The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 235: Human Freedom in Salvation (2025)

Episode Date: August 23, 2025

Together, with Fr. Mike, we examine the reality of our human freedom in the economy of salvation. Fr. Mike emphasizes that the right to freedom does not imply a right to say or do anything. Rather, it is the power to choose the “right.” He also emphasizes that the moral law actually allows us to live with freedom and joy, and that when we violate the moral law, we violate our own freedom. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1739-1748. 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 235. We're reading paragraphs 1739 to 1748 as all. always. I'm using the Ascension edition of the catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach. You can follow along with any recent version of the catechism with the Catholic

Church. You can also download your own cacism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CIY. I recently read this myself because I lost my original copy. When I say lost it, I didn't really lose it. I know where it is. I just don't have it with me. But hey, I did it. And so I know it can be done, even on day 235. Lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Thank you again. You guys so much for being part of this. Day 235 for crying out loud. This is amazing. I can almost do the math to see exactly how many days are left. 131? 130. That's it. Oh my gosh. You guys, you've done so well. And thank you for being part of this. Thank you for your prayers and those

who have supported us not only spiritually, but also with your financial gifts. We couldn't do this without you. As I said, State 235. We're talking about human freedom. Yesterday was human freedom and responsibility. That when we're given that responsibility, we have to use it. We're freedom, I mean, we have to use that. In fact, there are some threats to freedom. We're going to talk about that even a little bit more today, but there are some things that can, can, what do you call, reduce our culpability, right? They can mitigate our responsibility when it comes to action, when it comes to choosing, you know, member sin is, God, I know what you want, and I'm going to freely choose to do something other than what you want, right? That sense of, I'm using my freedom.

Now, if my freedom has been mitigated, then my responsibility is mitigated. We talked about that yesterday. Today we're going to talk about this, how human freedom factors in the economy of salvation. We recognize that our freedom, because of sin, is limited and fallible. Because of sin, we are, we're not what we should be, right? We just, we recognize that. And therefore, there is, from the very beginning of human history, there is this brokenness in our hearts. In fact, even the word we can use is wretchedness, right? There is a wretchedness and oppression born of the human heart in consequence to the abuse of freedom. And yet, then we're talking about this today. There are threats to freedom. There's also, there's a possibility for liberation and

salvation. So there's freedom and there's also grace. So we're going to talk about all of that today to conclude Article 3 on what we will, on essentially man's freedom. So as we do that, as we launch into today, let's say a prayer and call upon our heavenly father. Father in heaven, you are good and you are God, you are Lord. You're the author of life and you are the one. who gave us freedom. You're the one who made us in your image and likeness so that we could live freely, so that we could use our freedom to love, so that we could use our freedom to be like you. We ask you this day, help us, help us by your grace, help us by your constant assistance to choose you, to cling to you, and to live as you. Jesus Christ, you are the Lord of Life.

Send us your Holy Spirit. That we can walk. with you as our Lord this day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today is day 235. We are reading paragraphs 1739 to 1748. Human freedom in the economy of salvation. Freedom and sin. Man's freedom is limited and fallible. In fact, man failed. He freely sinned. By refusing God's plan of love, he deceived himself. He deceived himself. and became a slave to sin. This first alienation engendered a multitude of others. From its outset, human history attests the wretchedness and oppression born of the human

heart in consequence to the abuse of freedom. Threats to freedom. The exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything. It is false to maintain that, man, the subject of this freedom, is an individual who is fully self-sufficient and whose finality is the satisfaction of his own interests in the enjoyment of earthly goods. Moreover, the economic, social, political, and cultural conditions that are needed for a just exercise of freedom are too often disregarded or violated. Such situations of blindness and injustice injure the moral life and involve the strong as well as the weak

in the temptation to sin against charity. By deviating from the moral law, man violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned within himself, disrupts neighborly fellowship, and rebels against divine truth. Liberation and salvation. By his glorious cross, Christ has one salvation for all men. He redeemed them from the sin that held them in bondage. For freedom, Christ has set us free. In him we have communion with the truth that makes us free. The Holy Spirit has been given to us and, as the Apostle teaches, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Already we glory in the liberty of the children of God. Freedom and grace. The grace of Christ is not in the slightest way a rival of our freedom when this freedom accords with the sense of the true and the good that God has put in the human heart.

