The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 53: Man in Paradise (2026)

Episode Date: February 22, 2026

In the beginning, humans were in friendship with God and in harmony with creation. The Catechism unfolds this harmony and introduces us to the “original justice” that our first parents lost in sin. Fr. Mike reminds us that, although our original callings to leisure, love, and labor have been twisted by sin, they are renewed in Christ. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 374-384. 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're almost there. We'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journeyed together toward a heavenly home. I said, we're almost there.

I mean, it's Day 53, so, I mean, we're closer than day one. That's true. We're reading paragraphs 374 to 384. I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which you're almost. includes the foundations of faith approach, you can follow along with any recent version of the Catholic Church. If you want, you can also download your catechism into your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CIY. Also, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. To you guys, the last couple days, we've been talking about

human beings. We've been talking about man. And there were four kind of aspects, four articles, four, for assertions, four things that we believe that can fall under like four categories. Well, there's a bunch of things we believe. But here are the four categories in this section. We recognize that, one, male and female are made in the image of God. Number two, human beings are made body and soul, right? We have this unity of the spiritual and material worlds. Number three, yesterday, human beings are created male and female.

And today, number four, God established us in friendship. And this is us. That means so Berggrath 374 starts out with human beings or man in paradise. And then we have a little in brief. we have some nuggets. It's not exclusively nugget day today, but we have some nuggets at the end of this section on man. So what are we talking about today? Well, man in paradise is highlighting this reality that God made us for friendship with him, that God made us not just to simply exist apart from him or to exist because he just wants us to be out there somewhere, but he created us to be in

relationship with him. And when God originally created us, we had this thing called original unity, this original holiness, with state of original justice. And there's something about this that it says in paragraph 375 that the grace of original holiness was to share in divine life. This recognition, of course, that God's plan from the very beginning was not that we would be broken, not that we would be separated from him, was not that he would have to learn how to love in this world valley of tears, right? But that he made us and put us into the Garden of Eden into a world that was completely good. And he made us completely good. And by that, we were not made for death, but it was only through sin that death entered the world. And through

sin, what else happened? Well, we were divided from God. We were divided from each other. And we're also even divided in ourselves. And there was something about this. It says here in paragraph 377, the first man was unimpaired and ordered in his whole being because he was free from the triple concupiscence that is in 1st John, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. This recognition that he was not afflicted by this. And so it's the original harmony that existed between us and God, that friendship that existed, that harmony that existed between human beings and even the inner harmony that we've lost. In fact, you know, as St. Paul expresses the problem that so many of us experience where he says,

I don't do what I want to do and I do what I don't want to do. He's at war within himself. And we find ourselves at war within ourselves. But how God made us in the beginning was not at war within ourselves. but having this, in paragraph 377, having this mastery of self. And there's something remarkable about what we're going to highlight today. That man in paradise teaches us so much about God's original plan for friendship with us. But also it highlights the fact that when we lost that friendship, in disobedience in our sin, we lost that friendship.

But God did not abandon us to the domain of death. He didn't abandon us to go our own way. but he's done everything to pursue us. And so God gives us this redeemed life. God gives us this new life in Jesus Christ, which is just absolutely incredible. We're going to talk about that today. So let's say a prayer because this is how God made us originally was to share in his own divine life. We lost that through disobedience. But he's made it possible once again to have divine life. He's made it possible once again by his grace, by his life, death, and resurrection, by the gift of the Holy Spirit. he's made it possible for us to be friends with him again.

