The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 76: Jesus’ Baptism and Temptation (2025)

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

Together, with Fr. Mike, we examine the mysteries of Jesus' Baptism and temptation in the wilderness. Fr. Mike unpacks how Jesus’ Baptism is yet another Epiphany or manifestation of Christ as Messiah. We also explore Christ’s acceptance of his mission as God’s suffering servant. Fr. Mike emphasizes that Jesus’ temptations in the desert mirror the temptations of Adam in the garden, but, unlike Adam, Jesus does not succumb to these temptations. He remains faithful to the Father. Through this obedience to the Divine Will, he conquers the Devil, and in our own obedience, we are participating in this victory. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 535-540. 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 and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. It is Day 76. We're reading paragraphs 535-540. We're continuing to follow along the mysteries of Jesus' life as always.

I am using the 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. Also, you can download your own Catechism and a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. And you can also click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and Daily notifications it is as I said day 76 one of the things we're talking about today is we're kind of for what we're following Along the mysteries of Jesus's life. We talked about how all of Christ's life the Christ whole life is mystery a couple days ago yesterday we talked with the fact that the hidden life, hidden mysteries of Jesus's infancy and hidden life, right?

And so we had, I'm saying right as if like, I need you to agree, you know the truth. We talked about how like Advent, the Christmas mystery, the mysteries of Jesus's infancy we talked about, and also the mysteries of Jesus's hidden life for the last two, three days now. Now today, we're talking about the mysteries of Jesus's public life. And we're talking about in particular, these two mysteries of the baptism of

Jesus and Jesus's temptations in the wilderness. And so, um, it's just remarkable because I don't know, well, you know, what it's been like for the last couple of days, we get to reflect on things that we kind of know about and get to hear what the church says about those things. We know about, of course, this is a summary. It's not, we're not diving as deeply as a person could humanly possibly dive into these mysteries, but we're having the opportunity and I think hopefully it's been a joy for you. It's been really moving to me to be able to take this to prayer every day, to take to prayer

the finding of Jesus in the temple, to take into prayer Jesus's obedience to his mother and father. I just love this. I mean honestly that line in paragraph 532 from yesterday that said, the everyday obedience of Jesus to Joseph and Mary both announced and anticipated the obedience of Holy Thursday and just that sense of like oh my gosh that here is the obedience of Christ in the daily routine of his hidden life was already inaugurating his work of restoring what the disobedience of Adam had destroyed. I mean, that's just remarkable. Again, it just strikes me a lot and pierces my heart a bunch.

Today, as I said, we're looking at the two mysteries of the baptism of Jesus and Jesus' temptations. Now, when we look at the baptism of Jesus, we'll look at the actual reality that Jesus goes to the Jordan River and is baptized by John amongst all these people and he's revealed by the voice of the Father, by the Spirit coming upon him in the form of a dove. But also, what it means, in paragraph 536 it's going to highlight what does this mean? What does this epiphany, this manifestation of Jesus as Messiah mean? Well, one, it's on his part the acceptance and inauguration of his mission as God's

suffering servant. He allows himself to be numbered among sinners. That he already is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He's already anticipating the baptism of his bloody death and already he's coming to fulfill all righteousness. Like this, all of these pieces, this is paragraph 536, all of those pieces reveal to us that Jesus begins his march, he begins his march to Calvary right away and reveals that he has accepted and begun this mission

as God's suffering servant. Now I would imagine that even the incarnation is his beginning of the mission, but it's a sign of his acceptance. It's a sign of the inauguration. You know, I love this. It says he allows himself to be numbered among sinners. There's a reflection that Pope Benedict has had years ago when he was the Holy Father that he talked about how along the shores of Jordan River, the Jordan River there

was all of humanity, like the brokenness of humanity was represented. And Jesus elected to be numbered among them. That he goes down into the waters on our behalf. That's what paragraph 537 talks about. 537 talks about what the baptism of Jesus means for us. He says this, through baptism, the Christian is sacramentally assimilated to Jesus, who in his own baptism anticipates his death and resurrection. And so we have to also enter into this mystery. It's remarkable.

