The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Thoughts about the LA Fires

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

How do we respond to tragedy? Jeff delves into the devastating LA fires and focuses on the role of the body of Christ during such crises. He explores the importance of empathy, understanding the value of home and community, and how the Church can support those affected by tragedy through prayer, volunteering, and compassion. Snippet from the Show " In Christ, there's always a new chapter. There's always a new beginning." 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 412, thoughts about the L.A. Fires. I appreciate you joining me this week to talk about the L.A. fires a bit and what our response. might be, certainly a different show than we normally have. If you're new to the show, welcome. We typically talk about being disciples of the Lord, studying scripture, and doing the work that God has called us to do. And I think while this sounds a little bit different, it's really right down the middle of the plate, and that is, what does the body of Christ do? What's our attitude towards those who are really struggling right now in California? We've all heard about it on

the news people have been glued to the news many nights in a row as they they witnessed people who have lost everything their life uh came to a crash in just a matter of hours and it's something that none of us would want to ever experience and there we're watching it on television and so what i thought i would do today is uh just talk about this a little bit uh nothing big and organized or anything like that but just some thoughts i've been really thinking a lot about it talking to my wife about it and some friends and praying and, you know, thinking about the relationship of the body of Christ to all these people, who there are many, many Christians, many Catholics, too, that in California there who have lost their church, they've lost their homes, and in some cases

their faith is shaken to the core. They didn't see this coming. And in the middle of it, there's all kinds of wrangling, you know, with politics and blaming and this and that. And that's not what I'm really concerned with here at all. But I'm more concerned with seeing this whole thing, just taking a few minutes to talk about seeing this thing through the eyes of Jesus and the love of God, the love of our Father for everyone there and how do we deal with suffering. Now, I would normally talk about this whole teaching, you know, in the Church of the theological views on redemptive suffering. But at a time like this, it's not the time to just come into this tragedy with lessons on this point one point two point three but more of i think right now just thinking about what

should we do how do we respond and i think there will be a time where you can you can talk about how do you deal with suffering in your life and go into it in detail and maybe we'll touch on that just for a little bit here today i have heard from several of you that you have family in the area you have family that's been displaced and their lives are are shattered right now and Everybody in the family is trying to figure out how do we come to their aid? What do we do? Okay, so for those of you around the world, and maybe you weren't aware of it, there was a huge, huge fire this last week in Los Angeles, and thousands of homes were destroyed. Thousands and thousands of people displaced businesses gone.

Whole neighborhoods completely gone, like an apocalypse, you know, like a complete disaster in areas where people grew up. And so, you know, I'll share a few things with you here. And one is we have this whole idea of home. And I was talking to my wife about, you know, the home we have and how many things have happened in our home, Christmas and birthdays and anniversaries and tough times and good times and the whole thing. And we could go through every room in our house and every bookshelf of our house. And we could go back to events in our life.

And in a way, the rooms and the things on the bookshelf. are, in a way, they're sort of sacramentals. Don't go far with that. But what I mean is that they point to something. They point to a wedding or they point to a graduation or a time in our life when we moved, something like that. And so our homes are very, very important. And when people suddenly are without a home, it can leave them in a place where they feel

lost. There's no direction. There's no common landmarks, if you will, like in a, Like on the highways, you have landmarks. You know where you're going. In the home, there's all these little landmarks that review the past adventures that the family has had. And when they look at them, they're warmed and they enjoy those memories. And those are gone for so many people.

And I was watching this on the news and just trying to take in listening, you know, not thinking of what I'll do, but trying to listen to what the people were saying. They were crying and they were standing in the ashes. and they were saying things like, I remember one person said that they were in utter shock and they didn't know what to do. They don't even know what the first thing to do is. And one person said,

I don't have the knowledge to deal with this. You know? It would be like something happening in your life and you needed this incredible medical care and you'd say, we've never been here before. I don't even know anything about this. And when your home is taken away,

your business is taken away, the kid's school is taken away, people respond with, I don't have any knowledge, I don't know how to deal with this. And they said, I don't know how to deal with this. I don't know anything about insurance. People say, well, you call in the insurance companies, and they're saying, I don't even really know anything about insurance. I don't know about law. I don't know about rebuilding.

