The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - The Fear behind Closed Doors

Episode Date: March 20, 2020

After the Crucifixion, the disciples shut themselves up in the Upper Room, in fear of their lives. Jesus came among them and said, “Peace be with you.” As we experience fear and uncertainty these few weeks, we ultimately must realize that everything will be OK if we put ourselves in God’s hands. Email us at [e-mail] to get the full shownotes or text “jeffcavins” to 33-777.

You're listening to the Jeff Kavens show, episode 158, the coronavirus, fear behind closed doors. 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 welcome to the show this week, a show on the show. unlike any other show in a time, unlike any other time that we've ever been in. I want you to know that I'm praying for you, my wife, Emily, praying for you. And you are on my heart and you are on my mind. And I wanted to spend some time this week talking to you about what we're all facing

with the coronavirus and offer you some hope and some things to think about during this time that are really based in scripture, based in our relationship with the Lord. I appreciate your emails and your prayers. We appreciate that very much coming to you from Minnesota right now, and things are kind of shut down, aren't they? I love to hear from you. My email is the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. And any of the scriptures that I mentioned today, I'll put in the show notes. If you don't get the show notes, just text my name, one whole name, Jeff Kavens, and the number to text is 3377, and we'll put you on the list. Well, it certainly is an interesting time. You know, a lot of people glued to television to find out what's going on.

By now, most of us know what's going on, and we have been told to stay in our homes. Businesses have shut down, hair salons have shut down, karate clubs. name it, on and on and on, movie theaters, Broadway. Everything has kind of come to a halt. And it's interesting because for one of the few times I think in the world, last time I think was 9-11, this time maybe even more, the whole world is talking about something. The whole world is talking about something. Everyone is talking about the coronavirus, and everyone is behind closed doors. Everybody's behind closed doors. I have a scripture that I want to share with you this week that talks about fear behind closed doors, and the disciples, of course, experienced it.

It was after Jesus rose from the dead, which is interesting because that's after the victory. The victory had been won, but the disciples on the evening of the day, the first day of the week after the resurrection, the doors being shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came, and he stood among them and said to them, peace, be with you. And that's the message that I have for you this week is that as you are behind closed doors, look, there's a lot of things that people are fearful about. And I want to talk about a few of those with you today. But if you're experiencing that fear, you're along with the rest of the world. Now, the advantage is that we as Christians. We experience Jesus coming to us behind the shut door at a time when people are fearful

and saying to us, peace, be with you. Shalom, be with you. And that's a message that you can take from the Lord. Yes, there's a lot of things that we have to address. There's a lot of things that we have to pay attention to, and there are categories of fear in our life. But the message from Jesus is peace. Shalom. This can happen to you. You can experience this. You know, I get a lot of email with people talking about how their diocese, their archdiocese, is basically shut down. Mass, no more. Confessions, very limited. Adoration, shut down. I just got off a phone call late last night with a good friend of mine who said not only is mass canceled, but adoration's canceled. And somebody else, texted me and asked, well, what about spiritual communion? What about our relationship with the Lord?

And, you know, there really are different levels of spiritual communion. And one is, of course, I think the greatest source, and that is the Eucharist. And maybe you don't have access to the Eucharist. Now, secondly, it would be adoration to be with the blessed sacrament, to be with the Lord. Third, there is a spiritual communion in meeting with one another in the body of Christ, where Jesus said, where two or three gather together in my name, there I am in the midst. And you might not have that advantage right now. Without any of those, there still remains a spiritual communion with God as the Holy Spirit resides in your soul. And Jesus says to you, I'll never leave you, nor forsake you. Now, you're not going to hear that on CNN and MSNBC, and you're not going to

hear that on your local news, perhaps. Maybe they will. But that is a promise to you. Jesus says, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. And that is a promise that you can stand on. So this is interesting, isn't it? Shut behind closed doors. And as I was thinking about this, I thought to myself, you know, there really is a fear beneath the fear. There's so many different fears that we are experiencing. But there's a fear beneath the fear, and that is the fear of death. That is the fear that, oh my, something is going to happen to me, and I have no source of help, no more testing kits. Doctors are turning people away with slight symptoms. I can't get a hold of anyone at the bank. I can't get a hold of the people that I normally do. I can't hug someone or be

