The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 363: Forgive Us Our Trespasses (2025)

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

Forgiving those who have hurt us is a challenging call. Fr. Mike explains what it means to "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." We learn that forgiveness and reconciliation are not the same thing and that we can transform our hurt into intercession with God's grace. We ask the Lord to soften our hearts so that they may remain open to loving and forgiving others. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 2838-2845. 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. This is Day 363. We're reading paragraphs 2838 to 2845. As always, I'm using the Ascently. 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 CIY, and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for the daily updates for the next two days, you know, whatever, and daily notifications today is day 363. We're reading paragraphs 2838 to 2845. And man, this part of the Lord's Prayer, it's astonishing. In fact, those are the first words of paragraph 2838. It says, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And the first line here, this petition is astonishing.

I was thinking this morning, I was just praying about this and praying about, I know that when it came to the life in Christ, it came to the third pillar, morality, right, how we live. I know there was a lot of challenge. There was a lot of challenge for a lot of people because we have our pet things. We have our stuff that I don't want to let go of this. I don't want to surrender this to the Lord. I think this is how it should be. I don't understand how this teaching could possibly be lived out.

I don't know if there's a more difficult teaching than this teaching. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. It asks a lot. Not only does it ask the Lord God to forgive us fully, but it demands a lot on us. It demands that we are forgiven to the degree that we are willing to forgive those who have hurt us. And that's a lot. And so as we talk about this teaching today, this teaching that sometimes it might have

gone under the radar, maybe actually in our lives we might have even kind of just glazed over this petition. Or maybe even we've been convicted by this petition. And it's been one of those things that's painful. Every time we pray it, I think, oh, Lord, please don't. Forgive us our trespasses as I would like to or as someone else is forgiven. I don't know if I can do this. And so in order to open ourselves to the profundity.

in the depth of this teaching. We need God's help. We truly need God's help. So let's pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Father in heaven, give us your help.

Father in heaven, you are the God of mercy. You are the God who has revealed your mercy to us in your son, Jesus Christ. You've extended your mercy to us and your son. And by pouring out your Holy Spirit to us, you not only have made us new, not only have you taken away our sins,

you've also given us the strength, to be like you. You've given us the strength to pray like your son, to love like your son, and to forgive like your son. Lord God, you have, you've invited us to pray that you forgive us the way we forgive others. Oh, God, this is, this is dangerous, this is high, this is daunting, this is difficult, and yet this is how you have told us that we are to pray. And so, Lord God, please help us to not only pray this way, help us to live this way. Help us not only live this way but help us to love this way. And when we do that, Lord God, we pray like your son Jesus. When we do this, we live like your son Jesus. And when we do this, we love like your son Jesus who prayed for

his persecutors even as they were killing him. Lord God, give us that same heart. Give us the heart of Jesus this day and every day. Now we can pray for those who hurt us that we can Forgive those who hurt us, and that we can truly trust in your forgiveness in our own lives. Lord, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. We make this prayer in the mighty name of the one who taught us this prayer, Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. It is day 363. We're reading paragraphs 2838 to 2845. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

This petition is astonishing. If it consisted only of the first phrase and forgive us our trespasses, it might have been included implicitly in the first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer since Christ's sacrifice is that sins may be forgiven. But according to the second phrase, our petition will not be heard unless we have first met a strict requirement. Our petition looks to the future, but our petition looks to the future, but our response must come first, for the two parts are joined by the single word as. And forgive us

our trespasses. With bold confidence, we began praying to our father. In begging him that his name be hallowed, we were in fact asking him that we ourselves might be always made more holy. But though we are clothed with the baptismal garment, we do not cease to sin to turn away from God. Now, in this new petition, we return to him like the prodigal son and, like the tax collector, recognize that we are sinners before him. Our petition begins with a confession of our wretchedness and his mercy. Our hope is firm because in his son, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We find the efficacious and undoubted sign of his forgiveness in the sacraments of his church. Now, and this is daunting. This outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not

forgiven those who have trespassed against us. Love, like the body of Christ, is indivisible. We cannot love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother or sister we do see. In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father's merciful love. But in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to His grace. This petition is so important that it is the only one to which the Lord returns and which he develops explicitly in the sermon on the Mount. This crucial requirement of the covenant mystery is impossible for man. But with God, all things are possible.