On the contrary, as Christian experience attests, especially in prayer, the more docile we are to the promptings of grace, the more we grow in inner freedom and confidence during trials, such as those we face in the pressures and constraints of the outer world. By the working of grace, the Holy Spirit educates us in spiritual freedom in order to make us free collaborators in his his work in the church and in the world. As we pray in the Roman Missal, Almighty and merciful God graciously keep us from all adversity so that, unhindered in mind and body alike, we may pursue in freedom of heart the things that are yours. In brief, God willed that man should be left in the hand of his own counsel, so that he might, of his own accord, seek his creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him. Freedom is the power to act,

or not to act, and so to perform deliberate acts of one's own. Freedom attains perfection in its acts when directed toward God, the sovereign good. Freedom characterizes properly human acts. It makes the human being responsible for acts of which he is the voluntary agent. His deliberate acts properly belong to him. The imputability or responsibility for an action can be diminished or nullified by ignorance, duress, fear, and other psychological or social factors. The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in religious and moral matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of man, but the exercise of freedom does not entail the putative right

to say or do anything. For freedom, Christ has set us free. All right, there we have at paragraphs 1739 to 1748. Man, this is just, I mean, I hope that you are experiencing as much encouragement and consolation, as well as conviction, of course, as I am in reading these words. It's just so incredible. We recognize paragraph 1739 right away. Man's freedom is limited and fallible. So remember, when it comes to the fall, what are some of the consequences of the fall? We're darkening of the intellect, right? So we can know, but we don't know fully. A weakening of the will. We can choose, but we don't always choose with strength. That there's, we can love, we don't always love the right things. We don't always love the right way. We're often tempted

also not just to love but to use. So we recognize our freedom is limited and it's also fallible. We can use our freedom for the wrong thing and sometimes our freedom is not strong enough to do what we want it to do. I love this. I mean, I don't love it, but it's, I love how they say it. It says, in fact, man failed. There is something so powerful about just those four words. In fact, comma, man failed. He freely sinned. It says this. By refusing God's plan of love, he deceived himself and became a slave to sin and this is the recognition again this is genesis chapter three this is the story of our our ancestors and this is our own story right when we can we can of course we can blame adam and eve we can blame those primordial parents that we have and their

choice to choose original sin and yet we can look at ourselves and say okay i've also i've also done that I've also made myself a slave to sin. As often as I've chosen sin, I've done that to myself. I've done to myself what Adam and Eve did to the human race. And so we failed. And there's something about that. I think that is just sobering, right? And hopefully, again, I say it like this, hopefully that's encouraging as well.

I think it's one thing to hear, you know, there's nothing wrong with you. You're perfect just the way you are. And we look at ourselves and say, really? I am. I don't, I'm not sure that's true. And if I'm perfect just the way I am, there's nothing wrong with me, then there's something wrong with the rest of the world. I don't know if that makes any sense, but to be able to hear those encouraging words of, no, man

failed, I failed, you have failed. We freely sinned, and by doing that, we deceived ourselves and became a slave to sin. Of course, that's our original parents, but also that's ourselves as well. It goes on to say, from its outset, human history attests the wretchedness and oppression born of the human heart in consequence to the abuse of the abuse of freedom. Now, that doesn't mean that you and I, by our nature are wretched, not at all, not at all. By our nature, we're still good. We still retain God's image. And yet that image has been marred, right? That image has been broken. That image has been become twisted. And so we recognize our hearts that are still good,

the freedom that we still have, that's become damaged. That's become a freedom that's been wounded. Goes on to say, Faragaph, 1740, I think this is, again, I need to be reminded of this. Our culture needs to be reminded of this. Maybe you need to be reminded of this. It says this right away. The exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything. That is just, I mean, I know we've already heard that word. We've already heard that teaching that freedom is not the ability to do whatever I want.

That's not what freedom is. The exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything. But true freedom is the power to do what I ought to do. True freedom is the power to choose the good. It's the power to choose the right. It's the power to choose the truth, to live in the truth and walk in the truth. It's so, so important for us to never, ever forget this. It goes on to say, there are such situations of blindness and injustice that injure the moral

life and involve the strong as well as the weak and the temptation to sin against love. Or it says charity here, but I just, you know, sometimes we hear that word charity and think, like giving, offering the collection, no, you know, love, the deepest form of love, charity. By deviating from the moral law, man violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned within himself, disrupts neighborly fellowship and rebels against divine truth. I mean, just look at this again, by deviating from the moral law. So we're going to hear about the moral law the next days to come, weeks to come. We're going to hear about it again and again.

