The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Taking a Pilgrimage to Mass

Episode Date: April 12, 2017

You might not be able to make it to the Holy Land this week, but if you're going to Mass, consider yourself a pilgrim. Jeff uses the Jewish understanding of pilgrimage to help us prepare our hearts to meet God in the Mass and receive his blessing in our lives.

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show. Episode 11, taking a pilgrimage to Mass. 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.

Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins and welcome to the show. Glad you could join me this week. We're going to be talking about some very timely things. We're coming up on Holy Week, which gives us the opportunity to go to church quite a few times. And we're going to talk a little bit about that, but mainly about the preparation for going to church. This week I want to talk about the journey, the pilgrimage to the House of God every Sunday. And this applies to every Sunday, but also this time we're really talking about Holy Week and preparing yourself to go to Thursday. Friday and the Vigil on Saturday, the Easter Vigil. My favorite time of the year, my favorite

mass of the year, I absolutely look forward to it and all the grace that God has for us. And I want to talk about that today. The sound in the background that you might hear right now is literally the sound and the cracking of the fire, about 10 feet from me. It's still spring, but the air is crisp. And I'm in the northern Minnesota studio. where I love to come and pray and study God's word and talk to you. And as I'm looking out over a beautiful lake, I also see the very ground that in the fall and the winter and early spring, about five or six deer come walking through the backyard every single day. And it's just a great place to seek God and to pray and to talk to you.

Hey, before we get going on today's topic about preparing to go to Mass, that that period where you leave home and you drive to church. We're going to talk about that. I want to remind you that everything we talk about on this show is written down in show notes. And I know that many of you are traveling to work or you're coming home from work or you're on vacation, whatever it might be. Maybe it's a weekend and you're mowing the lawn.

You've got me in your ears right now. No need to stop and write down the information because we have a lot. of a wonderful, wonderful team that puts together the show notes for every show, and they're waiting for you. You can simply go to ascensionpresents.com forward slash podcasts, and you can click on the notes there. You can also go to iTunes and subscribe. We really appreciate your comments about the show. It helps us to understand how we're doing, and we also invite you to send me a message about the shows that you would like us to address, or the topics, rather, that you'd like us to address and that that email is simply the jeff kaven show all those words the jeff

keven show at ascensionpress.com well i think that the topic we're going to talk about is so timely right now because we are coming into the uh the holy week and the holy week is really all about the liturgy and entering into this great mystery of the death and the resurrection of Jesus. And as St. Paul says, if this didn't happen, my friends, we're in a world of trouble if this didn't happen. But if it happened, then we are in for a world of blessing. And I believe that it happened. And I know you do too. And that's probably why you're listening in the show today. So what I want to do is talk about the journey. You know, when you're at home on Sunday morning and you are ready to go to church, I have found that the minutes, the hour,

leading up to leaving the house. And we have three girls. There's only one at home right now. The rest are gone. But I found that that time before we leave house can be some of the most confusing and filled with turmoil and everybody trying to get ready, especially when you've got three girls. You know, they want to get ready and want to dress right and everything else. And I just want to go to church so we can get there a little bit early and spend some time praying.

But sometimes that doesn't work out. What I've also noticed is that the drive to church oftentimes is the most contested time of the week. There's subjects that are brought up. There's, you know, people want to listen to their music on their headsets and so forth. And as a father in the house here, I have to be really the one that sets the tone and says, no, we're going to prepare now. We've only got about a 15, 20 minute ride to church. and we're going to prepare our hearts to enter into this great mystery of the Eucharist and hearing God's word and receiving what I'm going to talk about today,

which is the blessing. You know, when we talk about the blessing, which is the very last thing that happens in the Mass, the blessing is what really speaks about the longing and the yearning of our heart. And all of us have a longing to be blessed by God. All of us have a longing to experience the peace of God in our lives. And that's what happens at the end of our Sunday experience at Mass. And in a huge way on Holy Week, we receive so much blessing. But I'm amazed at how many people miss that blessing at the end of Mass.

Or after receiving the Eucharist, they actually just, go out the back door. I mean, they just leave. And you're going to hear today, I'm going to teach a little bit about the Old Testament and going to the temple and how that relates to the Eucharist, Sunday Mass. They actually miss the thing that they came to the temple for, or that they came to mass for, which was not only to receive the Lord's body and blood, yes, and to receive his word, yes, but to receive his blessing. And when we talk about blessing, brahma, in Hebrew, We're talking about wholeness, we're talking about approval, we're talking about an endorsement from God that you are mine and I love you and I want you to be blessed in every way, physically, spiritually, emotionally, I want you to be blessed. And it's not just words that are said like sentiment, but it's an actual transference of grace and life when God,

blesses you now the catechism talks about you know when God blesses us it is giving us this life that we desperately need but you probably have heard people say as well well I bless the Lord or as the Psalm says bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me and when we bless God it is really relating to an awe of God and an obedience to God and that's how we that's how we respond to God's blessing is that we bless Him with a life of obedience. Well, our subject is really going to church and that that pilgrimage of going to church. And I want to start off by a quote from St. John Paul II. Tertio millennio adveniente.

In paragraph 49, he said something about this idea of going to church. He said the whole of the Christian life. And that means Saturday, morning, Sunday, every day at work, nighttime, getting up in the morning, the whole of the Christian life is like a great pilgrimage to the house of the father, whose unconditional love for every human creature, and in particular for the prodigal son, we discover anew each day. He goes on and says, this pilgrimage takes place in the heart of each person, extends to the believing community, and then reaches to the whole of humanity. So what St. John Paul II is saying is that our whole life is like a pilgrimage to the

house of the Father. And in the Old Testament, that was the temple. That's where the blessing was given. And he's saying that this personal pilgrimage that we're on in our life extends to the believing community as well. The believing community meets every Sunday at church. And in Holy Week, we meet in spades. And then he says, and then it reaches the whole of humanity.

And I think that's interesting because what he's saying is that what happens personally with us extends to the church. What happens in the church as far as pilgrimage and coming to the house of God extends to all humanity. In other words, what we do in church in the mass has consequences in the world. And that's what St. John was saying in the book of Revelation when he talks about the Eucharist and he talks about what's happening in heaven. it affects what happens on earth for all of humanity. It's the power seat. It's the cockpit of spiritual power, if you will. And we're a part of it just by going to church.

It's an amazing thing. Now, God has always, always, always in the Old Testament been about the business of that life-giving action that we call blessing. He blessed Adam and he blessed Eve in the beginning with fruitful life. And he renewed that blessing with Noah's family. when sin threatened to engulf life. Now, with Abraham, God stepped in and gave a special blessing to help people turn back in faith toward him,

the source of life, both now and forever. And that special blessing, God later appointed the high priest to impart on his behalf. And you've heard this blessing before. In fact, this blessing was something that I gave to all of my daughters when they were growing up, at least in elementary school junior high, and as far as I could take it in high school before they left and had crazy schedules

with sports and extracurricular activities. But it comes from Numbers chapter 6 in verse 22. You've heard it before. It's the great ironic blessing. And this is the blessing that God appointed the high priest to impart on his behalf. And it goes like this. Thus you shall bless the people of Israel.

You shall say to them, oh, I love this. this is good. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you shalom. Peace. Man, that's what we're looking for. That's what we're looking for. And that's what's given to us at the very end of the Mass. And nine-tenths of us get it. The other tenth are out there getting ready to go to the football game or whatever it might be. But the blessing of life without end

is what every pilgrim desires. It is also the goal of God's plan of sheer goodness for mankind according to the catechism, paragraph one. It should not surprise us to find that the Psalms in the Old Testament, which are at the very heart of the story of Israel and whose prayers form the heart of their worship, reflect this theme of journeying to God's house for blessing.

My friend, could you use blessing in your life right now? Could you use the reassurance and the hand of God on your life? Well, in the Old Testament, regular journeys to Jerusalem may not be part of the rhythm of life in the new covenant, but as Pope John Paul, the second one said, the Christian life is a great pilgrimage to the House of the Father. So that's going to be something that is going to be very, very important. for us. Now, there are a number of Psalms, and this is something I'd like to suggest to you that the pilgrimage to the House of God, which for us is, it's the drive, it's the walk to church, can be accompanied by Psalms that were actually called Pilgrimage Psalms, or Psalms of Ascent.

When you look at the book of Psalms, you will see that there are certain Psalms that were used by Israel, to go to Jerusalem, to go to the House of the Lord. Now, Jerusalem was set up on a mountain top of seven hills. And wherever you came from in the land of Israel, if you're going to go to Jerusalem, you were always going up, or you were making an ascent. Just like for us on Sunday, if we go to Mass on Sunday, we're going up to Mass.

And on Holy Week, we're really going up. and we're staying there for three days, and four if you go on Sunday. And these Psalms were called the Psalms of Ascent, and that's Psalms 120 through 134. If you're ever looking for something to read to the family or meditate on as you're going to mass, Psalms 120 through 134 would be the ones to meditate on. They're oftentimes called the Travelers Psalms. and it follows nicely on the previous psalms, the cries of distress, and so forth, where suddenly we're on a traveling pilgrimage to the house of the Lord.