As we forgive those who trespass against us. This as is not unique in Jesus' teaching. You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Be merciful, even as your father is merciful. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. It is impossible to keep the Lord's commandment by imitating the divine model from outside. There has to be a vital participation coming from the depths of the heart in the holiness

and the mercy and the love of our God. Only the spirit by whom we live can make ours the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. Then the unity of forgiveness becomes possible, and we find ourselves forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave us. Thus the Lord's words on forgiveness, the love that loves to the end, become a living reality. The parable of the merciless servant,

which crowns the Lord's teaching on ecclesial communion, ends with these words. So also, my Heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. It is there, in fact,

in the depths of the heart that everything is bound and loosed. It is not in our power not to feel or to forget and offense. But the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession. Christian prayer extends to the forgiveness of enemies, transfiguring the disciple by configuring him to his master. Forgiveness is a high point of Christian prayer. Only hearts attuned to God's compassion can receive the gift

of prayer. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love is stronger than sin. The martyrs of yesterday and today bear this witness to Jesus. Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their father and of men with one another. There is no limit or measure to this essentially divine forgiveness. Whether one speaks of sins as in Luke or debts as in Matthew, we are always debtors. O no one anything, except to love one another. The communion of the Holy Trinity is the source and criterion of truth in every relationship.

lived out in prayer, above all, in the Eucharist. St. Cyprian wrote, God does not accept the sacrifice of a soar of disunion, but commands that he depart from the altar so that he may first be reconciled with his brother, for God can be appeased only by prayers that make peace. To God, the better offering is peace, brotherly concord, and a people made one in the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All right, there we have it, Paragraphs 2838 to 2845, as I said, you know, one of the greatest challenges. I think it was C.S. Lewis who once said in the book Mirro Christianity, he said, I declared that chastity was the least popular of all the Christian virtues. But he said, I don't think

that's right. I think that forgiveness is the least possible. He says, everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until you have something to forgive. That's it, right? Everyone thinks that forgiveness is a lovely idea until you have something to forgive. And then to ask for forgiveness or to require forgiveness, he says, you're met with howls of people get mad at you because you're saying that essentially, how dare you ask me to forgive the person who hurt me? In fact, in that same talk, in that same chapter in mere Christianity, Lewis says, people would ask and say, how would you feel if you are a pole or a Jew and had to forgive the Gestapo? And Lewis responds, he says, I wonder too. I wonder very much. I don't know

what I would do if I had that much to forgive. And yet we cannot escape this. We cannot the command of Jesus that we pray this. In paragraph 2838, it highlights how remarkable this is, how astonishing this prayer is. It goes on to say this petition is astonishing, paragraph 2838. If it consisted only of the first phrase and forgive us our trespasses, it might have been included implicitly in the first three petitions of the Lord's prayer, right? Of course. But according to the second phrase, our petition will not be heard unless we have first met a strict requirement. Our petition looks to the future, but our response must come first for the two parts are joined by the single word as, and that is forgive us as we forgive those who sin against us

or trespass against us. It's remarkable because we, man, we live in this world that's so broken and we are so quick to break each other, right? We're so quick to hurt each other. We're so quick to turn away from the Lord. We turn away from God so easily. And our petition, of course, forgive us our trespasses. That begins with a confession. we're confessing that I have fallen short, Lord God, I have failed. One thing important for all of us, maybe you've heard priests talk about this. When it comes to confession, one of the actual sacrament of reconciliation, sacrament of confession, one of the temptations people face, and this might not be something you face, but it's a temptation that a lot of people face.

And it's the temptation to confess other people's sins. That some people will go to confession and they'll say, well, you know, their spouse. My spouse is kind of short-tempered. my spouse does this, my spouse doesn't do that, that kind of thing. Or my kids are like this and my kids are like that. The people I work with are, and basically here's a list of the sins of other people. And sometimes that is the person's trying to, you know, set the context. And so, you know, my husband was cranky.

And so I was really short with them and I need to confess that kind of thing. But a lot of times it's because it's much easier to note the sins of others than it is to recognize my own sins. And yet inherent in the prayer, forgive us our trespass. is the reality that, oh, I need to confess the fact that I have trespasses, right? I need to confess the fact that I love what I've even says this. Our petition begins with a confession of our wretchedness. Let's pause on that word for a second. Do I believe that I have wretchedness?

I think a lot of us would say, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm good. I'm good enough. That kind of thing, because I don't know. We kind of live in a culture right now that if you were to say, no, amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. Like, no, you're not a wretch. I don't think so poorly of yourself. That's not healthy. But if I was honest with myself, if we were honest with ourselves, we'd be able to look at ourselves and say, actually, there's plenty of wretchedness. There's, there's plenty of ugliness in my soul, ungliness in my heart. In fact, I remember I'm talking with a student

for a long time. And she was really concerned because she was pretty convinced that she wasn't a good person, but she felt stuck in that. She was convinced that she wasn't a good person. And she felt stuck in that. And even talking with her for a long time, I realized that this is one of the lies that happens. One of the lies that the evil one will use typically is a lie that has a barb on it. Like, you know, right? So it's pointy.

