The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 289: Family, Society, and the Kingdom

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

While family is important, the Catechism states, “The first vocation of the Christian is to follow Jesus.” This means that parents should support Christ's call for their children. Fr. Mike explains that when we deny Jesus or his teachings for the sake of our families, we are making an idol of the family. We also learn the duties of civil authorities. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2232-2237. 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 years brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's families we journey together to our heavenly home. This is day 289. We're reading paragraphs 2232 to 2237,

as always, I'm using the ascension edition of the catacism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the catacism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catacism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y, And you can click follow or subscribe on your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications.

It's day 289. We were almost at day 290. We're only one day away. I don't know if you can count like that. I just learned. Anyways, I don't know what that means. We're continuing to talk about the fourth command and talking about the family.

Yesterday, if you remember, we talked about how, yes, the family is the place of, we talked about a lot of things yesterday I understand that yesterday was a long, long day and at the same time. It's so important. We ended, we talked about how the family's place would be evangelization. It's a place of holiness, a place of growth and holiness. It's also, we note that in paragraph 22-30 that when they become adults children have the right and duty to choose their profession and stay in life. So parents should weigh in and give their advice, good advice. But the children, grown children, have the right and the duty to be able to make their

own decisions. Now this is going to be important because paragraph 2232 today here has one of the, well it's not to say one of the most important lines. It has a very important line. And we're talking about the goodness of the family. The family is good. Very, very good. Paragraph 2232 highlights this truth.

It says, family ties are important, but not absolute. This is very important for us to understand. Family ties are important, but not absolute. And so there are times we recognize where Jesus even said this. We said, I've not come to establish peace, but the absolute. And so there are times we recognize where Jesus even said this. We said, I've not come to establish peace, but the sword, he said, from now on, families will be divided, three against two, two against three, father will be divided against sons,

son against father, mother and log, and daughter and law, daughter and log, and mother and law. This is what's gonna happen. The our primary allegiance, the absolute allegiance we owe is to the Lord himself. So family ties important, but not absolute. To be a disciple of Jesus, paragraph 2233 says,

Becoming a disciple of Jesus means accepting the invitation to belong to God's family. It's living conformity with his way of life. We'll talk about that today as well as we're talking about the fact of authorities in civil society. So God's fourth commandment also joins us to honor all for who are good, have received authority in society from God. We'll talk about that as well. So in order to prepare our hearts for this challenging, it's always God's message is always challenging.

It's always convicting. It's often consoling, but here we are. We're asking the Lord to hear our prayer, to be with us in this moment as we pray. Father, in heaven, in the name of your Son Jesus Christ, I ask you to please be with every one of us as we're listening to these words today, as we're reading these words today, please be with us. No God help us to understand the true value of your good gifts, the true value of discipleship, the true

value of family, the true value of the society in which you've given us and which you've placed us. Lord God, help us to acknowledge the goodness we've received and to acknowledge the limits of every good thing except for you, because you are the source of good itself. You are the ultimate good, because you are the foundation of all being and you are love. Lord God, help us to let you, you alone. Be the number one.

Be the center of our gravity. Be the one God in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 289. We are reading paragraphs 2232 to 2237.

The family and the kingdom. Family ties are important, but not absolute. Just as the child grows to maturity and human in spiritual autonomy, so his unique vocation, which comes from God, asserts itself more clearly and forcefully. Parents should respect this call and encourage their children to follow it. They must be convinced that the first vocation of the Christian is to follow Jesus. As Christ Himself said, he who loves Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves Son or Daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Becoming a disciple of Jesus means accepting the invitation to belong to God's family, to live in conformity with His way of life. Christ further said, for whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother. Parents should welcome and respect with joy and thanksgiving the Lord's call to one of their children to follow him in virginity for the sake of the kingdom, in the consecrated life or in priestly ministry. The authorities in civil society. God's fourth commandment also enjoins us to honor all who for our good have received

authority in society from God. It clarifies the duties of those who exercise authority as well as those who benefit from it. Duties of civil authorities. Those who exercise authority should do so as a service. As Christ said, whoever would be great among you must be your servant. The exercise of authority is measured morally in terms of its divine origin, its reasonable nature, and its specific object.

No one can command or establish what is contrary to the dignity of persons and the natural law. The exercise of authority is meant to give outward expression to a just hierarchy of values in order to facilitate the exercise of freedom and responsibility by all. Those in authority should practice distributive justice wisely, taking account of the needs and contribution of each, with a view to harmony and peace. They should take care that the regulations and measures they adopt are not a source of temptation by setting personal interest against that of the community.

