Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person,
though perhaps for a good person
one might even find courage to die.
But God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

…and isn’t that what Father’s Day is all about? Father’s Day is a day that honors sacrificial love.

Let’s take a few minutes to recall what fathering is about. Certainly it starts with children, but frankly anyone and anything can turn out babies. Even plants pollinate. So it isn’t necessarily about turning out babies. Fathering also includes things like setting an example, teaching, giving up poker night so you can stand in the middle of a driving rain at a soccer game, or giving up that fishing trip so you can sit through your daughters umpteenth dance recital. There’s a lot there. There is a lot of duty and most importantly, sacrifice.

Fatherly sacrifice does not mean that we give up our masculinity, our strength, or our guiding hand. Our wives and children need that. Those things are a gift from God – and are meant to strengthen and uphold the family. They are the means by which we render loving service as fathers. Service and sacrifice always founded in love and respect for those we were given.

On this day on which we honor fathers, on which we honor their sacrificial love, the Holy Church reminds us that the call to sacrifice is a call to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

St. Paul reminds us that God sent His only Son to be sacrificed, sacrificed so that we might say no to sin and yes to eternal life. God sacrificed so that we might be reconciled. As St. Paul says:

we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received reconciliation.

That’s the baptismal choice, the saying of yes to God and no to sin. What’s more, it is the opportunity to grow up and to model our behaviors, our lives, on the example of Jesus. Sacrificial love.

Let’s face it, it is hard, still very hard, to sacrifice, to give up one’s worldly reputation, to set aside one’s needs, to die to ourselves so that we might live for others. To die to ourselves so that we might live by the Way, Truth, and Life which is Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters,

We sit here each Sunday and listen. Today Jesus asks for two things.

First that we pray. Each day we are faced with the world’s reality – a lack of sacrificial love. We live in a me culture, gods that are me, Jesus who is really just like me. We find it easy to fashion our own personal Jesus – who is the image of ourselves, the image of our wants and needs. Our god is us – the one we find it easiest to worship. The ATM through which we easily slide our credit cards. In light of our selfishness, in light of the needs of the world, the sheep without a shepherd, the troubled and abandoned, our own sinfulness, we must pray. Master, send us laborers who will guide us in Your path. Send us good and holy fathers, priests, and deacons. Master, take our selfishness away and use us as You see fit. If we pray first our need for right guidance and counsel will be granted.

Second, we must act.

“Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.—

We must act because we are God’s holy nation. We are His Holy Church. God told Moses to impart these words to the people:

“You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.——¨

…and so we are.

My friends,

We must live up to God’s choosing us. That starts with prayer and ends with action. We are not here by accident or by mistake. We are called and we must get up and go. We must look at each and every person, every man and woman in this world, regardless of color, religion, or nation and we must be prepared to pray for them and sacrifice for them. Sacrifice out of God’s love, out of God’s Law. This is the sacrifice of parents, fathers, priests, deacons, mothers, servicemen and women, missionaries, and all workers in God’s field. The sacrifice of the people who model themselves after Jesus’ reality.

while we were still sinners Christ died for us

So too for us who must take after Christ. Life as a Christian is all about prayer and sacrificial love. It is dying to sin. We were buried in baptism. We went down into the water. Now we are reborn – regenerated into new men, new women. We are the new and everlasting Israel. We died to live a new life – eternal life. That is the promise we have received. That is what we are to pray for and sacrifice ourselves for – for God’s way – the only way. The way to heaven. Amen.