LITURGY MATTERS: Father’s Day: A new beginning at Sunday Mass
By Michael McKenna, Archdiocesan Master of Ceremonies
Father’s Day offers a welcome opportunity to honour the men whose love, sacrifice, and steadfast care enrich the lives of their families, and communities. Whether as fathers, grandfathers, stepfathers, godfathers, or mentors, these men respond to a call to give of themselves quietly and generously, in the pattern of St Joseph, placing the needs of others before their own.
In an age when expressions of masculinity are increasingly viewed with suspicion and reduced to negative stereotypes, Father’s Day provides the opportunity to celebrate the virtues of a faithful masculine fatherhood and acknowledge the profound gift that faithful fathers are to families, the Church, and society.
The vocation of fatherhood reflects something of God’s own fatherly love. The good father loves!
He protects, provides, teaches, forgives, encourages, and sacrifices. His days are long and filled often with difficult choices, personal disappointments, and daily acts of self-denial undertaken willingly for his loved ones. He bears his responsibilities to his family quietly and unseen. In recognising his contribution, we are reminded of a truth that lies at the heart of Christian life: genuine love is sacrificial.
The self-giving love demonstrated by fathers finds its deepest meaning in the perfect self-giving of Jesus on the Cross. For Catholics, Father’s Day is an opportunity to also reflect on our relationship with our Heavenly Father, and on our response to his invitation each Sunday.
A loving father desires his family to gather around his table. From the earliest days of the Church, the Sunday obligation is God’s weekly invitation to his children to come home, gather as a family of faith, give thanks, and share in the life and love he offers through his son, Jesus Christ. But many Catholics have today drifted away from Sunday Mass attendance. While the reasons for our missing Mass are many, the excuses amount to the same thing: allowing something important to take the place of what is most important.
Gathering at Mass before sharing a family meal or celebration places faith where it belongs: at the centre of family life. A family centred on faith is anchored in hope, strengthened by love, guided by truth, and united by a purpose greater than itself. When fathers lead their families in worship, they offer an example that can influence generations.
This Father’s Day may be the ideal moment to begin anew: after-all, every journey of faith begins with a simple decision to return to the Father—and what better gift could we share with our Heavenly Father this Father’s Day, than the promise: “We will be here next Sunday too!”