Video Transcript

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This Sunday we celebrate Father’s Day — taking time to thank God for the gift of our Dads, and to pray for them, living and deceased. With gratitude for my own father, who died only a few years ago, I shall be praising God for the man who fell in love with the Catholic faith when he fell in love with my Irish Catholic Mom. Despite the anti-Catholicism of his own mother, Dad had no regrets about making that decision. So, I had the great blessing of growing up in a home where praying was a natural as breathing; where we experienced the mercy of God every two weeks as we went to Confession as a family, where we knelt down each night and prayed evening prayers together.

Day after day, in all the ups and downs and in-betweens of life, Dad was always there; he was always present along with my Mom. What a sense of security that brought to my siblings and me. Never did we worry that he might not be there. Never did we doubt his love for Mom nor his love for each of us, even when we needed his fatherly correction, which happened quite a lot!

Fatherhood is the mission of every man, a mission greatly needed in each family and in the larger society. A good father fulfills his mission in the daily habit of being present to each member of the family. He attends to the little routine things that go unnoticed most of the time but, in fact, sustain life and protect the well-being of his wife and kids. Most children cannot find the words, but they feel it keenly if their Dad’s presence is missing. The simple yet self-giving love of a father is present in his correction and concern, his encouragement and affection.

We see this modeled by St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus and protector of the Holy Family. Even though he is mentioned numerous times in the Gospel, no words of his are recorded. What mattered was that Joseph was there, attentively present to Mary and Jesus, protecting them from the savagery of  Herod, sheltering them as they escaped into Egypt, teaching Jesus the skills of carpentry, and thousands of other things. Day by day, always ready to listen, to encourage, to protect and to provide—it is not surprising that Jesus was happy to be called the son of the carpenter.

Pope Francis writes in Amoris Laetitia, (#177):

“God sets the father in the family so that, by the gifts of his masculinity, he can be close to his wife and share everything, joy and sorrow, hope and hardship. And be close to his children as they grow — when they play and when they work, when they are carefree and when they are distressed, when they are talkative and when they are silent, when they are daring and when they are afraid, when they stray and when they get back on the right path. To be a father is to be always present.”

In both obvious and subtle ways, a father provides safe harbor for his wife and children. During the present pandemic and time of social unrest, in a society confused by moral relativism and misinformation, the need is great for men with humility and courage to embrace their God-given mission of fatherhood, so critical to the future of the family and society. Since every human father is a work in progress, a man in need of God’s mercy, we do well to pray for our fathers each day. At the same time, we look to our Father in Heaven to make up for whatever is lacking, and to bring us His healing that overcomes all pain and division. Through His Beloved Son Jesus, our heavenly Father reconciles us to Himself and reconciles us with one another.

Allow me now to close by repeating what I wrote in my Apostolic Exhortation Into the Breach.

“My sons and brothers in Christ, do not hesitate to engage in the battle that is raging around you, the battle that is wounding our children and families, the battle that is distorting the dignity of both women and men… Fatherhood changes history… In the words of St. John Paul II, fatherhood is essential to the flourishing of the world.”

With gratitude to God for all our Dads and Granddads, please be assured of my prayers for a happy, healthy, and holy Father’s Day.

St. Joseph, Patron of Fathers, pray for us.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Diocese of Phoenix, pray for us.

And may Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.