The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 34: Unity in the Holy Spirit (2026)

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

The Catechism introduces us to the Holy Spirit and describes how the Spirit reveals the Father and the Son to us. It also gives us some background and context regarding the way we describe the Holy Spirit in the Roman Catholic Church compared to the way that the Eastern Orthodox Church describes the Holy Spirit. Fr. Mike breaks it down for us and gives us some hope for a future reconciliation between Eastern and Western Churches. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 243-248. 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 in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. It is day 34. We're reading paragraphs 243 through 248. You guys, it's all about the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son. A few reminders before we get started, I am using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which I really like a lot. It includes the foundations of the faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of

the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also follow along with our reading plan by downloading the Cagism in your reading plan at ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. And what you get to do is what I do every day, which is check off another day, which is great. Little Anton checkoff the date today, the 34. Also, and lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. As I said, it's day 34 reading paragraphs 243 through 248. Remember yesterday we talked about how the father is revealed by the son and the son is revealed by the father. It is remarkable. We talked about not only that. The day before this, I believe, we talked about the Theologia and the Oikonamia. Remember that? Remember that? I remember that. It was really great. Theology and Oikonamia.

What was that? Theology is who God is in of himself. Oikonamia is how God reveals himself and imparts is very life to us. They're both super important and very, very vital. Further, we talked about these yesterday. The God reveals himself uniquely as father in Christianity. Fatherhood is not something he begins to do when he creates. He is eternally father to the son. And the most clear, but still mysterious, analogous relationship we can possibly imagine is between the father and the son. Again, these words that we use in English, because we have things like fathers, we have things like sons, we have parents, we have children. And yet at the same time, with God the Father and God the Son, it's entirely unique, as we talked about.

Today, we're going to take that next step and talk about how the Father and the Son are revealed by the Holy Spirit. And so this is going to be really important. Here's what we want to highlight is the fact that we talked about Father, we talked about Son. Now we're going to talk about the Holy Spirit. We recognize that member of the Council of Anisia in 325 talked about how it's established very, very clearly. Jesus is of one substance with the Father. Again, clarified in Constantinople in 381, but also in Constantinople in 381. The church clarified who the Holy Spirit is. And this is going to be really important because this is one of the questions that has divided some areas in the church for about

a thousand years or so. Does the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father alone? Or does the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father and the Son? In about 1054, there was what they call the Great Schism, where the one church broke into two halves, right? You have the Western Church, which we call the Roman Catholic Church, right? And we have the Eastern Church. That would be the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine and all those different members of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Now, at the same time, we recognize that the Eastern Church,

the Orthodox Church, they've kept the sacraments, right? They were faithful to the sacraments, but there was this division in structure and there was this division in points of theology. One of the points of theology is over this article, this article that is filioque. So does the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father alone, or does the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father and the Son?

We're going to hear about this and how the Catechism kind of explains a little bit about this. One of the things we're to talk about after we read the Catechism as well is like, what do we make of this right now? And where can we go forward when it comes to the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son? Today, again, we're going to talk about how the Holy Spirit is true God, just as the Father is true God, and just as the Son is true God. and just as the Son is true God.

And so keep that in mind. We're just going to recognize and, gosh, ask the Holy Spirit to guide us as we read these next paragraphs. So let's pray, Father in Heaven, you have sent the Holy Spirit through your Son, Jesus Christ, into this world. And we ask that you, please, once again, in the name of Jesus Christ,

send your Holy Spirit so that we can understand what it is you wish to reveal to us. We ask you to send your Holy Spirit so that whatever division we experience, not only in our own hearts, but also in the church, in our relationships, and our families, that the spirit of unity, the spirit of unity will come into those places of brokenness,

those places of division, and bring wholeness again, bring reconciliation. We pray in a special way for the reunification of the church, east and west. We pray that once again, the church may fully breathe with both lungs, east and west, maybe even in our lifetimes. Lord God, we ask you this.

In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, it's Day 34 reading paragraphs 243 to 248. The Father and the Son revealed by the Spirit. Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of another paraclete or advocate, the Holy Spirit. At work since creation, having previously spoken through the prophets, the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples to teach them and to guide them into all the truth.

The Holy Spirit is thus revealed as another divine person with Jesus and the Father. The eternal origin of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his mission in time. The Spirit is sent to the Apostles and to the Church, both by the Father in the name of the Son and by the Son in person once he had returned to the Father. The sending of the person of the Spirit after Jesus' glorification reveals in its fullness the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The apostolic faith concerning the Spirit was confessed by the second ecumenical council at Constantinople in the year 381, which states,

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father. By this confession, the Church recognizes the Father as the source and origin of the whole divinity. But eternal origin of the Spirit is not unconnected with the Son's origin. As the 11th Council of Toledo said, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is God, one and equal with the Father and the Son, of the same substance and also of the same nature. Yet he has not called the Spirit of the Father alone,

but the Spirit of both the Father and the Son. The creed of the Church from the Council of Constantinople confesses, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified. The Latin tradition of the creed confesses that the spirit proceeds from the father and the son, filioque. The Council of Florence in 1438 explains, The Holy Spirit is eternally from father and son. He has his nature and subsistence at once, simul, from the father and the son.

