Jesus then appointed what they needed, shepherds, the twelve apostles, the first twelve bishops, the first twelve priests to be spiritual fathers to the flock, to his people.  Usually, around this time each year, I preach on spiritual fatherhood of the priesthood but because this is Father’s Day, I would rather discuss fathers.  Interestingly as I looked on the Net for some sermons, (I kind of take a little here, a little there and kind of “cook something up” every Sunday), but interesting the majority of the sermons on Father’s Day were “chewing out” men, telling them, “You’re not doing this right.”  “You need to do this better.”  Now on Mother’s Day we all as a nation, all three hundred million of us go like this to Moms (bows with arms outstretched).  “She’s perfect.”  And she is, and we should.  But on Father’s Day, we tell fathers, “Here’s another thing you’re not doing.”  I’ll try not to do that because I love these guys.  I think you know that.  Oftentimes I go to the dictionary to look up a definition of a word we think we know and the definition usually doesn’t surprise me but it’s often very profound and it’s good to know what we’re talking about.  I was very disappointed when I looked up the word “father”.  There were some biological explanations and the best definition I found was this: “A father is a male parent of an animal”.  Even the dictionary insults you.  Now if you have a two-year-old son that’s probably appropriate.

Fathers.  What does a father do?  That’s a typical male question because we men often ask it.  We identify ourselves with what we do to a fault but not a complete fault.  First, a father shepherds his children as we heard in the scriptures today.  Children need to be shepherded.  They need a mother and they need a father.  They need a man in their lives that they can look up to and that they can trust.  To a child a father is God.  It’s interesting because what name do we have for God?  Father.  There’s a connection there, a deep and beautiful and spiritual connection.  Fathers shepherd their children.  They teach them what is good, especially what is eternally good, ultimately good.  They teach their children about God in their own way.  I can’t tell you how many times at a funeral, a child, forty or fifty-year-old son or daughter came up to me and said, “You know Father, I never realized how religious my father was until we went through his things.  Hidden in his drawer was an old prayer book, a worn out bible I didn’t even know he had.  Men can be very, almost secretive in their worship of God and I think we have to become less secretive but nonetheless it’s beautiful.  Fathers teach their children, not so much with their words but by their actions about God and his goodness.  They warn their children of evil.  They set some standards in the house.  “Don’t go past this line because danger awaits you.”  They probably know that from experience. 

A father provides for his children.  He’ll do anything to see that they get what they need.  I often tell the story of my own father who emigrated from Ireland 1929.  He was 24 years of age.  He had four years of education and he worked hard, married my mom.  For an Irish family, for any immigrant family, your proof that you made it in America was that you owned a home.  They scraped and saved and Mom worked on her knees scrubbing floors and Dad worked for the subways and they saved enough money and we bought a house, and then another house in New York City.  Any house in New York City costs a lot of money.  They raised their family there, sent their kids to Catholic schools at great expense.  Then when I was going to go to college, they wanted me to go to a Catholic college but it was my choice.  They always, even at seventeen, they respected my choice.  I’m not sure they should have but they did.  They sold the house to send me to school and moved into some junky apartment in Woodside, New York, and they didn’t even think about it.  They didn’t even go, “Well, this is going to really hurt us.”  They just did it because they wanted me to have something they never had a shot at.  Parents provide.  Of course here, himself goes to college and drinks beer for four years to honor their love.  I think I was thirty years old before I realized the sacrifices my parents made for me.  Young people, please don’t wait till you’re thirty to realize how much your mom and dad love you right now.

A father protects his children from evil, from danger.  I’ll ask you this fathers and answer me immediately without thinking, “Would you die for your children?”  “Yes.”  Yes you would in a heartbeat.  It’s just instinctive to you.  It’s who you are.  You are willing to lay down your lives for your kids.  One of the most important things, perhaps the most important thing a father does for his children is love their mother.  We had a funeral a couple of years ago.  There were eight siblings and they each got up and said something..  I think it was the last one, she was the youngest daughter; I think they spoke in order of their age, the youngest daughter said, “You’ve heard all about my Dad and success he came up for and how he ‘made it’, how he got an education, how he was so successful at LANL, how he was so respected, and what a good provider, and all these things.  You heard all those things about my Dad and they’re true.  But when I think of my Dad, the greatest thing about him was that he loved my mother and that says it all.”  Children who grow-up in a home where the Mom and Dad love each other and show it will be just fine, thank you very much.  It’s true.  It’s just true.

