The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 281: Keep Holy the Lord’s Day (2025)

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

We begin exploring the third commandment and learn about rest and worship concerning the Lord’s Day. The Catechism points out that God models what he wants for us as he also rested on the seventh day. Fr. Mike explains the importance of prioritizing rest for ourselves because we are free and no longer enslaved people. The Catechism describes how we are to keep the Lord’s Day holy with “outward, visible, public, and regular worship ‘as a sign of his universal beneficence to all.’” Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2168-2176. 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 the 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 281. We were reading paragraphs 2168 to 2176. 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 ascension

press.com slash CIY. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe on your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today is day 281. You guys, I know I said this yesterday, but this is incredible. I mean, we're close to 300, which means we're close to 365, which means we're close to completing the entire catechism. Here we are completed yesterday. the second commandment, today we're starting the third commandment, which is so good, because why? Well, you know the first through the third commandments directly relate to God. And then, of course, starting after this, commandments four through ten, how do we relate to each other? But I just, there's something about this. Of course, the first commandment, have no other gods before the Lord

God. And the second commandment, to keep holy of the Lord's name. But this third commandment about, remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, there's something, again, we come back to this worship, come back to what we owe to God. Remember, we talked about this before, because the catechism highlights this, that the virtue of justice, the primary subverture of justice is the virtue of religion. And the way in which we express live out the virtue of religion is through worship. And so what we'll talk about today is just the beginnings of that, that here we are, and this commandment to keep holy the Sabbath is not for the Lord. It's not because he needs anything. It's not because he needs our worship. It is because we need it. This commandment corresponds

to how human beings. It corresponds to the human heart. And this is just, it's so important for us to recognize this because if we don't recognize this, one of the things that we forget is we forget what it is to be human. To be human is to be oriented towards worship of God. To recognize that we are not the center of the universe, that God is the source, he's the origin, and he's the point. He is the entire point of existence. He's the source of existence. He is the whole purpose and goal of existence. And so worship ensures that we don't collapse in in ourselves, right? Worship ensures that we experience freedom, true freedom, by offering the Lord true worship. And so this commandment we get to dive into today is all about that. So we ask the Lord

to be with us as we invoke his name, Father in heaven. In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, we ask that you please fill our hearts with a love of you so that worship can flow from us and can be directed toward your glory, it could be directed towards interceding on behalf of this world. Lord God, give us a heart that longs to worship you. Give us hearts that, that desire above all, that your name is glorified, that you are glorified. Lord God, for every part of our heart that is opposed to worship, every part of our heart that wants to fall in on ourselves, every part of our heart that wants to be small or selfish, we ask that you please convert that, transform it, so that we can truly belong to you, that we can truly be yours,

and that every piece of our worship, particularly our worship and the Sunday Mass, is truly for you, for your glory and for the salvation of this world. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. It is day 281. We are reading paragraphs 2168 to 2176. Article 3. The Third Commandment. Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. In it, you shall not do any work. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the son of man is Lord even of

the Sabbath. The Sabbath Day. The third commandment of the Decologue recalls the holiness of the Sabbath. The seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. In speaking of the Sabbath, Scripture recalls creation. For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Scripture also reveals in the Lord's Day a memorial of Israel's liberation from bondage in Egypt. You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out thence with mighty hand and outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. God entrusted the Sabbath to Israel to keep as a sign of the irrevocable

covenant. The Sabbath is for the Lord, holy and set apart for the praise of God, his work of creation, and is saving actions on behalf of Israel. God's action is the model for human action. If God rested and was refreshed on the seventh day, man too ought to rest and should let others, especially the poor be refreshed. The Sabbath brings everyday work to a halt and provides a respite. It is a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money. The gospel reports many incidents when Jesus was accused of violating the Sabbath law, but Jesus never fails to respect the holiness of this day. He gives this law its authentic and authoritative interpretation, saying, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

With compassion, Christ declares the Sabbath for doing good rather than harm, for saving life rather than killing. The Sabbath is the day of the Lord of mercies and a day to honor God. The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath. The Lord's Day. This is the day which the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. The day of the resurrection, the new creation. Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week, because it is the first day, the day of Christ's resurrection, recalls the first creation. Because it is the eighth day following the Sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation, ushered in by Christ's resurrection. For Christians, it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord's Day. Hecuriake Emera,

Dias Dominica, Sunday. As St. Justin Martyr wrote in the second century, we all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day after the Jewish Sabbath, but also the first day when we God, separating matter from darkness, made the world. And on this same day, Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead. Sunday, fulfillment of the Sabbath. Sunday is expressly distinguished from the Sabbath which it follows chronologically every week. For Christians, its ceremonial observance replaces that of the Sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish Sabbath and announces man's eternal rest in God. For worship under the law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote,

