The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - How Do You Love God?

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

What is the greatest commandment? In Scripture, Jesus answers this question. In this episode, Jeff helps us to understand this Scripture and what it means to love Jesus by loving our neighbor Snippet from the Show If we want to truly love God with everything we have, we must look for opportunities to love our neighbor and act on those opportunities. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together and living as activated disciples. This is show 309, How to Love God. And here we are again. Thanks for joining me this week, where we get together every single week to talk about the word of God, scripture, discipleship, evangelization, how to turn this world upside down for the Lord. It all begins with our relationship with the Lord. And I got to tell you, you continue to watch network news these days. I see a lot of people throwing their hands up in the air like, what is going on in the world these days? And it just reminds me more and more, as I'm sure it probably does you as well, that the world is in desperate need of Jesus Christ. They are in desperate need

of God. And that means that the world needs to hear from you. The world needs to hear from me. We need to get on top of it and let that light shine and share the good news of the gospel with the world. You know, some people ask me, they'll say, are you discouraged, Jeff, with everything that's going on in the world? Well, I've got to admit, some days it does feel a little bit discouraging when you read about what's happening in the world as far as politics and Hollywood and Grammys and other things like that. Yeah, you look at that and you think to yourself, man, what is happening to our society? But when sin abounds, the Bible says grace all the more, and I know that this is our opportunity

to let our light shine. You know, we can either sit and curse the darkness or we can release the light. You are the light. You are the salt. And that's what we're doing every week. this show. By the way, if you'd like the show notes, we're talking today about how to love God. I'm going to give you something very practical in learning to love God. If you want the show notes, all you have to do is text my name. It's all one name, Jeff Kavens, no spaces, Jeff

Kavens, and you send it to 33777. That's 3377. Very biblical. And we'll get you the show notes, and then you'll have those in the upcoming shows as well. Well, so much has been happening in this last couple years. You know, we had Bible in a year launched, and that's in its second year, and now catechism in a year. And we're just really enjoying this burst of evangelization and interest in God's word and interest in the teachings of the church that have been handed on to us. And I would just remind you, as I need to remind myself, that it's one thing to study,

it's one thing to listen to, participate with something just, great like Bible in a year, catechism in a year. But we have to get around to doing it. We have to get around to putting it into practice in our life. And that's why I want to talk to you today about how to love God. And this came about in a conversation with some friends. And one person asked another, do you really love God? And they said, well, yeah. Yeah, don't you? He said, yeah, I love God. Well, what does that mean to love God? And it was kind of silent, you know, after that.

It's like, well, you know, it's like go to church and read the Bible, pay your ties, your offerings, and that type of thing. And it was exciting to say, hey, we want to love God. Yes, I love God. Do you? Yes. But then we get into the real details of how do you actually love God? And yes, the obvious things are things like, you know, you can worship God. You can go and spend a holy hour with the Lord and give him praise and honor.

And that certainly is a way to love God. There's no doubt about that. We can love God by just being with God and giving him glory and giving him honor. But I think one of the best ways to love God is when we start to do what God loves to do. And God loves to do all kinds of things. things. He loves the poor. He loves the widow. He loves the orphan. He loves social justice. He loves it when people read his word and respond. He loves to be with us in the mass and to give us his body and blood. And so there's a lot of different ways that we could love God. But today I want to

share with you one particular way to love God. Now, in the Bible, there, There is the teachings of Jesus, and I have had the privilege of being able to study for years, the ways that Jesus teaches, not just what he taught, but how he taught, you know, the way he deals with the Old Testament, the way he deals with words and phrases and so forth. And the great rabbi, who was contemporary Hillel, he was the one who came up with seven principles. a biblical interpretation. And one of those principles is a principle that Jesus uses in his teaching. And that principle is called gazera shava in Hebrew. Gazera shava. And gazera shava basically means literally to cut equally, to cut equally.

