The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 56: Man’s First Sin (2026)

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Together, with Fr. Mike, we explore the nature of man’s first sin or our “freedom put to the test.” Fr. Mike unpacks the importance of us understanding that freedom is not the power to “do what we want,” but rather, the power to “do what I ought.” Though the story of the first sin is that of our first parents, Fr. Mike emphasizes that we still repeat the grave error of the first sin in our own lives by preferring our own perceived “goods” over the “goods” of our Creator and Father in heaven. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 396-401. 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 with the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. It is day 56. You guys, well done. We're reading paragraphs 396 to 401. I don't know if you know this, but I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, which I love, I have to say this, I know sometimes I slip into this thing where I

talk about how much I love this catechism, but I love this catechism. You can follow along with any recent version of the catechism of the Catholic Church, if you like. Also, if you would like, you can download the catechism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash cI. And also, if you like, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily updates and daily notifications. And I know that there are people who keep reaching out saying I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to subscribe. I'm not going to follow. And I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. It's all good. You know, original sin affects all of us in different ways. I'm just kidding. But that's what we're talking about today. We're talking about original sin.

Paragraphs 395 to 401. Oh, golly. You know, we talked about this yesterday, the fall of the angels. The day before, the reality of sin, the fact that we're made to be in relationship with God and we reject God. And that's the heart of sin. God, I know what you want. I don't care. I want what I want. I want what I I want. Here's Satan, the evil one who has fallen. He rejected God and his reign. Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. And today, we have original sin where freedom has been put to the test that God has created us in his image and established us in his friendship. When I say us, of course, I mean man, human beings. Now, we can only live this friendship in free submission to God. Now, that can sound backwards. That's the second sentence that we'll hear today.

that we can only live this friendship with God in free submission to God. Again, that can sound to so many people uncomfortable. It can sound very unpleasant. Like, wait, you live in friendship in submission? How is that? Well, you don't live in friendship in submission to, you know, your neighbor necessarily. But we do live in friendship in submission to the one who, the only one, who is truly God. it's very similar, you know, analogously, obviously, very similar into a marriage where St. Paul writes

in his letter to the Ephesians, he says, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Talking to husbands and wives, it says, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. There is the sense of I place myself beneath you. I place myself at your service out of love, right? I place myself at your service in the proper order of things. Now, with husbands and wives, it's almost this race to serve, right? almost this race to submit to the other out of love. But when it comes to the Lord, when it comes to God himself,

we can live this friendship only in free submission to God, where we respond with his obedience of faith, where our posture is, Father in heaven, I trust you. And this is the horror of sin. Our posture to God should be Father in heaven, I trust you. And yet we find out that in man's first sin, the distortion that entered into man's heart

heart was that I can't trust God. He is not my father. He is a tyrant. He's not a dad. He's a dictator. And this is the heart of, in so many ways, the rejection and the rebellion of human beings against God. You know, there is this line in paragraph 397. It's only the second paragraph we're going to hear today. And it's the very first line. It says, man tempted by the devil, let his trust in his creator die in his heart. This is the heart. heart in so many ways. This is the heart of sin. That we were created in friendship with God. Remember, in Genesis 1 and 2, man and woman walked in harmony with God. You know, in the garden, that figurative language, that beautiful imagery of they lived in right relationship with God. They trusted

him. And God loved them. They love God back. They let God love him. They let God love them. And yet, but after we were tempted by the devil, man let his trust in his creator die in his heart. And it goes on to say, all subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness. I mean, let's look at, and right now, and look at any kind of sin in the world. He says, all subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness. So we recognize that every sin is disobedience, of course, because God, I know what you want. I don't care. I want what I want.

And a lack of trust in his goodness. Why would we say that? We would only say that in some ways if we thought I'm actually choosing better than what God would offer me, right? Because that's, I mean, very, very rarely does anyone, if ever, is anyone ever actually choose a sin because they think they'll be more miserable once they've chosen a sin? Typically, it's, ah, I know God said this, but I don't know, I think I'll be better off if I do this other thing, if I do contrary to what the Lord has asked me to do. And so it's a lack of trust in his goodness. So all subsequent sin, would be disobedience or God, God, I know what you want, I don't care, why I want what I want, and a lack of trust in his goodness. And it goes on in paragraph 398 to say, in that sin, man preferred himself to God. He chose himself over and against God. And that reality is we have to always remember who we are in front of God, that, yes, you have dignity. You have, you have a goodness. That dignity, that goodness comes from the Lord. Therefore, before God,

We're always after. Is that makes sense? Before God, we're always after. Before God, we're always second. Before God, we're never in first place. He always gets the first place. He always gets to be the center of our lives because he is the source of our lives. And so what happens?

