DIVINE AND HUMAN PATERNITY

 

DIVINE AND HUMAN PATERNITY

Jesus told his disciples, “Call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father who is in heaven” (Matt 23:9).  Just like when he said that if your hand causes you to sin, “cut it off,” here Jesus is exaggerating to make a point (cf. Matt 5:30).  All fatherhood is from God.  Human fatherhood is grounded in God’s Fatherhood.  The First Person of the Holy Trinity has always been Father, the Second Person has always been the Father’s Son, and the Third Person has always been the bond of love between the Father and the Son, a bond so great that the Holy Spirit is equal to the Father and the Son.  God is One, and at the same time relational, which is why human beings who are created in his image and likeness are born into families.

The Holy Trinity is an eternal procession of divine Persons.  Jesus said to a crowd, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded and came forth from God” (Jn 8:42).  Later, he spoke of the Counselor “whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me” (Jn 15:26).  God the Father is the origin of the procession of the Son and the Spirit.  Since the Holy Trinity is eternal, the processions within the Godhead are eternal.  For this reason, the Father is not the beginning, in the sense of time, but rather the origin, in the sense of being.  The three Persons of the Trinity share the same origin and therefore the same substance, as is said in the Preface for the Mass on the feast of the Holy Trinity: “For with your Only Begotten Son and the Holy Spirit you are one God, one Lord: not in the unity of a single person, but in a Trinity of one substance.”   

According to Genesis 5:3, “When Adam had lived a hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.”  In the flesh children are like their parents, but because God directly infuses the soul at the moment of conception they are also made in the image and likeness of God.  The flesh comes from the parents but the spirit comes from God.  In the animal kingdom the male provides the seed but usually does not nurture the offspring.  God nurtures man, however, and designates biological fathers to model his nurture by providing for their children’s physical and emotional development.  They also are to act as a teacher and guide to their children in the things of God, and so become their spiritual father.

Spiritual fatherhood is the highest form of fatherhood since its effects are eternal.  Human beings are created by God to enjoy communion with him in heaven.  This is the divine purpose of every human being, which means that what the father does to achieve it is more important than their human development, although the one must build on the other.  In fact, good material and emotional care from their father helps children to more easily view God as a loving Father.  Men need to realize how greatly they affect how their children relate to God by how they perform as their earthly father.

We call our priests “father” because they generate our souls unto God.  Saint Augustine referred to fathers of children as “priests” of their families, the domestic church, and addressed a crowd of them as “my fellow bishops.”  Men can become fathers of children who are not in their image and likeness through supernatural generation.  Natural fathers, however, are called to care for the spiritual needs of their children just as they care for their material and emotional needs.  Saint Paul writes, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph 6:4).  Fathers have a God-given responsibility to humbly exercise their paternal authority with a view of nurturing the life of grace in the souls of the members of their family.  This is all made possible by the grace of God and the good will of men.  May God bless all our fathers as they strive to be both natural and spiritual fathers to their families!