The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Into the Night: Lent, Confession, and Transformation

Episode Date: February 28, 2020

Jeff guides you deeper into your heart and conscience than you’ve ever gone before. In your next confession, don’t repeat your usual “sin checklist” to the priest. Instead, fully expose your heart to Jesus and allow him to bring hope, healing, and peace in a way that profoundly transforms you. For episode shownotes and resources, visit AscensionPress.com. (https://media.ascensionpress.com/podcast/into-the-night-lent-confession-and-transformation/)

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, episode 155, Into the Night, Lent, Confession, and Transformation. 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. And I want to welcome you to the show today, coming to you not deep in the woods of Minnesota this week, but deep into the bayou. That's right. I'm in Louisiana, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. My wife and I arrived yesterday.

And we love it down here. You know, we've kind of made an annual trek to the swamp. And we love Baton Rouge and the good friends we have down here. Chef John Falls, a very good friend of mine. And Sister Dulce, I'm going to be giving a seminar, and that's going to be coming up in about a week or so. I've got a lot of wonderful engagements down in the south here, and my wife and I are really looking forward to speaking in New Orleans, Metery, the outskirts of Baton Rouge Gonzales, Father Josh Johnson, his parish. I'll be there in the next week or so. So we are looking forward to the 70s and 80s and escaping the cold of Minnesota.

I don't mind it so much. Emily, not so much. She doesn't like it like I do. But anyway, it's good to be here. And I'm entering Lent, if you are listening to this out of sequence, last night was Ash Wednesday, and still have the remains of the ashes on my forehead. But you know what? Ash Wednesday is not so much about the ashes as it is your daily living and the way you treat people

and how you relate to things and your heart. That's really what Lent is all about. And I thought it would be a wonderful idea to really have a show at the beginning of Lent that sets the stage for going into areas of your life and going deeper into your soul than you've ever gone before. And that's what I want to talk about, is going deep into confession, or as I've entitled this show, Into the Night. And it's really named after an amazing song that I'm going to share with you on this show by Allie Aaliyah called Into the Night. It's one of the best written songs I've ever heard and just really, really a good song. And I'm going to share that with you. In fact, I would encourage you to look up all of her music. And I think after hearing it today on

the show, you're going to be in agreement. She's an outstanding Catholic artist with very, very thoughtful lyrics and just a cool vibe altogether, and I really appreciate her. But let me talk to you just a little bit about going deeper than you've ever gone before in confession. By the way, the show notes are available. If you are getting them, that's great. If you're not getting the show notes, and you're driving like a lot of people do when they listen to shows like this, podcasts. We're going to give you those show notes. All you've got to do is text my name is one string, Jeff Kaven's, no spaces, Jeff Kavins. And you text, the number you text is 33777. That's kind of easy to remember, 3377. And I'll have all the scripture that I use in

the show and even the connections, the links to Ali Alia in her music, especially this song into the night. You know, as I walk with Jesus as a disciple of the Lord, it is easy at times to get into a rut of just studying the things that I'm interested in and studying theology, it's apologetics, you know, looking up different verses in the Bible and looking up commentaries and so forth, and it's interesting and it's needful, it's very good, it's life transforming. But as I'm walking, with the Lord on a daily basis, it's amazing how much clutter can get into the way and, you know, old habits or ways of thinking or the way you treat people, the way you handle money and time, the way you spend your time. And if you're not diligent and on top of it, you can get into ruts

that are negative in terms of your relationship with the Lord. It sends you down the wrong road, and you don't want to go there. And I think that Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lenton, the beginning of a good time of really examining our lives in where we're going. And it's all in preparation for the greatest event in the world, the resurrection of Jesus. And it's the point where God has overcome the sin in our life and allowed us to walk with him and to experience that victory. But it's not the easiest thing in the world. We do have to roll up our sleeves and we have to go after it. The gospel reading for today on this podcast really spoke to my heart. My wife and I were doing Lexio de Vina this morning deep in the bayou, and it was Luke chapter 9, verses 22 through 25,

where it says, Jesus said to his disciples, the son of man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. And then he said to all, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world, yet lose or forfeit himself. That is an amazing scripture. It's the day after Ash Wednesday, and this scripture is given to the church, but it really lays it out, doesn't it? And that is that if you really want to, if you really want to come after Jesus, you've got to deny yourself, and you've got to take up your

cross daily, and you have to follow him. But as you're following him, it's important to remember that whoever wishes to save his life is going to lose it. And that's what we do in our culture. There's so much about our culture that is all about you saving your life, the way you look, your health, longevity, comfort, status. There's just so much. But Jesus said, whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. And part of losing your life is dealing with your heart and losing those things that really inhibit becoming holy and becoming like Jesus. So I want to talk about going into the night, going into the night of your soul. And by the way, if you hear background noise, it's because I literally am here in Louisiana with, I have roosters outside. I've got equipment,

