The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 361: The Kingdom and Will of God (2025)

Episode Date: December 27, 2025

When we pray for God’s Kingdom to come and God’s will to be done, we are asking for the final coming of the reign of God and for his plan of salvation to come to fruition. This petition is most powerfully expressed in the Mass. Fr. Mike reminds us that anticipating Christ’s return should inflame our hearts to continue our mission here on earth and to carry out God’s will with perseverance. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2816-2827. 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's 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 361. We are reading paragraphs 2816 to 2827. 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 by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CII. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications today. It's day 3816 to 2827. It's 10 good paragraphs, maybe 12 even. I don't know how to count. But we're going through a few.

We're also going through two of the petitions. Yesterday we talked about Father hallowed be thy name. Today we're looking at both thy kingdom come and they will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so because we're looking at two petitions, it seems like kind of a chunk of change we're going through today in order to prepare ourselves and, you know, get ourselves ready to go through two petitions. You know these petitions thy kingdom come. You know the petition that will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So just prepare our hearts to recognize that what we're going to be learning about and ultimately praying for is for. is for the kingdom that Jesus Christ came to establish on earth.

That it comes on earth, right? That it is manifest fully on earth. It's here. We know the kingdom of God is at hand that Jesus declared that. We're praying that what he declared comes about in fullness and in complete fullness of truth. We're also praying that thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The human heart wants to say, my will be done.

And yet here is our Lord, right? He is the master of prayer. He is the model of prayer. And he says, yeah, every day, every day, often pray the right way. Thy will be done. Not my will be done, but thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So as we enter into this day, let's enter into prayer as we pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen. Father in heaven, we thank you. We give you praise. And we do pray that your name is hallowed, that your kingdom comes and that your will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord God, bring heaven down to earth, bring earth up to heaven in Jesus Christ your son. You have reconciled heaven and earth. In Jesus Christ, your son, you have poured out your Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of heaven

upon your children here on earth. So renew in us that power, renewing us that spirit. And may your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. May your heavenly kingdom come down and take up rain on earth. And may the earthly reign of your son be fulfilled. be consummated and be radiated throughout all time and into eternity in heaven. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen. It's Day 361. We're reading paragraphs 2816 to 2827. By Kingdom Come In the New Testament, the word Basilia can be translated by kingship, abstract noun, kingdom, concrete noun, or rain, action noun. The kingdom of God lies ahead of us. It is brought near in the word incarnate.

It is proclaimed throughout the whole gospel, and it has come in Christ's death and resurrection. The kingdom of God has been coming since the last supper, and in the Eucharist, it is in our midst. The kingdom will come in glory when Christ hands it over to his father. St. Cyprian wrote, It may even be that the kingdom of God means Christ himself, whom we daily desire to come,

and whose coming we wish to be manifested quickly to us. for as he is our resurrection, since in him we rise, so he can also be understood as the kingdom of God, for in him we shall reign. This petition is, Maranatha, the cry of the spirit and the bride, come Lord Jesus. Tertullian wrote, Even if it had not been prescribed to pray for the coming of the kingdom, we would willingly have brought forth this speech, eager to embrace our hope. In indignation, the souls of the martyrs under the altar cry out to the Lord,

O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth? For the retribution is ordained for the end of the world. Indeed, as soon as possible, Lord, may your kingdom come. In the Lord's prayer, thy kingdom come refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God through Christ's return. But far from distracting the church from her mission in this present world, this desire commits her to it all the more strongly. Since Pentecost, the coming of that reign is the work of the Spirit of the Lord, so that, bringing to perfection his work in the world, he might sanctify creation to the full. The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. The end time in which we live is the age of the outpouring of the

spirit. Ever since Pentecost, a decisive battle has been joined between the flesh and the spirit. St. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote, Only a pure soul can boldly say thy kingdom come, one who has heard, Paul say, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies and has purified himself in action, thought and word, will say to God, thy kingdom come. By a discernment according to the spirit, Christians have to distinguish between the growth of the reign of God and the progress of the culture and society in which they are involved. This distinction is not a separation. Man's vocation to eternal life does not suppress,

but actually reinforces his duty to put into action in this world the energies and means received from the Creator to serve justice and peace. This petition is taken up and granted in the prayer of Jesus, which is present and effective in the Eucharist. It bears its fruit in new life in keeping with the beatitudes. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Our Father desires all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. He is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish. His commandment is that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

