The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 96: The Church’s Ultimate Trial (2026)

Episode Date: April 6, 2026

The Catechism concludes the section on The Son with an examination of the final trial and judgment that will happen before Christ’s Second Coming. This final trial will involve the "supreme religious deception" of the Antichrist, a deception that has already been present at various times in human history. Fr. Mike emphasizes that apostasy is a dramatic turning away from what we hold to be true. He reminds us that no other person can usher in the Messianic Age other than Christ. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 675-682. 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.

Before we get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thank you to all those who have supported the Catechism in a year or the Bible in a year podcast. We hear stories every day about how those shows have transformed people's lives. And because of your prayers and financial gifts, you are a significant part of that. You might ask a question, though. The question is, what does this intention do with these financial gifts? Great question. The answer is we make authentically Catholic podcasts and videos and other digital content to help people know the Catholic faith and grow closer to God every day. And we do it all for free. If you've found this podcast be helpful in your life and would like to help us continue making free Catholic

content we can post online, please consider making a financial contribution, an ongoing financial contribution by going to ascensionpress.com slash support. That's ascensionpress.com slash support. Thank you, and God bless. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a year podcast where we encounter God's plan is your goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed it 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. This is day 96. It is the last day of talking about Jesus Christ, the sun, before we start tomorrow,

the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit. And I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach. You can follow along with any recent version of the catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism into your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CIY. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Man, day 96, you guys. Okay, as I just said, it is, this is the last section over in chapter two on the sun. And so tomorrow we'll start chapter three on the Holy Spirit. And so we've talked about, you know, creation, talked about revelation, talking about faith. We talked about the father and the qualities of the

what he's revealed about himself as the father. We've talked about how Jesus Christ, the son of God, has been revealed and who he is in himself. And tomorrow, we're going to start this whole section, kind of a long section, a great section, a beautiful section on the Holy Spirit. Yesterday we talked about how in the Apostles' Creed, from there he will come again to judge the living and the dead, that Jesus will come again in glory. We talked about how, yes, Christ's kingdom is established on earth in the church, and that church truly is holy at the same time that holiness is real, but imperfect.

And so we still await the final coming of Jesus. We still await that final fulfillment. And so even though Jesus has definitively defeated the power of evil, we find ourselves in the time of battle still. And we continue to pray and to ask the Lord Jesus to come. He continues to send out his Holy Spirit. But this is a time of distress. This is a time of watching and waiting.

This is a time of vigilance. Now, today, we're going to talk to this last section, these last chapters, paragraphs, I mean, paragraph 675. to 682 on the church's ultimate trial. Now, this is kind of, I mean, the stakes are huge. The stakes are eternity, right? The stakes are life and death, eternal life and eternal death. In this last little section, these last few paragraphs on the church's ultimate trial,

we'll talk about the reality that before Christ's second coming, the church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. There will be a persecution. there will be religious deception. There will be the Antichrist. This reality of what's called a pseudo-Messianism. Remember Jesus is the Messiah? So a pseudo-Messianism is this idea that,

oh, this is the one we've been looking for. This is the, I'm going to take the Lord himself, put him off to the side, because some other, you know, quote-unquote solution has presented itself. And that's one of the realities. The church has discerned over the 2000-year history now saying, okay, so what is the Antichrist?

And again, it says this in paragraph 676, so you can kind of get your mind wrapped around this. It says the Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that Messianic hope, which can only be realized beyond history to the eschatological judgment. So basically, there's all these options,

these all these people offering, okay, if only we do this, this will usher in a new time of peace, prosperity. to usher in a new time of salvation. We recognize as Christians, we recognize that, you know, there's progress to be made in this world. Yes, there's always good that can be done in this world.

But no program, no person, no government, no policy, no culture will ever usher in this messianic age, right? That it's not going to happen within history. It's only going to happen at the close of history,

at the close of the age. And so the big temptation has been, is and will be, And this is again, the church's final battle and will be this temptation to replace God with anything else. So we're going to talk about that today. And also recognizing the last two paragraphs before the in brief, before our nuggets at the end of this section, that Jesus Christ will come to judge the living and the dead. It's only two paragraphs.

But it highlights the reality that there is a judgment to come for every one of us. There's a judgment to come at the end of time. but there's also a judgment to come at the end of each of our lives. Now, we'll talk about that again later on when it comes to the four last things here in the catechism. But today we're reminded of that because today is given to us by the Lord so that we can repent. God is patient with us so that we can change our hearts and say yes to his grace. And so as we begin this day, let's do that.

Let's turn to our Lord and just pray that while it is still today, God gives us the grace to say yes to him, to say no to our sin and to live this new life. Father in heaven, we trust in you and we thank you. We praise your name. We give you glory. We ask what you please. Reveal to our hearts, your heart. Reveal the depth of your love for us to us.

