The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 301: Peace (2025)

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

Peace is not simply an absence of war. Fr. Mike breaks down the Catechism’s teachings about peace as the "work of justice and the effect of charity.” We learn that to cultivate true peace, we must do more than avoid anger, hatred, and harm to our neighbor; we must actively work toward becoming agents of peace. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2302-2306. 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 to the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in 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 a 301. We're reading paragraphs 2302 to 2306. 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 and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today is day 301. We're looking at peace and that's the word of the day. The word of the day is peace. And so the topic or the header of this little, not mini section, but this subsection is safeguarding peace. Today we're talking about peace and peace is very, very clearly, not merely the absence of war. That's in paragraph 2304. So this is really important. Peace is not merely the absence

of war and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of power between adversaries. So we can think of like say the Cold War, a balance of power between adversaries. Here is the Soviet Union and the United States of America that, okay, we had peace because we didn't have all out war. No, no, no. That is not peace. Peace is the work of justice. and the effect of charity. So again, not merely the absence of war and not merely a balance of powers between adversaries, people who are enemies with each other. And at the same time, to really shoot for true peace is ultimately the work of justice and the effect of love. So they hope that makes sense. We're going to look at hatred today and anger as well. And so these big pieces,

Ha, pieces, P-I-E-C-E-S-es, these pieces that lead to peace or these things that work against peace. So anger and hatred, deliberate hatred is contrary to love. You know, this whole commandment, the Fifth Commandment, we've been looking at, I think, some depth. And that it's not merely, okay, I'm not going to take another innocent human being's life. Great, done. Well, not quite, because there are all of these levels that we need to come face to face with. We need to look and say, okay, do I have anger that I've fostered in my heart? Is there a deliberate hatred that I've held on to and that I've allowed to move me in a way that is unjust?

And am I really truly striving after peace? Here's Jesus, who is the prince of peace. Have I tried to become like him? You know, Jesus has said in the beatitudes, he said, blessed are the peacemakers. And the question I get to ask, have to ask, is that me? or am I just kind of tolerant of division? Am I tolerant of injustice? Am I tolerant of a lack of love in this world? And if I am, then I need to change. We all need to change. Am I okay with the anger that I foster in my heart? Am I okay with the hatred that I hold on to in my heart? If I am,

then I need to hear those words of Jesus. Blessed are the peacemakers. And I need to let him, the Prince of Peace, conquer the hatred and anger in my heart. Does that make sense? No, you might be of someone who's like, I am totally at peace with everybody around me, which is awesome. This is still for all of us because peace is not merely the absence of war. It is something much more profound and much deeper. And every one of us is called to be an agent of peace, not merely be peaceful ourselves. That be agents of peace. So looking at that today in paragraphs 2302 to 2306, let us pray as we enter into this day.

Father in heaven, we give you praise. And thank you. We thank you for sending us, Jesus Christ, your son, the prince of. peace who in himself killed hostility in himself he reconciled god with man or god bring us that reconciliation once again renew in us that reconciliation once again bring us peace of heart even in the midst of division even in the midst of violence and hatred even in the midst of this world which is good but broken help us to not only receive your peace and live your peace, but to bring your peace into the relationships around us,

into our families, our friendships, our work, and into our community. Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Prince of Peace. Please reign in our hearts so that we can be like you, agents of peace in this world. Peacemakers who are blessed by God, our Father. 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 301. We're reading paragraphs 2302 to 2306. Safeguarding peace. Peace. By recalling the commandment, you shall not kill, our Lord asked for peace of heart and denounced murderous anger and hatred as immoral. Anger is a desire for revenge. To desire vengeance in order to do evil to someone who should be punished is illicit.

But it is praiseworthy to impose restitution, to correct vices. and maintain justice. If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity. It is a mortal sin. The Lord says, Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity.

Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him evil. Hatred of the neighbor is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm. As Jesus stated, but I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. Respect for and development of human life require peace. Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of

fraternity. Peace is the tranquility of order. Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity. Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, the messianic prince of peace. By the blood of his cross, in his own person he killed the hostility. He reconciled men with God and made his church the sacrament of the unity of the human race and of its union with God. He is our peace. He has declared, blessed are the peacemakers. Those who renounce violence and bloodshed, and in order to safeguard human rights, make use of those means of defense available to the weakest, bear witness to evangelical charity, provided they do so without harming the rights and obligations of other men and societies. They bear legitimate witness

to the gravity of the physical and moral risks of recourse to violence, with all its destruction and death. All right, there we have at paragraphs 2302 to 2306. Once again, I was trying to say this in the intro, you know, that section before we read this 2302 to 2306, this can be very personal because I think, again, you say, okay, I haven't done maybe the earlier sins. I haven't been part of someone's abortion. Maybe I haven't been tempted towards euthanasia or suicide. Maybe I haven't part of that. Or maybe I don't see myself as being someone who has committed scandal or use of drugs, what we talked about yesterday or did it before. But when it comes to anger, we say, okay, wait a second, is that in my heart? When it comes to hatred, we get to ask the question,

okay, is that in my heart? So what is anger? Anger, as it's called here, is not merely the emotion of anger. The emotion of anger is just, you know, that is what they call amoral, right? So emotions are amoral in the sense that they are neither right nor wrong on their own. They require a context. They require a situation. So anger, just the feeling of anger on its own, neither good no bad. Anger in this case is being defined as a desire for revenge. So keep this in mind. When we're reading this section, that's the definition of anger. It's not just simply the motion of anger that flares up in us, which is, again, amoral. It's an emotion. In this case, though, what we're talking about when it comes to anger is anger is a desire for revenge. Now, keep this in mind. It says here,

to desire vengeance in order to do evil to someone who should be punished is illicit. Now, that's pretty important. That's St. Thomas Aquinas. So keep, let's break this down. To desire vengeance, which is, again, vengeance is different than justice. So desire vengeance, I just want to punish you because you've done something wrong or because I'm angry, right? To desire vengeance in order to do evil to someone who should be punished is illicit. So keep this in mind.

When it comes to whatever just punishments that the state will hand out to those who have broken the law, that must not be done in anger. That must not be done out of desire for revenge. But it goes on to say, but it's praiseworthy to impose restitution to correct vices and maintain justice. Now, to say that I need to avoid anger is not the same thing as saying that the state or the rightful authority must not give out punishments that are the consequences of sin or of crime.

That's not the same thing. Keep this in mind. So vengeance to do evil to someone who should be punished. That's illicit. We shouldn't do that. At the same time, those who are in charge, those. in authority, those who are responsible for maintaining order, maintaining peace, and maintaining justice, it's praiseworthy for them to impose restitution in order to correct vices and maintain

justice. So for example, let's talk about, I think we use the example of someone, you know, wrecks your car. So someone, say, for example, someone wrecks your car. It is not evil for you to say, okay, I know I want restitution for that. There is a degree to which there is an injustice because you owe me money, you owe me a car, whatever the thing is. That's not evil to say injustice, pay me back, pay back what you owe. Anger or revenge would be, okay, listen, here's the thing. I'm going to make you pay, right? That kind of that desire to injure someone who should be punished, right, who has a

consequence for their actions, that is illicit. Let's take it up another step. We recognize that, okay, when someone hurts my car, no big deal. Hey, replace my car. Replace the damage that you've done. Fix the damage you've done. What about when someone hurts you? what about when someone hurts someone that you love or even ends their life? So the other day,

we talked about a sin against the Fifth Commandment, which would be, say, drunk driving or reckless driving. Say someone is recklessly driving or is drunk driving and they hurt you or they kill someone you love. It is praiseworthy to impose restitution to correct vices and maintain justice, meaning to say, no, I want them to experience the consequences of their actions. That is simply just. But if that desire is motivated by revenge, if that kind of desire for justice, you know, quote unquote justice is actually, I want to make them pay, right, that anger there or deliberate hatred that wounds our own hearts, that wounds our own souls. This is one of the one of the great mysteries of forgiveness or even the great mystery of justice versus revenge versus

vengeance is to say, I want justice because justice is a good, doesn't wound your soul. To say, I desire to forgive because forgiveness is a incredible good, does not wound your soul. But to say, I want to make this person pay because of this vengeance, this desire for revenge that is in my heart, that actually wounds our souls. And we can recognize, hopefully, if we can take a step back from whatever the immediate injustice is in front of us, to be able to realize, oh my gosh, yes, everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment because I recognize, we recognize that that kind of anger doesn't necessarily lead to justice. That kind of anger wounds our own hearts. Does that make sense? So yes, work for justice. Absolutely. In fact,

