The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - The Hour of Love

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

What does real love look like? Jeff explores Pope Leo XIV's inaugural message that emphasizes the importance of love in today's world. Jeff discusses the different Greek words for love—Phileo, Storge, Eros, and Agape—and highlights the profound impact of Agape love. He reflects on 1 Corinthians 13 to bring out the biblical understanding of love and connects it to our everyday relationships. Snippet from the Show True love rises above problems, conflict, and everything that divides us. 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 Kavan Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together and living as activated disciples. This is show 431, The Hour of Love. Welcome, welcome, my friend. I'm Jeff Kavins, and welcome to the Jeff Kavins show. Hey, we're going to talk about love. today, and specifically in the context of Pope Leo the 14th and his recent message where he talks about love, and that was in the inaugural celebration. And I'm really looking forward to this. We're going to bring in a little 1st Corinthians 13 into this and talk a little bit about the vision

of Pope Leo the 14th, as he has revealed part of it already, which is great. And that's one thing that I really appreciate. You know, John Paul II did that. at the beginning as well. He kind of laid out the agenda and told us to not be afraid. Well, in the hour that we're living in right now, there's a lot of people who are not only afraid, but there's a lot of people who lack love in their life. And they want to love deeply, but they really want to be loved deeply. When you start to bring in deception and you start to bring in fear or anger, people are deprived of love. And so it doesn't surprise me that Pope Leo is laying down these first few cards and saying we need to focus on love.

In fact, he ended his message by saying this is the hour of love. This is the hour of love. Kind of reminds me of what Billy Graham used to say a lot, that this is the hour of decision, right? And you have to make your choice. And this is the hour of love. Are we going to love? Are we going to allow ourselves to be loved by the Lord? vulnerable to one another in loving. So, hey, if you want the show notes, all you've got to do is

text my name, just one word, Jeff Kavens, and text it to the number 3-3-777, and we'll get you on board. And we've got some good things today to share with you. So before we get into the message of Pope Leo the 14th and take a look at some scriptures in 1st Corinthians, specifically chapter 13, how are you? How are you doing? How is your life going right now? Where are you at emotionally? Where are you at spiritually? How is your relationship with the Lord? What about your relationship within your family, your husband, your wife, or your children? If you're single, how are your relationships going with others at work, extended family, friends, roommate maybe? I think the one thing that we all crave more than anything else is love. And we desire to be loved and we desire to

love completely and give ourselves completely. But so many things get in the way, don't they? They really get in the way. And what I have really discovered is that it takes a real decision to love. It really does. Now, let me give you just a little bit of a background on love in the New Testament in some of the Greek words that are used for love before we look at what Pope Leo the 14th was saying about love. When you look at the word love, in Greek there are a number of words. One is filetio. I'll put these in the show notes for you. Don't worry about that. Filo is a brotherly love. You've been to Philadelphia, perhaps, right? Well, that's brotherly love. And we know what brotherly love is. It's a relational type of love where there's a fondness and a in a love and

a common interest with with with others. We all have that kind of a relationship. There's also what's called Storke, S-T-O-R-G-E-S-T-O-R-G-E, Storgay. Storgay is a mother's kind of love for her child. You know, I've never looked into it that deeply, but I'm, I guess it would be different for a father, maybe. But I have never been a mother, never been a woman, never will. And so I can't say that I totally get that, but I can say that there's a love a father has for his children. Maybe I'll have to make up a new word for that. But Storgay is a mother's love for a child, which is one that protects and nurtures and is there in present a lot. And then there's Eros. E.R-O-S. Now, right away, people think that Eros is erotic. And it is in one way.

It could be one way that it could be defined and that could be passionate love. But as Pope Benedict brought out during his pontificate, it's not limited to that. It can be something that anything that you're passionate about, could be collecting something. It could be experiencing something where you're just plain passionate, a cause perhaps. That could be eros. So those are the three that I think we're pretty familiar with. But then there's this fourth one, Agape. Some people say Agape, but Agape.

