In our celebrations of Father's Day (and of Mother's Day before it), we too often forget those men (and women) who are parents of those who could be called invisible children: children whose lives have been cut short by life's tragedies—car accidents, sicknesses and diseases, etc—and children who didn't make it to term for whatever reason—miscarried children, still-born children, and even those who were deliberately prevented from seeing the light of day. Whether a man's child can be seen or not, if he has conceived a child with a woman, he is a father and thus today is his day.
Every human being is created in the image and likeness of God, and is a living human being from the moment of conception—not the moment of birth, not at any arbitrarily chosen stage of pre-natal development, not at implantation, but at the very moment of conception—when the egg meets the sperm and an entirely new human organism is created. Once this happens, the man and woman become co-parents with God; this cannot be undone. Therefore, today is a day to celebrate the fatherhood of even those children whom none of us will ever see in this life. We should not forget those children who never saw this Earth, nor their parents; instead we should celebrate with their parents that Day when we will all together meet these as yet unseen children in Heaven, God willing. These children are real, and they, like us, have eternal, immortal souls, and we can hope in the great Divine Mercy of God that they have been granted union with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in Heaven.
We believe that, by the illocutibly (i.e. ineffably) perfect unity of the One Body of Christ—that all Christians are truly, metaphysically one together with one another, whether on Earth, in Purgatory, or in Heaven—that if these Children are, by God's Mercy, with Him and the Saints in Heaven, then they participate in the intercession of the One Mediator, Christ, at the throne of God the Father, as do we all. Therefore, they are even now praying with Him and in Him and through Him, on behalf of their earthly parents. So today especially, there is a great abundance of grace available for the parents of those whose children have gone before them into Heaven. May they all call upon that God-given grace and in so doing glory in their parenthood, and embrace that grace for the sake of their own sanctification, that they too might one day be united with Christ and their children in Heaven.
And may God's Mercy embrace all our lost children. In nomine Patri, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
