The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Your Catholic Swiss Army Knife (Part 1)

Episode Date: September 16, 2022

What are some of the best tools for a Catholic to have as they strive for sainthood? In today’s episode, Jeff shares about the Catholic Swiss Army Knife. He explains what some of the essential, everyday tools are for a disciple. Snippet from the Show There is something about going to confession and hearing the voice of Christ through the priest saying “I forgive you.” 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 Kavens Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is Show 288, your Catholic Swiss Army Night. And welcome, Jeff Kavans with you. Thank you for joining me again this week. one of my all-time precious possessions that I have in this box of kind of kid things, you know, when you were growing up, was a little red Swiss Army knife. Now, that one had, oh, I don't know maybe four or five tools on it. It was, I think they called it, I don't know, what it was. It was just the standard one, you know, when I was a kid.

But there was something about getting that multi-tool, which, by the way, are really popular these days, whether it be Leatherman, Gerber, Victronics, whatever, there was something about having that little Swiss army knife that gave me a sense of empowerment. You know what I'm talking about? Maybe you've experienced the same thing. You've got that in your purse and you've got, or you've got it in your pocket,

maybe in the glove compartment or on that tray between the seats in the car. But having that little tool with maybe 7, 8, 9, 10 different tools built into it, man, you're ready to tackle the day, right? And you can't wait to use it. I just got back from Switzerland about a month ago. My wife is Swiss and from Basel, Switzerland. And we took a cruise on the Rhine River with about 85 of my best friends. And we ended up going to Amsterdam. And when we got to Basel, when we first got there, no wait, it wasn't Basel. It was Lake Lucerne. That's where we were. We brought our grandkids, the three of them, into one of these Swiss Army knife stores in Switzerland, and you talk about a boy's eyes lighting up.

I mean, they wanted one of those knives, and so, well, they got them. They got their knives, and when they got back to the United States, they were in the backyard carving wood and whittling and pretending that they were out on an adventure, and that knife was the only thing they had that would keep them alive, you know? And I remember that growing up, I remember that sense of empowerment. and having my own multi-tool is very, very, very neat. Well, I've got a multi-tool for you today, your Catholic Swiss Army knife. I'm going to talk to you about the various tools within the tool that might be helpful in your life. There's going to be 10 of them. I'm going to get through as many as I can today.

Who knows, this might end up being two shows because these tools are just, well, they're just too important to skim over. And in some cases, it might save your life. You never know, it just might save your life. Well, if you want the show notes, which I would highly suggest that you get the show notes this week because I have a little assignment at the end to help you practice using your Catholic Swiss Army knife this week. And if you want those show notes, all you've got to do is text my name, Jeff Kaven's, one word, Jeff Kavins, and text it to the number 33777, that's 3377. we'll get you the notes and trust me they will be handy this week and if you get on the on the list

you'll get them every week from me so we'll take care of that well the nice thing about a swiss army knife or any kind of multi-tool is that you can carry it around during the day and it becomes very handy for those jobs that might you might come across and it's it's usually when you don't have it with you and you you need it that's when you say to yourself you know what I'm going to put that in my pocket from now on every single day I'm going to put it in my pocket, make it a habit, because you just ever know when you're going to need it. So let's do this together, shall we, today? Let's go through the various tools on the Swiss Army knife or any multi-tool, for that matter, and let's see how these might fit into our

life with Christ as disciples of the Lord. Okay, are you ready? Number one, the most important one probably and the one that's the one that is most associated with a swiss army knife is you guessed it it's the blade it's the blade it's the knife it's the actual it's the actual knife it used to be that people had just little pocket knives and then well the swiss you know they're very clever they started adding more tools to it but the blade is the central tool on a multi tool and that blade I would suggest to you is the Bible, the sword of the spirit. If you're going to live the life of a disciple, you need to have a Bible. And you need a Bible that you can live in.

