Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
On Mothers Day, when I preached a homily about mothers, a few fathers nudged their spouses and said, "Let's see what he says on Fathers Day." Of course, fathers, I do have a homily for you as well. After all without our fathers we wouldn't exist. There is a complication though. Today also happens to be the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. Perhaps, the connection between the two feasts can be found in God the father who loves, provides for us, nurtures us, and redeems us in and through the body and blood of Jesus.
Here are three points for us to reflect upon:
1. God the Father. In the only prayer that Jesus taught us, he taught us to address God as father. Even though Jesus' hearers knew God as father, this was the first time the Jewish people invited to call God father. As father, we know our God as a God who loves, who creates, who nurtures, who protects, who provides, who disciplines, who leads, who guides, and most of all, who redeems. The more we think about the place God the father has had since creation, the more we realize how crucial and critical a father's place at home and in society i. That is why when I think if my own father, I am unable to think of him in very specific roles. He was everything to the family. My father created, he loved, he nurtured, he protected, he provided, he disciplined, he led, he guided, he taught. I am sure many of you are grateful to your own fathers for this very reason. Today, though, I also want to be aware that comparing God and human fathers puts immense pressure on them. After all, God is God and our fathers are mere mortals. As we all do, our fathers sometimes fail. Sometimes they fall short. Today i am inviting you to not only be grateful to your father for being a father, but to also be kind, compassionate and forgiving for the time he may have failed. Most of all, let us pray for all fathers, that God will give them the grace to live up to their calling.
2. God the Father as Nurturer and Provider. My family was never rich. My mother and father both worked very ordinary jobs to make ends meet. They sent my brother and I to Catholic schools, and we always got new outfits for Christmas. There was never a day we went to bed hungry. My father, however, prided himself on one more thing - he always provided the best. I would go to the grocery store with him. He could buy medium quality stuff for a lower price. Frankly, for the financial position we were in, it would be justified. However, my father never compromised. He would buy the best for his family. On Fathers Day, as we celebrate Corpus Christi, we cannot but think of God who gave us the best. God gave us the best in and through Jesus. Not only was God content to give us Jesus, but God made a way for us to enter into and remain in communion each day. God not only gave us the best but gave us his all. Heaven itself is ours! Today, then, as we receive the body and blood of Christ, we must be grateful to God for giving us the very best in Jesus. Jesus symbolizes the magnanimity of God; Jesus symbolizes the generosity of God; Jesus symbolizes the goodness of God. For that matter, God's gift of fathers is symbolic of the magnanimity, the generosity and the goodness of God. Let us thank God for the gift of fathers.
3. God as Father the Redeemer. From the very earliest memories I have, I remember my father being a man of great devotion and firm faith. All the prayers that I know, I learnt because he taught us to pray. Never did the family ever miss mass on a Sunday. There were few and rare days that we missed family prayer. Yes, sometimes we all thought he went over board, but that was dad. I owe my priesthood to the firm faith foundation he gave me. Granted that today my father and I understand faith very differently. He is the more devotional kind and I am the more practical kind. The important thing is that my father set me on the journey to redemption. For this I can never be grateful enough. Today in this congregation if you are a father and if you gave your children gift of strong faith, then you have given them the most important thing. It is not about whether your children practice that faith or not. There is a possibility that they do not. But you have given them the tools for redemption. You have set them on the journey to redemption. In this you are like God the father who has redeemed in and through Jesus.
This Eucharist and the reality of the Body and blood of Christ present here today on this altar, is the assurance of God the Father's continuing love and care for us. Let us offer God sincere worship for giving us Jesus and our fathers. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph