The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 185: Thanksgiving, Memorial, Presence (2026)

Episode Date: July 4, 2026

Together with Fr. Mike, we continue our examination of the sacrament of the Eucharist. Fr. Mike takes us back to the Book of Genesis, the sacrifices of Cain and Abel, and the Book of Exodus, the story of Moses and Pharaoh. He emphasizes that the point of freedom in life is to be led to the freedom to worship God and that it matters to God that we freely choose to attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1356-1361. 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 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 1885. We're reading paragraphs 1356 to 1361. 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.

To download your own catechism and your reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash CIY, and you can also click follow or subscribe in your daily podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. And every single day, here we are day 185. Also, you know, this is crazy. I don't know if you've thought about this. I sometimes think about this. It's the 185.

And I mentioned yesterday and kind of the day before that we just passed halfway, which is awesome, so good. And have you ever noticed? I don't know. I listen to a podcast and I love them and I realize I get this for free and someone pays for it, right? There's no such thing as a free lunch. Someone pays for this.

So I'm so grateful, you know, because people have supported the production of this podcast with their prayers, that financial gifts. So just thank you for all of you who do that. I'm just so grateful that the rest of us get to just listen for free. It's awesome. It's insane. Okay. Anyways, here we are.

Day 185 paragraphs 1356 to 1361. We're at the heart of talking about the Ukraine. today, which is just a beautiful, incredible. We're not, I mean, there's a bunch of days left to talk about the Eucharist, and I'm here for it because what a gift. Okay, what are we going to talk about today? We're going to talk about the fact, but what I kind of mentioned yesterday, and by kind of mentioned, I went into it a lot, that the fact that the Eucharist is the memorial of our

Lord's sacrifice, that when we enter into the mass, we offer to the Father what he himself has given to us. It's incredible. And this is, I mean, this is anything we give to God. Everything we give to God is giving to God what he's given to us. If I give in my heart, well, he gave me my heart. If I give, you know, I don't know, to charity, well, God is the one who made it possible for me to be able to have any kind of means. That everything we give to God originates with him. And the same is true when it comes to the Eucharist and the great sacrifice of the mass. We're talking about how the Eucharist is Thanksgiving and praise. It's a sacrifice at the heart of it, though.

As we said yesterday, because why? Because we know the heart of religion is worship and the heart of worship is sacrifice. So as we launch into these six short paragraphs today, this call to mind what God has done for us. Call upon His Holy Spirit. And in the name of Jesus, let's talk to our Father in heaven. Father, we know that you love us. We know that you have given your own son. so we can have life and have it to the full.

We know what he has done for us in offering himself in sacrifice to you, a sacrifice of love, a sacrifice of praise, a sacrifice of Thanksgiving. We know that that sacrifice has changed the course of every one of our lives. Because that sacrifice, the sacrifice of your son made it possible for us to have access to you. Help us to participate in this sacrifice, the sacrifice of the Mass, with our whole heart. Help us participate in the sacrifice and the mass as if every time we approach the mass, we approach as if it's our first mass, our last mass and our only mass. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. It is the 1885. We are reading paragraphs 1356 to 1361. The Sacramental Sacrifice, Thanksgiving, Memorial, Presence. If from the beginning Christians have celebrated the Eucharist and in a form whose substance has not changed despite the great diversity of times and liturgies, it is because we know ourselves to be bound by the command the Lord gave on the eve of his passion, do this in remembrance of me.

We carry out this command of the Lord by celebrating the memorial of his sacrifice. In doing so, we offer to the Father what he has himself given us, the gifts of his creation, bread and wine, which by the power of the Holy Spirit and by the words of Christ have become the body and blood of Christ. Christ is thus really and mysteriously made present. We must therefore consider the Eucharist as Thanksgiving and praise to the Father, the sacrificial memorial of Christ and His body, the presence of Christ by the power of His Word and of His Spirit. Thanksgiving and praise to the Father.

The Eucharist, the sacrament of our salvation, accomplished by Christ on the cross is also a sacrifice of praise in Thanksgiving for the work of creation. In the Eucharistic sacrifice, the whole of creation loved by God is presented to the Father through the death and the resurrection of Christ. Through Christ, the Church can offer the sacrifice of praise and Thanksgiving for all that God has made good, beautiful, and just in creation and in humanity. The Eucharist is a sacrifice of Thanksgiving to the Father, a blessing by which the Church expresses her gratitude to God for all his benefits, for all that he is accomplished through creation, redemption, and sanctification. Eucharist means, first of all, Thanksgiving.

The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of praise by which the Church sings the glory of God in the name of all creation. This sacrifice of praise is possible only through Christ. He unites the faithful to his person, to his praise, and to his intercession, so that the sacrifice of praise to the Father is offered through Christ and with him to be accepted in him. Right? There we have it. As I said, six short paragraphs, almost a nugget day, but we're not reviewing anything. We're introducing this incredible reality of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. So let's highlight a couple of things here. Let's actually, let's start by going back. Let's go all the way back to the book of Exodus. Actually, let's go all the way back to Genesis. Let's do that for just a second. Remember, in

