The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - What’s So Special About the Catechism?

Episode Date: January 13, 2023

Is the Catechism important? What role does it play in our lives as Christians? Jeff is here to answer those questions about the Catechism and help you to understand what the Catechism really is. Snippet from the Show "The Catechism was not written to please you. It will not make life easy for you because it demands of you a new life." -Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI 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 ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is show 305, what's so special about the catechism. And welcome, here we are. We're still at the beginning of January, and I've got to ask you a question. are you doing catechism in a year? Everybody is talking about this right now. Just recently, I had the opportunity to go to Seek in St. Louis, and Father Mike was there. We did a panel discussion about the catechism with Father Josh Johnson, a bunch of others, and, man, that was good. And everybody was coming up to us at that conference and saying, hey, I'm doing catechism in a year now.

I did Bible in a year before, and it was something that I appreciated. You know, sometimes when you are on podcasting shows and you do a show, sometimes you don't hear from people as much as you would like to, but when you go to an event like that with 17,000 hungry souls, you hear about it pretty quick. So I want to talk to you today about what is so special about the catechism and kind of get into some of the main points as to why I think this can be a game changer in your life. And if you have children, this is definitely a game changer in coming to understand the faith. So I want to go down a little deeper with that.

And I want to give you some analogies about the catechism that just might put you over the edge as far as wanting to really get into it. Because it is a tremendously valuable book. It's amazing how many people don't even know we have a catechism. And you can be an evangelist in that way, too, and sharing the good news with people. and the great resources that we do have. Hey, if you do want show notes on any of the shows on the Jeff Kaven's show, all you have to do is text my name, one word, Jeff Kavans, and you can text that to 33777.

That's 3377. And we'll get you on the list, and we'll give those notes to you every single week. You don't have to do anything after that. Just join me. I'm very aware that you are in the car. I'm very aware you're jogging. and you're doing the laundry, and you're cleaning the garage or whatever, you know. And we want to accompany you with some really good, good notes.

And I try to put together good notes. Well, not many people, at least listening to this show, are unaware that there was a new catechism that just came out, Ascension's Catechism, a beautiful white catechism that is color-coded. And I'll get into that in a minute, but it is absolutely gorgeous. It is the younger brother now of the great adventure and the Bible timeline. And so the two go really hand in hand. And I'll explain that here in a little bit as well. Right away, I want to let you know, I will put in the show notes all the information that you need to do two things. One, get a catechism. Number two, join us in a catechism in a year, which at the time of this particular show, we're still in the first month of the catechism in a year. By the way, I met so many people who said, I'm still doing Bible in a year. That's okay. For you, it's Bible in two years. There's nothing wrong with it. Nothing wrong at all. Okay, so we do

have this brand new catechism, and the first thing I would like to mention is what is the catechism? What is it? Because it's a big one. It's a big book. And if you have the old one, it was either tan, a first version, or green, a second version. And it is a compilation of of all that we believe as Catholics, as Christians, all that we believe, and it is put in a systematic approach, given a systematic approach. There is a system to this. There's a structure of wisdom and understanding that I will mention here in a moment. It's not only systematic, but it's an organic presentation of the faith building on the church fathers of yester year. And as we come know more and more in the deposit of faith that Jesus, you know, left the early church.

We just come to know this faith even in a more colorful way, in a fuller way. Things are not made up along the way. It's just that things are understood from that original deposit of faith that Jesus gave the disciples. He gave them his word, you know, and he had some of them write his word, the Word of God, Scripture, and then others. It was the oral tradition, the things they taught, and we will touch on that as well. But this catechism is so beautiful, it's white, it has a whole new layout in terms of the look of it. It's the same exact text as the older catechism, the green one, and the tan one, except for a few little corrections here and there. and maybe if it's grammar or something.

And then the last one, there's a few other points that they needed to make and they put those in there, too, like the danger of speed, you know, and things like that. So, what this is, I just get so excited about this. I was telling my wife that I, you know, I've been really excited about Scripture all these years, no doubt about it. And I will continue to be excited about Scripture until the day I die. I know it. But with this new Catechism, I have gone from really.

liking the catechism to absolutely loving the catechism now. Maybe it's just part of the time I'm in and that it's such a benefit, but it certainly has given me a new opportunity to start afresh and learning more about the faith. So what is the catechism? Well, it is an organic and systematic presentation of the faith, and it's put together in four pillars. And let me tell you how those pillars are put together in a way that you'll really understand and you can pass it on to your children and to other people that you are discipling right now. I'm assuming that every person that is listening to this show is presently discipling five people and that you are a sponsor right now for someone who's going to come into the church in the next Easter

vigil. I'm expecting everybody to be doing that right now. And I'm quite certain everyone in my audience is doing that. If you're not and you want to know how, well, we'll talk about that in a later show, but you can take this catechism and you can use it in helping to form other people. Now, traditionally, this catechism is divided into four pillars. The first pillar is considered the creed. It's called the creed. And most of us are familiar with the creed that we say. And you have to ask yourself, well, what is the creed? Well, the creed, well, the creed, well, the Creed is the story of salvation history, your Bible, the plan of God. It is the word of God. It is the story of salvation history in a very compact form or a tightly wound form, as St. Augustine said.

It is the story in miniature. So you take the story of salvation history and then you miniaturize it. that is the creed. And it was Cardinal Ratzinger, who then became, of course, the late Pope Benedict, the 16th, he said that the very organization of the catechism says something, it teaches something, and that is that the story comes first. My friend, if you want to know, if you want to know what the church is all about and you want to know the faith really well, you've got to start with the story. That's why Bible in a year came before Catechism in a Father Mike and I worked on that, the Bible in a year, and that was an incredible success, thanks to you and people around the world who started to get a hold of it and tell other people.

And so this creed that we have is really the miniature version of salvation history. It covers things like divine revelation and the creed, and it is just really chock full of wisdom and how we get this revelation and what it means. And so in the Ascension Catechism, they have labeled this first pillar, what we believe. What we believe. It's typically called the profession of faith, the creed. It's called what we believe. And it is color-coded.

And that's something that is different about this catechism is that every one of the four pillars is color-coded. What we believe is blue. and then the second one is burgundy second pillar the third pillar is green and the fourth is purple and we'll get to those in a moment but i just wanted you to know that they are color-coded so what we believe that's the first part what do we believe in fact and that's what we go into the second pillar of the catechism is burgundy in this beautiful catechism it's burgundy and it's typically these sacraments and liturgy. That's the way we headline it. But in the Ascension Catechism,

it's how we worship. Because sacraments and liturgy is how we get into God's amazing story through baptism. And we celebrate it in the Eucharist. And we come to know more about our faith through our worship. So how we worship is really important. Now, here's an interesting thing. If you start with how we worship. If you start with the second pillar, the sacraments and liturgy, oftentimes people get bored. Why? Because there's no story to attach it to. There's no backdrop. There's, there's no narrative. It's just, it's just oil and water and saying this. What is this all about? And that's what your children are going to say to you. They are. You say, oh, kids, you should be excited. I got you signed up for for sacraments class and what are they going to say oh mom i've been waiting for this

all my all these few years no they're not they're going to say what does that have to do with me mom i don't want it oh it's boring well yeah it is if you don't have a story it certainly is right put it this way if i told you that i was going to come to your city and i was going to put on a seminar And you're just going to really dig it. You're going to think it's so cool to come to that seminar because I'm going to do four talks. The first talk is the decision-making of the Yellow Brick Road. You're going to think, whoa, that sounds foreign. All that religious language.

I don't even know what that's about. Well, come in here. You're going to hear it. And then the second talk I'm going to give you is all about 10 men and lions and scarecrows. yeah it sounds pretty wild doesn't it and then the third one my third talk is get this how to kill a witch how to kill a witch i might as well tell you now water but that's what we're going to talk about and the third talk the fourth talk is a talk called there's no place like home now i am telling you all that i'm coming to your city i'm going to talk about that and then the date comes around and

nobody shows up why well we can we come to find out nobody has seen the Wizard of Oz. Yeah, they invited me to come to your city to talk about, you know, about Yellow Brick Road and how to kill a witch and there's no place like home and scarecrows and lions and ten men. And no one showed you the movie. That's what sacraments are. For those who have never seen the movie, that's what they think about it.

No, you know they're special and I know they're special. I know that. but for the people who haven't seen the movie the creed the story salvation history these things are not so important nor are they urgent okay that's why bible in a year went first that's why we must learn scripture in the story of salvation history so that's number two how we worship and then number three number three this is a relatively long pillar it's life in Christ, typically called Life in Christ, the moral law, 10 commandments, and so forth. But what this is, is the Ascension Catechism calls it how we live. So, number one is the story, the creed.

Number two is how to get in there, right? How to worship, how to get into that story. Number three is life in Christ. What's that? Well, that is your personal script. That's how you live. You live the life of Jesus in this amazing story. that we are living in.

You live the life of Jesus. And then the fourth one is prayer. And this is beautiful. This one's purple. So we've got, let's see, we've got blue for the creed. We've got burgundy for, and that first one, the blue one is what we believe. The burgundy, the second one, is how we worship. The third one, green, is how we live.

And then the fourth one is prayer, how we pray. and that's a beautiful kind of a lavender purple color. And this one is all about prayer, obviously, using the Lord's Prayer as a guide there. So when you put these four together, and I'll tell you, I've taught this around the country, I'm the director emeritus of the Catechetical Institute at the St. Paul Seminary,

and for 15 years we've been teaching that. And I can tell you this, when you show people the logic and the relationship between those four pillars, boom, lights go off. Pow, it's exciting. And they're like, oh, man, I want to get a catechism. So those are the four. And then there's some beautiful, beautiful apparatus in the back of helps, you know,

in the back. And this is in gold, actually. I guess there's gold in them, there pages. But you have subjects and you have concepts in the back. You have a glossary. you have all the citations of scriptures and church documents and saints, just incredible, just absolutely incredible. And you know what?

For all of you ribbon lovers, people who love ribbons in your Bible and other books, guess what, four ribbons in this new catechism, one ribbon, each of the color of each pillar. There you go. That's it. And very, very exciting. Now, let me tell you the value of this. I'm going to do this after our break, and then I want to talk to you about the value of this catechism in your everyday life. I'm not talking about theology piring the sky way up there above the clouds. I'm talking about in your kitchen, in your living room, in your bedroom, in the backyard, and at work. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, I'm Father Mark Toops. Do you ever feel like you're asking God for too much in your spiritual life?

The truth is, you're probably asking for too little. And if you'd like some help this Lent, opening up your heart to God to allow him to bless you with all that he has for you. You should pick up the new Ascension Lent and Companion Year A. This coming Lent, if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got. If you'd like some help to go deeper, you'll need to ask for more. more. And this is what this year's journal is designed to help you with. Each day, you'll get a word to focus on, a reflection to help you pray, some scripture to meditate on, and a prompt to help you quiet down and listen to what God wants to say to you. And each week, we feature a piece of original artwork as well as an original online video to help you in your prayer. I want to encourage you to be bold this lent, to ask God for more. Go to ascensionpress.com and order your copy of the Ascension Lenton Companion today. God bless you.

We're back and we're excited. We just launched Catechism in a year. And it is at the top of charts around the world. Very exciting. Thanks to people like you who are hungry and you want more of the faith. Before the break, I was talking a little bit about the uniqueness of the Ascension Catechism. and the way it's laid out in the color scheme and so forth. But then comes the question, Jeff, why would I want to read the catechism?

I mean, I've got the Bible, and isn't the Bible different in the catechism? And why not just stay with the Bible? Well, first of all, yeah, stay with the Bible. That should be something that you're reading every single day because it's the word of God, right? Now, there's a difference between the catechism and the Bible. The Bible is inspired by God. that is that there's inspiration, and that is God is the author. That is God is the author.

Whereas the catechism is not inspired in the sense that scripture is inspired, but the catechism is a very accurate description of the fullness of faith that has been given to us in sacred scripture and sacred tradition. Ooh, right there, I can just hear you thinking, you have a sacred tradition. Does that mean that we just made up a bunch of traditions? Mm-mm. No way.

No, we did not. No, we believe that, just like the Jews in the Old Testament, we believe that God's word is given to us in sacred scripture and sacred tradition. That is what was passed on by Jesus. So why is this so important for everyday life? Well, let me couch it like this, and then maybe you can even tell me why it would be so valuable. What if I said to you that we're going to have a conference next year and we're not going to tell you exactly where it's going to be because the tickets are going to be hot, everyone's going to want them, and here's what we're going to do. We have a huge panel discussion.

Now, I can tell you this, we can seat somewhere around 100,000 people in this venue that we're going to be looking at. By the way, this is fiction. so do not call ascension wondering where this conference is so this conference this fictitious conference seats 100,000 people and what we're going to do is we have an all-star we have an all-star speakers panel I'll let me tell you some of the people that are on the panel number one we have st. Athanasius is going to be there number two is St. Jerome and then his buddy St. Augustine St. Augustine's going to be on the panel. No kidding. Those three are going to be on the panel along with Leo the Great. Gregory the Great is going to join us. Mother Teresa will be there. Terese of Lesu will be there. And we also have John Paul II. We'll be at this panel discussion along with Padre Pio. Now, you think, are you serious, Jeff? You're having all those guys and all those ladies. You're having them on a panel discussion. You're having them on a panel discussion. discussion? You bet we are. Well, what are we going to do? We're going to ask questions.