Then again lastly, the second half of these mysteries. Jesus's temptations that after he's baptized he goes into the wilderness for 40 days. Now we talked about how part of Christ's, what he's doing, the revelation, right? He's the revelation of the Father. He is redeeming us and also he's recapitulating something. And so we're gonna highlight what Jesus is recapitulating. He's recapitulating the life of Adam. He's recapitulating the life of the chosen people of Israel.

And also the last thing in paragraph 540, Jesus's journey into the wilderness reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah. And I love this, this is the first sentence of paragraph 540. It says, Jesus's temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah. And I love this, this is the first sentence of paragraph 540. It says, Jesus' temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him.

That he allows himself to be not the conquering hero in the sense of he's powerful, worldly, in a worldly way, not that he is victorious in a way that is is political, but he vanquished the tempter for us. Why? How? By entering into our weakness. That he's been tested in the same way that we are, yet without sinning. And it's just so cool, so incredible. And of course the last line in paragraph 540 is, by the Psalm 40 days of Lent The church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert

And so we recognize that this is a mystery that existed at one time in time But we get to enter into it every single year when we enter into lent as well, which is just amazing So here we are. Let's let's begin Let's continue our day right now as we pray to our father and just ask him to help us soak in the mystery of Christ's Baptism what that means as he enters into those waters help us to soak into the mystery of Christ's his temptation in the wilderness help us to say yes to God and no to Satan in the wilderness as well Father in heaven, you know us. You know our name, you know our weaknesses,

you know our great need for you. We ask that you please meet us in our self abasement, meet us in our weakness. We ask you to please meet us in our hesitancy and in our littleness. Meet us in our trials. When we find ourselves, Lord God, in the wilderness, when we find ourselves Lord God in the wilderness, when we find ourselves in a place of temptation and even when we find ourselves in a place where we have failed

the temptation and we have said no to you and yes to the tempter. Help us even then Lord God, help us even then to know that we can count on you, to know that we can trust you. Help us to trust you in our brokenness. Help us to trust you in our wilderness and in our weakness. Meet us there. Find us there and bring us to your heart. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Again, it's day 76. We're reading paragraphs 535 to 540. In Acts 70-76 we're reading paragraphs 535 to 540. The Mysteries of Jesus' Public Life

The Baptism of Jesus Jesus' public life begins with his baptism by John in the Jordan. John preaches a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. A crowd of sinners, tax collectors and soldiers, Pharisees and Sadducees, and prostitutes, come to be baptized by him. Then Jesus appears. The Baptist hesitates, but Jesus insists and receives baptism. Then the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes upon Jesus and a voice from heaven proclaims,

This is my beloved Son. This is the manifestation, epiphany, of Jesus as Messiah of Israel and Son of God. The baptism of Jesus is, on his part, the acceptance and inauguration of his mission as God's suffering servant. He allows himself to be numbered among sinners. He is already the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Already he is anticipating the baptism of his bloody death. Already he is coming to fulfill all righteousness, that is, he is submitting himself entirely

to his Father's will. Out of love he consents to this baptism of death for the remission of our sins. The Father's voice responds to the Son's acceptance, proclaiming his entire delight in his Son. The Spirit, whom Jesus possessed in the fullness from His conception comes to rest on Him. Jesus will be the source of the Spirit for all mankind. At His baptism, the heavens were opened, the heavens that Adam's sin had closed, and the waters were sanctified by the descent of Jesus and the Spirit, a prelude to the

new creation. Through baptism, the Christian is sacramentally assimilated to Jesus, who in his own baptism anticipates his death and resurrection. The Christian must enter into this mystery of humble self-abasement and repentance, go down into the water with Jesus in order to rise with him, be reborn of water and the Spirit so as to become the Father's beloved Son in the Son and walk in newness of life. As St. Gregory of Nazianzus said, Let us be buried with Christ by baptism to rise with him. Let us go down with him to be raised