Genesis, there were these two sons, the two sons of Adam and Eve. There's Cain and Abel. And what did they do? The first thing we have them do, the first thing we see them do is we see them offering sacrifice. Remember, the heart of religion is worship, and the heart of worship is sacrifice. And so there's Cain and Abel and Able and Abel's and Able and Abel's sacrifice is not accepted. And it's not that God doesn't love Cain. And for whatever reason, we don't necessarily know exactly why, although there's people who have theories about this. Abel's sacrifice is accepted. And it's not that God doesn't love Cain. We don't know. what it is. I mean, God speaks to Cain. He talks to him. He protects Cain ultimately, even after he's slain his own brother. But there's something about the sacrifice that is of Abel that's right, right, it's accepted. And something about the sacrifice of Cain that's not accepted. As I said, we don't know what that is, but all we know is that it is. And so the heart of every human being should be, what does God want? In fact, let's jump to Exodus now. So if you recall the story of Exodus, here are the Jewish people. They're enslaved. The Hebrew people are enslaved in Egypt. And God turns to Moses and says, Moses, go to Pharaoh and tell Pharaoh, let my people go. Now, maybe I've

said this before. I'm going to repeat myself in this case. I used to always think that that was the whole story that God told Moses, go to Pharaoh and tell Pharaoh, let my people go. My people are slaves. They're not meant to be slaves. I want to sit them free. I want to get them freedom and life. All you give them is slavery and death. I want to give them this freedom. And that's true. That's not false. That is part of what God wants for his people. And yet, the whole line is not just let my people go. It's let my people go so that they can go and worship me. That the point of freedom, the point of this life is being led to be able to worship God. That it's not just freedom from something. It's freedom for something. And the freedom for is so that they can enter the promised land, of course, and be that dynasty, become a worldwide blessing that God can, he will keep his promises, but also they have freedom for worship. And so this is, as the story unfolds, you know, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He says no. Then he says, yes. At one point, he says, okay, fine,

go ahead and take the men, the women, the children, and whatever animals do you need to sacrifice to the Lord your God. And Moses says, looks at Pharaoh and says, well, actually, we have to take all of the animals. We have to take all of our stuff because when we get to the mountain where God will be worshipped, we don't know what he's going to want yet. We don't know how he's going to want to be worshipped. And I used to always think that this was, you know, Moses being a little sly little fox. It's like, you know, Moses, you're trying to pull one over on Pharaoh. But Pope Benedict wrote about this in a book called the Spirit of the Liturgy when he wrote his Cardinal Ratzinger. And he highlights this and he says, actually, you know, Moses wasn't trying to trick Pharaoh.

Moses was telling Pharaoh the truth. The truth is we don't know what God is going to want. And we want to give God what He wants. Our temptation, your temptation in mine is I want to give God what I want to give God. And yet true worship is what we say, okay, God, what do you want? This is why in the book of Exodus, right, they had to take all of their stuff to be led from slavery and death into freedom, into life, so that they can worship God as he wants them to worship Him. And so here we find ourselves. What does Jesus say?

On the eve of his passion, he takes bread, blesses, breaks it, gives it to his disciples. This is my body. Do this in remembrance of me. Same thing with the chalice filled with the fruit of the vine. This is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant. We poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me. Do this in remembrance of me.

This is the key thing. We know now, we know how. God wants us to worship him. And the church has preserved this. Because why? Because the heart of, this is the heart of everything. This is the heart of everything. That what saved us is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The self-offering to the Father, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. We get to participate in that sacrifice at every Mass. Because that's what it is. Paragraph 1358. says we must therefore consider the Eucharist as A, Thanksgiving and praise to the Father,

B, the sacrificial memorial of Christ and His body, and C, the presence of Christ by the power of the word, of His word, and his spirit. And this is just so good that you and I have not just been allowed access. That's one thing. They let us through the door. Like, you can come if you want. We haven't just been allowed access.

We've been invited. And you might say, commanded, you say commanded, I'll say commanded, but the fact that God wants us. Isn't this crazy to think, God, it matters to God, whether you or I show up to Mass or not? That it matters to God, whether you and I participate in Mass. It matters to God, whether you and I offer the sacrifice of Thanksgiving or the sacrifice of praise that we talked about today. Isn't that just blows my mind. That if I absent myself, yes, okay, that's a mortal sin. Got it. If I choose to not, go to Mass, and I freely choose to do that, then yes, mortal sin.

And so we can look at it like a guilty thing. We can look at it like, oh, it's an obligation. But like what's at the heart of that? At the heart of that is this affirmation that says, apparently it matters to God whether you or I show up. And you think, no, I'm just a person sitting in the pew. I'm just standing up, sitting down like everyone else. I'm just saying, you know, and with your spirit like everyone else.

I'm just saying amen like everyone else with everyone else. And yet, when you're present, something's different. And when you're absent, something is different. It's just, again, it just boggles the mind, how the infinite and eternal God that it matters to him whether or not we show up. We'll say this last thing. In paragraph 1359, it says, In the Eucharistic sacrifice, the whole of creation loved by God

is presented to the Father through the death and resurrection of, Christ. The whole of creation, loved by God, is presented to the Father, to the death and resurrection of Christ. And that includes you and me. Crazy. Crazy. Saccharise of praise to the Father is offered through Christ and with Him to be accepted

in Him. That's what we say at every Mass, right? Through Him, with Him in Him. In the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever through Jesus, with Jesus, in Jesus, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honors on heaven and earth that's offered to you, Father in Heaven. Incredible. And you and I get to be part of that. What a gift. No other words. What a gift. So I know you might struggle to get there. You might struggle to stay there. You might struggle to show up. You might struggle to focus. But that's

where we're called to be, we're invited to be, commanded to be. If you wrestle with that, I've got to tell you, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.