The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 40: God Is the Creator (2024)

Episode Date: February 9, 2024

Fr. Mike explores God’s role as “Creator” and the vital importance of understanding God as the Creator of all things: heaven and earth, seen and unseen. Together, we examine the questions of our origins, such as “Where do we come from?” and “Where are we going?” Fr. Mike emphasizes that man is created for a purpose because of the great and eternal love our Father in heaven has for every one of us. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 279-284. 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 40. Congratulations, we're reading paragraphs 279-284. I'm using, as always, the Ascension Edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundation's of Faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the CCC, as we'd like to say. You can also download your Catechism

in the Year Reading Plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. You can also, I don't know if you know about this, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications and also just truly a quick thank you to everyone who has ever supported the production of this podcast with your prayers, your financial gifts, your support. We could not do it without you. We're so grateful.

I mean, truly, truly so grateful. One thing to keep kind of clear as we're going through a day 40, I wanna pause on that for one second. You guys, it is day 40. Congratulations, I know, and I maybe I've said this before and maybe this was not your experience, but I think those first couple of days, being a little bit slow, might have been a big challenge.

Now we are launching in, we are like truly launching into deeper and deeper, like just beauty. Like today, again, we only have a few paragraphs, but it's powerful. Yesterday, we talked about how God is almighty and how his might, right, is being omniscient. No, that's, that's all-knowing. How he's being omnipotent, he's being almighty, is universal, he's all powerful, it's loving because he is Father and it's mysterious because we have this mystery of how God can do all things. And yet at the same time there still is suffering, there still is evil that continues to exist in this world and still that does not take away from God's

might, it doesn't take away from God's power or ability. Now today we're taking this next step and talking about God as Creator. In fact, one of the things that is going to be highlighted in the paragraphs for today is that the way in which we know God to be Creator is of absolute importance. It is so incredibly important how we understand God to be the Creator of all things.

Paragraph 282 in fact says this. It says, catechesis on creation is of major importance. Why? Because it concerns the very foundations of human and Christian life. Why? For it makes explicit the response of the Christian faith to the basic question that all men of all times have asked, which is, where do we come from? Where are we going? And this is just so, so important because, again, in these brief introductory paragraphs, tomorrow we're going to go even deeper into the reality important because we're again in these brief introductory paragraphs tomorrow We're gonna go even deeper into the reality what we're saying about creation But the questions that these paragraphs are going to address are of absolute importance

Remember we talked about this when it came to the mystery of the relationship between faith and science We said this before that said science asks the question, you know, how and what? Like, what is this? How did it come to be? The questions that faith asks are also who and why. Who made this? Why did they make it? And so one of the things that we're going to highlight over the course of today, essentially, is this reality that there's a mind, right, the mind of God. There is a will. There is a being who is intelligent and is more than just intelligent. Here's this being who is God himself, who created everything, things visible and invisible. That this world, this universe is not a cosmic accident, but it was created on purpose and it was created for a purpose. And that's what we're going to talk

about a little bit today and in the days following. So let's say a prayer as we begin this day. Father in heaven, we praise you and we give you glory. You are the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth of all things visible and invisible. And so we trust in you. We trust you because not just because you're power, we trust because we also have asserted you have revealed that you're not just powerful, you are the Father, all powerful. You are the Father Almighty. That your power is rooted in love

because you are, your deepest identity is love. And so we can trust you, help us to trust you even more. Lord, help us to open our minds, open our eyes to be able to see what it is you wish to show us about the beauty of creation and your role as the Creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, as I said, stay 40. We're reading paragraphs 279 to 284. to 284. Paragraph 4.

The Creator. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Holy Scripture begins with these solemn words. The profession of faith takes them up when it confesses that God the Father Almighty is Creator of heaven and earth, in the apostles' creed, of all things visible and invisible in the Nicene Creed. We shall speak first of the Creator, then of creation, and finally, of the fall into sin from which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to raise us up again. Creation is the foundation of all God's saving plans, the beginning of the history of salvation that culminates in Christ.

Conversely, the mystery of Christ casts conclusive light on the mystery of creation and reveals the end for which in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. From the beginning, God envisaged the glory of the new creation in Christ. And so, the readings of the Easter vigil, the celebration of the new creation in Christ, begin with the creation account. Likewise, in the Byzantine liturgy, the account of creation always constitutes the first reading at the vigils of the great feasts of the Lord. According to ancient witnesses, the instruction of catechumens for baptism followed the same itinerary.

