When someone realizes they hurt another’s feelings, they will often make an “apology.” That is, they’ll say they are sorry for what they did. They might say: “I apologize for what I said to you” and the offended person might reply “I accept your apology.” This type of experience is part of everyone’s life, and people are very familiar with the words “apology” and “apologize.” However, very few people use a word that’s related to these commonly used words. For example, if someone said they took a course in “apologetics,” would you know what they’re referring to?
The great Cardinal Newman wrote an autobiography titled (in Latin) “Apologia Pro Vita Sua” (translated as “An apology (or “defense”) of one’s own life”). Newman was named a saint in 2019 but has the distinction of once being an Anglican priest in England. He left that Church, converted to Catholicism, was ordained a Catholic priest, and later named a Cardinal. It is this man whose name is associated with State university campuses that have a Catholic presence in what are called “Newman Centers.” Parishioners who attend a State school should right away inquire where the “Newman Center” is. For example, Jesuits are at St. Mary’s parish in Ann Arbor, and the Lansing diocese has a church on M.A.C. Avenue right next to MSU’s campus.
Back to this “apology,” “apologia,” “apologetics” word topic. In short, the way people use the word “apology” when saying they’re sorry—is not at all related in meaning to the way this word is used elsewhere in English. If I’m an “apologist” for something, the word means I am arguing on behalf of some topic, e.g., “He’s an apologist for a higher minimum wage.” That is, the person thinks we should have a higher minimum wage. All topics can have an “apologist” for them (one who argues on behalf of the issue or topic).
In Catholic theology, there has traditionally been much time devoted to “apologetics.” That is, teaching converts or everyday people or clergy how to defend, or argue on behalf of, a given position of the Church on, let’s say, the Holy Trinity, or Blessed Trinity, or Trinity (it goes by those different names). There are non-Christians who think the idea of “3 persons in one God” is ridiculous, or even blasphemous (Muslim say there is one God, Allah, and to say that there is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is denying the existence of Allah alone. Christians are then forced to explain as best as they can how we believe there is ONE God (who we could name Allah, too) but that this one God is 3 persons in 1. Then we’re approached by a Hindu who tells us that we are mistaken—because there are many gods—not just 3. And then we deal with tribal peoples who tell us the hidden world is filled with “spirits” and not just 3 gods.
What is a Christian to do when faced with the world’s many conflicting positions on who or what is ultimately responsible for creating everything and keeping it going? Instead of throwing up our hands and saying “I have no idea what to say to these people,” we can take a course in Christian “apologetics” and learn HOW to answer different questions about our faith. How can there be “3 in 1?” Look at clover in the grass—3 leaves in 1 shoot. Why all this Catholic attention to Mary? We should just read the bible. Hmm. Did Joseph love Mary? Yes. Did Jesus love Mary? Yes. Well, then, why should not I?
Christians always pray to one God (Allah) but there are days when one feels like speaking to Jesus alone—feeling that Jesus was a human and knew first-hand what we are feeling. So we want to speak with him in prayer. On another day, we might thank our Father in heaven for creating such a beautiful world. And then on another day, when we’re facing a challenge of some kind, we might pray to the Holy Spirit, asking for strength to face people who intimidate us. Without thinking of the Trinity, we naturally pray TO each person individually on different occasions.
Apologetics can be the formal study of truths taught by the Church, or can simply consist of us thinking about different topics and having an intelligent rationale for believing what we do. Apologetics is not just “blind faith” without reasonable underpinning. Apologetics is our being rational people who can intelligently assert our belief without being laughed off the stage for being children who believe in fairytales.
An apology for your faith is a defense of your faith, and it need not be so brainy or cerebral that no one knows what you’re talking about. It might take the form of someone saying to you: “I don’t see God, and I need to SEE in order to believe.” To which you might reply (among many other responses) “I don’t SEE the wind, but I feel it blow by me on a hot summer day and it refreshes my soul.”
How to “live our faith?” Hmm. I have a friend who, each night for years, writes a “list of things to do” the next day (e.g., get gas for the car, doctor appointment at 2, pick up dinner at Mama Mia’s,” etc. As Catholics, we’re SUPPOSED to “live our faith” in different ways. One way is to spread it, and this doesn’t mean to get up on a soapbox or get in someone’s face telling them where they’ve gone wrong. Rather, it CAN consist of you having a “list” at night on which you write the name of a person you will go out of your way to recognize in some way.
It might be someone with whom you work and with whom you have little, so-so, or much contact. The person might have some obvious issue going on in their life—and you might just acknowledge their challenge and wish them well. Or you might just strike up a conversation with someone—about any old topic that just communicates to them that you recognize they are noticed and are important enough to acknowledge. Little forms of “touching base” with another can open you up to actually influencing a person’s decision-making. Remember that people noticed the early Christians being people who showed care & concern for one another. That’s the legacy they left for us to continue.
How did Father’s Day come about?
In 1972, President Nixon signed a proclamation establishing Father’s Day as a permanent national holiday celebrated on the third Sunday of every June. However, the holiday’s history started decades earlier with one American mom’s self-proclaimed “obsession” with establishing an annual celebration of fathers.
Born in Arkansas in 1882, Sonora Smart Dodd attributed the idea of an annual celebration of fatherhood to the deep respect she felt for two dads in her own life. The first was her father, William Jackson Smart, a Civil War veteran who raised Dodd and her five siblings as a single parent after their mother died in childbirth.
Dodd wrote, “I would say that Father’s Day really had its nativity back in 1898, when our home was bereaved and Father so courageously assumed the father-mother role.” Memories of her father’s care for her and her siblings were so warm that in May 1909, when she heard a sermon delivered in honor of Mother’s Day — it was her father who came into her mind. When the minister finished his sermon, Dodd went up to him and said, “I liked everything you said about motherhood. However, don’t you think fathers deserve a place in the sun, too?”
The other dad who inspired Dodd to campaign for a national Father’s Day was her husband, who became a father when Dodd gave birth to their only child. Her husband’s devotion to their son was “so evident [that] the idea of a special day for fathers became an obsession.”
Working with local clergy and the YMCA in Spokane, Dodd succeeded in organizing a local Father’s Day celebration for June 19, 1910. Over the following years, local Father’s Day celebrations sprang up across the United States. However, not all Americans immediately embraced the idea of a nationally recognized holiday for dads.
A letter in the New York Times sarcastically suggested that if Americans were to adopt an official Father’s Day, they might as well create holidays celebrating every member of the family such as Uncles, Maiden Aunts, and Household Pet Day! Still another criticism of an official national Father’s Day was its rank commercialism. Many American men saw Father’s Day as “a commercial gimmick to sell more products — often paid for by the father himself.”
During the Great Depression, businesses began actively promoting the unofficial holiday in an attempt to bolster sales. By 1938, retailers felt optimistic that they could turn Father’s Day into “a second Christmas.” Concern over the commercialization of Father’s Day persisted.
Despite the resistance to the idea of an annual, nationally recognized Father’s Day, Dodd and her allies continued to campaign for it until 1972, when Nixon signed a “proclamation” permanently designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day nationwide. Nixon sent a telegram to Dodd on the occasion of her 90th birthday acknowledging her role in establishing Father’s Day as an official American holiday.
Dodd died in 1978 at age 96, having seen her six-decade-long dream of a permanent national Father’s Day become reality.
Her effort was not that of praising any male who fathered a child, but to those among us who have tried to be a role model for the little ones at home who relied on their loving support. Our faith community prays for and salutes those men among us who have been that special presence in the life of their biological or adoptive little ones. You have been a “Christ-figure” to them.