The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Why Remain Catholic?

Episode Date: September 21, 2018

Why should we remain Catholic when the Church is infected with corrupt people? Jeff understands that the Church is in trouble and being Catholic is not easy at this time, but the Church still has something to offer. The answer is simple: this is the Church that Jesus founded. Though corruption has affected the Church in the past, there has also been a lot of good that has come from it. From universities and the scientific method to working for the poor to sponsoring the arts, the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church has had a major impact on the world. Do not leave the bridegroom. Set your face like a flint toward the Cross. Click here for The Great Adventure Catholic Bible available now! (https://shop.ascensionpress.com/collections/featured/products/the-great-adventure-catholic-bible) Get started teaching your children salvation history with The Great Adventure Kids Pack! (https://shop.ascensionpress.com/collections/collection-bible-study-resource/products/great-adventure-kids-pack-1) “Me becoming Catholic really didn’t have anything to do with any particular bishop or bishops and me remaining Catholic doesn’t have anything to do with any foolish bishops or cardinals in current history. Me becoming Catholic was because of Jesus and his family and what he offered us in the sacraments and the Father’s plan.” SHOWNOTES (2:28) Email Feedback (10:12) Matthew 13:31 - He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” (13:38) Isaiah 50:7 - For the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been confounded; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. (16:40) Luke 9:51 - When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. (18:18) James 2:26 - For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. Do you have comments or questions for Jeff? Use the comment box below, or email Jeff at [e-mail]. You may hear your question or comment in an upcoming podcast episode!

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show episode 82. Why Remain Catholic? Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show. Hey, welcome to the show today. What a potpourri I have in store for you. I've been, I've been literally writing down things all week that I want to share with you, and I tried to come up with a name for the show, and I came up with Why Remain Catholic, which is part of it, but there's a number of other things I want to share with you today, too. Like, what is the,

what is the foundation for the proper response to everything that we are going through right now? Something that caught me on this last week's weekly reading during Mass to set your face like Flint, something caught me there. I'm going to share that with you today, and the whole question of why remain Catholic. So this is going to be a full show this week. Prepare yourself, put your seatbelt on, and we'll take off. But I want to start off with some emails that I received from some of you, and I do appreciate you writing me.

The email address is The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. Before we get to those emails, hey, let me just tell you this. the new great adventure bible unreal this thing is this thing is selling out and the response that i'm getting from you and i'm getting from radio stations and around the country and media outlets is incredible what people are saying about the great adventure bible and it was so funny because a couple of people said you know that that bible you wrote it said well ho ho wait wait wait i did not write a Bible. It is God's word. We simply put some notes in there to help you understand how to read it in chronological order, and that has seemed to hit a real positive nerve with people.

And we've got more to say about that in the future as well. But wow, it's really exciting to see this kind of this revival going on in Bible reading for Catholics and study with a great adventure. And I know that if you're listening to this, you're probably, you're probably a part of that. On to the email this week, we've got so many, and I'm just going to narrow it down to a few here. Derek writes, he says, just started listening to your podcast, love them. I've been going back to listening to the old ones. I just made my spiritual posse. And a pause there for a moment, for those of you that don't know what a spiritual posse is. It is going through life with Jesus, but also with the saints. And you pick out some saints that you are particularly

drawn to, and you have a relationship with them on a day-to-day basis, and that is also part of your prayer life. And he says, he sent me a picture of that. He said, I have St. Lawrence because I'm a chef. I don't know, is St. Lawrence a patron saint of chefs or something? I didn't even know that. Perhaps he is. St. Joseph, St. Martin de Pours, my confirmation saint, St. Augustine, Thomas Moore. I'm hoping this will bring many opportunities to evangelize. I'm sure it will. Also, can you do a future podcast on indulgences? I would love to. I'll put that on the list. Stephen writes in and says, I want to thank you for your episode on dealing with the past, which I just listened to. It spoke to me so profoundly as a source of deep spiritual healing that I feel it has changed my life. Fixating on past sins has been a constant

weight pressing down on me throughout my adult life and has hindered me in various parts of my life. Stephen, I don't think you're alone. I think there's a lot of people who struggle with that, and I'm glad that the show on dealing with the past has been a benefit to you. All right, turning to some of the things I wanted to share with you this week, somebody came up to me, and it's kind of the reason the show is called Why Remain Catholic. Someone came up to me and asked that question. And they said, with everything that's going on right now with the whole scandal with Cardle McCarrick and Whirl and other reports that are coming out with priests in Pennsylvania and so forth, why remain Catholic? And I thought about that this week, and I thought about, you know, what is the influence of the Catholic Church? And why would I remain Catholic?

