The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 327: Poverty of Heart

Episode Date: November 23, 2023

Where should we find consolation? It's essential to remember that our ultimate goal and true source of happiness is God. With this in mind, Fr. Mike emphasizes the need to detach ourselves from worldly possessions and strive to be channels of God's grace. By doing so, when we receive blessings, we can in turn become a blessing to others. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2544-2557. If you have found this podcast to be helpful in your faith life and would like to help us continue bringing this Catholic media to as many people as possible, please consider making an ongoing financial gift at ascensionpress.com/support. 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.

Before we get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thank you to all those who have supported the Categues of an Ear or the Bible in your podcast. We hear stories every day about how those shows have transformed people's lives and because of your Priors' Financial Gift, you are a significant part of that. You might ask a question though. Question is, what does Ancestion do with these financial gifts? Great question. The answer is, we make authentically Catholic podcasts and videos and other digital content to help people know the Catholic faith and grow closer to God And we do it all for free if you found this podcast be helpful in Your life and we like to help us continue making free Catholic content we can post online Please consider making a financial contribution and ongoing financial contribution by going to ascensionpress.com

slash support. That's ascensionpress.com slash support. That's AscensionPress.com slash support. Thank you and God bless. 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 Ears brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we will read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our intensity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 327, we are reading paragraph 2544-2557. As always, I am 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 catechism, which includes a foundation 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 and your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash the iY. And you can click follow or subscribe to your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. This is the last day of pillar three. Congratulations you guys. Amazing. So we're going to start in paragraph 2544.

Hit some nuggets at the end. Just what a grace it is because on this 10th commandment, we continue to talk about what we were talking about the last few days. How God desires this transformation of our hearts. Now, starting tomorrow, we'll talk to Sister Miriam. It'll be amazing. But the day after that, we're going to continue to launch into, we're going to begin to launch into pillar four and talk about like, how is it that we can have this lived relationship,

this lived communication with God on a regular basis in prayer. And so we're just going to ask the Lord to continue to transform our hearts as we launch, as we continue forward. Today, there's this, the reality, of course, when it comes to the 10th Amendment is the God desires and the 9th Amendment and all the commandments, the God desires, a transformation of our interior selves, our ethos. And so we're going to talk today about what is to have a poverty of heart and really have that desire to see God because that they go hand in hand, poverty of heart and the desire to see God go hand in hand and that's what we're going to pray for

and that's what we're here about today and that's what we're going to pray for. And I'll say, here about today, and that's what we're going to pray for today. So let's launch into prayer. Father in heaven, we praise your name and give you thanks. Thank you so much. Help us. Help us to have poverty of spirit. Help us to be poor in spirit. Help us to have a poverty of heart. And Lord God, help us to say, we have no possessions except for you. Let you be the only possession that we claim, the only possession that we rejoice in. Lord God, help us. Help us not only to see you, help us to desire to see you. Let you be the great treasure of our lives. That we desire nothing more than to be in your presence.

That we desire nothing more than to be in your presence, that we desire nothing more than to belong to you, that we desire nothing more than to behold you face to face. We've got to transform our hearts and give us these gifts, poverty of heart, and the desire to see you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. 8th is day 327, we're reading paragraphs 2544-2557. Poverty of heart. Jesus enjoins his disciples to prefer him to everything and everyone, and bids them renounce all that they have for his sake in that of the gospel.

Shortly before his passion, he gave them the example of the poor widow of Jerusalem who out of her poverty gave all that she had to live on. The precept of detachment from riches is obligatory for entrance into the kingdom of heaven. All Christ's faithful are to direct their affections rightly, lest they be hindered in their pursuit of perfect charity by the use of worldly things and by an adherence to riches which is contrary to the spirit of evangelical poverty. Blessed are the poor in spirit. The Beatitudes reveal an order of happiness and grace of beauty and peace. Jesus celebrates the joy of the poor to whom the kingdom already belongs.

St. Gregory of Nissa stated, The word speaks of voluntary humility as poverty in spirit. The apostle gives an example of God's poverty when he says, For your sakes, he became poor. The Lord greaves over the rich, because they find their consolation in the abundance of goods. St. Augustine stated, Let the proud, seek, and love earthly kingdoms. But blessed are the poor and spirit.

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Abandonment to the providence of the Father and Heaven frees us from anxiety about tomorrow. Trust in God is a preparation for the blessedness of the poor. They shall see God. I want to see God. Desire for true happiness, frees man from his immoderate attachment to the goods of this world so that he can find his fulfillment in the vision and the attitude of God.

Singregory of Nissa further stated, the promise of seeing God surpasses all the attitude. In scripture, to see is to possess. Whoever sees God has obtained all the goods of which he can conceive. It remains for the holy people to struggle with grace from on high to obtain the good things God promises. In order to possess and contemplate God, Christ's faithful, mortify their cravings, and with the grace of God, prevail over the seductions of pleasure and power. On this way of perfection, the Spirit and the bride call whoever hears them to perfect communion with God.

St. Augustine stated, There will true glory be, where no one will be praised by mistake or flattery. True honor will not be refused to the worthy nor granted to the unworthy. Likewise, no one unworthy will pretend it to be worthy, where only those who are worthy will be admitted. There, true peace will reign, where no one will experience opposition either from self or others. God himself will be Virtue's reward. He gives Virtue and has promised to give himself as the best and greatest reward that could exist. I shall be their God best and greatest reward that could exist.

I shall be their God, and they will be my people. This is also the meaning of the Apostles' words, so that God may be all in all. God Himself will be the goal of our desires. We shall contemplate Him without end, love Him, without surfeit, praise Him without weariness. This gift, this state, this act like eternal life itself will assuredly be common to all. In brief, were your treasuries? There will your heart be also.

