The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Living on a Wing and a Prayer

Episode Date: August 4, 2017

In today's episode, Jeff connects an old World War II song to a popular Gospel story, giving the phrase "living on a wing and a prayer" new meaning. Tune in for a reminder that we can always reach out to Christ when we're at risk of losing hope.

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show. Episode 27, Living on a Wing and a Prayer. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. 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.

Welcome to the show. Have you ever felt like you were living on a way? and a prayer? Have you felt like things just weren't going so well and you weren't sure you were really going to make it? That phrase is really, really interesting. Living on a wing and a prayer. I'm going to turn that around today and I'm going to talk about the real meaning of living on a wing and a prayer, where it comes from. But then we're going to look into scripture and we're going to find some new meaning to that phrase, living on a wing and a prayer. got some great feedback for the for the show uh norm writes in and says i agree and let me say this

norm and others i appreciate the feedback that you guys are giving and the comments that you're making on the show uh some of you are leaving this on iTunes really appreciate that norm says i agree with your conclusions to the mystery of what jesus was writing in the dirt that was episode 26 he says I'm curious, though, is this something that you came up with, or has someone else taught this to you? Often when I hear something as fascinating as this, I wonder where the author discovered the answer to a mystery, church teaching, or private understanding of Scripture. Not that it matters, but perhaps you will shed some light on it for me. Good question, Norm.

You know, we were talking about what did Jesus write in the dirt, and I quoted ultimately Jeremiah 1713, that he was hinting back at this time in Judas history where they were experiencing shame and put together four clues from John chapter 7 and 8 that we were talking about living water and talking about rejecting Jesus and a woman being shamed and Jesus writing in the dirt and all four were really pointing back to Jeremiah

17 and verse 13. But your question is a good question, Norm. What about church teaching or private understanding? of scripture. And here's what I would share with you on that, which I think is really, really important. When we're taking a look at individual scriptures in the Bible, there really is no authoritative body of literature that says this is exactly what the church teaches on that. There are, however, some text where the church makes a definitive explanation of what a text might mean. we have a tremendous freedom to study the Bible and the Bible is like an onion with peels and layer after layer and the more you study the deeper it gets it's really really exciting and the church doesn't have what you what you as you phrase official church teaching on a text but the church has guidelines for interpreting text and there are a number of interpretations in different texts that that are very very interesting and deep and I gave you one there on John chapter 8 with a woman caught in adultery.

I would point you to this. The catechism in paragraphs 112, 113, and 114 give three criteria for interpreting scripture, which will keep you in bounds. And once you stay in bounds, I really do think that God's word is very deep, and there are aspects of it that you've never heard in a commentary before. My understanding of John chapter 8 comes from my study, the rabbinic background and methods of teaching that Jesus employed in the first century, but also a couple of commentaries that I have seen had parts of this. But here's the three things I would share with you out of the catechism in paragraph 112 through 114.

Number one, be especially attentive to the content and unity of the whole scripture. In other words, you need to take into consideration all of the scripture. scripture when you're interpreting a text. Number two, paragraph 113 says, read the scripture with the living tradition of the whole church in mind. And what does that mean? Well, it means that we can't come up with an interpretation of scripture that is against the living tradition. For example, a living tradition of the church says that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the theatoko. She's the mother of God back in the Council of Ephesus. Well, you can't come up with a conclusion. in a text that Mary is not the mother of God. She is. She's the mother of Jesus. Jesus is God. She is the

mother of God. The third guideline is in paragraph 114. Be attentive to the analogy of faith. The analogy of faith means literally a coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of revelation. You can't come up with an interpretation that is opposite of the truths of our faith that we have already established and the church is established and received from Jesus. So those are some things that, you know, give you a little bit of insight, you know, into that. And I'll tell you what, Norm, I'm going to do a whole show on that, to be honest with you. And we're going to talk about interpreting scripture. And I'll give some, I'll give some examples of that. Today, however, we are talking about living on a wing

in a prayer. Have you ever wondered where that phrase came from? Maybe you've used it and you didn't even know what you were talking about when you used it. Well, I did some research on it and I found out that it really comes from World War II. In World War II, the fighter pilots that had been shot, for example, maybe their plane was damaged. They would be making their landing and completing their mission on a wing and a prayer. And there was a famous song in 1914. which writes about this. It was a song by Harold Adamson and Jimmy McCuff. And it's called Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer.