hug. It's a difficult time. It really is. And fear permeates society. But one of the things that I have felt very strong in my heart is we're experiencing this is that you and I are the disciples of the Lord. We are the ones who have been behind closed doors, and the Lord comes to us and says, Peace be with you. We are his disciples, and we are the ones who can provide hope. We are the ones who can provide kindness. We are the ones in the midst of the storm who can bring calm to conversations and hope to conversations. And the truth is, we're going to be okay. We're going to be okay. Ultimately, we're going to be okay in the arms of Jesus.

I like what Mark Twain says about worry and fear. Not that you thought you were going to hear from Mark Twain today. But what's interesting is I just drove through his hometown two days ago in Missouri, as we came back up from Louisiana. My family was all coming down to Louisiana to be with Chef John Falls, and we have been down there for several weeks, and our grandkids were going to come down,

and we had to stop everything. All of my speaking engagements for the next two months gone, absolutely gone. And we had to come back up from Louisiana to Minnesota just to be at least near our family so that we can help in some way. There was a natural drawing. We couldn't stay down there with everything going on.

We wanted to be close to family. But Mark Twain said, he says, I've been through some terrible times in my life, some of which actually happened. And that's one of the things with fear that we deal with, right? The fear beneath the fear is that we start to talk about or think about things that could possibly happen, and we live in that fear when the truth of the matter is,

most of that will never happen. And so we need to recalibrate our lives and our thinking to Jesus Christ and really, really focus on him. You know, as I was thinking about Lent, and this is the Lenton season, it's a Lenton season like no other, a 40-day trial. We thought that it was about giving up chocolate. We thought it was about giving up a glass of wine, but it really became something quite different. And I have been talking a lot, recently at Lagottis meetings and other places around the country before having to come home about the three forms of piety that we experienced during the Lenton season. And now these three forms of piety, and that is fasting and alms giving in prayer, are on steroids now. I mean, these are the keys to getting through something like this and dealing with the ultimate Lenton experience. experience. And so I want to share those three with you once again. And this is the best place to be is looking at what do you do? What do you do when you're dealing with difficult times like we are these days? And those three forms of piety fasting. And I appreciate something my good friend,

Father Josh was mentioning on his Instagram. He was talking about how the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. And for many of you, the bridegroom has been taken away in terms of the Eucharist and the mass and adoration. And now is the day when we fast, and that really draws our attention to how much we need the Lord and how much we really need to rely upon the Lord. Almsgiving is another area that we're focusing on during the Lenton season. And in almsgiving, this is a time for us to think about other people. We are divesting ourselves of those things which we are attached to. And now we have kind of an added incentive, if you will, to give to other people and to make sure that other people are taken

care of. And we're hearing stories all around the country, all the way from rock stars to politicians, sports stars, and hopefully the faithful, right, of doing extraordinary things to take care of others by giving at this time, alms giving. And then prayer, that's the third form of piety. And this is really a time where we can go deeper in our prayer life. This is a time where we're not entertained by the faith. This is a time to activate our faith. It's a time to put it into, action. And prayer is one of those categories. And I love what Paul says when he says in Philippians chapter 4 in verse 6, have no anxiety about anything. But in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And then he says, listen to this. And this

corresponds to the scripture in John chapter 20, where we see the disciples hiding behind closed doors. Paul says, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. I want to read that again to you because I think that is absolutely critical. It's critical. And that is that when we find ourselves behind closed doors and fear begins to enter in, listen to what Jesus says. Peace be with you in John 20. And Paul echoes this when he says, have no anxiety. about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses us all understanding will keep

your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Now, there are some concerns in our life, right? and we want to apply this, this have no anxiety and peace be with you to the various areas of our life. And we want to incorporate fasting and almsgiving and prayer at this time. Go deep. You know that years ago when I was a pastor and I would visit in, you know, nursing homes and I'd make hospital visits, I would talk about suffering. And one of the things I would say, and I would say it again today now, is that when we experience crisis like we are right now, take note, really gather yourself together, take inventory, go deep, because you might not ever have this opportunity again to teach your children, to grow in your faith, to be a witness

to other people, to display the kindness to your neighbors and to others, whether you can do that in person or online or a phone call or FaceTime or Skype, but also in your own marriage to not let this crisis come between you and your spouse. There's a lot of people who are not used to being with each other 24-7 in their home. And this can cause problems in relationships. My message to you is peace and you be the calm. You be the gentle one. You be the gentle one. You. You. You be the one who speaks in a level-headed way. You be the one that leads prayer at a time like this. I'm going to take a break when I come back.

I want to talk about some of these categories. And I've got a few other scriptures I want to share with you here today to bring some peace and some encouragement to you. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show. Hi, I'm Sonia Corbett, the Bible study of Angelista. When I became Catholic, I had a really, really hard time understanding the role Mary was supposed to play in my life. So I went to her and I told her, I just don't get it. I need your help. And guess what? Mary did just that. She showed me a way to

pray that has revolutionized my entire life. Mary has been called the mother of listening. She didn't just hear the word. She knew how to hear it in light of her own relationships, circumstances, and habits. And then she let the word transform her. I realized that I had to share what I was learning about Mary's of praying with others. So I wrote How to Pray Like Mary, a step-by-step guide to discovering God's voice in the scriptures and letting Him transform your heart. I invite you to learn more about how to pray like Mary at ascensionpress.com or on Amazon. And welcome back. We're talking about fear behind closed doors. And the disciples experience this and what's interesting is that the victory had been won. And Jesus had already risen from the dead,

but they were afraid, and they were behind closed doors, fearful of what might happen to them. And that's true with many people today, and that doesn't mean that we're not prudent, you know, that we're not making good decisions, and we're following the suggestions of the government on how to not only take care of ourselves, but to make sure that we're watching out for others. to thinking about this more. I've done a lot of thinking. I'm sure you have to, and you could probably just hit record and send something back to me. I'd like to hear from you. If you have something to share, my email is the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. Truly, I'd like to hear from you. I got to thinking about some of the things that we're worried about immediately when we hear about

the coronavirus, and there are categories that immediately we think about. And I thought, you know, there's actually a natural worry, and then there's actually a spiritual correspondence. And a lot of times we don't think about the spiritual correspondence. I'm thinking about, number one, a concern for life itself, life itself. The fear beneath the fear is that we're afraid of getting the coronavirus, but the truth of the matter is it's not the virus we're really fearful about. It's death. I don't want to doubt. die, right? That's what we're afraid of. And we hear in Italy that 365, 450 people a day, we think, oh, my gosh, is there a chance? Is there a mystery here? Is there a chance that this could be so

out of control that it's almost inevitable that I'm going to get it? Or my parents or my kids? Oh, my. Right? There's a fear of death. I like what Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said. He said, He said, if death were merely a physical must, we would not fear it. Our fear comes from the moral fact that we know we ought not to die, right? In the Bible, we hear of people living for 380 years, 620 years, 700 and some years, and we think, oh, come on, not really. I mean, that really couldn't. They're not living that long.

We're surprised, right? when that's not what we should be surprised about. What we should be surprised about, what we should be shocked about is, my gosh, people are dying. That's the fear. That's what really sets us back. And that's what Fulton Sheen is saying. He goes on and says, we fear death because it was not part of the original plan laid down for us. You see, God has a plan of sheer goodness. And the original plan, this was not a part of the plan. And so it does. does shake and rattle us when we are faced with it. He goes on and he says, and by the way, I'm reading from one of his books called Peace of Soul, and that's by Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

He goes on and says, death can be robbed of its greatest fearfulness. How? If we practice for it, Christianity recommends mortification, penance, and detachment as a rehearsal for the great event. And so one of the things I would encourage you to think about at this time when everything is in an upheaval and everybody is fearful and there's closed doors is that everybody's ultimately fearful of death. But I love what Fulton Sheen said. He said that we can deal with this by practicing for it. That's mortification. You got a good chance, good opportunity now to do that. penance. You can do that now. Detachment. Wow. In a way, you're helped along with this, right?

