"Father’s Day Cards"

"Father’s Day Cards"

When I was giving priests’ retreats in Peru, a sister working in the main prison in Lima told me a story I have never forgotten. She said as Mother’s Day was approaching, the prisoners kept asking for Mother’s Day cards. She brought card after card so they could write to Mama. As Father’s Day approached she decided to be better prepared. She brought in an entire care of Father’s Day cards, so she could give them to the prisoners when they asked. She told me that case is still sitting in her office because no one asked for a Father’s Day card. She couldn’t give them away. My friend looked at me with tears in her eyes because she understood the source of so much suffering. She realized so many of the men were in prison because they had never been told who they were, they had never been believed in by a man. So they moved into a violent and false masculinity, the destructive masculinity that occurs when one’s manhood is not affirmed by other men. I wonder if the jails and prisons of the world would not be much empties if young boys had true mentors, guides and fathers to bless them and initiate them into manhood.

from A Man’s Approach to God by Richard Rohr