Often, following the confirmation Masses that I have the privilege to celebrate, I have a chance to meet and speak with the young people who have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

 

While we talk, families like to take a picture of the young person and the bishop to remember that day.

 

Recently, during such a chat I asked a young man which saint he had chosen as his confirmation saint. When he replied, St. Joseph, I asked why. His answer was brief but deep. He said, “He was the foster father of Jesus, and some day, I want to be a good father.”

 

There is an important element of our faith that helps us to avoid a shallow and earthly understanding of being a father. Such a view would begin with what we see in the examples, good and bad, of human fathers. 

 

In that case we would take those examples as the meaning of fatherhood and then hope for the best in our lives and families.

 

Then, when we speak in faith of God as Our Father, we are in some sense making God a reflection of the earthly fathers that we have known. But St. Paul tells us the reality is exactly the opposite. 

 

Writing to the Ephesians, St. Paul says, “I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named … .” (Ep 3:14-15). 

 

Because it is from our Heavenly Father that every family is named, every father on earth is intended to

be a reflection of the true model, which is the fatherhood of God Himself.

 

Pope St. John Paul II made this very point in his Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio. He wrote, “In revealing and in reliving on earth the very fatherhood of God, a man is called upon to ensure the harmonious and united development of all the members of the family.” (FC 25).

 

Every man, then, in assuming the image of God as Father must begin by demonstrating a love for his wife that reflects the Father’s love for all of us. It must be a self-sacrificing love that respects and nourishes the person of his wife.

 

With his wife, fatherhood is attained when, cooperating with God’s plan, the husband and wife, given to each other exclusively, are blessed with children. The father then gives his life, and his calling as a man, to the unity of his family and to the introduction of the children into the Church and the life of faith.

 

The parents, of course, share their gifts and the calling of parenthood. But how typical it is for the earthly father to provide both for our needs and our discipline — the very image of God the Father’s goodness to each of us and to the world.

 

Just as God the Father watches over us even while He allows us to grow and mature in the midst of trial and temptation, so a good earthly father stands near his children. He gives them a powerful example of prayer by attending Sunday Mass with his family. 

 

Equally important is the example of children seeing their father addressing his own flaws and weakness by recourse to the sacrament of confession. And then, over time, the earthly father allows his children the growing freedom to reflect his love and his wisdom in their own lives.

 

Fathers, thank you for all that you are and for what you have done for each of us. Thank you for your example of prayer and faith. 

 

We cannot thank our fathers enough for all they do. But at least on Father’s Day, we can offer our prayers for them to the Heavenly Father for whom they are named.