The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 303: Summary of the Fifth Commandment (2024)

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

The Church offers us a consistent ethic of life from the moment of conception until death. In today’s “Nugget Day,” we review the main takeaways from our readings about the fifth commandment. Fr. Mike reiterates that the Church’s teachings on the value of human life stem from the truth that every human life is sacred; God wills each person for his own sake. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2318-2330. 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 Ear 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 Ear 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 303. We're reading paragraphs 2318 to 2330. It's nugget day. 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 lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications, because today is day three Oh three reading paragraphs, 2318 to 2330. We've been talking about the fifth commandment for quite a while tomorrow, sixth commandment, but today we're having this nugget review day. And there are quite a few of them, which is wonderful because we covered a ton of

stuff, recalling that from the very beginning, in God's hands is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. That's from Job chapter 12 verse 10. That is our first nugget of the day, all the way to the last nugget of the day, which is blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Matthew chapter five verse nine. So the recognition here is that from the very beginning to the very end our vision of the human person and how we treat other people in a moral way comes from the Lord himself that comes from Scripture comes from how God has revealed himself not just what he's revealed about who human beings are and what human beings are but also how he has revealed his own heart to us and that's that is absolutely key. What and who are human beings? And then who is God in Himself? And we're called to have the heart of the Lord Himself. And when we deal with other people, at the minimum, do not take innocent human life.

It goes beyond that to loving our enemies. It goes beyond that to praying for those who hurt us. It goes beyond that to caring for those who persecute us. And we can only do that with God's grace. We can only do that if we have the heart of Christ in us. So we pray right now. Let's do it. Father in heaven, we give you praise. We give you glory. We thank you. We recognize that you have you've called us to an incredibly high call.

In fact, this call is so high that we cannot do it on our own. We cannot respond to your call unless we respond to your grace. So in the name of Jesus Christ, I ask that you please open our hearts to receive your grace, give us the desire to have hearts like you, shape the way in which we see our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, and even our enemies. Help us to see them as you see them. Help us to see them as you see us.

And help us to love our neighbor as you see them. Help us to see them as you see us. And help us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. To fulfill the commandment of Jesus and to be more like you in this world. 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 303, reading paragraphs 23, 18 to 2323 30. In brief, in God's hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. Every human life, from the moment of conception until death, is sacred because the human person has been willed for its own sake in the image and likeness of the living and holy God. The murder of a human being is gravely contrary to the dignity of the person and the holiness of the Creator.

The prohibition of murder does not abrogate the right to render an unjust aggressor unable to inflict harm. Legitimate defense is a grave duty for whoever is responsible for the lives of others or the common good. From its conception, the child has a right to life. Direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, is a criminal practice, gravely contrary to the moral law. The Church imposes the canonical penalty of excommunication for this crime against human life. Because it should be treated as a person from conception, the embryo must be defended in its integrity,

cared for, and healed like every other human being. Intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives, is murder. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. Suicide is seriously contrary to justice, hope, and charity. It is forbidden by the fifth commandment. Scandal is a grave offense when by deed or omission it deliberately leads others to sin gravely. Because of the evils and injustices that all war brings with it, we must do everything

reasonably possible to avoid it. The Church prays, From famine, pestilence, and war, O Lord, deliver us. The Church and human reason assert the permanent validity of the moral law during armed conflicts. Practices deliberately contrary to the law of nations and to its universal principles are crimes. The arms race is one of the greatest curses on the human race, and the harm it inflicts on the poor is more than can be endured. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Alright, there we have it, paragraphs, nuggets 2318 to nuggets 2330. You know, it seems like we've been talking about the fifth commandment for so long. I just, there's so much. There is so much. And yet here in these brief nuggets, we have these brief paragraphs. We have a recapitulation, right? A summary of everything from the very first paragraphs here, 2318. In God's hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind from Job. Yes. Also, here is the next key. This is what shapes all the policy that shapes all of the principles and the ethic that surrounds commandment number five.

This is paragraph 2319. Every human life, from the moment of conception until death, is sacred because the human person has been willed for its own sake in the image and likeness of the living and holy God. Now, let's keep this in mind. You know, all of the things we've talked about for the last number of days regarding the Fifth Commandment stem from this. That every human life is sacred. From what? From the moment of conception. That's a human life, right? So this is simply logic and I'm sure you all know this. And I hope that as you've come this far today, your 303, there's a place where you're saying,

okay, I know that this is true. I not only have heard this, but I know that this is true. That from the moment of conception, that's a human being. So we realized moment of conception, now there's new life. And for all the arguments that we've heard that slogans like my body, my choice, we would say of course, the woman who is pregnant that she gets to choose, she has independence, right? She has freedom. She has to choose what to do with her body. At the same time,

from the moment of conception, that is a new body. That is a new being. It's a small body. It is a small being and it's a vulnerable and innocent being, but it is a new one. It is different. It is other than the body of the mother. And so we recognize that not only is that mother's life, that mother's body is sacred and willed for its own sake. She's been willed for, she's that human person. That mom has been willed for her own sake in the image of likeness of the living and holy God also exists for this child's own sake in the image and likeness of the living and holy God also exists for this child's own sake in the image and likeness of the living and holy God. I remember years ago there was an interview

that was done with this man who had no real basis in he was not a Christian. We'll say it like that. His job was to do experiments on human embryos and so again one of the things that is prohibited in this moral ethic of the fifth commandment, but he was doing experimentation on human embryos. And it was one of those situations again, he wasn't Christian, didn't have necessarily religious background. He might have been Buddhist or Hindu or something, but he was doing this experimentation and it was going on for years.

