The Monthly Note
June 2008
Fathers Day or death of the Father?
by Fr. Jacques Lauzier, OP
On Sunday June 15th, we will celebrate «Fathers Day». It was an American President who, in 1924, ushered in a day to commemorate fathers. It was only in 1966 that President Lyndon B. Johnson decided to this feast on the third Sunday of June of every year. Since then, makers of ties, socks and aftershave lotions have made a fortune in the weeks leading up to this feast.
It is true that since the «Century of lights», the «father» took quite a beating. From the French Revolution and by way of Freud, our modern society has celebrated the «death of the father». Out with the domination of the «celestial bearded one» with his commandments and his avenging arm. Out with the father’s almighty authority. But with the father’s eviction, as a denier of liberty, was self destructive because it caused deficiencies that have, among other things, destroyed the family nucleus.
At Christmas, we celebrate the Son’s birthday, His death on Good Friday and His resurrection on Easter. The Holy Spirit, who covered the Virgin Mary with his shadow, is celebrated on Pentecost. But, what about a feast for the Father? He the Trinity’s great forgotten. It’s not that Jesus doesn’t mention Him in the Gospels. Especially in Saint John’s Gospel. So why isn’t there a feast to celebrate His paternity?
Just as the first Christian civilisations did with the pagan feasts, why not take advantage of Fathers Day to celebrate the feast of our Heavenly Father? Let’s go beyond the naïve image of the old bearded man from our catechism books and learn to discover ineffable reality of the Heavenly Father, inaccessible yet so close, very familiar yet transcendent.
It’s His mystery. He is the Supreme Value, the unique and universal Source of love. He is the unique Source of all beings and all life.
God wanted to share with mankind, created in His own image, the supreme experience of paternity. An experience that even the angels do not have. Yes, the Father is God’s ultimate secret, the ultimate secret of Man in God’s image. The other persons originate from it. A previous Father was necessary to create, in His image, the father and mother cycle where all earthly existence comes from.
It is not for nothing that the only prayer that the only prayer taught to us by Jesus is called «Our Father». It has everything a child could ask a father…and for his father. It sums up all our love for Him and all the love a father that wants his child not to lack anything. Thanks Dad! Happy Fathers Day «Abba»
Jacques Lauzier, Dominican.
P.S. Since June 1st, the buildings where the Shrine was located are now permanently closed. The religious activities have now been transferred to our conventual church located at 2715 Cote Saint Catherine Rd, Montreal. The Thursday mass in honour ofSaint-Jude will continue to be regularly celebrated and the Dominicans will continue to intercede toSaint-Jude in your name and offering your petitions. Remember that « nothing will be impossible for God ».
"We may be called the children of God. Yet so we are." (1 John 3, 1)
