The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 242: The Virtue of Faith (2024)

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

The origin, motive, and object of the theological virtues are God himself. Today, we dive into the theological virtues, beginning with the virtue of Faith. Fr. Mike unpacks the meaning and purpose of the virtue of Faith and emphasizes that Faith is deeply rooted in trust in God. Lastly, Fr. Mike reminds us that Faith should be lived out along with Hope, and Love, and also professed to those who do know yet know God. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1812-1816. 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 242. We are reading paragraphs 18-12 to 18-16. As always, I am 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. The C stands for catechism, the I stands for in a, and Y stands for here. You can also click follow or subscribe on your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today is day 242, reading paragraphs 1812 to 1816. We're introducing the theological virtues

as well as the first of those theological virtues, faith. So the three theological virtues, we already talked about the cardinal virtues, right? Prudence, temperance, justice, fortitude. Now we're talking about the theological virtues and the human virtues are rooted in the theological virtues, which is something we'll read in paragraph 1812. Those theological virtues of faith, hope, and love we will talk about today and tomorrow because they're so important. They are necessary to live the Christian life, to have the virtues, the gift of course of faith, hope and love, but also to have the virtues of faith and of hope and of love is

essential for anyone who is following after the Lord. Of course, remember we said this yesterday. So human virtues, they're acquired by education, by deliberate acts and perseverance. That's every nude repeated efforts. Of course, that's paragraph 1810. However, for Christians, for those of us who belong to Christ, we know that those efforts are also purified and elevated by God's grace. So with God's help, it's still paragraph 1810 from yesterday. With God's help, they forge character and give facility in the practice of the good. And as we kept saying, virtues are not a straight jacket.

They make us joyful, they make us free, and the virtuous man is happy to practice them. And so again, even in this broken world, so we need those cardinal virtues, those human virtues. We also need the theological virtues. Today we're talking about faith. And if you've ever wondered what the virtue of faith is, well, wait and wonder no longer

because we're talking about that today. In order to launch into these theological virtues and Specifically the virtue of faith. Let's call upon our Lord in faith and pray father in heaven. We give you glory We give you praise. We thank you for bringing us here I thank you God for every person has been journeying these 242 days through the catechism Desiring to know you and your will better to know how to worship you to know who you are in yourself and who you are with us. We ask you continue to help us know how you're calling us to live. And God, as we learn about the

theological virtues, particularly faith, we ask that you please meet us with your grace to give us that gift of faith, help us to live out the virtue of faith. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 242. We are reading paragraphs 18-12 to 18-16. The Theological Virtues The human virtues are rooted in the theological virtues, which adapt man's faculties for participation in the divine nature. For the theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity.

They have the one and triune God for their origin, motive, and object. The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity. They animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being. There are three theological virtues. faith, hope, and charity. Faith Faith is the theological virtue by which we

believe in God and believe all that He has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because He is truth itself. By faith, man freely commits his entire self to God. For this reason, the believer seeks to know and do God's will. The righteous shall live by faith. Living faith works through charity. The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it. But faith apart from works is dead. When it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his body. The disciple of Christ must not only

keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it. Lumen Gentium states, All, however, must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way of the cross, amidst the persecutions which the church never lacks. Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation. As Jesus says in Matthew's Gospel, So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

Okay, there we have it. Day 242, paragraphs 18-12 to 18-16. Okay, let's start with just the theological virtues, these two paragraphs, 18-12 and 18-13. Here's what I think is pretty incredible. The second to last and the last sentence of paragraph 18-12, it says this, they disposed, meaning they, the theological virtues, faith, hope, and love, they disposed Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity You know to be a good human being we need those four cardinal virtues those human virtues right prudence steppin's justice fortitude Just to be free. We need those basic human virtues

But to live in relationship With the Holy Trinity God the Father Son and Holy Spirit. We need the virtues of faith hope and love And I love this last sentence. It says they have the one and triune God right God is one and three persons They have the one and triune God for their origin motive and object So where did the virtues of faith hope and love come from they come from God? So faith comes from God the origin of faith is God himself the origin of hope is God. The origin of faith is God Himself. The origin of hope is God Himself. The origin of love is obviously God is love is God Himself. So the origin motive. Why have faith? Because of God. Why have hope? Because of God. Why have love? Because of God. Now this is important. So if the origin and motive of faith, hope and love, these

three theological virtues are God himself. Let's break this down even more. We have faith, not because we believe things will get better or because we wish things will get better. We have faith because of God. Like again, he is our motive, he's our reason. He's our motivation. Remember that when someone wants to get motivated,

it's not about getting all rah rah and getting your blood pressure up and getting those emotions there. To get motivated means you found a motive, right? To be motivated is to have a motive. The motive for faith, hope and love is God himself. The reason why we have faith, hope and love is God himself. So if I didn't have God, why would I have faith?