The Ten Commandment forbids averis arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. Envy is sadness at the sight of another's goods, and the immoderate desire to have them for oneself. It is a capital sin. The baptized person combats envy through goodwill, humility, and abandonment to the providence of God. Christ faithful have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

They are led by the Spirit and follow His desires. Detachment from riches is necessary for entering the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the poor in Spirit. I want to see God expresses the true desire of man. Thirst for God is quenched by the water of eternal life. All right, what a conclusion, paragraphs, 25, 44 to 25, 57. Amazing. Just incredible. Well, it's so beautiful because remember, this is the goal. Who? Not just what? Who is the

goal? God himself is the goal. Everything we were talking about for this last, well, for the all three pillars this whole year, all three27 days, all of this is directed at what it's learning about who God is so we can possess God. So we can be possessed by God, right? All that we've been talking about is so that even this last section, this last pillar on the moral life, right, on the life in the spirit, life in Christ, all of this is what is not just so we can follow rules, it's so that we can be like him and that we can dwell with him for eternity. This is the goal. And I love how the church concludes this section, this third pillar that talks about,

here's what the good life is. Here's what it is to say, yes to the Lord with everything you have. There is the attitude, the goal, not just a virtuous life, although that's wonderful. But possession of God himself, this is incredible. And so we have to have poverty of heart. Remember, it says in paragraph 2544, it says, the precept of detachment from riches is obligatory for entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Remember what Jesus had said about those who are rich? He said, How hard it is my children

for when it was rich to enter the kingdom of heaven? That we can't enter the kingdom of heaven unless we renounce all of our goods. And this is something that's necessary. In this world, we have to have goods to a certain degree, right? Of course. But to be able to hold onto them lightly,

to able to use them without counting them as ours. Remember, remember to see ourselves as stewards and to have that, even if you find yourself in a place of abundance, to still find yourself with a poverty of heart, even if you find yourself in a place of abundance where yes, God has blessed you in an incredible way. And you say, okay, this is God has blessed me

so that he can bless others through me. Because why? Because you have this poverty of spirit, this poverty of heart that desires to say, okay, actually Lord, I'm not just a receptacle. Let me be a vessel. Let me not just be a receptacle where you pour into me and I just take it all.

But let me be this vessel where you pour into me and I let your gifts, your blessings roll through me and bring life to others. I'm sure you've heard this example before. Maybe you can use this example, but it's the example in the Holy Land of the Sea of Galilee versus the Dead Sea. So the Sea of Galilee, if you ever go there,

it's fed from a tributary, basically the Jordan River that comes down from the Golan Heights and flows into the Sea of Galilee and then keeps flowing down through the Jordan River down to the Dead Sea. Now, the Sea of Galilee is full of life. It's full of fish. It's full of like birds and everything. It's just amazing. People can swim in it. It's incredible. People can make a living. There's all these villages. There's places that there's a lot of life I'm trying to say in the Sea of Galilee. The same water that feeds the Sea of Galilee rolls down to the Jordan River to the Dead Sea. And in the Dead Sea, there's nothing alive. There are no fish. There's nothing there. I don't even remember ever seeing any birds there because there's nothing to eat because everything's dead.

That's what I call the Dead Sea. It's the same water. The only difference is the water flows into the Sea of Galilee and then flows out down the Jordan River. The water that flows into the Dead Sea just stops there. It doesn't have an exit. There's something about this when it comes to stuff, right? When it comes to God's blessings.

If we simply receive God's blessings, like here's my bowl of God's blessings, I just kind of hoard them for myself. Even if God is abundantly blessed, you are abundantly blessed with material goods, or spiritual goods, or whatever kind of goods they are. If I just hoard them to myself, that's going to end in death. But if we're like the Sea of Galilee, where we allow God's blessings to flow into our lives and then allow ourselves to be that transmitter, that vessel, through which God's blessings can flow into us, and then out of us into others. That's the key, because God has blessed many, many people who have seen that blessing as an opportunity to become a blessing. That's the key. In paragraph 25, 47 it says,

the Lord grieves over the rich because they find their consolation in the abundance of goods. As opposed to, you might be someone within abundance of goods and say, okay, yes, how can I use these goods to help people who don't have these goods? Remember, all of the teachings we've had over the last

number of days, the God desires, God desires us to bless our neighbor. In fact, God commands us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. And so many people who have the abundance of goods, they share those abundance of goods. Many people who have been given incredible blessings, they have the opportunity to be a blessing to the people around them.

And that's the call for all of us, whether we've been given intellectual goods or spiritual goods or material goods or whatever the thing is, every one of us is called not only to receive the blessings from God, but also to be a blessing, to have that poverty of heart and to above all, to above all desire to see God. I love this paragraph 2549. It remains for the holy people to struggle with grace from on high to obtain the good things God promises. In order to possess and contemplate God, Christ faithful, mortify their cravings, and

with the grace of God prevail over the seductions of pleasure and power. This is your task, this is your call, this is my task, this is my call. We have to continue to struggle to mortify ourselves, right? To die to ourselves. That's a mortify means to die to our cravings. To die do that. That part of us that that is wants to grasp onto things and to be able to say, no, Lord God, I can allow these things to be taken from me. I can even give them away with your grace. So I cannot be seduced by pleasure or by power or by anything other than your love. We pray this prayer, God, I want to see your face.

God, let me see your face. God, show me your glory. Because that's the destiny that God wants for you. That's the destiny He wants for me. That's why we have this life in Christ. That's why He's giving us the Holy Spirit so we can actually one day, one day, actually see Him. I hope that day comes for you. I hope that day comes for me. And until then, I am praying for you. Please pray for me. pray for me. My name is Father Mike, I'll wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.