And the memories are gone. So when everything is gone, then you have to ask yourself, well, what do we do? And of course, we know, objectively speaking, that we call upon the Lord. We look to the Lord. And hopefully we have that relationship with the Lord who can keep us grounded and keep us focused on what's important and what need to do. But some of the families were saying, I have no home, I have no work, I have nothing. I don't even know where to go. It's amazing how fragile we are.

You know, all of us, not just people that have gone through this, but all of us are very, fragile, that if we didn't have the grocery stores for our food and the dairy farms for our milk and, you know, in all the different areas of our life, the refineries for gas and all that, we would really have a heck of a time trying to survive. In fact, you know, I look back at some of the pioneer years and how rugged these people were and how robust they were and they figured it out. But the way we live in America today, we are very dependent upon the system working. And when it is gone, we really don't know what to do. And I venture to say that I probably wouldn't know what to do as well, you know.

And I'm going to find out that there's great big areas of my life that I lack knowledge and wisdom and how to go forward. But I have to depend upon my relationship with the Lord. I so appreciated what Archbishop Gomez said, the Cardinal, Archbishop Gomez, rather out in California. when he said, while there are no easy answers after such a tragedy, he said we need to be instruments that show his compassion and care to those who are suffering. And so as a pastor in L.A., Archbishop Gomez was saying that really the question isn't just what should they do, what should the people do, but he was making his address in such a way that he was calling all of us, you and myself, to ask ourselves what should we do? So the question

is both, what will those people do who have been hit with tragedy? But the second part of that is what will we do as the body of Christ? The Archbishop went on, he said, love is what is asked from us in this challenging moment. And he's saying that as a shepherd, as a pastor, a leader in the community, saying that love is what is asked from us right now. This is the challenging moment. and love is being asked of us, that we would love others, that we would give of ourselves to others. And so, you know, I heard a few interviews that were going on after the tragedy, the heart of the tragedy, at least. And people were making comments that, you know, their church was gone. And someone said, well, the church is not the building.

It's the people. And that's, it's true. I mean, it's really true that the church is the people. That's you and me. but we cannot minimize the importance of a church building, you know, just like you can say, well, your home is destroyed, but you have each other. Yes, but we can't minimize this. To lose your home is a big deal, because in the Christian mindset, a home is what the Jewish community would call a Mikdashmaat, and that is a small temple. It is the place where the school of love takes place.

It is the place where we raise our children. There's safety. There's education. there's formation. Those walls mean something. They mean something. And that's the way it is in Christianity, is that things mean something.

And so when someone says, well, the church is the people, not the building, we shouldn't be sad. That's not true. It's true that the church is the people, but the home of the church is important. Those churches were holy, distinct, among buildings in L.A. There were a lot of buildings that are not distinct in holy,

But there are some that are, and they're called churches, and they're filled with memories that will carry on throughout eternity. So I don't think we can minimize anything about the loss of homes or buildings, stores. They have all been part of the fabric of these people's lives. And we are incarnational. So things matter. Things really do matter in people's lives. Yes, praise God. A family didn't lose a loved one.

Praise God for that. I'm just saying we don't minimize the loss of people. We're going to look at all of it and then respond to all of it. And I think one of the principles in the kingdom of God that is important for us to embrace at this particular moment is that when one hurts, we all hurt. You know, the scripture says, rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. And that's the worldview of the Christian. Now, the worldview of the enemy is rejoice with those who mourn and mourn with those who are rejoicing. It's completely upside down, and it stems from envy, which the Book of Wisdom says that's what the enemy brought into this world was envy, and envy is when you are sad at somebody else's success, and you're happy about their demise. And we are neither of those. We rejoice with those who rejoice, and we mourn with those who mourn. So if our brothers and sisters are mourning in California, then we have to pay attention to it. We cannot just walk away from it. We have to ask ourselves, what can I do to join those who are mourning?

