Edmonton Catholic School District Parent Newsletters

June 2018

Father’s Day – Loving and Caring for Our Neighbours

My father, John, turns 90 next month! He has aged like fine wine! He joins a host of celebrities 90 years and older, including , , , , , , and (but my dad is way funnier than Mel Brooks!). He may not be a celebrity in the sense of being a movie star, but he is my hero – always has been; always will be. As we celebrate Father’s Day, join me in expressing our love and gratitude for our fathers (mine included), as well as for our stepdads, adoptive dads, foster dads, grandfathers, godfathers, and the like. Dad’s are our coaches, best , and protectors. They teach us – like my dad did for me – true values in life, real stuff that we can pass on to our own children: love, faith, honesty, self-confidence, integrity, and so on. And they teach us simple things like to ride a bike, build a birdhouse, and drive a car. If I were to pick one thing that I admire most in my father’s 90 years, it would be is his love, respect, and compassion for neighbours. When he was younger, healthier, and stronger, he took it upon himself to care for our neighbours, especially the elderly and those in need. He would fix a broken window, repair a leaky faucet, cultivate a garden, help with the harvest, even milk the neighbour’s cows. On more than one occasion, I’ve asked my self why did dad do the things he did? What motivated him? As I grow in age (and I’d like to think in wisdom!), I like to think that dad reached out to neighbours because he not only thought it was the right thing to do, but that in some small way he recognized Christ in them. You see, dad loved God and the Church. (More than once he even painted our small church of Saint John the Baptist, Lavoy, including the domes high above the – dad was a carpenter, which makes me the son of a carpenter, just like Jesus! Isn’t that sweet?). In loving God and the Church, it wasn’t a far leap of faith for dad to recognize Christ in our neighbours. This Father’s Day, let us honour our fathers by imitating them in their goodness. Let us strive to become like Jesus, doing the works of Christ, that is, the works of compassion, forgiveness, sacrificial love. Perhaps a page from the life of Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta would be helpful here in making real our outreach to one another. (My dad, and late mom, met Mother Teresa when she visited Saint Paul, Alberta, in 1982). Saint Teresa writes: “Another time I was walking through the streets of in a poor area where our sisters also work. I saw a man in a truly terrible condition sitting there looking so sad and alone. So I walked up to him and took him by the hand and asked him how he was. When I did this, he looked up at me and said, ‘Oh, after such a long time, someone is touching me.’ And then his eyes brightened, and he started to sit up straight. Such a tiny attention had brought Jesus into his life. He had been waiting so long for a show of human love, but it was actually a show of God’s love. “These are beautiful examples of the hunger I see in these people, the poorest of the poor, the ignorant and unwanted, the unloved, the rejected, and the forgotten. They are hungry for God.” In some sense, I think that’s what motivated my dad in caring for our neighbours. He wanted to satisfy their hunger for God. This Father’s Day, let us recommit ourselves to meet the hunger of God in each other, “not only a hunger in people suffering physically, but also a great hunger in people suffering spiritually and emotionally – people suffering in their hearts and souls, especially our young people.” (From “A Call to Mercy”). Happy Father’s Day! Happy 90th Birthday Dad! Bishop David