The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 17: The Canon of Scripture (2026)

Episode Date: January 17, 2026

Fr. Mike explores the formation of the canon of Scripture. He emphasizes the importance of contemplating and venerating all 73 books of both the New and Old Testaments given to us through Sacred Tradition. Together, with Fr. Mike, we further examine the definition of the canon of Scripture throughout history, spanning from the late 4th to the mid-15th century. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 120-127. 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's 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. It is day 17. We are reading paragraphs 120 to 127, seven short paragraphs. A few reminders before we get started. As we get started, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism. which includes the foundations of faith approach,

you can follow along with that catechism or any recent version of the catechism of the Catholic Church. Also, if you want to download your own catechism into your reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash cIY. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily notifications. Like today, it is day 17.

You guys, I am so grateful, so grateful that you are journeying with us in this catechism. I don't know if you noticed this, but things are kind of picking up speed in the sense. They're not going to take off. They're not going to get beyond you. Again, we're only doing a couple paragraphs today, but it's, I think it's maybe closer to the stuff that's on our minds, right?

So today what we're going to look at is the canon of scripture. We're going to look at both the Old Testament and the New Testament and the ways in which we need both, right? We need the Old Testament. There are people in the past who have said that when Jesus came along, the Old Testament was rendered void, was rendered moot. It was completely unnecessary. In fact, some people, they're called heretics, but some people would even say that we can

completely dismiss and not even pay any attention to the Old Testament because of the New Testament. In fact, some people would even say that there are two different gods, one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. Again, that's rejected by the church, and we'll see how that's rejected today. We also have the New Testament and how the Gospels are the heart, the core of the New Testament. And so I'm really excited about this. We're also going to look at, lastly, that we distinguish three stages in the formation of the Gospels. There's first the life and teaching of Jesus on the ground, then there's the oral tradition, and then finally the written Gospels, because, and that's how the Gospels were formed. That's how the New Covenant,

New Testament, New Testament, has been formed. So we're going to look at all three of those aspects, the Old Testament, the Canada of Scripture, old and the New Testament, and the formation of the Gospels, which is just, again, exciting in only, what, seven paragraphs, something like that. It is day 17. We're reading paragraphs 120 to 127. Before we do that, let's say a prayer right now. I think that'd be a good idea. Father in heaven, we think. you, we give you praise. You enter into time with us. You enter into this space that we occupy and you enter into our lives and in a very real, in a very, very true way. Lord God, our lives are messy and even the way in which we've discovered who you are. You've revealed yourself to us

has been messy, but we trust in you. We trust that you are in the mess. You're in the mess of our lives, you're in the mess of history, you're in the mess of our culture, because that's where you want to be, where we are, and that's where we live. And so we ask that you please, into the mess, bring clarity, into the brokenness, bring healing, into our confusion, bring illumination, bring light so that we can understand who you are more clearly, who we are more clearly, and that we can love you with all of our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, it is day 17. We're reading paragraphs 120 to 127. The Canon of Scripture. It was by the apostolic tradition that the church discerned

which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament, 45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one, and 27 for the new. The books of the Old Testament. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, 1st and 2nd Maccabees, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Songs, The Wisdom of Solomon, Syrac, or Ecclesiasticus, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nehom, Habakuk, Zephaniah, Hegai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

The books of the New Testament, the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Acts of the Apostles, the Letters of St. Paul to the Romans. and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, Philemon, the letters to the Hebrews, the letters of James, 1st and 2nd Peter, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and Jude, and Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse. The Old Testament is an indispensable part of sacred scripture. Its books are divinely inspired and retain a permanent value for the old covenant has never been revoked. Indeed, as Dave Verbum states, the economy of the Old Testament

was deliberately so oriented that it should prepare for and declare in prophecy the coming of Christ, Redeemer of all men. Even though they contain matters imperfect and provisional, the books of the Old Testament bear witness to the whole divine pedagogy of God's saving love. These writings are a storehouse of sublime teaching on God and of sound wisdom on human life, as well as a wonderful treasury of prayers. In them too, the mystery of our salvation is present in a hidden way. Christians venerate the Old Testament as true Word of God. The Church has always vigorously opposed the idea of rejecting the Old Testament

under the pretext that the new has rendered it void, as in Marcianism. The New Testament The Word of God, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, is set forth and displays its power in a most wonderful way in the writings of the New Testament, which hand on the ultimate truth of God's revelation. Their central object is Jesus Christ, God's incarnate Son, his acts, teachings, passion, and glorification, and his church's beginnings under the Spirit's guidance. The Gospels are the heart of all the scriptures Because they are our principles source for the life and teaching of the incarnate word, our Savior. We can distinguish three stages in the formation of the Gospels. First, the life and teaching of Jesus.

