The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 285: The Nature of the Family (2025)

Episode Date: October 12, 2025

In learning the core and fundamental definition of the family, we read today that a family is formed by a “man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children.” The Christian family is a communion of faith, hope, and love and an image of the Trinity. Fr. Mike shares how important he believes friendship and family are in spreading the Good News of the Gospel. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2201-2206. 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's 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 New 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 285. We're reading paragraphs 2201 to 2206. As always, I'm 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, your very own. Catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y, and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app. That was you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily updates and daily notifications. Also, a quick thank you for all those. Thank you for your prayers. Yesterday, I remember just, you know, we keep getting challenged. keep any challenge day after day by these commandments, keep any challenge by God's word and by

his commands to us. And so we need prayers for each other. And I am so grateful. I cannot move ahead without thanking you for your prayers and thanking you for your financial support of this podcast. We couldn't do this without you. Thank you so much. We've made it all the way to today in day 285 and we're going to continue talking about the Fourth Commandment. In fact, we're looking at paragraphs 2201 to 20206, only what that sounds like six paragraphs to me. When we talk about this, we're talking about the family in God's plan. Now, this is going to be fascinating because I think in so many ways you might listen to this. If you're listening to this or reading this for the first time, you might think, oh, this is, this is recent. This is a recent definition of the family.

This is recent definition of marriage. And it's not. This is, this is an ancient definition of marriage. In fact, the church wrote this catechism, this section in the catechism in the 80s, right? They started compiling this and 80s wasn't promulgated into the 1990s long before we experienced some of the cultural issues that we experience in the West about family and about marriage. And so it's fascinating to recognize that the church is saying, what the church is teaching, it's not a response, it's not a reaction to the world around it. It is a clear teaching and it is direction to the world around us. And that's a huge distinction.

Again, you might listen to this and say, oh, that sounds very political. Well, it's only political because, you know, our culture has brought questions of what is marriage, what is family? into the political realm. And yet here's the church, again, not reacting, not even simply, simply speaking, responding to the culture, but directing the culture, teaching the culture as we talk about what is the nature of the family. And also, what's the nature of the Christian family? Those are the two big questions we're going to look at today. So buckle in, strap in, and let's get ready for these six paragraphs that are very beautiful, but also for many of us

may be certainly challenging. So let's pray, Father in heaven. In the name of your on Jesus Christ, we ask you to please be with us. Please hear our prayers and be with us in our need. Be with us in our confusion. Be with us in our understanding. Lord, if we have hesitant hearts, if we have a reluctance to say yes to you with freedom and with joy, we ask you to please meet us in that hesitation. Meet us in that reluctance. And if we are excited, if we are grateful and joyful over your teaching, we ask you to please help us be humble in our joy. Help us be humble in the conviction of the truth of knowing what is the nature of the family. You invented the family. God, you invented the concept of family. And you also have called us to live in a certain

way as we are called to be part of a Christian family. So we ask you to please send us your Holy Spirit so that we can not only know this, but to live this. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, it is day 285. We're reading paragraphs 2201 to 2206 The family in God's plan, the nature of the family. The conjugal community is established upon the consent of the spouses. Marriage and the family are ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children.

The love of the spouses and the beginning of children create among members of the same family, personal relationships, and primordial responsibilities. A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form and a family. This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation to recognize it. It should be considered the normal reference point by which the different forms of family relationship are to be evaluated. In creating man and woman, God instituted the human family and endowed it with its fundamental constitution. Its members are persons equal in dignity. For the common good of its members and of society, the family necessarily

has manifold responsibilities, rights, and duties. The Christian Family The Christian Family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason, it can and should be called a domestic church. It is a community of faith, hope, and charity. It assumes singular importance in the church, as is evident in the New Testament. The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son,

the Holy Spirit. In the procreation and education of children, it reflects the father's work of creation. It is called to partake of the prayer and sacrifice of Christ. Daily prayer and the reading of the Word of God strengthen it in charity. The Christian family has an evangelizing and missionary task. The relationships within the family bring an affinity of feelings, affections, and interests, arising above all from the members' respect for one another. The family is a privileged community, called to achieve a sharing of thought and common deliberation by the spouses, as well as their eager cooperation as parents in the children's upbringing. Right.

