The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 26: Communion of Believers (2025)

Episode Date: January 26, 2025

Today we further realize the sense of the word “credo,” meaning “I believe.” As we read the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, we discover the differences between the two and come to understand how the Nicene Creed, which came centuries later, expands upon and explains the beliefs of the Apostles’ Creed. Fr. Mike tells us that these Creeds help us to share the essential elements of Catholicism, acting as “symbols of faith,” and encouraging communion between believers. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 185-192. 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 to the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read all the way 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 26. of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journeyed together toward our heavenly home. It is day 26.

We're reading not only are we reading paragraphs 185 to 192, we are also reading the creed, creeds, two of them, the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed today. That's what we're doing today. So again, day 26, we're reading the creeds as well as paragraphs 185 to 192. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach. You can follow along with anyension edition of the catechism which includes the foundations of faith approach You can follow along with any recent version of the catechism of the Catholic Church You can also download your catechism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CIY And also you might know this but you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast to receive daily updates daily

Notifications week incredible as I said, oh my gosh today We're gonna go through both the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed That's how we're gonna kick things off. And so just keep that in mind when you're saying wait, these are different. Yes of course, they're different and secondly, they're also The introduction basically to this new section We're going into a section two on the Creed and this is really incredible If you have the Ascension's version of the Catechism, you'll be able to see that, okay, here we are,

part one still, profession of faith, what we believe, the Creed is section two, profession of the Christian faith, and it's divided into kind of three main areas, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In fact, one of the things that the next couple of paragraphs we read today are gonna talk about is, yeah, the Creed is kind of in three quote with these word chapters chapter one being God the Father chapter two being

God the Son and chapter three being God the Holy Spirit and so that's what we're gonna launch into today also kind of an interesting thing again if you have the Ascension edition of the Catechism you can see that the first section here on the God the Father is from paragraphs 185 to 421. So like almost 250 paragraphs. It was a big chunk of change. So it's really cool. In fact, as I've been reading ahead a little bit, you know, I've been trying to brush up on what's what we're going to be talking about and we get to dive deeply and not today, not necessarily tomorrow, but the third day from now, we're going to really dive deeply into, okay, here

is the identity of God the Father. Here's the identity of God himself. And that's so exciting. And then we're gonna do that again with God the Son and also God the Holy Spirit. So that's, I don't know, I get pretty excited about that kind of thing. We're also gonna talk about a couple different words

I want you to kind of listen for as we're reading through paragraphs 185 to 192. The first, of course we have the word creed, right? Which means credo, I believe. That's why we call them creeds because the first words are typically credo, I believe, or we believe. But also the word symbol.

And we're gonna define this word symbol. I don't know if you've ever stopped to wonder, wait, what does the word symbol mean? Well, we're gonna hear that. The Greek word symbolon meant half of a broken object, like a seal that was broken. And so like you'd have one half of the seal, kind of like those friendship necklaces,

say friends forever and they're like half of a heart. And then the other best friend has the other half of the heart, that kind of idea is a symbolon. So the idea we have symbols of faith is because we recognize something in what we're going to profess that is in us. I'm like, wow, that's a that's really incredible. That's really beautiful. It's a sign of recognition and community between believers as well, which I think is just awesome. It is, it essentially is the best friends forever broken necklace that we walk up to any

other Christian and realize, wait a second, you believe what I believe? Why? How do we know this? Because we share the same creed. We're also gonna look at the term article and you think, okay, article, I get it, I know what article means, but I love this. It kind of breaks down this term that we would know, article, and say, yeah, it means articulate. Like, oh, that makes sense. These articles articulateulate um what we believe and so we're gonna go through all that Today and just begin looking at begin examining begin wading into the creed Not only the creed itself, but who the creed is talking about but today again. We're talking about today and tomorrow We're talking about the kind of the reality of creeds like where do they come from? Why do we need them?

and tomorrow we're talking about the kind of the reality of creeds like where do they come from? Why do we need them? We need above all we need prayer, we need God's grace and so let's say a prayer right now. Father in heaven we give you praise we thank you so much for bringing us to this day, bringing us to day 26. We're so grateful that you've allowed us to walk with each other and to be guided by you. We ask you to send your Holy Spirit so that we can not only hear the creed but we can profess the creed not only that we can understand it but so that we can not only hear the Creed but we can profess the Creed not only that We can understand it Let's so that we can live it not only that so that we can we can have confidence in what we say about you But so that we can have you

Because you are the object of our longing you are the object of our love you are everything and Words cannot capture your reality so we just ask that you step into our lives in a new way in a fresh way in a deeper way and capture our hearts we make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen as I said where it's day 26 We're reading both the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed and they were diving into paragraphs 185 to 192 The credo the Apostles Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ his, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

The Nicene Creed. I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father. Through Him all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation, He came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.

