Ordinary of
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Free Tommy Robinson !!
On the civil calendar, today is Father's
day. While the occasion was probably invented by the greeting card
companies, it is, nonetheless, a good occasion to make our parents aware
that we love them; to visit or at least call them if they are alive, and to
remember them in our prayers whether they are dead or alive. In our
century, family life has become a very tenuous thing, so it is good to have
opportunities like this to get together with our parents or our children,
even if only briefly.
After the Collects of today’s Mass, we will
add those for our deceased Fathers and Mothers.
One of the unique things about the Christian
religion is that it views God as having taken a personal interest in the
affairs of His creatures. Having created time, and having created men and
women in His own image and likeness, He chose to enter human history at
various times in a personal way. Throughout the Old Testament we read of
Him giving instructions to His people through the mouths of His prophets.
He speaks to men like Noah, Moses, Elias, and Isaias both to give them His
Law and to tell them of His plans for them. In the New Testament, God
becomes directly involved with mankind, “becoming flesh and dwelling amongst
us.”
Particularly in the New Testament, God
reveals Himself as “the Father.” Our Incarnate Lord speaks of Himself as
the Son, almost always in reference to the Father. He refers to the Father
so often—and never uses any other way of referring to Him—that it is clear
that He is not speaking in some metaphorical sense. God is not “like a
father” —He is the Father: “The word that you have heard is not Mine, but
the Father's Who sent me.... if you loved Me you would rejoice that I am
going to the Father.... I do as the Father has commanded Me.”
“He sent His only-begotten Son.”
“No one has seen the Father except Him Who is from God.”
“I must be about My Father's business.”
“Their angels behold the face of My Father.”
When He is asked how we should pray, our
Lord addresses His prayer to “Our Father, who art in heaven.... Father,
hallowed be Thy name.... Pray to thy Father ... and thy Father will reward
thee.”
Sometimes our Lord speaks of “My Father,” sometimes it is “our Father,” or
“your Father,” but it is always “Father.” He never speaks about some
abstract “Supreme Being who created all things and then walked away from
them” — it is always a loving and concerned “Father.”
The “joy in heaven over one sinner who
repents” that we read about in last week’s Gospel is the joy of a Father who
has seen a child go astray but then return to His good graces. It is very
much like the parable of the prodigal son, which immediately follows it in
Saint Luke’s Gospel.
And the Father-Son relationship works both
ways. On at least two separate occasions—on the occasion of our Lord's
baptism in the Jordan, and then again at His transfiguration on Mount
Thabor—we see God the Father acknowledge His “beloved Son in Whom He is well
pleased.” The words are virtually the same in all six references in the
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
But perhaps the most important aspect of the
Fatherhood of God—at least from our perspective—is that we have been given
the possibility of becoming His adopted sons and daughters. “To as many as
receive Him, He gives the power of becoming sons of God....”
“You have received a spirit of adoption as sons .... we cry out, ‘Abba,
Father’ .... the Spirit gives testimony that we are sons of God.”
“God sent His Son, born of a woman ... that we might receive the adoption
of sons.... You are no longer a slave, but a son ... an heir also through
God.”
“He predestinated us to be adopted through Jesus Christ as His sons.”
As we celebrate Father's day, we would do
well to remember that phrase from our Catechism (Actually from the Book of
Genesis: “God created us in His image and likeness.”
The relationship that parents have with their children is part of being made
in God's image. Human fatherhood and the Divine Fatherhood are not just
similar—for God created men and women and ordered them to raise their
families in His likeness. It not a mere coincidence that the Commandment to
“Honor thy father and mother”
comes immediately after the Commandments bidding us to honor God—the honor
and the authority of parents is decreed in the image of God; even those who
are not particularly good parents must be respected for their likeness to
God.
Finally, the fact that God is our divine
Father should suggest some practical behaviors to us. Those of us whom God
has made fathers can learn our own responsibilities from the Father of all.
The procreation and education of children is not simply the primary end of
marriage, it is way of sharing in God's image and likeness as Creator.
Fathers of families must do their best in imitating Him as Provider. They
must be judges and lawgivers, doing justice with mercy and concern, just as
the Father's laws are written in our hearts for the well-being of His
children. Above all, we must love all those who are entrusted to our
care—for that is the root of stability in the family, and the main way in
which we can show ourselves in God's image and likeness, for as St. John
tells us, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in
Him.”
May God love you on this Father's Day, and
may it be the occasion for you of an increase of love: Love of the Father
in heaven as well as the love of your father who is or was on earth. If
your Dad is alive, be sure to visit or call him—in every event, be sure to
pray for him!