Then we have it six quick paragraphs, 2201 to 2206, and yet, as we said before, these paragraphs are packed. They are packed with just, again, here's the teaching of the church. Here's the teaching through the lens of scripture in light of tradition. So let's start with 2201. The conjugal family, how is it established? It's established upon the consent. of the spouses. What's conjugal community? Conjugal community is like marriage, right? So

conjugal implying the conjugal relationship between husband and wife. That's established upon what? The consent of the spouses. And that is important, right? So it's not established upon anyone else's will. It's not established upon love for one another. It's established upon consent that the spouses, the husband and wife, are saying yes, the mutual consent to each other, mutual mutual consent to this relationship, the conjugal community. relationship. It goes on to say marriage and the family are ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children. These are the two ends of marriage, right? This is what they're oriented towards. Even if, even if, right, even if a couple is unable to have

children of biologically, the family is ordered toward that end. So keep that in mind. It goes on to say, the love of the spouses. So so far we've only talked about like the will. So we've talked about that yet their consent to marriage, their consent to one another. But the love of the spouses and the beginning of children create among the members of the same family, personal relationships, and primordial responsibilities, that there's something so good about the care, the love that parents have for each other, of course, but also for their children that then create personal relationships and primordial responsibilities. And so moving on, what's the definition of a family in paragraph 2202 it offers the definition years ago i remember reading it was

kind of a study on our culture right now and it talked about how young people it was adolescence and young adults how they saw anyone to whom they are they feel an affinity anyone to whom they feel close they would say that's my family and that makes sense i mean we're social beings and in fact you we probably know this i think social scientists or psychologists have observed this is that yes well family, like biological family, your natural family or the family in which you're raised, is very, very important. When it comes to our further development in adolescence and the maturity, there is a great reliance upon those members outside the family at the same time.

The definition of family is not those people to whom I feel an affinity or to those people to whom I feel a closeness. Paragraph 20-02 makes it very clear, a man and a woman, united in marriage, together with their children form a family. That's what it is. They form a family. Now, going on, this institution, so the family, marriage and the family, this institution is prior to any recognition by public authority. So we don't get the definition of marriage from the state. We don't get the definition of marriage from history. We don't get the definition of marriage from anyone who's in charge, right? It's beyond any public authority. So it existed before any government. It existed before

any community. It exists. It is the fundamental building block of society, marriage and the family. It predates, it precedes society. It predates and precedes civilization. So we don't get the definition of marriage from our society or from our civilization. And the consequence of that is this. We may not redefine it. If the definition of marriage and family predates and precedes civilization and culture, then our culture and our civilization may not redefine it. We have to simply observe it and accept it. It goes on to say, it, meaning the family, should be considered the normal reference point at which the different forms of family relationship are to be evaluated. Yes, there are times when, I mean, obviously, I said biological family earlier,

and I don't mean to limit family to biology, because there's adoptive families and there's other forms of family, foster families. There's other forms of family. Yet that a man and woman united in the marriage with their children. And again, I'm not saying that adopted children are not truly their children. Please don't misunderstand me. Not at all in that. But I'm saying that's the most basic form and that's the fundamental form, the normal reference point, by which different forms of family are to be evaluated. So this is the norm and everything outside of this is evaluated by this particular reference points. That makes sense. I'm not trying to be too heavy-handed on this one. It's just trying to make it clear that husband, wife, united with their children are the normal

reference point. Now, going on, here's what God did. God created male and female. And he therefore instituted the human family and endowed it with its fundamental constitution. That is at the heart of this whole thing, is where does the family come from? Again, not from the state. It comes from the Lord himself, who made human beings male and female. That's the very basis of this. It goes on to say, then the church affirms this. Now, because this is very important in terms of the Fourth Commandment. It says, its members are persons equal in dignity. Remember we talked about this yesterday, that every person you're going to meet, we treat them with respect and honor because of the fact that every person you're ever going to meet is made in God's image and likeness.

