The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 33: God as Father (2024)

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

The Catechism describes the various ways that God has revealed himself to us as Father over the ages, and gives us insight into God the Father “in relation to his only Son,” Jesus. Fr. Mike entreats us to examine our relationships with our earthly fathers and how they might be impacting our vision of God as Father. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 238-242. 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.

How many 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 entire Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. It is day 33. You guys, this is our Jesus day. You know, Jesus lived 33 years and we're reading paragraphs 238 to 242. A couple things before we get started. I'm using the Ascension Edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundation's Faith Approach, but you can follow along, obviously,

in any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Also, you can download your own Catechism in the reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily notifications and daily updates. As I said, state 33 reading paragraphs 238 to 242, couple things.

We're gonna continue to talk about how God has revealed himself to us as Trinity. And this is the key thing, that the Father is revealed by the Son. And later on, we're gonna talk about how, that the father is revealed by the son. And later on, we're going to talk about how the father and son is revealed by the Spirit. That's tomorrow. But today we're talking about how the fact that the father is revealed by the son. God throughout the course of Israel's history, he does reveal himself like a father. And we realize that many religions might invoke

God as father. And yet, and yet, the beginning of Israel, there's this hint that, oh, God loves you like a father. He loves, even that says he loves like a mother. But we're gonna find out that Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard of sense. This is gonna be so important. You guys, today's Father's Day, that's what we're calling it today.

Because he's a father not only in being a creator, he's eternally Father in relation to his only son. Who's eternally son only in relation to his father. And this is so important for us. So we're going to talk about God not only analogously as father, but realize this. Our fatherhood, all fatherhood comes from God's fatherhood. So in more ways, God's fatherhood is not analogous. Our notions of fatherhood are analogous to God's fatherhood, does that make sense? But it's just, it's remarkable. Again, as I said, Catechism 240 says,

Jesus revealed that God is father in an unheard of sense. And that's what we wanna focus on today. Jesus reveals that God is father in an unheard of sense, that he's eternally Father. That's His deepest identity of the Father and of the Son is the Son and the Holy Spirit is that love between the two of them. That's the identity is love. We're gonna say that a bunch of times because it is so important. It is no small thing to be able to assert this, to be able to profess this and to be able to enter into

relationship with this God. Oh man. this and to be able to enter into relationship with this God. Oh man, so good. That's right now in our common sonship, right? Because what Jesus has done for us, because we have the Holy Spirit within us, we share in the divine nature and we're able to call God our Father. So in this moment, let's pray, Father in heaven, you have revealed your deepest identity. You revealed yourself to us identity. We revealed yourself to us through your Son and your Holy Spirit. You've called us. You've made us into your adopted children. And you are our adoptive Father. You've shared your nature with us. You've shared your divine life with us. And so we just rejoice in you. We give you thanks. We praise you. May you be glorified. May you be loved, not just by others, not just by people throughout the world, but may you be glorified and may you be loved by us this day.

We praise you, Father. We love you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, we're reading paragraphs 238 to 242. Here we go. The revelation of God as Trinity. The Father Revealed by the Son. Many religions invoke God as Father.

The deity is often considered the Father of Gods and of Men. In Israel, God is called Father in as much as He is Creator of the world. Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, His first born Son. God is also called the gift of the law to Israel, his firstborn son. God is also called the Father of the King of Israel. Most especially, he is the Father of the poor, of the orphaned, and the widowed, who are under his loving protection.

By calling God Father, the language of faith indicates two main things. That God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority, and that He is at the same time goodness and loving care for all His children. God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood, which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman. He is God. He also transcends human fatherhood

and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard. No one is father, as God is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard. No one is father, as God is father. Jesus revealed that God is father in an unheard of sense. He is fathered not only in being Creator, He is eternally father in relation to His only Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to His Father. As Jesus states in Matthew's Gospel, No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. For this reason, the apostles confess Jesus

to be the Word. In John's Gospel it states, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. As the image of the invisible God, as the radiance of the glory of God, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. As the image of the invisible God, as the radiance of the glory of God, and the very stamp of His nature. Following this apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in the year 325 that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, that is, one only God with Him. The Second Ecumenical Council, held at Constantinople in 381, kept this expression in its formulation of the Nicene Creed and confessed, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.

Okay, we are paragraphs 238 to 242. This is remarkable. Again, it's the beginning at the beginning, which says that many religions would say that God is like a father. Yep, he's the father of God, father of men, he's the father of everything. Like that's kind of what others would say.

