Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:00:21 Harvey, Maria Paris. You know the name of the father, the son, the Holy spirit. Amen. I've drawn from a lot of sources for the most part, not going to spend any time, setting them with father's day coming up this next week. I will spend some time today. Speaking about fatherhood, we'll start by talking about the most important responsibility God has given to the father. And the father's most important God given responsibilities is to be the guide to protect and provider for his wife and children guide the father's not there to be the friend of his children. He's been placed over them to form and to guide them. He needs to take the long view with regard to forming the character for his children's. Since virtue doesn't just happen. That's why God gave the father. Even at the level of nature is natural is a disciplinarian and the center of boundaries and that role it's a disciplinary and center of boundaries requires them to stand up and witness to the truth by saying, this is right, and this is wrong.
Speaker 1 00:01:27 You will not speak to your mother like that. You'll not get drunk. You're not listening to that kind of music or go to those kinds of movies. You will do your chores. You will do your homework, et cetera, et cetera. Within the family, the father's responsible for defending the moral law and establishing and enforcing discipline. He can share this authority, but it's still resides in him. This means that insofar as his wife performs these roles and she should, she's actually acting on behalf of the father, a father who does not guide his children. These matters is simply an absent father. It's not enough for the father to defend the moral law and enforce discipline. It's also essential that he modeled this behavior himself. He's called to be a man of integrity to model the very behaviors he expects of his children, both in public and in his home.
Speaker 1 00:02:20 This pertains most, especially to matters of the faith. Steve would ask some brilliant remarks. In that regard, I quote in the divine plan. A dad is a vital length in the process of a child. Find a sacred relationship with God. The father, every dad for better for worse is like a living icon of God. The father for his children, especially in early childhood, a father's daily life in the family or absence from the family forms an image of God, the father and his children. This is truly an awesome responsibility for dads. The important question for fathers is how do I teach my children to imitate a God? They cannot see father start to be an image of the heavenly father for their children. Fathers are to live in such a way that their children can imitate their lives and grow in the likeness of God.
Speaker 1 00:03:13 Therefore, the most important thing needing change in the process of training children is not the kids, but the dads children will imitate godly transformation of their fathers. A wise father was seek to maximize the power of imitation his children. This is a major reason why time priorities are so important. You need to be with your children in order for them to imitate you. The more you're separated from your children, the greater the vacuum left by your absence. Your children will continue imitating in your absence. The only question is who will they be imitating? The time you spend with your children will determine whether they imitate your morals and beliefs or someone else's, there's no escape. The reality that successful fatherhood is directly dependent on upon simply being present and available to your kids for children. Love from their fathers is spelled T I M E it's spending adequate time with their children is a stumbling block for many dads.
Speaker 1 00:04:16 The key to Christian fatherhood has gained a vision of the faith running through the generations, your family, dad, you must grasp the truth that created a legacy of faith through the training and discipline of your children is a real man's job. It is your job in fact is your most important responsibility on earth because whatever you do or fail to do as a father will have effect for generations and for eternity practice, your faith remain the state of grace, love your wife and stay married. Be a good provider and Thai and spend lots of times with your children. That's how to be a good Christian man, husband and father in a single sentence, not too complicated. Thank you, Steve wood. So the father must guide his family. He must also protect, protect his wife and children from harm, not only now, but also the view to the future and this regard, there's a very important scriptural principle to keep in mind.
Speaker 1 00:05:13 The father, as the head of the family represents the family. As the head, as the representative of family, the father stands over his family, the same way that Adam stands over his family. When he's in a state of grace, when he's preserving that right relationship with God, his whole family's protected for the most part from serious attacks, the devil a godly father precisely by his godly behavior protects his family. It's as if his whole family is wrapped in a spiritual force field, as if they're all covered with sort of a cone of grace or surrounded by spear of heavenly light, that drives back the forces of darkness that makes it much more difficult for the force of darkness to penetrate deeply or forcefully. That makes it much, much easier for his wife and children to walk in the light and the truth and the graves.
Speaker 1 00:06:07 But there's a flip side to that. Justin, as a godly father, protects his family by walking in light, preserving that right relationship with God, just as a godly father, by staying the state of grace, keeps his family under the Holy spirit. And so he wraps his whole family in this spiritual force field that infect surrounds him with heavenly light. It pushes back the force of darkness. It makes it much easier for them to walk in the truth just as a godly father provides this amazing and beautiful protection for those underneath him. So also the ungodly father by his ungodly behavior wraps himself and his whole family and spiritual darkness. And in, so doing exposes family to attacks much more Savage attacks from the force of darkness and places, his family under Naval spirit. Suppose the father joins the lodge where he's hooked on drugs. He cheats on his wife.
