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6 min
God is Father
One day the Apostles asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. Jesus told them to pray as follows: ‘Our Father’. In the Old Testament, God is recognised much more as the Creator, the Judge, the Mighty One and the Valiant Warrior, the God of hosts. Jesus, who is the perfect revelation, teaches us that God is Father: ‘Let your good works shine before others, so that they may see them and give glory to your Father in heaven’ (Mt 7:11; Mt 12:50; Mt 14:26). In the parable of the Prodigal Son, God’s image as Father is even clearer: he loves his children with mercy (cf. Lk 15:11–32). God is our Father; it is he who created us, and we are his children. ‘You are indeed children: God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, who cries out, “Abba! Father.” You are therefore no longer a slave but a son’ (Gal 4:6).
The grace of God’s fatherhood
Jesus tells us not to call anyone ‘father’ (Mt 23:9). In this way, he wants to ensure that no one becomes proud, feels superior to others, or sets themselves up as God, the giver of life, following the example of the Roman emperors who were deified. But Jesus does not reject either physical fatherhood or spiritual fatherhood as a sharing in God’s fatherhood. Since God is our Father, he gives us the capacity to be fathers and mothers to others as well. ‘‘I bow my knee before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name’ (Eph 3:14–15). In the Old Testament, Elisha calls Elijah ‘Father’ (2 Kings 2:11–14). St Paul also regarded himself as a father to the communities he founded and to those to whom he proclaimed the Gospel: ‘You do not have many fathers. It is I who, through the Gospel, have begotten you in Jesus Christ. I therefore urge you: follow my example’ (1 Cor 4:15–16); ‘my little children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you’ (Gal 4:19). See 1 Thessalonians 2:11; 1 Timothy 1:2 and Philemon verse 10. We call priests ‘fathers’ because they bring us into being and guide us in the life of Christ. Throughout the history of the Church, people have been called spiritual ‘fathers’ and ‘mothers’ for the spiritual guidance they have provided to Christians. Do we not also have people whom we have sponsored for the sacraments? Do we not have people who have come to know Christ or returned to the Church because of us? Do we not have people whom we have evangelised or whom we guide spiritually? We also have a spiritual responsibility towards our own children. In this way, we share in God’s fatherhood and cooperate in his work of saving humanity. Thus, we are members of the Body of Christ and responsible for the spiritual lives of others. We are even responsible for the groups, communities within parishes, branches and ministries of the Movement of the Incarnation. We are mothers and fathers to a multitude of people.
Misunderstanding and neglect of spiritual fatherhood or motherhood
The example of physical motherhood and fatherhood can help us to understand certain aspects of spiritual responsibility. In society, there are parents who have had children whom they have subsequently abandoned. I know a married woman who was, nevertheless, very committed to the church. She met another man whom she married, thereby abandoning her children. Such abandonment is even more common among fathers who refuse to look after their children. Consequently, many have ended up as street children, criminals and sex workers. The irresponsibility of some parents also leads them to provide only the bare minimum for their children, leaving them with a deep sense of material and emotional deprivation.
Can we not also recognise that we are spiritually irresponsible, at least at certain times in our lives? Do we pray regularly for our spiritual children? Do we give them enough spiritual nourishment, and in good time? Do we not often leave them to their own devices? ‘Who then is that faithful and wise servant whom the Master has put in charge of the people of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master, on returning, finds doing his duty’ (Mt 24:45–46). Often, we are so focused on our own lives that we forget our spiritual children, sometimes even competing with them to some extent. Yet a good mother often feeds her children at her own expense. She is concerned first and foremost with her children’s happiness. One of her greatest concerns is what her children will have to eat; it is their happiness. St Paul was deeply concerned for the communities he had founded and the towns he had evangelised, hence the many letters he wrote to them. We are fathers and mothers to others. They need us. They expect a great deal from us.
The duty of spiritual motherhood and fatherhood
We are fathers and mothers because God asks us to be so, and we wish to obey Him and please Him. Fortunately, this is a task accompanied by the promise of rewards. God tells us that we will be happy by giving of ourselves to others, for there is far more joy in giving than in receiving (Acts 20:35). Pope John Paul II tells us that faith grows when it is shared. If we devote ourselves to helping others’ faith to grow, our own faith will grow too. So, when our faith falters, might we not say that it is also because we have become less attentive to our spiritual children? Finally, when we care for God’s children, we bring joy to our Father, for he does not desire the death of the sinner but his conversion (Ezek 33:11). He wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (2 Tim 1:4).
A nursing mother cannot properly nourish her baby, nor can the baby thrive, if the mother herself is not well nourished. She will run out of milk. So we cannot properly guide our spiritual children if our relationship with Jesus is weak. If it is waning. Or if we wound Jesus instead. In fact, we even risk passing on to them the evil that lies within us and hindering their growth in God if our relationship with Jesus does not grow. It is clinically proven that a sick mother can infect her child. Our example and our inner life are sometimes passed on to our spiritual children, for better or for worse, whether we realise it or not. We must therefore seek ways to nourish ourselves and grow spiritually. This requires effort, discernment and ongoing formation. Above all, it requires great sacrifice to put God’s Word into practice always and everywhere, so that Jesus, living within us, may pass on his life to his children. In this Year of the Epiphany, let us help Jesus to bring back the lost sheep of the Church and the Movement.
Henri Bayemi