And here's some of the words to it. One of our planes was missing two hours overdue. One of our planes was missing with all its gallant crew. The radio sets were humming. We waited for a word, then a noise broke through the humming, and this is what we heard, coming in on a wing and a prayer. and a prayer coming in on a wing in a prayer though there's one motor gone we

can still carry on coming in on a wing in a prayer and it goes on that so that's kind of an interesting song where the you know this phrase comes out of World War II living on a wing in a prayer but I am going to propose to you a biblical meaning to this that might be more positive than you could have imagined and to understand this we need to go back into the scriptures and take a look at this concept of a wing in the Bible. And specifically, I'm going to talk about the garments that Jesus wore and a part of one of his garments that a woman with an issue of blood

reached out and touched and she was healed. So when I talk about living on a wing and a prayer, I'm going to be talking about something related to Jesus' garment, which we're going to go over here, and prayer. And maybe you should live on a wing and a prayer. I'm going to draw your attention to Mark chapter 5 in verse 25. And as I have always said in the past, these are all in the show notes. Don't worry about it.

I'm going to give them to you. And including that marvelous little song I gave you in the opening there. But Mark chapter 5 in verse 20, let's see, verse 24 through 29 says, and Jesus went, and he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. and there was a woman who had a flow of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.

For she said, if I touch even his garments, I shall be made well. And immediately the hemorrhage ceased and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Pretty cool. That lady experienced a tremendous healing. She reached out, she touched his garments. Some translations say the hem of his garments, the hem of his garments. So what is it that this lady who is, by the way, unclean, because she is experiencing

this flow of blood, what does she think she's going to get if she reaches out and she touches the hem of Jesus' garment? Well, in order to understand that, we have to go in and look at this garment that Jesus wore. And I'm going to put a picture of the type of garment in the show notes for you, so you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about. One thing that's really interesting about Jesus is, and you might find it interesting, is that he was a Jew, he ate as a Jew, he prayed as a Jew, he worshipped as a Jew, he dressed as a Jew.

He didn't do things differently. He was completely within the milu. He was totally within his time, and he dressed a certain way. In the Old Testament, Moses writes in Numbers Chapter 15, verses 37 through 39, he writes that they must make tassels on the corners of their garment with a blue cord on each tassel. and here's how it goes. I'm going to read this right out of Numbers chapter 15 for you verses 37 through 39. The Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel and bid them to make

tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put upon the tassel of each corner a cord of blue. And it shall be to you a tassel to look upon and remember the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, are inclined to go after evil and wantonly. So Moses commands the people that you should put these tassels on the four corners of your garments, and when you look upon them, these tassels will act as a sacramental. In other words, they will point to something. And what are they pointing to?

They're pointing to the commandments of the Lord. So if you are bar mitzvid, you're a son of the commandments. If you are bat mitzvid, you're a daughter of the commandments. all right and and then this whole tradition of tying these tassels on the four corners of of your garment they were expanded and they began to tie the the tassels in a clever way which the windings and the knots of the tassels on the four corners of the garment added up numerically to the number 613 now the number 613 is the number of commands commandments in the law of the law of Moses, 613 commandments in the Old Testament. Okay. Now, the corners are these tassels that are tied onto the corners. They're tied on to two kinds of garments.

Number one, a prayer shawl, a talit. I have a picture in the show notes for you. I'm going to show notes for you. I'm going to show you what this looks like. So when you would put a prayer shawl on, on the four corners you had these tassels that were, they were put onto the four corners. All right. Now, that's one kind of a garment. The second kind of a garment was called a talit catan, a small talit that was placed over your head underneath your outer garment. And you would first of all put this talit katan on. It's like an undershirt, and they had four tassels that would show outside of your pants.

your trousers. Well, if you've ever been in New York or you've been to any kind of Orthodox Jewish community, you have seen those tassels on the four corners coming out and laying over their pants, okay? If you're in England, trousers. But they were very popular in Jesus' day, and no doubt Jesus wore these. And so this is what the woman is reaching out to touch because this has great significance. Great significance. Now, in Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, it says this, very interesting. This is where we're going to get into the wings here.

So prepare yourself. But for you who fear my name, Malachi says, the son of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you shall go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. all right so i'm going to read that again but for you who fear my name the son of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall now here's the here's the thing you got to pay attention to the wings there is the word canoff canoff k-a-n-p-h canoff the tzit which is the tasker

and I'll spell that for you, Z-Z-Z-T-T is T-Z-I-T, T-Z-I-T, it's in the show notes. The t-Z-Z-Z-T, the tassels are tied to the canaf, the corners of the garment, which are called the wings of the garment, okay? So on this prayer shawl that Jesus wore, there are four corners, or four wings. And it says here in Malachi, but for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.

So it is the Kanaf. The Knaf has healing power. That's what was believed, that it would have healing power. And when the Messiah comes, his Kanaf, his Tzit, his prayer, his tassels will have healing virtue this was an understanding of the people and so the woman reaches out and she grabs the wing the corner of his garment and she is healed and so that's what i'm introducing to you on this show is living on a wing the hem or the the corner of his garment and a prayer that's how this woman was healed. She was healed by living on a wing and a prayer. She touched the wing,

the canoff, the four corners of the garment. Isn't that beautiful? And I want to pause just for a moment because I want to do a little bit more teaching on this and sharing. Let me ask you this. Could you live on a wing and a prayer? Could you live by touching Jesus in prayer? Do you need that in your life right now? Your health? I just have this sense that there are people listening to this show right now that are struggling with cancer. They're struggling with all kinds of various problems. And you are calling out to God. And I want to encourage you to do that, to reach out to God and grab a hold of Jesus and pray and receive prayer in your parish. Now, I want to move on a little bit more with this, because this is very, very powerful. It's not the first time that we have

read about the wings of a garment or the tassels of the garment. Clear back in the Old Testament, of course, it comes from Numbers chapter 15, Deuteronomy 22. Both of them talk about, you shall put these tassels on the four corners of the wings of your garment. But if you go back even, you've got If you go back as far as, let's see, Samuel, you will see the story of Saul and David. Do you remember the story of Saul and David where Saul was pursuing David out in the area of Ingetti in the wilderness of Judea by the Dead Sea and he wanted to kill David? David ended up hiding in a cave and he was hiding from Saul in his army. And guess who went into the cave out there?

in Aingeti. If you go to Israel with me, my friend, by the way, this coming January, I'm going, and in May, Father Mike Schmitz is going to be accompanying me on the trip. Go with us. We're going to go right to this place, and we'll teach right on location. But when you know it, Saul, in pursuing David, goes into this cave to relieve himself. While he's doing that, David reaches out and cuts the corner off of Saul's garment. Now, this is something you shouldn't do because this canaft, this corner of the garment, the tassels are also representative as a sign of authority. And it is the king's authority, Saul's authority, and David cuts it off.

And then he cuts it off. And then as Saul leaves, David yells out what? He yells out, King Saul. And he raises the tseet, the tassels in the corner of the garment and said, I could have killed you. You were mine, but I spared your life. And at that point, Saul repented. It's the same corner of the garment.

It's the same tassels that we are speaking of here. But we also see that the tassels had tremendous blessing and protection. And you can see this in the story of Ruth. in Ruth, this beautiful story about Naomi and Ellie Mellick. And it says that, and they are the in-laws of Ruth, okay. She says, please take the corner of your garment, Kanaf, and place it over me. This is Ruth, right? And Naomi and Elie Mellick.

And this idea of taking the corner of the garment and placing it over me is where this whole teaching, of Jewish weddings and the hoopah, a symbol of God's protection and inclusion into the covenant family. This is where it comes from. When a Jewish couple gets married, they are under a hoopa. And this comes from Ruth, where she says, please take the corner of your garment and place it over me. It's a sign of blessing and protection. Blessing and protection. Now the rabbis during Jesus' day believed that the tzit-seat, the tassels of the Messiah, would have healing virtue. Healing virtue. So when the woman reached out to touch Jesus garment,

she was taking a chance. Now, I'm going to take a break here. I'm going to come back. I'm going to tell you how she was taking a chance. And I'm going to encourage you to take that chance, too, to reach out and to touch Jesus if you're in need today. All right. We'll be right back. It's hard to live out your Catholic faith on your own. In fact, the Bible reveals that we need a community of people to help us on our journey of faith. If you're interested in finding that community by joining or starting a small group study, visit ascensionpress.com and sign up for a free Ascension account. With your account, you'll get all the tools you need to start walking with others towards Christ.