And it's the teaching based upon an analogy, an analogy or inference from what one verse to another. And so you may have a statement in one verse and then another way of saying the same thing to bring out a deeper meaning. So it's one of the hermeneutical rules by which a lot of the ancient rabbis were able to come up with the details of a particular scriptural law and they would oftentimes compare or cut equally these two different ideas. So Jesus does that when he talks about loving God. And he does that in Matthew chapter 22 versus 37 through 39. And I'll put that in the show notes for you. But he says here, someone asks him the question, you know, what's the greatest commandment? And there were 613 commandments in the Torah in the Old Testament,

613 commandments. And the question naturally comes up, well, which one is the greatest? You know, which is the greatest commandment of all of the commandments? There's a lot of commandments about how to treat one another and about your food, clothing, and about justice and so forth. Which one is the greatest, Jesus? And he answers the question. Now, in Jesus' time, there was really only one answer to this. And he gives that answer.

He does well. You know, you might say if they're trying to fool him, trying to trick him, you know, in some way. So here is the way the text goes. they said, what's the greatest commandment? Matthew 2237, Jesus said to them, it is, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all of your mind.

So that was it. That was it. That's the great commandment. Now, listen to what Jesus goes on to say. He says, in the first commandment is, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your. your mind this is the great and first commandment and a second is like it so he's setting it up now

where he's going to say there's another commandment that is like it now if i were to ask you to come up with another commandment that is similar to that you shall love the lord your god with all of your heart with all your soul with all of your mind and what's the second one well people might struggle to try to figure out why i don't know what is the second one And now the way Jesus teaches this, he's going to give it to you. And then I'll tell you what he's doing with it. He said, the second one is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Okay. So you have those two commandments. He says, number one, you've got to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all your soul, all your mind. Then he says, second one is you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So what is he doing there? Well, he's doing something that a number of rabbis would do in the first century. He is giving you the example of what it means to love your God, the definition of loving God with all your heart. You shall love him with all your heart, your soul and your mind.

But then in the second commandment, he's showing you, get this now, how to do it. You shall love the Lord, God with all of your heart. How do you do it? You love your neighbor as yourself. You see the connection there? he's showing us that there is a relationship, there is a horizontal relationship to the vertical relationship of loving God. Yes, Lord, I look up, I love you, I raise my hands, I worship you, I love you, I love you, he says, well, how are you going to do that? Well, how you do it is you

love your neighbor. You love your neighbor. How do I love God? I love my neighbor. That's the way I am going to love God because God loves my neighbor. So you see, he's using this Gazera Shava cut equally, the teaching based on this analogy or inference from one verse to another, to really give us the full definition of what it means to love God. Otherwise, what do you do? You know, someone says, well, I want you right now in the next 10 minutes, love God. Okay, I love God.

I love God. Hallelujah. Glory to God. maranatha glory how okay i'm doing it i'm loving god well that's not all it's not just what we say but it's what we do in word and deed and so jesus is telling you how to go out at work in your neighborhood in your home at the state fair at a ball game at the mall he's telling you how to love god and so if this is how you love god that is you love your neighbor then you have opportunities all day long to love God. You've got opportunities right in front of you.

Why at work? Who could you love? If you love the people at work, you're loving God. If it's in your neighborhood, who is it that you could love? Is it the stranger that you could love? And if you do, that's what this is about. Now, you can see by that definition, why we say Mother Teresa loved God so much. Why? Because she loved her neighbor so much. She really did. But now here's the problem that I want to bring up to you this week. And it's a problem that I've struggled with. Perhaps you've struggled with it. I know for sure the Good Samaritan, that story, there were a couple people in that story who struggled with it. Priest were one. Remember the story of the Good Samaritan? There was a man beaten and robbed by the side of the road and you had a priest, you have the, you know, these

Jewish leaders, they come by and what do they do? They go to the other side of the road. They don't pay any attention to the homeless guy that's beaten up. He don't pay any attention to this guy who has just robbed. I don't know if he was homeless, but he certainly was robbed. Pretty bad. He was beaten very badly. And he was left there on the side of the road. and the people that you would expect that would help him did not. In fact, it's almost like they put blinders. Have you seen that at the horse race? Have you ever gone to a horse race or watch the Kentucky Derby, you know, pre-race coverage?

And sometimes they have these blinders on the sides of a horse. And the purpose of that is so that the horse will just not look and off to the side. and become distracted by things that are happening on the side, but it's just kind of keeping the vision right in front of them. Well, sometimes I wonder if we wear blinders, where we don't want to see the things on the side of the road. We don't want to see that poor guy at the light who's looking for a free handout. He needs some money, some cash.

