The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Memento Mori: Remember Your Death

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

What happens in the final moments of our lives? Jeff shares his personal experience as he faces his mother's imminent passing, emphasizing the Catholic tradition of Last Rites, the Apostolic Pardon, and various prayers offered by the Church during the final hours of a loved one's life. Snippet from the Show We need spiritual strength for the process of going from this life to the life to come. 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 https://media.ascensionpress.com/?s=&page=2&category%5B0%5D=Ascension%20Podcasts&category%5B1%5D=The%20Jeff%20Cavins%20Show 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 419. Momentumori. Remember death. So glad that I could be with you today. You are family to me. And, you know, in the course of your life, a lot of different. things happen. A lot of very joyful things like the mysteries. And then there's also, you know, the sorrowful things in life that take place. And then there's also the glorious. And the glorious is what we really look forward to as far as eternity goes. The beatific vision to see God face to face. Well, I'm currently right now with my mother and she is expected to pass away.

in the next 48 hours. And so I wanted to take just a moment to break away and spend a little bit with you, my friend, my family, and that's a question that might come up. Jeff, why are you spending time with us? Well, your family, and I need your prayers, and I need your intercession, and I'm asking for it. My mother's name is Trish, Patricia Kavens, and my father passed away five months ago. We didn't know that we would be facing our mother passing away so quickly, but that's the way it is turned out. She's 88 years old, and she's Catholic, and she's an Irish Catholic, raised Catholic, raised me Catholic, and has been a great mother. A wonderful mother is an example in bringing me to church all the years that I was growing up, and she's the one that most of the time drove me up to the church to go to confession. and certainly the sacramental prep.

But it is always a difficult time, you know, and you're letting go of a part of your life, at least life as you knew it, physical, and you're entering a new stage with your relatives. My father, I believe, is with the Lord, and my mother is on the doorstep right now. And so I wanted to take just a moment to remind you if you are facing what I'm in right now to remember what the church teaches about these final

hours of a person's life yesterday father came over father ralph came over from their parish and gave my mother last rights and also something special on the other side of that which was an apostolic pardon and i want to share that with you today and and i'm doing this because like i said your family, but also I was helped along in this process by other people. I'll explain that. Other people, you know, reminded me of some of these things. And when you are in the midst of sorrow and holding the family together, sometimes you need to be reminded. And I was reminded of some things here. And I'll share that with you. But when we reflect on the last things, you know, one of them is death. It's a real longstanding Catholic custom. It's a tradition. And it is

considered a final act where we give people the last rights, shall go into that just briefly, and then the apostolic pardon. There is a saying in Catholic tradition that is really important, Memento Mori, remember death. Maybe you see a picture of a skull and it says Memento Mori underneath it. My good friend Jonathan Rumi, who plays Jesus on the Chosen, And we spent some real good time together recently. And he has a couple of rings on his finger of the skull with the phrase memento mori, remember death.

And some people would look at it and say, well, that's kind of morbid. No, it's not morbid. It's reality, you know, it's reality for all of us. And it's a reminder that we need to remember death. I think it's kind of a cool thing, actually, you know, with Jonathan Rumi, that he's reminding himself every day, every decision, everything he's says every encounter, every dollar spent all of it, remember your death. And it's a good thing for us to do that as well. Well, when father came over, he gave my mother last rites at home with the family around. And, you know, this is a response to James 514. If anyone is sick among you,

he should summon the elders of the church and they should pray over him and anoint him with with oil in the name of the Lord. So the church's sacrament of anointing of the sick is a ministry of the priest in the parish, and it is Jesus who is touching the sick in that sacrament to heal them from sin and sometimes even from physical ailment. His cures were really signs of the arrival of the kingdom of God. So the core message here is that sin is conquered

and death is conquered by the resurrection. So the right of the anointing of the sick is not necessarily if a person is going to die. I've had the anointing of the sick before a serious surgery, but it is a preparation. It is an encouragement at the possibility, you know, of dying. And when the sacrament of the anointing of the sick is given, the effect, at least the hoped for effect, is that if it be God's will, the person would be physically restored at that point. But even if they're not physically restored, the primary effect of the sacrament is a spiritual

healing, which all of the physical healings point to the important healing, which is the healing of the heart, the sick person. And they receive the Holy Spirit's gift of peace and courage to deal with what they are facing at that particular moment, a serious illness, or the fragile state of those who are elderly advanced in years, you could say. And I have to tell you this, that I, in watching my mother, I saw a calm come over her. You know, she's kind of in and out. You've seen, if you've been with people before in their last hours, I used to be a pastor, so it wasn't unusual, but when it's your own family. It takes on a different color, if you will, different tone. And I noticed

a piece, a piece came over, my mom. And that was only the first half of what father came to bless her with. The apostolic pardon was after that. But the anointing of the sick is so beautiful. It's a prayer for renewed strength, you know, and the words are beautiful. I'll share a little bit with you. One of the opening prayers is, oh, Lord, my God, please give me the grace to maintain my hope in you through all of life's changes and to taste and see your goodness. I praise you for the gifts you have showered on me for so many years. Help me find joy in a renewed strength and of spirit. Please bless me with good health and inspire me to be a good example to others. For you are Lord forever and ever, amen. And for those who are sick, the priest prays all praise

and glory is yours, Lord our God, for you have called us to serve you in love. Bless Patricia, is what we heard, so that she may bear the illness and union with your son's obedient suffering. Restore him or her to health and lead him or her to glory. We ask this through Christ our Lord, amen. Now, I'll pause there for a moment. That's very, very powerful because we're talking about union with Jesus' suffering, which means that our suffering is redemptive. It is valuable at that point. Oftentimes when an elderly person is sick,

and by the way, I'll put these in the show notes for you. The priest prays all praise and glory is yours, Lord, our God, for you have called us to serve you in love. Bless all who have grown old in your service. And give Patricia strength and courage to continue to follow Jesus. your son, we ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. And you know what? Sometimes a priest will come in and they will use the prayer of the elderly that I really like a lot. It's St. Pope John Paul the 2nd. He came up with this prayer in 1999 and I'll put it in the show notes for you. He said,

grant, O Lord of Life that we may savor every season of our lives as a gift filled with promise for the future. Grant that we may lovingly accept your will and place our ourselves each day in your merciful hands. And when the moment of your definitive passage comes, grant that we may face it with sincerity, without regret for what we shall leave behind. For in meeting you, after having sought you for so long, we shall find once more every authentic good which we have known here on earth, in the company of all who have gone before us, marked with the sign of faith and hope, Mary, mother of pilgrim human. Amenity, pray for us. Now and at the hour of our death, keep us ever close to Jesus, your beloved son, our brother, the Lord of life and glory. Amen. Isn't that beautiful? I really like that. And then there's also prayers to St. Joseph, which are beautiful. And I'll put them in the show notes for you. At the end of the anointing of the sick, there is the prayer of commendation of the dying where the words welcome your servant, Lord, into the place.

of salvation, which because of your mercy, he or she rightly hoped for. And then the response to this for the family standing around is, Lord, save your people. So Father would say, deliver your servant Lord from every distress. Lord, save your people. Deliver your servant Lord as you delivered Noah from the flood. And then it goes on and says, deliver your servant Lord as you delivered Abraham from Er of the Caldez. It's going through the Bible. Again, our response is, Lord, save your people. Deliver your servant, Lord, as you delivered Job, as you delivered Moses, as you delivered Daniel, as you delivered Susanna and David, Peter, and Paul from prison. Lord, save your people. Isn't that beautiful? And then the prayers go on and then we have the

litany of Mary, mother of life. And then everybody ends by saying, remember, oh, gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection implored your help or sought your intercession was left unaided inspired with this confidence we fly into you o virgin of virgins our mother to you we come before you we stand sinful and sorrowful oh mother of the word incarnate despise not our petitions but in your mercy hear and answer them amen i'm going to take a break when I come back, I want to introduce you to the apostolic pardon, which my mother received yesterday. And it was incredible. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, my name is Father Josh Johnson. I want to invite you to join me this lent for set free.

A series of daily video reflections based on my new book, The Pocket Guide to Overcoming the Seven Deadly Sins. Starting March 5th in the Ascension app, we're focused on getting to the roots of the sins we struggle with in our day-to-day lives, all of which stem from the seven deadly sins of wrath, sloth, gluttony, lust, greed, envy, and pride. In the gospel, Jesus says, when you pray, but he also says when you fast. Most people know that Catholics fast during Lent, but what they may not know is that fasting is a powerful tool to defeat sin. As we learn more and more about each one of the seven deadly sins, we'll explore small fast and practical ways. to grow in the opposite virtues so that we can root out and eliminate each one at its source.

You can learn more and download the free Lent action plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash father Josh Lent to join, download, and subscribe to the Ascension app today. Thank you for coming back, staying with me here. Just taking some time this week to share my life with you. I am right here. My mother is little ways away here and she's little ways away. away physically, but also just a little ways away from entering that eternal dimension of her life, which we believe will be with the Lord forever and ever. As I said before the break

father came over, parish priests, Ralph Talbot, and he came and he gave my mother some words of encouragement. She was in and out. And he gave her last rights. But then there's another thing that's added to this. And you know that I know this, the apostolic pardon, but sometimes you are caught up in the moment of preparation and everything. And sometimes you have to be reminded. And I was reminded by one of the really fine, fine employees of Ascension, and that was Lauren Joyce. And she just sent me a text. And the text, she said, remember the apostolic pardon. And I thought to myself, well, I know that, but to be honest, I wasn't thinking about it. At the moment, I thought, that's right. And so to Lauren, thank you. We have so many great people at

Ascension that have been such a blessing to my life and our family. And so the apostolic pardon is an extension of the church's generosity. It is especially for people who are completing their journey, that journey into heaven, we hope, right? And the church offers this gift as part of the last rights. And we hear about people, you know, with deathbed confessions and the anointing of the sick, the Viadicum, that is the Holy Eucharist, as food for the journey. But I really do think that one of the most generous gifts of the church is when our souls are totally sanctified and prepared in the apostolic pardon. Now, the apostolic pardon is a plenary indulgence offered when death is imminent. In other words, we know this is going to

happen anytime now. What it does is it remits all temporal punishment for sins already forgiven under certain conditions defined by the church like confession. And those temporal punishment for sins are the kind of the leftover of the sins in our life that we need to be purified of. There's a lot of teaching about that that you can get a hold of online and go to the USCB. But every baptized person who is in communion with Jesus and the church, and they're in a state of grace, they receive this indulgence. And it's usually administered to someone who is unconscious

or they can be conscious, and it's after the anointing of the sick. And that's what happened yesterday afternoon when Father came over. And it was really, really beautiful. You might ask yourself, well, where do we see this type of thing in the Bible? Is this even biblical?

You know, and maybe you're not Catholic, you're Protestant wondering, wow, this is really something that you could be cleansed in such a fashion right before you die. Well, it actually is in the Bible and it has a precedent and it was the good thief on Good Friday. And as Easter is just around the corner here, we're reminded of the fact that Jesus was on the cross. He died. He was buried and rose from the dead. But Jesus said something to the man on the cross, the good thief. He said to him that he would be with him in paradise this day. Well, that's Jesus. He's going to set the precedent on this. And so basically that's what's happening with the apostolic blessing. It's like Jesus saying to the

good thief, today I will see you in paradise. So it was so beautiful to hear that. And I want to share with you just a couple of the prayers here that were so beautiful. These were the words that were said by the priest for the apostolic pardon for my mother. He said, through the holy mysteries of our redemption, may Almighty God release you from all punishments in this life and in the life to come. May he open to you the gates of paradise and welcome you to everlasting joy. By the authority which the apostolic see has given me, I grant you. a full pardon and the remission of all your sins in the name of the Father and in the Son

and the Holy Spirit. Amen. That was a powerful prayer. And you know that we're living in an age now where between presidents, we just went through that. We talk about pardons and a pardon is a good thing. I think at times it can be used in a little bit of a strange way, but certainly not in the church. you know, I think it's the gold standard, the pardon, the apostolic pardon, and those words by the authority which the apostolic see, that's Rome, has given me, I grant you a full pardon and the remission of all your sins in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And I would encourage you that if you have loved ones that or friends or friends of friends that you know they're on heaven's doorstep, mention that to them. I'm going to put a link to this. for the USCB for you in the show notes. But have this in your arsenal. Put this in your notes somewhere that if the situation arises, you can send that to someone say, hey, don't forget to ask your priest for the apostolic pardon.

And he knows all of the stipulations and what's necessary for it, but it is a blessing. You know, sometimes today I think we forget about the process of going to heaven, the process of going from this life to the life to come. it is a process and most of us probably are going to spend a little bit of time in purgatory right cleaning up before we enter the the gates of heaven hopefully and sometimes we forget that process and we don't have a proper funeral a proper preparation and and we just go straight to a celebration of life I'm not against celebrations of life by any means I think it's a beautiful thing but I would not substitute, a celebration of life for the process, the official process of sending people on

to be with the Lord. No condemnation meant by that whatsoever. I'm just saying that I would not skip this. So I thank you for your prayers. That's why I'm here today. I'm going to end this. I'm going to go back and sit with my mom, but I wanted you to be a part of it because you're a friend and I'm asking for your prayers for Trish. I'm asking for your prayers for my family, my sister James, my sister Leslie, and all the grandchildren as well. So thank you for your prayers. I love you. God bless you.

And I'll have more to say next week.