Those who lived according to the old order of things have come to a new hope, no longer keeping the Sabbath but the Lord's Day in which our life is blessed by him and by his death. The celebration of Sunday observes the moral commandment inscribed by nature in the human heart to render to God an outward, visible, public, and regular worship as a sign of his universal beneficence to all. Sunday worship fulfills the moral command of the old covenant, taking up its rhythm and spirit in the weekly celebration of the creator and redeemer of his people. All right, there we have paragraphs 2168 to 2176. Man, as I said, it's so powerful and so incredible how important this is. Now, let's go back to the commandments themselves. So,

the very beginning of this article today. We have Exodus chapter 20, and then also kind of a quote from Deuteronomy 5, of course, where it's, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. In it, you shall do not do any work going on. Jesus is quoted in Mark's gospel as saying, the Sabbath was made for man, not the man for, not man for the Sabbath. So the son of man is Lord, even of the Sabbath. Okay, these are the beginnings of how we understand this. What's the very beginning. Here's Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Remember the Sabbath day. So six days, you shall labor, do all your work. Seventh day, Sabbath day to the Lord your God. And it,

you shall not do any work. There is a pointing to the story of creation. And that story of creation, of course, is that here is God who makes heavens and the earth everything that's in them. And the day one through day six. And on the seventh day he rests. So what we're invited to do is we're invited into living like the Lord, right? We're invited into working six days and resting that seventh day. We're invited to live and structure our lives around almost the very first description of God in Genesis chapter one, which is so incredible. We're invited into this. Now, the next piece of this is also explained and unpacked in Deuteronomy chapter five, where it says, you shall remember that you are a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord

your God brought you out thence with mighty hand and outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. This is, ah, man, this is so incredible for us. First, the commandment in, obviously, Exodus 20 directly pointed to the fact that we're called to live like the Lord. Six days of work, one day of rest. Okay. But also, Duranmi 5 highlights this.

Remember the context for the commandment. The context for the commandment is the Exodus. So here is the Lord God who brings his people, whom he loves, right? Out of slavery, there were slaves in Egypt for 400 years. And now they're free. And to think about this, think about the gift of this as a slave. Question, pop quiz campers, as a slave, how many days off of work do you have a week? The answer is zero.

You have no days off. Why? Because you're a slave. It doesn't matter what day of the week it is. It doesn't matter if you've been working nonstop. You haven't had a day off for your entire life. You're a slave. Therefore, you must work every single day.

Now, here is the Lord God. And he's brought his beloved people, the chosen people of God, from slave. slavery to freedom. And part of the first things he commands them, right? Part of the first things he says you have to do this is now that you're free, now that you're no longer slaves, you must rest from your labors. Think about how this is connected to the relationship of what God is doing in their lives. Now, let's bring this to ourselves. You know, we're going to talk about Sunday rest in a couple days. But think about how we resist Sunday rest. In fact, I know this for a fact that when we get to paragraphs 2184 and following

and it talks about the obligation to rest from work that there are going to be so many people who are like, yeah, but what about this? What about this? But can I work? What if I have to work? All the questions we're going to have. And in the real questions,

because we're trying to apply this to our lives. But there's this aspect of this, the beginning of this commandment, which is, listen, you are no longer a slave. So why in the world do we buck against this commandment to rest on the Sabbath? day. While in the world, we buck against this, God's trying to make it so clear that you do not have to live like a slave. You are free. You are free. Therefore, there is a day of rest. Now, paragraph 2172 highlights

this. It says, God's action is the model for human action. Remember, six days, one day off. If God rested and was refreshed on the seventh day, then we too ought to rest and should let others, especially the poor, be refreshed. This is part of it, and this is going to be one of those things that I told you before is going to convict us. So if the day of rest is for us to rest and to let others be refreshed, what does that mean for how I'm going to structure that day? This is going to be really convicting. It goes on to say, the Sabbath brings everyday work to a halt and provides a respite. It is a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money. And think about the way in which this does.

Remember, the First Commandment is to not have any gods before the Lord God himself. How many of us are willing to give our whole entire lives for wealth, for power, for security, for status, for all these things, the worship of money, the worship of power, the worship of influence, the worship of status, the worship of security, I can't take a day off. If I take a day off, my whole life's at stake, right? My security's at stake. at stake. And yet, what would that mean about status, security, wealth, influence? It might indicate that those things have become an idol in my life. And this third commandment

frees me, frees me from that idol, but it means this. It means I have to actually kill my idol. It means I actually have to, or at least kill that part of my own heart that is unwilling to take a break. It's unwilling to resist the servitude of work. It's unwilling to resist the worship of money or of status or of security. And so this is where it becomes so personal because here, every one of us, every one of us.

And I just am putting myself under that umbrella, everyone, includes me, includes you, because I don't take a break very well. I'll just say that right now. I this is such a convicting commandment because yes absolutely we're going to talk about the lord's day and the sunday obligation that we have the sunday euchrist absolutely i will do that without without fail to worship the lord in the mass without fail and yet and yet i don't rest and i think okay then what's that mean what are my idols then the servitude of work i'm like no i can't take a break and let me just

bring to you all. I know after 280 plus days, I'm kind of friends by now. And so I think you know me. And I have to ask the question. I have to ask the Lord this question. To God, why do I not give myself permission to take a break? And the answer, of course, is because stuff needs to get done, right? And if I give a whole day to not doing anything, to resting, then I just, I'm afraid. God, I won't get done. Because all the other six days now are, now they're busier because I rested, because I didn't do work on that one seventh day. And I'm afraid of that. I just have to let you know that.

