Day 264: Man’s Merit (2026)
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What is the purpose of today’s episode and which Catechism paragraphs are being read?
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 in God's family as we journey together toward a heavenly home. This is day 264. We're reading paragraphs 2006-2008. 2011. 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. You can also download your own Catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com.
And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app. for daily updates and daily notifications. Today is day 264, only one day until we're 100 days away from completing this. And what did we talk about today, yesterday, and the day before? Grace. So good. Amazing, as we said at the very end of that episode. Today, merit. What is merit? And this is so important because there can be, there can be a misconception of what merit is. And because we say, wait a second, but grace is the unmerited gift of God. Like the salvation is unmerited. And yet there is such a thing as merit. So what is that? Well, I'm glad you asked because paragraphs 2006 to 2011 are going to answer that question. So let's come before the Lord with humble hearts on this beautiful gift of a day.
Talking about merit, Father in heaven, thank you. In the name of your son, Jesus, we ask you to please receive our thanks. You have given us the gift of new life. You've given us the gift of mercy. You've given us the gift of having a relationship with you to be able to to be your sons and daughters. You've adopted us. And by the power of your Holy Spirit, you abide in us. And in you, we live and move and have our being. We thank you this day and every day. Please receive our thanks. Without you, we can do nothing. Without you, we are nothing. May you be glorified now and forever. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. It is day 264. We are reading paragraphs 2006 to 2011.
Merit. In the Roman Missal, we pray. For you are praised in the company of your saints, and in crowning their merits, you crown your own gifts. The term merit refers in general to the recompense owed by a community or a society for the action of one of its members, experienced either as beneficial or harmful, deserving reward or punishment. Merit is relative to the virtue of justice in conformity with the principle of equality which governs it. With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man. Between God and us, there is an immeasurable inequality, for we have received everything from him, our creator. The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace.
The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative and then follows man's free acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man's merit, moreover, itself is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit. filial adoption, and making us partakers by grace in the divine nature can bestow true merit on us as a result of God's gratuitous justice. This is our right by grace, the full right of love, making us co-heirs with Christ and worthy of obtaining the promised inheritance of eternal life. The merits of our good works are gifts of the divine goodness.
Grace has gone before us. Now we are given what is due.
How does Father Mike define “merit” and why is it often misunderstood?
Our merits are God's gifts. Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification at the beginning of conversion.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the purpose of today’s episode and which Catechism paragraphs are being read?
0:05–3:47
2
How does Father Mike define “merit” and why is it often misunderstood?
3:47–5:38
3
What does the Catechism say about the relationship between God’s grace and human merit (paragraphs 2006‑2008)?
5:38–9:44
4
How do the saints illustrate that our merits are actually gifts from God?
9:44–15:06