And the answer is, in many ways, I'm going to remain Catholic. because the bottom line is, is that me becoming Catholic really didn't have anything to do with any particular bishop or bishops, and me remaining Catholic doesn't have anything to do with any foolish bishops or cardinals in current history here. Me becoming Catholic was because of Jesus in his family and what he offered us in the sacraments and his entire economy, his plan, the, father's plan. And along the way, we're going to run into difficulties, and we're going to run into, you know, different kinds of scandals and so forth. This isn't new, by the way. This happened

in the 12th century, in the 15th century. And typically, in response to this, great saints rose up. And I'm praying that that happens now. And typically, it was people who were part of the laity who rose up, and they had an influence on the clergy and the ecclesial structure. And I really believe that there's going to be a lot of incredible things that come out of this in the next 5, 10, 15 years. And you might be a part of it. You never know. You never know. But the reason that I am Catholic is because this is the church that Jesus established and the Holy Spirit is overseeing. And I have complete confidence in Jesus and complete confidence in the Holy Spirit. Do I have confidence in men? My hope is not in men. I have great respect for authority. I have great respect for the ecclesial

structure of the church. I have great respect for Pope Francis and our cardinals and bishops. But ultimately, my trust is in Jesus. It's in Jesus. It's in the Holy Spirit. It's in the Blessed Mother. It's in the communion of saints, those who have already gone down this track. And so I'm a member of the body of Christ because of Jesus. Let me remind you just for a moment of this amazing church that we belong to. I know that we're in the news. I know that people are talking about us. I know that. But you know what? This church has done some amazing things, and we have some amazing bishops right now and amazing cardinals right now. We really do. And so as you look at a brief overview of Christianity's impact on the world. It is actually quite impressive. Hospitals, which essentially began during the

Middle Ages, universities, which also began during the Middle Ages, which, by the way, could use in prayer right now. In addition, most of the world's greatest universities were started by Christians for Christian purposes. Some of them have been taken over by post-Marxist ideas and so forth, but you know what? We had an impact on the world, and we will. We will continue to have an impact on the world. Literacy and education for the masses, capitalism, and free enterprise, representative government, civil liberties, the abolition of slavery, modern science, the discovery of the Americas by Columbus, the elevation of women, benevolence and charity, higher standards of justice came out of the church, the elevation of the common man. You know, there was a time when

it was just normal, you know, that there were slaves and only a small percentage of the population ran the world. Christianity changed that, the codifying and setting to writing of many of the world's languages, greater development of art and music, and the salvation of millions and millions of souls. I want to remind you this week that this family that we belong to, the one holy Catholic and apostolic church has had a huge major unbelievable impact on the world and yes we're going through some problems but you are a part of a mighty engine that is moving forward to change the world headed by Jesus Christ I just want to remind you of that this week that this is his bride. This is his church. This is his mission. This is his story. And I'm not going to leave it.

I'm not going to leave it because of a few wacky people who have done strange things that is not uncommon to world history. I'm going to stick with Jesus and his family. You know, many people read about the seemingly small incidents of Jesus' life when they read the Gospels. And they go back and they look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and they see what Jesus did in the quietness of Galilee. What he did in the quietness of Galilee ended up changing the whole world. And I believe today that his followers will do those same things, those quiet things in the middle of Indianapolis, San Diego, Spokane, Minneapolis, Fargo, Miami, Charlotte, New York. And those things will have ramifications because you see the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. You start small and it does

amazing things. It grows into amazing plants. And that's what we're dealing with here today. today. We're not just making judgments based on a few scandals that are going on. We're looking at Jesus and his church based on 2,000 years of history. It's amazing. We've got the sacraments. We've got the Eucharist. We have sacred scripture, sacred tradition, the blessed mother, the saints. We have reconciliation. All of these things are such gifts. And I just want to remind you of that this week, of the beautiful family that we've been given. You know that I live in Minneapolis, St. Paul. I'm doing the podcast from the Deep Woods of Northern Minnesota right now.

