12th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A
First Reading: Jer 20:7, 10 – 13
Second Reading: Rom 5:12 – 15
Gospel Reading: Mt 10:26 – 33
“Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
These words, from this Sunday’s First Reading, exemplify what the western world says today against fathers – not only the fathers of families, but also priests, who are spiritual fathers.
We all see that motherhood is under attack. Women who have more than two children face harassment. Motherhood is portrayed as something not worthy of the full attention and time of an intelligent woman.
However, fatherhood is also under attack. The media portray fathers as unintelligent louts or abusers. They have magnified the discovery that some priests (as of 2018, about four per cent) have been guilty of sexual abuse to the point where many people think that men cannot live without sex and that no priest is really trying to.
Of course, life itself is under attack. The power to procreate is seen as, instead of a gift from God, a power that makes us godlike, an undesirable side effect of pleasure, something that can be denied to others if their life would conflict with our convenience.
Without the understanding that God made us out of his burning, overflowing love, all our values gradually crumble: motherhood, fatherhood, and life. In truth, fatherhood is a high calling from God, with huge responsibilities, but also huge rewards.
Fatherhood exists in the Holy Trinity from all eternity. When Christ, God’s Son, came on earth as a human, he addressed God as his Father. Accordingly, we “dare” to address God as “our Father,” as the Church says in the Mass.
People once thought that in human generation the father gave life to the new child and the mother simply nourished it as it germinated. Now we know better. Both the mother and the father contribute to the new life. The sperm and the ovum do not possess human life; only when they unite is human life present. Father and mother co-operate – work together – in generating new life.
Even after the generation of a new human, fatherhood complements motherhood. After several generations of single-mother families, psychologists realize how necessary the father is.
For example, it has been convincingly demonstrated that a child whose father is present all during the mother’s pregnancy will recognize and be soothed by his father’s voice after birth. It has been documented that children raised without fathers are less likely to form lifelong marital relationships. In teaching The Catholic Faith in Plain English, I have become aware that to the fatherless, “fatherhood” does not mean what it should mean.
In this Sunday’s Gospel Reading, Jesus describes his Father’s care for us: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground” – literally “will alight on the ground” – “apart from your Father. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
From passages like this, some people have argued that God is just as much “mother” as “father.” However, Jesus – Who knew his Father so intimately that he said to Philip, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father” – told us many times that God is his Father and that he loves us as a Father.
In the Old Testament, God said, “Honour your father and mother as the Lord, your God, has commanded you.” In the Book of Sirach, we read, “Children, pay heed to a father’s right; … For the Lord sets a father in honour over his children … He who honours his father atones for his sins; … He who honours his father is gladdened by children, and when he prays he is heard. For a father’s blessing gives a family firm roots …. Kindness to a father will not be forgotten.”
We should pay heed always, but especially on Father’s Day. Pray for fathers, both priests and fathers of families.
May I offer my personal congratulations to all fathers today. You have a noble calling. Keep up the good work.
