Call no man Father

This morning I read a post by someone claiming to be Catholic; however, the post tries to convince the reader that the Catholic Church is teaching her children to go against Christ’s words because Christ said, “Call no man father.”¹ This writer then went on to claim that Catholics try but fail to explain why we continue to call our priests “Father”. So, I gave it a shot, it didn’t seem like he was a Catholic, just claiming to be Catholic doesn’t make one a Catholic. My reply to him was as follows:

For us Catholics the Church is Christ, the Mystical Body of Christ. The priesthood is Christ, when a man is ordained a priest, he is no longer just a man. He acts in the person of Christ, in persona Christi, when administering the sacraments. Just because some priests are like judas, we cannot disrespect Jesus Christ working through his priests. The Catholic Church is not an institution, it is the living Body of Christ, it is a mystery that people who do not respect will never understand.

The context in which Christ said to not call anyone father is to call no man father, but a priest is above the angels. He is Christ as he shares the one priesthood, this is what we respect and if you loved Christ, you would love and respect His priests too. Theirs is a virginal fatherhood, like that of St. Joseph, whom Christ Himself addressed as father.

Language has context and if you deliberately take things out of context, especially the words of Christ, you will face Him, not anyone of us, and answer Him for twisting His words out of context.

Love your priests and pray for them and especially priests who are weak. It is because these men give up a family and everything that we take for granted that we can receive forgiveness and the Body of Christ. We owe them our love and respect.

To this he replied:

I really wish he had called me a fool, but I guess insane is also a nice insult to bear for Christ. The reason I wanted to put this up as a post and not leave it as a comment is because I felt that there would still be people who would argue that we Catholics are wrong in addressing our priests with the title “Father”. So, I thought let me be the insane fool and try to answer this objection.

A few things to consider:

How did Christ address St. Joseph?

The Gospel tells us that Our Lord was known as the carpenter’s son². Our Lady, when she finds the Child Jesus in the temple says to Him, “ Son, why hast thou done so to us? behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.”³ Our Lord does not protest that St. Joseph is not His father. The text continues with the detail that He went down with them and was obedient to them.⁴ The Son of God, God in the flesh, was obedient to His human mother and His adoptive father. Yet, there are people who know better than God and treat Our Lady as just an incubator and St. Joseph as just some caretaker. No! This was the Holy Family, where Christ lived out the fourth commandment and for thirty years, did the Will of His Heavenly Father by obeying and respecting His parents.

Who is a priest?

Before being ordained, a priest is a mere man, lower than the angels. However, by the power of the Sacrament of Ordination, this man is raised above the angels and participates in the One Unique Priesthood of Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest. He is no longer just a man, and when Christ said “call no man, father,” we Catholics are following Christ’s command, because we are addressing Christ, who is working in that priest, Christ is our “Father.” The priest is another Christ, He is alter Christus, his actions are the actions of Jesus Christ. This mystery is less understood today because of the scandal of bad priests. But, when you think about what Christ did for us, by giving us the priesthood, we see that the sacramental actions of the priest are those of Christ. Thus, we are not addressing a man as “father” but we are addressing Christ, in that priest, with the title of “Father”. The priest and Christ are one, and no man can separate what God has united holds true for the Sacramental Priesthood, and not just for marriage.

How is the priest, father?

• The answer to this question, lies in the actions of fathers. What do fathers do? Fathers give life to their children. In the virginal fatherhood of Christ, the priest brings us to life through the sacrament of Baptism. We who were dead by original sin, come to be living souls because of the actions of the priest, at Baptism. This priestly fatherhood is virginal, the priest brings forth children not by the will of man, or the will of the flesh, but by the will of God. This reflects how God, the Father brings forth His only begotten Son in a virginal manner.

• God also created Adam by His Word, and not by an act of the flesh (as humans procreate). We as creatures, can only procreate, we participate in God’s creative act. The priest generates Eternal Life in our dead souls, not by an action of the flesh, but by the words of Baptism, given by Christ, “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”⁵ Therefore, the priest is rightly father, as he gives life to our souls, using the very words of Christ and acting in the Person of Jesus Christ.

