Parish Letter

Parish Letter 11th Sunday A 2008
Father’s Day.
Today is the Father’s Day. Fathers and mothers are very important persons in any human culture and religion. Human beings are terribly anguished when their parents cannot be the objects of their love and affection. The absence or failure of a relationship with parents can have very negative effects on an individual.
In the Old Testament, God is experienced as a father who is loving and merciful, who saves and protects his children. In Hosea God says: “When Israel was a child I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt...I myself taught Ephraim to walk, and took them in my arms...I led them with reins of kindness, with leading-strings of love. I was like someone who lifts an infant close against his cheek; stooping down to him I gave him his food” (11:1-6). In Jeremiah, God’s love for his people is likened to that of a long suffering father: “Is Ephraim, then, so dear a son to me, a child so favoured, that after each threat of mine I must still remember him, still be deeply moved for him, and let my tenderness yearn over him?”(31:20). The father-tenderness of God is not only for his sons, but for his daughters too: “Say this to them, ‘Tears flood my eyes night and day, unceasingly, since a crushing blow falls on the daughter of my people, a most grievous injury’” (14:17). In Isaiah, God’s fatherhood is like that of a conciliatory husband: “Thus says Yahweh: ‘Where is your mother’s writ of divorce by which I dismissed her?’” (50:1). “Yahweh calls you back. Does a man cast off the wife of his youth? I did forsake you for a brief moment, but with great love will I take you back” (54:7-8). God is, therefore, a father who cares for his sons and daughters and for their mother. If God can be likened to a human father, he is that father who is caring, responsible, loving and good to his family.
Jesus called God his father, and taught his followers to address God in prayer as “Our Father...” (Mt. 6:7-15). The father gives good things to his children: “What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread, or a snake instead of a fish, or a scorpion if he asked for an egg?” (Lk. 11:11-12). “Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them...What are we to eat? What are we to drink? How are we to be clothed? ... Your heavenly Father knows you need them all.” (Mt. 6:25-34). Above all, God is the father whose loves is shown by his forgiveness and generosity, tolerance and acceptance, mercy and compassion in the story of the Prodigal Son (Lk. 15:11-32). In his ministry Jesus conducted himself like the caring Father whose kingdom he proclaimed. He brought relief to those suffering from diseases and evil spirits, hunger and want, oppression and injustice. In today’s Gospel, Jesus responds to the plight of the people with the tender loving concern of a father: “When Jesus saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Mt. 9:36). His response is immediate, personal and structural. Personally, he prays to the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to bolster the few numbers. He sets up an intervention structure by giving his twelve disciples authority over unclean spirits with power to cast them out and to cure all kinds of diseases and sickness. Jesus models good fatherhood by his concern and involvement, his readiness to share authority and to empower others.
Today fatherhood is in crisis. Fathers of families face insurmountable difficulties in carrying out their responsibilities. Children are not being properly fathered because their fathers are too overwhelmed by the demands of life to be meaningfully present, or they are just not there. When children who were not properly fathered become fathers they push the ever increasing deficit of fatherhood onto succeeding generations. This exponentially cumulative loss of fatherhood is a serious concern and a hard fact of our life. The crisis of fatherhood is a crisis of authority and legitimacy which begins in the nucleus family and ripples out to every level of society, including church and state. In the words of an unknown poet: “In the shadows of ancient twilights, where babes strayed. In the boyhood of Judas, Jesus was betrayed.” The quality of fatherhood that a society insists on is the quality of citizens of that society. So, in the Catholic Church, let us insist on a fatherhood after God’s own heart; merciful and compassionate, loving and kind, caring and protecting, as Jesus taught and modelled. May God bless all fathers and give them all the graces they need. Happy Father’s Day!!
Yours in the Redeeming Christ Father William Guri, C.Ss.R.