people working on other buildings around me. So just bear with me on that. And what's important is is the message. So going into the night, there are areas of my life and areas of your life that I would call, you know, the night. And I don't like to talk about those. And maybe you don't like to talk about those areas of your life. But it's precisely those areas of your life that the Lord wants to cleanse and he wants to bring light to that darkness in your own life. And he wants to bring transformation. And Lent is a beautiful time to go deep into the night, to go into those areas of your heart, those private quarters of your soul that the Lord wants to touch. Now, confession is the opportunity for us to go deep and to cleanse, a deep cleanse in our

life. But here's the problem that I face, and maybe you do too, and that is that confession oftentimes becomes kind of a rut. And what do I mean by that? What I mean is that we say, well, I need to go to confession this week. So we kind of look at the calendar and say, well, I'll go this Saturday morning. I'll go to confession at church this Saturday. So yay, we did one thing. We kind of put it on the schedule. And as Saturday rolls around, you know, we get up in the morning and we say, well, I'm going to go to confession today at 10 o'clock, and then we'll get on with the day. So you go to the church and you walk into the chapel or the main sanctuary, and there's seven, eight people in front of you standing against the wall waiting to go to confession, and you get

in line as well. So you're number eight, for example. And then suddenly you realize that, you realize I need to kind of do an examination of conscience, I need to check my heart, and you go through a what I would call familiar list. You go through a familiar list, a checklist of the areas of your life that maybe you have confessed before. It's just a common list. You know what I'm talking about. And so you get up to number four, number three, number two, number one, and suddenly, boom, you're there and you go through this, Father, forgive me for I have sin, and it's da-dum, da-dum, did he do, right? And you find yourself leaving and getting back in the car, and you go about your day. Now, it's good.

that we go to confession, don't get me wrong, but I think sometimes we can get into a rut where we carry this checklist in our heart, and we know very well we're going to mention two or three things over and over, and we get out. But what I'm suggesting this year is to do a deep cleanse, to do a deep, deep cleanse in your heart, and to go into areas that maybe you have never gone before. But the only way that you can do that is to have a deep examination of conscience, to look at your heart and to ask the Lord to show you, to cast light on areas of your life that you simply don't go, but they're deep, they're dark, and you need to bring it to Jesus. Now, the typical examination of conscience, which is good, is that we go through what?

we go through the Ten Commandments, and those are very good, you know, to go through the Ten Commandments and to check your heart to see, are you in, are you contrary to any of these things, you know, in your life? And these are the big ticket items, obviously. But so often there are root sins in our life. There are habits in our life that affect not only our life, but our family's life. And the people people that we work with. And those are the things that we want to go after. And I can't name those for you. And I'm not going to talk about those in a podcast for me. But we all know that there are those areas. And so what I'm suggesting is that when we go to confession this lent, no more script, not a checklist, but we do an examination of our conscience. We do an examination,

of our life to go deep into those areas that we don't really want to talk about, but we need to bring it to the Lord. And we go beyond the thought of, Lord, you know that they're there, and I'm sorry about that, or I'm aware of that, and thank you for helping me, but we really make a great confession. Great confession. Now, one of the things that I have found very helpful is a metaphor. And to be honest with you, I don't remember the exact name. It was a booklet that I read years and years ago. I think it was called My Heart Christ's Home. And so I'm not taking credit for this. I'm just going to use it by memory. It was a beautiful little devotion that allowed the Lord to come into our heart, into every area of our heart, and the various areas of our heart were

parallel with the rooms in our house. And so, as you know, you walk into your house, there are various rooms, living room, family room, kitchen bedroom, closets, attic, and basement, and so forth. And so it was really, really beautiful. And it was like the Lord coming into your heart, and you were discussing with the Lord the things that happen in that particular room. and so instead of a script or a checklist going to confession, which we can do, and I'm not saying that's bad, but sometimes it becomes kind of a rut, we're going to invite him fully into our heart this Lenton season for the purpose of transformation, to become different, to be changed into the likeness of Christ. And isn't that what you're really desiring to really experience that

that change, the transformation in the areas that have been a battlefield in your life. Boy, I desire that to walk with him as a disciple, to be so focused on him that he can reach in and cleanse the areas that even I'm afraid to go into in my own life. And Ali Ali, the song I'm going to introduce to you in just a few minutes, does such an amazing job of talking about this, that in some ways she can say in her song what I cannot even articulate. And I think that's the advantage, to be honest with you, with music and musicians, artists, is that they have a way of entering your heart and you allow them to come in in a way that is beyond speech or talks or conferences. It's very intimate and very