And also in Israel, right, to the people of Israel, God's a father in as much, he's creator of the world. And even more that, Israel is his firstborn. So he reveals himself in fatherly terms, right? In parental terms. And even, you know, the Old Testament in 2 Samuel,

God refers to himself or he's referred to as the father of the poor, right? The father of the orphan, the widowed, who are under his loving protection. And this is really remarkable because as the paragraph 23 the orphan, the widowed, who are under his loving protection. And this is really remarkable because as paragraph 239 states, this language of faith, this fact that God has revealed himself as father indicates two main things. And the first thing that spells out in 239 is that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority, that He is the beginning,

that everything comes from him. That's one of the reasons why God is, in so many ways, we say more an image of the father than of the mother. That's one of the reasons why God has revealed himself. Why God has done this is mystery to me, right? I don't know why God has revealed himself more primarily as father than as mother. But one of the explanations that many have offered is that God's Father creates outside of Himself. A mother creates inside of herself. And so here's God who creates ex nihilo. He creates out of nothing and that the world itself, right, that didn't gestate inside of Him and that now the world's a part of Him, he was created outside of Himself kind of like, here's a male and female coming

together. That would be that their roles, right, in this in this kind of way. That's one of the ways in which we can kind of sort to begin to understand. And as it says, talking about God as Father indicates two main things. God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority. That yes, he's the start of it all

and it's a transcendent authority. He's not part of it, he's over it. At the same time he's imminent and that's the next part, is that at the same time, goodness and loving care for all of his children. And I love this that the catechism highlights that God's parental tenderness can be also be expressed by the image of motherhood which emphasizes his immanence, right, that closeness between creator and creature. And this is one of our problems, right? We live in this broken world and so we can make a fight out of anything. Yes, God has revealed himself as Father.

anything. Yes, God has revealed himself as Father. That's not a slight on motherhood at all. And yes, there are times when the Lord says, how long like a mother hen I wish to draw you to myself? That this doesn't have to be, again, we as human beings, we like to fight over things that are important. I'm not saying it's not important. But we can also just say, okay, God, how have you revealed yourself to us and why? For what purpose? And so one of the purposes by which God has revealed himself as Father is because he creates us out of himself like a Father, like a Father would. At the same time, like a mother, it says, which emphasized God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature.

And so we realize this, and even the Catechism in paragraph 239 continues to highlight this fact. The limitations of analogy, right? The limitations of our language. It goes on to say, The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. Totally, yeah, absolutely. Here's the limitation. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible

and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends human distinctions between sexes. He is neither man nor woman, he is God. And that's just so important for us. The last note I wanna just highlight before we move on to the last point here is that I've talked to people, so many people, who have said things like, you know, I have a

tough time relating to God as Father because of my broken relationship with my father or my father's, you know, the wounds that he inflicted on me or my mom or our family, that kind of situation. And it's helpful to recognize this last sentence in paragraph 239. It says, God also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard, no one is father as God is father. That reality, I remember someone saying, lean into this.

If you have a good father in your life, lean into that. And recognize that all those great qualities of your father, they are perfect in God the father. And if you had a rough relationship with your father, if you had a rough dad, you know, someone who might have been not just distant, not just cruel, but maybe downright evil, you can see in that evil, the flip side,

you have to almost see like a negative image. For all the evil, that one's own father might have brought into the world and brought into your life, God the Father is opposite that. And I think it's, and it might not be easy, but I think it's really important, particularly when it comes to not only our personal healing, but to understand what is fatherhood supposed to be. Again, all of our notions of fatherhood come from God, who truly is Father. They all fall short, but he's the standard. Again, no one is Father as God is Father.

We talked about this before we read the whole section, but paragraph 240 says that Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard of sense. He is Father not only being Creator, he's eternally Father in relation to his only Son, who is eternally Son in relation to his Father. Again, the deepest identity of God is Trinity what he is who he is in his own being before what he does and that's one of the keys 241 says for this reason the apostles confessed Jesus to be the word in the beginning was the word the word was with God and The word was God. This is very clear expression the very beginning of John's Gospel that the early

Christian faith professed that Jesus was and is, eternally is, right? Eternally is one with God. That the word, second person of the Trinity, Jesus himself, was God in the beginning. And that's very, very important that he was with God and was God. Lastly, lastly, we're talking once more about the Niceno Constantinople and Creed, which is, I think everyone should practice saying that at least twice a day. The Nicene Creed in 325 and the Council of Constantinople in 381, talking about this expression that's given to us as we formulate every Sunday, that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages, God from God, light from light, true God from true God,

begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father. That, again, there's hardly a way we can emphasize more clearly that God is eternally Trinity, eternally Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, consubstantial, co-eternal, co-equal. And, and where one person of the trinity is, we're gonna find this out, where one person of the trinity

is, where one person of the trinity acts, they all are and they all act. And that's remarkable. And again, another mystery. But what that means also for you and for me right now in this moment, we pray for the Holy Spirit to come and help us to hear, help us to understand, help us to listen, help us to move forward.

That means that the Father is also with us. We pray to the Son and ask Jesus to be with us and to present us to his Father. We ask Jesus to have mercy upon us. And the Father is there with his Holy Spirit. Where one person of the Trinity is, the entire Trinity is. When one person acts, the whole Trinity acts and God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit love you and they're with you right now with me right now and so we just return to them right now and

know that you're not alone. We're with you and they are with you. So let's keep praying. Pray to the God who's with you right now. Pray for the people who are praying for you right now. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.