This commandment summarizes all the others and expresses his entire will. He has made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ to gather up all things in him, things in heaven, and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will. We ask insistently for this loving plan to be fully realized on earth, as it is already in heaven. In Christ, and through His human will, the will of the Father has been perfectly fulfilled once for all. Jesus said on entering into this world, Lo, I have come to do your will, O God.

Only Jesus can say, I always do what is pleasing to him. In the prayer of his agony, he consents totally to this will. Not my will, but yours be done. for this reason Jesus gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Although he was a son, Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered. How much more reason have we sinful creatures to learn obedience? We who in him have become children of adoption. We ask our father to unite our will

to his sons, in order to fulfill his will, his plan of salvation for the life of the world. We are radically incapable of this. But united with Jesus and with the power of His Holy Spirit, we can surrender our will to him and decide to choose what his son has always chosen, to do what is pleasing to the Father. As Origen wrote, In committing ourselves to Christ, we can become one spirit with Him and thereby accomplish his will, in such wise, that it will be perfect on earth as it is in heaven. St. John Chrysostom wrote, Consider how Jesus Christ teaches us to be humble

by making us see that our virtue does not depend on our work alone, but on grace from on high. He commands each of the faithful who prays to do so universally for the whole world, for he did not say, thy will be done in me or in us, but on earth,

the whole earth, so that error may be banished from it, truth take root in it, all vice be destroyed on it, virtue flourish on it, and earth no longer differ from heaven. By prayer, we can discern what is the will of God and obtain the endurance to do it.

Jesus teaches us that one enters the kingdom of heaven not by speaking words, but by doing the will of my father in heaven. If anyone is a worshipper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Such is the power of the church's prayer in the name of her Lord, above all in the Eucharist. Her prayer is also a communion of intercession with the all-holy mother of God,

and all the saints who have been pleasing to the Lord because they willed his will alone. St. Augustine wrote, It would not be inconsistent with the truth to understand the words that will be done on earth as it is in heaven, to mean, in the church, as in our Lord Jesus Christ himself, or in the bride who has been betrothed, just as in the bridegroom who has accomplished the will of the father. There we have it, paragraph 2816 to 2827. There is so much. isn't there there is so much okay so let's break it down for the very very beginning thy kingdom come so paragraph 2816

i think this is very fascinating because there's a greek word the word is basilea so the word can be translated in at least three different ways as an abstract noun as a concrete noun as an action noun so basilia that word is kingdom right it could be translated as kingship thy kingship come right that's the abstract noun or the concrete noun thy kingdom come or the action noun may thy rain come. And I love, that's incredible, right? Just to realize we can be praying, thy kingship come. Lord Jesus, your kingship, let that come down. Or your kingdom, that concrete noun, or thy rain come. I think that's just so incredible. It's so beautiful. Now, it goes on to say, the kingdom of God lies ahead of us. It's brought near in the word incarnate. It's proclaimed throughout the whole

gospel and has come in Christ's death and resurrection. And there's something that's so beautiful. It says, the kingdom of God has been coming since the last supper and in the In the Eucharist, it is in our midst. Now I want to tie this section of this paragraph with the very last paragraph that we heard today. This recognition that there's this deep, deep connection by praying for the Father's kingdom to come and the Father's will being done with the thing we do every day, and especially every Sunday, the Holy Mass. The kingdom of God has been coming since the last supper and in the Eucharist, it's in our midst. the kingship of Jesus, the kingship of God himself is in our midst in the Eucharist. The kingdom, as the church gathers around the altar to worship God the Father,

that kingdom is in our midst when we worship God in spirit and the truth in the Eucharist. And our Lord Jesus Christ reigns. Father in heaven reigns when we celebrate the Eucharist. This is so important. The Eucharist is, I cannot state highly enough. The Eucharist is everything. As we know this, the Eucharist is so much more than a, worship service. It's so much more than praise in worship. It's so much more than gathering just

just to pray. Those are all things that are very, very good. But in the Eucharist, and maybe even the mass alone, the kingdom is in our midst. I mean, not alone. I mean, that's saying too much because we know that whenever we pray, whenever God's will is done, then his kingdom is there. But there's something unique. There's something powerful. The kingdom of the Father, the kingdom of God comes to us on earth. It's in our midst and particularly present in the Euchar. But then, as I said, in the very last paragraph, 28, 27, when we're talking about the prayer, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, it goes on to say, if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.