And sometimes, again, we go back to this, you and I might see that as a limitation on our freedom. We might see that as a straitjacket rather than as a help, rather than as guidelines, rather than as like, you know, the lines on the road. We think about that, the lines on the road that let you know, if you stay between these lines, you're going to be fine. If you stay between these lines, then go, go ahead and put the pedal down, right? As long as you stay between these lines, you're going to drive really, really well. Hopefully, you don't get mad at the lines on the road that indicate stay here. Hopefully we say, you know, living in northern Minnesota, there are many times in big snowstorms

or sometimes even when it's raining super hard, you've probably experienced this too, or you can't see the lines on the road anymore. And that is not a good feeling. In fact, if you, can recall that feeling. If you've ever experienced that, it is a feeling of, it's actually almost of terror. It's a feeling of great, great fear because it's like, I don't, I don't know. I don't know how close I am to the ditch. I don't know if there's a car up ahead. And if there is, is he in his lane or where, where am I right now? To not have those lines, not have those, those guardrails, essentially. It is not a feeling of exhilaration in the sense of freedom and fun. It is experience of fear and terror. And so keep this.

mind that by deviating from the moral law, those lines in the road, we violate our own freedom. We become imprisoned within ourselves. We rebel against divine truth. That's so important for us to even just to interiorize to such a degree. What I mean by interiorize this is not just, oh, Father Mike said, right, that the moral law is not a straight jacket as much as it is a good guideposts, you know, guidelines. But to be able to put yourself in that place, what if there weren't, what if you couldn't see the lines on the road. You had no idea in the middle of the night, middle of a snowstorm, if you're even on the road, how close you are to the cliff. Again, here is God's moral law. That is not a straight jacket, but gives us the ability to live with freedom and joy.

Now, going on, paragraph 1741 talks about this, liberation and salvation. Because of what Jesus has done, he's won salvation for all of us. That he's won this. He's redeemed us all from the sin that held us in bondage. And because he's given us the Holy Spirit, we have the Spirit of God. And when the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Keep this in mind. That it's not about just, okay, we're going to white-knuckle it for the rest of our lives. We're going to work really, really hard. And it's going to be, you know, we're going to muddle through as best we can. Now, God's grace has been poured into our hearts. And so he has given us the power. He's given us the ability, this paragraph 1742. He's given us this grace. And that grace doesn't take away

our free will. And this is a really important question. It's going to be the second and the last thing we talk about. The grace that God gives us does not overwhelm our free will. It's not, is it either free will or is it God's grace? We know that we can't choose good. We can't do the good without God's help. We can't, when Jesus made it very clear, he's the vine where the branches. Apart from me, he says you can do nothing. And so we need God's grace. We need that that power that comes from him at the same time. Keep this in mind. The grace of Jesus is not in the slightest way a rival to our freedom. So having God's grace doesn't overwhelm our freedom because having God's grace doesn't take away our freedom, but it corresponds with our freedom. It gives us the capacity, the ability

to do what we want to do, to do what we ought to do. It gives us, that's grace gives us the power to do what we could never do on our own. So it's not a rival to human freedom. It's a necessity for human freedom. And so just keep this in mind. As we walk forward, we want to grow in inner freedom. We want to grow in conference during trials, and we experience this. The more and more docile we are to the Holy Spirit, the more and more open we are to doing what God reveals and calls us to do. Now, the last thing is just this, this, this, is so good. It's a line, it's paragraph 1748, it's our last nugget. You know, we had, I don't know if you knew this, we had six nuggets today, little, little half dozen pack of nuggets. And the last quote,

the last line in paragraph 1748 is just one sentence in its Galatians chapter 5, verse 1. St. Paul writing to the Galatians says, this, the very outset of chapter 5. Of course, Paul didn't write in chapters, but we have chapters now. Chapter 5, verse 1 says, for freedom, Christ has set us free. And that is just, again, what great news. For freedom, Christ has set us free. That what he did on the cross for us, what he did in conquering death and rising from the dead, what he did in pouring out his Holy Spirit is for freedom. And for freedom, Christ set us free. So do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. Do not go back to sin. That's the next rest of the quote.

is about St. Paul saying, therefore, because Christ set us free, do not return to your sin. Do not once again submit to the yoke of slavery because you and I are not made to be slaves. And I know that right now in this moment, there could be people listening to this, part of this community who feel like slaves, part of this community who say, yeah, but that's, I just keep falling back into sin. I just keep falling. I can't do what I want to do. Do not give up. God's grace is for you. God's grace is available. And God's grace, as they say, God's grace truly is enough. Don't give up.

Tomorrow, we'll talk about the morality of human acts, the reality that every one of our decisions has a moral component to it in one way, shape, or form. Because we're at human acts. How we act is every time we act as human beings, which is really remarkable and pretty unique. That's tomorrow. Today, I'll tell you what, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike.

I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. Thank you.