Like take, for example, Psalm 121. I love this Psalm. Psalm 121 talks about, and I'm not going to read the whole thing to you right now. In fact, I would encourage you, and you can find this in the show notes, read it yourself, and think about this. Let me give you some of the themes about this pilgrimage to the house of the Lord, some of the things that the psalmist brings out as we travel to God's house, or for us, Mass, on Sunday morning. Maybe these are things that you are experiencing your life right now. So Psalm 21 offers reassurance to the weary and the weary traveler.

If the road is uneven and rough or even treacherous, it is good, to know that God, and I'm quoting now, will not let your foot be moved. That's good to know, isn't it? Whatever you're going through right now in your life, isn't it, isn't it nice to know that he will not let your foot be moved? Or curves in the road might hide bandits or wild animals or other dangers, particularly at night. Yet God who keeps you won't sleep or even doze. It's a good reminder, isn't it, that whatever you're going through and you're afraid of danger around every corner, know this. God is the one who keeps you, and he's not going to go asleep. He's not going to go to sleep and forget about you. So whatever the situation,

we can sleep in safety because God is awake. The desert sun can be exhausting on a long track. Are you exhausted in your life right now? Are you tired? But the Lord provides shade. Verse 5 of Psalm 121, one of the Psalms of Ascent, one of the Psalms that Israel would read and sing on the way to the presence of the Lord. And by the way, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, no doubt prayed and sang Psalms 120 through 134, when they made their three journeys to Jerusalem for the feasts every year. Now, there's a promise there in verse 5 of Psalm 121, a promise that the sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. It speaks of around the clock protection. In summation, the Lord will keep your going out and you're coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

Verse 8. God's protective powers aren't limited to the vicinity of his earthly throne, but he watches over his own, even during their travels, both now and forever, so that they may journey without fear. I absolutely love that. That is so good. Now, a couple of other ones you might want to read are Psalms 133 and 134, the last two of the Psalms of Ascent. What do the pilgrims find at the end of their journey? Well, the journey ends in deep satisfaction at the blessings of brotherly unity and the blessings of life bestowed on Israel through the priestly worship. They depart in praise and calling on the Levites to continue praising the Lord through the night in the temple. It's beautiful.

And then they come to the temple. They finally come to the temple. They've been days on the road and they come to the temple, just like you have been miles on the road. Maybe it's only five. Maybe it's 10, maybe 15, 20 miles to church. But finally, you're there. You're there.

And for Israel, it was the only time that they could hear something special. You know what it was? The name of God pronounced in the Aaronic blessing. in the temple. Numbers 6.27 says that God shall put his name on the people of Israel. Now this is profound because the temple is the place where God's name dwells. This happened at every 3 p.m. This is like the Wednesday audience in Rome with the Holy Father. Zechariah was supposed to do this in Luke but didn't because he didn't believe that and he couldn't speak the name. And Luke ends. This is interesting.

Luke's Gospel ends with Jesus, raising his hands over his disciples and giving them the blessing. That's the last scene of the Gospel of Luke. So Luke begins with an old priest who can't give the blessing because he can't speak. And Luke ends with Jesus giving that blessing. The Psalms of Ascent, oh, they follow the pattern. of the blessing. It's absolutely beautiful. And that's what we receive every Sunday when Mass ends with Father saying, bow your head and receive God's blessing. And you're hearing that and experiencing that on the heels of having heard his word of encouragement to you and in discipline and correction.

And after receiving his body and blood, the greatest source of grace in your life, on the of all of that, repenting of our sin, praying for our loved ones, we bow our heads, and we receive shalom. We receive peace. Now, my friends, we're going to take a break here in just a moment, and I want to come back and I want to talk about the practical aspects of this in the car on the way to church. And I'm going to give you a couple of tips that I think can literally change your life, change your family's life when you go to church. But I want you to think just for a moment about the great need of your heart today and what you're seeking to fill that void in your heart.

Is it something on TV? Is it a book? Is it an experience? Is it escaping on the internet, drugs, alcohol, whatever it might be? It's not fulfilling your heart. You've got a shape in your soul. and nothing's going to satisfy you except for God. And that's that blessing that you're really seeking.

And God wants to give it to you, really give it to you during Holy Week. And I'm going to ask you to really seriously think about the process of coming to the house of the Lord and preparing your heart to receive his word, his body and blood, and his blessing, brahah, his blessing. it's what you're seeking. It's what you really, really want. I want to remind you to look at the show notes, all these scriptures that I've been given you, they're in the show notes, and we've prepared that for you. We're going to take a break when to come back. I want to talk about something that Jesus experienced on the way to the presence of his father in the temple that could revolutionize your going to mass. I'm Jeff Kavans, and we'll be right back.

Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and I want to invite you to join me at the National Catholic Bible Conference this coming May, May 5th through the 7th, in Houston, Texas. At the conference, you will hear from an amazing lineup of presenters who will help you grow in your faith and your understanding of the Bible, including Jeff Kavins, Dr. Michael Barber, Sarah Chris Meyer, Thomas Smith, and Dr. Ed Sree. To learn more and to register, go to Catholic Bibleconference.com. I hope to see you there. Welcome back. I'm Jeff. Good to talk to you today. We're talking about this journey to the house of the Lord, something that we make at least over 50 times a year if you go to Mass every week. It's the journey, five minutes, 10 minutes, 15, 20 minutes on the way to church. And how we prepare ourselves to receive the blessing of the Lord.

Prior to our break, I was mentioning that that Israel would go three times, a year on these pilgrimage festivals to Jerusalem. And on the way, they would oftentimes sing Psalms 120 through 134, which are called Psalms of Ascent. And it was, the content of those Psalms is really to prepare Israel for what they're about to encounter, which is the presence of God in the temple, the place where his name dwells. We as well, as we go to church on Sunday morning are going to experience the real presence of God, the Eucharist. My friends, it doesn't get any better than that. You can show me any church in the country that has great homilies, great sermons, great music,

great home groups, great stuff for your kids. It's all great. But it doesn't even come close to even being worthy of compassion. pairing it to the very body and blood of Christ and the blessing of Christ on your life that you receive in the Mass. And during Holy Week, you're going to have an opportunity to go one, Thursday, two, Friday, three, Saturday. And if you want to, go Sunday again four times,

where you can make this journey to the House of the Lord to receive his blessing. Now, part of the tradition of Catholicism is today, the church, the church is the new Jerusalem, and each one of us can be a living dwelling place for God on earth. But at the same time, we journey toward the eternal house of the Father in heaven. The catechism tells us in paragraph 1013. So what's the purpose of this journey to church? Well, the journey of life, according to the catechism, is a pilgrimage offered to us by God as a time of grace, which is God's life and God's mercy during which we work out our destiny. in accordance with his divine plan.

Now, here's what's really interesting. If you've never been to Israel before, first of all, I would encourage you to come with me. Every January I go. I go to Israel every January, and you can go to jeffcavens.com and look up pilgrimages, and we'd love to take you. And one of the highlights of the trip

is that we go to the southern steps of the Temple Mount, the ancient Temple Mount. And on those southern steps, there are 15 different steps going up to the temple where we would go in to experience the temple and the sacrifices and the presence of God. And there's a whole bunch of these steps on the southern, the southern mount there. Now, we gather there and we sit down, and one of the first things that people notice is that all of these steps that are the entryway to the temple. In fact, we even visit steps that Jesus would have walked on. Each one of these steps is a little bit different than the others.

They're uneven. Now, you would think, well, they're building the temple. Don't we want everything to be uniform and don't we want everything to be absolutely perfect? Uh-uh. They're uneven. But they're uneven for a reason. They're uneven because if you go up into the presence of God,

which we are correlating to driving to church, If you go up to the presence of the Lord and you've got other things on your mind like music from your iPod or you're listening on your smartphone or you're arguing with your sister or you're arguing with your spouse, you're going to trip because these steps are not even and they're not even for a purpose. The purpose is that when you approach the presence of the Lord, you need to focus on what you are doing. You need to think about every step to the presence of the Lord. of the Lord. These uneven steps, they keep one's approach to God's presence from becoming automatic or thoughtless. Now, I'm coming to you right now from the great northern studio here

in Minnesota, better known as a cabin. But every Sunday when we go to Mass, I can tell you what the distractions are. The distractions are smartphones, radio. We've got a big station here called WCCO. I love to listen to WCCO. Find out what the twins have been doing, the Vikings, and, you know, what's going on in the news. But going to Mass on Sunday morning is not the time for me to focus on the news. It's a time for me to focus on the good news of Jesus Christ. And so I turn the radio off. I ask our children not to listen to their smartphones on the way to Mass. Why? We need to start preparing our hearts for the presence of the Lord. And so on these uneven steps on the Southern Mount, you're forced to think about each step contemplating what you are doing. You're contemplating

your week, your month, and you're even singing or reciting the Psalms as you go. And just as the pilgrims went up to the temple for the Passover, so we go up to the real presence of the Lord. when we go to Mass. How can you apply what you've learned about pilgrimages in the Old Testament to your own preparation for the Mass or for adoration or for reading the Scripture? I would encourage you to think about that. To think about what it was like 2,000 years ago to go to Jerusalem from Galilee or some other part of the world and how excited you must have been

