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

to 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 293. We're reading paragraphs 2263 to 2267. As always, I am using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes a foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism in a year 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. Today is day 293, paragraphs 2263 to 2267. We're looking at legitimate

defense. Remember yesterday we set the context.

The context, of course, is the dignity of the human person as well as the actual heart of the

commandment, which is you shall not kill, which is specifically means taking an innocent human life.

So murdering an innocent human being. That is what the definition is. But we also heard that we are called

by Jesus to go beyond that. We're called to avoid feeding anger, to avoid solidifying into hatred

or to pursue vengeance. We're called to love our enemies and do good to those who hurt us

and those who hate us. It's a high call. Now, at the same time,

there's a big question? And the big question is, is there ever a chance? Is there ever an

opportunity? Is there ever a time when it is legitimate to defend yourself? If you're a Christian,

is there ever a time when you are able to defend yourself? And so today we're talking about

that. That's what paragraphs 2263 through 2267 are all about. They're all about the question of, is it possible to have legitimate defense? So we'll look at that today. And in order to prepare ourselves, again, keeping in mind that we have the mind of Christ, not just the way of the world. The way of the world would say, yeah, do whatever you can. In fact, the way of the world in some ways would be the old prescription of the law, which is an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, or even worse than that, which is, you know, a life for a tooth or a family's life for an eye. Here, as Christians, we are called to have clearer vision than that. We are called to have bigger hearts than that at the same time. Is there

room? Christians, we are called to have clearer vision than that. We are called to have bigger hearts than that

at the same time. Is there room for legitimate defense? We're looking at that today. To prepare our

hearts for that, to have that kind of vision, the vision that is given to us by the Lord, we call upon

his name as we pray. Father in heaven, in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, send us your Holy Spirit, send your Holy Spirit so that we can see the way you see, that we can view the world and others, the way you view the world and others. Help us to have accurate vision. Have us to have clear vision. Not only that, Lord God, give us hearts like yours, hearts that love what you love, hearts that hate what you hate.

Lord God, give us courageous hearts and also prudent hearts that can be discerning, that can recognize when is the time to lay down one's life?

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