Happy Father's Day

Happy Father’s Day!

I wish to extend my warmest best wishes and God’s abundant blessings upon all the fathers, with a resounding “Happy Father’s Day,” and to thank you for your faithfulness to such an incredible vocation in the Church.

From the earliest verse in Sacred Scripture, we read about God’s plan for man as husband and father (Gn. 2:18, 23). Together with their wives, husbands form the basic unit of society, the family, seeking to mirror the divine love found in the Holy Trinity in their families. St. Paul paralleled the mystery of the Church to marriage and the family, encouraging husbands and wives to imitate the self-sacrificing love of Christ for the Church (Eph. 5:31-32). The importance of the family cannot be overstated. The Catechism reminds us that families are “a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. In the procreation and education of children it [the family] reflects the Father's work of creation” (CCC 2205).

As a remarkable father, St. Joseph, the hardworking carpenter from Nazareth, provides powerful witness to all fathers on how best to imitate God’s love and to foster a unity so very necessary for the life of the family. When we speak about St. Joseph it is always within the context of a relationship—his relationship with God who communicates with him in dreams and guides his path, to Our Blessed Mother whose most chaste spouse he is and to Jesus, his adopted son whom he raised and for whom he was an excellent role model of manhood. Even before St. Joseph was the earthly/foster father of Jesus, he was a faithful husband to Our Lady whom he took care of throughout her pregnancy and Jesus’ birth. Pope Francis pointed to the profound relationship of St. Joseph with Our Lord, writing, “Joseph had the courage to become the legal father of Jesus, to whom he gave the name revealed by the angel (Mt. 1:21). As we know, for ancient peoples, to give a name to a person or to a thing, as Adam did in the account in the Book of Genesis (cf. 2:19-20), was to establish a relationship.” St. Joseph took an active role in the family God gave to him, the Holy Family; he was not a bystander, but an active protagonist in the divine drama unfolding before his eyes allowing himself to be acutely involved in the extraordinary events that marked the life of his family, indeed salvation history in the making.

Dear fathers, on this special day I want to encourage you in the complete gift of your life for the good of your family. You play such a vital and irreplaceable role in your child’s life and in the stability of the family unit. The impact of your contribution on the daily life of your family members is immense. Your presence, affection, discipline and personal faith journey are necessary to educate and raise your children into the adults the Lord is calling them to be and to help them fulfill their God-given calling in their own lives. You are that provider, protector, guide, leader and consoler that children need to have in their lives so that they may fulfill their calling and live the abundant life. You give them support and security, a link to their past, and you open up for them a horizon and opportunities for their future in the world before them. When you are involved in their lives and take your place in family life, children flourish, they come to know their worth and relish in self-confidence and in the knowledge of their unique giftedness.

Let us also call to mind and pray for the fathers who have passed on to eternity. We likewise pray for those family situations and circumstances where fathers are not present, where tragedy has hit, where homes are broken and facing hardships of many kinds. Let us never lose hope but rather come to the Lord in faith and prayer as He is the source of all hope and new life. I thank you, dear fathers, for your commitment and your love for your family, for God and for the Church. I assure you of my fervent prayers that you may always be pleasing to the Lord in the way you raise your family. I congratulate you on your efforts to fulfill your vocation as an incredible gift of self-giving in fidelity, love, and devotion.