Celebrating Dads and Patriarchs This Fathers Day

Cardinal Louis Sako

By Sarah Kittle

Father’s Day is just around the corner. It’s a good time of year to take a look at all that fathers do for us, and how richer our lives are because of them. I’m talking fathers, dads, daddies, papas, and priests, too! After all, the annual day celebrating dads started out as a religious holiday.

Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, the Patriarch of the Chaldean Church, was educated by Dominican Fathers and published a book on the Church Fathers. The role of the father is so important in the Church that the Pope is called the Holy Father.

The term “father” for a priest has its origins in the monastic world of the medieval period. The head of a monastery was an “abbot,” meaning the father of the community. Over the centuries, the abbots were almost always priests, and ordinary people referred to the monastic clergy in general as “the fathers.”

Aside from the name itself, priests are referred to as “father” for multiple reasons: as both a sign of respect and because they act as spiritual leaders in our lives. As the head of a parish, each priest assumes the spiritual care of his congregation. In return, the congregation views him with filial affection.

The Apostle Paul compared himself to a father when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 4:14-15, “I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children.”

Although it was originally observed as a religious holiday, Father’s Day has become as commercialized as Mother’s Day in America. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the first recorded Father’s Day was June 19, 1910. Now celebrated on the third Sunday in June as legislated by then-President Richard Nixon in 1972, Father’s Day has quickly become the go-to holiday for backyard barbecues and golf-related gifts.

Two dramatic national events pushed Father’s Day to the forefront: The Great Depression and World War II. The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped-out millions of investors.

Over the next several years, consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and employment as failing companies laid off workers. By 1933, when the Great Depression reached its lowest point, some 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half the country’s banks had failed.

As companies struggled to survive, promoting gifts of socks or neckties for hardworking, struggling fathers became a marketing plan. Father’s Day provided families the opportunity to show their appreciation for the patriarchs in their life. According to History.com, economists estimate that Americans spend more than $1 billion each year on Father’s Day gifts. That’s a whole lot of appreciation!

A supportive father boosts self-confidence and gives the child a role model. More than mere providers, fathers are usually the moral compass (good or bad) for a family.

Traditionally serving as financial providers for the family, men have it tough. They are more likely to struggle with alcoholism and depression than their female counterparts. They wrestle with feelings of inadequacy and failure, especially when their means of providing is threatened.

Fathers carry much more than just a wallet; they carry kids to bed and in from the car when traveling. They give piggy-back rides and boosts up, and they chase and toss and roar and stomp. Impacting child development in numerous ways, active dads may increase the intellect of their children by interacting and playing games with them. I once read that fathers’ rough house play actually stimulates brain cell growth!

The modern role of father has become more of a partner than a patriarch. With so many women also in the workplace, men have had to step up and cover school functions, doctors’ appointments, and the like. Today’s dads are aware of their kid’s social life, who their friends are, and what they enjoy doing in their “off” time.

Still holding the traditional role of patriarch, however, are our parish priests, bishops, and cardinals. They remain the moral compass and role models they have always been. Regarding the spiritual role, the father has the huge responsibility to portray Jesus Christ on earth and to his family. The father is the one within the family context who must ensure that God is worshiped and obeyed.

In todays’ uncertain times, it is more important than ever that we follow the guidance of our “fathers” and celebrate their contributions to the family. God uses the Christian father as an instrument for instruction and discipline, in which God commands and administers.

In regard to harmonious coexistence between creeds, the Chaldean Patriarch appealed to Christians’ vocation “to help others to open themselves; we must be prepared, be courageous and not be afraid.” The Church “has the duty to explain the faith in a clear way. Dialogue and respect are necessary. Unity doesn’t mean uniformity,” he commented.

The Bible is full of instructions to fathers. “Fathers, do not exasperate your children, instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). A wise father seeks to make obedience desirable and attainable by love and gentleness. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it.”

Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako is a true example of a leader and a father figure. A few years ago, in a message sent to AsiaNews, the cardinal called on the clergy to “show our believers the meaning of fatherhood” as “human and spiritual care with sensitivity and tenderness rather than roughness and criticism.”

Sako recently received members of the International Federation of Minority Media and Human Rights to discuss the Iraqi Bill of Rights, in order to ensure that every person is recognized as equal and of importance under the law. In a sermon he gave to the faithful within the past few weeks, he focused on family ties, patience, and endurance. “Where is the love, sacrifice and self-denial?” the Patriarch asked. “These Christian principles should be the center of our lives.”