The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 289: Family, Society, and the Kingdom (2024)

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

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 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 289. We're reading paragraphs 2232 to 2237. 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 ascensionpress.com slash C I Y. And you can click follow, follow or subscribe to your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. It's day two 89. We're almost at day two 90. 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 commandment and talking about the family yesterday. If you remember, we talked about how, yes, the family is, 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 of evangelization, it's a place of holiness, place of growth and holiness.

It's also, we note that in paragraph 2230, that when they become adults, children have the right and duty to choose their profession and state in life. So parents should, yeah, 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 gonna be important because paragraph 2232, today here, has one of the,

well, I'm not gonna 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. He 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 be divided against son, son against father, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. This is what's going to 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, and to live in 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 enjoins 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. Lord, 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 that you've given us, in 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. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 289. We're 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 and spiritual autonomy, so is 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 and the kingdom, before we get to authorities and civil society. So the family and the kingdom,

I 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 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 an ultimate thing, right?

To make the good thing an idol. How many times do you have movies about like say, a family that has a lot of loyalty to each other, whether that's like a criminal family or something like this. And it's because of that loyalty they have to each other, they will lie. Because of the loyalty they have to each other, they will enter into corruption because they're unwilling to tell the truth or unwilling to disappoint or be disloyal 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 and 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 or 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 it's 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 grownup sisters and their grownup mom. So 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, this is the girls shopping weekend, 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 or her mom are like, ah, no, you don't need to go to that's inner. That's going to interrupt our plans for the weekend. That's going to interrupt our plans to, to have that. We have a schedule when it comes to shopping schedule, when it comes to this weekend.

And so they can even invoke family as the reason to like, Hey, just go along with us. They can even invoke family as the reason to like, hey, 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, I might, or one's sisters might upset their mom. Yet your obligation, our, 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 on 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, yeah, 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 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 weeks, essentially, we'll get to the sixth commandment, the sixth and ninth commandment. When we get there, we're gonna talk about sexual morality. And there are so many family, people in their families who have said, okay, someone in many family people in their families who have said okay someone in my family is in we might call in a euphemistic way a in a regular relationship you know that could be a homosexual relationship that could be a relationship where they're divorced and remarried

but it's an irregular relationship right um living in a sinful state 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 teachings. I'm gonna 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, 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, but what does Jesus say? Jesus said very, very clearly that for me, families will be divided. Because of me, families will be divided, two against three, three against two, mother against daughter, 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 raise 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 what I'm choosing is I'm choosing to allow my family ties in this relationship to become an idol. It is a rival in my life to God's position in my life. I hope that makes sense. Again, as I said, I don't mean to come on too strong on this and be too pointed in my example. At the same time, I will repeat myself and say, I see it too often.

I see it happen happening too often to just pretend that it's not happening right now. Becoming a disciple of Jesus, as it says in paragraph 2233, becoming a disciple of Jesus means accepting the invitation to belong to God's family, to live in conformity with his way of life. For whoever does the will of my father in heaven

is my brother and sister 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 enjoins us to honor all who for our good have received authority in society from God, clarifies that 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 now we're right off the bat. It says those who exercise authority should do it as a service. And that's,

that's, that's, that's clear. And that's, that's go to this. If you desire or you, as 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 authority to serve in fact I'm sure every one of us has heard the phrase servant leadership of course that comes from it might be you know 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 fine origin that it comes from the Lord here

Secondly, it's 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 Crave highlighted this, maybe this comes from C.S. Lewis as well, but other people have also pointed this out and 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 in horror in separated from the Lord. Because of that, one individual human being in so many ways is, you can say it 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, right?

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 it makes sense. 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, what is it that you and I actually owe to our country, our country of origin, or wherever 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. My name is father Mike I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless