Americans observed Father's Day on June 17 as a people in danger of losing our humanity. My pastoral prayer reflected my conflicted feelings on Sunday, and my only inspiration was the call of Isaiah (6:5-8):
I said: 'Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!'
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: 'Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.'
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?'
And I said, 'Here am I; send me!'
