Message for Father’s Day Sunday, June 16, 2024

Written Messages

Brothers and Sisters,

Today we join with the rest of the wider community in celebrating Father’s Day.  This event has consistently been characterized by lavishing praises on those we describe as good fathers, while at the same time, lamenting those we describe as poor fathers.  While this is somewhat understandable, this approach will not adequately address these issues.

I am suggesting that as the church, our responsibility cannot be satisfied by simply becoming part of a praise or blame chorus.  We have to understand that we are called to become agents of God’s transformation of every aspect of human life.  This includes the issue of enabling our men to fully grasp their responsibility to become effective fathers.  This responsibility I suggest cannot be reactive but should be proactive.  This proactive approach prepares our men to assume their responsibilities rather than seek to correct situations of ineffective fathers.

I suggest that we use the facilities such as the Youth Fellowship, BSA, choirs and other artistic groups to educate our young men to become effective fathers in the future.  This would widen the scope of these groups, and increase their effectiveness.

The process of enabling our young men to become effective fathers must necessarily recognize that.

  • Becoming a parent is an innate desire, that is, something that is natural to us
  • Parenting approaches have to be adjusted to accommodate the life-span development issues of our children.
  • Parenting skills although available in books and manuals have to be adjusted to meet the psycho-emotional, sociological, and economic realities of parents
  • To be a parent is a God-given gift, as such it must be treated in a manner consistent with all the gifts of God.
  • Becoming a parent provides our men with an opportunity to experience fulfillment and meaning in their lives.

In fashioning parenting skills around these and other relevant concerns, we would be facilitating more effective fathers.  In doing so we would be lighting a candle rather than cursing the darkness.

Today, we thank God for the gift of becoming fathers, as we pray we ask God to enable fathers everywhere to strive to make themselves more effective.  I trust that all of us who are fathers will today experience joy as we remind ourselves that we have been given a sacred trust and a solemn responsibility.

Gentlemen, Happy Fathers’ Day.

                                                                        Love,

                                                                                      Fr. Eddie