The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 292: Respect for Human Life (2025)

Episode Date: October 19, 2025

We begin exploring the fifth commandment: “you shall not kill”. The Catechism reminds us that human life is sacred, and we must not take the life of another innocent human. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes this commandment even further as he calls us to avoid anger, hatred, and vengeance in addition to loving our enemies. By forgiving and extending to others the same love and mercy we are willing to extend to ourselves, we are respecting the dignity of that person. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2258-2262. 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 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 292. We were reading paragraphs 2258 to 2262, 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.

Probably know that by now. You can also download your own catechism and your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CIY. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe on your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today is day 292. We're jumping into, we're leaving. We're departing the Fourth Commandment, not leaving it behind, but just, you know, moving on to the next commandment, the Fifth Commandment, Article 5, thou shalt not kill. You shall not kill.

And so today we're going to talk about basically just some of the first paragraphs, the foundation for this command of against killing. Now, obviously, maybe it's obvious, but the foundations for this is the foundation for all of the last seven commandments, right? Commandments four through ten have as their foundation piece, the dignity of the human person. Therefore, the foundation of the Fifth Amendment is the dignity of the human person and that every taking of an innocent human life is against this Fifth Commandment. So we're looking at that as well as respect for human life and the witness of sacred history when it comes to this command of you shall not take an innocent human being's life. So as we launch into today, let's call upon our Heavenly Father and His Son and the Holy Spirit to be with us now. Father in heaven, we praise you and we glorify your name.

In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, we ask that you be glorified. We ask that you be known and loved throughout this world. We ask that you please help us, help us to recognize in our brothers and sisters, those among us, a dignity, the dignity that comes from you, the worth and the value that comes from you. Lord, God, help us to always treat each other with that respect, help us always treat each other with that dignity, and help us always to be examples then of those who walk in this world, bearing your name and seeing your light in others. In Jesus' name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

It is day 292. We're reading paragraphs 2258 to 22, 6. Article 5. The Fifth Commandment, You shall not kill. You have heard that it was said to the men of old, you shall not kill, and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. Human life is sacred, because from its beginning, it involves the creative action of God, and it remains forever in a special relationship with the creator, who is its sole end, God alone is the Lord of Life from its beginning until its end. No one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent

human being. Respect for human life. The Witness of Sacred History In the account of Abel's murder by his brother Kane, Scripture reveals the presence of anger and envy in man, consequences of original sin from the beginning of human history. Man has become the enemy of his fellow man. God declares the wickedness of this fratricide saying, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.

And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. The covenant between God and mankind is interwoven with reminders of God's gift of human life and man's murderous violence. Genesis 9 states, For your lifeblood, I will surely require a reckoning. Whoever sheds the blood of man. By man shall his blood be shed.

for God made man in his own image. The Old Testament always considered blood a sacred sign of life. This teaching remains necessary for all time. Scripture specifies the prohibition contained in the Fifth Commandment. Do not slay the innocent and the righteous. The deliberate murder of an innocent person is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human being, to the golden rule, and to the holiness of the Creator. The law forbidding it is universally valid.

it obliges each and everyone, always and everywhere. In the sermon on the mount, the Lord recalls the commandment, you shall not kill, and adds to it the prescription of anger, hatred, and vengeance. Going further, Christ asks his disciples to turn the other cheek, to love their enemies. He did not defend himself and told Peter to leave his sword in its sheath. Right, there we have it in paragraphs 2258 to 2262. is just the beginning of this Fifth Commandment. One thing to keep in mind, well, actually, let's start at the very beginning.

It's a very good place to start. Paragraph 2258, human life is sacred because from its beginning, it involves the creative action of God. It remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator who is at soul end. Basically, the heart and soul of this whole thing is what we've said so many times, is that the dignity of the human person, that dignity comes directly from God. That is it. That is the groundwork for every other commandment we're going to talk about when it comes

to commandments four through 10. And so this grammat number five is no different. So keep that in mind. Human life is sacred. And now, not only that, but this extends always and everywhere to all time from all people. It says so clearly in paragraph 2261. It says how this is not just optional and this is not occasional. This is not in certain times and seasons or with certain people. This is always and everywhere. 2261 says, Scripture specifies their prohibition contained in the Fifth Commandment. Do not slay the innocent and the righteous. Let's pause right there. One thing to keep in mind is the commandment, of course, in Exodus and in Deuteronomy is you shall not kill. So what does that mean? Does it mean you shall not kill animals? Does that mean, what does that have to do with maybe if there's a just

war? What does that mean when it comes to the just use of the death penalty? What does that mean? Well, keep this in mind. The term kill that is used in Exodus and a Deuteronomy, both in the Hebrew original and as well as in the Greek translation, is a word that's most specifically means murder, right? So kill is taking an innocent human being's life. So keep that in mind. In Deuteronomy and in Exodus, this term kill would be referring exclusively to human beings and it's also referring exclusively to innocent human life. And so that's really clear when it comes to paragraph 2261, which then goes on to quote Exodus chapter 23, verse 7, do not slay the innocent and the righteous. So keep this in mind. Just for a context is this prohibition,

is directly against the murder of an innocent human being. So we should get that clarified right out of the gate. Now, moving on, paragraph 2261, continues to say, the deliberate murder of an innocent person is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human being, the golden rule, and the holiness of the creator. So it's contrary to those three things, the dignity of the human person, the golden rule do unto others as you'd have them do unto you? Exactly.

