June 15, 2003

On May 29, when the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Mel Martinez, was in the parish, I spoke at a dinner given for him and remarked that it was the 550th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Turks, the 189th anniversary of the death of Josephine Bonaparte, and the 264th birthday of Patrick Henry. We call these coincidences. But coincidences are sometimes ways that divine Providence shows the mysteries of God at work. It is providential that this year the Feast of the Holy Trinity is celebrated on our nation’s official Father’s Day. Civil holidays like that come and go at the will of the government, and the Holy Trinity pre-exists all government and the universe itself, but fathers are not incidental, nor is the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God.

The dignity of fatherhood is known by knowing God. There are those who would suggest the Fatherhood of God is a psychological self-projection of a patriarchal society. This nonsense is an old heresy known as Gnosticism. The opposite is true. The social order fully knows the meaning of fatherhood only as an emanation of the Fatherhood of God. Christianity is virtually unique in its understanding of this. Even the Jews, chosen of God, usually referred to God as Father only symbolically, or metaphorically. The overwhelming science of the Fatherhood of God comes to us through Christ. As we know of the Holy Trinity by revelation, the Feast of the Holy Trinity is celebrated on the Sunday following Pentecost when the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, led the Church into all truth.

Adoration of the Holy Trinity sanctifies and unites earthly families. Neglect of the Holy Trinity leads to family breakdown, gender confusion, and social chaos. In many parts of our country, the majority of children have been abandoned by fathers. Young men often are fearful of taking on the dignity and duty of fatherhood. The catastrophic de-population of Europe, which now is beyond demographic repair in the next several generations, is a bewildering consequence of this, and one rarely acknowledged because of social timidity to do anything about it. As a priest is a father of his parish family, he is deeply moved by the young fathers in the parish who are Christs in their homes, loving their wives as Christ loves his Church and caring for their children as Christ laid down his life for his sheep. This is a glorious mystery, flowing from the power of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Catechism (#234) teaches: “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them.”

Fr. George W. Rutler