The church holds firmly that the four Gospels, whose historicity she unhesitatingly affirms, faithfully hand on what Jesus, the Son of God, while he lived among men, really did and taught for their eternal salvation until the day he was taken up. Second, the oral tradition. For after the ascension of the Lord,

the apostles handed on to their hearers what he had said and done, but with that fuller understanding which they, instructed by the glorious events of Christ and enlightened by the spirit of truth now enjoyed. Third, the written Gospels. Dave Abram states, the sacred authors,

in writing the four Gospels, selected certain of the many elements which had been handed on either orally or already in written form, others they synthesized or explained with an eye to the situation of the churches, while sustaining the form of preaching, but always in such a fashion that they have told us the honest truth about Jesus. The fourfold gospel holds a unique place in the church as is evident both in the veneration which the liturgy accords it, and in the surpassing attraction it is exercised on the saints at all times. St. Cisariah the Younger once wrote,

there is no doctrine which could be better, more precious, and more splendid than the text of the gospel. Behold and retain what our Lord and Master Christ has taught by his words and accomplished by his deeds. St. Therese of Lissue once wrote, But above all, it's the gospels that occupy my mind when I'm at prayer. My poor soul has so many needs, and yet this is the one thing needful. I'm always finding fresh lights there, hidden, and in thrifted. trawling meanings. Okay. So not only do we get to end with these two quotes by these great saints, St. Cesaria the Younger, St. Teresa's of Lus U, highlighting the fact that the Gospels have had a massive

role in their own personal understanding of our Lord and God, but also in their prayer life. So that's just a great way to just kind of end that this whole section or this piece we've reading today. But also let's go back to the beginning. Because at the beginning we talk about the canon of scripture, then the Old and New Testament, and then of course the importance of the in that kind of scripture in the New Testament, it's important for us to understand that the books of the scriptures, write the Bible, all 73 books, have been established by the church given to us from the very beginning. So one of the things we have been trying to establish is that the church, in a true and real way, precede the Bible. I mean, the Old Testament obviously existed before

the time of Christianity, but the books of the New Testament come out of the church. And so we realize that the church precedes the written word, the oral tradition precedes the written tradition. And it's actually out of the oral tradition. It's out of that living tradition of the church that we even get to know which are the books of the New Testament. In fact, there wasn't really a canon. Canon simply means rule or like you can say like the list of scriptures, list of the books of the Bible. The church has given us this list, right? This canon of scriptures, all 73 books. And so as again, as we've said before, I'd just say it again. As I said maybe five times. already today. Sacred tradition is what gives us sacred scripture. And that is so remarkable.

In fact, we realized that for the first generations of Christianity, the first couple centuries of Christianity, there was no official list of here are the texts of the sacred scriptures. It was the church. You'd come to church and you'd have these texts proclaimed to you. And this is so powerful. It wasn't until basically the late 300s that the books of the New Testament were codified, right? Basically, there were some. challenges. People were saying they were offering other books and they were challenging some of the books that that were being read and considered to be scripture. Now, keep this in mind, even though it wasn't until the late 300s that we have this, the canon, right, the list of books

being codified. We had the New Testament, right? We had the books of the New Testament. Those were written there in the mostly, I think pretty much everything in the first century before a 100 AD. The last book of the New Testament is understood to be the book of Revelation and John, the author of had written that, you know, before 100 AD. And so we recognize that, yes, all those texts already existed, but the official list wasn't really, again, codified until the late 300s. You have in 382, you have the Council of Rome that under Pope Damascis that promulgated that 73 book scriptural canon.

And that's also reaffirmed later on in, you know, 393, the Council of Hippo, in 397, the Council of Carthage. And then it was definitively reaffirmed by the academic. Council of Florence in 1442. Of course, the Council of Trent, which came about in 1546, all these dates, you guys, you're loving them. Of course you are. The Council of Trent in 1546 had their, what you might say, they solemnly defined the canon of scripture then. Why? Obviously, the Council of Trent was a response to Martin Luther and the first Protestant leaders. And what were they doing? What was Martin Luther doing? He was challenging that 73 book,

of Scripture. And so the church had to definitively, for in the first time, you might say, had to solemnly define that same canon in 1546, but that same canon was already defined by the Council of Rome in 382. It wasn't as if these books were added later. These 73 books of the Old and New Testament were already accepted by the church. And then again, we're simply defined in 382 by Council of Rome and having to be definitively solemnly defined in 1546. after someone challenged it. In fact, that's one of the reasons why church councils councils even exist. Basically, here's what Christians believe. At some point, it's being challenged. And so we have to have a church council to say, okay, there's a challenge out there to what everyone

