosing to worship you as you've asked me to worship you. And I'm telling you, when we encounter and enter into those sacraments They not only presuppose our faith But they also nourish our faith and strengthen our faith and express our faith

That's why it's so important that we don't stay away from the sacraments when we when we're struggling But we enter into them now a couple last things there is this principle Lexaronde Lex credendi It's the the law of prayer is the law of faith. That's what it means. The law of prayer, Lexarondi, law of faith or law of belief, Lex Credendi. The church believes as she prays and so we recognize that yep we have sacred scripture, we have sacred tradition and we have the liturgy and that liturgy is a constitutive element of the holy and living tradition. So it's not kind of this add-on kind of a situation. It's how we believe is how we pray

and how we pray is how we believe. Hopefully that makes sense. I just wanted to make a bullet point. The last note here says that in 1125, no sacramental rite may be modified or manipulated at the will of the minister or the community. What does that mean? That means that here in the West, we have this book called the Roman missile.

No one missile is here is how the liturgy of the Eucharist is to be celebrated and your actions are written in red and what you're saying is written in black and so you do the red and you say the black, that's what it is. So that's Sacramento, right? Is there it's been given to us by the church and it may not be modified or manipulated at the will of the minister. Like the priest can't go say you know what actually we're gonna do something slightly different this Sunday or the community the community

can't say you know what we're gonna do we're gonna do something different this Sunday why not because the church wants to be overly controlling but because Lexarondi Lexarondi right the law of prayer is a law of belief we can't change something and how we pray without possibly, possibly, at least expressing a change in belief. I don't know if this example is going to be helpful at all. So let me try it. If you look at like the Alba, so the Alba is a piece of liturgical clothing, right?

It's the, it's the white robe that is often worn underneath the chasable underneath the deacons, Dalmatic. Your servers might often wear the white Alb. So that's that white robe. You can also wear a cassock, but when it's the alb, it's white for a reason. One of those reasons is if you look at the book of Revelation, you have John who's being given a tour of heaven by an angel, and he sees all these people dressed in white robes. And the angel says, who are these people? And John basically says, um, I'm not the one who lives here. You live here. You tell me. and the angel says who are these people and John basically says um I'm not the one who lives here you live here you tell me in the angel

responds these are the ones who have washed their robes the blood of the lamb and so there's that sense of they could be martyrs a sense that they actually could be those who are baptized and so there's that sense of in baptism we are made fully clean and hence expressed or symbolized by the white robe or the Alba now I've been in some sacristies or some, you know, back rooms or the basically we've called dressing rooms for the priest at church and they might have like off white Albs or like Brown Albs. And that makes sense in the sense that some people are like, actually, you know,

what Jesus wouldn't wear completely white. He'd wear like, you know, earth tones. And I get that. I understand that. But I'm changing a symbol. It's a small symbol, of course, but I'm changing a symbol. The symbol of the white robe is now I've been washed in the blood of the lamb. But if I have a off-white robe or I have a tan or brown robe, it doesn't communicate the same idea, right? And so I can't change the symbol without changing the meaning of the symbol And so I can't change the symbol without changing the meaning of the symbol. Or I can't change the symbol without possibly changing the meaning of the symbol.

That example is just, it's pretty small, but it's an example of no sacramental right may be modified or manipulated at the will of the minister or community, not even the pope, not even the supreme authority in the church can change arbitrarily the liturgy. But it has to be doing that in obedience of faith and with respect to the mystery of the liturgy. Hopefully that makes some sense. Today we are just trucking through the sacraments of faith and one thing to just keep in

mind all of this is that you and I, when we encounter the sacraments, they're meant to make us holy, to build up the church and to give glory to God. We talked a lot about making us holy. I wanna highlight that last part. Every time we approach any of the sacraments, God is glorified. Anytime we use the gifts of our Father, He is glorified. Every time, whether we feel it or not, whether we're fully present or not,

we're just doing our best, the Father is glorified. And that's a gift that you can give to the Lord, the God who loves you and the God you love back every single time we show up to the sacraments. Let's do that. Maybe you might even have the chance to do that today. Maybe not today, maybe tomorrow. Either way, no matter what, today,

we can say thank you to the Lord. We can choose to walk in faith. We can choose to hope. We can choose to continue to enter into his love. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow.

God bless.