“My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.
But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was
dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”
[Lk. 15: 31-32]
But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was
dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”
[Lk. 15: 31-32]
One of the most vivid memories of my father was when my brother and I watched him work through the window of his mechanic shop. I would see the sweat running down his forehead from the 100+ degree San Antonio summer, and his hands blackened from the engine grime. I have always been humbled by this image of my father as it reveals his complete self-sacrifice for our family. It is this willingness to love that has helped each person in my family become the people we are today.
Fatherhood has changed immensely throughout the course of human history. However, I believe the eternal bond of fatherhood, God’s plan between a father and child, has remained uninterrupted. The image which comes to mind is that of Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal Son. Rembrandt’s experience of this parable is so complete in its sincere portrayal of a father’s unconditional embrace of his once lost son. The son being held in the father’s tender and strong embrace reveals not only the need of a the father’s compassion and mercy but also the son’s yearning for reconciliation. It is in this consoling realty that the two find redemption.
Rembrandt's "Return of the Prodigal Son"
Working with children who come from separated families has highlighted for me the importance of such a sense of fatherhood. The effect of the increasingly absence of fatherhood in our society should be something distressing as it reveals a culture which restricts the innermost sense of self for both the child and the father.
Reaffirming the impact of this absence is the beauty of fatherhood which becomes distanced in a father's rejection of their children. The beauty of fatherhood is something so complete that when one experiences its absence one feels even incomplete. In the Radiation of Fatherhood, Karol Wojtyla suggested that becoming a father meant being "conquered by love." To be conquered by love in this way is to be liberated in the deepest sense of human freedom: for only in "the radiation of fatherhood...does everything become fully real."
Being something which is ‘fully real’ when embracing fatherhood makes being a father the embodiment of strength, tenderness, and mercy. Something which is so needed in our culture! A father has an eternal bond with their child and for this there is always hope for a reconciliation to occur.
Today can therefore be seen as one of the greatest opportunities to pray for all of the father's of the world! I hope that all father's find the strength, tenderness, and mercy in their hearts to extend their arms and receive their children.
Gracias por todo Papa! TQ, xoxoxo! :)
Radiation of Fatherhood: http://www.catholicculture.com/Radiation_of_Fatherhood.pdf
Reaffirming the impact of this absence is the beauty of fatherhood which becomes distanced in a father's rejection of their children. The beauty of fatherhood is something so complete that when one experiences its absence one feels even incomplete. In the Radiation of Fatherhood, Karol Wojtyla suggested that becoming a father meant being "conquered by love." To be conquered by love in this way is to be liberated in the deepest sense of human freedom: for only in "the radiation of fatherhood...does everything become fully real."
Being something which is ‘fully real’ when embracing fatherhood makes being a father the embodiment of strength, tenderness, and mercy. Something which is so needed in our culture! A father has an eternal bond with their child and for this there is always hope for a reconciliation to occur.
Today can therefore be seen as one of the greatest opportunities to pray for all of the father's of the world! I hope that all father's find the strength, tenderness, and mercy in their hearts to extend their arms and receive their children.
Gracias por todo Papa! TQ, xoxoxo! :)
Radiation of Fatherhood: http://www.catholicculture.com/Radiation_of_Fatherhood.pdf
Abuelo, today we remember your fatherhood! You were always so ready to extend love to others!! :)
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