The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 174: Summary of the Sacrament of Baptism (2026)

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

In this summary of the Church’s teachings on Baptism, the Catechism relays the heart of the sacrament. If you needed to quickly explain Baptism to someone on the street—Fr. Mike says—this would be your guide. Fr. Mike hones in on the fact that Baptism is “a grace and a gift of God that does not presuppose any human merit.” Today’s readings are paragraphs 1275-1284. 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 and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is Day 174. We're reading paragraphs 1275 to 1284. 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 lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notification. It is Nugget Day, you guys, in brief. As I was like reading these in-brief, these nuggets, I realize that this is like always the nuggets are great, right? They're always a little summary.

The little in-brief is always a gift. But today, it just struck me as being, oh, if you were going to present the sacramental baptism to somebody, these paragraphs, these bullets, these, as someone might say, these nuggets are, this is what you need. 1275 to 1284 are, I mean, it's, I don't want to say everything you need, but it's kind of a lot. There's a lot packed in to these few, into these nuggets. And so just, yeah, this is a, I'm thinking of those of you who are teachers, sometimes it's, okay, what do they need to know? I think that if everyone knew these nuggets, then that'd be a good thing.

So here we are. Let's launch into Nugget Day and let's pray to God our Father, Father in heaven. We give you praise and glory. Thank you for joy. Thank you for laughter. Thank you for in the midst of the day of our lives, the days of our lives, the sufferings of each day and the ordinariness of each day. Thank you for giving us the joy of new life. Thank you for giving us the joy of your son.

Thank you for giving us the joy of the Holy Spirit and knowing, Lord God, even in the midst of our worst days, our worst seasons. that we have you and you're present to us. Help us to be aware of your presence. Help us to respond to your presence and your invitation by saying yes to you in all things. Let help us say yes to you in the wins and in the victories. Help us say yes to you in the midst of our sin, Lord God. Help us to say yes to you so that by your grace we may be lifted up and brought back to your heart. 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 174. we are reading paragraphs 1275 to 1284. In brief, Christian initiation is accomplished by three sacraments together.

Baptism, which is the beginning of new life, confirmation which is its strengthening, and the Eucharist, which nourishes the disciple with Christ's body and blood for his transformation in Christ. Jesus declared, 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Baptism is birth into the new life in Christ. In accordance with the Lord's will, it is necessary for salvation, as is the church herself, which we enter by baptism. The essential right of baptism consists in immersing the candidate in water or pouring water on his head, while pronouncing the invocation of the Most Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The fruit of baptism, or

baptismal grace is a rich reality that includes forgiveness of original sin and all personal sins, birth into the new life by which man becomes an adoptive son of the father, a member of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit. By this very fact, the person baptized is incorporated into the church, the body of Christ, and made a sharer in the priesthood of Christ. Baptism imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual sign, the character which consecrates the baptized person for Christian worship. because of the character baptism cannot be repeated. Those who die for the faith, those who are catechumans, and all those who, without knowing of the church, but acting under the inspiration of grace, seek God sincerely and strive to fulfill his will,

can be saved even if they have not been baptized. Since the earliest times, baptism has been administered to children, for it is a grace and a gift of God that does not presuppose any human merit. Children are baptized in the faith of the church. entry into Christian life gives access to true freedom. With respect to children who have died without baptism, the liturgy of the church invites us to trust in God's mercy and to pray for their salvation. In case of necessity, any person can baptize,

provided that he have the intention of doing that which the church does, and provided that he pours water on the candidate's head while saying, I baptize you in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. Right. There we are, paragraphs 1275. 1284. This is essentially, that's the word. These are the essential nuggets. These are the things that we know. I mean, yes, every one of the paragraphs that's come before today has been very, very valuable. Obviously, it expands on what we just heard. And yet, we recognize that this is the essentials, right? This is the heart of what we believe about baptism, that this comes from Jesus

Christ and this initiates us into the life of the Christian. This initiates us into the family of God, this initiates us into being God's sons and daughters. And it's remarkable. I love paragraph 1275, how it notes these three sacraments. Remember the three sacraments of initiation. Okay, let's back up a little bit. There are seven sacraments. We have these three sacraments of initiation, baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist.

And so it says here, baptism, which is the beginning of new life, confirmation, which is its strengthening, and the Eucharist, which nourishes the disciple with Christ's body and blood for his transformation. Christ, three sacraments of initiation. So in tomorrow, we're going to talk about sacrament of confirmation, the next sacrament of initiation. But then there's also two sacraments of healing, right? So the anointing of the sick and reconciliation. And there's two sacraments of vocation, right? Two sacraments of mission. And that is holy orders and matrimony. And so we just recognize, obviously that last two points, we're going to talk about this more as we get into holy orders and into matrimony. There are other vocations than just holy orders and matrimony. but there are two sacraments when it comes to holy orders and matrimony.

