The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 357: God, “Our” Father (2024)

Episode Date: December 22, 2024

God’s love has no bounds, and neither should our prayer. Fr. Mike emphasizes that when we say “our” we are highlighting that we have become God’s people. We belong to God, not in a possessive way, but in an “entirely new relationship”. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2786-2793. 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 357, we're reading paragraphs 2786 to 2793. 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 to mark off these last nine days, if you want, by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y, and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. As I said, today is day 357, we're reading paragraphs 27, 86 and 27, 93. We're talking about yesterday,

we talked about father, right? Abba, our dad, which is incredible. Remember those last two points of the gift of adoption requires on our part, this is paragraph 27, 84, the 84 the gift free gift of adoption requires an our part continual conversion and new life Praying to the our to our father should develop in us two fundamental dispositions And the first the desire to become like him and second a humble and trusting heart is so so good so good today We're emphasizing the first word in the our Father, the Our part of the Our Father, which makes sense that we hit it second.

Well, A, because in priority, right, the primary thing is do we know to whom we are speaking? Do we know to whom we are praying? We need to know God, and as Christians, we need to know God as Father. But also Our makes sense, if we were saying the Lord's Prayer in Latin, it'd be called the Pater Noster,

and Pater is the first word, and Noster is the second word. So maybe it makes sense that we say our second and for many reasons anyways, we're highlighting the our and the recognition is we do not pray to my father, we pray to our father who art in heaven, which is beautiful. One of the things it says in paragraph 2789, it says, when we pray to our Father, we personally address the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And by doing so, we do not divide the Godhead, since the Father is its source and origin, but rather confess that the Son is eternally begotten by him and the Holy Spirit proceeds from him. So that's something we recognize is people say, well, you know, I feel like I'm giving too much attention to one person of the Trinity to the neglect of the others.

Well, maybe that could be the case, right? I can understand how a person might feel that way. But when we pray to our Father, we, yes, we personally address the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has personally addressed me because that's he's the person, the first person of the Trinity. But in doing that, we're not dividing the Trinity, right? We're not dividing the Godhead, because the Father is its source and origin. We also are confessing the Son

is eternally begotten by the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. So we're not confusing the person, we're not mixing them all up like, oh, when you talk to the Father, you're also talking to the Son and the Holy Spirit in the same sense. No, because we have a personal relationship

with a personal, tri-personal God. We're not confusing the persons, but it says in the last line of paragraph 2789, when we pray to the Father, we adore and glorify Him together with the Son and the Holy Spirit. So they're not confused in the sense of, they're not just kind of all mixed,

all part of the mix. But when we pray to the Father, we adore and glorify Him together with the Son and Holy Spirit. So there's this great way in which, man, whenever we're talking to the Lord God, we're talking to the Trinity, but also personally to the Father

and to the Son and Holy Spirit. It's just, it's beautiful. So let's talk about this. Let's talk about this. But first, before we talk about paragraph 2786 to 2793, let us first talk to our Father. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We ask that

you please receive that. Be glorified now and always. Be glorified in our words, in our works. Be glorified just by the very fact that our heart is beating. The very fact that we breathe and we know that we live and breathe in and because of you. Let every breath we take, let every thought we have, every word we utter, everything we do, let it all, even our rest, Lord God, let it all be for you, let it all be done in you. May it all glorify you and may all of it

be used to sanctify our brothers and sisters, those around us. Lord God, may you be known and loved. And may our neighbor and everyone in this world come to know and to love you as well. 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 357, we're reading paragraphs 2786 to 2793. Our Father. Our Father refers to God. The adjective, as used by us, does not express possession, but an entirely new relationship with God. When we say our Father, we recognize first that all His promises of love announced by the prophets are fulfilled in the new and eternal covenant in His Christ. We have become His people, and he is henceforth our God. This new relationship is the purely gratuitous gift of belonging to each other.

We are to respond to grace and truth given us in Jesus Christ with love and faithfulness. Since the Lord's Prayer is that of his people in the end time, this hour also expresses the certitude of our hope in God's ultimate promise. In the New Jerusalem, He will say to the victor, I will be his God, and he shall be my Son. When we pray to our Father, we personally address the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By doing so, we do not divide the Godhead since the Father is its source and origin, but rather confess that the Son is eternally begotten by Him, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from Him.