And you know which one I'm going to suggest, right? Yep, that's right. It's the Great Adventure Bible. Now, I suggest that everybody have one. And you need to get one that you can use. You're not afraid to write in it or underline. I always run into people at conferences and they'll bring the Bible up to me and they'll say, you know, oh, I love this. It's really, really great. But I don't know if I can bring myself to

underlining in it. So I usually tell them, well, do this. Go out and buy another Bible, put the one that you like, put it on the shelf, get a new one to replace it and start writing in that one. It would be, at least for me, I do understand that people might not want to write in a precious heirloom or something like that. But get one that you can use. It's kind of like having a Swiss Army knife and then coming up to me and saying, oh, I love this beautiful Swiss Army knife with 84 different tools on it. But I don't really want to use it, you know, and get it scratched up and so forth. Again, go get another Swiss Army. I put that one on, you know, in your drawer and keep it for whatever. But your Bible is really important in your Catholic

Swiss Army knife. It's very, very important. And it serves many purposes. We come to know the will of God through God's word, for sure. And that helps us in distinguishing between right and wrong. As God told Israel coming out of Egypt in the book of Leviticus, another great tool, that you need to learn to discern between the clean and the unclean. That's a skill that has to be hone in on. And that comes from spending massive amounts of time with this blade, this Bible that God has given us. We also come to know the plan of God. We not only know the heart of God, but we know the plan of God through the scriptures. And we're called on by the church to daily read the scriptures and soak ourselves in the scriptures so that we can come to know the heart of our father.

And we can come to know his plan. But there's other purposes for the Bible in our life on a daily basis and that is that we are corrected by God's word and you know well I'll speak for myself I know I need to be corrected from time to time I'm very aware of that and I would just rather go to the Lord and allow him to correct me than to have a crowd correct me but also I need to be comforted at times I imagine you do too and I need to be warned right that no don't go down that road don't do this Don't do that. But the word of God is like a map for living. It's like a treasure map.

It has the key to the treasure, the key to life. And so I really encourage you to get into scripture and read it every day. You know what my wife and I do every single morning we do Lexio-Devina on the daily gospel reading. We read it every morning and we pray, we talk about it. And I love what Hebrews chapter 4 in verse 12 says, and I'll put this in the show notes. Think of today's show notes as little additions like a user manual to help you use this Catholic Swiss Army knife. Hebrews 412 says, for the Word of God is living and active sharper than any double-edged sword. it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit joints and marrow it judges the thoughts and the attitude

the attitudes in the heart well that's pretty powerful and uh i cannot imagine trying to navigate throughout a day without god's word tucked in my heart memorizing scripture learning how to to wield this sort of the spirit and how to navigate through it you know what that's one of the advantages, to be honest with you, with the Great Adventure Bible, is that it's the only Bible that I know of that actually teaches you in there. It's baked in how to read the Bible as a narrative, as a story in chronological order. That is really, really powerful. You know, a lot of people will pick up a Bible, and it's kind of like a multi-tool, like a Swiss Army knife. They pick it up and what do I do with all these things? Well, we actually

teach you how to use it in the Great Adventure Bible. And I'm right now looking at the new large print one, which I'm being straight with you here. It's the nicest large print one I've ever seen. It is. It is beautiful. It's hardbound, hard back bound, and it just lays open so nicely. So sword of the spirit, the blade, that's the number one tool on your Catholic Swiss Army knife. Okay. Number two, on most multi-tools, and certainly on the Swiss Army knife, there is a bottle opener. You never know when you're going to need a bottle opener for maybe you're opening up a bottle of pop or a beer, whatever it might be. And some people use them as can openers too, but I want to liken this to starting a conversation, opening a conversation

with other people. You need to know how to do that. If we're going to be evangelizing. If we're going to be involved in evangelization, we need to know how to open up a conversation with people. And if you get this Catholic Swiss Army knife here, then you're going to learn how to open up a conversation. You never know when you're going to be called on by God to strike up a conversation. And I've told people for years and certainly on this show in the past that evangelization is really about opening conversations and learning how to start it and keep the conversation going, not just for the sake of sharing the good news,

but because you genuinely are interested in people. You know, I'm interested in people. I find people fascinating. I just had a conversation with a lady at a coffee shop this morning. I went into the local coffee shop, and I got into a conversation with the owner. We took it off to the side and I talked for about 15 minutes and got to know a lot of information about her and just a delightful lady.

