The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Do Catholics Swear? The Language of the Sacraments

Episode Date: February 2, 2018

While we don’t swear in a vulgar way (that is not who we are), we do swear in a heavenly language. This is exactly what the sacraments are all about. During antiquity, the Latin word “sacramentum��� meant “to designate an oath” which was sworn in the making of a family covenant so as to bond two families together. Today, when we participate in the sacraments, we partake in a sacred encounter with God. We swear an oath to uphold the terms of the covenant and receive the benefits of God. In this episode, Jeff dives deep into the sacraments and explains how they bond us together with God.

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, episode 50. Do Catholics swear the language of the sacraments? Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show.

Thank you for joining me this week. We're talking about sacraments this week. and the whole issue of, do Catholics swear? Probably caught your attention there. Not click bait, but a real question. Do we? Yes, we do. Catholics do swear, but we do not swear in a vulgar way. That's not who we are in crass language,

but we do swear in a heavenly language. And that's what the sacraments are about. We're going to be talking about that today on the show. Hey, I just got back from Israel. and I in fact this has something to do with sacraments I love going on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and we just got back and we do this every every January sometimes we do it a couple times a year and I just finished my 51st 51st Pilgrimage to the Holy Land and I'll tell you what I like about it so much I like walking where Jesus walked I like seeing the same hills that the Blessed Mother saw and I I love seeing the same hills that the Blessed Mother saw and I I love seeing the staging grounds of Cessori, Ameritima, where Paul left for Rome. It really adds a new dimension to my Bible study and to my devotional life. And I hope you can come with me sometime. You can get the information on my website, jeffcavins.com. And we always have information about the

next trip, and we hope that you can join us. It'll be next January. Well, the reason that I like those so much is because I know for a lot of people, there's this idea of, well, I wasn't there 2,000 years ago. I didn't get to walk with Christ. I couldn't touch him. I couldn't see him. And so I feel like I'm sort of relegated to a second-class relationship. Well, that's not true because the sacraments, what the sacraments really do is the sacraments allow you to encounter Christ in a real way and to revisit great events in the Bible in a real way.

to receive real grace from him. When I was a kid growing up, I used to kind of think that the sacraments were like this magic wand thing, you know? And I didn't know what was going on. And I just kind of went through it. My parents told me to go to confession, but I didn't really know what was taking place. Well, I've come a long way.

And I'll tell you, I sure have an appreciation for the sacraments. And it's something that the church has always celebrated. You know, we believe that there are seven sacraments and that each of the sacraments were instituted by Christ. And that's what I want to talk about. But I want to talk about the aspect of where do we swear, specifically swear an oath, when we participate in the sacraments.

Before I do that, I want to thank you so much for going to iTunes and ranking the show and leaving your feedback. It really helps with the show getting out there. It really does. You and I are partners in many ways as we do this. And I'd love to hear from you. My email is really quite simple, The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. It's really easy. So I got a couple of emails here. One is from Blake, and he is an example of someone who went looking for answers on the web, specifically Google Play, and he found the podcast that I did on anger, an episode called Angry as Hell. And he writes in, he says, my name's Blake. I'm 22 years old.

I'm a forklift operator. I work graveyard. And usually I listen to music as I work. But lately, I have been struggling with quick irritability and a short fuse. After speaking with my family and friends, it became clear I needed God in my life. So one night, as I was listening to music, I couldn't stop thinking about God and something told me to search on Google Play for a Bible study. So I did. And it came across your show, Jeff. As I clicked on your podcast, I quickly said a little prayer that went along the lines of, please give me something here, something that will stand out.

And as I scrolled, I found your show, the episode, Angry as Hell. Needless to say, after listening to that show, I felt moved and have since been listening every night in place of music. I feel so much better. I've been reading scripture every morning when I get off work, and I can literally feel the anger wash away whenever I do. So I'd like to just say, thank you, Jeff. Well, Blake, I appreciate you writing,

and you're experiencing anger, and so many of us do. You know, you're not alone. And in that episode, we really draw the line, and we distinguish between an anger that leads to sin and an anger that leads to righteousness and that the anger of men will not accomplish the righteousness of God but anger is usually a sign that something needs to change and then we can make that change.

So I appreciate you writing that the podcast made a difference in your life. Dave writes in, he says, love your podcast. I was listening to your cup of curigma episode. Now, the corigma is the basic seven points to the message we use in sharing Christ with people. We were talking about a cup of curigma for your friends. And he said, I'm an old guy who is a cradle Catholic, and I feel the need to be more bold in my evangelizing. I had great Catholic parents and need to formulate my story of conversion. There was no one event but several and more of a gradual growth.

Any suggestions, Jeff? Well, Dave, yes, I do. And one is that, not that you're making this mistake, but some people do. They make the mistake of thinking that they've got to have this great big story from drugs to Christ, from jail to church,

and they've got to write about it, you know, and then they got a story, then they got something to share. And that's just not true. When it comes to the churigma, the basic message of the gospel, it starts with a miracle, an event, and that's what's happened in your life. And I truly believe, Dave, that one of the most beautiful things, as far as sharing our faith, is when we hear a story of someone who was raised by godly parents, and they

walked in that as children, and they have experienced the peace of God, the purpose of God. the certitude that we have as being Christians, but really that deep, deep contentment that comes as a result of following Jesus, if you've got that, whether it was a huge story or whether it was a gradual realization, Dave, that's what the world needs to hear.

And that is the miracle. That's the event. That's where we start, is that, you know, God has made a difference in my life. And that is the launching pad, So to all of you who would say, well, I don't have a great big story, you do.

You have a healing of the heart that is beautiful, subtle to some, and desirable. And I would start with that. I really would. But I appreciate all of your emails. The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com is how you get a hold of me.

And sometimes I'll read them on the air. And a lot of times it's just personal encouragement. and I do appreciate it. Okay, turning our attention to the sacraments, sometimes when we see the sacraments, when we're younger, we don't realize what is behind them. And a sacrament is a sign that points to something deeper, a mystery. And oftentimes we can miss that, you know, we miss it.

I'll give you an example in my own life, which is a little revealing and embarrassing. I don't know what you'll think of me after this, but when I was traveling through Mississippi a number of years ago, I was going, I think it was in Jackson, Mississippi. And all of a sudden I had this epiphany as I looked at a shell gas station. And as I drove by, I saw the giant yellow shell and the name shell for the gas station. And it hit me.

That's a shell. The logo is actually in the shape of a shell. Now, you're saying to me, duh, but for some reason I looked at that logo all those years and never noticed that it was a shell. Now, I think of myself as a pretty observant person, but for some reason I didn't get that when I looked at it. Now, I'm embarrassed to tell you that,

and you're probably thinking, wow, glad you caught up. on there, Jeffrey? Well, I was a little embarrassed, especially when I told my wife and she goes, yeah, you never saw that? No, I didn't. Well, in the same way, you can look at the sacraments, you know, and you can miss what is really behind that, what is the mystery. Now, one of the things that we face is Catholics is that some people will say, well, you Catholics are about sacraments and ritual and ceremony and somehow that is not considered real. It's considered sort of second level and that we want a real encounter with Jesus, like in the Word of God and worshiping God.

And are those real encounters with the Lord? Absolutely, reading the Bible, worshiping God, yes. But Jesus instituted 2,000 years ago, a sacramental life where we can come into contact with matter, the things of this earth, and by doing that, we can come in touch with him, and he can give us this life. Now, the entire Christian life revolves around the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments. And there are seven of these sacraments. You've got the baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick,

holy orders, matrimony. And in order to understand the sacraments, the starting point is to study the mystery of the incarnation. Specifically, get this, God became a man. God became a man. This is the mystery of the incarnation. In God's plan, established before the foundation of the earth, God purpose to communicate truth by taking on flesh through the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the divine and human natures, are joined in union in the one divine person of the son of God. Now, the theological term used to reveal that is the hypostatic union. The hypostatic union is simply, Jesus is one person, two natures, human and divine. So John, for example, John's Gospel and John 1 and John 14, I'll put these in the show notes,

John 1.14 says the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And John 14.9 says, He who has seen me has seen the Father. He who has seen me has seen the Father. So God, who made matter and spirit, redeemed matter and spirit, and now uses matter and spirit to redeem us as well. So we have to say with the church that Jesus Christ, the Creator, and the Redeemer of the world, in the sacraments is continuing to use matter for our redemption. In short, matter matters.

