The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 6: Knowing God With Certainty (2026)

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

Today’s reading is a summation of what we have learned so far. Man is made for God, and we are born with a capacity for knowing God. Using our senses, listening to our consciences, and employing our gift of reason, we can know with certainty that God exists. Fr. Mike explains how we live freely only in communion with our Creator, even if we are limited in our capacity of comprehension. Knowing this compels us to share our faith in God with those who do not yet believe. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 44-49. 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 Any 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 six. A few reminders, I'm using the Ascension Catechism, Ascension addition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach. You can follow along with any recent version of the Catholic Church.

You don't have to get the Ascension version, although that has some, you know, bells and whistles that help follow along. Speaking of following along, you can download your catechism on your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. Lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast for daily updates and daily notifications. Goodness gracious, it is day six. We're reading paragraphs. 44 through 49, as I might have mentioned yesterday. I think I did. These paragraphs 44 through 49 are the in brief. So we've completed chapter one of section one of part one. So you guys, we're six days in. I've already completed a whole chapter. So well done. That also means the in brief,

if you remember this at all, the in brief is basically, for us today at least, it's six bullet points and six very short sentences. Essentially, I think every one of these bullet points is one sentence and they are reminders of everything we've covered for the previous two days. And so pretty simple, pretty great way. It's like if the first two days we had were syllabus days, this is kind of like, okay, end of the week review. And that's kind of what we have, at least today, is this end of the week review where we have this in brief paragraphs 44 through 49. What we're going to hear about today is, again, it's just the review recognizing that, yes, human beings, by our nature and vocation, our religious beings, that means something unique,

that we're made from God, we're going towards God. And we're only happy. if we find ourselves in God, we only actually experience fullness of life if we recognize our source, our origin, right, and our destiny. So we're going to talk about that a little bit today as well as the fact that, you know, like we mentioned yesterday, how can we speak about God? Well, we can only speak about God by analogy, but also we can speak about God with accuracy, even if it's merely by analogy. So let's say a prayer today because, again, it's kind of a shorter day, but at the same time, it is really helpful to not just kind of forget what we heard about the last couple days, but to kind of dive more deeply into this or at least be reminded of what we talked about.

So let's pray. Father in heaven, we give you praise. We ask you to please open our minds, open our hearts to receive your truth, open our hearts to not only hear what is true about you, but to really allow the truth to change us because Lord God, you are true. You are without truth. And when we apprehend you, when we grasp you, when you, when you, you know, when you, You grasp us, you set us free, because you are the God who gives life and you give liberty,

but you give life and liberty through this paradoxical step of self-surrender. And we surrender ourselves to you. That's when we experience true freedom. That's when we experience true joy. That's when we experience what it is to live. So Lord, please help us to live today in your name we pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, amen. that it is day six, we are reading paragraphs 44 through 49, the in brief bullet points

at the conclusion of Chapter 1, The Search. Man is by nature and vocation, a religious being. Coming from God, going toward God, man lives a fully human life only if he freely lives by his bond with God. Man is made to live in communion with God in whom he finds happiness. As St. Augustine said, when I am completely united to you there will be no more sorrow or trials entirely full of you my life will be complete when he listens to the message of creation and to the voice of conscience man can arrive at certainty about the existence of God the cause and the end of everything the church teaches that the one true God our creator and Lord can be known with

certainty from his works by the natural light of human reason we really can name God, starting from the manifold perfections of his creatures, which are likenesses of the infinitely perfect God, even if our limited language cannot exhaust the mystery. Godiamette Spurz wrote, Without the creator, the creature vanishes. This is the reason why believers know that the love of Christ urges them to bring the light of the living God to those who do not know him or who reject him. Okay, so that's, as I said, that's day six. We have Six sentences. That's all we have today. But the first sentence, what does it remind us? It reminds us that

man is by nature and vocation a religious being. Meaning what? Well, what's a nature? What's a vocation? So a nature is, we might say it like this. Very simple way to say what a nature is. It's what a thing is. It's the what it isness of a thing. Right. So the what it isness of a thing. And so we would say that what is a human being. Well, human being, the what it isness is a body and soul composite, right? So we're material. We have bodies. We're also spiritual. We have souls. We're both of those. So the nature of a human being is to be, but what it is in this of human being is to recognize that, yes, we live and move in our bodies. We have life in our bodies. We also have life in our souls. That what we are is a body, soul composite. So by nature, by what we are, we're a