in order to have peace, we need to work for justice. And that means there's consequences to people's actions. At the same time, to foster deliberate hatred. And that's paragraph 2303. Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity. And hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him evil. And then it becomes a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm. And what are we saying in this? Are we saying you're breaking a bigger rule? No, what we're saying is we end up wounding ourselves when we foster and cultivate hatred of the neighbor when I deliberately desire my neighbor grave harm. That I'm hurting myself and I'm hurting my relationship. with the Lord. Remember, all of this is motivated by the call that we has been placed into our hearts

to be like Jesus. Remember, the goal is not like, okay, get through life and don't be too jerky of a person, right? The goal is, hey, get through life and don't break the commandments. The goal is get through life with the heart of Jesus. Get through life and be Jesus in this world, which is one of the reasons why paragraph 2305 says that earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, who is the Messianic Prince of Peace. here is Jesus who has called us to himself to have his heart out in the world. And so that's a high call. I mean, absolutely. We go back to this once again, that the call Jesus has placed upon every one of our lives to forgive our enemies, to love our enemies, to pray for those who hurt us is among the

hardest things that Jesus has called us to. Remember back in the Third Commandment, I had mentioned that the injunction to take Sabbath rest is maybe one of the more overlooked commandments that we kind of excuse ourselves and maybe I'm just talking to myself like but I sometimes think it's like oh no no that's that's fine it's I went to mass so now I can just go about my day like it's a normal any other day I think this commandment is similar Jesus very very clear in a sermon on the mount where he made it absolutely clear that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment, that unless we forgive our brother from our heart, then we can't share in the peace of Christ, can't share in the banquet of Christ. And so this is this high call. And it's so important

for us, not only for our own hearts. Remember, deliberate hatred or that desire for revenge cultivated in our hearts, it wounds us. But it also wounds our relationships. It wounds our families. it wounds our community. That's why paragraph 23 or 4 is so important because it highlights this. Respect for and development of human life require peace. That in order for life to thrive, in order for people to thrive, there needs to be some degree of peace. And it goes on to say, as we mentioned before, peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of power between adversaries. It's not just, okay, I'm not going to punch you in the face as long as you don't punch me in the face. But if you get a little stronger and try to

take it out on me, or if I get a little stronger, try to take it out on you, then watch out. But peace has to be something so much more. Goes on to say, peace cannot be attained on earth. A couple things here, without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. So all that to be said, again, safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication, respect for the dignity of people and persons, and the practice of fraternity, basically the idea of justice, that yeah, what you have is yours. What I have is mine. That we get to actually talk

with one another. In the United States, we have this thing called the First Amendment, where we have our freedom of speech and the freedom to gather, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples. We can't have peace unless we have that. So peace cannot be imposed from outside. This is so important. Peace cannot be imposed by someone who just says, okay, I'm going to keep you from fighting each other. I'm going to keep you from hurting each other. That's not. peace that is simply the suspension of war. Peace is the work of justice and the effect of love. I like how it says here, this quote from St. Augustine, peace is the tranquility of order, that things are in their right place doing the thing they should be doing, right? There's order

there. And again, it's not an order that's been imposed from without, but an order that actually comes from within as well. Again, gets go back to this. Anger doesn't necessarily mean I've acted in anger, hatred doesn't necessarily mean I've acted in hatred. It means I've cultivated and fostered anger and hatred in my heart. And what gets wounded? My heart. What gets wounded after that? Our relationships. What's getting wounded after that? Our community. This is one of the reasons why Jesus is saying, well, don't just avoid killing your neighbor. Avoid hating your neighbor. Avoid holding on to anger against him. In fact, don't just avoid those things. I'm calling you to love your neighbor. to do good to those who hate you,

to pray for those who persecute you. We're not called to only have peace in our hearts. We're called to be peacemakers. And that is the high call today. And that's hard. It is difficult. But if we're going to take God at His word, then that's what we're going to strive after.

And we can't do it without His grace. And so we pray. Pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.

Thank you.