Father’s Day – Marriage

This is the twelfth Sunday of ordinary time in the church calendar and also Father’s day.

In the Scriptures the reference is made to God the Father, to our father in faith Abraham and to King David, ruler, shepherd and warrior.

God the Father sent His only Son to us, His children, to assume human nature, to sanctify that nature and then as God and man to offer Himself in the humiliation of the cross for our offences against the goodness of His Father. Jesus always said, “I have come to do the will of my Father who sent me.” In the Creed that we profess at Mass each Sunday we say, “We believe in Jesus Christ who is eternality begotten from the Father.” Jesus is generated by God the Father, He is the eternal word, through which all things were made and without Him was made nothing that has been made.” Jn. 1

We have on previous occasions said that in this materialism and secularized world it is often the case that the miracles of Christ and of those reported in the New Testament are viewed in the context of nature only and are not  supernatural. But the reality is that Christ has brought a wholly new creation. Through Baptism we are born again into a new life. Faith is needed to see it, the faith of our father Abraham. Many have not sought faith and it has not been given. “Ask and you shall receive.” To receive one must ask and then exercise patience in waiting on the Lord.

In the gospel today Jesus asked, “Who do people say that I am?” The answer was from the past, “John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the ancient prophets.” Jesus then asked, “But who do you say that I am?” It was Peter who said, “The Christ of God.”, the Anointed, the Messiah. Something new has happened.

We can ask the question of ourselves who do we say Christ is? Really, who is He for us personally? God the creator has entered His creation as a creature, Albeit a divine one. And He came by means of a woman – Holy Mary Mother of God.

It is from the mind and the love and the will of god the Father that all things have come into being. “I am who I Am.” is the eternal name of God. The burning bush that is never extinguished. God the Father is not alone. He is three persons in one God.

The relationship of the three persons of the Holy Trinity in the supernatural life is similar to the relationship in the natural world of husband and wife who become two in one flesh and then become father and mother sharing the creative power of God the Father in their lives.

The crucifixion of Jesus resulting in his death brought forth the Church. It is through the church which is Christ that the great gift of sanctifying grace is given. It is provided through the seven sacraments by which the life of God is received; and, dare we say it, a share in God’s very being. God is generous beyond our imagining.

Fathers and mothers do not become so without first becoming husband and wives. They do that by an act of the will and reciting to each other in the presence of a priest representing the Church and a congregation. Their vows, promises to one another. One of which is to be true and supporting; cooperating with God in the bringing forth and the educating of children. Children which bring forth the bonding of a family, the two pillars of marriage are the unitive and the procreative.

Today is Father’s day. We can’t talk about fathers without first talking about God the Father and Abraham, our father in Faith. Nor can we do so without including mothers and children only more than we can speak lovingly of mothers without considering fathers and children. The family is the recipient of sanctifying grace because marriage is a sacrament in which God shares His life.

Men and women, male and female, God made them. He made them for each other. In the garden in Genesis Adam is referred to as husband and Eve as wife. Men and women are equal but different. The difference is obvious on the exterior but that difference is interior also. We said that King David was ruler, shepherd and warrior and so is a husband and father. But in these roles he shows the attributes of Christ in that he is loving, compassionate, just and generous. He is a shepherd that will seek out a member of the family who has strayed and perhaps gotten lost. He is a warrior because he will protect his loved ones with his life if necessary. A father’s love is like Christ’s who is the ruler of His Church.

Fathers are the generators of human life. And mothers are the receiver and completers of it. The gift of sexuality is ordained to function only within the bonds of marriage.

For decades there has been an unnoticed effort to weaken and even ridicule the role and importance of fatherhood. How many millions of children are living in one parent homes with only the mother who works and is using day care and is not bonded to the children and so is not present to the extent she should be. Fathers must regain the sense of how important they are.

Without a father a child does not develop and mature to his potential. He is not happy. Both fatherhood and motherhood depend on the strengthening of the bond of marriage which for a catholic couple is a sacrament, a channel of divine grace. Each spouse struggles for the sanctity and salvation of the soul of the other, the presence of children and to the joy and happiness of the family unit. Death to the world and to ourselves in Christ is the promise we each made, or had made for us at the time of our baptism.

At the time a couple makes their vows and promises to each other in marriage they, by their yes, are creating something that has not existed before, a new family.

The powers of thise world will immediately set to work against that small seed, that nucleus of God’s love just born, to overthrow it.

Jesus word, at that time and in every difficulty that will come after are these, “Love one another as I have loved you.” How did Jesus love us? He died for us. He submitted to crucifixion so that we might have life, God’s life, a share in God’s very Being.

Today in this Mass we remember all fathers, God the Father, Abraham our father in faith and King David who above all things was a shepherd, a warrior and a ruler.

Fathers are necessary, we each had one and should remember to say in prayer often, “Dad, thanks, I love you.”