The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 318: Love for the Poor (2025)

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

The Church’s charity for the poor is a “part of her constant tradition.” Fr. Mike unpacks how the poor are the “true treasure of the Church.” He emphasizes that when we give to the poor what they need, we satisfy the requirements of justice. He also reiterates the importance of mercy and showing mercy to others. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2443-2449. 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 and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is Day 318. We're reading paragraphs 2443 to 2449. 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. And you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily updates and daily notifications because today is day 318, paragraph 2443 to 2449. We're talking about, as I mentioned last night, yesterday, whenever you listen to this, yesterday, about love for the poor. Now, yesterday, of course, we talked about justice and solidarity among nations. So here's this global international scale in which we're called to have this lens, these lenses, right, of justice, of solidarity, of charity of love. And also here today, the church says, let's key in on this and have a lens that is the lens of God. Because God has a lens

that he has a particular love for the poor. And this is going to be convicting. So for so many of us. know in the last couple days we've talked about different political systems or economic systems today yep there there are some big ideas but it is one of those days that brings up hopefully some challenges and we've asked the question okay so then if this is the truth and it is what does that mean for me if i'm called to cultivate a love for the poor how do i do that in my life right now and that's what we're going to look at today and so let's pray Father in heaven, in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, you God humbled yourself in the person of Jesus.

You humbled yourself to become one of us. And not only one of us, you humbled yourself to become among the poorest of us. And you revealed your heart, you've revealed your heart over and over again in Scripture. You have revealed your heart over and over again in the teaching of the church that you have a particular love. for those among us who are the poorest, the weakest, the most in need. God, give us a heart like yours. Give us a heart to see people the way you see people. Give us a heart to love the poor, the way you love the poor.

And in our poverty, Lord, let us be loved by you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is day 318. We're reading paragraphs 2443 to 24. 4.49. Love for the poor. God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them. Give to him who begs from you. Do not refuse him who would borrow from you. You received without pay. Give without pay. It is by what they have done for the poor

that Jesus Christ will recognize his chosen ones. When the poor have the good news preached to them, it is the sign of Christ's presence. The church's love for the poor is part of for constant tradition. This love is inspired by the gospel of the beatitudes of the poverty of Jesus and of his concern for the poor. Love for the poor is even one of the motives for the duty of working so as to be able to give to those in need. It extends not only to material poverty, but also to the many forms of cultural and religious poverty. Love for the poor is incompatible with immoderate love of riches or their selfish use. As St. James writes in Chapter 5, Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have

rotted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields which you kept back by fraud cry out. and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned. You have killed the righteous man.

He does not resist you. St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this, saying, Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs. the demands of justice must be satisfied first of all. That which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity. St. Gregory the Great stated, when we attend to the needs of those and want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice. The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come

to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities, instructing, advising, consoling, comforting, are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead. Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity. It is also a work of justice pleasing to God. St. James states in chapter two, he who has two coats, let him share with him who has none, and he who has food must do likewise. But give for alms those things which are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.

If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warm and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? In its various forms, material deprivation, unjust oppression, physical and psychological illness and death, human misery is the obvious sign of the inherited condition of frailty and need for salvation in which man finds himself as a consequence of original sin. This misery elicited the compassion of Christ the Savior who willingly took it upon himself and identified himself with the least of his brethren. Hence, those who are oppressed by poverty are the object of a preferential love on the part of the church, which, since her origin, and in spite of the failings

of many of her members, has not ceased to work for their relief, defense, and liberation through numerous works of charity which remain indispensable always and everywhere. Beginning with the Old Testament, all kinds of juridical measures, the Jubilee Year of forgiveness of debts, prohibition of loans at interest, and the keeping of collateral, the obligation to tithe, the daily payment of the day laborer, the right to glean vines and fields, answer the exhortation of Deuteronomy, which states, for the poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore, I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother,

to the needy, and to the poor in the land. Jesus makes these words his own, saying, The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. In doing so, he does not soften the vehemence of former oracles against buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, but invites us to recognize his own presence in the poor who are his brethren. When her mother reproached her for caring for the poor and the sick at home, St. Rose of Lima said to her, when we serve the poor and the sick, we serve Jesus.

We must not fail to help our neighbors because in them we serve Jesus. Right there we have at paragraph 2443 to 2449. As I said, this is so good. It is so good in convicting because we recognize paragraph 2443. This goes all the way back to the old covenant. It's all through the New Testament. God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them. This is so important.

In fact, it becomes these works of mercy in 2447. The corporal works of mercy, right? The feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and in prison, burying the dead, giving alms to the poor. Those become the test in Matthew chapter 25. The test is, did you do that? Did I do that? For the least of my brethren. did I do that for the least of these?

As often as we have done it for the least of these, we've done it for Jesus, and as often as we have not done it, we have not done it for Jesus. And this, remember, this is the, kind of like the test at the end of life, because this is Jesus in Matthew 25 saying, at the end of time, here is the separation of the sheep and the coats. And the test is, do I know him in the sense that have I served him in those who needed to be served or did I ignore him in those who needed to be served? Remember, those people cry out, Lord, when did we see you hungry or naked, ill or in prison, and not visit you or visit you?

And he says, as often as you did it or didn't do it, for the least of these, you did it or didn't do it for me. So we realize this is so important. This is critical for our eternity. In paragraph 2444, it notes this. It says the church's love for the poor is part of her constant tradition. This is something that is, no, yes, it goes on to say that there have been times when the church's members haven't always lived this way. But this is part of the church's tradition, is to care,

have a preferential love for the poor, just like God is a preferential love for the poor. There's one story. Actually, I think it was back to the third century, give or take. Pope 6th, the second was the pope, and there was a young man from Spain, named Lawrence, and he was essentially a deacon. At one point, the emperor at the time, Valerian, He captured the Pope and, well, during the Mass, and had him beheaded. And then he turned to this Lawrence, this Spanish Catholic man, this deacon. And he said, okay, here's what I, here's what I demand. He demanded this deacon or archdeacon, I guess, more technically, to turn over all the

riches of the church. And he gave Lawrence three days to round up the riches of the church. And so here's what he did. Lawrence sold all the church's vessels, gave the money to the widows and to the sick. he distributed all the church's property to the poor. So he took whatever wealth that church had at the time. Again, this is the third century, and this is under persecution. So he took the church's vessels, whatever property distributed, gave them to the poor.

And then Valerian had given Lawrence three days. And Lawrence, to do what? To hand over all the riches of the church. And so this is kind of one of those like baller moves, right? There's kind of like this like, wow, tough guy moves, where Lawrence goes to the palace of the emperor Vilarian, and he stopped, and he gestured back to the door, we're coming in behind him, where there's just tons of crowds of the poor, the cripple, blind, hurting people. And he said, these, these are the true treasures of the church.

And this recognition, of course, that that is, that's how we're supposed to look at this. That's what we're supposed to look at the poor and the cripple, the blind, the land, the people who are neediest among us. we don't have that view, right? This is an incredible story of Lawrence. Lawrence has another incredible story, and it's almost, I'm going to say this story in just a second, to highlight how differently Lawrence looked at life. He looked at life the way Jesus looked at life. The other story is after this, as a result of this, Lawrence is martyred. And he was martyred, not like Pope 6th is the second, who was beheaded. He was martyred,

by being grilled alive. And the story is that as Lawrence was being grilled alive, at one point he turned to the people torturing him and said, okay, you can flip me over now, I'm done on this side. That's just like really crazy. Again, I said, as it's like a baller move, right? The high roller type move, this like, you know, tough guy move. And yet, think about this.

Who of us could ever, whatever dream of saying that as we're being grilled alive, flip me over, I'm done on this side. And in the similar way, who among us? really, really, truly believes that, oh, the riches of the church, that's not the Vatican Museum. Ritches of the church, that's not the chalices and the beautiful churches and the land that we might have in the Catholic Church. But the true riches of the church are the poor, the hurting, the blind, the lame, the suffering. But that is what the church teaches.

That's what the church teaches. amazing. In fact, you know, those two quotes from the book of the letter of James are worth reading again and again to recognize that, okay, come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are mothiated. Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. Just, and the conviction too that, you know, St. James goes on to say, he who has two coats, let him share with him who has none. And he who has food, must do likewise. Remember we had that quote from St. Gregory the Great, who was a pope. And he said,

he said, when we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we're paying a debt of justice. And this is a remarkable thing that here's how the church sees this. The church sees caring for the poor, yes, of course, as an act of love, is an act of charity. But at the heart of it, it's an act of justice. When someone has nothing to give them something is simply giving them what they're owed. When someone has no coat, to give them a coat is simply giving them what they're owed when someone has no food to give them your food is simply giving them what is owed to them and this is the crazy like so challenging so challenging truth of the catholic church and what we have to do is we have to how do how do we say

god give me that preferential love you have give me that love that you have for those among us who are the weakest. It was among us who are in most need. Remember what mercy is? I think we talked about this before, but let's talk about it again. God loves us. God pours out his love for us.

The highest form of God's love is mercy. And what is mercy? Mercy is the love that we need the most and yet deserve the least. Mercy is the love we need the most and deserve the least. And so here is God who has poured out his mercy upon us, his love that we needed the most, right, in his forgiveness and his

reconciliation and in giving us, remember the very first days of this catechism in a year where we talked about the fact that God is so good that he's made us his adopted sons and daughters by his life, death, and resurrection, this amazing part of his Holy Spirit upon us. We did nothing to deserve this. In fact, we deserve it the least. And yet, it's the love we need the most. Similarly, that's why the church teaches that this is an act of justice, not that. strictly speaking, an act of love, that to take care of the poor is what we owe them. And again, like, well, how does that look in practice? I don't know. It looks different in every person's life. How does that look in your life? I'm not exactly sure. But here are words that I've been convicted by.

