“Call no one on earth your father….”

            Strange, that there is little noise made, in consequence of today’s Gospel passage, about the Jewish tradition of referring to their ministers as “Rabbi,” or of referring to those who instruct us in the ways of knowledge as “teachers,” or to the habit of the universities of conferring the degree of “Master.”  In response to this passage from Matthew, I hear no complaints about our Lord Himself reminding servants of their duties toward their masters.  St. Paul, too, receives no rebukes from those who interpret the Bible literally when he openly declares that some are called to be teachers in the Church. 

            But when we get to that portion of today’s Gospel that says, “Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven,” all of sudden we have here a stick with which to bet the Church:  “Why do you Catholics disobey Scripture and call your priest “father”?  I cannot count the number of times I have run across this interpretation, even from Catholics. 

            Well, I don’t hear those, who interpret this verse in the above sense – I don’t hear them, those who are fathers, demanding that their children come up with a different title of address for their “male forebears.”  But if the verse is to be taken on face value, literally, then such a title as “father,” spoken by son or daughter, is prohibited.  It is also a misfortune that one of the ancient writers of holy Scripture made the boo-boo of referring to Abraham as “the father of many nations,” a “mistake” that is perpetrated by our Lord Himself, as well as St. Paul, in the New Testament, and, indeed, in the great prayer of the Mass (following Scripture, of course) where Abraham is described as “our father in faith.”  Nor, can these interpreters explain why the Apostle Paul, writing to the Christians at Corinth, would refer to himself as the “father” of the new believers:  “For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers.  For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.  I urge you, then, be imitators of me” (1 Cor. 4:15, 16). 

            Obviously, our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel mean something different.  After all, what would be the purpose of literally expunging the word “father” from our vocabulary except when used in reference to God?  No, the intent of our Lord’s teaching is this:  that we should not substitute for God as our Father, teacher and master, any merely human authority.  And that does not mean, as Christ’s own words about the authority of those who sit in the chair of Moses, that God’s authority cannot come to us by means of human agency; otherwise, parents would be at a loss as to how to lead their own households, the State would have no means of governing, and the Church would too, then, be the venue of chaos.  Priests are “fathers” in this sense:  that they share in the office of the bishop to govern, sanctify and teach – but not on their own authority and not according to their own personal whim (God forbid!), but according to the will of God – Father, Teacher, and Master – revealed for us all in Christ’s Church.  The Church is the repository of this authority, communicated – sometimes not at all perfectly, I well know – to us through those who hold office, for whom we must consistently pray that they would be ever more worthy of the office they hold.