The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 327: Poverty of Heart (2024)

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

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. 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 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 327. We are reading paragraph 2544 to 2557. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes a 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 into your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash DIY, and you can click follow or subscribe in 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. And now starting tomorrow, we'll talk to Sister Miriam, it'll be amazing. But the day after that, we're gonna continue to launch into, we're gonna begin to launch into pillar four and talk about like, how is it that we can have this, this lived relationship, this lived communication with God on a regular basis in prayer.

And so we're just gonna 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 commandment is that God desires in the ninth commandment and all the commandments that 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 they go hand in hand. Poverty of heart and the desire to see God go hand in hand. And that's what we're gonna pray for.

And that's what we're gonna hear about today and that's what we're gonna 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 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 belong to you. That we desire nothing more than to behold you face to face. Lord God, 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. It is day 327. We're reading paragraphs 2544 to 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 Nyssa 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 grieves 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 in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Abandonment to the providence of the Father in 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 beatitude of God. St. Gregory of Nyssa further stated, the promise of seeing God surpasses all beatitude. 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 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, 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, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The Tenth Commandment forbids avarice 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's 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 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 in paragraphs 25, 44 to 25, 57. Amazing. Just

incredible. Like so beautiful because remember this is the goal. Who? Not just what. Who is the goal? God Himself 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 327 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, I mean, 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? It's 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 beatitude, 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, 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 one who is 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 be able to use them without counting them as ours. 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 in 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 okay, actually, Lord, I'm not just a receptacle. Let me be a vessel. Like, let me, let me not just be a receptacle where you pour into me and I just take it all. But let me be this, 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, I'm sure you've heard this example before. Maybe I've even used 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, it's 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 why they call it 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 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 just 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 has abundantly blessed you or has abundantly blessed me 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 them allow ourselves to be that transmitter that that vessel Through which god's blessings can flow into us and then into out of us into others That's 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 2547 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 with an 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, that 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 an 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's 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 to that part of us that 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. Cause that's the destiny that God wants for you.

And that's the destiny he wants for me. That's why we have this life in Christ. That's why he's given us the Holy spirit so we can actually one day, one day actually see him. I hope that, I hope that day comes for you. 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. My name is Father Mike.

I can't wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.