MOTHER`S DAY AND FATHER`S DAY
Fr. Michael Petrides, ST. GEORGE, New Port Richey, FL

Just as the second Sunday in the month of May is set aside as Mother`s Day, so is the third Sunday in the month of June commemorated by all the people of our land as Father`s Day.
The idea of honoring mothers and fathers has its root directly in the Old Testament. Thousands of years ago, Almighty God gave mankind his Ten Commandments. These were called God`s "centerpiece" for right living -- "Honor thy father and thy mother."
When we examine this commandment, we find that it contains two ideas. One is that parents must be honorable. Parents must be such mothers and fathers to their children that they deserve to be honored. My, how much this needs to be said in our day! Many states, for example, have recently enacted special legislation for dealing with ill and injured children. It seems that in too many instances injuries were inflicted by parents and sicknesses came through parental neglect. It is obvious in such cases that parents themselves are not abiding by the spirit of this commandment of God.
Of course by far, many fathers and mothers do deserve to be honored. That is why the people of our land have taken the step of having a Mother`s and Father`s Day. It is only right that we do pay a token of our appreciation to those fathers and mothers so often forgotten, so often in the background, who are the backbone and foundation of true Christian homes.
The second idea in the commandment is the obvious one: Children are to honor their parents. Notice that no time is specified not only are young boys and girls to honor their parents, but older children who are grown men and women are to keep this law. And they are to honor parents as long as they live, as well as after they die.
What exactly is meant by the term "honor parents?" Here are some of the things involved in this commandment.
Children are to help their parents. There is so much that even youngsters can do to assist in the work around a house. And grown children, too, can be of great assistance to their parents.
Children are to love and respect parents. How often elderly mothers and fathers yearn to be loved and wanted by their children.
Children should care for their parents.
Children should obey them in everything. Parents, being older and more experienced than their children, exercise a proper authority over the home, they want the best for the family.
These are some of the ways, then, we can really honor our fathers and mothers. To have a day set aside for fathers and mothers once a year is far from enough; but in the ways enumerated we can truly honor them day-by-day and year-by-year.
These two days have very special meaning.
It is interesting to compare the relationship of God to mankind and Parents to their children. God is the creator. It is from Him that all life comes. In the family, a mother and a father pass on life to their children. God is the Great Provider. It is from Him that mankind receives the necessities of life. In the family, both parents become providers to their children. God is the law-giver. It is from Him that we received the great rules for living. In the family, both parents represent authority and law as they act on God`s behalf. God is the Great Lover of man. It is He who sent His Son to suffer and die for us. In the family, the parents so love their children that they often expend their very life on their behalf.
There is so much more that can be said about these two very special days. Parents, although only human, are wonderful people whose love knows no bounds nor any wavering or wanting. They are perhaps the rarest of all God`s creations for they are the truest.
From the very first day that they become parents, theirs is a strange destiny. They have no eight-hour days and no five-day weeks. Theirs is a seven-day-a-week, twenty-four-hour-a-day job crowded full of chores and crisis. Parents are endowed with a gift of knowing - knowing when to laugh, when to cry, when to be firm and when to be tender.
But after all is said and done, parents find a special kind of fulfillment when their children are grown and yet their concern and love never ends. Mothers and fathers are that wonderful memory of childhood, that tender guide of youth, that strong stability of adulthood. In a few words, that unforgettable person who make a house a loving home.