Now, as we look at the catechism and what the catechism says about sacraments, in paragraph 1116, it says that sacraments are powers that come forth from the body of Christ, which is ever living and life-giving. They are actions of the Holy Spirit at work in his body, the church. They are the masterworks of God in the new and everlasting covenant. And then paragraph 1131 and 1127 says that the sacraments are called efficacious signs of grace instituted by Christ and entrusted to the church by which divine life is dispensed to us. They are efficacious because in them Christ Himself,

is at work. It is he who baptizes. He who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each sacrament signifies. My friend, this is such a great thing that God has given us a way to obtain grace and that it's literally Christ working in these sacraments for us to have life. I love it. Now, I'm going to take a break here. come back, I want to talk about this swearing aspect of a sacrament and then take a look at the four dimensions of the sacramental life that I think will make a difference in your life. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show. If you're looking for a way to learn more about your Catholic faith, I invite you to check out

the Ascension Presents YouTube channel. You're going to find tons of free videos featuring Catholic presenters like Matt Frad, Lea Dero, Jackie Bobby Angel, and Emily Wilson. Go the YouTube.com slash ascension presents. That's YouTube.com slash ascension presents. And if you like what you see, please share and subscribe. Welcome back. We're talking about swearing an oath, the sacraments. And I have entitled the show, something that is maybe caught your attention there. And that is, do Catholics swear? And the answer is, yes, we do, but it's a heavenly swearing. And it's dealing with the sacrament. So swearing an oath, what are we talking about here?

The word sacramentum is the Latin term used in antiquity to designate an oath. Now, an oath was sworn in the making of a covenant, resulting in a family bond between two parties. So if you had two different villages and they were having trouble, they came together and said, we need to make a covenant with one another, they then would come together, and they would put together terms of the covenant. They would swear an oath, and the result would be that they would become family, and there would be a bond between the two villages at that point. And so the word sacrament comes from the Latin word sacramentum, which is the translation of the Greek word Mysterian. A mystery is something that is known or seen or revealed, but in some way conceals

something else. There's something deeper. In the case of the sacraments, the mystery is the life of the Trinity. So as we look at these seven sacraments, they are signs that point to a mystery, and that mystery is the Trinity in the life of God. And so when we participate in the sacraments, it's an encounter with God. Now, every time we partake of the sacraments, guess what's taking place? We are swearing an oath. We're swearing an oath to do what? To uphold the terms of the covenant and receive the benefits of God. This is really, really important. So that means that when I go to confession, I am swearing an oath to walk in righteousness, to forsake sin and the near occasion of sin. Now, I'm going to go a little bit

deeper into this, but I want to draw from an article that I was reading by a friend, Brian Pizzolado, great guy. And he was writing, wrote an article online about sacraments as sign. And he was drawing from Dom Cyprian Vagadini, who did a great big, huge thousand-page book called Theological Dimensions of the Liturgy. I could put that in the show notes for you as well. And he talked about four aspects of a sacrament that I think are really important. And I want to take this idea of oath swearing that when we participate in a sacrament, a sacrament, we are swearing an oath of fidelity to Christ and to imitate Christ.

I want to bring that into these four signs, and I think it will help you understand when you go to confession, when you receive the Eucharist, marriage as a sacrament, walking in the power of confirmation, all of this is related to oath swearing. Now, Brian brings out in the article, he says, first, each, each says, sacrament is a sign demonstrative of the present invisible sacred realities.

It's a sign demonstrative of the present invisible sacred realities. Another way of saying this is that each sacrament is an efficacious sign. The visible sign actually affects in us the invisible reality

that it signifies. For example, he goes on and says, the visible sign of water in baptism indicates what? When someone is baptized, there is a cleansing of the flesh when the water is poured. But that indicates the cleansing of the person in relating to sin. Okay? So there is a, yes, a natural cleansing, but a supernatural cleansing is what was behind that visible sign of water in baptism. So in every sacrament, there is this sign demonstrative of the,

present, invisible, sacred realities. Each sacrament is an efficacious sign. Number two, each sacrament is a moral sign. So when we receive the sacraments, we do what? When we receive the sacraments, as I said before, we swear to God to a life of imitating Christ, to a life of faithfulness, to the covenant that we have. It's a moral sign.

So in the sacrament, for example, of confession, reconciliation, what are we swearing? We're swearing to God to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. In marriage, we're swearing to God to a lifelong fidelity to our spouse and an openness to having children. In confirmation, we swear to God to spread and defend the fullness of the faith in both word and deed, because confirmation is about receiving empowerment to share the message of the gospel around the world. In the mass, we are swearing an oath when we receive the Eucharist. When we say amen, we are saying, I swear to God concerning this covenant.