with him. And let us rise with him to be glorified with him. St. Hilary of Poitiers said, Everything that happened to Christ lets us know that, after the bath of water, the Holy Spirit swoops down upon us from high heaven and that, adopted by the Father's voice, we become sons of God. Jesus's Temptations The Gospel speaks of a time of solitude for Jesus in the desert immediately after his baptism by John. Driven by the Spirit into the desert, Jesus remains there for forty days without eating. He lives among wild beasts, and angels minister to him.

At the end of this time, Satan tempts him three times, seeking to compromise his filial attitude toward God. Jesus rebuffs these attacks, which recapitulate the temptations of Adam in paradise and of Israel in the desert. And the devil leaves him until an opportune time. The evangelists indicate the salvific meaning of this mysterious event. Jesus is the new Adam, who remained faithful just where the first Adam had given into temptation. Jesus fulfills Israel's vocation perfectly. In contrast to those who had once provoked God during forty years in the desert, Christ reveals himself as God's servant, totally obedient to the divine will.

In this, Jesus is the devil's conqueror. He binds the strong man to take back his plunder. Jesus' victory over the tempter in the desert anticipates victory at the Passion, the supreme act of obedience of his filial love for the Father. Jesus' temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him. This is why Christ vanquished the tempter for us, as the Letter to the Hebrews states, for we have

not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are yet without sinning By the solemn 40 days of lent the church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert Okay, so there we are paragraphs 535 to 540 today. Oh my gosh you guys let's just let's dive in let's let's go Program 535 recap it is the story paragraph 535 is simply the. Jesus' public life begins by his baptism with his baptism by John and the Jordan. So John is he's preaching there a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. A crowd of sinners, all kinds of sinners show up and then Jesus appears. John the Baptist says I should be baptized by you etc etc. Jesus says nope let's fulfill

all righteousness. Let's do this thing. And the Holy Spirit, as he's baptized, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove comes upon Jesus and the Father's voice declares, this is my beloved Son. This is the first, you know, that is one of the manifestations, right? Remember we talked about another manifestation, the epiphany, literally the feast of epiphany of the Magi. But here's another epiphany, revelation, manifestation of Jesus as Messiah. going on in paragraph 536. The meaning of this is just remarkable. We already highlighted this, but I'll do it again because it's so powerful. The baptism of Jesus is on his part the acceptance and inauguration of his mission as God's suffering servant. Again, this is the beginning of Jesus' public life. He accepted, he's begun this mission.

He allows himself to be numbered among sinners. Remember the mess of humanity on the banks of the Jordan River. He's already the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Remember, it's in Christ's sacrifice, in the Paschal mystery, that he fully redeems us, that he redeems humanity. But he already is the Lamb of God. Why? How do we know this? Because John the Baptist saw him walking along the Jordan River at this time. redeems humanity, but he already is the Lamb of God. Why? Well, how do we know this?

Because John the Baptist saw him walking along the Jordan River at this time. And he says to the disciples, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, he already is that Lamb of sacrifice who already is taking away the sins of the world in some mysterious way. He says this, he's already anticipating

the baptism of his bloody death. Already he's coming to fulfill righteousness, which is so important, we're gonna highlight this because it's going to be the hallmark of Jesus' life. That is, here it says in paragraph 536, right in the middle. That is, he is submitting himself entirely to his Father's will. Out of love, he consents to this baptism of death

for the remission of our sins. Now, this is the core Christ's obedience we highlighted Christ's obedience yesterday right with Mary and Joseph in the hidden life in Nazareth but Christ's obedience to his father is The I here's here's here's my hot take on this one. I'll just tell you this. This is my perspective I think it has been validated and asserted by many people throughout the history of Christianity. But Christ's obedience is the heart of his sacrifice.

