15 June 2025 #HappyFathersDay
A blessed Father’s Day to all our physical and spiritual fathers. As many of you know, I spent several formative years without a daily male presence in my home, and I am somewhat worse for it. Perhaps more than I admit, but that’s between me and my spiritual director. I struggle with my relationship with “God the Father.” It’s challenging to envision a loving father when that hasn’t been my experience.
Turning to today’s readings, we’ve celebrated significant feast days at the close of the Easter season: Ascension, Pentecost, and now the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. These readings are beautiful and offer insights, particularly for men.
The prophet Ezekiel provides an allegory of the Messiah’s qualities, beginning with tenderness. The Father will take a “tender shoot” as the foundational trait of His offspring. The Hebrew word here is rak (רַךְ), meaning soft, delicate, tender, fainthearted, or even weak. The Son, the ideal man, is not harsh, hard, or driven to win at all costs but embodies the opposite. Only from this tenderness can true growth occur and fruit be borne in manhood. A man’s tenderness isn’t weakness that allows others to overpower him; it invites women and children into the shade and safety of his protective, nurturing boughs—strong branches that others seek out. This is what the Lord has spoken.
St. Paul adds courage to the equation. It takes courage for a man to walk in the Lord’s ways, prioritizing pleasing God over cultural expectations.
Professional accolades and wealth are left behind at Christ’s judgment seat. A man stands alone, receiving recompense for his witness to Jesus and the good or evil he has done. No excuses, no extenuating circumstances, no blaming others, no hiding behind addiction or abuse—just a man and his Lord, assessing the landscape of his life. That requires courage.
Jesus then gives gravitas to a man’s mission. A man’s role is to work the fields, scattering seeds of wisdom while lavishing attention on his family in a repetitive cycle. Nothing is stagnant; everything grows and evolves, from business acumen to family dynamics. Before he realizes it, the harvest arrives: retirement, empty-nesting, downsizing—a shift in purpose and perspective.
Sometimes, a man does all the right things yet remains culturally unrewarded. Honesty, virtue, monogamy, business ethics, and family devotion don’t always bring fame, fortune, or the fleeting awards the world values. He may feel like the mustard seed—small and insignificant.
But that’s not true. A faith-oriented man is like the mustard seed. Created in God’s image and likeness, he is filled with the strength of tenderness. Planted on God’s earth, watered by the sacraments, and nurtured by friendships, he grows large—courageous and confident in his familial and professional mission, respected and beloved by the One whose judgment matters. Others seek his advice and dwell in his shade. That is a good man, the best kind of man, the man God intended to save the world.
#HappyFathersDay