With your whole heart honor your father
Sirach 7:27

Someone once told me “my father was the smartest man in the world!” I suspect that as children many of us felt the same way about our fathers. He was the wise man who could solve any problem, right any wrong, drive out any fear. He was the pillar of strength in our small world.

That strength complimented the tenderness of our mothers. Together they provided us with a wonderful sense of security. Whatever happened, it would be all right.

For his sons he modeled what it meant to be a man. There are times that I look in the mirror and see my father and I find myself saying the same things that he said.

It is only as adults that we begin to appreciate the difficulties our fathers dealt with in providing us with the sense of safety and security we enjoyed. And in retrospect we realize how smart they really were.

We thank God for our fathers and honor them for who they were on this Fathers Day.