I want to read these to you, if that's okay with you. We heard from St. John Chrysystem today. I want to hear from St. John Christ's system one more time. This is one of the things that a priest, deacons, religious sisters and brothers, bishops read at least once a year. We all read this. least once a year. And it's a reminder of how we are to approach, not just how approach the poor, but how we are to love the poor among us. It's a longer quote, but I invite you to just let it sit among you. This is from a homily on the gospel of Matthew by St. John Chrysostom. And once again, priests, deacons, bishops, religious sisters and religious brothers, and lay people read this at least once a year. Here it is. St. John,

Christosom says, do you want to honor Christ's body? Then do not scorn him in his nakedness, nor honor him here in the church with silken garments while neglecting him outside where he is cold and naked. For he who said, this is my body, and made it so by his words also said, you saw me hungry and did not feed me. And inasmuch as you did not do it for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did not do it for me. What we do here in the church requires a pure heart, not special garments. What we do outside requires great dedication. Let us learn, therefore, to be men of wisdom and to honor Christ as he desires. For a person being honored finds greatest pleasure in the honor he desires, not in the honor we think best. Peter thought he was honoring Christ when he refused to let him

wash his feet, but what Peter wanted was not truly an honor, quite the opposite. Give him the honor prescribed in his law by giving your riches to the poor, for God does not want golden vessels, but golden hearts. Now, in saying this, I'm not forbidding you to make such gifts. I'm only demanding that along with such gifts and before them, you give alms. He accepts the former, but he is much more pleased with the latter. In the former, only the giver prophets. In the latter, the recipient does too. A gift to the church may be taken as a form of ostentation, but an alms is pure kindness. of what uses it to weigh down Christ's table with golden cups when he himself is dying of hunger. First, fill him when he is hungry, then use the means you have left to adorn his table.

Will you have a golden cup made, but not give a cup of water? What is the use of providing the table with cloths woven of gold thread and not providing Christ himself with the clothes he needs? What profit is there in that? Tell me, if you were to see him lacking the necessary food, but were to leave him in that state and merely surround his table with gold, would he be grateful to you? Or rather, would he not be angry? What if you were to see him clad and worn out regs and stiff from the cold, and were to forget about clothing him, and instead were to set up golden columns for him, saying that you were doing it in his honor? Would he not think he was being mocked and greatly insulted? Apply this also to Christ when he comes along the roads as a pilgrim, looking for shelter.

You do not take him in as your guest, but you decorate floor and walls and the capitals of the pillars. You provide silver chains for the lamps, but you cannot bear even to look at him as he lies chained in prison. Once again, I am not forbidding you to supply these adornments. I am urging you to provide these other things as well, and indeed to provide them first. No one has ever been accused for not providing ornaments, but for those who neglect their neighbor, a hell awaits with an inexteating distinguishable fire and torment in the company of the demons. Do not therefore adorn the church and ignore your afflicted brother, for he is the most precious temple of all. Those are the words of St. Tranchristosum, and those are words that I just wanted to highlight. You know, we're in the

process right now of trying to build a church up here in Duluth. And so I'm meeting with people and saying, would you like to support this, this work? And this work, I believe, is very, very very important because this work will supply the spiritual needs of thousands upon thousands of young people who will come to this university here in Duluth, Minnesota. And yet at the same time, St. John Christosom's words are still true. That we want to have a beautiful church where people can pray. We want to have a beautiful church where people will be drawn by the beauty, drawn by the truth, and be drawn by the community that can be built around that inside that church. And at the same time, we recognize that St. John Christosum says,

yeah, build your beautiful churches, you know, have those beautiful things. But don't forget the poor. Don't forget to clothe Jesus. When you're interested, here I am interested, in adorning his altar for the sacrifice of the mass. Remember, as St. John Chrysystem said at the very beginning of this homily, he said, the same Lord, the same God, who said, this is my body, also said, he saw me hungry and did not feed me. And in as much as you did, not do it for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did not do it for me. So we need, what do we need? What we do in the church requires a pure heart, not special garments. What we do outside requires great dedication. And so here's my prayer. My prayer for all of us is that while we

have beautiful liturgy, while we have beautiful churches, and while God willing, we get to build a beautiful place, as I said, for generations of young people to come and encounter the Lord and that their lives be changed. We can't, I can't forget the fact that God has called all of us to take care of him in the distressing disguise of the poor. So please know that I am praying for you in this. Please pray for me in this. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.