• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

  • Our Team
  • Catholic Hymnal
  • Jogues Missal
  • Site Map
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

Fatherhood

Fr. David Friel · June 22, 2012

In the Gospel for this Sunday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time, Jesus speaks to the crowds in a very ordinary, everyday image. He uses the image of a farmer who sows seed in his fields. He makes the point that, while the farmer sows the seed, he can’t actually make it grow into grain. As for how the growth occurs, Jesus says, “[The farmer] knows not how.”

The growth, He says, occurs “of its own accord.” In Greek, the word for that is αὐτομάτη (as in “automatically”). A farmer can’t stare at the seed to make it grow. It doesn’t help if he kicks or screams or yells at it. A good crop requires a farmer to take the initial action of planting the seed, but its growth is mysterious. Analogously, then, the seed of the Kingdom of God—the seed of faith—can be planted, but how it takes root and grows remains mysterious.

Although Jesus is using the image of the farmer to describe the Kingdom of God, He could just as easily be using it to describe fatherhood. Think about it: a father is one who brings forth life. Conceiving any new life requires the initial action of a father sowing seed, but the subsequent growth of that seed is outside of his control. Just like the farmer, a father is resigned simply to accept the mystery by which his child grows and develops.

One of my sisters is a scientist, and she could tell me all about the various proteins and amino acids and DNA strands needed for life. But, even still—even with all that knowledge—we don’t have a totally complete understanding of how life comes into being and develops. Every father, then, stands unknowing before a tremendous mystery.

But, just because the growth of children isn’t completely within a parent’s control, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing they can do. Just like a farmer can water his crops and cultivate them with fertilizer and such, so parents have a responsibility to offer the same type of care to their children.

Parents provide food and shelter and clothing, to be sure. They also offer a warm and loving environment. When parents bring their children to the church to be baptized, there’s a line in the Baptismal ritual that instructs them to “make it [their] constant care to bring [the child] up in the practice of the faith.” They’re told to “see that the divine life which God gives [their child] is kept safe from the poison of sin, to grow always stronger in their hearts.” That’s quite a task!

While the physical growth of children is, in many ways, “automatic,” any parent surely can attest that the training of children in faith doesn’t happen by accident or by chance. It takes the witness of a father and a mother. It takes a father’s humility and a mother’s love. It takes a father’s diligence and a mother’s prayers.

We see enough examples in this world of fatherhood gone wrong. We see in our city, in our neighborhood, sometimes in our own families the terrible effects of absent fathers. We know the struggle of living with cold or abusive fathers. We know all too painfully the damage caused by priests who weren’t the good fathers they should have been. So, even as we celebrate the gift of fatherhood, we need to challenge our fathers—and all the men around us—to be good, strong, truly fatherly figures.

Fatherhood is a beautiful vocation. It’s a calling to be a leader, a protector, and a provider. It’s a calling to be strong and mature and holy. Today, and throughout the year, let’s turn to St. Joseph and pray that all our fathers may be good images of God, Who alone is the perfect Father of us all.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe to the CCW Mailing List

Fr. David Friel

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at St. Anselm Parish in Northeast Philly. He is currently a doctoral candidate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America.—(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

Can You Spare 33 Seconds?

Here’s an audio excerpt (33 seconds) of a setting for Kyrie VIII which was recorded live last Sunday at our parish in Los Angeles. The setting (“Missa de Angelis”) is by composer Richard Rice, and you can download the free PDF if you click here and scroll to the bottom. I think Richard’s composition is marvelous. I missed a few notes on the organ, but I’ll get them right next time.

—Jeff Ostrowski
5 April 2021 • When Girls Sing

Covid restrictions here in California are still extremely severe—switching “two weeks to flatten the curve” into “two years to flatten the curve.” Since 2020, we’ve had police breaking into our church to check if everyone is wearing a mask…even when only 5-6 people are present! But we were allowed to have a small percentage of our singers back on Easter Sunday, and here is their live recording of the ancient Catholic hymn for Eastertide: Ad Cenam Agni Providi. The girls were so very excited to sing again—you can hear it in their voices!

—Jeff Ostrowski
29 March 2021 • FEEDBACK

“E.S.” in North Dakota writes: “I just wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU for all the hard work you have put—and continue to put—into your wonderful website. In the past two years, my parish has moved from a little house basement into a brand new church and gone from a few families receiving Low Masses twice a month to several families (and many individuals) receiving Mass every Sunday, two Saturdays a month, and every Holy Day. Our priest has been incorporating more and more High Masses and various ceremonies into our lives, which has made my job as a huge newbie choir master very trying and complicated. CCWatershed has been an invaluable resource in helping me get on my feet and know what to do!!! Thank you more than I can express! May God bless you abundantly and assist you in your work and daily lives!”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“There are no hymns, in this sense, till the fourth century; they were not admitted to the Roman office till the twelfth. No Eastern rite to this day knows this kind of hymn. Indeed, in our Roman rite we still have the archaic offices of the last days of Holy Week and of the Easter octave, which—just because they are archaic—have no hymns.”

— Adrian Fortescue (25 March 1916)

Recent Posts

  • Can You Spare 33 Seconds?
  • The Great Reset—for Your Choir?
  • “Adze” • Do you know this word?
  • PDF Download • Vespers for Holy Thursday?
  • PDF Download • “Sanctus for Three Voices” (Soprano, Alto, and Bass)

Copyright © 2021 Corpus Christi Watershed · Charles Garnier on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.