This weekend we celebrate Father’s Day

This weekend we celebrate the fathers of our world. We will go to see them and we give them a gift of some kind; a card, some kind of tool, a fishing pole, necktie, or whatever. Today, we celebrate what they mean to us in our lives.

Fathers are special, even Jesus thought that they were, and he honored the man, Joseph, even though he knew that Joseph was not his biological father. As we honor the men who raised us let’s look at the examples of the fathers in Jesus’ life.

First, you have the real father of Jesus, Our Father in Heaven. He is one that loves all of His children, Jesus yes, but each and every one of us, just look at the many gifts that He has given us. The Father wants us to be with Him so much that He sent His only true Son, Jesus, to show us that way to Him in the kingdom of Heaven.

The second father Jesus had in his life was a humble and quiet man, Joseph. He is a wonderful model of a Christian father and one of the very first disciples of Jesus himself. He was a humble man and we don’t know a lot about him because our Holy Scriptures does not record a single word that Joseph spoke. He was a man who did not need to be in the limelight, but just did what he needed to do. When he was going to divorce Mary quietly because she was pregnant with a child that was not his, he listened to the angel and married her anyway. When the angel told him that he needed to protect his family he simply got up and took them to Egypt. When his son was lost, he went looking for him and did not give up until he and Mary found him, three days later. He is that incredible example of what a loving father is.

Our popular TV culture loves to make fun of the father in the family, they are usually stupid, or inept, but we really know how much they really mean to us. In fact, studies show that when the father goes to Mass and is an example of prayer, children are far more likely to do the same in their lives. Do our fathers have faults, of course, all of us do, but as God loves each and every one of us with our faults, we love all of those men who are our fathers, those in heaven and those still on earth.

One of the greatest things that we can give our fathers, is to pray for them. Pray that they will be the best example of the faith for us, their children, pray that they will have the courage and strength to be the best man that they can be. We can also pray and ask the saints for help, ask for the intercession of St. Joseph for our fathers as well. Happy Father’s Day.

God bless,
Fr. Ken