I think in the story of the Good Samaritan, the Jewish leaders who were supposed to be caring for a man who was beaten up, they had blinders on they didn't want to go to that side of the road don't bother me with that right now now i can sit and criticize them all day long but i have to ask myself is that me am i putting blinders on so i do not see opportunities to love god or jeff i didn't know that was i didn't know by loving that stranger i was loving god yeah yeah it's true it's very very true Jesus said, in Matthew 2540, I'll put it in the show notes for you. He said, truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren,

you did it to me. And so, yeah, we can put those blinders on so that we don't see what we don't want to see. So that's what I'm really addressing here today is if we want to love God with all of our heart and all of our mind, all of our body, everything we want to truly love him listen we have to be honest about this and to say lord i want to love you give me opportunities i will love you i will love my neighbor as i love myself i'll do that i'll do that but lord help me take these blinders off because i've been ignoring that for so long we're going to take a break when we come back i'm going to give you some really solid examples how to do this and uh and then going to see if we can't have a week of loving God. See how it goes. Look for opportunities. You're

listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, I'm Father Mark Toops. Do you ever feel like you're asking God for too much in your spiritual life? The truth is you're probably asking for too little. And if you'd like some help this Lent, opening up your heart to God to allow him to bless you with all that he has for you, you should pick up the new Ascension Lent and Companion Year A. This coming Lent, always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got. If you'd like some help to go deeper, you'll need to ask for more. And this is what this year's journal is designed to help you with. Each day, you'll get a word to focus on, a reflection to help you pray,

some scripture to meditate on, and a prompt to help you quiet down, and listen to what God wants to say to you. And each week, we feature a piece of original artwork as well as an original online video to help you in your prayer. I want to encourage you to be bold this lent, to ask God for more. Go to ascensionpress.com and order your copy of the Ascension Lenton companion today. God bless you. Thanks for coming back and staying with me here. We're talking about how to love God. And I have been sharing with you a little bit about Gazera Shava. It is this hermeneutic. It is this way of interpreting scripture.

that Jesus uses where he takes two ideas or two texts and he makes an inference. And in this case, in Matthew chapter 22, he says, someone asks him, you know, what's the greatest commandment? He says, well, that is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all your soul and all your mind. That's the greatest commandment. But then he says, and the second one is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

In other words, you love God. when you love your neighbor. He's going from abstract to concrete. He's going from the theology of the page to the theology of the pavement. He's showing you how to do it. You know, when we talk about loving our neighbor, oftentimes the opportunity presents itself

in a, I guess, what Mother Teresa calls, a hideous disguise. Jesus comes to us oftentimes in a hideous disguise, in such a way that we would say, I don't want anything to do with that. I don't want to look at that. I don't want to bother it. I don't want to touch it.

I don't want to, you know? And all that while, Mother Teresa would say, hey, you're missing the boat. If you really want to love the Lord, look for him in your neighbor. And don't put blinders on when it comes to hideous disguises.

Proverbs 1431. It'll be in the show notes says, he who oppresses a poor man insults his maker but get this but he who is kind to the needy honors his maker honors God so you want to honor God

then you be kind to the needy you be kind to the needy we don't do it just to feel good about ourselves you know paying it forward yeah I feel good no we're we're taking care of the needy and the church has historically taken care of the needy and there's been a preferential option in terms of making decisions that we will pay attention to the needy.

That's how you love God. That's how you love God. The prophet Amos, speaking to the northern ten tribes of Israel, between 9.30 BC and 722 BC, he said, for I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins. you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate. So Amos is actually saying that to turn aside the needy in the gate is transgression. It's part of the makeup of our sin when we do those things that we say and do and the things we don't do. We talk like that in the Mass, remember, for all those things I've done and those things I failed to do.

do. I failed to take care of the needy when they were right in front of me. Lord, I failed to love you at that moment. Ezekiel 16, verse 49, says, behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom. Oh, we know all about Sodom and Gomorrah, right? We know about the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, but it's multi-layered in that sin. Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom. Do you know what's really interesting? My wife is a biblical archeologist. And as I'm sharing this with you right now, she is at Sodom. She is. He's over in Jordan right now, over in the Middle East, on an archaeological dig at Tel Al Hamam, which is believed to be the ancient Sodom. So here I'm talking about Sodom and Gomorrah. My wife's digging through the dirt over there right now. And she's actually discovered some things. She sent some pictures back

to me this morning. So behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease. But she did not help the poor and needy. Yes, there's sexual sin at Sodom and Gomorrah. But there's other sins that go along with that. And one is she did not share. She did not help the poor and the needy. And then I love it again.

