Terry Paul Choyce
June 18, 2006, Brunswick Street United Church
On Mother's Day I focussed on a characteristic of mothering, which is nurturing. Today, on Father’s Day, I have decided to talk about a feature of fathering, which is responsibility. Of course, we all need to be responsible, whether we have children or not. But, when a person decides to become a parent, the amount and intensity of responsibility multiplies greatly. And we must be responsible not only for our children, but for ourselves, and for making the world the best place possible for all of us.
The idea of Father's Day came from Sonora Dodd, as a way to honour her father William Smart. Mrs. Smart died in childbirth, delivering their 6th child. Mr. Smart raised all those kids by himself on a small rural farm in Washington State. In 1910, his daughter Sonora decided to work to create Father’s Day on June 19, which was her father’s birthday. It took until 1966 for President Lyndon Johnson to declare the 3rd Sunday in June as Father’s Day. And in 1972 Richard Nixon made it a law. So now, because of the love one daughter had for her father in a small place in the Western US, we now honour fathers all over the world.
Last Tuesday Paul and I went to hear David Suzuki speak here in Halifax. He said his most important work was raising his five children. As we all know, Dr. Suzuki is a famous scientist and television personality. His main passion for the last 30 years has been to make us aware of how beautiful and magnificent nature is, and also how fragile and threatened it has become as a result of pollution, over-consumption, the population explosion, and gross neglect and abuse of our natural resources. His outlook for our future is very bleak unless we all take responsibility now for how we live our individual lives, and how we teach our children and others about caring for this planet. We must all learn to use less fossil fuel and buy products which are good for the environment in how they are created, how they are used, and how they are disposed of. We must make sure that big businesses and governments adhere to environmental practices which are healthy to the earth, not destructive. We must clean up what has already been made a wasteland by our greed and ignorance. If we do not take responsibility for how we live now, our children will inherit a very toxic planet.
In our New Testament reading today, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. In those times foot washing occurred often, but it was done by servants, children, or women. For Jesus to wash the feet of his disciples was a message to them of their importance, and how much he honoured them. And I think it was a message to them that they would soon have the responsibility of taking his word out into the world. He knew he would be dead in a few days, and he needed to symbolically empower his followers to follow in his footsteps. Those 11 men were to go out and tell others about the love of God, and of how they were to love and care for all people. Jesus instructed them to wash each other’s feet, which I interpret as being like servants to each other and helping each other in every way. He emphasised the equality of all people, which in those days was a very new concept. Jesus took on the responsibility of making the ultimate sacrifice of his life, so that humans would eventually come to realise that each of us is a valuable part of God, and we are all responsible for each other.
I want to tell you another example of a man who took Jesus’s message very seriously, and dedicated his life to making life better for others. Murray Abraham grew up in Nova Scotia. When he was 15 he entered a Jesuit training program. In 1954 he was ordained and sent to a school in northern India, as head master.
One day the wall of the school collapsed. This was an extremely poor town, and the people were often hungry, and they had little education. The government did not think educating the peasants was necessary. So Father Abraham returned to Nova Scotia to further his own education, and to fund-raise for the school. He got the idea to ask people to commit the cost of one dessert a week to his school. Many people in the Maritimes did this, and signed a Book of Life to promise to donate money to the school.
Father Abraham returned to India and began work. It took 7 years to construct a new school. In 1968, he became ill and had to return to Canada. Three months later he embarked across Canada to generate more money for the community. With this money he started a poultry farm, to have eggs and meat for the people. This grew to include pigs, and then to purchase farm land. The community flourished, and when the article I read was written, there were 1480 students at the school. And Father Abraham help to create an agricultural college in the town to teach people how to efficiently farm. This one man changed the lives of many thousands of people because of his love of Jesus and his desire to make life better for others.
I got this story from Roy Bonisteel’s book In Search of Man Alive. This is a part of his interview with Father Abraham (p.204)
I am not suggesting that any of us go to the extreme of responsibility that Father Abraham did. I am just showing what one person can do if they are dedicated to a cause. Whether it is taking care of our children, our environment, or each other, we can each make a difference. We have the power to make this world a better place, with the help of God, and with your help.
©Terry Paul Choyce. Used with permission from the author.
