Saint Patrick’s Cathedral welcomed Father Chris Alar, MIC, for its Special Guest Series on Tuesday, where he delivered a stirring talk on Divine Mercy and the fatherhood of God.

Father Alar, provincial superior of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception in the United States, is widely known for making difficult theological truths accessible. Before a packed congregation, he reflected on what he called the deepest wounds of our time, “father wounds,” and pointed to God the Father as the ultimate source of healing and mercy.

“Do you know the number one reason for depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation?” he asked. “Father wounds. Our total misconception today on fatherhood and father wounds that are created. These father wounds are so prevalent, they’re crushing our society.”

Father Alar drew a direct line between broken fatherhood in homes and the crises facing the culture at large. “The number one indicator for why a man is in prison? The lack of a father. Not having a father. They join gangs. Why would somebody join a gang? To feel a part of a family.” In the absence of earthly fathers, he said, Christians must rediscover the Fatherhood of God.

God the Father revealed

Throughout his talk, Father Alar emphasized that the Christian life ultimately leads to the Father through the Son. “Believe it or not, Jesus is not the end goal. It’s the Father. But you can’t do it without Jesus. Jesus is the only way to the Father.”

He reminded those gathered that the prayers of the Mass are addressed not primarily to Christ, but to the Father, through the sacrifice of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. “This is the whole meaning of the Mass,” he explained. “God the Holy Spirit offering God the Son in sacrifice to God the Father.”

After receiving the Eucharist, he said, we are called to “go out into those streets in New York where there is sin and death and suffering and you give life. When you go out there and you be Christ, this is what the Mass prepares us to do.”

The parable of the Prodigal Father

Much of the evening centered on the parable of the Prodigal Son, which Father Alar suggested might better be named the “Parable of the Prodigal Father.” “‘Prodigal’ means to squander,” he explained. “The father squandered mercy on his son. He showers his son with mercy.”

For Father Alar, this parable mirrors the experience of confession, where God restores his children regardless of how far they have strayed. “Neither do we deserve mercy. But God gives it overabundantly, undeserved, and unconditional. He gives it with no strings attached.”

He connected this truth to the grace of Divine Mercy Sunday, when, as he reminded listeners, “you can go to confession…and receive Holy Communion, and everything is wiped away. Not only the sin, but the punishment. This is amazing.”

Healing father wounds

Returning to his central theme, Father Alar urged the faithful to allow God the Father to heal the wounds left by absent or broken earthly fathers. Quoting Pope Benedict XVI, he noted, “For those with no father, it is not easy to think of God as Father or to trust him because they don’t trust their own father.”

Yet God is different: “The amazing truth is that God the Father is more merciful in his judgments than any of us. God the Father forgives when men refuse to forgive.”

Father Alar concluded with a call to rediscover both God’s fatherhood and our own identity as his children. “Without fatherhood, we neither know who we are nor where we are going.”

As the congregation prayed together at the close of the evening, his message was clear: in a culture wounded by the loss of authentic fatherhood, the Church must return to the Father of mercies, revealed in the face of Christ.

The full talk is available to watch on the Cathedral’s recorded livestream.