Father’s Day

Dear Faith Family, 

Happy Father’s Day to all you great dads out there. This is my fourth Father’s Day and I am definitely looking forward to eating some hot chicken sandwiches while watching some baseball … after Mass, of course.

Before I had kids, I feel like I had a good understanding of who God is. I was raised Catholic, made my faith a priority in my life and studied theology in college. Just like everyone, I had my ups and downs, but the idea of God was understood within them. I also had a great family who were great examples of God’s love. I was blessed. 

When I had kids, things changed. The idea of God as my Father somehow became more clear. 

Sure, it can be easy to say that God created all things and because of that, He is the Father of all created things. But when I became a father myself, I learned through my imperfections that God is the perfect Father. His unconditional love and that he is yearning to spend eternity with me in paradise has become more clear to me.

I try my hardest, but like any other person, I can fail at unconditional love. Our God does not ever fail at this. 

At our Year 2 Confirmation Retreat we always talk about how the love of your parents (which is immense and admirable) is barely a blip on the radar compared to the love that your Heavenly Father has for you, which is perfect and completely unconditional. If we are so moved by an imperfect love (since we all are imperfect), how great of an impact should God’s perfect love have for us?

Our Heavenly Father does not become greater/stronger with every one person who worships Him, but he does all things just to be with you. He gets nothing out of it, He just does. This idea became so clear to me once I had kids and it has helped me to become a better father. Although I have selfish streaks, I can look to my heavenly Father to take a stab at being a good dad. 

Great fathers are willing to do anything for the well­being of their children. Our God did that to the point of death. While we may not be called to physically die for our families, we can sometimes be called to die in little ways for them. We may not become greater because of our love, but we are willing to sacrifice ourselves for our loved ones because it benefits them.

You deserve this day, father figures. Your unconditional love has helped others to see who God really is.

God Bless,
Brett Becker
Youth and Young Adult Minister