We're going to ask questions of the panel and we're going to listen to what they have to say about various topics. My friend, that is what the catechism is. The catechism is going back and gathering and collecting all the collective wisdom of these amazing men and women of God and bringing it into the present to instruct you. To instruct you. Now, instruct you about what? anything, all things, every aspect of life. I'll give you an example. In Ephesians, Paul says to the Ephesians chapter 5, he says, husbands, he says, love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Now I read that, and that's beautiful. It's touching. It's deep. Makes me emotional. Love your wife as Christ loved the church. Okay, I will. I will. I will.

there you go love her deeply oh yes i love her well there's more than that isn't there how the question is well how do i love my wife as christ loved the church okay well if we're going to answer that we've got to know a bunch of things we got to know for example what is marriage what is a covenant can you can you get a divorce uh what's a husband's responsibility what's a wife's responsibility what if they have children What does a family look like? So Paul's one command, husbands love your wives, as Christ love the church, is great, but it needs some flesh on the bones, doesn't it? Otherwise, it's just left to you doing whatever you think he might have been talking about

rather than what the church has always understood he's talking about. So we begin to look in the catechism and we find out, wow, these saints have a lot to say, and the scriptures have a lot to say about what a covenant is in marriage. And they have a lot to say about what a man's responsibility is as a husband and father. Whoa, I never knew all this. You see, that's the woe on every topic, on every topic. And so the catechism is not an encyclopedia. The way it's put together is it's a story of salvation history.

It is a roadmap for living. it's treasure, and it's like a treasure hunt. If you needed an encyclopedia, the church would have put together an encyclopedia. But it's not an encyclopedia. You can use it as an encyclopedia, but you're not going to get everything you need out of it unless you understand the structure of it. Now, when your children start asking questions about the faith, you can go to the catechism and in the context of the four pillars begin to talk to them

about why it's so important to find a godly woman to marry because you know what marriage is and a covenant relationship is. Now, we could have used as an example, prayer. We could have used the body of Jesus, body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus, right? Transubstantiation. We could have talked about prayer. We could have talked about mass. We could have talked about the role of Mary as our mother.

Could have talked about the communion of saints. What about hell? What about purgatory? Is that in the Bible? What is it? What is the church always taught about this? What about heaven? Wow.

Wow, wow, wow, wow. What a gift. What a gift. What a gift. And that is why 17,000 people were excited in St. Louis. Because not only have they gone through the Bible in a year and learned salvation history, which, by the way, if you want to go deeper in that, you've got to go through the great adventure study. That's the study, the great adventure.

that's the study that really rocked Father Mike Schmidt's world, which ended up becoming the structure of Bible in a year. So if you have gone through Bible in a year, you need to get into a good Bible study, like the Great Adventure. Put that in the notes for you. And the Great Adventure Bible. By the way, did you know that the Great Adventure Bible

and the catechism are the same size? Did you know that the charts of each are the same size? that's because they come from the same mother the church there you go so anyway you can go through bible in a year then get into a great bible study now you're going to start learning some of the deeper things about what all of this means no other group has this like we do no other group has the the embarrassment of riches like we do so i'm going to encourage you today get on board with catechism in a year. All you got to do is go to ascensionpress.com forward slash C-I-Y, just like Bible in the years is B-I-Y, C-I-Y, and we'll put that in the notes for you, and we will also put into

the show notes how to get your Bible, how to get your catechism, how to get signed up for catechism in a year. But I'm going to leave you with this. This is your opportunity to be an evangelist. This is your opportunity to spread the good news to other people. People like to be a part of a movement and there certainly is a movement going on now and I am just so thankful that you are a part of it. So what's so special about the catechism? It shows us how to live. It goes deep into what we believe and it illuminates the things that we have discovered in the Word of God, in sacred scripture, and it is an organic and a systematic presentation of the faith. But pause there. I want you to know something. It's got some language in it that

takes a little bit of, look this up, look that up. Do not be afraid of that. Anything good like knowing of the treasures of the kingdom of God, you've got to be willing to roll your sleeves up a little bit and go after it. A kid that wants to be a professional baseball player will practice every single day. Yeah, but he's got a sweat, but he wants to be a ball player. Yeah, but it's expensive. Yes, but he wants to be a ball player. He's going to have injuries. Yes, but he wants to be a ball player. He won't be able to go out for soccer. Yes, but he wants to be a ball player. That's what he wants to be. And so he makes the sacrifice. Let's pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, thank you so much for giving us life. And I pray,

oh, Lord Jesus, that you would draw people from all over the world to come together so that we can study together the beautiful family that you have given us and all the treasures. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. I love you, my friend. Looking forward to talking to you next week.