Christ's obedience is the heart of redemption. That he is submitting himself entirely to his Father's will out of love for the Father. He consents to this baptism of death for the remission of our sins out of love for us as well i imagine but it's obedience and this is going to be so clear for us because even let's go down to the temptations of jesus in the desert if we remember we talked about this we talked about how jesusitulates Adam. He recapitulates the story of the people of Israel. And where Adam was disobedient, Jesus is obedient.

Where the people of Israel were obedient and rebelled against the Lord, Jesus was obedient and submitted himself to the Lord. And so go to this in paragraph 538, we have this really, really clear note. Jesus rebuffs these attacks in the desert this in the desert now which recapitulate the temptations of Adam in paradise and of Israel in the desert and it goes on to say exactly what this says the evangelists indicate the salvific

meaning of this mysterious event that again remember this all these things are mysteries which means we can know something about them we can can kind of grasp them, but they're so much deeper, there's something happening beneath the surface that we can't see, but we can someway grasp. Jesus is, this is what it says, 539, Jesus is the new Adam who remained faithful just where the first Adam had given into temptation. That's the first way, which is so remarkable.

He was faithful where the first Adam had given into temptation. And secondly, Jesus fulfills Israel's vocation perfectly in Contrast to those who had once provoked God during 40 years in the desert Christ reveals himself as God's servant totally obedient to the divine will and in this Jesus is the devil's conqueror Think about this is remarkable It's in Christ's obedience to his father that he is the devil's conqueror. Let's apply this to our lives because that's what the Catechism keeps doing.

You know, paragraph 535, 536 tells about Christ and the significance of this mystery. But then 537 talks about, oh, that's us now. We need to participate in this. Paragraph 538 and 539 talk about Christ's participation in the mystery of him being tempted in the wilderness but then 540 reveals This is how we participate in this as well. And how does it? Reveal it reveals that Christ's conquers the evil one His obedience to his father

Loving obedience my brothers and sisters. This is going to be the key for all of our lives. All of our lives. That if I know what the Father's asking me to do, and I don't do it, I'm lost. But on the other hand, to know what the Father's asking me to do and to do it, I'm a saint. And not only a saint, but when we do that, we are participating in the redemption of the world. We're participating in this incredible, incredible action. Again,

paragraph 537, it says this, through baptism, the Christian is sacramentally assimilated to Jesus. We must enter into this mystery of humble self abasement and repentance, go down into the water with Jesus in order to rise with him. And I love, love what St. Hilary Appuartier said. He said this, adopted by the Father's voice in baptism, adopted by the Father's voice, we become sons of God. We know this and we're gonna talk about this more deeply that when the Holy Spirit comes upon us in our baptism, we are truly adopted, we are new creations,

we become sons and daughters of the Father. He actually truly becomes our Father in a completely unique, completely unique way. And as God's sons and daughters of the Father. He actually truly becomes our Father in a completely unique way. And as God's sons and daughters, that's where we have to live that way that the Son lived. What was that way? That way was the way of obedience, which is just difficult, really difficult. But yet, in Christ's obedience to the divine will, I'm gonna restate what I said in paragraph 539, in Christ's obedience to the divine will, he is the devil's conqueror.

I love this. Oh man, last line in paragraph 539, we said it before, we'll say it again. Jesus' victory over the tempter in the desert anticipates victory at the passion, the supreme act of obedience of his filial love for his father. We have a Savior, we have a God who's not unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who in every respect has been tested as

we are and yet did not sin. So praise the Lord. Tomorrow we're going to talk about the mystery of the proclamation of the kingdom of God. What does that mean? That Jesus announces the beginning of the kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God? We're looking at that tomorrow. And so we, as we continue, as we continue to walk with the Lord in these mysteries of his now public life, ah man, please just know I am praying for you. I am praying for, please pray for each other because it's one thing to kind of just know some things and learn some things. It's another to realize, oh my gosh, Lord, you're calling me to live this way, too. You're calling me to participate in these things.

And he is. So, as I said, I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.