So that's a quote from John's gospel. And then it says, such is the power of the church's prayer in the name of her Lord above all in the Eucharist. We're praying that the will of God can come be here, be done on earth as it is in heaven. And the power of the church's prayer in the name of the Lord, above all, is powerful in the Eucharist, that the Lord God hears us in this, I mean, God always, again, God always hears us. God always hears us. And there's this, the most powerful prayer we have is the Holy Mass, Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Then when we get to participate, we get to, hmm, represent the great sacrifice of the Son to the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit.

The kingdom of God is here. And God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven. it's amazing it just it's hard to take in now going back to that kingdom come paragraph 2818 it says this that when we pray that kingdom come it refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of god through christ's return so we're praying for jesus christ to return right we're praying for the end of the world i don't know if you realize that right we're praying that final coming of the reign of god through christ's return but at the same time that doesn't distract us from our mission today here and now. It's meant to inflame in our hearts a greater desire to actually work to bring about Christ's reign, that we're trying in so many ways to bring the reign of God more present in this

world through what? Through our prayer, through our taking care of the poor. God is glorified when that happens. When we give of ourselves for others, God is glorified when that happens. His kingdom is even more present. It's so, so important that we don't just say this with our words and our prayers, but we actually do this in our actions, in our lives. And that's what all the saints have done. I mean, think about those people who say that, you know, you believe in heaven, and so therefore you don't care about earth. You believe in the afterlife, you don't care about this life.

And the reality, of course, is the people who have done more good for more people in this life on this world, their hearts were set on the next life. Their hearts were set on the coming of God's kingdom. They were hearts were set on heaven. Those who did the best, the most good, the saints, who did the most good for the most people in this world and in this life, they had their hearts set on that next world. They prayed every day that the kingdom of God would come, that Jesus would come. And so this is important for us to understand.

And we realize we can dismiss that. We can dismiss the claim that focusing your heart on heaven makes you ignore earth. Maybe that might happen in someone's life. But it would not be right. And it's not the teaching of the church. Now it goes on to say, in paragraph 2820, it says by discernment according to the spirit, Christians have to distinguish between growth of the reign of God and the progress of the culture and society. And that's very, very important, right?

Again, we want to make an impact on this world. We want Jesus Christ make an impact on this world. We want the kingdom of God to come to this world. We have to make a distinction. Just because now people have iPhones doesn't mean that the kingdom is any more present to humanity. Just because there are some problems that are solved and eliminated doesn't always necessarily mean that the kingdom of God the reign of God is more at hand because of that. We have to make a distinction between progress of culture and society and the reign of God.

So it goes on to say, this distinction is not a separation. So it's not like, which one is which? Our vocation to eternal life does not suppress, but actually reinforces our duty to put into action in this world, the energies and means received from our creator to serve justice and peace. And so we do that more and more. And I love this. We bring up the Eucharist one more time.

You catch this, if you're reading along, paragraph 28, 21 says, this petition is taken up and granted in the prayer of Jesus, which is present and effective in the Eucharist. Remember, the Eucharist is the source and the summit of the Christian life. So this petition, Thy kingdom come is taken up and granted in the prayer of Jesus, which is present and effective in every Mass, in every holy sacrifice of mass, and every time the Eucharist is there. It is amazing. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I'm going to be very brief on this. This petition, Thy will be done is so important. In fact, it's so important that C.S. Lewis, again, my buddy C.S. Lewis, you wrote about this.

