L
Lux_et_veritas
Guest
I’ve been chewing on something again. This time it is the concept of Jesus as “friend” or “father”. I once thought he could be both and I think I was mistaken. I’d like to get some thoughts on this.
First, I’ll share mine thus far…and the “Father” bit is based on the ideal father.
M.A.D.D. doesn’t need to make commercials suggesting that fathers not let their children drive drunk. However, friends need constant reminders and even then, it doesn’t work.
Friends don’t always tell you what you don’t want to hear out of fear it will ruin the friendship. Fathers don’t mind telling you what you don’t want to hear at all. In fact, they don’t mind asking you questions you don’t want asked, thereby challenging you to become better.
This leads me to something else…
Should I ever consider my pastor to be my friend, or should I look to him as a Father? I have concluded for me, it is the latter based on the above. I don’t want him to ever feel he cannot challenge me.
With that, when I went for a first ever, face-to-face confession with a priest I had not met before, I told him I needed a father and not a friend in my confessor. I suggested the biggest mistake I ever made was to consider Jesus my friend when he is the father.
It became easy to say, “Hey, Jesus will understand if I do this or that - he’s cool.”
See where I’m coming from?
First, I’ll share mine thus far…and the “Father” bit is based on the ideal father.
M.A.D.D. doesn’t need to make commercials suggesting that fathers not let their children drive drunk. However, friends need constant reminders and even then, it doesn’t work.
Friends don’t always tell you what you don’t want to hear out of fear it will ruin the friendship. Fathers don’t mind telling you what you don’t want to hear at all. In fact, they don’t mind asking you questions you don’t want asked, thereby challenging you to become better.
This leads me to something else…
Should I ever consider my pastor to be my friend, or should I look to him as a Father? I have concluded for me, it is the latter based on the above. I don’t want him to ever feel he cannot challenge me.
With that, when I went for a first ever, face-to-face confession with a priest I had not met before, I told him I needed a father and not a friend in my confessor. I suggested the biggest mistake I ever made was to consider Jesus my friend when he is the father.
It became easy to say, “Hey, Jesus will understand if I do this or that - he’s cool.”
See where I’m coming from?