personal. I think you're going to like it. So let's go through, shall we, just for a few minutes, let's go through the various areas of our heart, Christ's home, and look at it in a metaphorical way as rooms in a house. And then we'll do a couple of them. We'll take a break and then we'll come back. And then I've got this song for you and I know you're going to, you're going to absolutely love it. So as Jesus makes the entry into your heart, his home, the first thing that he's going to do is come into the entryway. and this is a great area to examine your own conscience, the entryway, the introduction to your heart. And this is, this could be similar to, you know, how do you treat people? What do people see in your life when they first meet you? Is it joy? Is it happiness? Or is it a discouragement

and negative? What is the first thing they see about you? What's the first in, impression. You've heard that saying before that you don't get two first chances for a first impression. So what do people see? And when I think about the entryway to my heart, I think about things like hospitality. How do I treat people? How do I greet people? How do people first see Jesus in my life, in my speech, in my actions? And this is broadly speaking, but I think it's important. And people might say, well, the entryway is not that important. But everybody who comes into your home, that's the first thing they see. That's their first impression. And what is in your life the first impression you're giving people about your relationship with Jesus? What do you talk about

first? What do you, what's the nature of your responses to people when they ask you a question about politics or what's going on in the church or your opinion about a certain sect of people. So that's an important point. It's the entryway. And then the Lord then you would take the Lord into your living room. Now, the living room in most families is the place where the family lives, right? I mean, it's the living room is where Christmas takes place, and holidays take place, and it's where the family can sit and talk. And when I talk about a living room as being a part of my own heart, I see that as my relationships within the family. And I'm talking about more the serious aspect of relationship.

in the family, being a father, being a husband, being a mother, being a wife. How are you as a father? And by the way, next week I have an amazing show with Matthew Christoph coming up called the examination of conscience for fathers, seven keys for fathers to make an examination of their life. But in the living room, how are you doing as a father? Are you faithful? Are you present? Are you gentle? Are you kind? Are you merciful? As a mother, the same thing. I speak as a father, but you might be a mother and you're examining that. What about as a son or daughter? Are you a faithful son? Are you a faithful daughter? I have parents who are in their 80s and I love them dearly and there's a lot more in the relationship with them of caring for them these days.

How am I doing that? You know, what's my attitude when it comes to the living room, the relationships within my family, my sisters, your brothers, your broad-speaking relationships within the family? And that's something to really think about when it comes to an examination of conscience, is how am I doing in the basic relationships with my family, grandparents, cousins, and so forth? That's a wonderful way. The living room is a wonderful way to check your heart. Is there envy? Is there jealousy? Is there anger? Is there thoughts of revenge? Where are you in the living room of your heart?

that is a wonderful way to examine your conscience. I'm going to take a break right now. We're going to come back and we're going to look at some key ones. We're going to look at the family room, the kitchen, the bedroom, and then there's one room in the house, which is a game changer. And we're going to talk about that. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ chose,

corrupt, broken, imperfect, sinful men to be the foundation of his church. And because these broken and perfect men chose to remain in relationship with Jesus, they became saints. And they were used by Jesus to transform hearts and minds 2,000 years later. I invite you to check out my book, Broken and Blessed, where you'll find practical tools to overcome habitual sin. to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and to walk with an imperfect church

toward a perfect God who is calling all of us to perfection over time. To order the paperback book or audiobook broken and blessed, visit ascensionpress.com or Amazon. Welcome back. We're talking about Into the Night, Lent, Confession, and Transformation. and we're using our heart in the metaphor of rooms in a house as being our heart to examine our conscience, to examine our heart this Lenton season. Into the night, we call it Lent Confession and

Transformation, going deeper, a deeper cleanse than you've ever done before. We're talking about bypassing the script and the list, the checklist, and really going deep. We looked at the entryway in the living room of our heart, our home. What about the family room? Well, the family room is really interesting because in the family room, you typically have a big flat panel television these days. It's usually the area where there's entertainment. Perhaps it's the reading. It's the magazines. It's the TV. It's cable television. And this is a great opportunity to do an examination of conscience in your own heart. How do you spend your time in the family room? Because what you do in the family room, even if you're the only one home affects the family. As Pope John Paul II, the great

saint said that there is no such thing really as secret sins or private sins that don't affect anybody else. Even the most private of sins in the family room with nobody there will affect other people, like ripples on the shores of a pond after you drop a rock into the pond. And so you need to look at what about your TV habits? What about your internet habits? In some cases, you may say, well, what I'm looking at isn't necessarily sinful, but look at the quantity. Look on YouTube to see how many hours you've been watching squirrels on skateboards. I'm just kidding you with you there. But you know what I'm talking about. to the sheer volume of entertainment in our life is detrimental in that it does form and shape us,

but it takes away from the great opportunities we have in time to serve Christ, to pray, to go deep into scripture, and to give ourselves away in the service of others in the church. So the family room of your heart becomes very, very important when it comes to holiness, and staying on task as a disciple with the Lord. Anything wrong with TV, not in itself. Anything wrong with books? Not in themselves. Anything wrong with the Internet?

