But how does a Catholic reconcile verses like the following, for example?
Mat 23:9 And call no [man] your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
7 And salutations in the market place, and to be called by men, Rabbi. 8 But be not you called Rabbi. For one is your master; and all you are brethren. 9 And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be ye called masters; for one is you master, Christ.
I sure hope none of you ever got a MASTERS DEGREE
9 “Call none your father upon earth”… Neither be ye called masters. The meaning is that our Father in heaven is incomparably more to be regarded, than any father upon earth: and no master to be followed, who would lead us away from Christ. But this does not hinder but that we are by the law of God to have a due respect both for our parents and spiritual fathers, (1 Cor. 4. 23: 15,) and for our masters and teachers.
Matthew 15
5 But you say: Whosoever shall say to father or mother, The gift whatsoever proceedeth from me, shall profit thee.6 And he shall not honour his father or his mother: and you have made void the commandment of God for your tradition
Matthew 2
22 But hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea in the room of Herod his father, he was afraid to go thither: and being warned in sleep retired into the quarters of Galilee.
2 Matthew 3
9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father. For I tell you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
3 Matthew 4
21 And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets: and he called them.
4 Matthew 4
22 And they forthwith left their nets and father, and followed him
Matthew 8
21 And another of his disciples said to him: Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Matthew 10
35 For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
27 Matthew 10
37 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 15
4 Honour thy father and mother: And: He that shall curse father or mother, let him die the death.
Matthew 19
5 For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh.
44 Matthew 19
19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
45 Matthew 19
29 And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting
Authorized Version (KJV) Translation
- generator or male ancestor
a) either the nearest ancestor: father of the corporeal nature, natural fathers, both parents
b) a more remote ancestor, the founder of a family or tribe, progenitor of a people, forefather: so Abraham is called, Jacob and David
- fathers i.e. ancestors, forefathers, founders of a nation
c) one advanced in years, a senior
- metaph.
a) the originator and transmitter of anything
- the authors of a family or society of persons animated by the same spirit as himself
- one who has infused his own spirit into others, who actuates and governs their minds
b) one who stands in a father’s place and looks after another in a paternal way
c) a title of honour
- teachers, as those to whom pupils trace back the knowledge and training they have received
- the members of the Sanhedrin, whose prerogative it was by virtue of the wisdom and experience in which they excelled, to take charge of the interests of others
- God is called the Father
a) of the stars, the heavenly luminaries, because he is their creator, upholder, ruler
b) of all rational and intelligent beings, whether angels or men, because he is their creator, preserver, guardian and protector
- of spiritual beings and of all men
c) of Christians, as those who through Christ have been exalted to a specially close and intimate relationship with God, and who no longer dread him as a stern judge of sinners, but revere him as their reconciled and loving Father
d) the Father of Jesus Christ, as one whom God has united to himself in the closest bond of love and intimacy, made acquainted with his purposes, appointed to explain and carry out among men the plan of salvation, and made to share also in his own divine nature
- by Jesus Christ himself
- by the apostles