Political authorities are obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person. They will dispense justice humanely, by respecting the rights of everyone, especially of families and the disadvantaged. The political rights attached to citizenship can and should be granted according to the requirements of the common good. They cannot be suspended by public authorities without legitimate and proportionate reasons. Political rights are meant to be exercised for the common good of the nation and the human community. Right, there we have it. Paragraphs 2232 to 2237, a bit shorter than yesterday, at least

when it comes to the paragraphs themselves. But let's go back to the very beginning. The family in the kingdom before we get to authorities and civil society. So the family in the kingdom highlighted this before we even started, or as we even started, family ties are important, but not absolute. So important, so valuable to us, because we recognize this fourth commandment is highlighting the, right, the highlighting

the goodness of the family. And so the more we highlight the goodness of the family, the more likely we're tempted to maybe make a good thing and ultimate thing, right, to make the good thing and idle. How many times do you have movies about, like say, you know, a family that has a lot of loyalty to each other, whether that's like a criminal family or something like this? And because of that loyalty, they have to each other. They will lie. Because of the loyalty, they have to each other. They will will have the entrance to corruption because they're willing unwilling to tell the truth or unwilling to disappoint or be disoiled

to their family for the sake of the good, right? For the sake of the common good. Now, we're called to allow our family to have a specific role to the kingdom of God. What that means is that Jesus has the first claim on our lives, that's it. Jesus has first claim on our lives if he's calling us to do something or if the church is asking us to do something, then

in our family says to not do that, we can take into account the request of our family and then do what Jesus asks. I mean, that's ultimately that's the case. Now, this is in big things, for example, I mentioned yesterday. Here is a young man who wants to go to seminary, a young woman who wants to enter religious life, and their parents say, I don't want you to do that, so they don't do it. And just like that's, again, backwards, completely backwards. And yet, that happens a lot. But let's even say small things. So here's an example. Say,

I might have mentioned this example before when we talked about the Sunday obligation, but imagine there was, here's a bunch of grown up sisters and their grown up mom. So they have, and they have a, sisters, girls weekend, say out of town, in the big city, we'll say in the big city. And it's like, is it the girls shopping weekend? You know, leading up to Thanksgiving Christmas, whatever the thing is.

So the girls shopping weekend in the big city. And the one, one of the daughters is like, okay, I'm convicted, I need to go to Sunday Mass. But their sister, her sisters, her mom are like, ah, no, you don't need to go to say that's, that's going to interrupt our plans for the weekend. That's going to interrupt our plans to have that we have a schedule when it comes to shopping their schedule when it comes to this weekend. And so they can even invoke family as the reason to, like, he just go along with us. Now, that daughter slash that sister, her obligation, yes, she has an obligation to her sisters,

she has an obligation to her mom, but she has a greater obligation to the Lord. And the Lord has said, do this. And so, yes, this is gonna maybe upset the apple cart. Yes, it might upset my sisters, or one sister's might upset their mom, yet I might, or you know one's sister's, might upset their mom. Yet your obligation, our first duty is to the Lord before anyone else.

So in big ways, right, vocation, but also in small ways. Saying, I know we're all in vacation right now, but I have to go to Mass because I know that this is, the requirement that the Lord asks of me. Does that make sense? So just, again, we can sometimes, I sometimes can go to the big things, like martyrdom, as opposed to the small things, the everyday things, like, oh, that's right.

I'm going to disappoint my family in this small way, in this immediate way, but I have to, because I belong to Jesus more than I belong to my family. As Christ himself said, and if this isn't just me making this up, this isn't the church making this up, Jesus himself said, he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. You know, in a couple who have said, okay, someone in my family is in, we might call it in a euphemistic way, a in a regular relationship. Now that could be a homosexual relationship, that could be a relationship where they're divorced and remarried, but it's an regular relationship, right? It living in a sinful state and that kind of in that kind of case. And I've seen this happen

where parents and siblings are saying, well, for the sake of my brother, for the sake of my sister, who is in this irregular relationship, I'm going to discount and discard the Lord's teaching. So I'm going to discount and discard the church's teachings. And this happens again and again, and again, for the sake of my child, who is in this relationship, for the sake of my sibling who is in this relationship, I will no longer attend to God's commands when it comes to this particular area. Again, this, but what does Jesus say? Jesus said very, very clearly that for me,

