7th Sunday, Reconciled to God and Father (Jeff Cavins)

In the first reading, Abishai proposed keeping with the ordinary notions of retributive justice (he asked David if he could kill Saul by nailing him to ground and thrusting his spear into him). But David knew that the Lord shows himself merciful with the merciful – that is to say, he understood that a compassionate and generous God wants his servants to be like him in returning good for evil.

What we see in David, however, is only a foreshadowing of what we find in Jesus of Nazareth, who revealed the full measure of God’s love for all humanity. Throughout the course of His earthly life Jesus was entirely devoted to the work of reconciliation that had been entrusted to him by his Heavenly Father. And his mission as Mediator between God and man was fully accomplished when He died upon the cross. As Saint Paul puts it: when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son. Indeed, when Jesus Christ laid down his life for our salvation, He not only restored our friendship with the Creator of world – as the last Adam, who came from Heaven – but even made us partakers of his own divine son-ship – as the true Son of the living God.

We can only be acknowledged as sons and daughters of the Most High if we in our turn are willing to reconcile ourselves with one another. How? – we might ask.

In today’s Gospel we are told that the only way to make our peace with all our brothers and sisters – with friend and foe alike – is to take God Himself and His only-begotten Son as the model for our dealings with others. In fact what Jesus really means when He exhorts us to do to others as we would have them do to us is that we should follow his example in imitating his Heavenly Father, who is kind even to the ungrateful and the wicked.

So we are asked to do good to those who hate us, because our Creator showed His love for us when were we were still his enemies. We are asked not to resist an evil person, because Christ was delivered into the hands of sinful men to be crucified. We are asked to lend and give freely, because God the Father did not spare his own Son but delivered him up for us all.

Jeff Cavins, was the former host of Life on the Rock on EWTN. He tells the story of his reconciliation with the Church and with his father. At the age of 18, he left the Catholic Church due to his rebellion against his father.

When he was 18, his father struck him in the face and he fell to the ground. While lying on the floor, he pointed to his father, and said, “I am no son of yours.”

When that happened he left home and also left the Catholic Church. He rebelled against the authority of his father and rebelled against the authority of the Church. He had poor Catechesis as a child. He never read the bible much as a Catholic.

He began to study the bible and eventually became a Protestant pastor. But, the more he studied scripture, the more he began to understand the Catholic faith in the bible. He saw scripture and tradition together, whereas non-Catholics only believed in the bible. The Jews believed in tradition and also scripture. He realized scripture alone was a problem. He saw how the Eucharist in the bible was Catholic. He came to understand the Jews would bring a lamb or buy a lamb and they had to be be sacrificed in the temple.

In the Old Testament Jews ate the lamb on Passover and he came to understand how we need to eat the lamb today, and that lamb is the Eucharist in the Passover of the Mass. He began to study more and more and was convinced that the Catholic Church was right, but one one of his issues was the papacy, and so began to study the papacy.

He discovered there are 28,000 denominations in the USA alone and each had their own authority. He realized as a non-Catholic pastor, he had the Word of God, but anyone could interpret the Bible to their own liking and each denomination and each person was their own authority.

He watched a video of Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day in Denver, and he said to his wife, “That is the vicar of Christ.” “That is my father”.

He realized he was being his own “pope” with his own authority, but that there was a real pope, who had authority given to Him by Christ. He realized he had to be reconciled with his father, who he had rebelled against.

A non-Catholic Lutheran pastor revealed to him he had a rebellious heart against his father and the Church. He thought he could prove it that he didn’t need a father.

After Jeff was convinced of his calling back to the Church, there were a series of events that happened. One day, when he was going out of town, his mother came to watch his daughter. But, that night his father had a heart attack. When went to see his father, his father said to him, “I am sorry for hitting you. But, one thing really bothers me. You said, “I am no son of yours.” In response, Jeff embraced his father saying, “I am sorry. I am your son. I love you. You are my father.” He said when this event happened, there was a tremendous healing and reconciliation not only with the Catholic Church, but a healing with his father.

Over the years, he was running from his father. He was running from authority of the Church. But, once, he reconciled with his father, he was able to fully embrace the Church and saw the need for a spiritual father, the pope. He realized the Church was built on Peter, the rock. He recalled that Jesus said, “Peter, you are rock and on this rock, I will build my Church”. Jeff said, the keys were given to Peter, who was then given the authority of Jesus to lead the Church.

Jesus is our shepherd. He loves us. As a shepherd He made sure you would be taken care of by giving us a shepherd of the Church. He has a responsibility to feed us. Jesus feeds us with His body and blood. He feeds us with the teachings of the Church. Jesus established His Church and He established His authority in Rome.

He said, at times, what comes out of Rome can be confusing. There has been a lot of goofy things over the years. But, it’s beautiful how Christ communicates to us, even through the goofy times. He said, “Look at Moses and David who were leaders of the Jewish people, and yet they were both murderers. But, God still worked through them”.

Jeff reverted to the Catholic Church because he needed a father. When he saw Pope John Paul II, he knew he had come home back to the Catholic Church. He said the Catholic faith is there from the beginning of our life (through baptism) and to the end with the sacrament of the sick, Confession and the Eucharist for the Journey Home to heaven. He said in the Catholic Church there is certitude because of apostolic succession, the handing on of the deposit of faith (Scripture and Tradition). He said there is certitude because of the Pope, who is the vicar of Christ, whose job it is to lead the Church.

We see in this story how precious and beautiful our Catholic faith is. We see the importance of being reconciled with God and with others. We see Jesus as the example and hope for all of us. Today, let us resolve to be reconciled with God often through the sacrament of Confession and rejoice in God’s unfathomable mercy.