• Fathers feed their children. Fathers work and ensure that their children are fed. The priest feeds us the Heavenly Bread, which came down from Heaven - Christ, Himself, in the Holy Eucharist. When we kneel and the priest literally feeds us the Sacred Host, we are like little children being fed by our father. Christ commanded us to become like little children, “Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”⁶ Therefore, humbling ourselves as little children, we kneel before our priests and he feeds us as a father feeds his children.

• Fathers clothe their children. The priest clothes us with the grace of Christ by cleansing us from our sins and clothing us with Christ. “Put on Christ,”⁷ St. Paul admonishes us, and we cannot do it ourselves, God has to reach out and clothe us with the skin of the lamb as He did for Adam and Eve, by covering their shame, after they had sinned. At Baptism, we receive the Baptismal robe, we are clothed with Christ, by the fatherly actions of the priest.

• Fathers protect their children. The priest protects us by praying for us. His Breviary prayers and all the liturgical prayers and blessings he bestows on us, are the works of Our Father - Christ Jesus, acting through His priests. These prayers protect us from the attacks of the enemy. Every time you kiss your blessed Rosary, or your St. Benedict medal, say a prayer for the priest, who blessed it and gave you the sacramental. These are the works of a father and we owe our priests the respect due to a father.

What does God expect of us?

We already know that the first commandment after the commandments related to God, is the one to honor father and mother. God commands us to honor our parents. If our biological parents are so important to God, then what of the spiritual parents, whom He has given to us, in the persons of our bishops, priests, and religious. We owe them our love and respect and even obedience. Of course, we are not obliged to obey error and falsehood, so if our own parents tell us to do something wrong, then we must remember the words of Christ, when He says, “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”⁸ We are to place Christ above everyone else. Ultimately, it is to Christ that we give all our love and respect, when we honor His priests and God expects this of us. There’s even a reward for honoring His priests, with the smallest of service like just offering a cup of cool water, to drink, because they belong to Christ, “For whosoever shall give you to drink a cup of water in my name, because you belong to Christ: amen I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.”⁹

Returning to the question, “ Who is a priest?”

The priest is another Christ. We Catholics see Christ, when we see the priest. Christ was incarnate once, two thousand years ago and people didn’t see Him as God. Today, once again, He silently walks among us, in the person of His priests, blessing us, forgiving us, feeding us with the Holy Eucharist. It is similar to those thirty silent years, that the Gospels do not talk about, when no one knew who He was except for His Mother and St. Joseph. Once again, it is only those who do the will of God, who recognize Him for Who He is. We are His sheep, His closest friends, who listen to His voice. The world doesn’t know Him, so the world sees only a man, when they see a priest. We on the other hand, have two thousand years of saints telling us that Christ is with us through His priests and through them He comes to us in the Sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist. Christ expects us to love His priests, He says, “He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me.”¹⁰ Who is He talking about other than His priests, who continue the work of the Apostles, whom He had personally chosen.

Note from the Divine Office:

Tomorrow is Wednesday, October 1st. The Divine Office has the following to say, of Wednesdays (in general) at Terce:

Pray for priests, especially for fallen priests on Wednesdays, because of the betrayal of Judas and priests like him. Every priest is very precious, he is a close friend of Christ and if he is not, then we have to pray for him, so that he does not become another Judas. Without the priest, we do not have Christ.

So, should we continue to address our priests as “father”? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.

Footnotes:

1. (Matthew 23:9)

2. Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brethren James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Jude: [Matthew 13:55]

3. [Luke 2:48]

4. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart. [Luke 2:51]

5. [Matthew 28:19]

6. [Matthew 18:3]

7. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences. [Romans 13:14]

8. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. [Matthew 10:37]

9. [Mark 9:40]

10. [Luke 10:16]