I'll say it again. Matthew 25. truly I say to you, as you did it to one of these, the least to my brethren, you did it to me. Now, think with me for a moment. With the Bible filled with so much about the poor, in the last week, have you had any relationship with the poor and needy? That's a good question to ask. I'm not, I'm not guilting you or anything, but I am asking the question with so much in the New Testament about the poor and this teaching in the church, this preferential. option that we're going to spend our time ministering to the poor is simply a really

straightforward question in the last week have you had any relationship with the poor and the needy okay what about in the last month have you had any relationship in the last month with the poor or the needy so there's a lot of opportunities for us to love god and like for example I'll give you some examples here, okay? There are opportunities to love God in your parish. That's right. Your parish might have a food, reach, you know, outreach, or they might be helping people.

Like I know there's a wonderful church in one of the suburbs of Indianapolis, Our Lady of Mount Carmel. I've been there before. What a wonderful parish. They have so many outreaches to the poor. financial help, handling finances, that type of help. You need a dentist, you need a doctor. And they do just a wonderful job at loving God by loving their neighbor.

So there's a lot of opportunities. In fact, you can build a ministry within your parish for the poor for the purpose of loving God. Because you want to take care of the poor and the needy. There's also the time with children. Sometimes we don't want to take the time to spend with our children because there's so many other important things we're trying to give ourselves to. But to give yourself to the children and to give yourself to children who don't have what your own children have can be a wonderful gift to God. It really can. But you know what I have found is that there are two other areas where if you love someone who is needy,

you can love God. Try loving your spouse when they're tired, when they're burned out. You can spend time loving them or caring for your aging parents. Catechism says that's a way of worshiping God to care for your aging parents. We don't want to put the blinders on and say, I'm not going to pay attention to that. I got my own life. I got my own family. I got my own bills. I got my own things to deal with. No. With your aging parents, my friend, you've got a way of loving God this week. But you know what comes to my mind right away about ways of loving people and loving God? It's the corporal works of mercy. That's right. We've got the corporal works of mercy. You can look them up anywhere. They have been established for many, many, many years. The church

recognize us certain things that we can do, which are typically related to the needy or those who are in some kind of want. The corporal works of mercy, first of all, mercy is really, it is God's love touching the pain and the predicament of people. It's God's love right in the midst of the pain. So the first work of mercy that you can do, and by doing that, you will love God as feed the hungry. We have a place in Minneapolis called Sharing and Carrying Hands where they feed hundreds and hundreds of people every single day. They put people up in little apartments. They get them back looking for a job and they wash their feet when they come in.

I'll tell you what, those people love God. They love God over there. They do. So you can feed the hungry. But you know what? Sometimes I'm guilty. I'm saying it right now. sometimes I see people who are standing by a stoplight with a sign that says I'm unemployed,

I need help, and you know, whatever the sign might say. I'm not happy to say it, but I have a way of sort of looking down at the instruments in the car and just sort of acting like, I don't see that. I don't see that. I lock my door, you know, I don't see that. Well, I remember talking to this one guy years ago and he said, you know what, I know that a lot of this is, you know, people who are just using it as an opportunity to get money. Maybe some of them even have a nice home.

I don't know, but can I afford to miss Jesus here? So one of the things I've been doing is I got a pile of ones, maybe 10 ones, you know. And I put them in a little, you know, in the console between the two seats and the front seat. And if I'm driving somewhere and I come down to a stoplight, and I see that man or that woman standing there. At least I have that money. And if nothing else, I'm going to give them a dollar. I'm just going to say, hey, there, I don't want to miss Jesus.