I hope we all know men who were great or who are great fathers to inspire us.  America lost its father Friday.  You’re aware that Tim Russert died at the age of fifty-eight.  How many of you know of Tim Russert?  Please raise your hands.  It’s amazing how well known he is.  He was on “Meet the Press” on NBC and I didn’t get a chance to see it because I’m working on Sunday but I would often see him on other programs and

I heard his story over the last several years.  Tim Russert was an Irish Catholic from Buffalo, New York and he became most famous, not because he was head of the NBC news department, but he became most famous through his book about his father.  It was called “Big Russ and Me”.  His father was a tough guy from Buffalo, a good provider, drank his beers with the boys in the bar after work, raised his family, loved his wife and Tim Russert loved his Dad and wrote this wonderful book, “Big Russ and Me”.  The book was so popular he wrote another book called, “Wisdom of Our Fathers”.  Many people wrote letters about their fathers and told him stories and he put that together.  You can get it on Amazon for $15.  I’m going to get a copy next week.  He was America’s father.  He was always talking about being a father.  I watched two or three hours of testimonies about Tim Russert on Friday and Saturday morning and I was amazed.  Now these testimonies were given by people of the press: Barbara Walters, Tom Brokaw, editors from the New York Times, Newsweek and Time Magazine and these are very generally secular people.  I was amazed as they talked about Tim Russert many of them, perhaps the majority of them mentioned his faith, his love of his Catholic faith that impelled him, and inspired him and guided him.  Chuck Todd who’s the NBC news political director said, “I don’t know of anybody who has made people appreciate their father and their relationship with their children more than Tim.  He was everybody’s father figure.  Why?  Because first Tim Russert loved his own Dad.”  There were some film clips of him and his Dad.  He’d look at his Dad and he had tears in his eyes.  He just loved his old man.  I don’t know how Big Russ is doing today but probably not very well having lost his son.  He inspired us to do that, I hope.  He has one son, Luke who just graduated from Boston College.  They were in Rome last week celebrating the graduation.  One of the news people at NBC said that, “If you were in the office with Tim and were busy on some important matter and the phone rang and it was Luke, he dropped everything.  There was never a doubt about what his priority was.  His priority was his family not his work.” 

Do you hear that Los Alamos?  You know the irony is, if you take care of that priority, your wife, and your children, I will guarantee you your work will be better.  Won’t it?  It will.  You’ll go to work more rested, more secure, more at peace.  You’ll be a better worker and your important work will be better if you put your priorities in order.  Now I’m yelling at you, see?  That always happens to fathers, but we can take it, can’t we?  We don’t need a national organization to defend us.  We’ll take care of ourselves. 

Tim Russert loved his son and he was passionately in love with his wife, Maureen Orth, who is a writer herself, a very distinguished writer.  As a matter of fact, in every picture that I saw him and his wife, you can see he loved her.  That’s what a good father does, he loves his wife and everyone knows it because he speaks of her with such honor and he holds his wife as sacred, a good husband, a good father. 

What motivated him?  This is from Howard Fineman, who is the Washington bureau chief for Newsweek, he said this, “I’m not Catholic, I’m Jewish.  If I ever thought about becoming Catholic, Tim would be the best advertisement for that faith that there is.  He was a great fisherman for his faith.  His faith animated him.  He was a very deeply and devout Catholic.  His faith was his guide.  It focused him.  It kept him grounded in this city, Washington, where many pursue false gods.  Tim never pursued false gods.  He pursued the real one.”

Tim Russert, I hope, has in some way made me a better priest.  I’m inspired by this guy.  I need people to inspire me.  I hope, maybe in some way, he’s made you a better father as well.  May he rest in peace.