He said it like this. He said, there are only two kinds of people in the end. Those who say to God, thy will be done. And those to whom God says in the end, thy will be done. I think that's really powerful, right? This has to be our prayer. Because my natural inclination is to say, my will be done, right? My natural inclination is to do what I want, to get what I want, to fight for what I want. And yet here is this prayer that Jesus gives us and says, okay, every time you pray, every time you come to the Father, train your heart, right?

That inner ethos, that inner world, to be able to say, no, Father, thy will be done. Paragraph 2824 says, in Christ and through his human will, the will of the Father has been perfectly fulfilled once for all. It's incredible. But we have to learn from this. That's why paragraph 28, 25 says, reminds us what letter to the Hebrew says, although he was a son, Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered. and then the catechism goes on to say, how much more reason have we sinful creatures to learn obedience? We who in him have become children of adoption.

Pause on this. If here is Jesus, who a son learned obedience through what he suffered, how much more reason have we to learn obedience? So we ask our father do what, to unite our will with his sons, in order to fulfill his will, his plan of salvation for life of the world.

And this is tough. Actually, sorry, it's not just tough. Pergaph 28, 25, the same. paragraph doesn't just say this is really hard to do so if you really really try no it says we are radically incapable of this let's pause because you might have gotten distracted a sec because we're talking about a lot of words right now so we ask our father to unite our will to his sons in order to fulfill his will his plan of salvation for the life of the world underline this one highlight this one we are radically incapable of this we're radically incapable of what we're radically incapable

to unite our will to the will of the son in order to fulfill the father's will, his plan of salvation. We're radically incapable of this, but united with Jesus and with the power of his spirit, we can surrender our will to him and decide to choose what his son has already chosen to do what is pleasing to the father. We're radically incapable of this, but God's grace. United with Jesus and the power of His Holy Spirit, we can surrender our will to him. Think about what that means, I'm placing my will.

will under his dominion, putting it under his reign, right? That kingdom come. We pray that first. That rain come on earth. And so what I do is what we all do. When we surrender, we're saying, okay, God, here's what I want. I know what I want. It might be what you want. I don't even know. Sometimes we don't know. God, I know what I want, though. And I'm going to surrender it. I place it under your dominion. You are the Lord. You are the king. I place it all under your kingship. It's all under your reign. And you might say, well, I don't even know what I want sometimes. Okay, great, do that too. Do the same thing. Surrender what you don't know. God, I didn't even know, I don't even know what I want. To surrender that. I don't know what I want, but I'm telling

you this, Lord, it's under your reign. It is under your dominion. I am placing it under your lordship. Because we're radically incapable of, we can't change. We can't unite our will to the son's will in order to fulfill the father's will on our own. But united with Jesus and with the power of His Holy Spirit, we can surrender our will to him and decide to choose what his son has always chosen, to do what is willing, what is pleasing to the Father. And it's just incredible. Now paragraph 2826 says, okay, by prayer, we can discern what is the will of God

and obtain the endurance to do it because we need both. We need to discern the will of God and then we also need to beg God to give us the endurance to do it. We know that Jesus teaches us so clearly that no one enters the kingdom of heaven by speaking words, right?

He says, that everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. heaven, but only those who do the will of my father in heaven. We know that we need to discern what is the will of God, and then to beg God, to give us the courage to start and the endurance to do it, to encourage to start doing it, and the endurance to continue doing it all the way to the end. And that's my prayer right now, my prayer right now for all of us, is to have that wisdom, that we can discern by God's grace, what is His will? God, what is it you want me to do? And then to have the courage and the endurance to start his will, to do his will, and to continue to do his

well. We pray for that endurance in all of us. Here you are on day 361. That's amazing. You have endurance. You have endurance. Even if there's a bunch of days missed in there and you're catching up all over the place. Maybe this is the catechism in three years. It doesn't matter. Here you are on day 361. You have endurance. We need the kind of endurance that comes from Jesus, the kind of endurance that comes from the Holy Spirit from our father. Because it is not enough to know God. God's will. It's not enough to say the right words. What we must do, we have to do, is the will of the Father in heaven. And we can only do that with his help. We can only do that with his grace. And so I'm telling you this, please pray for each other. Please, even after you're done

with this, keep praying for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. Thank you.