Again, is it just because I wanna be a positive person and I don't wanna give up or quit soon? Why would I have hope? Is it just because I think things are better than they are? don't want to give up or quit soon? Why would I have hope? Is it just because I think things are better than they are? Why would I love? What's my motive for this? What's my reason why?

But if we have God, again, not just any God, but the God, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we know we can have faith because he is trustworthy. He is faithful. We know we can have hope because the reason why we have hope is because he has promised to be with us. And the reason why we love is because he is love So again the origin and motive of these virtues is God himself and then the object

The origin motive an object of these virtues is God himself. So what do you mean the object? Well, I don't have faith in faith We don't have faith in the future. We have faith in God. He's the object of our faith They will talk about this more tomorrow, but we sometimes think that we hope for some kind of outcome. We hope for some kind of result, but we don't. Christian hope is not the hope that or just a wish for an outcome. Christian hope is I hope in Him, I hope in God. So regardless of the outcome, regardless of where this leads me, I'm going to hope in Him. I know He will be there and He'll be faithful to His promises. and again, the object of our love is God. So these three virtues have God himself as the origin,

the source, right? The motive, the why and the object, the one we direct faith, hope and love to. So hopefully that helps. Okay, the next thing I want to look at here is I don't know how to say it exactly, but maybe we'll say like the power of these virtues, even the power of faith.

It says this in paragraph 18, 14. It says, faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us and that the Holy Church proposes for our belief because he is the truth itself. Okay, so by faith we believe in God, we believe in who he's revealed himself to be and we believe all that he has said

And revealed to us and that this holy church proposes for our belief because remember God is a truth. He cannot lie But this isn't just a matter of okay. I'm gonna white-knuckle it We already talked about white-knuckling We talked about the joy that comes from freedom comes from having virtue that comes from you know Choosing the Lord not only with our intellect and with our will, but also redirecting our passions so that they become under the guidance of our will and the guidance of our intellect. But there are many times when we, you and I, encounter things that God has revealed about what He's calling us to do or what He's calling us not to do.

An example would be, all right, God prohibits the use of contraception. Bam, just like that. To working against conception in the sexual act is prohibited by God and by his church. Now, there's an aspect where someone can come to me and they can actually tell me why, give me a reason why, and I can say, oh wow, your reasoning, your logic brings me to a place of, wow, I see your point, and now I agree with you.

I agree with your argument, I see the truth. And that's good, that's great. In fact, that literally is the story of my life. That is one of the things that sparked my conversion as a post-college Catholic adult, is someone teaching me, here's the church's teaching on openness to life and against contraception. And it was like, oh my gosh,

you have such incredible arguments that I see now the reasoning behind the church's teaching. So that can happen. But the virtue of faith is deeper than this. Now, again, I need to restate this just because I can imagine someone might say, are you saying we have to turn off our brain in order to have the virtue of faith or in order to believe?

You've been paying attention for the last 242 days. The answer is no, that is never the invitation by the church. At the same time, the virtue of faith isn't just, oh, you've presented me with a well-reasoned argument and now I agree with you. That's not the same thing as faith. And again, that was, it helped me and the church does have well-reasoned arguments

for everything the church professes and believes to be revealed by God, absolutely. Yet, just I agree is not the same thing as faith. We could go through this and we could have, I could try to present a number of well-reasoned arguments for every article that we're gonna hit in the next number of days as we go through the moral life, right? I could hit well-reasoned arguments for every article that we're gonna hit in the next number of days as we go through the moral life, right?

I could hit well-reasoned arguments for yes against contraception, for X, Y, and Z, right? And you could say, wow, Father Mike, that was such a great argument that now I agree with you. Now I agree with the church. Now I agree with God. That would be good, that's a win, but that wouldn't be faith.

It might be a step towards faith. But faith is what? It says this, by faith, man freely commits his entire self to God. If you went through the Bible in a year, remember our friend Job, and we've talked about Job a number of times too. Here's Job, and Job has heard about God,

and he's heard about how good God is, and he's righteous, right? He does all the right things, and then we know that the bottom drops out. You would know the whole story. In the depths of his grief, in the depths of his suffering, Job wants an answer, right? He wants an answer of like, why is all this happening to me?