Agape love is God's kind of love. It is a self-selfless love. It's a love that will lay down its life for others and has the eternal good in mind. And so those are the four, and you cannot command filetio, brotherly love. You can't command it. You cannot command Storgay, and you can't command Eros. But you can command Agape, and that is to love. one another as I have loved you. The world will know that you're my disciples by your love for one

another. The thing that's going to change the world is not Phileo, Storgay, or Eros, but what's going to change the world, I really believe, is agape. To understand God's love for you is infinite love, his love that was demonstrated by dying for you and rising from the dead. And then, as it says in the catechism, in the very first paragraph, he invites you into this plan of sheer goodness, where he adopted you and brought you into the life of the Trinity. Truly amazing. And this is what I think Pope Leo the 14th is talking about, is this agape, this transcending love that rises above problems,

rises above conflict, rises above all the things that separate us. So I want to take a look at that talk he gave during that inaugural celebration, where he focused on love. And then we'll take a look at First Corinthians here a little bit, too. Now, when I went through the talk, and maybe we can make that available to you. I might put that in the show notes for you. He started off talking about what he saw in this difficult time that we're in around the world with wars and rumors of wars. And then, of course, the time period after Pope Francis passed away,

Pope Leo said that we felt like the crowds of the gospel where it says we're like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 936. And then he said, he says, you know, the Lord never abandons his people. But he gathers them when they are scattered and guards them as a shepherd guards his flock, Jeremiah 31.10. And so I think at the beginning of his pontificate now,

he sees himself as that shepherd, and he's going to be guarding his flock. He's going to be gathering his flock and unifying the flock. He said the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome, capable of preserving the rich heritage of the Christian faith and at the same time looking to the future in order to confront the questions, concerns, and challenges of today's world. And I love that because he's saying we're going to preserve the rich heritage, which is

kind of a no-brainer, right? I mean, we can't change that. You cannot change the revealed revelation that has been passed on to the disciples from Jesus. But he's going to not only preserve, this rich heritage, but we're going to look down the road and we're going to confront many questions. There's a lot of concerns out there and certainly a lot of challenges. And what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to head on those questions, concerns, and challenges with this rich heritage that we have. The rich heritage doesn't change, but the questions are answered. The concerns are met and the challenges are overcome. And that's by the rich heritage that he speaks about.

He goes on and says, accompanied by your prayers, we could feel the working of the Holy Spirit. Now, he's talking about during the conclave, they felt the working of the Holy Spirit who was able to bring us into, listen to this, this is really beautiful, especially you violin players, and us guitar players, I might add. He said, let's see, we could feel the working of the Holy Spirit who was able to bring us into harmony, like musical instruments, so that our heartstrings could vibrate in a single melody. That's like a poem, isn't it? So he said, love and unity, these are going to be the two

dimensions of the mission entrusted to Peter by Jesus. That's what he says, love and unity. And we're talking about love here today. Another thing he said that really was powerful, He says, how can Peter carry out this task of being like Jesus, being a disciple, and a fissure of men? How? Well, the gospel tells us that it is possible only because his own life was touched by the infinite and unconditional love of God, even in the hour of his failure and denial. He's talking about Peter here and how Peter carries out the task after he denied, after he, the Lord, three times. and he kind of went into a spiral and went back up north and he's going to go back to fishing

until the Lord in John 21 met him and renewed that relationship. And the only way that he can carry out his mission is because of the infinite and unconditional love of God. He's been touched by the infinite. And you have too. And that's why you can fulfill the call of God on your life, whether you're, you know, whatever your vocation is,

married, single, religious, priest, deacon, whatever, you can fulfill your calling because the infinite has touched you. It's really a beautiful way to lay that out. He goes on and talks about love again. He says, only in the love of God, the father, will you be able to love your brothers and sisters with that same more, that is, by offering your life for your brothers and sisters. So let me back up there for a moment because he brings in this conversation with Peter. He says, consequently, when Jesus asked Peter Simon's son of John, do you love me more than these? He is referring to the love of the father. It is as if Jesus said to him, only if you have known and experienced this love of God, which never fails, will you be able to feed my lambs?

It's the only way you're going to be able to do it. You know, you have to know this love if you're going to feed my lambs. That is so beautiful and so true, isn't it? That if Peter is going to love Jesus, that means the lambs are going to be fed. And if Peter fails to love, but what about the lambs? What are they going to eat? And then he says, as I mentioned earlier, only in the love of God, the father, will you be able to love your brothers and sisters with that same more that is by offering

your life for your brothers and your sisters. And Peter is thus entrusted with the task of loving more. Husbands, wives right now listening, you have been entrusted with the task of loving more and giving his life for the flock, giving your life for your family. Maybe that'll resonate with a few of my friends. Well, the ministry of Peter's is distinguished precisely by this self. sacrificing love because the Church of Rome presides in charity and its true authority is the charity of Christ. It's never a question of capturing others by force, by religious propaganda,

