This weekend we celebrate Father’s Day. Happy Father’s day to all ...
My own Dad handed on to myself and my siblings a love of reading – by taking us to the Public Library on weekends to check out books; an ability to work on … and sometimes fix … things – by teaching us to work with tools; to problem solve by teasing us with riddles and puzzles; to work hard – by his own example of hard work; and above all to love and to forgive – because we weren’t always the best of kids … or maybe that was just me.
Dr. Scott Hahn, a rather well-known theologian … in a talk on the Lord’s Prayer – the “Our Father” – makes the observation that we do not call God “Father” because He is _like_ a Father. Rather, Dr. Hahn says that in the truest sense “Father” is “God's name, His personal identity, [since] God is Father eternally.”
The rest of us – those who are male parents or those who bear the professional title of “Father” – we are the ones who are _like_ a father … _like_ our Heavenly Father – namely, God.
And so, based on my life experience, and seeing God’s Fatherhood reflected in my own Dad, has shown me that God reveals what things are … by teaching us, challenging us, guiding us … as the old Catechism’s said: “to serve Him in this world and to be Eternally happy with Him in the next.”
God sent His Only-Begotten Son to show us how to live … and not just live, but how to “live hard.” And of course in God’s eternal plan, he also shows us how to love and how to forgive; how to be merciful and how to reconcile.
In the Gospel we hear the call of the Apostles. The word Apostle comes from the Greek word meaning an emissary or an ambassador. It literally means “one who is sent,” and as God the Father sent Jesus into the world to redeem the world … to redeem and save us; Jesus sends the Apostles as emissaries of “the Good News,” the Gospel of Salvation.
And in this passage, we are told the names of the Twelve Apostles … Simon, meaning “listen;” Andrew, meaning “strong;” James, meaning “to follow closely;” John, meaning “gracious;” Philip, meaning “warrior;” Bartholomew, meaning “farmer;” Thomas, meaning “twin;” Matthew, meaning “gift of God;” Thaddeus, meaning “from the heart;” and Judas, meaning “praise.”
In the Garden of Eden, God asked the man to name what He had created. But only we – individual humans, are made in the image and likeness of God – only we have proper names, eternal souls, and inherent dignity.
Each and every one of us is called by name, called by God, through our own Baptism, to be “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own …”
This means that we are to worship God, love one another, and to use the things of this world to build the Kingdom of God and spread the Gospel. But we must be careful not turn this around, and end up worshipping things, using one another, and leaving God completely out of our lives.
Jesus Christ calls us to follow Him (closely), to listen (and hear and obey), to be strong (when we are helpless), to be gracious (and merciful), to receive His gifts, to work in the world, to battle the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and to praise (and worship) Him and Him alone, from the (depths of the) heart.
And then He sends us, as His emissaries … to live out the Gospel in our lives … by what we say and what we do. Every day of our lives.
As we approach this altar to receive the Most Holy Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ – may we hear God’s voice, through His Son Jesus Christ, calling us to follow Him … He who is our Way, our Truth, and our Life.