It's actually not quite northern Minnesota, but it's the Deep Woods. And I am surrounded by such good people, good priests, bishops, friends who are faithful to Christ and faithful to the church. And as I look out there and I hear the evening news, in some ways, I'm like, what? Because I'm soaked in such goodness from the church. And I hope you can see that in your own life. I really do.

I'm going to take a break when I come back. I want to talk about last week's reading, something hit me, set your face like Flint, and then I want to talk about a crisis that I think we have a solution to, and it plays into this whole issue of the church crisis in the world today. I'm Jeff Kavens. You're listening to The Jeff Kavens show. I'll be right back. Reading the Bible is something we as Catholics know we should do, but let's be honest, it can be kind of complicated. Even though it's a complete story, the Bible isn't really

one book. It's more like a library with dozens of books and dozens of genres. There's poetry, prophecy, and prose. There are apocalypses and revelations, historical accounts, and allegories. It's difficult to keep a finger on the story of God's love and plan of salvation for his people, the thread that keeps all of it together. If you're wishing there was a simple guide to help you tie all of this together, then you're just like Jeff Kavins and Tim Gray. That's why they wrote the book, Walking with God. Walking with God is a single book that traces the story that ties the Bible together.

It helps you to understand the big picture of the Bible. If you're looking to read more of the Bible, walking with God will help you do it with confidence, peace, and clarity. You can find out more and order Walking with God on ascensionpress.com or on Amazon. Thanks for returning. Hey, this last week during the readings, which I am apt to do, I either bring a piece of paper or I got my phone. and when I hear Father in the homily talking, oftentimes it gives me ideas, and I think, oh, man, that's good. I got to remember that. I don't know if most people remember that, but this week I did, and I wrote it down, and I got to thinking about it.

You know, the reading from Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 50 in verse 7, says, for the Lord God helps me, therefore I have not been confounded. Therefore, I have set my face like Flint, like a Flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. You know, the Flint, I got to thinking about that, and I was sitting there during Mass, and I thought, Flint, I set my face like Flint. And it's one of those verses that I haven't thought about a whole lot, to be honest with you. And I wrote it down. I took my phone out from the pew ahead of me, and I quickly tapped out, look up Isaiah 15, verse 7. And I was reminded about Flint and what this scripture means. You know that Flint is a sedimentary rock.

It's a type of hard rock. And when you strike Flint against steel, a Flint edge produces a spark to start a fire. And Flint is very, very hard. But there's also a metaphorical meaning behind such a face like Flint that feeds into the mission of Jesus. Setting your face like Flint implies that you're expecting some opposition to stand strong in the face of adversity. To set your face like Flint means literally to look at difficulties as something that you're going to hit head on. You're not going to be afraid of it. You're going to set your face like Flint and you're going to face the difficulties and you're going to be victorious in the

end. So to set your face like Flint could mean you clinch your jaw, you square your shoulders, and you literally harden yourself. You're going to do this. Now, I was reminded of this after Mass as I watched the Minnesota Vikings almost beat the Green Bay Packers. It went to overtime. I don't know if you saw the game, but it was an amazing game. And after Stefan Diggs, got a touchdown, he walked back to the bench and he had this look on his face that was remarkable. He looked determined. He looked like nothing's going to get in my way. I am going to win this game. There's nothing going to keep me from this. And one of the announcers said, look at Stefan Diggs and he's got the game face on. It's called the game face. And this is the idea that if the

face that you have that look about you and that determination that nothing is going to get in your way. Nothing's going to get in your way at all. Now, when I heard this in mass that set your face like Flint, I was reminded, you know, in my thinking, in my studies, that this means determination and that you're going to do what you need to do no matter what the suffering, no matter what is facing you. And then suddenly I remember Luke 9. Luke chapter 9, Luke's Gospel's account, we're told that Jesus did something. What? He set his face toward Jerusalem. He set his face toward Jerusalem. He knew exactly what he was going to be facing. Like in Matthew's Gospel, after he gave the keys to Peter, he made a straight B to Jerusalem, a straight line to Jerusalem

