Spiritual Fatherhood

Jun 17

Father Judge High School Annual Cook-In. Fr. Jack Kolodziej, OSFS, Mr. Michael Campellone, Theology Teacher, and Fr. Vince Smith, OSFS, with students.

When I began teaching high school as a young priest, I worked alongside an older lay teacher who had taught for many years. He was a smart man, a good teacher, and a faithful Catholic. I was most impressed that he was a wonderful example of the single vocation. When students asked if he missed having his own children, he would quote the classic 1969 film “Goodbye, Mr. Chips.”

In the story, Mr. Chipping is a veteran teacher at an all-boys boarding school in Great Britain. After his retirement, a current student came to interview him about his career and finds out he had once been married. The young man asks Mr. “Chips” if he ever had any children. Chips, having been widowed at a young age before he could start a family, responds, “Yes, I had children… hundreds of them… and all boys.” As I get older, this quote from a movie made the year I was born resonates with me more and more.

This weekend, we celebrate Father’s Day and give thanks for the men who have brought children into the world and have given their lives to support them. We all know many men who have shared their fatherhood with their families, friends, neighbors, and communities. We think of men – both single and married - who are father-figures for those who do not have dads in their lives. We give cards and greetings and gifts to all of these good men who strive to live this beautiful vocation.

Fr. Jack with family in front the bells at Our Lady of Light in Florida.

As a young priest, I was taken aback when a few people wished me a “Happy Father’s Day” after Mass many Junes ago. I know our Catholic tradition has been to call our priests “Father,” but I never thought that I was in the same category as the men who care for their children and families. However, as I grow older, I realize that priests do share in some of the same tasks and blessings of biological fathers. We love, we teach, we serve, we help, and we pray for those entrusted to us.

Having served in high school ministry for 23 of my 27 years as a priest, I have gotten to know many young people. I have had the joy of watching them grow up into loving adults. I now have the privilege of being part of their engagements, weddings, the baptisms of their babies and the funerals of their parents.

Fathers give life to their children. They guide them, nurture them, and provide for them. As a priest, I can share in these joys of fatherhood in a small way. I do my best to serve God’s children. As a spiritual father, I realize I have had many children. I am grateful for the blessing they have been to me and to the family of the Oblates and the Church. May God continue to help all priests to embrace this form of fatherhood and to love in a way that reflects the love of God the Father.