Man Up: Be the Dad God has Called You to Be

A reflection for Father's Day by Father Philip Mayer

Men, do you know the immense influence that you have simply because you are a man? I have an uncle who doesn't seem like much: He's mean. He criticizes his wife and grown kids. He's selfish. And yet he is influential. It's almost mystifying. Recently he decided to retire and move to the hill country of Tennessee. Amazingly, his kids and their wives and children are in the process getting things arranged so that they too can move with him. This is the second time that they will follow him across the country. It is amazing. Why does he have this influence? Why do they follow him? Because of his amazing personality? No. Because he has money. No, he's only just making it by himself. Because Tennessee is a great place to be? No, there are no jobs in the area that he wants them to move to. And yet they are following him. He has this influence because he is the father of his family.

You as a man have been given an incredible privilege. As a man and as a father you symbolize God, who chose to go by this same title, Father. As a father you have tremendous influence on your family, whether for good or bad. A study recently conducted in Switzerland (1994) showed that if a man attends church regularly, even though his wife does not, his kids will go on to become church attenders eighty percent of the time. However, if the scenario is reversed, and the mother is a regular church attender but the father is not, the number is cut in half and of those who do attend, most will be irregular attenders. Only two percent will attend regularly. Men, you have an immense amount of influence given to you by God. This has been show time and time again, by study after study after study on the affect of the male influence on the family. As a father, you reflect God in a special way and as a father God has given you tremendous power over the future of your children. He has placed their souls into your hands and even allowed you to use his name: Father. This is an immense responsibility, a sacred trust that we must use well.

Do you want your kids to have the values taught by the Church? Do you want them to stand by their families? Do you want them to be willing to suffer in order to do what is right? Do you want them to show courage in the face of temptation? Do you want them to show persistence, consistency and trustworthiness? These are all values taught in the church, exemplified to the ultimate degree by Jesus Christ, the one who called you to man up give your all in the same way that he did. You as a man must exemplify what it means to live a godly lifestyle. You must be the one to show your dedication to your kids and your family. You are the one that they look to for meaning. You are the one they look to when first learning about God. To whom much has been given, much will be required. God will call you to account. He will ask you what you did not only with your own soul, but with those he placed in your charge. If you sin against him by refusing the responsibility of this charge, he will refuse you for eternity.

Yet there is hope. There is forgiveness. That is what Father's Day is all about. It is a day when we are reminded who God has called you to be: a father who reflects him and who he is, to your family. That is why he gave you this influence. There is yet time to get things right. There's time to make up for past mistakes. To find your hope in him, to learn what it means to be a father from him and to live this out for those he has given you responsibility. This is your opportunity to be the father that God has called you to be. This is what your family wants from you. This is what I as your priest, want for you. This is what God requires from you and he will be with you, giving you the courage and the strength and endurance to be the father that he has created you to be.