to go to the very presence of the Lord and suddenly you ascend to Jerusalem and there you see this magnificent temple and you know the presence of God is there. Edit. So we today can also make that ascent when we go to Mass. Now let me give you just a few really practical things

before we wind up this show. If you are a father, take the leadership. Make sure that you are ready, maybe 10 minutes before everybody else. You're the leader. You're the one that's leading them on the pilgrimage to the house of God. And do it with a cheerful attitude, a joyful attitude. Don't do it as someone who's a tyrant and you're cracking the whip, but do it as someone who is excited.

about being at church and maybe even taking the time to find out what the readings are for Sunday. I would suggest subscribing to the Magnificat. It's a small little journal that has the readings every week, in fact every day of the month, and familiarize yourself with them before you get the family together. Make sure that everybody's in the car on time so that you can get to Mass about 10 minutes early so you have some time to think. Settle yourself down. encourage the family as well as yourself not to be focused on all the problems in your life but to be focused on the presence of the Lord the one who can solve the problems of your life as you get into the car you set the mood dad if there's no dad in the family mom you set the mood

if there's nobody else but you then you force yourself to set the mood and to begin to focus on the fact that you are actually going towards a goal which is the presence of the Lord. And for Holy Week, the goal is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. It's the zenith, the pinnacle of our faith. And as you take off in the car or walk towards Mass, towards the church, harness your thoughts, harness your thoughts in your heart, and give all of your thoughts over to the presence of the Lord and to what he wants to do in your life at Mass. And when you arrive, you will be in a better place to enter into worship. and, by the way, you'll get more out of the Mass.

How many times do we hear our kids say, I didn't get anything out of that? Well, you didn't even prepare. You didn't prepare at all. It's like, you're going to get married, but you didn't prepare for months, and suddenly the day is there. I didn't get a lot out of it.

That wasn't that special. Well, you didn't prepare. And if you prepare to go to Mass, you're going to get a lot out of it. So I would suggest turn the radio off, turn the phones off, maybe read the gospel reading on the way. Have one of the kids read it.

In our family, going to church, we all many many times very often in fact it was kind of a tradition we prayed the rosary on the way and then we would read the scripture from time to time and have the kids meditate on that and then i also said you know when on the way home i'd like to ask you some questions about that that text and and what father had to say about it so it gave us something to talk about as a family whether we drove home or we went out to eat well just some suggestions for holy week coming up, and there really suggestions for any Sunday as you prepare to go to Mass and prepare your heart. I really pray that this Holy Week is going to be special for you. I do. It's there for a reason.

You know, the liturgical calendar is God's daytime, or it's his planner, and it really follows the life of Jesus. And it always, you know, every week has a way of ministering to me, and it's like God knew what I needed that week, and he really spoke to my heart. And then when we come to the huge feast days like Easter, the resurrection, God speaks to me in such a beautiful way, and I hope that he does as well this year. So let me conclude by praying with you, and just a quick reminder, the show notes are there, all the scriptures that I've mentioned are there. Ascensionpresents.com, ascensionpresents.com forward slash podcasts.

And the show notes will be there. And email me personally. I'd love to hear from you. I really would. My email is The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. Tell me what you'd like to hear us talk about here in this great northern studio. I'm not going to have a fire probably next time like you heard in the background because it's getting warmer. And the fire will turn to the beautiful warmth of summer and all the leaves coming out.

But it's been good to be here with you today. Also, listen and rate the show on iTunes, the Jeff Kavan show. Go ahead and subscribe. I'd like to have you rate it and tell me any of your feedback. That would be very, very helpful. Hey, by the way, also listen to my good friend, Father Mike Schmetz. He has a show at ascensionpresents. Ascensionpresents.com forward slash podcasts.

And, of course, he is very relevant. He's always got good advice for you. That's Father Mike Schmitz. Let me close and ask God to bless you. and let's pray in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit amen lord i thank you for all of my friends who are listening today and lord i ask you to just to extend your grace and your love and your mercy toward them lord i'm sensing even in in some of their lives that there's there's great problems with children and finances and health lord i ask you to intervene in their

life and and to give them that shalom that peace that they are so seeking and a especially in the Mass, Lord, this week and during Holy Week. Lord, would you meet them in such a beautiful way as to give them that peace that they are seeking the answers that they're looking for? I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. And I also ask for the intercession of our dear mother, Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners. and at the hour of our death, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. My friend, I'll meet you and I'll be with you in the Eucharist. This, Son, God.