families will be divided. He caused me, families will be divided, two against three, three against two, mother against, to hug her, father against son, that whole, to recognize that yes, family ties are good. They are important, but they're not absolute. And just because I have someone in my family who may experience whatever they're experiencing,

that doesn't mean that the Lord's command has changed. And it doesn't mean that now I have to choose family over the Lord. In fact, it is the exact opposite. Now, I see it too often with people who are like, oh, yeah, I'm raised everything the Lord's teaching. I accept everything the church is teaching, except when it comes to somewhere,

it's connected to my family. And now I'm like, no, I'm going to choose family over Jesus. I'm going to choose family over the church. In those moments, we recognize that when I'm choosing, some choosing to allow my family ties in this relationship to become an idol, it is, it is arrival in my life to God's position in my life. Does that, how would that make sense? Again, I don't, as I said, I don't mean to come on too strong on this and it'd be too

pointed in my example. At the same time, I will repeat myself and say, I see it too often. I see it happening too often to just pretend that it's not happening right now. Becoming a disciple of Jesus, as I said in paragraph 2233, becoming a disciple of Jesus

means accepting the invitation to belong to God's family, to living conformity with His way of life. For whoever does, the will of my father in heaven is my brother, ancestor and mother. And so that's our call, right? Now paragraph 2234 moves on to talk about how this fourth commandment also extends to just authority, right? So paragraph 2234 states, God's fourth commandment also joins us to honor all who for our good have received authority in society from God, clarifies the duties of those who exercise authority,

as well as those who benefit from it. So right away in paragraph 2235 through 2237, there's the duties of civil authorities. So, number right off the bat, it says those who exercise authority should do it as a service. And that's clear. And then let's go to this. If you desire or you are a civil servant, if you're a public servant, you have any kind of leadership role.

Those who exercise authority should do it as a service. And what Jesus said, whoever would be great among you, must be your servant. Jesus himself said, I did not come to be served. I came to serve. And to give my life as a ransom for many, he's the model. When it comes to leadership, he's the model when it comes to authority. It's the model. When it comes to leadership, he's the model when it comes to authority. It's the authority to serve. In fact, I'm sure everyone of us has heard the phrase, servant leadership. Of course, that comes from, it might be kind of cliche right now,

but it's still true. The authority that comes from the Lord is the authority to serve. Therefore, the exercise of authority is measured morally in terms of its divine origin that it comes from the Lord here. Secondly, its reasonable nature, and third, its specific object. No one can command or establish what is contrary to the dignity of persons and the natural law. So, yes, while someone may exercise authority, if what they're commanding is, or they're establishing is contrary to the dignity of persons or to natural law, that is a lot that does not need to be followed, if that makes any sense. Hopefully it does. Now, 2237 highlights. Political authorities are obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person. They will dispense justice humanely by respecting the rights of everyone, especially of families and the disadvantaged. And so, keep this in mind. Political authorities,

we have to observe and they have to respect the fundamental rights of the human person. The human person, the individual, is greater in many ways, greater than any society at large. I've mentioned this before. Peter Craved highlighted this. Maybe this comes from CS Lewis as well, but other people have also pointed this out and that what they pointed out is that civilizations will come to an end. That countries will cease to exist.

Every nation that is right now will at some point not be, but every human being will always exist forever. All the way into eternity, every human being will exist forever, either in glory with the Lord or in horror, in separated from the Lord. Because of that, one individual human being, in so many ways, is, we can say like this, is of greater value, is of greater worth than any one nation, any one single society.

Now, at the same time, all of us are part of society, we're all part of a nation at some level, a community at some level. Therefore, we do ask questions about the common good. But keep this in mind, we have this intention, is that none of the commands of the common good can be a command that violates the dignity of any human person.

Hopefully that makes sense. Hopefully, hopefully it makes sense. You know what, today, as I said, every one of these days we're gonna be challenged in some way or another. And maybe you're challenged today. I know I'm challenged today in many, many ways. Tomorrow we're going to continue to be challenged because we're not only talking about the duties of

civil authorities. Tomorrow we're going to talk about the duties of citizens. Like what is it that you and I actually owe to our country? Our country of origin, however we're living right now. That is a big question. And it also could be a great challenge for many of us. But I know you're up to the challenge, and I know you're willing to ask the question and find out the answer more on that tomorrow. Until then, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me, and I'm his father-and-son. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.

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