Day 60: God Sends His Only Son (2025)

Complete months. Well, I mean, if there's 31 days in one of these months, that's okay. I mean, anyways, two times thirty. Well done. We're reading paragraphs 422 to 429. 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 of the Catholic Church. Also, you can download your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting AscensionPress.com slash

C-I-Y. And you can also click follow or subscribe or whatever in your podcast app for daily updates, daily notifications to follow along and subscribe. Also, just a quick thank you.

to everyone who has supported the production of this podcast with your prayers, with your spiritual support, with your emotional with by the fact that you've impressed play as well as for your financial gifts. We couldn't do this podcast without you. Super grateful. Today is awesome. You know We just concluded chapter one on the father, and now we are into chapter two on the son.

And so, you guys, these first chapters, 422 to 429 today, they start off with just here is what we believe about Jesus. And one of the things you're going to see here in um paragraph 423 is how rooted in history the reality of Jesus is. And you probably already know this, but Christianity is a historical religion. It is deeply rooted in history. And so we're going to say things like we believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth.

born of a Jew, of a daughter of Israel, at Bethlehem, at the time of King Herod the Great and the Emperor Caesar Augustus, etcetera, etcetera, and just reveals that we know that the claims Jesus made about himself, that he is God. Are verifiable. I mean the resurrection demonstrates was telling the truth when he testified to his own being. And it's so incredible. Again, it's historical. It's not just one of those kind of things that didn't drop out of the sky. It happened

here on this earth in time and it's incredible. But we're also moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit and drawn by the Father, we believe in Jesus and confess, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And this is just remarkable. I love this. These first couple paragraphs are just Well, the subtitle of it is The Good News God Has Sent His Son, and it highlights paragraphs 422 to 424 highlights the good news.

that God has sent his son. It's incredible. And our response to that good news. Then we are going to hit paragraph four twenty five and following all the way to the end of four twenty nine. And it's about catechesis.

So there's a couple quotes that are coming from Catechesi Tridendi, which was written by John Paul II early on in his being pope, or AK in his pontificate, um And in it, so cateches tredeni essentially means catechesis in our time, you know, catechesis in our day. And it comes after well, came in nineteen seventy-nine, essentially, and the Holy Father, John Paul II,

He was wanting to highlight the fact that we need to continue to pass on the faith. We need here here's what we believe about Jesus. Here's what we believe about the Trinity. Here's what we believe about we believe about the church and truth. And At the heart of what we need to do is pass that on. We need to be able to express this and communicate this to other people. And so I love this paragraph 426. It says, at the heart of catechesis is Christ.

We find in essence a person, the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the only son from the Father. And it goes on. And the recognition is we want to seek to understand who God is and his eternal design reaching fulfillment in his person, right? And also to pass that on. And it's remarkable. Um paragraph 428 says, Whoever is called to teach Christ must first seek the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.

It just makes sense, right? And so, you know, here is John Paul's one of his many, many, many influences over this writing of the Catechism of the Catholic Church here is that a lot of these quotes are taken again, Catechesi Tradendi, Whoever is called to teach Christ must first seek the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, and also goes on to say

He must suffer the loss of all things in order to gain Christ and be found in him, and to know him, and the power of it of his resurrection, and to share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. that if possible, he may attain the resurrection from the dead. And this is so remarkable. You know, catechist is y typically you call a catechist someone who, you know,

teaches the catechism, someone who teaches the faith. And that could be anyone from a professor somewhere at a university to your volunteer on your Wednesday night religious education classes. That kind of situation. And at the heart of Catechesus is Jesus himself, and the heart of the catechists has to be someone who first seeks the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus and being willing to suffer the loss of all things in order to gain Christ and be found in him. And this is

Just so remarkable. This is a high call, you guys. This is a massively high call that we're receiving um today. Now, we end today with paragraph four twenty nine. And in it, it notes that we're gonna go through a couple different steps. Here we are starting today with here's what we believe. Good news, God sent his son. Remember, we talked in the last couple days about the bad news, original sin.

Here's the good news: God sent his son. The next couple articles are gonna highlight that Jesus' principal titles. So Christ. Son of God, Lord, that's what we're ta hitting on next. Also, the creed confesses the chief mysteries of Christ's life. His incarnation, that's Article three, Paschal Mystery, Articles four and five.

and glorification, articles six and seven. So basically the catechism in paragraph four twenty-nine spells out, here's the next steps we're gonna take. But today we're taking this first step of the good news God has sent his son, and we're called to preach and to teach.

The unsearchable riches of Christ. So let's get started. Say let's say a prayer today. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you so much for sending us your son. Thank you so much for revealing to us your heart by giving us. Your son.

Thank you for sending us your Holy Spirit that we can continue to walk um as your son walked. We continue to to live as he lived. We continue to love as he loved with the power that comes from you, with the power that comes from the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us. We ask you, please. Help us not only to know you better And to love you better, but help us also to represent you and communicate you, to pass you on better.

