My Dear Friends,

Today, our country celebrates Father’s Day. Of course, just like Mother’s Day, we honor our mothers and fathers every day of the year, not just one day. And we also know inherently what makes a man a good father and what makes a woman a good mother.

Every year, when we celebrate these days, there is always the pain that comes if you have had a bad experience concerning your mother or your father. There is also an epidemic in our country of absentee fathers, especially in the inner cities. Yet, despite the examples of bad fathers, we do our best as Catholics to follow the fourth commandment in honoring our parents and in supporting our parents to be faithful to each other in marriage and faithful and loving in disciplining their children.

We must lift our young fathers and mothers up in prayer, and we ourselves must keep asking the Lord for his grace in fulfilling our duties as a husband/father and as a wife/mother. Those who are not fathers in the strict sense can still be an example of fatherhood in fulfilling a role of “father” in many other capacities, e.g., priests, godfathers, Confirmation sponsors, and uncles.

The most important thing for a father is to love, cherish, and protect his wife and to protect his children. By doing so, he will lead them to the arms of the Father in heaven who created all of us in His image and likeness.

God bless.

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