This is really good rehearsal, this period that we're in. He goes on and says that the basic spiritual principle is this, that death must be conquered in every thought and word indeed by an affirmation of the eternal. Turn to God. Turn to God at times like this. And so if you're concerned for life itself, that's natural. Let's be supernatural, okay? Let's be supernatural, and let's practice for what is inevitably going to come sometime in our life. Ten years from now, 30, whatever it is. Let's practice.

Number two, are you concerned about your children? I think you are, right? Especially if you can't be there. You miss hugging your daughter, your son, your grandchildren. We do. I can't go over to my kids right now. I can't go over to my grandkids right now. We can Skype, but I can't go over there. Emily has a bit of a cold. We're not going to take chances. We love them, right? We love them. And so we're concerned with who they are around and the influences in their life. And my daughter is taking care that they are protected. That's natural.

and I have three daughters altogether. We're very concerned about all of them. So we're concerned about our children, and that's at the natural level. We don't want them to get sick and struggle and so forth. We don't want them to have financial adversity, right? Well, spiritually speaking, are we afraid? Are we concerned about our grandchildren? Do we pray for them? Do we lift them up to the Lord? This is the time to do it. If you can't, reach out and touch them. You can reach out and pray for them. Are you concerned about your parents? I am. I'm concerned about my parents. They're behind locked doors, too. They're behind locked doors, and it was just two days ago that I went, and I went, picked up some chick filet for them,

and my mother really enjoys that lemon drink they have. I can't remember what they call it, but I picked it up, and I went to their house. I said, I'm not coming in. I'm not going to come in. I don't want to take a chance on my elderly parents. getting something from me, even if I might not know that I have something, but I don't want them to get it. I'm careful, and I laid it there at the door and left. Pray for your parents. You're concerned about your friends. Pray for your friends. Concerned about your income. It's a good, it's a good time to sit back and kind of go over your income and your spending and to ask yourself, am I doing what the Lord wants me to do with my income? Do I have extra income to help other people?

Lord, are you asking me to be generous? So there's all these natural things, but then there's a corresponding spiritual thing that we can do in our lives right now. I'm reminded of what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6 when he said, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. Now, listen to what he says here. This is incredibly powerful, because I'm talking about you can't serve two masters, and you might be thinking, well, that's not me right now. You know, that's not me right now. But listen to what he says in the very next verse. He goes into anxiety again. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat.

or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. That's a good one, isn't it right now? I'm looking at the window, and I'm seeing birds as I'm speaking. In the midst of all of this fear behind closed doors, there's birds out there flying around, and they seem to be free. Look at the birds of the air. they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory, was not arrayed like one

of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first His kingdom them, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. That is really good news, isn't it? I went into Whole Foods two days ago when we came back from Louisiana, and I was up, partly concerned, but partly curious.

You know, I heard about the empty shelves, and sure enough, walked in, went into another great store, a big store in the Twin Cities as well, no toilet paper, no hand sanitizer, no meat, no bread absolutely empty. I mean megastores and saw lines. And I'm thinking, wow, maybe I've got some reason to fear here. And then these words of Jesus come back. And we either believe them or we don't, right? And again, be prudent. Don't just sit there and say, well, I'm just going to read the Bible all day long and do nothing. But listen to his words again, don't be anxious about anything. The birds are being taken care of right now. Look out the window. They're okay. You're going to be okay, too. God is going to take care of you. Don't fear. Perfect love casts out fear. Allow the Lord to come behind that locked door

and allow him to speak in a beautiful way, peace. Peace. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'll never leave you, and I will never forsake you. That is an amazing thought that he can come behind locked doors. And so I encourage you to share that with your family, share that with your parents, share that with your friends, that the Bible does talk about locked doors, amen? but it talks about Jesus coming behind those locked doors and providing peace. Providing peace. He's going to take care of you.

I got one more thought that I want to share with you, and I hope to come back several times and maybe more shows than the normal in a week just to share with you some encouraging words. There's a saying among the Jewish community that comes from the Mishnah, that is the commentary, on Scripture. It's the oral law. It's the oral law. And then you have the Talmud, you have the Talmud, which is the Mishnah and the Gamera. But anyway, the Mishna says in Sanhedrine 4, 5, whoever saves a single life is considered by Scripture to have saved the whole world. That's amazing. Whoever saves a single life is considered by Scripture to have saved the whole world. And so this classic line of rabbinic Judaism talks about just how precious

just life is to God, and we participate by doing what's saving one life. This certainly applies to abortion, doesn't it? But I would encourage you to follow what the government is saying, follow what our doctors are saying, and that is watch your interaction with other people. You never know, right? And we want to save every life during this. crisis. And if you save one, you save the whole world. You save the whole world. And that shows how connected we are. And that's one thing I think we all realize since this broke out in China is just how connected we are. And you look at those red circles on a world map of where this virus has spread to. And in a very short period of time, we have affected everybody. And that is,

there's a spiritual correspondence to that too, and that is that if we choose to become witnesses for Christ, if we choose to become disciples for the Lord, and to start sharing Christ with others, we can have an impact throughout the world that will blow our minds. Just like this is blowing your mind. That can blow your mind, too. The witness to share Christ, the corigma, the good news, the proclamation. Well, that's about what I wanted to share with you this week. And again, if you want to share your thoughts, or you can write me at The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. My calendar is pretty open for the next couple of months. I'm going to be coming up with some videos I'll share with you. I'm going to be coming up with some really interesting shows. Also tune into ascensionpresents.com

because my good friend, Father Josh Johnson, Father Mike Schmitz, and Swoffords and others are all going to be sharing some good things with you, Daniel Bean, and I hope to contribute to that as well. We want to be with you, but we don't want you to sit back and say, well, I'm off of work. I'm going to be Christianly entertained. No, that's not what this is about. It's putting our faith into practice, so we'll be with you, but we hope to be with you in action in changing the world. I love you and I'm praying for you. Let me just close in prayer right now. I want to lift you up in prayer. And I want you to pray particularly for one young lady, if you would. That one young lady is a special person in my life now. Her name is Camille, Henserling. She's from Lafayette, Louisiana. She's a freshman at LSU. She found out just a couple weeks ago that she has melanoma in her eyes. eye. Yesterday, she underwent surgery in Memphis and the eye was taken out. And today, when we're talking about this, she's suffering greatly. And I'm going to ask all of my friends around the world to pray for her and her mother Rachel. As I am talking to you, I've been getting some

texts from them. And it's a hard thing for her to go through. Her name is Camille. Would you lift her up in prayer with me and her family, beautiful family. Her mother's been studying the great adventure for years, and I just was over at the university in Lafayette, the raging Cajun, spoke to a lot of college students over there last week. Remember, Camille. Let's pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I lift up my friends to you right now, and I ask you, Lord, to give them that peace that passes all understanding. Behind locked doors, you provide that peace for us. I thank you, Lord, that you have given us the opportunity to have no anxiety as we pray, as we give everything to you, as we trust in you. Lord, we know that you

take care of the birds. We know that you take care of everything that is yours, and you will take care of us. We trust you. We give you praise, and we lift up Camille to you today and our mother Rachel and the family. Oh, God, comfort them. Comfort them. Comfort them. them, oh God. Give them peace, give them hope and healing. I pray, Lord, that you would just wrap her in your arms today. In Jesus' name, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit again. I love you. I'm praying for you. Let's stand together. Amen. Thank you.