Father Nolan's Homily - June 20, 2010 (Father's Day)
 

“My soul is thirsting for you O Lord my God.”  Psalm 62:2. 
 

On this Father’s Day we celebrate the fatherhood of God in our lives.  In the first reading taken from the Book of Zechariah who tells us that God is like a father who mourns over his people and loves them and cares for them.  Like a good father He is concerned over all his people. 

In the second reading St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians, reminds us that we are all children of God in Christ Jesus. 

Our gospel reading is taken from St. Luke.  In today’s gospel, Jesus questions the apostles about who the people were saying He was.  They told Him, some say Elijah, or one of the prophets or John the Baptist come back from the dead.  And then He says to them “And who do you say that I am?”  St. Peter was obviously their leader and spokesman despite all his weaknesses, and he says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It was in response to that statement that Jesus said to Peter Simon, “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.” There He was making him his representative on earth.  A year later He fulfilled that promise when He said to Simon Peter, “Feed my lambs, feed my sheep” in other words, He was making him the shepherd of his flock.  Pope Benedict is the successor of St. Peter as bishop of Rome and so he is our shepherd today.  We should pray for him.  

Today is Father’s Day, a day we honor those special people in our lives.  Several years ago the newscaster, Paul Harvey, wrote a brief essay entitled, “What is a father?”  Part of it goes like this.  A father is a thing that is forced to endure childbirth without an anesthetic.  A father is a thing that growls when it feels good and laughs too hard when it is scared half to death.  A father never feels worthy of the worship in a child’s eyes.  He is never quite the hero his daughter thinks…never quite the man his son believes him to be.  This worries him sometimes.  Fathers fight dragons almost every day.  They hurry away from the breakfast table off to the arena that is sometimes called an office or a factory.  They never quite win the fight, but they never give up.  Knights in shining armor and fathers in shining trousers are very much alike as they march out to face the world each day!     

Several years ago there was a bumper sticker going the rounds that said, “Any man can be a father.  It takes a special man to be a daddy.” 

It is interesting that the last two verses of the Hebrew Scriptures in the Old Testament are about fathers.  “I will send you Elijah the prophet before the day of the Lord comes to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.”  Mal 3:23 & 24 

Luke describes in the beginning of his gospel the role of John the Baptist.  “He will go before the Lord their God in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hears of fathers to their children”, and in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught His disciples to pray “Our Father”!  That was His favorite name for God.  His first recorded sentence is this.  “Did you not know that I had to be about my Father’s business?”  The last sentence He spoke from the cross before He died was, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”  In between those sentences He used that word over and over again, trying to teach the human race that God is like a father.   

I would like to turn that idea around today.  If God is like a father then it must follow that a real father is somewhat like God!   

If a father is like God then it must follow that a real father is a man who cares about children!  Whether or not the children are his own does not matter.  The point is that all children belong to God and because they belong to God a real father feels and cares for all children. 

Children need a loving father’s presence.  Last fall a group of experts gathered in Indianapolis to discuss fatherless children.  They tell us the number of such children has doubled since 1960 from 16% to 34%.  Fatherless children are 50% more likely to drop out of school and 60% more likely to end up in the prison system.  We know now, more than ever before, that fathers matter, that fathers are needed in the home not only physically but emotionally and psychologically giving love and support and understanding.  Children need the love and affection of a father.  Without a father, a hole is left in the sole of the child where demons enter – hostility, low self esteem and distrust of male figures.  Most fathers work tirelessly for their children all their lives.  Today we honor and salute such fathers.   

What is a father then?  It is simple but profound.  A father is someone who is somewhat like God.  He cares about children so much that he is committed to them.  That is the kind of a man that we are honoring here today!!

In the name of the Father, And of the son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen