The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 85: The Trial of Christ (2026)

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

In this reading, we learn that all sinners are the authors of Christ’s Passion. We do not blame the Jews for the Crucifixion of Jesus as we know that it is our own sins that caused his Passion and death. Fr. Mike tells us that the Jews are not collectively responsible for Jesus’ death, and they should not be spoken of as rejected or cursed. We’re reminded that when we choose sin and deny Christ by our deeds, we crucify him anew in our hearts. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 595-598. 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 sure goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to 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 85, reading paragraphs 595 to 598. As always, I'm 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, the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism into your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. That stands for Catechism in a year. If you haven't put that together, also you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily updates and daily notifications yesterday. Well, we talked about, it's day 85 today. Yesterday, we talked about how Jesus fulfills the temple. We talked about how Jesus recognizes that there's a scandal that Christ offers in the fact that he is who he says he is. And that not only did he claim to be the Messiah, he claimed equality with God himself. And because of this, Jesus becomes the crux, right? He becomes

the turning point of history, not merely because he claimed to be God, but because he demonstrated that he actually is God. And of course, that last sentence, well, we had the in brief, the nuggets at the end of this, but we also had that last sentence of paragraph 591 that said, the members of the Sanhedron were thus acting at the same time out of ignorance and the hardness of their unbelief. And the recognition, of course, is that all of us, all of us are in that same boat. You know, I mentioned that because today we're taking the next step. Paragraph two, Jesus died crucified. We're going to look at the trial of Jesus a little bit today. We're going to look at it as we go on as well in Christ's redemptive death in God's plan. That's tomorrow. But today, the trial of

Jesus. And we're going to be looking at what is the role. We talked about the last couple days. what is the role of the Jewish people when it comes to the death of our Lord Jesus? The reason why the church addresses this is because there have been people over the course of time, right, over the last 2,000 years who at various times have attributed the death of Jesus, the crucifixion and death of Jesus to maybe particular Jews at the time or to the Jewish people as a whole. The church wants to basically set the record straight when it comes to that question. And the church ultimately is saying that, A, first of all, in paragraph 595, that there were divisions among the Jewish authorities concerning Jesus, that, yeah, there were some people who were

calling for his death and conspired with the Romans to put him to death, but there were also divisions among the Jewish authorities. There were people like Joseph of Arimathea or the Pharisee, Nicodemus. In fact, after Christ's resurrection, many of them professed belief in Jesus. Many Pharisees professed faith in Jesus Christ. And so we realize that paragraph 596 says the religious authorities in Jerusalem were not unanimous about what stance to take toward Jesus. So it's very, very important for us to understand this because the next conclusion, well, the penultimate conclusion, right? There's two more movements.

One is the church wants to make it absolutely clear to Christians and to everyone, to the entire world, easy for me to say, that the Jews are not collectively responsible for Jesus' death. That is not the case. The Jews are not collectively responsible for Jesus' his death, not at the time of his death, nor now. Because ultimately, that was the penultimate, here's the ultimate. Then paragraph 598, which is our final paragraph for today. All sinners were the authors of Christ's passion. And we're going to have some pretty big declarative documents.

We have the Roman catechism that states that, even have someone all the way back to St. Francis of Assisi in like what, the 12th, 13th century, somewhere in there. we're making it very clear that no, no, no, it is me. I'm responsible and every sinner is responsible for Christ's death. So the clarification today of these four paragraphs, 595 to 598, is there are some people who have said erroneously that the responsibility for Christ's death is at the feet of the Jews. They've interpreted scripture, for example, when the Jewish people say his blood be upon us and upon our children, that that would mean that they're taking the guilt, they're taking the blame essentially. But we recognize the church is saying, no, that is not the case. We all share the blame. Every human being, every person on this planet, we share in the blame. It was my sin that killed our Lord Jesus Christ. And I have to take responsibility for that myself. It was our sin collectively that is responsible for the death of Jesus. And we have

to take responsibility for that ourselves. How will that make sense? So as we dive into this, I think it's very, very important for us to understand. We'll talk about this, of course, after we read the text. But today, let's start with a prayer. Just ask our Lord to make this clear. And not only to make this clear, but also to ask God our Father to recognize that here are the chosen people, the Jewish people, who are not revoked, they're not rejected by our Lord. They continue to be loved by God. They continue to have that covenant with them.

There's just so much more. And so one of the recognitions we pray, we pray not only for ourselves, for our own hearts, we pray for reconciliation. And we also pray for that fulfillment to take place in our day and age, that we all come to know Jesus fully and also that the Jewish people come to know Jesus fully, that all people on this planet come to know Christ fully. So let's pray, Father in heaven, we give you praise and we give you glory. We thank you. We thank you for giving us your son. We thank you that in the midst of our brokenness, your son, Jesus Christ, he loves us. He loves us. He loves us. He loves us. and he gives himself up for us, that he loved us and he gave himself up for every one of us.

