Today is my Father’s birthday and in the Church we celebrate today the Holy Name of Mary, Mother of God. We talk about Gratitude to God for making a totally human, humble woman bear the Son of God on earth making Jesus true man (wholly man) and True God (wholly God). What a mystery. Thank God for coming here and showing us we don’t have to bear the cross alone. He’s already done that for us! Gratitude is Thanksgiving which in Greek is Eucharistia, Eucharist. Celebrate Thanksgiving today to God for coming to earth and walking with us, and giving us himself to eat. Jews of Jesus’ time were scandalized by this whole "eat my body, drink my blood" speech which Jesus made in Matthew, Mark, and Luke…. but we take it as true and "do it in memory of Jesus." Yesterday I talked about a man who loved worship so much he served at two churches! His legacy is children, grand children and great grand children. I’ve seen the younger teenagers helping Grand Dad at conventions, especially in St Mary’s Georgia where we celebrate the WWII submarine veterans. Celebrate your veteran. Celebrate your father, and Thank God.
We girls (three of us) had a rocky relationship with our father. He had an illness that might have been genetic for we all seem to share the melancholy, polarity, and depressions that ached in him. He lost his mother, his wife and his daughter (my sister Annette) in a short time and it shook him more than he could handle. I think he left big parts of his heart in that cemetary upon a hill in Pittsburgh. All three McCarthy women (Sarah, Freda, and Annette) are buried together under a beautiful Irish Celtic headstone. So what did I get… a part of a man. 6 feet Tall, blue eyed, handsome actually… I remember playing with his tobacco stained fingers on the back of a church seat. I remember curling up in his chair late at night and eating cheese off a saucer he was nibbling from. He read books, and I learned the love of reading and writing from him. He fixed things. I remember him tinkering with the old Ford and teasing another 50,000 miles out of it. We didn’t have much, but I gained a love for books, writing and education from him. Remember the Concorde? When I was in grade school, I had to write about a new invention and I was stumped. "Write about the SST," he said, "What??" I researched and read all the latest on the British and French relationship (that failed) and the building of the Concorde…. Long before it was officially out, I had my paper out there. God bless Fathers today for giving good suggestions and influencing children in the good things. Fathers, influence your children! In the Good things. God bless you.