But that's the art of opening up a conversation. And we need that opener on our Catholic Swiss Army knife. Now, one of the most beautiful things to share is the corigma. That is the proclamation of the gospel. But what is startling, it might be startling to you, is how. many Catholics who don't know what the gospel is. They don't know what to share with people. And that corigma is very, very simple, actually. You don't need to know a bunch of verses or paragraphs from the catechism. You don't need to know Greek and Hebrew or Latin or know about

the councils. You just have to know what is the basic gospel. And if you will open up that tool on your army knife, then it will do its own work because the scripture says, says that the spirit confirms the message. So if you use that opener, the spirit will confirm the message. So what is the chrigma? Well, real quickly, number one, that chrigma is that God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life. That's number one. Number two, sin has radically disrupted this plan. That's right. It's, that's the truth. Some people say, well, I don't want to talk about sin. Seriously? The problem. The problem that's destroying lives and breaking up marriages and causing young people to die from fentanyl. You don't want to talk about it? Boy, this is our message.

This is all we have. God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life. Sin has destroyed this plan. But here's the good news. Number three, Jesus Christ has died for your sin. And Number four, he wants us now to radically reorient our life. In the old school, we call this repentance. But I love what the catechism says, to radically reorient your life around Jesus. And then, that's number four. Then number five, be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. And then number six, join completely and be a part of his family, the church.

And number seven, full circle, you're going to go out. You're going to lead other people to Christ. So those seven points are part of what's called the curigmatic message. And you can read about it in the catechism. And eight times in the book of Acts, that structure is there. And now it's on your Catholic multi-tool. It's on your Catholic Swiss Army knife, right? And that is the bottle opener.

The bottle opener. Starting up a conversation. Okay, we're going to take a break when I come back. I have the file next. We're going to take a look at the file and the corkscrew. That's what's coming up next. So we've got the file and the corkscrew. And if we have more time after that, I'm going to get to the scissors.

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show. Hello, my name is Father Gregory Pine, and I'll be one of your hosts for a new podcast with Ascension called Catholic Classics. Each day we'll read a section from a spiritual classic and then provide some commentary to help you grow in your life of faith, to help you grow in your life of prayer. For our first season, we'll be reading the introduction to the devout life by St. Francis DeSales. You can find your reading plan at ascensionpress.com slash Catholic Classics. Thanks for coming back.

We are investigating this new multi-tool that I have invented in my head and heart. And that is the Catholic Swiss Army knife. The Swiss Army knife is, it's kind of like saying Kleenex these days. you know it's a ver it's like a verb in itself swiss army knife you know it's something you use to do you do things with it and we've already looked at the the blade the sword of the spirit the bottle opener how to start a conversation with the corigma the third one is the file the file and i'm looking at the file on my this particular swiss army knife which is called a huntsman it's got i don't know what is it 12 14 15 different tools on it well the the file is uh

is one of those things that you can carry around in your Catholic Swiss Army knife and you ask yourself, well, how would I use this? What would I use it for? How about confession? How about confession? What a file does is a file removes that which is unnecessary. And you know as well as I do, sin is unnecessary. And it gets in the way. And I love what Hebrew says in chapter 12 and verse one. one of my favorite verses. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. I love that. I think that is so good. And you know that when you go to confession, if you're not Catholic and you don't know what I'm talking about,

you might get a sense of this just by saying to the Lord, outlaw, Lord, forgive me. But there's something about going to confession and hearing the voice of Jesus in persona Christi, the priest, saying, I forgive you. You are forgiven of all your sins. And throughout the day, when you are aware of sin in your life, you might want to write that day. You might want to write that down and when you go to confession this is where the file goes into action removing that which is hurting you or unnecessary and and we can deal with it that way so every time you see a file in the future i want you to think about going to confession and removing the unnecessary that which can can hurt you in first john one nine john says if we can