Not in itself. But if this becomes so pervasive that it takes away from formation in Christ and that relationship with Christ, yeah, it takes away from something good. it's like what the church teaches about gambling is gambling wrong is it sinful not in itself but if it takes away from taking care of your children then it becomes sin and i would suggest to you that television internet and other forms of entertainment in the family room if they take away from the time with your children and the time with jesus the time with your spouse it becomes problematic go deep be honest, and bring it to confession. What about the kitchen? The kitchen, the appetites in our life.

Is anything wrong with food? No. But if it becomes really the driving preoccupation in your life, yeah, it's a problem then. It's a real big problem. And so when you go into the kitchen of your heart, look at the appetites, not just food, but the desire for so many things. Maybe it's inappropriate, sexual desires, that we have a desire, and we go into the family room, and maybe that's a problem there. So be honest about it. Be honest about it. So we've got the kitchen. And then, of course, the bedroom. If you're married, it's a sacred place. Keep it sacred. Keep that bedroom sacred to your marriage. Ask the Lord to shine the light on your heart when it comes to the bedroom. if you're single, that has its own issues, right? And you need to be, you need to walk in holiness

when it comes to the bedroom of your heart. Be honest about that. And so you have these areas of your heart, the entryway, the living room, the family room, the kitchen, and then the bedroom. But then for others, there's these closets where we store stuff. The stuff becomes something that is preoccupying us, stuff, buying things, hobbies, collecting, where it takes away the energy and the resources from those things that are really important in our life, serving Christ, serving the poor, and taking care of our family. And so I'm not saying anything particular about any particular thing or hobby, but you have to bring that to the Lord and ask, is this something that is preoccupying me

that is really taking me away from healing with you, Lord, and cleansing and purpose in my life? But then, after looking at all those rooms, maybe the Lord has pointed out certain things in the entryway. He's pointed out some things in the living room, in the family room. Maybe he's pointed out something in the kitchen or the bedroom or the closet, one of the closets in your life. But what about the attic? When the Lord says to you, hey, let's go look up in the attic, do you suddenly put your arms across the door and say, Lord, no, no. Look, I've shown you a lot in the entryway, in the living room, the family room in the kitchen, in the bedroom, in this closet, and that closet, I don't want to go to the attic. And the Lord may be saying to you, but I want to go

there. Because I think there's something there that I can change. I can transform. transform and you're saying, Lord, I've given you so much. This is something that I'm dealing with. It's something that right now is not bothering me from time to time it does. But Lord, I don't want to go there. And the Lord is saying to you today, yield, open the door. Let me come in. Let me cleanse that area that you don't put on the checklist. You don't bring to the script of confession. You've never gone there before. Now, I don't know what that is, and I'm not suggesting anything. What I'm saying is, let the Lord shine his light. You probably know. And this Lenton season that you are listening to right now, let this be an opportunity for a deep, deep cleanse. Let him go deep. And when you go to

confession, be honest, and really go down deep and bring it all out when you go to confession. Now, what I would like to do here is I'd like to play this song for you by Allie Aaliyah into the night. And listen to the words, and she has a couple of phrases in here that when I first heard them, I thought, wow, what a singer-songwriter. But Allie is drawing deep from her own soul and saying things that a lot of us would like to say, but we've never had the words before when she talks about, Lord, draw me out from private quarters of my soul. Isn't that beautiful? Draw me out from private quarters of my soul. And then she says, not only that, she says, where even I dare not go. Draw me out from private quarters of my soul, where even I dare not go. Draw me out.