And so we just pray, Father in heaven, help us to be your friends. You have made us your children, even though we wander away from you. Even though you've given us every good gift and we turn our backs on you, you have never ceased to call us to yourself. And so we ask that you please, keep calling us. We ask that you please don't just keep calling us, but help us turn back to you, especially in those moments where we want to keep running. away from you. You've created us for yourself. Help us to be completely yours. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, it is day 53. We're reading paragraphs 374 to 384. Man in Paradise. The first man was not only created good, but was also established

in friendship with his creator and in harmony with himself and with the creation around him, in a state that would be surpassed only by the glory of the new creation in Christ. The church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New Testament and tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original state of holiness and justice. This grace of original holiness was to share in divine life. By the radiance of this grace, all dimensions of man's life were confirmed. As long as he remained in the divine intimacy,

man would not have to suffer or die. The inner harmony of the human person, the harmony between man and woman, and finally, the harmony between the first couple in all creation comprised the state called original justice. The mastery over the world that God offered man from the beginning was realized above all within man himself. Mastery of self. The first man was unimpaired and ordered in his whole being because he was free from the triple concupiscence that subjugates him to the pleasures of the senses, covetousness for earthly goods, and self-assertion, contrary to the dictates of reason. The sign of man's familiarity with God is that God places him in the garden.

There he lives to till it and keep it. Work is not yet a burden, but rather the collaboration of man and woman with God in perfecting the visible creation. This entire harmony of original justice foreseen for man in God's plan will be lost by the sin of our first parents. In brief, in Eucharistic Prayer number four in the Roman Missile we pray. Father Most Holy, you formed man in your own image and entrusted the whole world to his care, so that in serving you alone, the Creator, he might have dominion over all creatures.

Man is predestined to reproduce the image of God's Son made man, the image of the invisible God, so that Christ shall be the firstborn of a multitude of brothers and sisters. man, the made of body and soul, is a unity. The doctrine of the faith affirms that the spiritual and immortal soul is created immediately by God. God did not create man a solitary being. From the beginning, male and female he created them. This partnership of man and woman constitutes the first form of communion between persons. Revelation makes known to us the state of original holiness and justice of man and woman before sin.

from their friendship with God flowed the happiness of their existence in paradise. Okay, so there we are. We have man in paradise in this assertion, this recognition that God did not just create us good, but also established us in friendship and in harmony with himself, with creation around us, and with each other. Paragraph 374 says, you know, again, remember this harmony, that God didn't just create us good, but he created us to have friendship with him and harmony with the world around us, with each other and within ourselves.

It goes on to say this is so important because I didn't say it in the introduction. We have to assert it now. This is a state that God created us originally, a state that would be surpassed only by the glory of the new creation in Christ, which means what? Which means that because of Jesus Christ,

God actually raises us up even higher than when he first created human beings. Yes, a state of holiness, a state of friendship, a state of a relationship and harmony. But we recognize that one of the reasons why we say, oh, happy fault. You know, we're going to talk about the fault tomorrow. We're going to talk about the first sin.

And at one point, St. Augustine said, oh, happy fault. Oh, necessary sin of Adam, the one for us so great a redeemer. That's what we say in the Easter vigil. We pray that. And every Easter vigil, we recognize that because of Jesus and what he's done in our brokenness, we are to be elevated even higher than our first parents. The redemption of God is in so many ways you can say even greater than the creation of God. That's just, that's bananas.

It's incredible to think. It goes on to say that we have this original state. It's a state of holiness and justice. And the grace of original holiness was to share in God's divine life. Now, this is something so important. for us. Paragraph 376 says, by the radiance of this grace, right, that grace of original holiness, that we are created in relationship with God and in harmony with the world around us, with each other, in ourselves, the radiance of this grace, all dimensions of a human person's life, a man's life

were confirmed. As long as we remained, as long as he remained in the divine intimacy, man would not have to suffer or die. That recognition of, oh my gosh, God did not create death. The book of wisdom says this so very clearly. God did not create death. It's a result of sin. By the envy of the devil's sin entered the world and so with it death. We recognize that the price of sin is that this harmony, this relationship, this intimacy that God made us with and made us for became broken. That the goodness, again, while still good, still ontologically good, is goodness became broken. We became broken. And we became broken. And we experience this brokenness every moment of our lives, but we also experience this incredible gift