Well, we sin and there's tragic consequences. We're going to talk about those tragic consequences today, both personally and interpersonally. In fact, even cosmically. Because in paragraph 401, it says, after that first, sin, the world is virtually inundated by sin. You know, the first sin of just saying, God, I don't care. I want what I want. Led to murder, led to brokenness, led to disaster in humanity. And we're living that now. After that first sin, the world is virtually inundated by sin. That's where we find ourselves. So, you know, again, just like yesterday, just like the day before,

when we're talking about this brokenness, it is so important for us to know that we don't just have brokenness. We have a God who enters into brokenness. We don't just have sin. We have the God who conquers sin and forgives us of our sin, who's taken our sin upon himself. And so we call upon that God now in prayer. Father in heaven, we trust you. We trust you because you did not abandon us to the domain of death. You did not abandon us. You did not let us go in our brokenness. When we rejected you, you did not reject us. You keep on calling out to us. You keep on reaching out for us. Lord God, you sent the prophets. You revealed your word to us.

You revealed your heart to us. You gave us your son Jesus Christ to atone for sin and to show us the way to you. To send us your Holy Spirit. And so God, we ask you, once again, in the name of your Son Jesus Christ, send us your Holy Spirit. The advocate, the one who convicts us, the one who leads us into all truth. Oh, God, send that Holy Spirit to guide and try to guide and protect us as we walk forward talking about sin, talking about the reality of sin, knowing that it's

not simply outside of us, but it is truly inside of us. That brokenness is not just around us. It's in our own hearts as well. So we ask you, please, send your Holy Spirit to mend what was broken, to make whole what has been shattered and bring back to life what has died. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. As I said, we're reading paragraph 396 to 401. Original sin. Freedom put to the test. God created man in his image and established him in his friendship.

A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. The prohibition against eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil spells this out, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man being a creature. must freely recognize and respect with trust. Man is dependent on his creator and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom. Man's first sin. Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his creator die in his heart, and abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of

trust in his goodness. In that sin, man preferred himself to God, and by that very act, scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status, and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully divinized by God and glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to be like God, but without God, before God and not in accordance with God. Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first disobedience. Adam and Eve immediately lose the grace of original holiness. They become afraid of the God of whom they have conceived a distorted image,

that of a God jealous of his prerogatives. The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed. The control of the soul's spiritual faculties over the body is shattered. the union of man and woman become subject to tensions, the relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation is broken. Visible creation has become alien and hostile to man.

Because of man, creation is now subject to its bondage to decay. Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true. Man will return to the ground, for out of it he was taken. Death makes its entrance into human human human human human. history. After that first sin, the world is virtually inundated by sin. There is Cain's murder of his brother Abel and the universal corruption which follows in the wake of sin. Likewise, sin frequently manifests itself in the history of Israel, especially as infidelity to the God of the covenant and as transgression of the law of Moses. And even after Christ's atonement, sin raises its head

in countless ways among Christians. Scripture and the church's tradition continually recall the presence and universality of sin in man's history. Gaudium et spes from the Second Vatican Council states, What revelation makes known to us is confirmed by our own experience. For when man looks into his own heart, he finds that he is drawn toward what is wrong and sunk in many evils which cannot come from his good creator. Often refusing to acknowledge God as his source, man has also upset the relationship which should link him to his last end. And at the same time, he has broken the right order that should reign within himself as well as between himself and other men and all creatures. Okay, so there we are. Going back to the very beginning, we have here original sin, freedom put to the

test. We know this. We know that in order to love, we have to be free. And God made us to love. Which means, God, if he wants, if he wants us to be the people, he has made us to be, he, I guess, quote-unquote has to, he has to allow us to be free. Because without freedom, we can't love. We'd just be robots who are programmed to do what we were told. Now, God wants us to do what we're told, but he wants us to do that out of freedom. I love this. It just, it says here, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man being a creature must freely recognize and respect with trust. I think sometimes people look at the, you know, oh, there was a fruit in some garden and you ate the fruit and that's just kind of like this,

you know, childish or silly kind of a thing. But we recognize here that, no, this symbolically, this tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that a man being a creature must recognize and respect with trust, right? We have to recognize that we're dependent on our creator and we're also subject to the laws of creation and the moral norms that govern the use of freedom. Like that just because we can do something doesn't mean we ought to do something that ultimately freedom is not. Freedom is not the power to do whatever I want. Freedom is ultimately the power to do what I ought. I'm not really free if I can just do what I want. I just then I'm a slave to something else, right? I'm a slave to my senses. I'm a slave to my impulses.

But true freedom is the power to do what I ought to do. And man violated that. Now it goes on to say, as I mentioned before in paragraph 397. Tempted by the devil, we let, or man, let his trust in his creator die in his heart and abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. That's what the first sin consisted of. I love how it's described. You know, we said all subsequent sin would be disobedience and a lack of trust, disobedience toward God and a lack of trust in his goodness.

