|
A Father's Role
This Sunday we celebrate Father’s Day, the last of our secular cycle of family observances and perhaps the one with the least fanfare. Yet, the father is a crucial role model in any family. It deserves a proper understanding to avoid the confusion about sexual identity which permeates our society these days.
The father is the one who generates the seeds of life. It is no wonder then that the traditional view of God is one of Father. When Jesus addresses God, He calls Him His Father. He is the Creator of the Universe and the object of our prayer.
Traditionally, it is the father who is the main bread winner in our family structures. The ideal family structure – something difficult to achieve – is one in which the father provides for the family while the mother nurtures the dependent members of the unit.
When a father is not present or a mother is not present or when either is not allowed to fulfill his or her role in a couple, everyone suffers. Naturally, it is the children who carry the scars the most.
Granted these are ideals and as such are tainted by our flawed human nature. The examples of broken marriages, single-parent households, early deaths of a spouse abound in our society. The people who live through them are heroes and can be sterling examples to their children, but their trials and tribulations are not what God desires for any of us. God’s plan is for an intact family unit. It’s the ideal and it’s something that should be striven toward and protected.
A strong father figure in our families could go a long way toward combating a lot of the nonsense which passes for contemporary thinking on the family. Indeed, our modern views of sexuality might be a whole lot different if we had a better understanding of and appreciation for the role of the father.
As the Church has taught for 2,000 years, the sexual identities of man and woman are ones of complementarity. Man and woman complete each other in their natural instinct to propagate the human race. Man and woman each play a different but complementary role in the creation of life and the rearing of children. When a man or a woman is missing, the process suffers.
This is the natural law which runs throughout the history of creation. It is the natural order which God has provided. When we function in these roles, we cooperate with God’s plan for creation.
This is why it is so disturbing to encounter the watering down of family life which we see in so much of society. Most recently, it has occurred in the gay community’s drive for same-sex marriage, which at its basis is simply an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. There cannot be any such thing as a same sex marriage because marriage is meant to be between a man and woman for the dual purposes of expressing mutual love for one another and the carrying on of the human life through the miracle of childbirth.
Some argue that while same-sex marriage may be a contradiction in language, it can be “fixed” by the establishment of same-sex unions. This would legalize the joining of a man to a man or a woman to woman in a legal contract which extend marriage benefits to each partner. But same-sex unions are simply a smokescreen for advancing the gay lobby’s agenda of achieving same-sex marriage. They are basically the same thing couched in distracting words.
There are bills pending in Albany which would legalize gay marriages here in New York State. Simply put, they are threats to healthy family living, the basic building stone of human society. We oppose all efforts in the State Assembly and the State Senate to pass any type of legislation which confuses the male and female roles in marriage and in all of society.
It is the government’s purpose to protect society, not try to redefine the basic terms of the human contract. God has manifested His plan for creation in the obvious and very evident roles which He has created for man and woman.
Government’s attempts to redefine these roles is nothing less than another attempt to play God, according to the latest political action agenda.
None of this is meant to belittle homosexual members of the Church and the wider community. Homosexuals deserve the full protection of the law. They are full creatures of God, worthy of love and respect. But the laws to protect discrimination against homosexuals are already in place. We do not need laws that try to redefine human nature.
We urge you to let your representatives in Albany know where you stand when it comes to the critical area of sexual identity. Marriage is for John and Mary and not for John and John or Mary and Mary. A good place to begin expressing yourself would be to log onto the Web site of the New York State Catholic Conference and join its political action network. Frequent updates, via the Web, keep Catholics in the state informed on the latest political shenanigans in our state Capitol.
On this Father’s Day, we salute all our fathers for their self-sacrifice and love which they display day in and day out. We recall our own fathers, both living and deceased, and the contributions which they make and made to our lives. We would not even be here if we did not have a father.
We need a father and a mother. This can be the Church’s contribution to a critical issue of our day. It may sound rather basic to us. But it needs to be said over and over again. And our political leaders need to hear it from us so that they can withstand the great pressure which will be pounding on their doors in the days to come.
|
