No ‘Holier Name’: A Tribute to Fathers

“Father!—To God Himself we cannot give a holier name,” said poet William Wordsworth. Today is Fathers’ Day, a day to celebrate the men who raised, taught, guided, and sacrificed for us.

In Ex. 20:12, God gives the Fourth Commandment: “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest be longlived upon the land which the Lord thy God will give thee.” This is the very first of the commandments that deal with human relationships rather than specifically with our duties to God, and above all other duties besides adoration and worship God has placed honor to our parents. Fathers are given by God, Himself a Father, to guide and care for us during our most vulnerable and formative years. “One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters,” George Herbert observed.

My own father taught me not only to work hard and be patriotic, but he has always been ready over the years to help me do math homework, file taxes, solve car troubles, plan trips, and much more. From my grandfather, I learned to love writing, history, music, and old movies. And I have been blessed to have so many men as role models and guides in my life, uncles and great-uncles and priests and professors, men who, by word and example, taught me to be a godly person and a responsible citizen…

Whether we personally had fathers who were absent or admirable or abusive, we all understand how impactful and important fathers are. “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men,” said Frederick Douglass… The modern world too often uses “patriarchy” and “fatherhood” as pejorative terms, but in the truest sense “father” is a holy word, as Wordsworth noted…