But there is this. In paragraph 398, it unpacks that even more. It says this, in that sin, man preferred himself to God. And by that very act scorned him. again we prefer ourselves to God and by that very act so sometimes I flip into like you know saying man and then we just because here we are as humanity it's kind of like all of our story even though we have the first our first parents who originally sinned it's you know what I'm saying so hopefully you can go with me on the language like this so in that sin man preferred himself to God in all of our sins we prefer ourselves to God and that by that very act scorned God goes on to say he chose himself over and against God Against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. What are the requirements of its creaturely status? That means, okay, we're creatures.

He's the, God is the creator. Therefore, if we're choosing ourselves, creatures over the creator, this is a violation of our status. It's also against our own good because God is the source of all good. So if I'm choosing myself, you know, the receiver of good against the one who gives good, I am violating my own good, right? I love this. It's just incredible that we were created, human beings, were created in a state of holiness. Therefore, we were destined to be fully divinized by God in glory, but we wanted to

grasp that, not receive it. I don't want to just simply meant to be divinized. Rement to be like God. That's God's plan. But rather than receive that, here we are, our first parents, wanting to grasp that for ourselves. And it says this, this last line in paragraph 398, seduced by the devil, he wanted to be like God, but without God, before God, and not in accordance with God. That's a quote from St. Maximus, the confessor. I want to be like God, I want to be like God, but without God. I want to be like God before God, ahead of him.

And I want to be like God, not in accordance with God. I don't want to do it the way he wants me to do it. This is, oh man, we get that tattooed of our hearts like, oh my gosh, Lord, that is my life. Yeah, I want your promises the way I want them. Yeah, I want your blessing. But without you, how many times does that mark that twisted, distorted, broken heart mark our lives?

I want to be like God without God. I want to be like God before God. And I want to be like God, not in accordance with God. Now, Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of that first disobedience. We're going to talk tomorrow about some of the consequences of that first sin for all of humanity. But immediately, they lose that grace of being in right relationship with God. And immediately they become afraid of the God of whom they have conceived a distorted image. Remember, remember up to that point, they knew the God.

was a good dad. Up to that point, they knew, they knew the God was a father. And now, nope, he's a tyrant. Now, nope, he's a dictator. A God jealous of his prerogatives. That's the distorted image they have. And that's the distorted image that so many of us inherit. And paragraph 400 goes on, there's a lot of consequences here. Again, we'll talk more about consequences tomorrow of original sin. But it says here, the harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed. So, number one, control of the souls. spiritual faculties over the body. So previously, in original justice, original holiness, there were these preternatural gifts that human beings had, like this, this complete unity,

control of the spiritual faculties over the material, over the body, bodily faculties. So there's this integrity there and there's this power that we've lost. The union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions. Our relationships are now marked by lust and domination. Harmony, with creation is broken. So visible creation is become alien and hostile to man, aka mosquitoes, you know, or the fact that creation is now hostile to us.

Up to this point, we lived in harmony with creation and with each other and with God, but now it's broken. Because of man, creation even is broken. It says here, creation is now subject to its bondage of decay, which is a quote from Romans chapter 8,

verse 21. And then finally, of course, another devastating consequence of sin. Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience. Remember that consequence? If you eat of it, you shall what? You shall die.

That consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true. Man will return to the ground. And now, for the first time ever, death makes its entrance into human history. God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living, says the book of wisdom. For the first time here, death makes us entrance into human history. And after that first sin, the world is virtually inundated by sin. Every one of us is touched by it.

Every one of us is affected by it. That last line before the quote from the Godiomit spes in paragraph 401, it says, Scripture and the church's tradition continually recall the presence and universality of sin in man's history. Every one of us is touched by this. And tomorrow we're going to talk about what are some of those immediate ways that we have been touched. We've been marked. We've been affected and afflicted by sin. But of course, through all of this, through all of this, God did not abandon us to the domain of death. God did not abandon us in the

midst of our brokenness. In our rebellion, God did not rebel against us. In our rejection of him, God did not reject us. And so today, as we continue to listen, as we continue to pray, continue to walk as followers of Christ, disciples of Jesus, we remember, yes, we suffer these consequences of original sin and the ones we'll mention tomorrow. But we also rejoice in the gifts of grace that God continues to pour out on us in His Son, Jesus Christ. And so we have confidence. We have confidence, even in this broken world. We have confidence that God himself continues to reign, that God himself continues to conquer.

And the first place he gets to conquer in my life is my own heart, my own heart that has that distorted image of God. But he is a good God. and he is a good dad and he's a good father. And so we trust in him. I'm asking, I'm just inviting you all, because I know that we all have these places in our lives that are just, they are, they're wrecked, they're broken,

they're tempted to not trust God. But today, today, remember, it wasn't always like this. It wasn't always like this. Our first parents got to walk in harmony with God, and that's what he wants ultimately for all of us, to be back in that right relationship, and ultimately to live.

lift us up to that place of divinization. You don't have to grasp for it. We simply have to receive it. So that's what I'm praying for. Please pray for each other because, again, day 56, we're still trucking away, but we have to keep pressing play. Gotta keep getting up and moving forward. So I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.