I was a righteous man. And some of his friends are like, actually, Job, you must not have been righteous because I mean, gosh, this doesn't happen to righteous people. And so there's an argument and Job says, says God just give me a well-reasoned argument and I'll believe you I'll have faith I'll be able to lean into this moment and trust you when God speaks he doesn't give Job a well-reasoned argument he reveals himself to Job and so we have that massively huge statement

you know the massively huge proclamation of faith by our friend Job where he says, I had heard of you before, but now I've seen you. And I put my hand over my mouth and I will cease asking my questions because we know this, we know that unless we have faith, there's always gonna be the objection, right? Unless we have faith, there's always gonna be that skeptic

that lives inside of us. Even if we have faith, going to be that skeptic that lives inside of us. Even if we have faith, there might be that skeptic that lives inside of us. But when we've encountered the living God, and we hear, oh, he's revealed this. Well, even if I have a question about it, we've talked about questions, even if I have struggles with it or questions about it,

my question is not the question of a cynic or a skeptic. My question is one who wants to understand. You know, theology is faith seeking understanding, but it's faith seeking understanding, right? It's not prove to me and I'll have faith. It's faith, okay God, I trust you. Remember, by faith, man freely commits his entire self to God.

For this reason, the believer seeks to know and do God's will. So there's this openness, right? Because there's this, what the virtue of faith is, I like to summarize it in, I don't wanna say one word, but trust. In so many ways, faith is, okay, God, I trust you. I might still struggle.

I might still struggle to know why is this teaching or what is this teaching or how do I live this teaching? But I struggle as someone who trusts God. And so yes, if you can present to me a well-reasoned argument after I'm struggling, after I'm trusting God, then all the better, amazing. And if you give me a well-reasoned argument before I have faith in God and trust God,

that's great, that's helpful, that could be again, like it was for me. It was a step on the way to faith. But we recognize that faith is not only virtue, it is also a gift, and that is so important, right? Okay, now, hopefully that makes sense. Paragraphs 18, 15, and 18, 16, just wanna highlight this,

because we only had five paragraphs today, you guys. Let's kinda tease that out as much info as possible. In paragraph 18, 15, it says this, the gift of faith remains in the one who has not sinned against it. Okay, great, we recognize this. But faith apart from works is dead. That means that when it is deprived of hope and love,

faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his body. What that's saying is I can have faith as mere belief, like oh yeah, I believe God, but then I don't walk in hope and I don't live in love. So we recognize that salvation is we're saved by grace through faith I don't live in love. So we recognize that salvation is, we're saved by grace through faith, working itself out in love.

We're saved by grace, God's free gift, through faith, that where we freely commit our entire self to God, working itself out in love. I can't merely believe with my intellect and think, oh, we're done. I need to have faith, hope, and love. Okay, lastly, and this is so good, paragraph 1816. It says, the disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith

and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it. So if I have the gift of faith, there's this aspect where I become a missionary. If I have the virtue of faith, I guess I keep the faith, I live on it, but also I profess it. And we can ask ourselves this question today. When was the last time I professed the faith?

No, it could be, oh, it was Sunday. It could be I stood up and proclaimed, professed the Nicene Creed. I said, I believe, you know, et cetera, et cetera. But when was the last time I professed faith with my life? When was the last time I even, here's a really simple one, and I have to admit that sometimes I find myself balking at this, like sometimes I'm talking to people

from the gym or whatever and I wanna say, hey, I'm praying for you this weekend. And I think, well, I don't know if they go to church, I don't know if that means anything to them, but I have to ask the question, wait, am I gonna pray for them? The answer is yes. Well then, why wouldn't I just say, hey, I'm praying for you this weekend.

I know it's a big one. Or next week, I know that you got something big going on. And I realize in those moments, I have a choice. It's a simple choice, right? These are friends of mine. These are buddies from the gym. Even something big like, you're getting married this weekend. Hey, I'm praying for you. Congratulations on your wedding. I'm praying for you. I noticed this even in my own heart. There's

like a hesitation. And yet I think, man, I have the gift of faith. I believe in God with everything I am, and I want to belong to him with everything I am. And I really like this buddy from the gym. And I think he's a good guy. And I am praying for him this weekend. So why wouldn't I just freely say, hey, congratulations on your upcoming wedding or whatever the thing is, right? I'm praying for you.

So simple, so simple. We don't have to say, I'm praying for you. And I'm praying to the one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who, you know, I don't have to do all that, but just simply to profess it, to confidently bear witness to it and to spread it. Sometimes I recognize that in my own life,

there's moments where I'm comfortable in this context, spreading the faith, but in some other contexts, you know, we haven't bridged that gap yet. And I think, wow, Lord, that's where you're calling me, to even just bring up your name, to bring up your reality, your existence, to bring up even the fact that, oh yeah, I pray on a regular basis

and I'm gonna go pray for you because I care about you. Something as simple as that, I don't know, hopefully that makes sense because I think sometimes, you say, okay, we need to not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it. What's that look like? It can look as simple as, as I said, 12 times now. Hey, I'm praying for you.

And you know what? It's true. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.