It's like a pin. But a pointy lie that's just like a pin, it just goes in, it goes out, right? It hurts a little bit, but it doesn't stick around. If I have, I know this is a lie, it might hurt. The lie might hurt for a moment, but then it leaves. But there are some lies that are like hooks, like a fishing hook. that has a barb on it. And so it goes in. But the reason it sticks is because there's some kind of degree of truth to it. Sometimes we get assailed by lies. And sometimes the evil one

will attack us with his lies. And almost always the lies that come up at us from the evil one, or even the lies that we tell ourselves, that we believe ourselves, are lies that have barbs on them. Meaning there's a degree of truth. And that's why it sticks in there. That's why it's not like a pin just goes in and comes out because I realize, oh, that's it hurt, but there's no truth there. When there's a little bit of truth, it could stick there. And I realized, I start to believe the whole thing instead of just believe the barb. Right. So what I mean by that is, here's this young woman. And she saw her brokenness. She saw this, her sin. She saw her failure. And that's true. That was the barb, though. It was a small part of this because what she ended up believing was

that, oh, I'm not good at all. Like, there's nothing good in me. And that's a lie. Because if I were to argue with her and say, no, look at you. I mean, you're amazing, all these kind of things. And she'd say, No, but I only did that good thing because I thought it would look good for other people. Or I only treat people nicely because I'm lonely makes them like me, or whatever the kind of thing is, right? And so there was an argument because that lie had just a degree of truth to it. The truth is that, yeah, we're wretched or we have wretchedness. We're not fully wretched. We're not fully corrupt.

We're deprived of that fullness, but we're not depraved. She was believing that she was depraved, right? because she could point to this brokenness in her. She could point to a wretchedness in her. Because of that, it was getting stuck. She was getting stuck because she wasn't believing the whole truth. The whole truth is, oh, yeah, I'm broken. Yes, I have wretchedness.

And I'm loved. Yeah, I'm broken, but yeah, I'm also blessed. And for her, yep, there is some darkness. There is shadow. There is shadow in her heart, in her speech, in her thoughts, in her interactions. but there was also a lot of light. And this is true for all of us. We need to have this confession of our wretchedness

and believe that, but also, also a confession of God's mercy. And that's why we need that double conviction, the conviction of, yeah, no, I'm a sinner, and the conviction of, and the Lord is merciful.

And he loves me. He loves you. We all have to have to recognize. He were sinners and we have a Savior who absolutely loves us. So we need to be a God. that confession of a wretchedness. That was a little side tangent, but I know we're coming to the end of this. And I just wanted to share, don't believe the lies. And also, don't give that little

barb, that little small part of truth. Don't give that more power than it deserves. Yes, we have to acknowledge the barb. We have to acknowledge the part that's true. But that doesn't mean that the rest of it's true. So our petition of this, forgive us our trespasses. As we forgive those trespass against us, It begins with a confession of our wretchedness. Yeah, I need God's mercy and we get God's mercy. And our hope is firm because in Jesus Christ, we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. And it's incredible because I love this last line of 2839. It says we find the efficacious and undoubted sign of his forgiveness in the sacraments of

his church. Think about the sacrament of reconciliation, the efficacious and undoubted sign of his forgiveness in the sacraments of his church that you go to confession and you know. You don't have to feel it. You know that the Lord God. has forgiven you through the ministry of his church. It's amazing. It's incredible. And so it goes on to say 2840 now, and this is daunting, this outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us. This is daunting. The outpouring of mercy

cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us. Love like the body of Christ is indivisible. We cannot love the God we cannot see. If we do not love the brother or sister we do see. And so in refusing to love our brothers and sisters, in refusing to love people around us, our hearts are closed. And that hardness makes them impervious to the father's merciful love. But when we confess our sins, our hearts are open to his grace. This is so important. This is his teaching is so important. I mean, think about the parable of the merciless servant, right? We know this, where there's a king or master he's going to settle his accounts. And he brings a servant before him who owes him a huge amount. It says, actually, the original Greek

says he owes him 10,000 talents. And the servant begs the master to forgive him. He says, give me time and I'll pay back what I owe you. Now, this is kind of fascinating. 10,000 talents. What's 10,000 talents? Well, one talent is equal to 6,000 days wages. So 6,000 denarii adds up to one talent. And the guy owes 10,000 talents, which means, I think he owes something like 160,000 years of service. It's like 60 million days of work. He owes the master. He owes the king, the person in charge here. Think about that.