This is Allie Aaliyah. Silent reverberating sores echoes of a memory of life you want stream that you'd possess and I I fall over and again into complacency A fallacy A lie that I've learned to believe But you

You call me You call me on again and draw me out from private quarters of my soul where even I dare not go Re-awaken desire, re-stombed the pyre and wash the fire rise into the night. Revive was dead, bring us back to life, and let your power seep into our veins tonight. Oh, Reawakened desire Restoked the pie

And watch the fire Rise into the night Revive was dead Bring us back to life And let your power Reawaken desire Restow the pipe rise into the night revive was dead bring us back to life and let your power seep into our things tonight

now that was an amazing song into the night alley lee i'll put that in the show notes for you and i suggest you get all of her music because it's phenomenal and i want you to to write me and tell me what you think about about that song and her music, because if it touched you the way it touches me, I know it's transformative. My email is The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. Now, I'm going to encourage you to go to confession. Now, the advantage of confession here during Lent is, number one, that those who go to confession seek forgiveness in the way that God intended, and that is that we confess our sin. We don't just think about it. We don't just write it down in a book somewhere or a journal.

We actually go and face-to-face, we go to confession, right? Whether it's behind a screen at church or face-to-face, you meet the Lord in the sacrament of confession. And this is the way he intended it to be. Number two, by confessing to a priest, you learn a lesson in humility, which is conveniently avoided when you just confess in private prayer. It forces you into a place of humility where you have to face yourself as you face Christ.

And this, of course, is after a deep examination of conscience, which we talked about on this podcast. There is other advantages to confession. It's a sacramental grace of penance, sacrament of penance. not only are sins forgiven, but grace, the life of God is obtained in confession, the healing that you need. And there's another advantage as well, in that is that sins are forgiven. You don't have to rely on a subjective feeling of, I'm feeling better, or I think I've done this, or I think I

conveyed this to the Lord in private prayer. No, you know that you are forgiven. You know that you are forgiven. And you will also obtain sound advice on how to avoid sin in the future. You see, this is very, very powerful. But before you go to confession, I really encourage you to take time, not just standing in line, but take time before you go to really examine your heart, write some things down so that you can make a very good confession. Now, when you go in, the mechanics are really, easy. And if you don't know the mechanics or you get, you know, flustered when you go in, you're not quite sure what to say. There's absolutely nothing wrong with saying, Father, I haven't been to confession for a while. I don't know exactly how to go about this. The priest will walk you

through it. And it'll become a fruitful, transformative experience. But when you go to confession, when you go in, the first thing that you typically would say is, Father, forgive me for I have sinned. And realize you are face to face sacramentally with Christ. Father, forgive me for I have sin. My last confession was a month ago, two months ago, a year ago, 20 years ago, 40 years ago. And then go deep into the areas that you need to confess. And it's important to be specific and name them and the number. and be honest about it. Confess mortal sin, venial sin. Mortal sin is what breaks your relationship with the Lord.

Venial sin weakens your relationship with the Lord. And when you confess those, you may get some advice from the priest, and that's a wonderful thing. And the priest may talk to you, depending on the priest. And then the priest will ask you to make an active contrition. typical act of contrition is, oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you. I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. But most of all, because they offend you, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of your grace to sin no more, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen. I'll put that act of contrition in the show notes for you. The priest will give you absolution after that, absolve you of your sins. That's Christ forgiving you. You're hearing it. And the priest will give you penance. And this is usually

prayer or something to do with countering the sin in your life and bringing healing to that area of the attic that you have never brought out before. And I promise you, my friend, you're going to leave on the way to transformation. You're going to leave with a new heart, a new beginning. Isn't that what you're looking for in Lent? Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Be courageous, be honest, be specific. Go deep into the attic or the basement of your heart and bring out that which needs to be brought out into the light of Christ. Don't let another year go by. Don't hide.

Remember the sin of Adam and Eve. After they committed their sin, what did they do? They covered themselves. They hid. Are you hiding? Are you covering yourself? Are you hiding from God? He's looking for you.

He's after you. He wants you to bring it out of God. into the open so he can heal you. That's the challenge this lent. That's the challenge. James 4 in verse 17 says, whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it. For him, it is sin. So growing in Christ requires us to not only know what the will of God is, but to make an honest assessment of our lives in terms of sin. And the heart that is set on pleasing the Lord will eagerly turn from those things which are hindering or destroying their relationship with them and write the wrong in their life. I know you love God. Go deeper than you've ever gone before.

Go into the night and make this lent a time of transformation. The fire of the Holy Spirit will consume those things. and that fire and that smoke will go into the night, into the night. Let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you for my friend, and I thank you, Lord, that you love them more than we could possibly understand. Lord, this year I pray that you will give us the courage and the boldness to go where we've never gone before in terms of an examination of conscience, and that we will trust you as we enter the confessional,

and we will be brutally honest with ourselves and bringing these issues to you. Lord, help us. We thank you for your transformative power. We thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit to change us in Jesus' name. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

My friend, I love you, ask you to pray for me, and I'm going to pray for you. this lent will be a lent of transformation. God bless you.