I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. What We Believe Part 1. The Profession of Faith. The Creed. Section 2. The Profession of the Christian Faith. The Creeds. Whoever says, I believe, says, I pledge myself to what we believe. Communion in faith needs a common language of faith, normative for all and uniting all in the same confession of faith.

From the beginning, the apostolic church expressed and handed on her faith in brief formulae for all. But already early on, the church also wanted to gather the essential elements of its faith into organic and articulated summaries intended especially for candidates for baptism. St. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote, This synthesis of faith was not made to accord with human opinions, but rather what was of the greatest importance was gathered from all the scriptures to present the one teaching of the faith in its entirety. And just as the mustard seed contains a great number of branches and a tiny grain, so too this summary of faith encompassed in a few words the whole knowledge of the true religion contained in the Old and New Testaments.

Such syntheses are called professions of faith, since they summarize the faith that Christians profess. They are called creeds, on account of what is usually their first word in Latin, credo, or I believe. They are also called symbols of faith. The Greek word symbolon meant half of a broken object, for example, a seal presented as a token of recognition. The broken parts were placed together to verify the bearer's identity. The symbol of faith, then, is a sign of recognition and communion between believers. Symbolon also means a gathering, collection, or summary. A symbol of faith is a summary of the principal truths of the faith and therefore serves as

the first and fundamental point of reference for catechesis. The first profession of faith is made during baptism. The symbol of faith is first and foremost the baptismal creed. Since baptism is given in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, the truths of faith professed during baptism are articulated in terms of their reference to the three persons of the Holy Trinity. And so the creed is divided into three parts. The Roman Catechism states,

The first part speaks of the first Divine Person and the wonderful work of creation. The next speaks of the second Divine Person and the mystery of His redemption of men. The final part speaks of the third Divine Person, the origin and source of our sanctification. These are the three chapters of our baptismal seal. sanctification. These are the three chapters of our baptismal seal. The Roman Catechism further states, these three parts are distinct, although connected with one another. According to a comparison often used by the fathers, we call them articles. Indeed, just as in our bodily members there are certain articulations which distinguish and separate them, so too in this profession

of faith the the name Articles has justly and rightly been given to the truths we must believe particularly and distinctly. In accordance with an ancient tradition already attested to by St. Ambrose, it is also customary to reckon the Articles of the Creed as twelve, thus symbolizing the fullness of the apostolic faith by the number of the Apostles. Through the centuries, many professions or symbols of faith have been articulated in response to the needs of the different eras. The creeds of the different apostolic and ancient churches, for example the Quai Cunque, also called the Athanasian Creed, the professions of faith of certain councils such as Toledo, Latterin, Lyon, Trent, or the symbols of certain popes,

for example, Fides De Massi, or the Credo of the People of God of Paul VI. Okay, there we go. You guys, we've got a chunk of change today, which is awesome. Yesterday was Nugget Day. Today is not Nugget Day. Today is Get the Whole Chicken Day. I don't know what that means.

I am sorry. But, okay, so we recited both creeds, the Apostles Creed and the Nic chicken day. I don't know what that means. I am sorry. But okay, so we we recited both creeds the Apostles Creed and The Nicene Creed now a couple things about this We might learn this even later the Apostles Creed is that essential creed that you know, it can be traced back to the Apostles So the Apostles Creed obviously is shorter than the Nicene Creed, but doesn't contradict it, right? The Nicene Creed which comes later doesn't contradict the Apostles Creed at all. In fact, it's an expansion. Why did it get expanded? Well, paragraph 192 kind of highlights in one sentence

what happens, paragraph 192 says, "'Through the centuries, many professions "'or symbols of faith have been articulated "'in response to the needs of the different eras.'" So the Apostles Creed sums up what we believe, what Christians believed from the beginning. But here we are in the fourth century, right? 325 is when the Council of Nicaea was convened. And so it was convened in response to this challenge. Like, how do we really understand

Jesus being divine? Which we're going to dive deeply in in the next couple days and weeks. How do we truly understand Jesus being divine? Well, you know, in the Apostles Creed, it says Jesus Christ is only son, our Lord. Okay, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. All right, so that's what we know. Jesus is the Son of God. He is our Lord.

