Father's Day!

Dear Parishioners,

First of all, I pray for all fathers today—living and deceased. I lost my father many years ago in 1995 when he was only 64 years old. His love and concern for his wife and family are memories that cannot be easily erased from my mind.

As I was preparing to write for Father’s Day, I primarily want to address the men of our parish and community who are honored this day. While I do not have any biological children myself, I can still understand some of the obligations and duties of fatherhood since I am a spiritual father for the parish as priest and pastor. After all, I am called “Father” on a daily basis by young and old alike.

When I was teaching the Family Life class in high school, I would remind the students that it was relatively easy for most men biologically to have a child. No one has to teach the various animal species of the world the process of mating. Animal instinct will generally take care of that. However, to serve as a father to a child involves a lot more than the biological act of mating.

Fathers have the responsibility to love and care for, to feed and clothe, to educate and teach their children. More than that, however, fathers are to be the spiritual leaders of their homes—their domestic church. Every father is a type of priest for his home. He is the moral leader and exemplar for his family. Remember that when we call God “Our Father” as Jesus taught us, it is practically impossible not to have our own earthly fathers somewhat in the back our minds when we think of the concept of fatherhood. Earthly fathers should seek to be an example of the unconditional love that our Heavenly Father has for us.

Too often in our society and sometimes in various cultures, men do not accept the responsibility to be the spiritual fathers for their families.  We will have various women in a parish who become “church widows” since their husbands do not come regularly to church. This also leaves any children that they have as spiritual orphans since their dads are teaching their children that there are other things more important in life for them than God and Church. Remember that true fathers teach by both word and example!

Do I ever see dad pray?  Does dad ever volunteer his time at church?  Does dad go to confession regularly?  Does dad go to Mass and receive Holy Communion each week?  These are questions that might be going through your children’s minds. How will these questions be answered?

I propose St. Joseph as a role model for all fathers. God chose him to be the father-figure for Jesus on earth and he was His legal father (foster father) in worldly matters. While we have no spoken words from him in Sacred Scripture, Joseph is known as a “righteous” man (Mt. 1:19), obedient to the will of God. His concern and love for the Blessed Virgin and Jesus becomes apparent by his actions on their behalf.

I realize that some of the dads who need to hear this may not be in church to read this bulletin. Calling all church widows and spiritual orphans: please bring this bulletin to your husbands and/or fathers for me special delivery. I would be anxious to see the expressions on their faces.

For those many men who are faithfully trying to do a good job for their families: “thank you, dad!”

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Pastor