Speaker 1 00:07:05 He makes crooked business deals. Even if those under him, his wife and children are bond and determined to be, to faithfully serve the Lord. It's still going to be much more challenging for them because they've been sold out by their head and leader. The leader has deliberately placed his family under a devil, the spirit of the lodge, the spirit of lust, a spirit of avarice, surrounded them by spiritual darkness and invited that devil and its minions to come and attack his family. The father picks which spirit he and his family will serve. The father picks which spirit will have dominion over his family. He's the head. And it's one of the prerogatives of being in charge. He represents the family, neither invites the Holy spirit or Naval spirits rule over his family that comes to the territory where the why could or not. It doesn't matter whether we like it. It's just reality. It started with Adam. It's going to go on like this to the crack of doom. That's reality. God has given the father and immense responsibility.
Speaker 1 00:08:16 Father stands over his family. Same way that Adam stands over his family. By the way, that principle applies to civil leaders as well. They stand over society and the position of fathers, anyone who's spent any time at all re reading, the old Testament recognizes this principle. When you play sin on the throne, the nation is going to suffer. The father must protect his family. He must also provide it's pretty self explanatory, an economy like ours. That's been captured by these economic pirates. That can really be tough. We have to pray for our fathers here too. Okay. So it's not too.
Speaker 1 00:08:57 And the benefits provided by the presence of a good father. Aren't just eternal, reliable statistics demonstrate. Clearly I quote children with involved fathers are more confident, better able to deal with frustration, better able to gain independence and their own identity. More likely to mature into compassionate adults, more sociable, more secure as infants, less likely to. So signs of depression, less likely to commit suicide. More empathetic boys have been shown to be less aggressive. And adolescent girls are less likely to engage in premed relations, close quote, but you don't need me to tell you that all too often, the father is simply not there. He's not there. In fact, as a nation, we've actually embraced a philosophy of fatherlessness with the normalization of divorce and the replacement of the father by the state as a sort of provider slash foster parent, all of which not surprisingly has resulted in an astronomical increase in the numbers of fatherless families.
Speaker 1 00:10:02 We've embraced a philosophy of fatherlessness and the consequences have been an are devastating, apocalyptic, Cuban. You know what I mean? That in the right sense of the term, we now have a culture featuring increased promiscuity, increasing cohabitation, increasing divorce, increasing numbers of single mothers relations with all babies, contraception, sterilization, abortion, assorted, perversions, and babies, without relations, IVF, test tube, babies, surrogate mothers. We now have a culture in which the traditional husband and father, the good family man has been replaced in large part by the detached male individual who carefully avoids permit commit commitment to anyone. And at the same time refuses to take real responsibility for anyone except himself. These detached male individuals reject the whole masculine ideal of sacrificing themselves for the other. Be it, the wife, be it, the children be it the common good. And instead leave. Essentially adolescent lives filled with selfish pursuits. The examples are Legion. You have the movie stars, these professional athletes with their harems, all these people, but we don't have to look. Ron. Everybody knows these guys they're everywhere. The only remedy for finally absence is fondly presence. As one author noted 20 years ago, quote, as a society, we will not solve our crisis of fatherlessness with prison cells, mentoring programs, and violence, curricula boyfriends, anti stalking laws, children's advocates, income, tramp, SIRS self-esteem, or even mothers. We will only solve the crisis of fatherlessness with fathers
Speaker 2 00:12:01 Close quote.
Speaker 1 00:12:03 If you grew up with a father in the home, if you grew up in attack family, thank God for that. Thank God for that. We can't take credit for the family we grew up in, but neither can we take blame. So anyone that's grown up without a father or with a father that was significantly less than what he should be, should not lose hope. Those absences, those wounds, that loss of the father can be healed by the father of all mercies, from whom all fatherhood on heaven. Earth is named. We've talked about healing before. We'll visit that again, but for today, invite our Lord into that lack, that loss, those wounds, and ask him to take charge of the head, alas, that whole aspect of your life. Let's take a few minutes to talk about spiritual fathers about priests. There's an exact parallel here. When we consider the priesthood from the perspective of spiritual fatherhood, his most important responsibility is to be the spiritual guide protector and provider for spiritual children and the clearer. We understand that the clearer we can see what a priest ought to be and the real nature of the crisis in the church,
Speaker 2 00:13:27 Spiritual guide,
Speaker 1 00:13:29 The priest is not there to be the friend of his spiritual children. God has placed them over them to form them and to guide them. God has given the priest the role to be the disciplinary and the defender of the boundaries. He's doesn't send him, but he's asked to defend him. That role has disciplinary and defender of the boundaries requires them to stand up at witness to the truth by saying, this is right, and this is wrong. Contraception is a mortal sin. You may not get divorced. You need to say your rosary every day, a priest who does not guide his spiritual children in these matters is simply an absent father. And it's not enough for the priest to defend the moral law and enforce discipline. It's also essential that he models this behavior himself. He's called to be a man of integrity to model the very behaviors he expects of his people in the parish, in public and in his private life.