Catechesis on Creation Catechesis on Creation is of major importance. It concerns the very foundations of human and Christian life, for it makes explicit the response of the Christian faith to the basic question that men of all times have asked themselves, where do we come from? Where are we going? What is our origin? What is our end? Where does everything that exists come from and where is it going?

The two questions, the first about the origin and the second about the end, are inseparable. They are decisive for the meaning and orientation of our life and actions. The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life forms and the appearance of man. These discoveries invite us to an even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give Him thanks for all His works and for the understanding and wisdom He gives to scholars and researchers. With Solomon they can say, It is he who gave me on airing knowledge of what exists, to

know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements, for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me." The great interest, according to these studies, is strongly stimulated by a question of another order which goes beyond the proper domain of the natural sciences. It is not only a question of knowing when and how the universe arose physically or when man appeared, but rather of discovering the meaning of such an origin. Is the universe governed by chance, blind fate, anonymous necessity, or by a transcendent, intelligent and good being called God?

And if the world does come from God's wisdom and goodness, why is there evil? Where does it come from? Who is responsible for it? Is there any liberation from it? Okay, as I said, these are the first couple paragraphs of this section on the Creator and it even spells it out for us. It spells out, we shall speak first of the Creator, then of creation, and finally of the fall into sin from which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to raise us up again. And so we had today just beginning to talk about the Creator Himself. And even before talking about the Creator, our Lord Himself, we're talking about what

is the Christian perspective on creation? Then the first Christian perspective is, yes, all that exists. Again, things seen and unseen. creator of heaven and earth, both the apostles create and the Nicene Creed, all of it come from God. And so the creation is the foundation of all God saving plans that God made this world on purpose. And this is so, so important that there are many philosophies, right? That have come about, you know, materialism as one, you know,

atheistic materialism is one that says that now this world is a cosmic accident. This world came into being by random chance. And so therefore, you and I, we exist by random chance. You and I are nothing, literally nothing more than space dust. We are nothing more than a cosmic accident. And for some people, they've said, that's fine, because how incredible is it that we, mere mortals, are actually spaced us? Isn't that incredible? The answer is no, that is not incredible, because it might say space, but it also says dust. And we, yes, as Christians believe,

we are dust and we shall return to dust, ashes to ashes. But that's simply our human form, right? That's simply our physical form. We believe not only, yes, ashes to ashes and dust to dust, we do not come from dust. We come from the Lord, the creator of heaven and earth, of all things seen and unseen,

all things visible and invisible. And that, yes, even though after we die, we will return to the earth, that God has destined us for resurrection. And that's incredible. So the atheists, their vision is too small, their vision is too narrow. The Christian, we get to have a wider view.

We get to have a wider mind, a broader mind, because not only are we interested in the questions, and the answers to the questions, what is this, and how did it come to be? We also want to know the answer to the questions, who made us, and why did they make us? And the answer, of course, foundationally, we get from the sacred scriptures as God reveals himself.

Now, in this Catechism, I want to highlight a couple things. In paragraph 283, it does highlight the power and the goodness of the sciences, of what you might call the material sciences. It says, the question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life forms and the appearance of man. All those things. Like, so the age of the cosmos, how old the universe is?

Great. Yes, science has dived deeply into that and it's given us some pretty good answers. The dimensions of the cosmos, how big this is. Some of those studies are just remarkable. You realize this ever expanding universe that we live in, it's remarkable. Even the development of life forms as organisms adapt and change, evolve.

What incredible gift to be able to see as these theories come to be more and more clearly known. Incredible. And it goes on to say, that doesn't disqualify God's hand. In fact, quote, these discoveries invite us to an even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give Him thanks for all His work, and for the understanding and wisdom He gives to scholars and researchers. That's one of the things is, it does not take anything away from God's glory to realize that here is the one who set this universe and

Motion holds it into its existence According to certain, you know laws like gravity and all the laws of physics and all the laws of subatomic, you know everything The reality of course is that doesn't take anything away from God's Intelligence any way thing away from God's glory Because we realize the depth of the mystery of the universe All comes from the infinite depth of the mystery of God himself And so we give God even greater things even greater admiration and How incredible is this?

