Fr. James's Sunday Homily: Father's Day

Father’s Day: The mystery of the sacrament of marriage

Our Lady of Gudalupe Electronic Parish has many readers from around the world. For all those in different parts of the world who do not celebrate Father's Day, there is a homily on this Sunday's Gospel at the conclusion of the Father's Day homily.


George Washington Carver, the scientist who developed hundreds of useful products from the peanut once said that when he was young he asked God to tell him about the mystery of the universe. But God answered him and said that such knowledge is reserved for God alone. So the famous scientist asked God to tell him about the mystery of the peanut. God said that knowledge about the peanut was something that he could handle and God told him all about it."


A few weeks ago when we celebrated the Feast of the Blessed Trinity, we considered the mystery of God. God is mysterious. God has revealed himself as One Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.


During our consideration we said that we can look upon God as a communion of persons. We can see the image of God stamped into all of existence. Human nature, marriage, the family, human society and the Church are all icons of the Triune God who is a communion of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.


This Sunday we celebrate Father's Day. Let us take this opportunity to consider fatherhood and the sacrament of holy matrimony.


When Adam was created by God he was alone. God then created the animal kingdom, but as we read in Genesis, "none proved to be the suitable partner for the man" (Genesis 2: 20). Adam felt incomplete until the creation of Eve. However, with the creation of Eve, Adam now feels complete or fulfilled. But, this fulfillment is rooted in the fact that the nature of man is made complete because a communion has been formed. Man is now male and female.


"This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called 'woman,' for out of 'her man' this one has been taken" (Genesis 2: 23).


So, man is a communion because man has been created as male and female. Pope John Paul II affirmed that "man becomes an image of God not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion". Man becomes image of God because he is a communion. He reflects the communion of God and participates intimately in the communion of God through sanctifying grace.


Marriage is defined as an "intimate community of life and love". The intimate life of married spouses is an image of the interior life of the Blessed Trinity. "Authentic married love is caught up into divine love…". Moreover, the sacrament of Matrimony can be considered as the prototype of all of the sacraments "because all of the sacraments draw their essential significance and their sacramental power from the spousal love of Christ the Redeemer".


If we were to make a synthesis of the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the definition of marriage, we will understand that marriage is the intimate communion of life and love between a man and woman, joined together by God.


The purposes of marriage, as defined by the Catholic Church, are the good of the spouses, the procreation of children, and the education of children. This communion of life and love has been established by Our Lord as one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. This intimate communion of life and love is exclusive, indissoluble, faithful and open to the procreation of children... (Continued here)