Speaker 1 00:14:26 But that's not enough for the priest. He's called to a much higher standard than his people in terms of prayer, in terms of penance, in terms of speech, in terms of behavior and charms of moral rectitude, his model is right there. That's his model by virtue of his sacred priesthood. He's called to be conformed to the Lord in a much, much more profound than his spiritual children. If the priest is going to be a man of integrity, he's going to be a crucified man. So the priests must guide his spiritual children. He must also protect the priest is called to protect his spiritual children from harm, not only in the here and now, but most, especially with an eye towards the eternity. If anyone needs to have a crystal clear understanding that the Christian life is warfare and his families are on the front lines, whether they know it or not, it had better be the priest.
Speaker 1 00:15:25 If he doesn't realize this, he will not be sufficiently armed and neither was people and they will be taken out. He must see that his battle is against principalities and powers and not against flesh and blood. When the political arena of secular and church politics, he needs to pray for his people. He needs to bless them and confess them and bless their whole homes and belongings and roll them the Brown scapular and the miraculous metal and throw in their homes, the sacred or Mac that hearts and pray for and with his people. Those prayers after communion are very important for everyone here. That's scriptural principle. We consider early applies with special force to those spiritual fathers have been given a governing role over others. For example, men have been made pastors or directors of seminaries or superiors of religious congregations or bishops of diocese. For example, a pastor as the head of a parish family represents them before God, as the head, as a representative of his spiritual family, the pastor stands over his people as Adam's stood over his family.
Speaker 1 00:16:34 When he's in a state of grace, when he's carefully preserving that right relationship with God, then his whole parish family receives a great spiritual protection from serious attacks of the devil. It's uncalculable, it's unbelievable what a difference this makes for all those under him, a godly pastor precisely by his godly behavior protects his people it's as if his whole parish is wrapped in a spiritual force field is if all of his parishioners are covered with this cone or this blanket of grace, they're surrounded by the sphere of spiritual light that drives back the force of darkness that makes it very difficult for the force of darkness to penetrate deeply or forcefully. It makes it much, much easier for his people to walk in the light and the truth and the grace. But there's a flip side to this as well, just as a godly pastor protects his flock by walking in light and preserving that right relationship with God, just as a godly pastor, by staying in the state of grace, keeps his flock under the Holy spirit.
Speaker 1 00:17:38 And so doing wraps them in the spiritual blanket that keeps them, keeps the force of darkness at Bay. It makes it much, much easier for them to walk in light and, and grace just as a godly pastor provides this amazing and incredible protection for those underneath him. So also the ungodly pasture by his ungodly behavior wraps himself and his whole spiritual family in darkness. And it's so doing exposes them to attacks much more Savage attacks on the force of darkness. And he places his people on our Naval spirit suppose pastor joins the lodge where he drinks too much. He's unfaithful to his vows. Even if those under him, the people in his parish are bound and determined to faithfully serve the Lord. It's still going to be much, much more difficult for them because they've been sold out by their head and leader. Their leaders deliberately placed them under a devil.
Speaker 1 00:18:33 The spirit of the lodge is spirit of lust. The spirit of avarice surrounded them by spiritual darkness and invited that devil and its minions to attack his parish. The devil will accept that invitation. You better believe he's going to accept that invitation. The pastor, the seminary rector, this peer general, the congregation of diocesan Bishop picks, which spirit is dominion over his flop. He's the head was just one of the prerogatives of being in charge. He represents the flop before God, and he invites the Holy spirit or an evil spirit to rule over his subjects that comes with the territory too. Whether we like it or not, it's just reality. It'll be like that to the end of the world. God has given the spiritual father new mints, an absolutely immense amount of responsibility.
Speaker 1 00:19:30 The spiritual father stands over his family. The same way that Adam stands over his family. So he must protect his people. He must also provide the sacraments above all. He must provide a reverently, said mass with scrupulous attention to the rubrics. He must provide his people with blessings in the Sacramentos and pay particular care to make sure there's people get the authentic teaching of the church. So it's not too complicated to be a good spiritual father, the priest, and more particularly the pastor, the rector, the superior of a congregation or the Bishop, my spiritual guidance people spiritually protect his people most, especially by a godly life and provide for people spiritually. It's not too complicated. That being said, you don't need me to tell you that all too often, the priest is simply not doing this.