He proceeds eternally from both as from one principle and through one spiration. And since the father has through generation given to the only begotten son, everything that belongs to the father except being father, the son has also eternally from the father, from whom he is eternally born, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the son. The affirmation of the filiocque does not appear in the creed confessed in 381 at Constantinople, but Pope Leo I, following an ancient Latin and Alexandrian tradition, had already confessed it dogmatically in the year 447, even before Rome in 451 at the Council of Calcedon came to recognize and receive and receive the symbol of 381. The use of this formula in the creed was gradually admitted into the Latin

liturgy between the 8th and 11th centuries. The introduction of the filioque into the Nicino-Constantinapolitan creed by the Latin liturgy constitutes, moreover, even today, a point of disagreement with the Orthodox churches. At the outset, the Eastern tradition expresses the father's character as first origin of the spirit. By confessing the spirit as he who proceeds from the father, it affirms that he comes from the father through the son. The Western tradition expresses first the consubstantial communion between father and son by saying that the spirit proceeds from the father and the son, filiocque. It says this, legitimately and with good reason,

for the eternal order of the divine persons in their consubstantial communion implies that the father as the principle without principle is the first origin of the spirit, but also that as father of the only son, he is with the son, the single principle from which the Holy Spirit proceeds. This legitimate complementarity, provided it does not become rigid, does not affect the identity of faith in the reality of the same mystery confessed. Okay. So are you confused? Are you a little bit confused? Well, I understand that. That makes a lot of sense because there's such technical language because this is one of those articles. was one of those things that we know that we believe it's been revealed by God through history, through scripture, through the church that is a point of contention with our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox churches. And so we just have to go back. Let's go back to the, where it's simpler.

Go back to a simpler day, meaning a simpler paragraph like 243 through 245. So here's what we recognize that before his Passover, Jesus, yep, I'm going to send another paraclete or another advocate through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had been working where he's spoken through the prophets, but now the Spirit will be with and in his disciples to teach them and to guide them into all truths. Therefore, the Church concludes in the end of 243, the Holy Spirit is less revealed as another divine person with the Father and Jesus, right? So that's really important. Now, I love the beginning of paragraph 244. It says this, the eternal origin of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his mission in time. And this is just so incredible. So the Holy Spirit has an eternal origin, right? Without beginning,

without end, that kind of situation. His origin is revealed by his mission in time. This is one of those pieces that we wouldn't have any idea, the identity of God unless he had chosen to reveal himself in the course of human event. If he hadn't chosen to reveal himself to us as we're walking through this world, we say that the sending of the person of the spirit after Jesus is glorification, right? Jesus, he resurrected. He ascends to heaven nine days later at a Pentecost. The sending of the Spirit in person reveals in its fullness the mystery of the Holy Trinity. We have the Father revealed in the Old Testament. We have the Son revealed in the New Testament, and we have the Holy Spirit revealed in the age of the church. So here we are, knowing, realizing, because of God's revealing it to us,

that he is one divine being in three divine persons. And yet in the Old Testament, he was still a Trinity, like the Holy Spirit's that are present. Jesus, the Word of God is still present. In the new Testament. The Father is obviously at work and still there, as well as the Holy Spirit and the son. And of course, in the age of the church right now as we live, not only is the Holy Spirit active. And the Holy Spirit is making present, making actual what Jesus made possible. But of course, the Father is everywhere. The Father is present as well. So we have the Holy Trinity revealed. Now, from 245 to 248, we get a little bit of the history lesson. It's a theology slash history lesson. So we recognize the year 325, Council of Nicaa. Yep, Jesus is God. The Holy Spirit is God.

In the year 381, there's this very clear definition of the Holy Spirit as the Lord, the giver of life who proceeds from the Father. And so we recognize that the Father is the source and origin of the whole divinity and that the eternal origin of the Spirit is not unconnected with the son's origin. And this is this quote from the 11th Council of Toledo in the, the 675 that says this long quote. It says the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity is God, one and equal with the Father and the Son. Of the same substance, remember that we say that in the creed, conceptual, of the same substance and also of the same nature. Yet, and this is so important for us because we realize this in time, he is not called the Spirit of the Father alone,

but the Spirit of both the Father and the Son. Obviously, we talked about the Great Schism in 1054, where the Western Church and Eastern Church split, there's a lot of factors. It's so complex. And there's people doing wrong, people saying wrong, people acting wrong on both sides, West and East.

But one of the theological points that divided East and West was over what we're going to talk about here in 246 through 248, which is the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, and then these next three words and the Son, that word is filioque, also from the Son, right?

