12th Sunday in Ordinary Time Father's Day

Homily for Mark 4: 35-41
Twelfth Sunday
Today, after the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, we return to our celebration of ordinary time and we pick up our reading of the Gospel of St. Mark. In our Gospel today, we read the account of Jesus’ calming of the stormy sea. Jesus, at the bidding of the disciples wakes up and effortlessly rebukes the wind…Quiet! Be still! I am here; be not afraid. Jesus was there, Jesus is here, there is no need for any of us to be afraid. Jesus divine and human presence is enough to drive away the fear, as perfect love cast out all fear.
This Gospel is a good one as we celebrate Father’s day and give thanks for our fathers and all they have done for us. In our Gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples, who are called to be spiritual fathers in Christ that they must have faith in Him, that He is God and as God has the power and authority to calm the raging seas, that is all that threatens them. They must hope in Him alone-hope in Him does not disappoint. They needed to trust in His great love for them and call upon in His name in firm and trusting faith and with great love.
All fathers must do the same as these first disciples, these first spiritual fathers. Father’s have a grave duty to protect their own Garden of Eden, which is their family. Every father is a type of Adam who is given charge by God to guard and till the garden, again that is, his family. In order to guard his family, fathers even have the God given right to physically protect their families if need be. If someone breaks into the home the Father has the right to protect his family even to the point of using deadly force; his intent is not to kill but to protect his family. This is why we have a right to bear arms. Fathers also have to till the members of his garden by providing for them what they need to survive and even flourish; so he works hard to earn a living. By the way the state for its part must provide what the father needs and also allow the father the right to own property, land and a home to care for his family.
But the father must above all guard and protect his family on a spiritual level. This is most important. To do this, the father must, must be a man of God. He must be a man of Christ in order to protect, guard and till his family in a spiritual way. For this reason it must be the Father who is the spiritual leader, the spiritual head of the family working with, not against the mother to lead the children to holiness and so too heaven.
One of the most destructive errors in our day, perpetrated directly from the devil himself, is the lie that it is not manly to be holy. The lie that Church is for women and children, that holiness is for woman and children, but not for men. What a absolute lie! The truth is, is that there is no way possible that any man can adequately protect his family without being a man of Christ. This means that a man must be an intimate friend of Christ.
Did you ever think about this? If Adam, the first human father, was giving the charge to guard the Garden of Eden, that is his family, how did satan get in the garden in the first place in order to tempt Eve, Adam’s wife. Adam had failed in his charge to protect his wife by allowing satan to enter into the sanctuary of his family. To make matters worse, in his failure, he failed to turn to the Lord for forgiveness and help from on high to kick satan out; Adam failed in faith, hope and love.
Many men today are making the same mistake as our first father, Adam. They are allowing satan to enter into their gardens by alcoholism, by pornography, by sterilization and contraception, and most importantly by failing to be the spiritual head of the family, a man of Christ; a man of holiness. They are failing to protect and defend their families from the assault and storms begin waged in our modern day against the family by the devil Himself through His one of his greatest weapons, the weapon of socialism and all its immoral traps and snares. In short, men are failing to turn to Christ in their failures by going frequently to confession, by calling upon the most High God for help by attending Mass and adoring Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. One of the most telling signs of the de-masculization of men in our age is the loss of Holiness of men. Men are losing manly virtues, especially the virtue of purity and chastity, as well as self-sacrifice. One saint compared men to a city protected by the wall of virtue; tear down the wall of virtue and the enemy conquers the city. It’s interesting that the communist in Russia realized this. They knew that to gain ultimate power and control over the people they had to destroy the family, especially the catholic family in order to gain control of the people. They used the lie that socialism was the answer to provide fathers what they needed to take of their families, by the state taking over the fathers role in providing for what the his family needed through social welfare. They corrupted the virtues of men by providing amble pornography and even free or very cheap booze. They took away their right to bear arms and so took away the father’s ability to defend and protect their family physically. Instead of strong moral virtuous men of Christ, they became lechers and drunkards; men without true religion and so men without virtue and so without Christ in their lives; men no longer able to protect their families spiritually from the storms being wage against them.
The answer for men to withstand the storm being waged in our day against them and against their families is to turn to Christ. To turn to Christ they need to first go to confession and confess before God and before man, their failure in their fatherhood and their failures in their manhood to be a man of Christ. It takes a true man to be humble enough to go to confession and kneel before another man who sits in the place of Christ Himself in order to confess his sins, especially with regard to fornication. Confession is not for sissies.
Then men in their repentance must call upon the Holy Name of Jesus and beg our Blessed Lord to make up for what is lacking in their own ability to protect, defend and provide for their families, on a material level, but more importantly on a spiritual level. This by the way is the reason for the Holy Name Society I have tried to restore here at St. Peter’s. Men devoted to the Holy Name of Jesus calling upon the name above all other names to help them be men.
Men must become again the spiritual head of the family by ensuring their family goes to Mass every single week come hell or high water; that their family together adores Jesus in the Holy Eucharist outside of Mass; that the entire family as a family attends confession; that family prays together, especially the Holy Rosary. But the man must lead by example; he must become a man of prayer; He can’t give the family what he Himself does not have. He must recognize the Father from whom all fatherhood gets its Name, God our Heavenly Father. And He must turn to this Father through Jesus His Son.
All us all, not only men and Fathers, we must have the faith of the Apostles after the resurrection of Jesus. WE must turn to Jesus in the storms of this life. He alone has the divine authority and power to calm the high seas assaulting us. He alone can guide us into safe refuge a midst the evil of our day. He is still with us, not only in His divinity but also in His humanity through the Holy Eucharist. Through the Holy Eucharist Jesus is still in our boat so to speak, with His Divine power and authority to calm any type of stormy sea. Jesus is not asleep in the Holy Eucharist; it is men’s’ hearts and minds, their faith that is sleeping. We, especially us men must wake up, we must never take the Eucharist for granted for someday we could lose it; us fathers need Jesus to protect our families (Messages in apparitions of Our Lady.
Let us men turn to Blessed Virgin Mary to help to draw closer to Jesus in the Eucharist and through Jesus from the Father from all good things come. (St. John Bosco’s vision here). Let us also have recourse to St. Joseph a true manly man, a man of Christ for his help. Jesus, Mary and Joseph help our men to be men of Christ and so strong holy fathers; especially help priests to be real men and so strong spiritual fathers. Help and protect all our families, especially our parish family, from the spiritual assaults being wage against them. Jesus Mary and Joseph save souls, especially the souls of our families.