Whoever instituted the day did fathers a service.  Not only did my wife take me on a mystery ride (to Bigelow’s in Baldwin) but she personally thanked me for being a father to our three boys.  My youngest son had us over to his house for a barbecue, Argentine style (his wife is Argentinian).  It was an adventure.

I only need to read the New Testament to realize what is entailed in being a real son, and the traits of a father, a good father, come from the witness of that only son.  He said it all, and inspired twelve men to go out into the world to spread it.

What did they accomplish?  They, fishermen all, gave us the Western Civilization we have today, a generous civilization that tolerates a lot of emotive and selfish activity.  But in the end, we do know, the Father is Love.

My son, to whose house we are going for a Father’s Day barbecue, said he would like an apple pie.  Now apple season is not here yet, but his ingenious mother, my wife, found a place that sold frozen apple pies.  It was unbaked, and I got the task (the pie man) of baking it.  It turned out a nice, almost golden brown.

I have also authored a book on evolution, that famous departure from Eve’s apple.  As my former student, Steve Israel, once implied at a teachers’ conference he attended, I was good at teaching literature.  Believe me, the Garden of Eden is great literature.  Not exactly science, though.  But if you know that truth can be an analogy, it’s great.

We humans speak often symbolically and with analogy.  The Bible authors must be allowed the same.

He had all the virtues we like to see in our Christian children, and he was Jewish. Here are those virtues and many of the joys: generousness, peace, happiness, patience, kindness, goodness, modesty, self-control. 

He died a hero.  Not wanting to infect his family, he moved away and was discovered dead in a rented room.  He did what he was able, and his many friends and two children and former wife must miss him sorely.

He was a part of my son’s group in high school, and shared their athletic aspirations and social get-togethers.  He took the events, the good and the bad every life endures, with courage, and we remember him with thoughts and prayers.

We are asked to believe many impossible things in this life.  In QM (Quantum Mechanics) we are asked to believe that two entangled electrons, light years apart, will change their status simultaneously if one does so.  In the area of Faith, we are asked to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus Christ to attain eternal life spiritually and physically.  (When He proposed this on Earth, people walked away from him.)

Then there are the things we have to put up with from our own friends and kin.  Tolerate a philandering mate?  He may have asked forgiveness, but who can put up with it?  You have a child who forgets you in your old, dependent age?  (You raised him to independence, right?)  It’s all part of a universe that tests our willingness to accept reality.  You thought sanity was easy?

Having seen divorces among people I love, I think divorce is something I would have spared them.  In no case was there rampant abuse, which is a case for which divorce is the last resort.  If you are thinking of divorce, consider this:

1. Don’t divorce your husband because your mother and

sister don’t like him.  You made your decision as an adult. Stick by it.

2. If the wife aborts one of the children of the marriage, remember, St. John, who knew Christ best other than his mother, said “God is Love.” That’s sometimes too tough to follow?

3. Is  your husband a lush?  Alcohol won’t let you see his good side?  The Holy Spirit will.

Not having experienced it, I am no prophet.  I only hope I can struggle with human relations better than in the past, as my simple short solutions imply.  The “God is Love” phrase is of course an abstract (general) one, and can usually include duress.