Give me time and I'll pay back what you owe. What I owe. Okay, 60 million days of service, 160,000 years of service. That's a lot of time. Basically, he can't, he can't pay it back. And yet what happens? The master says, I release you from your debt. Goes on, you know, the merciless, that servant who is just forgiven.

There's another servant who owes him a much smaller amount. In fact, the original Greek there is 100. denarii. So you go from 60 million denarii to a hundred denarii. And he doesn't forgive him. He's not willing to forgive him. And that's why that parable ends with the word. So also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. And this is so critical. What is it to forgive from the heart? It's not I feel fine. It's not I'm no longer hurt. It's not I trust you now. It's not we're reconciled. There's a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. There's a difference between forgiveness and restoration of the relationship.

Forgiveness can be very, very simple. And it's from that parable, the parable of the merciless servant or the forgiving master who says, I release you from your debt. So we know this. We've heard this before probably, is that God is just. And justice is what? Justice is giving someone what they're owed, giving someone their due. And so God is not ignoring justice. He's not disregarding justice. justice is a good God is just and giving someone what they're owed that's that's just and so the call here to forgive those who have sinned against us is not the call to be a doormat right it's not the call to be someone's in a punching bag it is the call to say okay this person has hurt me they've cost me something they owe me something justice would declare they owe me something and forgiveness is merely saying

what that merciful master said, I release you from your debt. I'm simply not going to make you pay me back. In so many ways, it's the heart of forgiveness. It's one of the reasons why I'm grateful that it says 10,000 talents. He knows exactly what this man owes him.

He knows exactly what the man owes him. And that's one of the steps I think when it comes to forgiveness. Very, very important for us to be able to say, okay, I have this bad feelings towards this person because they've hurt me. Okay, but what have they cost you? This is the big question.

What have they cost you? And I think it's important to do this like this, to actually take that person, take that situation, whatever the thing is, take that wound that hurt into the chapel, into your church, in front of our Lord in the Eucharist, and in front of the image of Jesus on the cross. And to be able to in that safe place, that place of the Holy Spirit, that place of Christ's presence,

to be able to say, okay, let me add up what they've cost me. Again, not for a vendetta, not for revenge, but so that I can say, okay, this is what they owe me. This is what they owe. They owe me my innocence. They owe me the ability to trust what they did. It affected relationships like this, this, and this. Like, that's what they owe me.

Just in the same way that if you lent someone your car and they got into an accident and there were $900 worth of damage on your car, they would owe you $900 because that's what they cost you. Now, if you were to forgive them, you're not saying, oh, no big deal. If you were to forgive them, you're not like, oh, here's the keys again. If you were to forgive them, what that means is I'm not going to make you pay me back. owe me $900, I release you from your debt. Doesn't mean I trust you again. Doesn't mean I'm going to lend you my car again. Doesn't mean we're best friends. It just means I'm not going to wait

to make you pay me back. Similarly, how has this person hurt you? What have they cost you? To be able to, as best we can, to total that up. And then with God's help, right, this can only be done with the strength of Jesus Christ. Then we say, I release you from your debt. That's in the sense of, I'm not going to make you pay me back. And to do this, as it says in paragraph 2843, to do this in the depths of the heart. It says, goes on to say, it is not in our power, not to feel or to forget an offense. So don't worry about it. If you still feel upset, still feel hurt, if you still remember it, and you're like, oh, forgive and forget, but I can't forget, just forgive. It's not in our power not to feel. It's not in our power to forget. But the heart

that offers itself to the Holy Spirit, turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory and transforming the hurt into intercession, because that's the next step. It's the first step is adding it all up, right? The second step is, I release you from your debt. The next step is now I need to transform that hurt into intercession. Because Christian prayer extends to the forgiveness of enemies. We're actually commanded by our Lord to pray for those who have hurt us. we have to transform that hurt into intercession and that's it's a high call as well it is a high high call but forgiveness as it says in 2844 forgiveness bears witness that in our world love is stronger than sin forgiveness bears witness that in our world love is stronger than sin it is a love that you've seen

lived out. You've seen that love depicted on every crucifix. You've seen that love lived out above all in the Eucharist. What does Jesus do? He comes to us sinners. He comes to us sinners with his love. Forgiven a spirit witness that in our world, love is stronger than sin. God's love for us is stronger than sin. And we have to love with the love, with which we have been loved. And it's impossible. It's impossible without God's grace, without God's help, without prayer. And so please pray for each other. Pray for those who've hurt you. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.