By Fr. Glenn Jones:

Happy Fathers’ Day to all of you dads out there. What a blessing you have in your children whom you have had the privilege to “co-create” with their moms and with God Himself, parents and child becoming a sort of domestic trinity in yourselves, made in your, mom’s and God’s own image. But, of course, fatherhood entails much more than just physical procreation; true fatherhood is being example, protector, provider, teacher, a just and calm disciplinarian when necessary, and even model for your children. A father is not so much the one who simply shares genetic material with his kids, but rather a true father is one who passes on “spiritual” genes of goodness and faith.

By happy circumstance, today’s Catholic Mass Gospel reading has a very apropos passage for the day: “Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd…” (Matthew 9:36) William Barclay’s commentary on Matthew observes: “The word which is used [here] for ‘moved with compassion’ … is the strongest word for pity in the Greek language. It is formed from the word …  which means the bowels, and it describes the compassion which moves a man to the deepest depths of his being. In the gospels, apart from its use in some of the parables, it is used only of Jesus (Matt. 9:36; Matt. 14:14; Matt. 15:32; Matt. 20:34; Mk.1:41; Lk.7:13).”

Jesus, of course, being one with God the Father, thereby reflects the Father’s own love for His children—for us. And, God being the source of all good, all true fatherhood reflects God’s own paternal love. Thus, the more that a father reflects that love, the more perfect—the more “God-like”—he becomes. We see the great love of God for His people even in the Old Testament, perhaps nowhere more explicitly lauded by the Israelites themselves than in Psalm 136—a beautiful recollection of Israel’s history expressed in doublets, each ending in the phrase: “…for his steadfast love endures forever.”

Such love does not mean that the lives of His faithful are always a stroll through roses. God plants us all in this world, so the faithful have the same problems and misfortunes as all others, for we all are of Him. Misfortunes are not fun, but they do carry opportunities to learn, to grow, to become inured to further trials down the road. After all, we are not strengthened by ease, but by hardship … not unlike Friedrich Nietzsche’s “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” aphorism. And, whatever hardship and pain that God’s faithful suffer in this world is recompensed manifold by Him in the next, for “…he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

“There you go again, priest, with your daddy issues … that ‘daddy in the sky’ belief of yours!”, says the sceptic.

Well, my friend, if you’re not convinced of the truth of God, perhaps you might consider the “Pascal’s Wager” type idea reproduced here previously. Basically, you have little to lose and infinite reward to gain by living a life of goodness—being a faithful friend, trustworthy, upright, kind, generous, gracious, looking to the eternal reward of the perpetual state of joy that God promises; should you lose some material gain that might have been gained otherwise, you’d have lost all at death anyway.

But, if you live a life of vice and selfishness, you might gain some trivial material benefits for the few years of life, but you could forfeit that eternal reward for what Jesus describes as an eternal “lake of fire”, whatever that may be in reality.

So … a few $$$, some empty glories … or eternal life? And we Christians hope dearly that, if you have not yet found faith, that such a life will help lead you to it and to the joy that we have found in it. The wise remember that the flesh lasts hardly more than a hundred years at best, but the spiritual life is eternal.

So, you dads … today you are rightfully honored for your role—that role of leadership, of discipline, of providing, of teaching, of protecting, and of loving—the role of shepherd in your own families. But while basking in the honors and affection of your children and grandchildren, do a bit of introspection.

Are you the best father you can be? Are you teaching your children the way of God—with teaching and, more importantly, with the example of your life—so that you might stand with some confidence before the judgment seat of God. For “…to whom much is given, of him much will be required,” (Luke 12:48), and there are no greater gifts than that of children.

Now we priests are called “father” because we are—or are supposed to be—spiritual fathers for Christ’s people, seeking ever to come closer to the ideal of St. Paul: “…though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” (1 Corinthians 4:15) But true fathers—and mothers—are the primary educators of your children. It is through your teaching and example that you are not only material parents, but much more importantly, spiritual parents as well.

How to be a good father? We need only adapt slightly St. Paul:

“[A father] is patient, [a father] is kind; [a father] is not jealous or boastful; [a father] is not arrogant or rude. [A father] does not insist on [his] own way; [a father] is not irritable or resentful; [he] does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. [A father] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [A father’s] Love never ends…” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

A father who sets such an example for his children—who teaches them and lives the way of goodness as taught by Jesus—cannot but then be loved by the true and Almighty Father in heaven. Then, at the end of his days, he might hear those words we all so yearn to hear: “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come and share your master’s joy.” (Matthew 25:21)

Editor’s note: Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.