This day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. As I said, it's day sixty. Congratulations once again. And we're reading paragraphs four twenty two to four twenty nine.

Chapter 2. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord. The good news God has sent His Son. But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God has visited his people. He has fulfilled the promise he made to Abraham and his descendants. He acted far beyond all expectation. He has sent his own beloved son.

We believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth, born of a Jew, of a daughter of Israel at Bethlehem, at the time of King Herod the Great and the Emperor Caesar Augustus, a carpenter by trade, who died crucified in Jerusalem under the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, is the eternal Son of God made man. He came from God, descended from heaven, and came in the flesh.

For the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, and from His fullness have we all received grace upon grace. Moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit and drawn by the Father, we believe in Jesus and confess, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. On the rock of this faith confessed by Saint Peter, Christ built his church. to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.

The transmission of the Christian faith consists primarily in proclaiming Jesus Christ in order to lead others to faith in him. From the beginning, the first disciples burned with the desire to proclaim Christ. They said, We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard, and they invite people of every era to enter into the joy of their communion with Christ.

As is written in 1 John, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testified to it, and proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.

That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing this, that our joy may be complete. At the heart of Catechesis, Christ. Katezi Tridendi states. At the heart of Catechesis we find, in essence, a person, the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the only Son from the Father who suffered and died for us, and who now, after rising, is living with us forever.

To catechize is to reveal in the person of Christ the whole of God's eternal design, reaching fulfillment in that person. It is to seek to understand the meaning of Christ's actions and words, and of the signs worked by Him. Catechesis aims at putting people in communion with Jesus Christ. Only he can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity.

In Catechesis, Christ, the incarnate word and son of God, is taught. Everything else is taught with reference to him, and it is Christ alone who teaches. Anyone else teaches to the extent that he is Christ's spokesman, enabling Christ to teach with his lips. Every catechist should be able to apply to himself the mysterious words of Jesus, My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. Whoever is called to teach Christ must first seek the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.

He must suffer the loss of all things, in order to gain Christ and be found in him, him and to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and to share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible, he may attain the resurrection from the dead. From this loving knowledge of Christ springs the desire to proclaim him, to evangelize, and to lead others to the yes of faith in Jesus Christ. But at the same time, the need to know this faith better makes itself felt.

To this end, following the order of the Creed, Jesus' principal titles, Christ, Son of God, and Lord, Article II, will be presented. The Creed next confesses the chief mysteries of his life, those of his incarnation, Article III, Paschal Mystery, Articles four and five, and glorification, Articles six and seven.

Okay, there we are. You guys, this is

This is incredible. I I love this. Oh my gosh. This paragraph four twenty two, four twenty three, and four twenty four is just the summary of the gospel, right? It's the summary of I mean, obviously, the very first quote is from Galatians chapter four, verses four and five, where basically it says, But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That second quote is from Mark chapter 1, verse 1. But this next statement is remarkable. It says, He acted far beyond all expectation. God has acted far beyond all expectation. He has visited his people. He has fulfilled the promise he made to Abraham and his descendants. He has sent his own beloved son. I don't know. Maybe, maybe this is something you've experienced. I know it's something that I have to be reminded of at times.

And that is God didn't have to do any of this. Right? God didn't have to do any of this. Like we we went over the beginning of creation. That here's God who made this world good. We talked about this before. He didn't make this world because he needed to make this world. He made this world because he wanted to. And then when we broke it, right? When humanity broke the world, he didn't have to

Come to us. He didn't have to love us. And this is remarkable, yet he still does. Like it's the truth: God doesn't have to forgive us, but he chooses to. It's in his heart to want to love us, to want to be in relationship with us. And so here, paragraphs four twenty two, four twenty-three, four twenty four. Just talk about how incredible this is. God has acted far, far beyond all expectation. It would have been foolish to expect that God would have done this.

And yet again four hundred twenty three, this just the nuts and bolts we believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth. Born of a Jew, of a daughter of Israel, at Bethlehem, at the time of King Herod the Great, and the Emperor Caesar Augustus, a carpenter by trade, who died crucified in Jerusalem under the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius.

Okay, all those things just yep, this is what happened in time. And then we have this last line of this sentence is this person who was born of a Jew in Nazareth, under King Herod the Great, etcetera, et cetera, carpenter by trade. that this Jesus is the eternal Son of God made man. This is just incredible. And from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace because The word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Full of grace and truth, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, right? That's quote from the very beginning of John's gospel. And moved by grace and the Holy Spirit, this is paragraph four twenty-four, and drawn by the Father, we believe in Jesus and we confess you're the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Remember when St. Peter said that in Matthew chapter 16? This is remarkable. So because of this.

Because we believe this, because this is the great news, right? This is the good news. The next paragraph, therefore, the transmission of the Christian faith consists primarily in proclaiming Jesus Christ in order to lead others to faith in him. Let's listen to that again. The transmission of the Christian faith consists primarily in proclaiming Jesus Christ in order to lead others to faith in him.

You know, gosh, you know, when we when we believe this, we believe this truth that God has revealed himself, that God has come to us, he's redeemed us, he has reconciled us to the Father. What we want to do is we want to let other people know about this. And that's why the catechism says, From the beginning the first disciples burned with the desire to proclaim Christ.

Saying in Acts of the Apostles, We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard, and they invite people of every era to enter into the joy of their communion with Christ. This is the heart of evangelization, this is the heart of catechesis. And this is just so important for every one of us to understand this, that at the heart of catechesis is the person of Jesus Christ.

And in our heart, we have to have him. He has to dwell in our hearts in this way, as we say in paragraph 428, whoever is called to teach Christ must first seek the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. That there is this truth that We have a relationship with him. If we're called to teach him, then we ha already have a relationship with him. We already know him.

And w not just knowing him in the sense of intellectually, that's why the paragraph four hundred twenty eight goes on to say must suffer the loss of all things in order to gain Christ and be found in him, and to know him and the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. That if possible, he may attain the resurrection from the dead, that we're called to conform our entire lives to his. And what did Jesus' life look like?

It looked like an act of complete self-giving love. And this is what we're called to this g isn't it crazy that catechesis isn't just, okay, I know some things about Jesus and I'll tell those things about Jesus to others. It's yes, it's those things.

But even more deeply, Catechesis aims at putting people this is paragraph four twenty six, at putting people in communion with Jesus Christ, because only he can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity. And so to catechi is to reveal in the person of Jesus, the person of Christ, the whole of God's eternal design. So we have to have that the hymn in our hearts where we have to like right, we have to

be walking like him is not just to be talking like him. We have to be living like him. And it just I know, this is maybe the high call. This might be the one of those like, okay, I'm super intimidated now. Um I don't think I could ever talk about Jesus to anyone else. And yet Just like it says back in paragraph four hundred twenty five.

from the beginning, the first disciples burned with the desire to proclaim Christ. Not because they knew him perfectly, not because they understood everything thoroughly, But because they loved him. And here we are again on day sixty here, just saying, Okay, Lord, this is This is what I want. I want to love you even more. And if I love you even more,

I will be unafraid to speak of you. If I love you even more, it will actually be the desire of my heart to speak of you, to share you. Again, not just to not to beat people over the head with the truth of you, but to simply and clearly, gently and lovingly bold and powerfully share the message of who Jesus Christ is in himself and what he has done for us, leading people, leading all of us.

to that intimate relationship with the Trinity. It's incredible. So incredible. Okay, last two points. Paragraph 427 says this. In Catechesis, Christ the incarnate word and son of God is taught, right? So everything's taught in reference to Christ. And this is important, it is Christ alone who teaches. Anyone else teaches to the extent that he is Christ's spokesman, enabling Christ to teach with his lips. So I remember hearing it said that we are not God's editors.

We are God's mailmen, right? We are not the ones who uh we are here to deliver the message of Jesus Christ, not to say, well, here's my personal version of Jesus. Here's my personal version of who God is. Or what he's how he's called us to live. It's simply to say, okay, this is who God has revealed himself to be. And so if I'm going to teach

I'm teach to the extent that I'm merely Christ's spokesman. Um I'm enabling Jesus to use my lips to speak. And that's I think it's so humbling and it's honest. And it's also effective. Now, last thing. I said there's two last things. This is the last thing. Paragraph four twenty nine sets up where we're going from here. We want to

be led to say yes to faith in Jesus. We want to help lead others to faith in Jesus. And so we're going to follow the order of the creed. So tomorrow we're going to be following the right Christ's principal titles. Uh there's three of them. Christ Son of God and Lord. So we're going to start there. That's Article Two. And then we go on from there to the chief mysteries of Jesus' life.

Specifically his incarnation, Article three, the Paschal Mystery, right, his his death and resurrection, Articles four and five, and glorification. Articles six and seven. So those that's kind of the layout for the rest of the time we're going to spend here um in the catechism on Jesus. First his titles, then the chief mysteries of his life. And then also the glorification of

his his glorification. Does that make sense? Hope it does, because that's where we're going from now on. You guys, this is I'm so excited. I was actually going to use the word stoked. I am so stoked because it what a gift it is to be able to journey with you like this.

Here we are, day 60. We're plugging away. I think this is the community, you guys. At this point, you know what says? They say it takes 30 days to make a habit. Actually, I think it takes something like 90 days to make a habit. Here we are, kind of in this mid. Between thirty and and ninety, day sixty. Here we are with this habit, this community, just praying and learning and

Praying for each other, because please, we definitely need that. I need your prayers, and I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.