to face what? The cross. Because it was the cross that was going to bring salvation to the world. but flint is not just known for its strength and stability when struck it produces sparks so too jesus when he was struck down in jerusalem created a spark that ignited the world and changed the world it changed your life in my life but it came because of problem it became it came because of persecution it came because he gave his life but he gave his life but he gave his life because he set his face toward Jerusalem. He set his face like Flint. And my friends, I want to remind you today, with all of my heart, with what we're facing right now, do not walk away. Do not leave the bridegroom. Set your face like Flint. Towards the cross that you're bearing, towards Jesus. And coupled with what we heard in the readings this week, you know what we had this last week. James said faith without works is dead. When we set our face like Flint, we are prepared to not just say we're Catholic. We're not prepared to just say I agree with the Catholic Church.

We are prepared to do it and to walk it and to live it. And this is our time. this is our place in history do not bow out do not bow out this is our time set your face like flint and when you do and even if you're struck by relatives or whoever it might be a spark will be created that can ignite a fire a fire of revival boy i was challenged with that this week when when i was at mass really, really hit me. Faith without works is dead. It's dead. Finally, I want to share one last thing with you, a third thing this week. You know, I've been doing interviews left and right all over the country and the world on the new Great Adventure Bible. And wow, I'm proud of it. You know, Ascension has done such a great job. Spiritheaded by John Harden, he did such a good job.

And we've got great scholars, Dr. Mary Healy, Dr. Peter William. Williamson, and Andrew Swofford, Dr. Swofford from Benedictine down in Atchison, and Archbishop Burns in Guam. What a great team. Put together a great Bible. But it really made me think about something this week, and that is, what does the Bible have to do with the response to what we're going through today? You know what I think it has to do with it? I think it has to do with providing people with a foundation. a foundation on which to answer questions and to interpret scandal. You see, as you go through salvation history, you discover, as paragraph 236 of the catechism says, you discover the theology and you discover the economy of God.

The theology is to know the mystery of the Trinity. In other words, to know the heart of your father is so critical in a scandal. Do you know the heart of your father? Is he the type of God that is arbitrary? He can just change on a dime? No, he's not. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And he gave you his word to show you, his heart.

And his plan is so beautiful. It's a plan of sheer goodness. It's an amazing plan. And God wants you to walk in that, but you've got to know the plan. And I got to thinking this last week, one of the greatest crisis we're facing right now, I don't think it is in the news.

I think one of the greatest crisis we're facing right now is that the average Catholic doesn't know salvation history. They don't know the plan of God. They don't know the heart of the Father because they don't know Scripture. And I believe that if we come to know Scripture, we will have a basis and a reference point in which to respond to scandal. And if we don't know that reference point, if we don't know that heart of God, we don't know

his plan. You know what ends up happening? Here's what ends up happening. We end up turning to CNN and Fox and MSNBC and all these networks as our point of reference to find out what in the hell is going on. That has to end. We've got to to learn salvation history. We've got to teach our children. And we have to begin to enter into the heart of our father and his plan. And that is the point where we begin to respond to crisis in the church today. Without that, what are people to do? As Josea said, without a plan, without a vision, my people perish. But God's word provides you with a plan and a vision. And so, so I want to encourage you today to join me in a movement to study scripture and to know the heart

and the plan of God. And I would encourage you, and I'm not ashamed to say it, get a hold of the Great Adventure Bible. It'll be in the show notes, ascensionpress.com, get a hold of the Bible, get a hold of the children's storybook that will teach children's salvation history. Enough is enough. It's time for us to learn and to do. and not sit back and wonder what we should do by looking to CNN and Fox. That's what I wanted to share with you today. Let's pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you for giving us your word.

I thank you for giving us the church. I thank you for giving us great hope. And Lord, I pray for every person listening. I pray, Lord, that you would lift them up and encourage them and seat them in your story, in your heart, and that their response to everything that's going on in the world all the way from Putin and North Korea to the church scandal, to what's happening with the Supreme Court, that they would respond from your heart in your plan rather than media. I pray this in your mighty name, Jesus.

And I also ask for the intercession of our dear Mother, Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. I love you, my friend. I love you. And if you have ideas for shows that you would like me to talk about,

topics or you have comments about the new great adventure bible get a hold of me the email is the jeffcaven show at ascensionpress dot com do not despair god is god is in control talk to you next week