Giver:
. . .This is something I just can’t understand: why so often even when there is written proof that Jesus told us to do or not to do something, people look for any obscure way to get around what He said. . . .
Many times in the Gospels Jesus refers to our earthly fathers as well as our Heavenly Father; if the command to call no one on earth father were in the strict literal sense, He would not have done so. Similarly, we would not be commanded to “Honor your father and mother,” (Exodus 20:12).
Father Mitch Pacwa points out that “There are 144 occasions in the New Testament when the title of father is used for someone other than God. It is applied to the patriarchs of Israel, the fathers of families, to Jewish leaders and to Christian leaders” (“Call No Man Father?”, THIS ROCK, January 1991).
Many Christians call their ministers “Pastor.” Pastor means shepherd. In John 10:14-16 Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.” If we reason that we cannot call a priest Father because we “have one Father who is in heaven,” then can we not also reason that we cannot call a minister Pastor because there is only “one Shepherd?”
God is Father and Jesus is Shepherd in the ultimate sense. Church leaders are shepherds and fathers in a lesser sense. Why else would Peter say in 1 Peter 5:2-4, “Tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd is manifested you will obtain the unfading crown of glory.” The term “Chief Shepherd” indicates that there are subordinate shepherds. One scripture verse clarifies another, and so it is with the different verses pertaining to the title of father.
Here are a few more scriptural examples which support the usage:
Acts 7:1 - Here Stephen addresses the Sanhedrin as “my brothers” and " my fathers". If the Lord’s words are to be taken as literally as some would take them, would not Stephen now be sinning in the very act of defending the faith? - a faith for which he was about to be martyred?
In Acts 22:1 we see St. Paul addressing the crowd in Jerusalem with the same words as St. Stephen, “My brothers, my FATHERS.” Is St. Paul committing the same “sin” as St. Stephen?
In 1 Thess. 2, is not St. Paul refering to himself as a spiritual father? And in 1 Corinthians 4 does he not say, “You have in Christ ten thousands
teachers, but not many fathers, because in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through announcing the gospel. Therefore I exhort you to become imitators of me.”
St. Paul further writes: “I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 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” (1 Corinthians 4:14-15).
St. Paul refers to Timothy as “my son” and Titus as “true child of mine.” Is he not then arrogating to himself the position that only God the Father should have in their lives according to the way some read the Lord’s words?
Look into 1 John 2 where the beloved disciple calls the Christian men “Fathers.” Was he sinning in doing so? The cumulative effect of these verses certainly casts doubt on a literalistic reading of Matt 23.
In the NT, besides the passages already cited, we have both James and Paul speaking of “our father Abraham”. If one were to apply the Lord’s words in Matthew 23 as stringently as some question suggest, would they not be sinning - or at least in error - by referring to Abraham as “father”?
Looking at the manner in which Our Lord is speaking, we have to remember, too, that the limited vocabularly of Hebrew and Aramaic necessitated the use of hyperbole to get points across. We see this, e.g, in His words about “if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off - if your eye, pluck it out, . . . [etc]”.
The Catholic priest is a spiritual father to those who have been placed in his charge. He acts as Christ’s instrument by bringing new members into His Body through Baptism, proclaims the Gospel, reconciles us to God through the Sacrament of Penance, and feeds us with the Body and Blood of our great High Priest. That some have not lived up to these awesome responsibilities no more calls into doubt the applicability of the word “father” for them then does the sinning of those men who contributed to our conception and nurtured and taught us in our natural lives.