what can I do to be Christ at this particular moment? And I think this gets back to the point of what does it mean to be the body of Christ? What does it mean to be the body of Christ? And to be the body of Christ is not to be a group of people who have memorized some tenets of the faith, and we believe a certain number of things, and that's what separates us. To be the body of Christ means that we carry on the will, the plan, the love, the mercy, the kindness, the comfort, the consolation of Jesus to those who are hurting in the world today.

And so, on one hand, we could say to ourselves, I'd like to do that, and I want to do that. On the other hand, we'd say, but I don't know it. I don't know anybody. I don't know how I can do that. And that's where we, as the Christians from around the country, need to start finding out how can we help, how can I be of some comfort, and how can I stand with those who are suffering right now in California? And one of the best ways to do this is through the church is to ask our own churches all

around the country, do we have a relationship with them? Is there anything we can do? Because as I said earlier, one of the broadcasts, the guy was saying, I don't know anything about insurance. I don't know anything about law. I don't know anything about real estate. Nothing. Is there anything we can do?

Do you have any ideas? Can God take your five loaves and two fish and do something extraordinary with it at a time of great need like this? Like the feeding of the 5,000? And oftentimes the great ideas are born out of the tragedy. And you might be an answer for that. I don't know if you are, but you might know. And so we start to check with our own parish.

Do we have a relationship with them? Does our diocese have a relationship with them? Is there an avenue of hope that we can ride in on and to help people? Is there some way I can volunteer? And it's not just money, but it might be volunteering your skill set at some. level that can be organized or you can help people with the law or insurance or how do you make a claim, you know, whatever it might be. Now, I don't have anything in mind there just off the top of my head. I'm just saying this is the way we, I think we should start thinking creatively

at this time. And so to be the body of Christ is more than just an association. It's a participation and particularly when we're hurting. I remember those interviews, those people crying saying, I don't know what to do. Well, there are a lot of people. to do. So this is our time to shine with the love of God. We're going to take a break and we come back. I'll have just a few more things I want to share with you and some scriptures just for this time. It's not an organized talk. It is just some thoughts that I'm thinking and perhaps you are too. And that's where this starts. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. I'm Father Mark Mary Ames with the Franciscan friars at the renewal. My brothers and sisters at the service of becoming saints and falling in love with Jesus and Mary.

the Most Holy Rosary, the team here at Ascension Press have put together the Rosary in a 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 on this journey, you can begin by going to ascentpress.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. Thank you for coming back. We're kind of mulling over what's happening in California. And I don't know about you, but I can really get tired of politics, and I'm not that interested in it. What I'm interested in is, Jesus, what will you do about these people that are hurt in California? And what can we do as the body of Christ? We can all certainly give money. I know that and go through your Catholic charities and so forth to be an extension of God's mercy and

love. But there might be other things that you can do. Listen, this is a time to be creative and to ask the Lord. Lord, you've given me a certain set of very good gifts. How can I use these in this time, if you are indeed calling me to use these special gifts. And I'm confident the Lord can use it. I'm confident that he can speak to you and put you in touch with the right people. I'd love to hear how he's working in your life. Now, one of the things that I have spoken about several times on the show in the Jeff Kaven show or the last seven or eight years is this idea that I learned about flying

an airplane called Flying by the Instruments or an Instrument-rated Christian. And an instrument-rated Christian is someone who they don't fly by the landmarks that they're used to. You know, a lot of people have a license to fly an airplane, and it's not instrument-rated. You need an instrument-rated license when the clouds come in. You're socked in. You can't see a thing. And vertigo can set in. You don't know if you're up or down or where you are at.

