Do Not Call Me... Late for Dinner! (It’s ok to say “father”)

One time a certain man visited a religious community and asked the brothers who was their superior. They answered, “We don’t call anyone superior, because that would mean that the rest of us are inferior. This wouldn’t be very nice!” The man then asked, “So, who is the one you refer to when some decision needs to be made or to maintain a certain organization?” “It’s the responsible, we call him ‘the responsible’”, they said. And the man commented, “Would this not mean that the rest of you are irresponsible...?”

“Call no one on earth your father... Do not be called 'Master'” (Matthew 23:9-10). Jesus is not talking about words. Jesus never meant to say that children should not called their father, “father.” The pharisees and the scribes were using their God-given authority not for God’s glory but for their own glory. They wanted power for their own benefit, not for the benefit of their neighbor. Jesus was warning His Church so that we would not make the same mistake. Nobody is father unless he has received his capacity of begetting children from the Father in Heaven. Nobody is a teacher unless that person has received his or her doctrine from the God of truth. Therefore, no father and no teacher should act as if they did not depend on God. They should neither think themselves nor present themselves as wellsprings but, instead, as channels of the gifts they have received from God.

Let me say a beautiful thing about teaching. The fact that all truth comes from God does not mean that we cannot discover the truth on our own. When we do, however, we discover a treasure which was buried by the Lord. The Lord left countless treasures of truth hidden in the particular facts of nature and in the Sacred Scriptures. They are there for us to discover and enjoy. I remember a scientist who said something like this: “When I discover something under the microscope, I feel something like a great excitement, a great joy and even honor, because I realize that the only one who had been there before me was God himself. This microorganism which He created and knew from the beginning, now I know it too. It makes me feel very close to God.”

We must also say that even our capacity to discover the truth is a gift from God. He gave us a share in His light... He gave us the light of intelligence and the light of faith. But maybe we will talk about this another time. God bless,

“Late for Dinner” Andrew, IVE

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Church Built Upon Rock

(On Matthew 16:16-18) Jesus does not say to Simon you are the rock (the petra , rock in Greek). He says to him “you are Peter ( Petros ) and upon this petra I will build my Church” ( Matthew 16:18). St. Augustine explains that the name Peter comes from petra as the name Christian comes from Christ. [1] We are Christians because we participate in the life, grace, truth, doctrine, body and blood of Jesus Christ. Simon is Peter because he participates in the stability and firmness of the petra , the rock which is Jesus Himself. There is something in Peter which is as stable and firm as a rock. [2] Peter is not the rock: he will still break a few times, and Jesus knows it. Peter will die one day, and Jesus knows it. But Peter’s confession will never break, it will never pass away, it will never be moved to the left or to the right. Peter’s confession will never die: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” ( Matthew 16:16). How can the confession of a man be so stable? Have no...
Read more

To Ceasar What Belongs to Ceasar

Is God’s power opposed to political power? What is the relationship between these powers? Today’s readings shed some light on this mystery. God’s power is superior to any human power. Cyrus’s power comes from God (cf. Isaiah 45:1, 4-6) as does every authority on earth. Nobody could obtain human power without God’s allowing it. Some people use God’s given power in the wrong way, but God does not punish all of them in this life. God’s power is not opposed to the right use of human power. Jesus does not oppose Ceasar regarding taxes (cf. Matthew 22:15-21). Ceasar has a certain right over the material goods of his subjects. God, however, has an absolute right to our faith and love. If Ceasar ever asked us something against our faith and our love, we would not give it to him, because Ceasar is not more than God. Ceasar could send us to jail until death, but God can punish us and Ceasar after death and forever. In those cases, we must obey God rather than human beings. Even in cas...
Read more

God’s Glory and the World’s Approval

“I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” What is this glory? We are not meant to obtain from this world a glory we do not yet have. The world cannot give us what we want. We are meant to glorify God with the glory he has already given us, so that we may then receive further glory, not from the world, but from Him. We go from the glory we have to the glory we do not yet have, as St. Paul says, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image from glory to glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” ( 1 Corinthians 3:18). Modern society, with its own standards and values, exercises a certain pressure on Christians. It is peer pressure sometimes, it is also felt like an attraction other times, or like the threat of failure if we do not comply. The world offers us its own “salvation” from the evils of life; the world offers its own “redemption” from our sense of failure and worthlessness; the world offers its own...
Read more