There's not one person on this planet who has ever lived, is living or will live, for whom you did not die, for whom you did not rise from the dead. And so we ask, we ask you, please, to change our hearts, to heal our hearts, but also to heal brokenness, heal, and whatever kind of division there is between the Christian people and the Jewish people, heal whatever kind of division there is between the people of the covenant and the people of the new covenant. Lord God, you love us. We also ask that you please help all of us do deep and full conversion. Those of us who profess faith in Jesus, we ask you to please knit our hearts together and help us to be fully belonging to you. And also the Jewish people with whom you established your covenants,

we ask that you please bring them to knowledge of you as well. Because there is no one. There is no one who you did not die for. There is no one whom you did not die for. There is no one whom you do. not live for. There is no one to whom you do not extend your grace. So help us all to say yes to your grace this day and every day. 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 a 85, reading paragraphs 595 to 598. Paragraph 2, Jesus died, crucified, the trial of Jesus. Divisions among the Jewish authorities concerning Jesus. Among the religious authorities of Jerusalem, not only were the Pharisee Nicodemus and the prominent Joseph of Arimathea, both secret disciples of Jesus, but there was also long-standing dissension

about him, so much so that St. John says of these authorities, on the very eve of Christ's passion, many believed in him, though very imperfectly. This is not surprising, if one recalls that on the day after Pentecost, a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith, and some believers belonged to the party of the Pharisees, to the point that St. James could tell St. Paul how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law. The religious authorities in Jerusalem were not unanimous about what stance to take toward Jesus. The Pharisees threatened to excommunicate his followers. To those who feared that everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and destroy both

our holy place and our nation, the high priest Caiaphas replied by prophesying, It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish. The Sanhedron, having declared Jesus deserving of death as a blasphemer, but having lost the right to put anyone to death, hands him over to the Romans, accusing him of political revolt, a charge that puts him in the same category as Barabbas who had been accused of sedition. The high priests also threatened Pilate politically so that he would condemn Jesus to death. Jews are not collectively responsible for Jesus' death. The historical complexity of Jesus' trial is apparent

in the gospel accounts. The personal sin of the participants, Judas, the Sanhedron, Pilate, is known to God alone. Hence, we cannot lay responsibility for the trial on the Jews in Jerusalem. as a whole, despite the outcry of a manipulated crowd and the global reproaches contained in the Apostle's calls to conversion after Pentecost. Jesus himself, in forgiving them on the cross, and Peter, in following suit, both accept the ignorance of the Jews of Jerusalem and even of their leaders. Still less, can we extend responsibility to other Jews of different times and places based merely on the crowd's cry, his blood beyond us and on our children, a formula for ratifying a judicial sentence. As the Church declared at the Second Vatican

counsel, neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time nor Jews today can be charged with the crimes committed during his passion. The Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from Holy Scripture. All sinners were the authors of Christ's passion. In her magisterial teaching of the faith and in the witness of her saints, the church has never forgotten that sinners were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings that the divine Redeemer endured, taking into account the fact that our sins affect Christ himself, the church does not hesitate to impute to Christians the gravest responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus, a responsibility with which they have all too often burdened the Jews alone.

The Roman Catechism states, We must regard as guilty all those who continue to relapse into their sins. Since our sins made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross, those who plunged themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the Son of God anew in their hearts, for he is in them, and hold him up to contempt. And it can be seen that our crime in this case is greater in us than in the Jews. As for them, according to the witness of the apostle, none of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. We, however, profess to know him. And when we deny him by our deeds, we in some way seem to lay violent hands on him.

St. Francis of Assisi once noted, Nor did demons crucify him. It is you. who have crucified him and crucify him still when you delight in your vices and sins. Okay, so there we are at Day 85, and I just, I'm so grateful for this. Not only because we get, we get some clarity. And the clarity is that the church does not lay the responsibility for the death of Jesus at the feet of the Jews, but we take it upon ourselves. Now, we'll come back to that in just a second.

You know, years ago, I was in Israel, and I was going through Yad Vashem, and Yad Vashem is the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Museum. in Israel. And at one point, there's a long story behind this whole thing. But at one point, there was this man, he was a Jewish man from California with his family. And how we started talking was interesting, but that's not the point of the story right now. At one point, though, he was relatively upset. I mean, obviously Yad Vashem is an incredibly, incredibly emotional place. Just the devastation one is reminded of, you can't unsee, you can't forget. And in this place of great emotion, this Jewish man, who is massive. He was, he was.

