Fathers Challenged To Live Up To God’s Call On Their Lives
During his sermon, Archbishop of Port-of-Spain, Most Rev. Charles Jason Gordon addressed fathers. “Today is Father’s Day. Happy Father’s Day to every father here in this congregation.”
He continued, “Fathers, you know that we haven’t done our job well. You know that. You know we haven’t done our job well. We have left parenting to the mothers for the most part. The father who has been actively parenting is really a great exception but not the norm in our nation. That is what has to change.”
Referring to the Holy Bible, Archbishop Gordon reminded the congregation, “In the book of Genesis, God said to Adam, I put you in the middle of the garden to till and to guard; to nurture and to guard. That’s the role of the father – to nurture, to be emotionally available to the child and to the family; to be present emotionally and nurture it the way a farmer will nurture a plant, giving it everything it needs in good time; but also to guard; to ensure that evil, and the hostile, the weeds don’t come and encroach, and snuffle out that plant.”
“When the father is not present,” he said, “there’s a kind of nurturing that the family needs that that it can’t have. Mum can do an incredible job as mum, but it takes a woman to be a mother, and it takes a man to be a father. A man cannot be a mother and a woman can be a father because they bring different gifts to the family. A child that grows up without a father who is nurturing and guarding, you see the behavior of that child and you see all the challenges that child has. You see it!”
“Men, we have a sacred obligation from God to nurture, to guard – not to dominate; not to subdue, not to be ‘head honcho’; not to be macho. None of that is in the text! To nurture and to guard.”
Archbishop concluded by saying, “My prayer on this day of Father’s Day is that if the men of this nation and the men of the Catholic Church would make this journey towards fatherhood, then the missioning of the domestic church would become a prospect that would be a lot easier than it seems right now. And so I pray for all the fathers, that through God’s grace and God’s blessings, that they would find the courage to do what has been asked of them and to live what God is asking.”