But I'm afraid of taking a break because if I take a break, then the work's not going to get done. And yet, what does 2172 say? It says the Sabbath brings everyday work to a halt and provides a respite. It is a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money.

Remember that what I said at the top of this whole thing is God's saying, rest, why? Because you're not a slave. And I would even point to myself and say, guys, I'm so sorry to bring my own personal stuff into this. But even those of us who work for the church, even those of us who were saying,

no, I haven't, Lord, you've given me a mission. He says, yeah, I'll also give me a commandment, and that commandment is to rest. So what am I going to do? Am I going to sacrifice the mission? Because I don't, I'm not willing to rest. Are you going to sacrifice the mission because you're not willing to rest?

and this is just so important for all of us to understand like to what is what's driving us what's driving my inability to rest what's driving your inability to rest or not maybe not inability unwillingness what's driving your unwillingness or my unwillingness to enter into the Lord's rest and this is what I'm going to take this to prayer you guys again as I'm saying just letting these things come to the service so that you know that I am not talking about any of these things from a high horse I am talking about these things from a very low, low perspective, because I'm just as guilty as everybody. Now, the catechism goes on to say and highlight the fact that that day of rest, that day of worship of the Lord, has been transferred from Saturday, right, the Sabbath day, to Sunday.

And why? Well, it makes it very, very clear. Paragraph 2174, Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week, because it's the first day, the day of Christ's resurrection, recalls the first creation. It's the eighth day following the Sabbath, therefore it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by the Lord's resurrection. So for Christians, it has become the first of all days, first of all feasts. It is the Lord's Day. So ever since the very beginning, the beginning of Christianity, those early Christians recognize that the Lord's day is now Sunday. And it was transferred from

that day of rest, the day of the Lord from Saturday to Sunday. And this is just important for us to understand. There are some Christians who will say, no, no, no, it's still the Sabbath. It's till Saturday, and that's not accurate, not for Christians at least. Then paragraph 2175 and 2176 go on to clarify in a very powerful way that Sunday is the fulfillment of the Sabbath. So Sunday is expressly distinguished from the Sabbath, which it follows chronologically every week. So it is, it's not as if we're also keeping the Sabbath in noise. It is expressly distinguished from that Saturday. For Christians, it's Sundays, ceremonial observance, replaces that of that. the Sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish Sabbath

and announces man's eternal rest in God. For worship under the law, prepared for the mystery of Christ, and that was done there, and now it's fulfilled. So that's where we find ourselves. We don't hold on to Saturday as that day because it's been fulfilled in Jesus. The last paragraph 2176 I think just hits my heart in a way that hopefully hits your heart, where it says, the celebration of Sunday observes the moral commandment inscribed by nature in the human heart to render to God an outward, visible, public, and regular worship as a sign of his universal beneficence to all. Isn't that just, that's it?

Remember, all of us are, we're created for worship. We're created to offer to God our best, our worst, our everything. And this celebration of Sunday observes the moral commandment and just, it corresponds with the deepest desire of the human heart, which is to render to God the outward, right? So it's not just kind of like an inward thing, visible, not just kind of a made up thing, public. It's not my own thing.

And regular worship, not like when I feel like it. All four of those words are very important. An outward, visible, public, and regular worship. Outward, because, again, it has to be directed toward the Lord, not inward. It's not about how I feel. Visible, there is something concrete and tangible about this. It's public.

It's not my own private worship I'm offering to God. even though sometimes people say, no, I'm going to go into the woods and offer God my worship. No, you're going for a walk and maybe you're talking to God. It's not the same thing. It's not the same thing at all.

And regular worship. I'm not just going when I feel like it. Tomorrow we're going to talk about how vitally important it is that we recognize that the Sunday Eucharist is not an on again, off again thing. It's not when it's convenient. It's when it's convenient and inconvenient.

It isn't always an every week kind of a situation because we have to be willing to give the Lord the worship, that he deserves, that belongs to him in season and out of season, whether convenient or inconvenient. Regardless of how I'm feeling, regardless of my circumstances, we have to be willing to have those kinds of hearts, those kinds of lives that are willing to say, at least once a week, everything else fails in comparison to worship of God. At least once a week, everything else doesn't stand a chance that can't hold a candle to the need that I have in my heart,

in need of my have in my humanity, the need that there is in the universe to stop at least once a week and say, God has no rival, at least once a week, God has no rival. Whether I like this or don't like it, whether it's convenient or inconvenient, whether it's in season or out of season, every Sunday, I must be there. That's what we're talking about tomorrow. But right now, Please pray for each other because we need this rest. We need this worship. I am praying for you. Please pray for me.

Obviously, my name is Father Micah. Can I wait to see you tomorrow? God bless.