I remember Fr. Larry, our previous parish priest, when he said in his homily during the Feast of the Child Jesus in Riza Village, that the Infant Jesus was brought to the care of a FATHER and a MOTHER because God has trusted man fully. I said silently, “Ouch! We were broken and yet we are still trusted…!”
Today is Father’s Day, and just before the day ends, I invite you to take a closer look at why, maybe, God has gifted us with our fathers in the family.
Why did God opt to gift us with fathers?
Our fathers are the strength and pillars of our homes. They may differ in personalities (some are weird, others are happy-go-lucky, some are soft-hearted, a few are hard and strict, and the rest are unique in their own ways) but they are all the same fathers who do love and protect their children like our Heavenly Father.
So beautiful are the thoughts of God that He came up with the idea of entrusting us to fathers and mothers enabling us to fully understand in the simplest form the warmth of His love thru a father, a mother, a family and a community. He has trusted us in an extraordinary way to the point of sending His very own son in the human form of a helpless baby, fully dependent on the care and protection of a human father, St. Joseph.
In the end, our own hearts will conclude, if a human father can love and protect, how much more our real FATHER GOD, who has brought life to us, has created us, has patterned us in His image and likeness and has even made us sons and daughters of Him. For this, dear Father, WE ARE TRULY GRATEFUL!
“I will be a Father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Cor. 6:18
In his homily last Sto. Niño Feastday, barely two Sundays before he passed away, Fr. Larry, talked about children and the essence of having the heart of a child in every human person. For “Unless you become like children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” God seeks a childlike submissiveness and meekness, a gleeful childlike heart and a childlike faith.
Let us listen to the audio of his Sunday homily last January 21, 2018.
Lastly, before the day ends, we thank you, Lord, for the gift of FATHERHOOD.
We thank you, Lord, for the unending and undying dedication of YOUR PRIESTS, our spiritual fathers, to guide us.
And we thank you for gifting us with a new father to shepherd us, our new Parish Priest, humble and meek, Fr. BEMBOL HITEROZA.
(Since it was Fr. Larry’s birthday yesterday, June 15, it would be nice to reminisce how he made his parishioners laugh and cry as he leaves God’s message of love as a Father. In most of his last homilies, he seemed to have a premonition of his death in the simplest and very ordinary way).
(Note: Click the BUTTON below to PLAY or PAUSE the audio of Fr. Larry’s homily)
Little White Flower
Senior Contributor
Little White Flower is an art enthusiast who studied Visual Communication at the University of the Philippines Diliman. The Little White Flower, as she would like herself to be known, is the previous head of the Ministry on Worship & Liturgy. Her admiration to St. Therese, as the “little flower of Jesus,” made her choose her blog name. Preferred to contribute in the simplest and littlest way she can, she finds passion in seeing the beauty in the tiniest things in life. Loving God and the works of His creation amazes her so much. Her aim in life: “Just be a little flower, bloom in the garden of the Lord.”