Help us to say yes to you. Help us to avoid the temptation toward idolatry. Help us to avoid the temptation towards the Antichrist. Help us to avoid the temptation to turn away from what you've given to us in favor of something new. In favor of something flashy. of something that is not from you. Lord God, help us to strive with all of our hearts and our whole lives to help the people around us, but to never replace your kingdom with a pseudo, false kingdom. Help us to never place you and your victory on the cross with any other kind of victory.

Help us to live as you've called us to live. Help us to love as you have called us to love. Help us to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in this world. By the power of your Holy Spirit, 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 96. We're reading paragraphs 675 to 682.

The church's ultimate trial. Before Christ's second coming, the church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the history of iniquity in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-Messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh. The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time

the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope, which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millinarianism, especially the intrinsically perverse political form of a secular messianism. The church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover when she will follow her lord in his death and resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled then, not by a historic triumph of the church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his bride to come down from heaven.

God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the last judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world. To judge the living and the dead. Following in the steps of the prophets and John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judgment of the last day in his preaching. Then will the conduct of each one and the secrets of hearts be brought to light, then will the culpable unbelief that counted the offer of God's grace as nothing be condemned. Our attitude about our neighbor will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love.

On the last day, Jesus will say, truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. Christ is Lord of Eternal Life. Full right to pass definitive judgment on the works and hearts of men belongs to him as Redeemer of the World. he acquired this right by his cross. The Father has given all judgment to the Son. Yet, the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself. By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one's works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the spirit of love.

In brief, Christ the Lord already reigns through the church, but all the things of this world are not yet subject to. to him. The triumph of Christ's kingdom will not come about without one last assault by the powers of evil. On Judgment Day, at the end of the world, Christ will come in glory to achieve the definitive triumph of good over evil, which, like the wheat and the tares, have grown up together in the course of history. When he comes at the end of time to judge the living and the dead, the glorious Christ will reveal the secret disposition of hearts and will render to each man according to his works, and according to his acceptance or refusal of grace.

Okay, so as I said again, day 96, man, we are ending this section, chapter two on our Lord God, the sun, second person of the Trinity, with a bang. Wow, just this recognition of the church's ultimate trial. Paragraph 675, let's highlight this. We recognize that before Christ's second coming, the church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. There is going to be, as we said, a persecution that accompanies. her pilgrimage on earth that will unveil the mystery of iniquity in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. This is dramatic. This is insane, but I'm going to say insane, but I just mean that

in terms of bananas. We recognize that, remember the people of Israel? What was their primary sin again and again? We read those stories. We hear those stories and we're like, why are you doing this again and again. What their temptation was, was even though the Lord God had revealed himself to them, even though the Lord God had chosen them, had covenanted himself to them, what did they continue to do? Time and again, they turned away from God and tried to replace him with something else, anything else. In fact, remember even those stories about here's the Assyrians coming in from the north, here's the Babylonians coming in, and what did Israel want to do again and again? What did the kingdom of Judah want to do again and want to ally itself with Egypt, or lie itself.

with someone else. It wanted to like turn to another solution other than let me just be faithful to the Lord God. You know, apostasy from the truth is this rejection of the truth, right? It's this turning away, this, I don't say definitive turning away, but it is a dramatic turning away. It's not just an error. It is saying, I reject what I know to be true. In the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems of a price of apostasy from the truth. and this is going to be so important because we need to have our eyes open. In fact, Scripture says that, that there are many people who come forward offering solution. It goes on to say here, the supreme religious deception, is this still paragraph 675.

The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-Messianism, right? A fake Messiah by which man glorifies himself in place of God and if his Messiah come in the flesh. Any temptation we have to glorify ourselves in place of God. of God. And I would say this, you know, it could be anything to glorify education in the place of God, to glorify politics in the place of God, to glorify good deeds in the place of God, to glorify technology in the place of God, to glorify a person in a place of God. All of those temptations, we all have, every single one of us. We say, okay, you know, this policy, this is going to be our solution, or this political party, this is going to be our solution. Or this person we can elect,

that person will be our solution. Every time we have that. Or even, you know, again, science, science is going to be our solution. All those things can be good, obviously can be good. But every time we replace God for any one of those things, it is turning away from the Lord. It's idolatry. It's turning toward the antichrist. Now, paragraph 676, paragraph becomes even, I mean, man, every one of these paragraphs is like, it's a punch of the face. I don't know if you felt it, but I did as I was reading it. 676, the Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope, which can only be realized beyond history. So this promise for peace on earth, that is not going to happen until Christ returns.

I mean, yes, we fight for peace. Yes, we long for peace. We work for peace. We work for justice, all of those things, but not at the price of truth, not the price of the dignity of individuals. Goes on to say, the church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millinarianism, especially the intrinsically perverse political form of a secular messianism. Again, whenever we decide to trust in a kingdom, whenever we decide to trust

in a nation, whenever we decide to trust in politics, a government, it is, those things have their place, obviously. And it's what a great gift it is when those things are working well. That's amazing. And there have been some pretty incredible civilizations at the same time. To replace God with any of those civilizations, just place them above God is a severe and incredible error. Goes on to say. So the church, this is important for us, 67, this is so important. The church, that's us. That's what we're like, okay, I'm not going to give my heart over to politics.