religious being. That yes, we're animals on this earth, but we're also spiritual animals, spiritual beings that are called to have communion with God, but also, so man is by nature and vocation, a religious being. So nature is what it is in this of a thing. And vocation comes from the Latin term, vocare, means to call or to be called. So by nature, what it isness, man is a religious being, but also by what we're called to, we realize we're a religious being, which is one of the reasons why in the human heart, there's this capacity, right? There's this drawing. There's this desire. you have it because here we are on day six listening to the catechism which so far i don't know if you've recognized this but kind of so far it's been a little bit like okay uh when is this going to get good

maybe you've already noticed that maybe you already loved the last couple days but there's a certain element of like okay i want more i want i want more out of this and the church would say yes exactly that that more is not just well i want more information that more is i want i want more him and to realize that that's what you are by nature, the what it is and is of a thing, by nature you're religious being, but also what you're called to. There's a call that's been placed on your life,

that you're alive on purpose. Remember we said this, that the very fact that you exist reveals that God wanted you to exist, which means he loves you, he doesn't have to love you, but he's chosen to love you when he chose to create you. You are alive on purpose.

That's what it is to say that by our very nature and vocation, you are a religious being. And again, we can live a fully human life only if we freely live by our bond with God. That's why we go on to the next paragraph, this quote by St. Augustine, where he says, when I'm completely united to you, there will be no more sorrow or trials, which we have to clarify. That does not mean that the circumstances and situations of our daily lives would not have tragedies, that would not have trials, that would not have sorrow, but when we are completely united with God himself, we're full of him. And our lives are complete. That's one of the reasons why when we talk about joy very much in the future, one of the

definitions I love of joy is this abiding and pervasive sense of well-being. So I might not be happy all the time. Happy seems to be kind of state of mind. Happy is a lot of times associated with pleasure. We might have talked about that. I think we did. But joy. way is the abiding and pervasive sense of well-being, a sense that I know that God exists, I know that he knows my name. And when I'm united to his will, I have a sense of, as St. Augustine said, my life is complete, that there's nothing really lacking, even if at any given moment I'm lacking a lacking food, lacking drink, I'm lacking health. I'm even getting to the point where I'm lacking life. That life still would be.

complete. Why? Because we'd be entirely full of God. The idea behind it is St. Augustine is saying there is nothing more that I'm waiting for. You know, how many of us are searching constantly for what fails to satisfy? Maybe the next thing. Maybe the next thing. If you remember when we read through Ecclesiastes and here is Coeleth writing in the voice of Solomon and he gets, he says, okay, I have power. Maybe that doesn't satisfy. I have wealth. That doesn't satisfy. I have relationships. that doesn't satisfy. I'm really wise and I've accomplished a great things. That doesn't satisfy. But when we find God, we realize, oh, there's nothing more that I'm waiting for. And yes, we might not have a complete union with God in this earth on this life. But there's nothing more

that I'm waiting for. I'm just diving more and more deeply into him, which is just incredible. In paragraph 47 and 46, it says that when human beings listen to the message of creation and the voice of conscience, we can arrive at certainty about the existence of God. And again, it's in 47, it says the church teaches that the one true God or creator and Lord can be known with certainty from his works by the natural light of human reason. So that's asserting a couple things. One of it, one thing is asserting is that faith and science are not incompatible. Faith and science are not opposed to each other. In fact, that has been one of the most pervasive myths that has been put forth by our culture is that faith and science are antithetical to each other. They can't be. It couldn't

possibly be. Why? Because faith is asking a question about supernatural realities. It's asking what is the truth about supernatural realities? And science is asking the question, what is the truth about natural realities? We know that truth and truth can never contradict each other. Because truth can simply be defined as what is. So we know that what is true, right, about supernatural realities, can never contradict what is true about natural realities. Another way to say it is the questions that science ask are what is this how did it come to be right the questions that religion asks are why is this and who made it and so there's two quick different questions right or two sets of different questions you look at the world around us and say okay what is this and how did it

come to be that those are great questions how how does it work that's a great question so what and how is what the question of science but who and why is the question of faith who made this? Why did this who make this? Who did this person make this for? And those are the questions that will never contradict each other. Why? Because the answer to the question who and why will never contradict the answer to the question what and how. Hope that makes sense. I just, it's, it's so important for us to understand that contradictions cannot exist between good science and good religion. So the church says we can know with certainty about the existence of God. And we say, wait a second, with certainty, what do you mean by that? Well, we recognize that I can

always question what I know to be true. Does my mom really love me? I mean, I know that, yeah, she said she loves me. I know that, you know, she served me and my siblings for so many years of our lives that she still, like, reaches out to care for us. But I can, you know, I can always doubt what I know to be true. I can always question what I know to be true. That doesn't make it any less true. That doesn't make it any less certain. And so, of course, I can say, okay, look around the world, this world exists. Therefore, there must be something or someone that brought it into being, that brought it into existence, that this world has design. There must be a designer.