It's very, very powerful. Very, very powerful. Number three, each sacrament is a very powerful. a sign showing Christ's saving action, especially his passion in death. So in the Mass, the past event of the Last Supper and Christ's death on the cross is made present to us in a sacramental way. We are actually there at Calvary, as I was last week. Literally, we are at the cross of Calvary just as much as the early disciples were. And all the sacraments are an actual true participation in this saving action of Christ. It's very, very powerful.

And then the fourth, each sacrament is a prophetic sign of the heavenly glory and of eternal realities. In the new covenant, each of the sacraments is also a pledge of future glory and life, not just a current reality, but a participation in future glory, Christ gives us now what is going to be a reality for eternity in heaven. So those are four aspects of the sacraments that are really important to realize. Now, as I mentioned earlier, sometimes I think that Catholics take a bad rap because of people say, well, the sacraments are like, you know, not a real encounter with God when they actually are. But we have to realize that we are created beings. And as I said earlier, Christ has changed matter. And so our five senses now really matter in our full participation

with God and in worshiping God. So we have sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing, sound. And these are very, very important in a full expression of praise and interaction with God. Sight? What do we do? We experience a beautiful church

with stained glass windows, frescoes, paintings, statues. It tells a story of faith to a person. It communicates to us. Touch, the sign of peace, kneeling, genuflecting, the striking of the breast

at the confidior, and sprinkling. of holy water, conveys the sacred actions of prayer. Smell, which is one of the things that drew me back to the Catholic Church, even when I was a Protestant pastor. The incense, the candles burning, it transports the person to another world, the sphere of the divine. Incense has long been associated with our prayers rising to God. The fragrant smell is a pleasing symbol of our offering to God. Taste in the reception of Holy Communion,

we have the foretaste of the heavenly banquet that Christ has prepared for us. In sound, not only from the preaching of the word and the recitation of prayers, but also in the singing of liturgical music. St. Augustine, a 4th century bishop, and theologian once said, singing, in singing, I pray twice.

So Jesus Christ, I love this quote I want to share with you from the Catholic Answers book. It says Jesus Christ is the word that existed for all eternity and then took on flesh. His sacred humanity elevated ours. Hence, when we worship God through the senses of our human bodies, we give credence to the incarnation. And it is the incarnation, really, that is the basis of the sacramental life, that we can come into contact with water in baptism

and something supernatural happens to us. Oil at confirmation, marriage, we can go into a confessional and something happens in our soul where our sins are actually forgiven. Because why? We have encountered Christ. This is beautiful.

We encounter Christ in baptism. We encounter Christ in the Holy Eucharism. we encounter Christ in confirmation, holy orders, matrimony, the anointing of the sick, and in confession. So I want to leave you with this, that when we celebrate the sacraments, it isn't magic. It is a real encounter. And there's so much more that we could say here. But the main point I want to convey to you this week is this, that when you participate in those seven sacraments,

whatever your state of life, there is an oath swearing, there is a renewal of the covenant that you have with God, and the key to life and the key to joy and the key to happiness is fidelity to the new and everlasting covenant. So this week, when you go to Mass, and you hear from the words of the one who is giving you the Eucharist, the body of Christ. And you say the word amen. Be cognizant of the fact that you are saying, I swear to God, that I will be faithful to the tenets of this new and everlasting covenant. When you walk into the world, renew your baptismal promises, when you go out into the world, renew your confirmation, that outward sign of oil that was placed upon you,

and walk in that boldness to be a witness. When you encounter your spouse and you love them and you care for them, you are participating in the life of the Trinity. Oh, it's just beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. I want to share that with you this week, and I pray that God will, bring you deeper into the sacramental life because he wants to be more intimate with you and he wants to share himself more with you than ever before. And you can do that in the

sacramental life. Let's close in prayer. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord, I thank you for the sacraments. I thank you that you have given us this tangible, earthy way of approaching you and receiving your grace. Lord, may we avail ourselves more often to this great gift of the seven sacraments. And may we walk in all the graces that they give us. Jesus, we want more of you. We pray this in Jesus' name in your powerful name. Amen.

Name of the Father's Son and the Holy Spirit. Have a great week. Thank you.