So keep that in mind. Parents and children and extended family, all of them are are equal in dignity, even if parents owe their children a certain kind of respect and honor and children or their parents a certain kind of respect and honor, everyone is equal when it comes to dignity. And that is so important. Now, there's a phrase that's been used ever since I think the Second Vatican Council and it's that the family is the domestic church. And that sense of, okay, here are parents united with their children. And that forms a domestic church. Now, let me just pause for a second because you might say, like we'd said yesterday in the day before, for like when it comes to dysfunctional families and we're all dysfunctional, you might say,

okay, well, you just keep saying that, you know, father, you keep saying that the catechism keeps saying that it's husband and wife united with their children that forms a family. What about there's only one parent? What happens when there are husband and wife, but they can't have children? Is that still a domestic church? The answer is yes. And we don't have to look too far. We can look, let's look at John Paul II.

So John Paul II, he had a mom and a dad and a brother. when John Paul II was very young, his mother died. And his father raised him and his brother. Now, when his father was raising he and his brother, that was a domestic church too, even though he was, for all intents and purposes, a single dad. Then his older brother died. And John Paul II was left just with his dad. Still a domestic church. Even though it was just father and son, that's still a domestic church. And if you have husband and wife with no children, that's still a domestic church. This is, the goodness, again, the fullness of it, husband, wife, united with their children, of course, obviously. And yet, to be missing apart because of just life, right,

because of the fact that we're in a world that's good but broken doesn't mean it's not the domestic church. Goes on to say, it is a community of faith, hope, and love, right? Charity. It assumes singular importance in the church, as is evident in the New Testament. And we would not argue that John Paul, with his father was not a domestic church that grew in faith, hope, and love, right? So that makes sense. So you might find yourself in an irregular situation, but you might find yourself in a place where like, okay, the spouse I committed to, they're not here anymore. Or we committed to each other, my spouse and I, but we don't have any children. Or whatever the situation is, you're not excluded from this. You're invited into this. And because that's, that's the heart of what it is to belong to

the Lord. We're called to be part of the Christian family. And the Christian family is a communion a person's meant to be a sign and image of the Trinity. And that is so important. So what we're called to do is partake of the prayer and sacrifice of Christ. And if you find yourself in a situation, I mean, think about this. If your husband and wife, you can't have children, your life is a sacrifice. Your life is marked by this pain of longing, this pain of loss. If here you are, you're a single mom, a single dad. And you long for that spouse that, for whatever reason, is not there. Your life is marked by pain. It's marked by sacrifice. And so what do we called to do? Or if your husband and wife united with your children, you don't need me to tell you, your life is

likely marked, your family's likely marked by pain and loss and sacrifice. So what do we call to do? The domestic church is called to do what every individual Christian is called to do, to partake of the prayer and sacrifice of Christ. Daily prayer, reading of scripture, strengthen us in love. the Christian family has an evangelizing a missionary task, and I want to end here with this. We recognize that around the world, there are certain parts of the world where the church is growing in leaps and bounds. Like the Catholic Church is just exploding in so many great ways. There are some places around the world where the Catholic Church is shrinking.

And it seems to be like a kind of a losing game, losing proposition. And so sometimes people say, here's what we need more of. What we need more of is we need more conferences. We need more retreats. We need more big events. And those aren't bad things. those are great things. But I've come to the conclusion that the gospel will not spread to the whole world.

The church will not grow through a person on a stage with a microphone. That the church will grow and the gospel will be advanced by two means, the means of friendship and family. I'm convinced of this. I'm convinced that God does want to grow his church, but he's going to grow it primarily. Yes, conferences are good and retreats are good. things are great. But he's going to primarily be growing his church and spreading the gospel through the things that we long for the most and experience the greatest brokenness in, which is family and friendships. Think about our world right now. Is there anything, I mean,

I keep talking about broken families, because it's our common experience. So family is going to be where the gospel continues to move throughout the world. Think about how lonely people are when it comes to friendship. So friendship, true friendship, self-sacrificial friendship and self-sacrificial families will be the way, I believe, the means by which the Lord God will grow his church and spread his gospel throughout the world. And so that means, again, that the domestic church is going to be imperfect. Your domestic church and my domestic church are going to be imperfect. And yet they are the privileged community, the privileged community in the church that I believe, I believe has an evangelizing and missionary task. And I believe, I believe,

believe is positioned in such a way as to spread the good news of Jesus, maybe like no other. Maybe. I could be wrong. But I do think it's not going to be through a person on a stage with a microphone. It is going to be through friendship and family. Anyways, that's what I got for you today. You guys, what a great thing. Tomorrow we're going to talk about the family and society.

Again, more big ideas. And so we'll continue to pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. Thank you.