of God's grace that God enters into our brokenness. Again, that's the grace that makes it possible to surpass the original glory that God had given human beings by this new glory, one in Jesus Christ. I want to highlight two more things. One is the mastery over the world. I said this before. So we have mastery over the world, but again, we talked about this yesterday, the recognition that we're stewards that we don't dominate, we're just called to live in harmony, that there is this sense of mastery doesn't just mean I mastered the world around me. It says mastery over the world that God offered man from the beginning was realized above all within man himself, mastery of himself. And that is so, so important. There's a book that I read. It was called Lead Yourself

first. And he's written by a man who has a background in the United States military, has a background in education, his background in leading people, in training people, teaching people. And one of the principles that he came up with was this reality that how can I lead others if I can't lead myself? How can I be influential for others if I can't even influence myself? And so the invitation of lead yourself first before I can lead others. That mastery over self is the most incredible, incredible gift that God can give any one of us. By his grace, we can achieve a degree of interior freedom. With God's grace, we can achieve a degree of interior harmony as we continue to pray for that. Now, paragraph 378 before we come to the end here,

it says this. It says, the sign of man's familiarity with God is that God places him in the garden. Yep, and there he lives to till it and keep it. This is very important. Work is not yet a burden. We recognize, and I keep asserting this, and I've never read it in like official church documents, but I think this is pretty clear from Genesis 1 and 2 is that God puts us in the garden, and he makes us for these three things. He makes us for leisure, right? If he rests on the seventh day, he makes us for love. It's not good for the man to be alone.

And he makes us for labor when he places us in the garden to till it and keep it. Be fruitful and multiply. So there are these three elements that God makes us for love, for labor, and for leisure. Maybe these are three things that we're called to do. Now, every one of them because of sin has become broken or twisted. We recognize that leisure is like collapsed typically or we waste time, that love is often twisted into lust and our labor is often twisted into either it's drudgery or I get my identity from this labor.

We're going to talk about this as the year unfolds. But in the beginning, God made us to actually, he says here, collaborate with him. It says, originally, labor is meant to be the collaboration of man and woman with God in perfecting the visible creation. There's even, in some ways, a higher call because we recognize that those chapters of Genesis talk about how the universe is made as a cosmic temple. So the terms that are used are worship-type terms, like we're called to serve the Lord. Remember, in from the Bible, that the term to serve is often to worship. So there's a worship there. But what does that mean?

Well, one of the things that can mean is that our work, in some ways can redound to worship of God. That when we work, we're collaborating with God in a unique way, that when we offer him our work, it can redound to his glory. There's something powerful about that. We're going to talk again more and more about that as the year unfolds. But today, to recognize that, yes, our original state of holiness and justice in the garden lost, given to us anew in Jesus Christ in a unique way,

means that, yes, love that was turned into lust can become love again in Christ. And leisure has turned into collapse can become leisure again in Christ. And labor, which was twisted into drudgery or into our identity, can become that thing that is offered to God where we collaborate with him for the perfection of this world and we offer to him as worship. So I'm inviting us all to do that today to offer our labor, our work today as worship to God. to offer that and say, God, help me to collaborate with you in this world for your glory. You know, oh man, I'm praying for you.

You guys, please, as I said yesterday, please pray for each other. I'm not going to forget that again, the fact that I forgot until yesterday that we need to pray for each other. This is a community of people. And then this is not, it's different, right? You probably have gotten that sense. Again, day 53, here we are, gotten the sense that this is a different kind of a journey. But it is remarkable and necessary.

because, as I said a couple days ago, we're not just called to have more information. We're called towards transformation. This isn't just about learning more. This is about allowing the Lord to do something in our lives through the truth that gets communicated to us. And today, maybe that thing is the invitation in responding to the invitation to offer God our worship, to offer God our work, to recognize that he has done so much to restore us in Jesus Christ. tomorrow we'll talk about what was lost talk about the fall talk about the mystery of sin so i can't wait i'm praying for you please pray for me my name is father mike i cannot wait to see you tomorrow god bless