You can just keep that in mind. But back to these three sacraments of initiation. They begin this new life, right? Baptism specifically gives us this new life in Christ. And I love how the catechism once again reiterates. This is a grace and a gift that does not presuppose any human merit. None of us have done anything to receive this new life in Christ. None of us have done anything to be delivered from the kingdom of darkness and brought

into the kingdom of light. none of us have done anything to have our sins forgiven. In fact, Jesus has done it all. And that is so important for us to remember that everything you and I do, everything you and I do is a response. And let's highlight this for a second, because as we continue to go through these next six sacraments after baptism, all of them are an invitation by the Lord. And every time you and I approach any of these sacraments, it is always a response. It's always a response to God's invitation. And this is going to be especially important when it comes to the sacraments that we repeat often. For example, reconciliation and Holy Communion.

Those two sacraments in so many ways, they highlight the fact that God is actively seeking you. God is actively inviting you to participate in his new life. And every time you and I do this, every time you and I go to confession, every time you and I go to Mass, we're saying yes to the Lord. In fact, so often, I know I'm getting ahead of myself right now, we're talking about baptism, but I'm talking specifically about reconciliation or Holy Eucharist, every time you and I go, sometimes our temptation is like, say, for confession.

I'm going to confession and I'm begging the Lord, give me another chance. But as I've said so many times, and it's so clear through the Bible and through the catechism, that when we come to confession, it's not us begging God, give us another chance. It is God begging us. Please give me another chance.

Give my mercy another chance. Give my forgiveness and reconciliation. Give my love for you another chance. as he invites us into his will. And that's what baptism is, right? Remember, it is a grace and a gift of God that does not presuppose any human merit, which is why we, from the very beginning,

baptism has been administered to children. And so that is so important. Now, the fruit of baptism, and I love this in paragraph 1279, if you want to say, what does baptism do in the most concise formula, maybe possible, maybe imaginable, but it's concise and it is robust,

let's use that word, concise and robust. 12.79. The fruit of baptism or baptismal grace is a rich reality that includes A, the forgiveness of original sin, B, and all personal sins. So forgiveness of original sin and personal sins. Next, birth into the new life by which man becomes an adoptive son of the father. So that's another thing where we, again, we talked about Pinocchio. A member of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit. Because of this, or the says here by the very fact, the person baptized is incorporated into the church. the body of Christ and made a sharer in the priesthood of Christ. All of those things happen at your baptism or happened at your baptism will happen or have happened. I just think every one of those is worth paying attention to. Now, it's a nugget day, obviously. So all of this is review. But

remember, what we're doing with this whole year is more about transformation than just transfer of information. And so yeah, yeah, yeah, this is something I already know. So wrap it up, Father, let's move on, let's get to tomorrow and talk about the Sacrament of Confirmation. Well, A, yes, we will wrap it up soon, and B, we will go on to the Sacrament of Confirmation tomorrow. But today, remember, transformation. So if you want to pray with something, if you want to say, let me dive deeply into this thing that either will happen to me if I haven't been baptized or has happened to me if I have

been baptized. Reflect on paragraph 1279, because every one of these fruits, every one of these effects of baptism is worth just pondering. It's, it truly is worth kind of holding this mystery, these mysteries, these gifts in our hands and just, well, reflecting on them. As I said, pondering them, giving God praise for them, forgiveness of sin, that I was born out of relationship with God. I was born under the dominion of the kingdom of darkness. And God brought us into his own kingdom forgiving my original sin and also forgiving all personal sins. Not only, that. God gave me new birth, and he made me his adoptive son. God made you his adoptive son or his

adopted daughter. Also, not just you, right? This is not just me and Jesus kind of situation. The person baptized is incorporated into the church, the body of Christ, and so because of that, we belong to each other. And also made a sharer in the priesthood of Christ, able to not only offer every prayer, every moment of every day, like as a sacrifice, you can offer your your worries, you can offer your cares, you can offer your stresses, you can offer your sufferings, you can offer joy, you can offer everything, every aspect of your life. There's not one aspect of your life because you are sharing the priesthood of Christ, that one aspect of your life that you can't offer up to the Father. Remember, we talked about this in the life of Jesus. Yes, the Pascal

mystery, right? His life death and resurrection is the culmination of everything. But every moment of Jesus' life was an offering in obedience to the Father. Because of that, because you share in the priesthood of Christ because of baptism, you also get to have every moment of your life as an offering. So not only that, but also at the Mass, you get to participate in the great sacrifice of the Son to the Father in the Eucharist and the power of the Holy Spirit in a unique way. All of these things. Again, they're worth reflecting, praying on, thanking God for because this is about conversion. This is about transformation.

And yes, the nuggets, so good. So good to be reminded of the nuggets. So good to have that information at our fingertips, to have this information in our minds. But even more powerfully to pause and say, God, thank you for this great gift. Let me reflect on this gift. Let me live this gift.

Because it's been given to you and it's been given to me. And now we're called to unpack it. Now we're called to live it. And have that fruit in our own lives. Which takes God's grace, obviously. It takes prayer. Which is why I'm praying for you. Please, please pray for me.

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