or by means of power. Instead, it is always, and only a question of loving as Jesus did. So then he goes on and he talks about the harmony of the spirit in the coexistence of diversity. Now, when he says this, the coexistence of diversity, coexistence and diversity have been the subject of many, a bumper sticker, right? But what I think he's talking about, if you look at this in context, he's talking about the rich heritage, and the rich heritage doesn't change. Diversity doesn't change the heritage. Coexistence doesn't change our tradition. It doesn't change the Word of God, but the Word of God, this rich heritage will have an impact. impact on coexisting and have a big impact on diversity. We're not called to go through

to go through his homilies, you know, of the Holy Father or any of the others and pick and choose what we like or dislike based on words. We're called to contemplate and meditate on what has been given to us. And as I look at this, coexistence and diversity in the harmony of the spirit in the coexistence of diversity. I really think that he's saying that this rich heritage preserving the rich heritage, this heritage is going to have an impact on the diversity out there and coexistence because the rich heritage doesn't change, but the rich heritage does definitely apply to all of these questions and concerns.

And I can't wait to see what possibilities are there. He says, this is the missionary spirit that must animate us, not closing ourselves off in our small groups, not feeling superior to the world. We are called to offer God's love to everyone in order to achieve that unity which does not cancel out differences but values the personal history of each person and the social and religious culture of every people. that he says brothers and sisters this is the hour for love isn't that beautiful this is the hour for love all right well we're going to take a break when we come back i want to i want to introduce you to first corinthians for a moment and and just talk about love for a second and kind of give a fuller more expansive definition of what it means to love what it doesn't mean to love and paul brings this out so well. He really does. Hey, before I go to a break, I got to ask you this. Did you get a hold of what

Ascension Press put out about Matt Frad? We'll put that in the show notes for you. We'll be back in just a moment. This is the Jeff Kaven show. I'm Father Mark Mary Ames with the Franciscan Friars with renewal. My brothers and sisters at the service of becoming saints and falling in love with Jesus and Mary in the Most Holy Rosary. The team here at Ascension Press have put together the Rosary in year podcast. Each day, we're going to have a 10 to 15 minute episode where we're just going to work through the basics of the rosary. Who is Jesus? How do we encounter Jesus? Who is our lady? What does that mean for us to be in relationship to her? We're going to go through the Hail Mary, the Our Father, each of the different mysteries. And then we're going to bring in some saint

writings on the mysteries and some sacred art that speaks on the mysteries and all of this to help enrich our prayer, to renew our prayer, to help us fall in love with Jesus and Mary. and to fall in love with the rosary again. If you want to join us in this journey, you can begin by going to Assetjepress.com forward slash rosary in a year to download the prayer plan and by listening and praying with us

through the Rosary in a Year podcast. All right, look forward to the journey with you. Welcome back. Wow, it's the hour of love. It's the hour of love. And you and I are experiencing a few minutes of that hour talking about love. That's what we're talking about here.

I do hope that what I'm sharing with you, can have an impact, you know, on your life, what you think about and the decisions you make, how you act with other people. It's really not just about learning the faith. It's really about putting it into practice, right? You know, faith without works is dead and listening to the word of God without doing it. We deceive ourselves. We don't want to do that. Well, the chapter in the Bible that talks about love more than anything else is for sure, 1 Corinthians 13. In fact, I would challenge you to print it out or cut and paste it into your smartphone and carry this chapter around with you for a week. And I would challenge you to open it and read it three times a day.

That's right. Three times a day. Just read it as an offering to say, I am going to respond to what Pope Leo is talking about when he talks about love. And I'm going to do this. I'm going to cut and paste, print it out, index card it, whatever you want to do, carry it around. and soak it up. Now, Paul, he's writing in the midst of Corinthians. Now, I'll give you a little background. Corinthians, to be Corinthianized, is to be made quite worldly. Corinth was a large city back in Paul's day, even bigger than Athens. It was filled with sailors, and they had shrines,

altars, temples, to the gods. And some estimate that there was upwards of 10,000 cult prostitutes in the city. And it was a city of of sin. It was the ancient city of sin. And here's Paul coming to this place where the celebrated Ismian games were played. And he's a tent maker. He's going to come to

this place and he's going to put his tent stakes down and he's going to establish a church and he's going to help in developing and forming this church. Wow, what a task, huh? It's like right down the middle of Vegas and downtown and, you know, on the strip

