This Sunday, we stop and celebrate Fathers Day. This is, admittedly, a civil, secular, and in many ways a commercial holiday. In fact, the celebration was first held in Spokane, Wash., in a YMCA in 1910 and was only made a permanent national celebration in 1972 by President Nixon.

Still, it hits the bull’s-eye on one of the great needs and issues of our contemporary society: our need to encourage more men to fulfill the role and obligations of fatherhood.

In addition, it gives us a chance to say thanks to our dads and to all those men who proudly bear the name father.

As Catholics and people of faith, when we think of a father, our thoughts should first be drawn to God the Father of Jesus. That’s because when Christ spoke of his Father, he was not suggesting that his relation to his Father was a reflection of our human experience of a father. Quite the opposite. Every father on earth draws his identity from God the Father.

That Father who eternally begets the Son constantly showed His love, His support and His unity with Christ. In exchange, Christ, even in the darkest hours of Good Friday, found his strength in his Father.

In addition, we cannot but think of the role of St. Joseph as a model for fathers. It begins with Joseph taking on the obligations of marriage with Mary, even under difficult circumstances. As the Gospels tell us, Joseph did not seek his own will or his own comfort.

Being a father, including marriage, is part of God’s plan, as Joseph discovered. We hear of his fatherly care and protection for his wife and child. We can imagine his love for them and even the stress that it caused him at times, leading them quickly to Egypt and sorrowfully looking for the lost child Jesus.

When Jesus began his public ministry, he was the product not only of his special relation to his heavenly Father, but also the product of the example and guidance given by his earthly father.

The values we honor on Father’s Day are in many ways complementary to those we celebrated a few weeks ago when we honored our mothers. It underscores a hugely important point about what marriage is by nature. It is the complementary union of a man and a woman that is open to giving life to our next generation, our future.

Being a father is a great responsibility and it’s lots of work. So of course there are many temptations to avoid the efforts that come with fatherhood. With the moral decline of society, especially since the sexual revolution, gratification is made available without commitment. The temptations of pornography have weakened the commitment of men in many marriages.

And how sad it is to hear and read so often the description of children in a marriage in terms of financial cost and inconvenience to the plans or lifestyles of parents. While on one level that is undeniable, more deeply, children represent the best of ourselves and our commitment to them is a reflection of our optimism about the future, including our future together in life eternal. The value of our children is part of the value of fatherhood.

In our parishes and families, fathers have a special impact on the faith life of their children. There is something special about the father attending Mass each Sunday with the family. Children more easily accept and commit themselves to the value of confession when they see the example of dad receiving the sacrament regularly. And the man’s fidelity to marriage impacts both sons and daughters.

Dads, thank you! You do so much for us. Please continue to model for us, the Father of Jesus. And, Happy Fathers Day!