our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. So, boy, that's something, that's a word picture I'm going to take with me when I go to confession next time is that we're going to deal with what doesn't belong in my heart, in my life. The next one, and this is, this is one of those tools on the Army knife that is probably the most recognized from the side. It's the corkscrew. And I imagine that the corkscrew was originally invented, well, to remove a cork, obviously, is for opening up a bottle of wine. And a lot of people will get a nice bottle of wine and they will not have a corkscrew around them. And they'll go get a screwdriver or something else or a pick and they'll try to

to beat away that cork, and they make a mess out of the whole thing, but a corkscrew is a very useful tool to opening up a bottle of wine. But what I'd like you to think about here is this, is that we're not talking about wine necessarily. What we're talking about is the blood of Jesus. We're talking about what wine becomes in the holy sacrifice of the mass, the Eucharist, the body, and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus. The Eucharist. If you're going to walk around during the day and you're going to be a part of living out your faith, well then the Eucharist, the blood of Christ is absolutely necessary and the greatest source of grace, which is God's love and God's favor and God's strength and his power.

We need His grace. We need His riches. And that comes primarily through the Eucharist, the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. And so I got a way for you to remember this. And I'm putting all this in the show notes for you. And I mentioned this, I think, just a couple shows ago when I had a show called Crackland Rosie Revival. And I mentioned the animacristi. Oh, what a beautiful prayer.

Really a beautiful prayer. Listen to how it goes here. Soul of Christ, sanctify me. Body of Christ, save me. Listen to this now. Blood of Christ, inebriate me. Water from the side of Christ, wash me. Passion of Christ, strengthen me.

Oh, good. Jesus, hear me. Within your wounds, hide me. Permit me not to be separated from you, from the wicked foe, defend me. At the hour of my death, call me and bid me come to you, that with your saints, I may praise you forever and ever. Amen. Isn't that beautiful? The line that I really like is the third line. The first one, soul of Christ sanctify me. Second, body of Christ save me. And then listen, blood of Christ, inebriate me. What we're talking about with the corkscrew here is we're not talking about being inebriated by a Cabernet or a Merlot.

What we're talking about is being inebriated by the very blood of Jesus, which we get to consume in the Eucharist, and that means that the very life of God comes into us, and we need that on a frequent basis, if certainly on Sunday, but if you can go every single day to Mass, yay, that's really good. That's really good. And every time you see that corkscrew on the side of your Catholic Swiss Army knife or your Leatherman or whatever it might be, just be reminded that Jesus is inviting you to the altar. He's inviting you to a covenant relationship. He's inviting you to renew your covenant relationship with him so that you can walk in strength. And every time you go to Mass and you receive the U.S.

Eucharist, guess what? Sins forgiven. And that's a beautiful thing. That is a treasure right there. You need that on your multi-tool. You really do. So so far we have the blade, which is the sword of the spirit, the bottle opener, which is starting a conversation, the file, which is confession, which we desperately, desperately need. And then the fourth one is the corkscrew. And that is blood of Christ inebriate me inebriate me and by the way I would just say to you

if you're having a difficult time recently maybe if not today tomorrow look up a local parish that has daily mass and go go and participate in this Eucharistic

celebration and receive the graces from God for whatever you're going through right now again remember what i said at the top of the show we you know that that when we see this multi-tool immediately we get excited because we think oh i can tackle anything i'm prepared you know yeah if you use it if you use it and then the fifth one today is the scissors oh are those handy the scissors and when you get into a a multi-tool like the swiss army knife you know what they should probably be sponsors of this in some way.

I'm giving them some advertising here. But if you pick up one of those multi-tools, you'll notice that those scissors, depending on the size of it, is very, very handy. And this one is going to be, I think, a real blessing to you. What are the scissors on this Catholic multi-tool, this Catholic Swiss Army knife?