I mean, he towered over me and he was like, I was walking away because he just, we had some exchange, just a pleasant exchange where he was kind of confused and I was kind of confused. And he said, get back here, you know, kind of like, I was like, oh, okay, here we go. What's going on? And he was perplexed. He was emotional, just like everyone was, you know, in that space. But he said, okay, here's what I don't know. So you say you're Christian, right? I'm like, yep, you know, Catholic priest. Okay, here's what I don't understand. He says that you Christians believe that we Jews crucified Jesus, that we killed Jesus, that were responsible for death. And yet his death is, you claim, his death is the thing that saved humanity. It saved your

life. It gave you new life. So wait a second. So here, here's the thing. How can we be blamed for this greatest thing that ever happened? Like, why do you hate us for for this greatest thing that you ever happened? Because if we killed him and his death that gave you life, then why do you hate you so much? And I was like, wow, this is a very loaded moment. I said, Holy Spirit, come and just prayed and just said, okay, well, first of all, I'm a Catholic Christian, and as Catholics, we do not believe that the Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus. That's the first thing. And there may have been Christians who have said this over the course of, you know, 2,000 years history of the church, but I said, but just what we believe as Catholic Christians, and this is our official stances that

know. So what you guys, what you and I read today, what we heard today, that the Second Vatican Council stated, neither all Jews, paragraph 597, neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews today can be charged with the crimes committed during his passion. Therefore, the Jews should not, I'm pointing the therefore in, therefore, the Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from Holy Scripture. So I mentioned to him, we don't believe that. So that kind of allayed his, some anxiety there or some emotion there. I said, well, we ultimately believe is what I just read today, paragraph 598, that all sinners

were the authors of Christ's passion. In fact, this sentence here, it says, taking a to account the fact that our sins affect Christ himself. The church does not hesitate to impute to Christians the gravest responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus, a responsibility with which they have all too often burdened the Jews alone. This is so important for us. We're going to get to that quote from the Roman Catechism, but I mentioned this to him. I mentioned, you know, that, no, we don't blame the Jews. We blame ourselves. We recognize, I recognize that it was my sins that crucified Jesus. He said, okay, okay. He said, but how can this worst thing be the best thing? And this is when I kind of kind of turned to

the Old Testament, which we both share. Hebrew scriptures, you have in the book of Genesis, the story of Joseph and his brothers. And in the story of Joseph and his brothers, what happens? You have this scenario, this scene where his brothers sell Joseph into slavery. And all the ups and downs and all the trials and travails that Joseph goes through, finally gets to a place with God with him. God is with him the whole time. Gets to this place where he is made second in command of, you know, next to Pharaoh. And because of this, he has the authority, and of course, God working through him to spare the people from famine. There was going to be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine.

And because of that, he was able to feed his family, save their lives. And so then, you know, we all know the story, right, the reconciliation of Joseph with his brothers, and their father realizes they all moved to Egypt, and then their father dies. What happens now? Here's the father, Jacob, Father Israel is now dead. So what's going to happen? And the brothers are afraid. The brothers say, yeah, well, our father, Jacob, our father.

Father Israel was alive, Joseph spared us. But now that our father is gone, he's going to destroy us. And Joseph, what he hears this, he is just broken, his heartbroken. And he weeps. And he essentially says, he says, what you meant for evil, God turned, meant for good. When you intended evil and selling me off, God used it for good. And I pointed this out. I said, you and I, this Jewish man and myself, we believe that, that God can take even this worst brokenness and bring about a great good, that we believe that's what happened. My sins crucified Jesus. and that was the worst thing that ever happened. That God, here's what you and I here now today in the next few days are going to be meditating on.

If Jesus has trial, his crucifixion, all these pieces, that this is the worst thing that ever happened. But also, God used it to bring about the greatest thing that's ever happened, which is our salvation and our redemption. But we can't, and this is the last note, we cannot try to lay the blame on anyone other than ourselves, which is one of the reasons why this is remarkable, this Roman Catechism. And even this quote from St. Francis Vassisi in paragraph 598, where it says, we must regard as guilty all those who continue to relapse into their sins. Ah, man. Next sentence.

Since our sins made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross, those who plunged themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the son of God anew in their hearts, for he is in them and hold him up to contempt. And it can be seen, this is one of the kickers. And it can be seen that our crime in this case is greater in us than in the in the Jews. As for them, according to the witness of the apostle, none of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. Here's the last two sentences. We, however, profess to know him. And when we deny him by our deeds, we in some way

seem to lay violent hands on him. Isn't that credible? We, however, profess to know him. And yet you and I, what do we do? We return to our sins. We return to our shallowness, our littleness, our pettiness. we return to evil, we return to saying no to him. And in that, as it says, St. Francis, it is you who have crucified him and crucify him still when you delight in your vices and sins. Demons did not crucify Jesus. St. Francis Visi, it is you. It is, it is I, is me, who have crucified him and crucify him still when we delight in our vices and in our sins. And so just today, that's not meant to be heaping coals on our heads, but it is you. it is meant to say, I may not ever try to evade blame. I may only and always take responsibility

for my part, because my part in Christ's passion is real. If my part in Christ's passion is not real, then my share in his resurrection is not real. If he did not lay down his life out of love for me, then he can't share the resurrection out of love for me. I think it's worth praying about it. I I think that's worth reflecting on and not letting it crush you, not letting it condemn you, but letting this turn us to Jesus and trusting him in our brokenness so that we can trust him in his glory. Anyways, I pray for each other, you guys. I am praying for you.

Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.