He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. But people are saying, okay, what does it mean that Jesus is the Son of God? Does it mean that he's part God and part human? Does it mean like Hercules kind of situation? Or what? And so in 325, the Council of Nicaea comes together

in response to this question, in response to this challenge, and you can see it gets expanded where it says, in the Apostles' Creed, in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, in the Nicene Creed it says, believe in one Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God So the word begotten is now in there, born of the Father before all ages God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made

Consubstantial with the Father, through him all things were made. I mean you can see that they are making it very very clear that what we believe as Christians is that that they are making it very very clear that what we believe as Christians is that What we when we say Jesus is the son of God we mean he is co-equal and co-eternal with the father And so that's just so powerful, you know, and we get to the Holy Spirit same kind of thing In fact, then I seen Creed is shorthand it's actually the niceo constant and but constant and a polytum Creed easy for me to say because not only Was that articulated in 325 and the council of nicaea But also in 381 in the council of Constantinople

And so that was where it was that's a little little inside baseball for you there But here's we get to talk about the creed get to talk about the creeds That's just a little kind of explanation of the difference between the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed. Why do we keep expanding them? Because they're keeping challenges people saying what do we really mean? What do we really believe? Because that's what the heart of the Creed is. What do we ultimately, just that in its simplest form, what do we ultimately believe? In fact, paragraph 186 says this, early on, early on, the church wanted to gather the essential elements of its faith into organic and articulated summaries,

which is just, yeah, makes sense. I mean, we have this thing called the theology of the body that was presented to the world by Pope John, Saint John, Pope John Paul II. And we have these retreats, we have these conferences that we'll put on for our high school students, our college students, adults, and people are just blown away by it. People are just really moved. They're really, they're

they learn a lot, their hearts get touched, and then what happens is, you know, they go home and they're raving about this thing called the theology of the body, and people say, well, what is it? And they find, like, wait, I can't, I, mmm, I can't say. You know, there's no's no like there's no simple form or really concise way of capturing What is the heart of the teaching of the theology of the body? They love what they heard but like how do I convey that in a simple concise? But also very accurate and clear way the creeds help us do that because we could say I love Christianity I love the Catholic Church. Okay, what do you believe? Okay wow there's a ton and that's why we have these creeds right? We have these creeds because

this is a summary just in the the essential elements of the faith. Not that other parts aren't important but we just have have distilled this down to the most concentrated form. That's what these these creeds are and I love this. 185 says whoever says I believe says I pledge myself to what we believe right this is a common faith so we have the common language of faith that's normative for all and unites all of us in the same confession of faith I love this term symbol on right symbols of faith which is great was what we're saying remember a couple days ago we talked about how we don't believe in the words themselves. We believe in the realities they represent, right?

We don't believe in the creed itself. We believe in the realities that the creed represents. The symbol on, how it's just such a great image that I have to admit, I just kind of recently learned this. Here is this broken seal that you can essentially hold up to all other believers. And they'll say, yeah, I believe that too. You know, one of the things that,

I get so moved by the reality of the martyrs. Like right now, there are people, literally right now, there are people who are suffering for the fact that they are Christians. Like right now in this world, you know, there have been more martyrs in the 20th century than in all other previous centuries combined. So martyrdom of believers is not a thing of the past.

In fact, it's a thing literally right now of the present. There is someone, there are many people maybe even in the world right now who are suffering. Why? Because they believe exactly what you and I believe For most of us who get to listen to this we just get to like say yeah, I believe that and I want to live that I want to pursue the Lord God with my whole heart mind soul and strength. I want to love him with everything There are people who believe Exactly what you and I believe and because that, they are now being persecuted. They are now being tortured.

They're in the midst of incredible injustice. And the only difference between them and us is their situation. The only difference between them and us is the people around them. Because they believe exactly what we believe. We could hold up that symbol on, right? We could hold up that broken seal to them and it would match with ours. And so we need to pray for them for sure. Last, last quick thing is we recognize that,

I mentioned this as we launched into this day, is that the creed is divided up into three parts. And I love this from the Roman Catechism. The first part speaks of the first divine person and the wonderful works of creation, right? God the Father is theism the first part speaks of the first divine person and the wonderful works of creation Right God the Father is the creator The next speaks of the second divine person and the mystery of his redemption of men, right? Jesus Christ redeems us in the final part speaks of the third divine person the origin and source of our sanctification that hears the Holy Spirit

Who yeah is the source of our sanctification? I mean we know this that we're gonna hear this later on that with Jesus the Redeemer made possible, the Son of Seconds person of the Trinity made possible, the Holy Spirit third person of the Trinity makes actual and so we just get to profess this faith. I love the fact that tomorrow also we get to dive into more things like the Apostles Creed, the Niceneo Constantine Apollitan Creed. You're gonna hear that again tomorrow which is very exciting and then the day after tomorrow we're going to yeah dive into what's The Nicene Constance and Apollitan Creed you're gonna hear that again tomorrow, which is very exciting And then the day after tomorrow, we're going to yeah dive into what's that first thing?

I believe in God the Father so that's coming not today not tomorrow the day after tomorrow, but I can't wait to see you there I am praying for you. Please please please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow God bless