How many of you have your alarms set to go off at 4:30 in the morning? I know there are about 120 husbands and single men who get up that early to be at St. George every Friday mornings by 5:45AM. These men are from parishes all over the diocese. What’s the occasion? They are there for a weekly men’s spirituality program called, “That Man is You.” They begin with breakfast followed by a presentation and then they break into small groups to reflect and discuss topics from the presentation. And afterwards, there is still plenty of time left to get to work.
What compels these fathers, husbands, and single men to wake up so early to attend this program? It is because they are hearing the call from God to be better leaders as husbands and fathers of their families. But our culture tries to stifle and demean this important call by God. You know when you turn on the TV these days you don’t get a good picture of what good fathers are like. On TV you often see irresponsible, immature, selfish, and mindless husbands and fathers. How about Homer Simpson or Ray Barone of Everybody Loves Raymond. One television researcher observed the following: “Only a small portion of the current barrage of television images contains positive models of men as nurturing parents, and even these provide very mixed messages about fathering. In popular situation comedies, most men continue to act incompetent…” Storylines often portray fathers viewing their children as intrusions in their lives compared to more important pursuits such as drinking beer, watching TV or playing golf. These TV dads invest considerable time in thinking up schemes to avoid their family, and they appear overwhelmingly uninterested in everyone else’s lives.
Our gospel today talks about the signs of the end times. We see plenty of apocalyptic signs such as wars, natural disasters, famines, and plagues. Every night we see images of war in Iraq, but you know there is even more significant war that is closer to home. It is the war on family. There are plenty signs that family is under heavy assault. And on the cross hair are fathers and husbands—who are the protector, nurturer, and leader of the family. Once you make fathers and husbands abandon their post, family is more easily disintegrated. There are plenty temptations for the fathers and husbands; they can turn their work into a god, spending ever less time with their families. They can distract themselves to sensual pleasure, making eyes of their heart vulnerable to lust and infidelity. To this Our Lord says today, “See that you not be deceived…Do not follow them!” Our Lord asks all men, who are and who will be fathers and husbands to persevere and to stand firm. Persecution and hardships will come, yet Our Lord will provide all the grace to persevere through it all.
Let me give you a great example of Christ-like fatherhood in the midst of persecution and hardship. In 1941 in the height of WWII, Father Maximilian Kolbe was thrown into Auschwitz concentration camp. He was living through truly an apocalyptic time; in the concentration camp, men were reduced down to insignificant slaves with serial numbers branded on their forearms. Prisoners at Auschwitz were slowly and systematically starved, and their rations were barely enough to sustain a child: one cup of imitation coffee in the morning, a weak soup and half a loaf of bread after work. In the harshness of the slaughterhouse, Father Kolbe never abandoned his spiritual fatherhood of those in his camp. At night he seldom would lie down to rest. He moved from bunk to bunk saying: “I am a Catholic priest. Can I do anything for you?”
On one occasion, a prisoner from Fr. Kolbe’s bunker escaped. As a punishment, ten men were selected at random to be thrown into a starvation bunker to die. One of the unfortunate men, Francis, cried out, “My poor wife! My poor children! What will they do?” Fr. Kolbe then stepped forward and said, “I am a Catholic priest. Let me take his place. I am old. He has a wife and children.” Fr. Kolbe’s offer was accepted, and he was thrown into the starvation bunker. Francis later recalled, “I could only thank him with my eyes. I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on. I the condemned, am to live and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me?” The news quickly spread all around the camp. It was the first and the last time that such an incident happened in the whole history of Auschwitz. Another Auschwitz survivor declared that, “Fr. Kolbe’s death was like a shock filled with hope, bringing new life and strength…It was like a powerful shaft of light in the darkness of the camp.”
4:30 in the morning sounds a little too early for most of us to attend a spirituality course. But to these 120 men who brave through drowsiness to get to St. George know that there is a big stake on the line—their family. In the midst of war on our families, Our Lord is reminding us that this is a time of grace; it is by our perseverance that we will secure our families. We entrust today in a very special way to the Blessed Mother our families so that she may strengthen the fathers and husbands, that she may mold our families like the Holy Family.