Speaker 1 00:20:22 He's not doing this. Why not? The crisis in the church is essentially a crisis of fatherhood. It's a crisis of Manliness, or maybe more accurately the lack thereof. Now it's a complex mess. So we're only going to have a time to touch on a few aspects of the disaster. In one sense, it begins in the seminary. So let's start there given the absolute importance of a father on the one hand and the pain for reality, that a great many of our men are very deeply wounded because they come from broken homes from fearless families or from seriously dysfunctional families. It seems to me, there are two categories of questions that ought to be given serious consideration. And as far as I know, they're not being asked by any seminary in the world. First, since priests are not called to be CEO's bureaucrats or career men, but simply fathers. And since we can't give what we don't have should men from broken homes or five as family simply be admitted into seminary and then treated exactly the same as all the other seminarians. And if so, why
Speaker 0 00:21:38 <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:21:42 Should any account be taken of their background? And if so, what, you know, traditionally men that were legitimate or from broken homes needed dispensation to go into seminary because its principle is recognized
Speaker 1 00:22:01 Is a seminary. And by that, I mean, any seminary in the world prepared to help in the healing of the very real wounds these men bring with them. And if so, how, what can be done to ensure that no one who comes from set circumstances is ordained until he's been sufficiently healed. That's the first category questions. Second category should for maters. Now for maters are priests who work in the seminary and the formation of seminarians should form maters who are themselves from broken homes or fatherless families be permitted to form seminarians. How can these men help the seminarians, especially those in most need develop strong identities as fathers. What can be done to ensure that formatters can and truly will be fathers to the seminarians. Those are really important questions to the best of my knowledge. No one's asking that
Speaker 0 00:23:14 <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:23:20 Let's step away from the seminary situation. Look at the crisis from another angle. We've already seen that in the larger culture, we've reached the point, which the good family man, the traditional husband and father has been replaced in large part by the detached male individual and that the dashed male individuals, a label for a guy who carefully avoids permanent commitment to anyone. And at the same time refuses to take real responsibility for anyone accepting himself. These detached male individuals reject the whole mask, an ideal of sacrifice themselves for the other. Be it, the wife, be it, the children be it, the common good. And instead lead essentially out of his lesson, lies filled with selfish pursuits. It's a real problem in the larger culture and not surprisingly, it's also an immense problem in the priest to today. Immense, in my opinion, the presence and especially the prevalence of ordained detached male individuals lies at the very heart of the crisis in the church, including the scandals, in my opinion, the presence and the prevalence of ordained detached male individuals, guys, who refuse to take real responsibility for anyone except themselves. Guys who reject the whole masculine idea of sacrificing themselves for the other, be it, their parishioners, be it, their subjects, be it the common good guys who carefully avoid meaningful, authentic unwavering permit commitments, especially the teachings disciplines and of the church. Instead lead essentially adolescent lives filled with their own selfish pursuits. The presence of an abundance of these guys in the ranks. The ordained lies at the very heart of the crisis in the church, including the scandals.
Speaker 0 00:25:16 We all know
Speaker 1 00:25:18 That it's common to find priests that are passive in the face of evil, but why did God put the priest in the world? It's actually common to find superiors, pastures, rectors, religious superiors, and bishops that are not willing to sacrifice themselves for the other. That, whether it be their subjects to the common good, they won't stand up for and defend their spiritual children. They won't stand up for what's right. They won't correct. And guide their people. They won't even tell their people that true. It isn't just teaching and discipline all that. Isn't all of it. The crisis we've all read about in the papers, the Rudy cost kind of crisis. As a result of a particular group of ordained detached male individuals pursuing their own selfish, satanic ends. God has given the priest. That's great. This incredible, almost unbelievable capacity to help and to heal others. But when it's perverted, it becomes an incredible, almost unbelievable capacity to destroy others. It becomes satanic.
Speaker 0 00:26:46 One more comment,
Speaker 1 00:26:49 Peers and formulators are not just part of the problem. And in large part, they are the problem. The predatory priests they produce and protect are symptomatic of the superiors. And then when everything starts predictably blowing up all too often, the superiors respond like a bunch of CEOs with a legal team and legal responses instead of like fathers with moral responses as if there were no hell and generally speaking, because the superiors themselves seem all too often in capable of acting like fathers. The responses seem to fall into one of two extremes. On the one hand, we see him toss the priest overboard in the face of an accusation. On the other hand, we see them not taking credible accusation seriously, whereas justice. And either of those responses, both the priest and the faithful have the right to expect the superior to act as adjust father practically speaking. This means that accusations have to be carefully weighed assessed, investigated, and should they be fond to be credible? Then meaningful action must be taken, but you don't need me to tell you that all too often, that's not happening. And the consequences have been devastating apocalyptic in the proper sense of the term.
Speaker 1 00:28:18 There's a lot to pray about a lot to pray about. Let's close today. Thank God for the gift of fatherhood and pray for our fathers for strong and Holy fathers. Pray, especially for those who weren't fathered properly, that God, the father will mercifully reach into their lives and heal them and pray, really pray for restoration of fatherhood in the church.
Speaker 0 00:28:54 Pray for fathers <inaudible>.
