One of my fond summer memories as a kid was rushing downstairs after being out in the barns or fields, and all five of us boys trying to wash our hands before dinner because we were starving. There was Dad trying to supervise us, and boy did he have his hands full as water splashed all over the sink and surrounding areas and, of course, on each other.
Every once in a while, we would instigate Dad by saying, “Show us your muscles,” and he would pull up his short-sleeve shirt and flex his arm muscles. My memory is of me thinking, “Wow, my dad is strong!”
I suppose, like every little kid, I really thought my dad was stronger than my friend’s dad.
God made men with particular qualities for the good of others, much like he made women with particular qualities for the good of others. We learn from history that males were the ones who were to be courageous in battle, provide for their families, protect wives and children, and guide important decision-making with their male giftedness.
To deny that God made the feminine genius and male genius uniquely different for the common good and as we receive at birth is to deny the reality of God’s goodness in how and who he made us to be.
In Genesis 1:26-31 we read that after God created Adam and Eve as male and female, he looked upon them as “very good.” The goodness of our unique maleness or femaleness is to be protected, preserved and celebrated for who God made us to be, not for what we might wish we were.
To live in truth is to live in reality as God knows it to be. Unfortunately, in the society we live in, there are so many attacks on how God designed us to be.
God’s call for each male is to be a godly man and seek the good of others through the unique gifts he brings to the family, society and the Church. Just as women are to be honored and reverenced for the way God made them and blessed them as his beloved daughters, so, too, men should be honored and reverenced as God made them to be as his beloved sons. It is when men live out their godly fatherhood as biological fathers, in a sacramental, committed marriage, and single men dedicated to the service of others, or as celibates for the service of others, that families, society and the Church thrive.
I invite you in joining me in prayer and promotion of the truth of God’s genius in males so that God can continue the good work he has done from those who have lived as godly fathers, so young boys can grow into godly men to lovingly protect, provide and lead in ways that reflect the fatherhood of God as he has designed it to be.