I'm not going to give my heart to a government. I'm not going to give my heart to education or a policy. Well, I'll just give my heart to the church. Well, okay, here's what you get prepared for. the church will enter the glory of the kingdom, yes, but only through this final Passover when she will follow her Lord in his death and resurrection. Goes on to say, the church will be fulfilled then, not by a historic triumph of the church through progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil.

Now think about this. What does this mean? You know, Pope Benedict back years ago, he said that essentially the church is going to have to grow smaller rather than the church becoming this, you know, massive force on, on the earth. Like, you know, Christendom where all of the Western world is basically Christian. All the Western world is basically Catholic. Here's the church saying, nope, that's not what we're talking about. Where the kingdom, the church, takes over the world.

That's not going to happen. Only when we follow our Lord in his death and resurrection. So the kingdom will be fulfilled not by a historic triumph of the church through a progressive of ascendancy, but only by God's final victory over the final unleashing of evil. And this is so important for us. If we're expecting, anticipating the church will be more and more powerful, you know, the Catholic Church be greater and greater and will have so much influence on this world, that's what we're expecting.

We may be expecting the exact wrong thing. We might be expecting something else. What we have to be expecting is we're going to follow our Lord in his death and being misunderstood and being rejected and being hated and being killed. That is the only way the kingdom will be fulfilled by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his bride to come down from heaven, not by your and mind having power, not by your and mind winning and being loved by everybody. That won't happen.

So don't expect that to happen. Does that make sense? I know. It's a hard word, but it's just, man, it's a word that the church is just telling us, Listen, this is the 4,000 years of wisdom that has been painfully earned since Abraham till now. So last two paragraphs here, 678 and 679 before the nuggets, we recognize that there is the last day. And it says here, a couple of new things that I just want to highlight. I know this is a little bit longer.

Yesterday was a little longer two. It says, then on the last day, the conduct of each one and the secrets of hearts will be brought to light. so important our conduct and our secrets brought to light then will the culpable unbelief again the unbelief that we're responsible for not incalpable or not the belief that we're not culpable for but the belief that unbelief that we are culpable for that's it's our responsibility then will the culpable unbelief that counted the offer of god's grace as nothing be condemned how many times have you and i been offered god's gifts offered his love offered his grace and just we counted it as nothing then that will be condemned.

Our attitude about our neighbor will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love. Remember in Matthew chapter 25, Jesus has the sheep and the goats, right? The separate human being, all of humanity like sheep and goats and says to one, truly, I say to you, as often as you did it, to one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me. And the others, he said, as often as you did not do this to one of the least of my brethren, you did not do it to me. So our attitude about our neighbor will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love. last here in paragraph 679. All this is just worth praying about because it is, it's the final test, right?

This is the exam. This is the final exam that the Lord will present before all of us in our last, after our last breath. Christ is the Lord of eternal life. Full right to pass definitive judgment on the works and hearts of men belongs to him as Redeemer of the world. He acquired this right by his cross.

Yet he did not come to judge, but to save and give the life he has in himself. He doesn't want. He didn't come to do this. He came to save us and to give the life he has in himself. Last sentence here before the nuggets. By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one's works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the spirit of love.

This is possible. So because it's possible, let's take a moment. By rejecting grace in this life, I have the opportunity to go to confession. Ah, I'll go some other time. I'm already condemning myself. I can even condemn myself by rejecting the spirit of love to recognize this, that here is God who loves you so much, and I can be indifferent to this. I can ignore that love. I rejecting grace in this life. I judge myself, make it personal, I judge myself, and I receive

according to my own works, and I can even condemn myself for all eternity, not because I wasn't good enough, not because I didn't do amazing things, but because I rejected the spirit of love. So my prayer is my brothers and sisters right now, that all can change. It all can change with one decision. It all can change with this moment. I can make a decision right now. Lord, I resolve the very next opportunity I have to go to confession, the very next opportunity I have to change my life, the very next opportunity I have to say yes to you.

I say yes to you now right now. Just say yes to grace. In this life, we can say a yes that endures for all eternity. or in this life we can say no that endures for all eternity. Please pray for each other. Honestly, right now in this moment, please pray for every person listening to this podcast. Pray that every one of us,

every one of us says yes. In this moment, it says yes to God's grace. Pray that because we don't, I mean, all of us, we don't tune into this podcast because we're perfect. We tune in because we're like,

I want to know, I want to learn, I want to love, but I don't do it perfectly. So please pray for every person right now in this moment listening to this podcast that we all just say yes. I am praying for each one of you that you say yes.

Please pray for me that I say yes now and at the hour of my death. That's how I'm praying for you. And that's how I'm asking you to please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.