We are not confusing the persons, for we confess that our communion is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ in their one Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is consubstantial and indivisible. When we pray to the Father, we adore and glorify Him together with the Son and the Holy Spirit. Grammatically, our qualifies a reality common to more than one person. There is only one God, and he is recognized as Father by those who, through faith in his only Son, are reborn of him by water and the Spirit. The Church is this new communion of God and men. United with the only Son, who has become the firstborn among many brethren,

she is in communion with one and the same Father, in one and the same Holy Spirit. In praying our Father, each of the baptized is praying in this communion. The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul. For this reason, in spite of the divisions among Christians, this prayer to our Father remains our common patrimony and an urgent summons for all the baptized. In communion by faith in Christ and by baptism, they ought to join in Jesus' prayer for the unity of His disciples. Finally, if we pray the Our Father sincerely, we leave individualism behind because the love that we receive frees us from it. The hour at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, like the us of the last four petitions,

excludes no one. If we are to say it truthfully, our divisions and oppositions have to be overcome. The baptized cannot pray to our Father without bringing before Him all those for whom He gave His beloved Son. God's love has no bounds. Neither should our prayer. Praying our Father opens to us the dimensions of His love revealed in Christ. There we have it, paragraphs 27 and 28. of prayer. It should extend our prayer to the full breadth of love whenever we dare to say, Our Father. Paragraphs 27-86 to 27-93. A couple things just to highlight. Paragraph 27-86.

This is incredible. Our Father refers to God. Yes, duh. Okay, I got that. But it goes on to say, this adjective as used by us, in this case, does not express possession. It's not in the sense, okay, this is my God or this is our God and no one, it's to the exclusion of other people. It does not express possession, but an entirely new relationship with God. I don't know, have you ever thought of that?

I have to confess this. I don't know if I've ever really pondered. I've pondered the fact that, yes, when we say our, it means what it says in paragraph 2790, that we pray as the church, right? So it's not my God, it's our God. But I don't know if I've ever really reflected on what it says in 2786, that it does not express possession but an entirely new relationship with God. That is 2787, and it goes on to say, we have become his people and henceforth he is our God. And this new relationship is the purely gratuitous gift

of belonging to each other. That's incredible. You belong to God and he belongs to you. Can we imagine? You belong to God and he belongs to you. Can we imagine you belong to God and he belongs to you? Not possession, but this entirely new relationship. It might even mean this. It might even mean that actually we belong to each other as Christians, like that not only, yes, God is yours

and you are his, but also we belong to each other because again this is our not just my God if I said my God yeah I belong to him he belongs to me but our God our father that I belong to him and he belongs to me and we belong to each other there's something about that that I think is worth it's worth reflecting on that's what I think one of the reasons why here in the Catechism It pauses on this one word this one word our I love as it says, you know paragraph 27 89 We highlighted that already that when we pray to our Father We personally address the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

But we're not dividing the Godhead or confusing the duck Godhead, right? We confess that our communion is with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, in their one Holy Spirit. And so that's so beautiful and so clear. But let's move on. There's something powerful. The last two paragraphs here, paragraph 2792 says, finally, if we pray the Our Father sincerely, we leave individualism behind because the love that we receive frees us from it. You think, what does that mean? We leave individualism behind. Well, it doesn't mean the sense

that you're no longer an individual, but individualism. Individualism might have the tendency to exclude someone. That, okay, I'm in and you're out. But if we pray the Our Father sincerely, we have this new kind of love that frees us from the exclusive kind of individualism. It goes on to say The hour at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer like the us of the last four petitions Excludes no one if we are to say it truthfully our divisions and oppositions have to be overcome

And that leads us into the last very last paragraph that I think It's it pierces my heart again. I don't know what to tell you. It says, the baptized cannot pray to our Father without bringing before Him all those for whom He gave His beloved Son. God's love has no bounds, neither should our prayer. And that's convicting. Because I think, I think even though I've said it

so many times, that we don't pray to my Father, we pray to our Father. What I'm saying is I'm ultimately saying, God, this is my relationship with you, which is true, but it's also too small. God's love has no bounds, neither should our prayer. It goes on to say, Praying our Father opens to us the dimensions of His love revealed in Christ, praying with and for all who do not yet know him so that Christ may gather into one the children of God. That's incredible.

So what should happen? God's care for all men all of creation should extend our prayer to the full breadth of love whenever we dare to say our Father. I think it might have been St. Teresa of Avila who had said that she could pray the Lord's Prayer. I mean, she could meditate on each word or each phrase of the Lord's Prayer for the rest of her life. Even just meditating on this first word, our. And even this last point, God's care for all men, for the whole of creation, should extend our prayer to the full breadth of love whenever we dare to say our Father, to be able to say God, bring everyone,

bring everyone into the banquet, bring everyone in that net of your love that you poured out on the world in sending your Son and poured out on the whole world and giving us your Holy Spirit. What an incredible, incredible gift. Lord God, can you pour out into my heart that same depth, that same full breadth of your love, whenever we dare to say our Father. That's a great thing to reflect on, a great prayer to pray, and a great thing to long for. Remember, the whole point is I desire to become like Him,

and I want to have a humble and trusting heart. And so we pray the our Father, our Father, God make my heart like yours, make my heart like yours, excluding no one because your love excludes no one. That's our prayer. It's incredible. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.