Welcome back, my friend, we're talking about the clothing of Jesus today. We're talking about the clothing that he wore. He wore a prayer shawl when he prayed, and he also wore a miniature one underneath his garment. And I'm going to have a picture of both of those in the show notes. And on the four corners of the prayer shawl and the Talit Katan, the small one, the undergarmament, were on all four corners were four wings.

These corners were called wings, Kanaf, and attached to each of those wings were tassels that when you add it all up, added up to number 613 all of the all of the commandments of the Lord all right and we see that the woman who had the issue of blood in Mark chapter 5 in verse 24 through 29 she had this flow of blood that the doctors couldn't take care of and she reached out and she touched his garment Jesus's garment, the fringes of his garment, the tzit, the kanaf, the corners, the wings, and she was healed.

She was healed. Now, I've mentioned to you before the break that she was taking a chance. How was she taking a chance? Well, here's how she was taking a chance. She, an unclean woman. By unclean, we mean ceremonially unclean because she had a flow of blood. and women who were in their monthly cycle were considered unclean and they went and they had to go through a period of time and they were purified in what's called a mikva a ceremonial cleansing pool well she an unclean woman was not supposed to touch a clean person in the state that she was in she was basically excluded but get this by touching Jesus the tzit, the tassels on his garment, the wings,

she was stating that Jesus was the Messiah. Her uncleanness would fall to his grace and his power. And he could heal her and include her in the covenant family. She would be brought back in. She was also recognizing that he was the fulfillment of the entire law by touching these tassels, which added up to 613, all of the law. Isn't that beautiful? And so like the woman, I want to encourage you today to reach out and to touch the hymn of Jesus' garment.

Even if everybody is saying to you, oh, you know, stand back, the crowds are great, whatever, you pursue Jesus. You show that tenacity. and you live on a wing that is the four corners and a prayer. Doesn't that sort of redefine that phrase living on a wing and a prayer? In short, for me now, living on a wing and a prayer means living by touching Jesus and praying. And whatever you're going through, I'm going to pray for you in a moment here. Whatever you're going through, I want you to have faith in Jesus. Jesus and reach out in faith and touch Jesus to touch his wings of his garment and experience

a transformation. I really do believe, you know, I do believe that Jesus heals today. I do. And I know some people don't get healed. I know that. But I've got a whole show on that, too. Remember we talked about redemptive suffering, remember that? that. At show number 25, offer it up finding meaning and suffering. But I also do believe that Jesus

heals. And I believe he can heal you too. Let me pray for you right now. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, I lift up to you, my friend who's listening to the program right now, we've been sharing your word about the healing power of your wings, the corners of your garment. And Lord, whatever they are experiencing now, whether it is some kind of physical problem or mentally, they feel like they are just crushed or emotionally really upset, Lord, I pray that they'll reach out right now and touch you and pray and seek your face. May we truly live on a wing and a prayer as we touch you, Jesus. Thank you for answering us. Thank you for restoring us.

Thank you, Lord, for bringing peace into our lives. We also ask you, Lord, to give us boldness, to share with others the good things that you have done as we continue to live on a wing in a prayer. I thank you for this in Jesus' name. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Hey, I want to encourage you once again, give me an email if you have questions.

if you have topics you'd like me to talk about and I can't talk about everything because I don't know about everything, that's for sure, but I'll tell you this, I'm more than happy to share with you. If you want to write me, you just write to The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com.

That's very easy. It's the Jeff Kaven show at ascensionpress.com. And I want to encourage you to go to iTunes and subscribe, and as you go to iTunes and subscribe go ahead and share some thoughts on the show. It actually helps the show in rankings and

I just encourage you to do that. I encourage you to do that about all of your Catholic brothers and sisters who have podcasts that you genuinely appreciate and want to help get those to the top rankings. So you have a great week and I'm looking forward already to be

back with you next week. And remember this week, Live on a wing in a prayer. God bless.