I would not want to be an innocent victim. Therefore, I should not make an innocent victim. And the holiness of the creator. Now, the last sentence here makes it, again, clarifies. It makes it absolutely abundantly obvious that the law forbidding this, forbidding the murder of an innocent human being is universally valid. That it's not only times and seasons, not only certain circumstances or certain people. It obliges each and everyone, always and everywhere,

which means there is no time when a person may justify the taking of an innocent human life. that hopefully that is 100% clear and that's going back to the old covenant right that's the old testament law that has not passed away that has that is is still enforced and still enforced right now that we may never for any reason take an innocent human life so obliges each and everyone always and everywhere the law forbidding it is universally valid now jesus has extended that and this is this is one of those pieces where once again the the law has not been Abolished, the law has been expanded. Because it is a law of love, right? It's not, it doesn't take a ton of love to obey the commandment, you shall not murder an innocent human being. But Jesus expands this as is quoted

at the very, very beginning of this article from Matthew chapter 5 versus 21 and 22, when Jesus said, you have heard that it was said to the men of old, you shall not kill, and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. So this is just a huge thing in that last paragraph we read today paragraph 2262 highlights this in the sermon on the mount that's what we just read matthew chapter 5 the lord recalls the commandment you shall not kill and adds to it the prescription of anger hatred and vengeance this is very important so we're going to talk about these things actually tomorrow we're going to talk about legitimate defense and then the next day we'll talk about intentional homicide and also again the different ways in

which a person can sin against this fifth commandment through inordinate and anger, through hatred, through vengeance. Now, Jesus continues to push the envelope. He continues to stretch our hearts by saying, he says, going further, Christ asks his disciples to turn the other cheek, to love their enemies. And he didn't just tell us to do this. He himself did not defend himself and told Peter to leave his sword in its sheath. Now, I think I might have mentioned this before. Shoot, you know, you guys, if you go 292 days, your boy is going to repeat himself. So here I am. C.S. Lewis, in the book Mirror Christianity, he goes through not only the arguments for God's existence and for Jesus Christ being God. He also talks about a lot of the teachings of what it is to be a disciple. And at one point, he talks about, he says, what the most unpopular of the commands is. And one of them is, you know, the call to chastity. He says, you ask most people, they'll probably say it's the commands surrounding chastity. That was the least popular right now. now in our culture. And he's writing this, you know, almost 100 years ago now, 80 years or so ago.

He says, in fact, that to love our enemies is perhaps the most challenging command that Jesus gives us. So here, you know, we're entering into this Fifth Commandment. You know, after this, we'll, of course, talk about the Sixth Commandment, later on the Ninth Commandment, which have to do with sexual ethics. And yet, if CS Lewis is correct, the command to love our enemies is perhaps, again, the most challenging command that Jesus gives us. And this is something so powerful, but yet at the same time, we need to begin, because we're going to keep talking about this for a number of days now, we have to begin wrapping our hearts around that truth, is that you and I are, yes, of course, we're called to avoid murder. That's the baseline. But then Jesus calls us far vastly higher than

that. He calls us to avoid anger, to avoid hatred, and to avoid vengeance. Now, anger, and it's on its own, is simply an emotion. So what he's talking about is he's talking about a willed anger. So just to feel the emotion of anger is neither great nor wrong. That's just an emotion. Emotions do not have moral value until we begin to choose them. But to feed one's anger against one's brother, to feed one's hatred against one's brother, or to seek vengeance against one's brother or their neighbor, or even, as we are talking about now, even their enemy is to go directly against Christ's command. Now, Lewis, again, let's go back to this. You're going to hear a lot about him in the next few days. I have a feeling. He says, oh, I'd like to see how

you behave. He said, if it was you or your family that, you know, the Nazis had tortured, if it was your family that the Nazis had killed, I'd like to hear you go on about. I like to see what you would do. I wonder what you would do if you needed to forgive them for destroying your life. And Lewis says, he doesn't shy away from it. He says, so do I. I wonder as well. I wonder very much. I don't know how I would react. I don't know how I would respond. I don't know what I would do if I was in that situation where there was a person who was responsible for grave evil against me or against the people that I love the most. I don't know what I would do. But I do know that Jesus has called me to love them somehow, somehow. And how is that somehow? That somehow is to love them as I love

myself. And again, this is one of those key, key teachings from C.S. Lewis. He says this. This is a quote from C.S. Lewis in mere Christianity. He says, we must try to feel about the enemy as we feel about ourselves, to wish that he were not bad, to hope that he may in this world or in another be cured. In fact, to wish his good. That is what is meant in the Bible by loving him. Wishing his good, not feeling fond of him, nor saying that he is nice when he is not. I admit that this means loving people who have nothing lovable about them. But isn't that the heart of it?

I mean, we love ourselves. We're called to love ourselves. And there are sometimes very little that we find in ourselves that is lovable. And yet, we're called to love ourselves. which means to will our own good, therefore, if I love my neighbor as myself, if I love my enemy as myself, that means that just like I recognize that there's plenty in me that is wrecked, right? There's plenty in me that's broken. There's plenty in me that is not good. And yet, I continue to choose the good for me. I continue to choose my own good, which is to

continue to love one, right? Remember, to love is to will the good of the other and to love oneself is to will the good for oneself. So I will mercy for myself. I desire mercy for me when I need mercy. And because of that, I need to desire mercy for my enemy when they need mercy. Does that make sense? It is, as I said, a massive challenge. And we cannot run away from it. But that's how we've been loved. Romans chapter 5 makes it very clear. God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And that's the love with which you have. have been loved. That's the love with which I have been loved. And therefore, that is the love that we have to bring into all of our relationships, which is a challenge. In fact, I would dare

say it is impossible without God's grace. So please pray for each other because sooner or later, if not already, we will have to love our enemies. Sooner or later, if not already, there will be people who have hurt us and have hated us that we are called to love and forgive. And we need that grace. I am praying for you for that. Please pray for me for that. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.