So the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father, but also from the Father and the Son. We recognize, of course, that the belief that church held that the Holy Spirit not only proceeds from the Father, but also from the Son goes back to the early church. This isn't something that was invented in the 11th century, but the disagreement over this came to a head in the 11th century in 1054 when the church split. Going on. What happens? So 246, the Latin tradition of the creed confesses that the Spirit

proceeds from the father and the son. Right. Okay. The Council of Florence, so 1054, the church has a schism. It breaks into. There was an effort by the churches in the years that followed that, to reconcile. The Council of Florence was one of those places of reconciliation. It took about 400 years, but in the year 1438, the church offered another formulation. And the other formulation that the church offered that would be acceptable because it's also in early formulation. So the church had in its early days had said both the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the son as well as the phrase the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son. And so Council of Florence trying to have an act of reconciliation with East and West

had proposed this, that it is the same to say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, which brought about reconciliation, which was incredible. It's wonderful in the year 1438. unfortunately that reconciliation didn't go as far as it could have. There were some churches that came back. But in the 1450s, the Eastern Orthodox left the church again under some social pressure, under pressure from Muslims and under pressure, yeah, it's never a clear-cut thing, right?

There are some times when our theology is very, very clear, and that's the reason why we disagree. And there's other times when some, maybe I don't want to say it like this because I don't want to make small of something that's a big deal. but sometimes we use the theology as an excuse. And this might have been one of those cases. In Florence, here's reconciliation, but, you know, 20 plus years later, the reconciliation doesn't last because of other reasons, which is really, really painful, really, really painful.

Goes on in the catechism, let's go back to this. 247. It says the affirmation of the filialque does not appear in the creed confessed in 381. That's very important. Pope Leo, the first, though, had already confessed it, dogmatically in the year 447, even before the Council of Roman 451. So you recognize that, yep, maybe Council of Constantine Sonopan 381 did not formally declare that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, but it was still part of the early teaching of the church.

Again, not an ecumenical, dogmatic statement, but it existed there in the church. And then it was dogmatically confessed in the year 447. And that's just going to be really, really important. This is very complex, but paragraph 248 says this. Again, this is not a small thing. This is a very big thing. It says this. At the outset, the Eastern tradition expresses the father's character as the first origin of the spirit. Which is so good.

Yes. By confessing the spirit as he who proceeds from the father, it affirms that he comes from the father through the son. Now, the Western tradition, like where we are here in the Roman Catholic Church, expresses first the constitutional communion between father and son, right? we've said the creed before, so we want to establish, yep, they are consubstantial, and expresses this by saying that the spirit proceeds from the father and the son. So both these formulations, Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, and Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, are both legitimate.

And here's the thing. I love this quote. It says that this legitimate complementarity, provided it does not become rigid, does not affect the identity of faith in the reality of the same mystery confessed. What are we saying? What we're saying is that there is a shorter bridge between east and west than sometimes we like to think

or sometimes we even know about. There's a shorter bridge because many in the east have accepted. Yeah, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son. Well, here's the church saying that's acceptable. That is also true. And if, again, don't become true rigid about this. This doesn't affect the identity of faith in the reality. of the mystery that we're confessing. So I read an article that talked about even Eastern Orthodox

Bishop Callistus Ware, who just is a very famous, very prominent Eastern Orthodox bishop that he, like 20 years ago, he had written a book called the Orthodox Church. He said, the filiocque controversy, which has separated us, you know, East and West, for so many centuries, is more than a mere technicality, which makes sense, right? This isn't a small point. It's not just a small point of doctrine. and it's not a mere technicality. But he also says, but it is not insoluble. He says, qualifying the firm position taken when I wrote my book, the Orthodox Church, 20 years ago,

I now believe, after further study, that the problem is more in the area of semantics and different emphases than in any basic doctrinal differences. Again, that's Orthodox Bishop Callistus Ware, who is just, he's a very prominent Orthodox bishop, well respected both in the Orthodox Church and in the Western Church. And that is so beautiful and powerful to me, encouraging to me, that here he is saying,

okay, the division between East and West is not insoluble. Again, the Council of Florence, the church had come together, even if it was short-lived. It came together, and there was some reconciliation. It is very possible. And we pray for the Holy Spirit of unity, right? Pray for the Holy Spirit of unity to once again reunite the church. So that, like Pope John Paul II had said, so that the church can breathe with both. both lungs, the East and the West. That's one of our prayers today. I just want to invite every one of us to be praying for that because it's so vital, so important that we recognize that here's the church. That was tragically, I mean, when I say tragically, I mean, it is a tragedy that East and West divided in 1054. And again, to say it's one person or one groups or one side's fault is completely not true. But to say that there couldn't be restoration, that there couldn't be reconciliation, I think is also not true.

So let's pray for that. Let's pray for our Eastern brothers and sisters. Let's pray for us. Let's pray for all of those who follow after Jesus that one day, once again, we may be reunited by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what we're praying for. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.