It's forgiving those who have sinned against you. Cut them free. now this is this can be a very very valuable tool how many times throughout the week do we have this sense that maybe somebody has sinned against us or they said something that really offended us and we are standing there on the edge of being trapped by taking the bait and and that is going to cause you to be ineffective in the kingdom of god unforgiveness will paralyze you my friend. It will paralyze you. It will stop you from being that man of God or that woman of God that God has called you to be. And we can't afford that. You need a tool with you throughout the day

where you can cut people free. And you can say, you know what? I forgive you. Forgiveness is a tool that you cannot live without. You need with you 24-7 because you never know when you're going to have an opportunity to be offended by an email, a text, something you overheard. Maybe you heard something on the news. So when you carry this scissors, when you carry this gift of forgiveness, you have a means of walking in freedom. But if you carry it and you don't use it, can't help you. You need to use it. And just the fact that Jesus has given us this tool is amazing to me. Now, you can read about the effectiveness of this tool in Matthew Chapter 18. There is a story about a man who owed 10,000 years worth of salary, and he begged for

forgiveness. He was going to be tossed into jail, his family sold, and the guy that he owed all this to released him. And that's the key word, released him, forgave him. And then that man who was forgiven and cut free, he went outside and he saw a guy that owed him just a few days' wages. And he grabbed him by the throat, said, pay back what you owe. And the guy said, I will. But he put him, you know, into jail. And as a result, somebody was watching this, went back to the original guy and said, you know, that guy that you forgave 10,000 years worth of salary? well he wouldn't forgive someone who owed him just a few a few days and so that guy was called back in

by the master and said you wicked servant i forgave you 10,000 years of salary and you wouldn't forgive someone who owed you just a little bit and he was thrown into prison and made to pay back every single bit of it. I'll tell you what, he could have used a Catholic Swiss Army knife that day. He could have used those scissors to forgive, to cut free, to loose that person. You see, sometimes this, not having these tools that Jesus has given us, can cost you quite a bit. And in this guy's case, wow, you talk about a disaster. So those are five tools so far in your Catholic Swiss Army knife. You've got the blade, you've got the bottle opener.

The blade is the sword of the spirit scripture. You got the bottle opener that's starting and opening up a conversation. The file going to confession, dealing with the sin in your life, and making sure that that is dealt with and gone. It doesn't need to weigh you down, as Hebrews 12-1 says. If we confess our sins, he's faithful, and he's just, and he will forgive us, our sins, and purify us from all unrighteousness. And the corkscrew, we're not talking about Merlot, we're talking about the blood of Jesus. Wine that becomes the blood of Jesus, O Lord, blood of Christ, inebriate us.

And then the scissors, that wonderful gift. of being able to forgive. Well, listen, if you would like to get the show notes again, all you got to do is type my name, Jeff Kavens, and text it into 33777. That's 33-777, and we'll get that to you. My voice is a little scratchy today. I think it's because I kind of gave it all I had in Tulsa this last weekend. And by the way, hello, everybody in Tulsa. What a great time we had together, right, with St. Mary's. I really, really, really enjoyed that. Well, it's one thing to own a multi-tool like a Swiss Catholic Army knife. It's another thing to carry it with you and still another thing to use it. And I hope you do. I really do. Check the show notes for pilgrimages and

all the other good things on my daily app with Hello, the Daily Reflection. Love to join you there as well. Also, I'll put in the show notes information on how to get a great adventure Bible, which is your blade in this multi-tool. It's the sword of the spirit. Let me pray with you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I lift up my brother. I lift up my sister to you today. Lord, we're all on this journey with you and you have gifted us with so many tools to live our life. May we take advantage of them by first carrying them with us throughout the day. And number two, using these marvelous gifts that you have given us. Lord, you have equipped us. You have prepared us for living. And we thank you for doing that. In Jesus'

name, amen. I love you, my friend. God bless you. You have a great week. And next week, I'm going to come back with five more tools. Have a great week. week.