Thank God For the wisdom the brains the minds of scientists the minds of human beings I mean think about we are part of creation as human beings. Our minds are part of creation. The fact that scientists can ask and even any normal human being can ask the question, who are we? Why are we here? Where did we come from? Where are we going? That we all get to ask that question is remarkable and highlights the goodness of the Creator who gave us all minds like this, which is so, so incredible. 284. It says this, the goodness of the Creator who gave us all minds like this. 284. The great interest according to these studies, studies of science and studies of the universe,

is strongly stimulated by a question of another order, which goes beyond the proper domain of the natural sciences. Again, they can ask the question, how and what? But it's not only a question of knowing when and how the universe arose physically or when we appeared, but rather of discovering the meaning of such an origin. The question, is the universe governed by chance, blind, fate, anonymous necessity, or is the universe governed by a transcendent, intelligent, and good being called God? And if so, why is there evil?

Who's responsible for that? We get to talk about that in the days ahead, which is so powerful for us because we need to be able to ask and answer these questions. But above all, the questions that are asked today in paragraph 282, which asks the questions, where do we come from and where are we going? What is our origin and what is our end?

Where does everything that exists come from and where is it going? And why is there something rather than nothing? And the cataclysm says this, those questions are decisive for the meaning and orientation of our life in actions. That is, if we miss that, those questions are decisive for our meaning

and orientation of our life in actions. What do I mean by that? And this is the last thing coming to an end here. If I believe that this world is an accident, there are some severe ramifications to that. If I believe that this is all just chance, this is all just matter, right? Like that all there is is the material world.

There are some pretty significant consequences to that. Logical necessities. For example, if all this is, that all this world is, all the universe is, as large as it is, as beautiful as it looks, is just stuff hitting, stuff hitting, stuff, right? Is matter hitting matter? Atoms hitting atoms, subatomic particles floating around subatomic particles, then everything is just physics, which means that it's all just preprogrammed. In a material world, there's no such thing as free will. In a strictly material world, right, where there is no spirit, where there is no soul, where there is no God, all there is is stuff hitting, stuff hitting, stuff, which means that you're not thinking your own

thoughts. Your thoughts are happening to you because all your mind is, all your brain is, is just stuff hitting, stuff hitting, stuff is all pre-programmed. You and I are simply computers. We need God in order to have such a thing as free will, not only that, but in order to have something like right or wrong. You know, without God, without a Creator, if this world is just an accident, you don't have right and wrong.

You either have preference or you have utility. Those are the only two options. Right. Without God, if this world is just an accident, you only have preference or utility. Why are you doing this? Because I want to. Why are you doing this? Because it works. That's it.

And yet, we all know that there's such a thing as right or wrong that can only exist when there's free will and that can only exist when it's more than just preference or principle, when it's more than just what I like or what works versus what I don't like and what doesn't work. Does that make sense? In order to have good and evil, in order to even say this is wrong, that's bad. You need to have God. Without God, You need to have God. Without God, there's no such thing as right or wrong. So even the atheist who says, you know, they curse or reject God because of evil in the world, well, you actually need God to even know what evil is.

Because without God, there is no good. There's just what I like or what works. Does that make sense? Well, if it doesn't, we're gonna talk about it as we go forward further into this day. We're only on day 40. And yet at the same time, it has been an incredible journey so far

because we're just getting, I feel like water skiing a little bit sometimes. We're kind of going along the surface, but at times you just need to take a beat and kind of dip beneath the surface and dip down deeper. Hopefully today is one of those moments where we get to ask the question, okay, God, you've revealed that you are and you've created this world on purpose and for a purpose. So what is that? What is that purpose? And it is just so important for all of us. I think in fact, as we leave today, one of the things we get to reiterate is in paragraph

279, the first paragraph we read today, which is, We shall speak first of the Creator, then of creation, finally of the fall into sin from which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to raise us up again. Because we recognize that from the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, He envisaged the glory of the new creation in Christ. From the beginning, when God created everything, what was in His mind was that you and I would be created for and choose to have a relationship with Him that we would be brought into his own divine life. That is why God made heaven and earth. That's why he created all that's visible and all

that's invisible, so that you and I could have new life in Jesus. That you and I could be brought into the eternal love of the Trinity in a way surpassing the union Adam and Eve had with God, which is just incredible. So who and why? God himself and why? So that you and I could have life with him forever. That's why. That's why there is a world instead of not. Well that's why there is something rather than nothing. Because God loves you.

And he wants you to have eternal life with him. Anyways, I am praying for you. I pray for all of us get to have that eternal life beginning in this life and enduring forever. I'm praying for you. Please pay for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.