Someone's probably saying, well, and why don't you hand out $100 bills? Well, now, come on now. So maybe someday, right? But the point is, is that I don't want to turn my head. It's not good for them. It's not good for the kingdom. It's not good for me. So maybe a small pile of 10 ones.

you know, and I can start to get into the habit of, I'm not going to miss your Lord. And this is my way of loving you. The second corporal work of mercy is drink to the thirsty, giving people, you know, something to drink. A shelter to the homeless is the third one. That's what caring and sharing hands does. Maybe there's a ministry in your town, in your city that does this type of thing. A shelter to the homeless. But, you know, there's shelters in almost every town, but I wonder how many people.

people actually get down there to work there, maybe give, but to go down and actually work or volunteer. We've got several ministries in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul, that we like to get involved in, bring the family down to pack up food to send out around the world. Here's another corporal work of mercy. It's visiting the sick. You can do that. I know of people who have actually said to their pastor, is there anybody that I can bring? communion to? Can I visit the sick? Can I visit those who are alone at a senior home? And visiting the prisoners, that's another corporal work of mercy, works that we do in the body here, visiting the prisoners. I've had the privilege of doing prison ministry for years, and I'll tell you what,

it is powerful to go into a prison and sit down face to face with someone and to share the good news with them and let them know that they're loved, that you care. That's one way. That's one way. you can love Jesus. Visit him in prison. Barry the dead. You know that every week in our parish father gives an announcement at the end and he tells us all the funerals that are going to be going on for the next three or four days after Sunday. Do you know that you, you know why he's doing that? Because you have an opportunity to attend and comfort the family and show support or to volunteer with food or caring for the place. You can do something. You can love Jesus by going to a funeral and supporting a family in your parish. Have you ever done that? If not, maybe you can do that in the next couple

weeks. And then, of course, there's alms to the poor. We give. And I know a lot of my friends, I know you probably give to the poor in some way. It's just another way that we can love God. So back to the analogy that I used with Mother Teresa, we must learn to see Jesus. in the most hideous disguise. Are you seeing him in your life? Are you seeing that hideous disguise in your life? Mother Teresa had an eye for the poor. She could spot the poor and the needy in a crowd any time, anytime.

As some notice fine clothes and cars, Mother Teresa noticed distress. And she did something. That's why she's a saint, you know. You want to be a saint? imitate the saints. imitate the saints so many people love mother teresa do you i do i'm right behind me i look in here i see some books i have on my bookshelf mother teresa so many people love mother teresa they like her but in is that in theory or in practice the saints are models imitate mother teresa as she

imitates jesus that's what the saints are here for ask mother teresa pray ask say pray for me, Mother. Pray for me that I would have the heart of Jesus and that I would, like you, Mother Teresa, I would notice Jesus in a hideous disguise. And I want to love him. So that's what I wanted to share with you this week, my dear friend, is I wanted to share with you how to love God. Yes, I know there's a lot of ways to do it. But this week, for some reason, somehow, that's what was on my heart to share with you. Now, either something has happened in the the last few days with you where you're thinking, oh my gosh, I can't believe he's talking about this. You won't believe what happened to me in the last three or four days. Or an opportunity's

coming tomorrow, today, two days from now, three days from now. You just might get an opportunity this week. Don't blow it. Don't blow it. Embrace it. Love Jesus. I'd love to hear from you. Send me an email. The Jeff. Kaven Show email. That's my address, The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. And go online, go ahead and rank this show, do a comment. It helps with the algorithms, for sure, you and I are working together. So this week, let's love God. Let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Jesus, we love you so much. We love you so much. And Lord, we don't want to love you just in theory or just in words, but we want to love you in words and deeds. And so, Lord, we know that

The way we can love you with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind is to love our neighbor as ourself. And Lord, I pray that this week we would be sensitive and we would be open to recognize you in a distressful disguise. Jesus, speak to our hearts when it happens and let us know what we can do. to love you. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I love you, my friend.

I really do. And I look forward to being with you next week. Oh, by the way, look at the show notes on this one. Great Adventure Bible. It's in large print now. You know someone that wants to read the Bible, but needs large print. Go to the show notes.

God bless you. I look forward to talking to you next week. Thank you.