already believes that with the living, you know, the living faith of the church, the living tradition of the church, we have to define this and defend it against those who would challenge it. And that's why we get to this section of paragraphs 121, 122 and 123 talking about the Old Testament. Now, 121 states, the Old Testament is an indispensable part of sacred scripture. This is really important. I don't know how many people I heard from over the course of the last couple of years as they were going through the Bible in the air, as they were going through the Old Testament, that they were saying, why do we have to read this? This seems so foreign. This seems like unnecessary. And yet the church has heard that before. In fact, paragraph 123 even mentions

the primary person who began this heresy called Marcionism. His name was Marcion. And Marcion claimed that with the arrival of the new covenant, with the arrival of the New Testament, with the arrival of Jesus, all those books of the Old Testament are rendered useless, that they are no longer in effect that they are null in void. And yet that was seen as a heresy. Because why? Because the Old Testament is an indispensable part of sacred scripture.

It goes on to say in paragraph 121, Its books are divinely inspired and retain a permanent value for the old covenant has never been revoked. Now, obviously, we talked about divine pedagogy over the course of the last years. What's that mean? That means that God takes a raw people, right? He takes people who don't know who he is. They don't know goodness. They don't know justice or truth yet.

And God has to reveal that, no, I am good. I'm just. I'm true. I love you. But he has to start someplace. And so we recognize that as Dave Abram states, here in paragraph 122, it says, even though they contain matters imperfect and provisional, the books of the Old Testament bear witness to the whole divine pedagogy of God's saving love.

So again, it has matters imperfect and provisional? What's that mean? Well, that means that here is God who's teaching at a first grade level who he is. Here's God teaching at a second grade level. What justice is? Here's God creating teaching at a third grade level. And so these are like provisional things. Like, for example, the rules regarding temple purity. Because why? Because the temple was to prepare us for true worship of worshiping Jesus Christ in spirit and in truth in the new covenant. And so those were provisional teachings just for a time, for a place, and for a season, essentially, to get us ready to have this new and everlasting covenant that we celebrate and enter into in the Mass. Again, it doesn't render those things useless. Doesn't mean that they're no

longer divinely inspired. It just means we understand them as, oh, this was a provisional teaching. but there's other teachings that are not provisional in any way, shape, or form. It's like something like, I don't know, the Ten Commandments. Like those are not provisional. Those are constant. Those are teachings that are true at all times, in all places for all people. And so, again, we venerate the Old Testament as the true word of God. And we vigorously oppose the idea of rejecting the Old Testament under the pretext that the new has rendered it void.

That's a quote from paragraph 123. Now, going on to the New Testament, though, it's just so, so powerful. I love this quote from Dave Verbum that actually has Romans chapter 1, verse 16, in its quote as well. It's paragraph 124. The Word of God, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, is set forth and displays its power in a most wonderful way in the writings of the New Testament. And that's so, so powerful for us to understand that here is God's revelation of himself to us. Now, how the New Testament was formed is then talked about in the next paragraph 126 in three stages

of formation of the Gospels, the heart, the heart of the heart of the, of the New Testament. First is the life and teachings of Jesus, what he did and what he taught. His words and his actions, his words and his deeds. Then oral tradition, right? People talked about this, who? The apostles. And they were giving light of the Holy Spirit and then the written gospels. So you have these stages, obviously, here's Jesus, living and witnessing, speaking and acting. You have the apostles talking about this and proclaiming Jesus. And then you have finally the written gospels. And this is so, so powerful. Because the Gospels are at the heart of all of our lives.

They should be. In fact, I don't know how many saints, this is the last thing, I don't know how many saints I had read about over the course of my life, who would, at the very least, they would keep a copy of the Gospels on them at all times. And just whenever they had downtime, you know, we pull out our phones and we, you know, flip through whatever social media,

or we scan the news, they would have this little book of the Gospels and they'd, in their downtime as they're waiting in line as they're, you know, just sitting there, they would pull out the gospels and just allow the Lord to speak to them through the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, inspired by the Holy Spirit. I think there's something that we could learn from that. Now, you might still have your phone. You might still have your device. But wouldn't it be great if on our device we had the Word of God? Yet we have it in podcast form, obviously.

But also wouldn't it be great if we just had maybe an app that we could just open up and read the readings of the day or an app we could open up and just again read matthew mark luke or john and do what those great saints of the past have done or just kept kept that that heart of the heart of the scriptures the four gospels before their eyes and in their hearts always i don't know just an invitation i'm excited about this day this day 17 i am so so proud of you for getting through to this place we're going to again keep picking up speed keep moving forward i am praying for you please pray for me my name is father mike i cannot wait to see you tomorrow god bless Thank you.