I mean, think about this is one of the arguments from design, is that everywhere we look in this world, everywhere we look in our lives, whenever we find design, there's always a designer. And that reality is consistently true everywhere we look. now because of that we can have a certain degree of certainty at course i can always question what i know to be true that doesn't make it any less true doesn't make it any less certain but we recognize that objective truth cannot contradict objective truth we also know that objective truth cannot be replaced by subjective experiences that's one of the reasons why the last paragraph makes this great quote from the second vatican council from gaudiott spes which says without the creator, the creature vanishes. Now, we know that there, okay, my definition of truth is what is,

right? A statement is either true or false to the degree that it conforms to what is, to what, to reality. Now, we have such a thing as objective truth, and that's the truth that is true or false, regardless of whether I know it, like it or believe it, right? That is a truth independent of me. We also have subjective truth. We also have subjective experiences. I could say, well, I like pizza. I like Pepsi. I like paparazzi. I don't think of a third P word. I like driving a little bit over the speed limit. These are some of these examples. Now, you might say, I don't like pizza. Well, I don't like Pepsi. I don't like driving over the speed limit. Okay, that's true for you, not for me. That's subjective truth. Why? Because it's about the subject. But we know that.

We don't merely have subjective truth. We have objective truths. An objective truth can never be replaced by subjective experiences. That's why we can state without the creator, the creature vanishes. If all we had was subjective truth, my truth versus your truth, then we vanish. If all we have is this accidental universe, then meaning vanishes. So here's what I mean, is that one of the things that marks modern human life is a crisis in meaning. Is there anything that means anything? Because If this world is accidental, then the answer is no. If all there is is materialism, right? All there is just stuff.

There's just things, not souls. There's just matter, not spirit. And this world is merely an accident. That means everything you and I are, everything you and I do is merely accidental. It has no ultimate meaning. That means everyone is merely subjective. We have a subjective life. We have subjective value.

our lives have subjective meaning, but human beings in this world was brought into being by an objective creator who had a purpose for creating this universe and has a purpose for creating you without the creator, the creature vanishes, without a God who has made this world meaning completely disappears. I hope that makes sense. Okay, lastly, I said it'll be a short day, but maybe I misunderstood that the how much time it takes to review the in brief here. The last little note here is in paragraph 48. It says, we really can name God, starting from the manifold perfections of his creatures, which are the likenesses of the infinitely perfect God, even if our limited language cannot exhaust the mystery. We talked about this yesterday. How, yes, we can speak of God

with accuracy at the same time, all of our language is going to fall short. I was reading this book recently that talked about how every healthy baby is born with the ability to speak any language. And when babies babble, they have the capacity to speak any language. You know, you and I, as we pick a language, our mouths and our tongues, our voice boxes, become more and more limited to be able to speak other dialects, other languages. That's why it's one of the reasons it's so hard to, you know, learn another language as an adult, not only because our brain matter makes it difficult to be elastic enough to learn those languages, but also because our accents, because we develop certain ways of moving our mouths and our tongues. You know what I'm saying? Like,

how many people who did not grow up speaking Spanish or Italian can rule your R's? That kind of an idea, right? But we're all born with the capacity to speak in any language with any accent in any way, shape or form. Over 7,000 languages. I think that exists right now even. We have the capacity to this. But the crazy thing is, if we don't exercise the capacity to speak in even one language, we won't be able to speak at all. Does that make sense? Here we are born with the capacity to speak 7,000 different languages. But until we actually learn one language, we can't speak at all. So yes, to learn that one language, we become limited. But all also by learning that language, it provides us with something solid to say. And something I think

is analogously is true when it comes to the Lord, when it comes as talking about God, that there is far more about God that we could ever say. And we will never actually fully capture the truth of what and who God is. But scripture and reason and our human language gives us the ability by looking at the perfections, the ideas of perfections of reality around us and says, okay, that's a glimmer. That's a, that's a hint that points to the infinite perfections of God. And so, yes, it limits us at the same time. It gives us a language with which to speak. I hope that makes sense. That was, I don't think it was a stretch. I think it was actually pretty accurate. So, you guys, here we are, day six. And as I said, I was like

leading, running into this. This is my first in brief. I've never done an in brief before. I thought it would be so fast six sentences, but here we are almost 20 minutes into this podcast. Oh man, you guys, here we are beginning this journey. I am praying for you because I know that to kind of get some traction is a little bit difficult, but stick with us because I'm promising you. We're going to get deeper and deeper into this and things are going to become not more and more muddy, they'll be maybe sometimes more complex, but also so much more profound. So stick with it. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.