there and you're just going to establish a church. By the way, I went to a Catholic church right down there one time. I was at some kind of conference and just beautiful to be right in the midst of it. There's the church. Well, that's the kind of work that Paul did. That's the kind of work he did. So he mentions, here's how First Corinthians is framed. It starts off with the scandal of the cross and how the cross is the wisdom of God, but to the world it's foolishness. It ends with the resurrection, or we could say the scandal of the resurrection, and this idea that you're going to get your body back, which was a turnoff to the Greeks, because in the Romans, because there was a saying in Greek, somaima este, the body is a tomb, and freedom is to be free from this. And now, after all

this battle and all this faith and all this suffering and everything else, you're telling me that the prizes, I get my body back? I don't think so, Paul. And so the letter is bookended this way. The cross and the resurrection. Now, in between, you have Paul addressing the problems in the church. And there were a number of problems that arose, just like today. Any parish in this country and any parish in Australia, any parish in Canada, any parish in the UK, Philippines, there's problems. And so Paul is going to address the problems. And so we have division. One man says, you know, I'm a Paul, another, I'm a Cephas, I'm of Jesus. Oh, well, he said, Paul says, oh, you're immature.

So we have divisions in the church. And then we have immoral behavior in the church. Paul even calls out a guy who's been with his father's wife. And then we have on top of that, we have people taking each other to court. We have the agape feasts where the poor are not taken care of. And we have the scandal of meat sacrifice to idols, sold, at the market and people are buying it and eating it and the young in the faith are very offended and Paul has to straighten all this out. Oh boy. So how do you do that? Well, he does it with

what we're talking about today. And that is love. So in chapter 12, Paul talks about the gifts in the community. In chapter 14, he talks about gifts more, but in the middle of it, he talks about love. and he introduces love here as the secret ingredient to the solutions of the problems I just mentioned. Now, he doesn't just say, love everybody. That's not the solution. That was Woodstock. But when he says love, he's going to take this idea of loving, there's the way God loved us, and he's going to introduce it into the solutions for each of these problems that are brought up in the Corinthians

in life. Okay. So in chapter 13, he starts off and he says, if I speak in the tongues of men and angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And he says, if I give away all I have. And if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. thing. Now, he starts off and he says, here's what love is. And then he's going to turn to this is what it isn't. Now, he starts off saying love. Now, think about this in the context of Pope Leo the 14th message. Love, in fact, you might want to just print out his message sometime and

just as you already are going to cut and paste this chapter and read it three times a day for the next week and just kind of look at them side by side. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful. It is not arrogant or rude. So he says love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful. Now as he goes through this list, if you ever look at it carefully, you will see. He is addressing the problems that the Corinthians are going through, the problems he's been mentioning in the letter, divisions, taking each other to court, meet sacrifice to idols, offending people, immorality, ignoring the poor.

Love is patient and kind. Is not jealous or boastful. It is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice it wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things. hopes all things endures all things love never ends as for prophecies they will pass away as for tongues

they'll cease as for knowledge it'll pass away for our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect but when the perfect comes the perfect will with the imperfect will pass away and then he says this he's trying to get them to grow up he's trying to get the corinthians to grow up and they can only grow up when they love and love deeply. He says, listen, when I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child, but I became a man. I gave up childish ways.

And this is what he's encouraging them to do. To love is to give up childish ways. You don't insist on your own way. You don't rejoice when your friends got hurt or lost, you know. He's basically saying, grow up. grow up for now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face now i know in part then i shall understand fully even as i have been fully understood and he ends it this way and these are the words you're going to be thinking about for the next week three times a day that's all i'm asking

so faith hope and love abide these three but the greatest of these is love and that is what Pope Leo the 14th has us focusing on unity and love unity and love this is the hour for love my friend I hope that's of some encouragement to you today go out into the world and back into your home and love and love and really really look at 1st Corinthians 13 and ask yourself is this me or am I reading the biography of somebody else? Am I looking at the geography of my heart or someone else's? And then get on your knees and ask God to deal with your heart. Amen?

Well, I sure love you. Let's pray before we go. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I lift up my friend of you right now and I ask you to speak deeply into their heart as to where they're at and where you're bringing them. Lord, I ask you to help that. understand that this is the hour for love, not just to love, but it's the hour to receive love as well.

And I pray, Lord, that you'll do a deep work in their heart and in their relationships. In Jesus' name, amen. I love you, my friend. Remember, check out what Ascension's doing with Matt Brad.