Image by David Bowman

One of the things that I am most grateful for in my life is that I have lived into my fifties and still have my father and mother and they continue to be happy and healthy. There is no doubt in my mind that the older I get, the more I appreciate all that they have done for me. Since they have been together for as long as I have been alive, it is impossible for me to think of them as separate. They are and always have been for me simply “my parents.” So much do I think of them as one, that I sometimes find it odd when I tell people that I am going to visit my parents and certain people respond by saying, “Oh, you are going to visit your mommy.” It always makes me wonder what kind of relationship they had with their parents and I always make a point of saying, “no, I am going to visit my father and my mother.” Both my father and my mother have always been there for me and have always supported me with their love.

As a teenager and young adult, I was not a person that many people would suspect was going to be a priest. I cannot tell you how many family cars I destroyed. There were many nights that I kept my parents up late waiting for me to come in hours past my curfew— and some nights I never came home. I got into so much trouble, I sometimes find it hard to believe I am a priest today. I was also one of the lippiest teenagers ever. I had a clever and smart alec response to everything. Despite that, my mother and father were always there for me and my two younger brothers, who were only mildly better behaved than I was. For all three of us, my parents have always given us their firm, yet unconditional love and support. Somehow they have always believed in us and supported us no matter what. To this day, i still call my father for advise about every major decision that I have to make.

I mention this because that is what I believe the Gospel and readings are about this Sunday. God is a loving Father who believes in us and desires that we all should flourish. In the first reading we hear about a small tree that is planted and becomes a great cedar in which many birds come to find rest. The Gospel speaks of a garden that grows slowly before it flourishes and a small mustard seed that grows into a huge tree in which many can come and seek shade. When applied to us as individuals, this refers to the hope that each of us can respond to God’s grace in our lives and flourish to become the people that He has created us to be. The Gospel invites us to hope that we can grow to become the people that God has created us to be. The Gospel and readings speak of the hope that God has for us if we allow His word and grace to take root in our hearts and blossom. The image of the garden also asks us to understand that this growth depends not just on God’s actions. We too must cultivate our hearts and work to receive His word in a way that allows it to grow and flourish. God does His part by sending the Word, His Son made flesh. We must do our part by receiving His word and responding to it joyfully.

Hope is a beautiful thing; it is also a fragile thing. When a little child is born, parents have so many hopes for her or him. A father might hold his baby daughter in his arms and think that maybe she will grow up to be the prime minister of Canada. A mother might look at her young son and think that he might grow up to be a great artist of some type. For every child, it seems like anything is possible. As we age, hope becomes a little less difficult and less easy to hold on to. However, it is so important to realize that God our loving Father always has hopes for our happiness and fulfillment. Sometimes we just need to examine our own lives to see what has taken our hope away and discover more realistic paths towards hopefulness. Sometimes hope eludes us because our desires are unreasonable given the realities of our lives or we are not willing to walk the path that will bring us to that for which we hope.

The image of the garden and tree that we hear about in today’s Gospel speak to us of what God the Father has done to provide for our needs and His hopes that we should find happiness. They also provide a sober reminder that we are pilgrims here on earth and that any vision we might have for happiness cannot be divorced from the reality of who we are as sons and daughters of God. Our ultimate and true happiness is only going to be found if we desire a life that is in keeping with who we are as sons and daughters of the loving Father who has provided so much for us. If we desire something that is foreign to our nature, we will only find sadness and despair in the face of the reality of our lives. I remember watching an episode of the Partridge Family years ago. The youngest son came home from school very sad and disappointed because he was told by his teacher that he could never be what he wanted to be when he grew up. When his mother tried to encourage him to follow his dreams and asked him what he wanted to be, he responded “a puppy.” We must hope to be what is reasonable given who we are as sons and daughters of God. Occasionally we might have to ask ourselves if the reason that we have lost hope is because we are hoping to be something or someone that is not in keeping with our life commitments or who we are as sons and daughters of a loving Father. As Paul reminds us, our true happiness depends upon us remembering “all of us must appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what he or she has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

Another reason why I think so many people live today without hope is because we are so impatient. In our consumer society, we expect everything right away. All of the images that are used today remind us that growth takes time. The garden takes time to grow and does so mysteriously a little at a time; the tree does not just pop up out of the mustard seed in a day, but requires years to grow to its full stature. God knows we need time to change, heal and grow. A loving father treasures his daughter or sons growth. He watches with joy the first steps and slow accomplishments of his children. God knows that we all need time to grow, deal with issues and heal. We really need to give ourselves time and remember that God is gentle, merciful and tender with those who are trying to grow to become His faithful people. It has been so sad to hear recently of a number of celebrity suicides. I cannot help buy wander if things would have been different for these people if they had just spoken with someone and given themselves a little bit of time. God has given us the gift of time so that we might gently grow and heal to become the people he has created us to be. Hopefulness in this life requires that we be gentle and merciful to ourselves, just as God always is.

This weekend, as we celebrate Father’s Day, we can look at this Sunday’s readings and realize that the perfect and loving Father is God. He has created each of us in His image and likeness for happiness and fulfillment. He desires that we grow and prosper in His grace. However, as any parent knows, while a parent can provide their children with everything, the child has to eventually take responsibility for his or her actions and make the right decisions. God has made us and given us the possibility of obtaining happiness and the friendship with Him that He has created us for. However, we must also realize who and what we are and take the responsibility to become the people that He has created us to be. Step by step, we must walk slowly to become who God has created us to be. Hope is to be found in reasonable goals and attitudes towards who we want to be and can be. Our plans and desires must fit in with the realities of our lives and the commitments that we have made. If we are 80 years old, we can never be 40 again— but we can be happy 80 year olds with reasonable hopes for ourselves. If we struggle with an addiction, hope can be found in the first steps towards recovery. If we are working on developing a virtue, or avoiding a sin or vice, baby steps will get us to our destination. The only thing that can guarantee that we will not reach the goal that we are hoping to reach is if we give into despair, give up and do not keep believing in ourselves and the power of God’s grace to transform us. God the loving Father believes in each one of us. He is like a loving father who picks up a new born baby and sees a great future for that child. God wants us to believe in the heavenly aspirations that He has for each of us and the power of His grace to help us reach those ends. May we see ourselves through His eyes, and through the grace of hopefulness He wishes each of us to know, may we set out on the slow journey to be the people He has called us to be.

On this Father’s Day, I wish to conclude by thanking God for the gift of all fathers. Thank you for giving us life and showing to us the face of God’s love. The vocation of a father is a sacred calling. I pray that all fathers will show their children the love, support and hopefulness that God the Father wishes all of us to know. I would like to conclude by asking all fathers to stand for a Father’s Day blessing.

Happy Father’s Day!

Fr. Michael McGourty
Pastor— St. Peter’s Church— Toronto