So you have to rely on the instruments in the midst of the storm. And that's what I think a lot of people are doing in California right now, is, they are now suddenly instrument-rated and they have to go by what we would call as Christians walk by faith and not by sight because walking by sight, that's gone. And so we walk by faith. When we walk by faith, it's really twofold. It's believing in God and believing in his goodness and his future and then a personal entrusting of ourselves. as it says in Hebrews Faith, Hebrews 111,

faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen. You know, I like what it says in the catechism about this idea of being instrument raided. That is, we're going to go by the Word of God, we're going to go by our faith, we're going to walk by faith right now. That doesn't mean we walk by wishing.

It means we walk by faith. We know what to believe. We're going to walk this out now together, and we're going to encourage each other to do it. It says in the paragraph, 1.50 of the catechism that faith is, first of all, a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed. As personal adherence to God and assent to his truth, Christian faith differs from our faith in any human

person. It is right and just to entrust ourselves wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says, it would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature. So I really would encourage all my brothers and sisters in California. And I don't mean this lightly in any way that now is a time to walk by faith, is to pick up your faith, to wrangle what you believe and entrust yourself to God. There'll be a time, maybe next week we'll talk about it, about suffering and how to walk in redemptive suffering. I think it's a little soon, right, at the moment. But I think right now what is appropriate is to encourage you and to encourage others to walk by faith, walk by what you know, walk by what you have learned, put it into practice.

Nobody saw this coming, but you have prepared. And in Christ you can do all things. In Christ, nothing's impossible. In Christ, there's always a new chapter. There's always a new beginning. That doesn't mean anything about being easy, and it's not a light thing. but it's a right thing to encourage people to walk by faith, put into practice what you have learned.

And also for parents to be a demonstration to their children of how to respond to horrible tragedy. And how do we respond as a church to horrible tragedy? Teach our children in how we respond. Now there's a number of scriptures that I'll share with you real quickly here just to think about, you know. And I'm going to prepare something for next week. And I want to work on that a little bit.

bit about this whole idea of redemptive suffering and go deeper with this. But here's some scriptures that I think are good, they're great. You know, like Psalm 3418, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Well, the Lord is close to the broken hearted and he's close to the brokenhearted because his people are close to the brokenhearted. That's you and that's me. I like what Matthew 5.4 says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted, part of the beatitudes. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in chapter one, and he said, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Compassion and the God of all comfort, and

certainly God comforts his people in the midst of these times. And John 141, John 141, do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me, Jesus says. Now, as I am kind of closing this out here, I think what I'm going to do next week on the show is I'm going to talk about how to rise out of the ashes. And I'm going to work on that this week. Pray for me. And I want to just, I want to put something together that's a word of encouragement to people on how do you build. How do you build out of the ashes? and what is our role as members of the body of Christ in that process in helping others. Let's pray for our friends out there in California. I'm in Minneapolis right now.

You are where you're at in your home, but time and space are not an issue here in prayer. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, we lift up our brothers and sisters in California. We lift up all of those who have been devastated. by this fire they have been devastated they have been confused they feel aimless nothing is the same lord jesus i pray that that your spirit would descend upon that area with a revival and a fresh pouring out of the holy spirit in the lives of of the people in california and especially

Lord, your people, your followers, your sons and daughters in this tremendous kingdom, may a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit be poured out upon all the faithful to rally and be you, Jesus, on every street corner in front of every place that was a home. I pray, Lord, that you will rally us and help us, Lord, never to see this as something that we just watch on TV, but an opportunity to interact. and to do something about. Jesus, give us wisdom and creativity. Give us your love.

Help us to depend upon your power and your abilities. We give you our five loaves and two fish and Lord, we ask you to do something with it to meet the need. And we pray that your will would be done in the lives of those who have been crushed. We ask you, our dear mother, intercede, and to be that advocate for these people. 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 now, and at the hour of our death, amen. Amen. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, my friend, I love you. Let's work together. Let's pray. Let's find out what God wants us to do. And I look forward to talking to you next week out of this issue of life out of the ashes. God bless. Thank you.