I mean, he was deep into the science. He said one day he got home from work, from the lab, and he was greeted at the door by his, we'll say his two-year-old child and his five-year-old child, or something like that, three-year-old and seven-year-old child. And he just was struck, he as a scientist, right, he just was struck by, here's my two-year-old child

and my five-year-old child. And he said he was just struck by the differences between the two of them. Here's what a child looks like at two, here's what a child looks like at five. And then he was like, and here's what I look like as a, say he was in his 40s, here's what I look like as a 30-year-old or a 40-year-old man.

And he realized, he said, wait a second, this is what a human person, human being looks like at two. This is what a human person or human being looks like at five. Here's what, here I am, this is what a human being looks like at 35. Here's what, here I am. I was what a human being looks like at 35. And then he said, wait a second, what I've been dealing with, these embryos, these unborn children,

this is what a human being looks like at, you know, weeks. This is what a human being looks like from weeks from conception or a couple months from conception. And he realized it's all human. That yes, me as a 35, this is what a 35 year old human being looks like. Here is what a three week old human being, you know, from conception, looks like. And he was so convicted by this truth, just the reality that science had revealed to him that if, if human life has value on its own, like not given to it by its parents,

not given to it by culture, not given by government, but if human being has a dignity on its own, then this 35 year old human being has dignity on its own. His two year old has dignity on its own. And a two week from conception, or one day from conception, human being has dignity on its own. He's just so convicted by this that he had to stop doing experimentations on human embryos

because he realized I'm experimenting on children, human beings at days, weeks or months from conception, but they're human beings nonetheless. And that's such a, it's something so powerful for us. We recognize that there's a consistency in everything we've been teaching, right? There's a consistency in this sanctity of life ethic, right? That yes, we recognize there is a sanctity of life. There's a dignity that every human being has regardless of where they live, regardless of their need, regardless of their weakness or vulnerability,

even as it says, regardless of their guilt, we've talked about capital punishment here in this time. And we recognize that no, all human life has dignity and therefore they'd say, okay, you can only, you can only take that human life, not because, Oh, that's so guilty. it's no longer worthy of life but in order to protect others in order to protect the common good in fact we did talk about this before we talked about how in here paragraph 2321 the nugget of 2321 says the prohibition of murder does not abrogate the right to

render an unjust aggressor unable to inflict harm so knowing that yes there's still a prohibition of murder. Remember the prohibition of murder is taking an innocent human being's life. It does not take away the right to render an unjust aggressor unable to inflict harm. So legitimate defense is a grave duty for whoever is responsible for the lives of others or the common good. So the fact that as Catholics, yes, we can be involved in law enforcement. Yes, we can be involved in the military and we can.

There are times when we'd be called upon even as, as ordinary citizens to defend the lives of those for whom you are responsible, your family, the people around you, our community, there are times when we're called to do that. And that, that is a consistent life ethic. It doesn't, it doesn't say that now this person's unworthy of life, but it is to say that the unwanted double effect, remember that the first effect is preserve your life or preserve the lives of the people around you.

The unintended and unwanted double effect is it may end in the ending of the life of the person who's the aggressor. And so we keep this in mind, this is a consistent life ethic when it comes from the very beginning to the very end. That's one this in mind. This is a consistent life ethic when it comes from the very beginning to the very end. That's one of the things that we can rely upon, but it's also one of the things that is convicting because there are those times in our lives

where we are faced with such evil around us that we may say, I want to compromise with that. I want to compromise with evil and I want to take the side of evil. I want to do evil to someone as an act of revenge, as an act of vengeance. And we may never ever do that. In fact, even those who are in the military, even those in law enforcement, even those who have to defend their lives, their families, the people around them. As they do that, they must not do it as an act of revenge or vengeance, anger or hatred. But as an act, ultimately as an act, ultimately, as an act of love.

Out of love, I'm defending my family. Out of love, I'm defending the common good, my nation. Out of love, I'm defending these, and I may have to do difficult, difficult things, but I'm doing them to protect and preserve the lives of the people around me. This is a consistent life ethic that we have. We've been given for the

last number of days. As we walk into the next days, and tomorrow we're starting the sixth commandment, it's also going to be a consistent sexual ethic. And it all comes back to this truth, right? And the truth is that every human being is made to be loved, not used. And there are ways that we can use another in the name of love We are prohibited from doing that we're called to actually love one another and never to use because of that We're gonna hear this tomorrow that even in our minds even in the depths of our hearts We may not look with lust upon another or use them in our minds or use them in our hearts But I'll tell you that's tomorrow

It will be a consistent ethic as well and it will also be a challenging ethic as well. But one that we are called to live and when we do live this, we experience freedom. And that's what God wants for all of us. When it comes to anger and hatred, he wants freedom. When it comes to what we're going to hear about starting tomorrow, he wants freedom for us. And therefore we pray God to give us all that freedom. Give us all that freedom to be able to see each other the way you see us. To love each other the way you love us. In order to do that we need His grace so we need prayers. Please 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.