Call no man father

My father's last boat ride (1999).

"As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi.' You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called 'Master'; you have but one master, the Messiah" (Mt 23:9).

Jesus is not talking about the words we say but the things we think.

Honor your Father and your Mother

If we took this passage literally, we could not teach the Commandment: "Honor your father and your mother."

The Gift of Teaching

We clearly cannot give up using the word "teacher" of human beings because teaching is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit: "And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ, so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming" (Eph 4:11-4).

NT scriptures speak of fathers

• St. Paul says that "Abraham, ... is the father of all of us. ... He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not exist" Rom 4:16-17).

• Stephen says, "Brethren and fathers, hear me" (Acts 7:2).

• Paul says, "Brethren and fathers" (Acts 22:1).

• "I am writing you this not to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. Even if you should have countless guides to Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (1 Corinthians 4:15).

• 1 Timothy 5:1 uses the word “presbutero” (elder) when teaching that elders are not to be rebuked, but to be approached as a “father”"

¹ Do not rebuke an older man [πρεσβύτερος], but appeal to him as a father. Treat younger men as brothers,

² older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters with complete purity.

• The rich man calls Abraham “Father" and Abraham responds by calling him “son” (Luke 16:24-25).

NT scriptures speak of teachers

Jesus also says“And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:28).

Jesus, the Exaggerator

Jesus used hyperbole and irony to make a point, as He did in other instances:

• Jesus said his followers should pluck out their eyes or cut off their hands or their feet, but we have no one-eyed, one-handed, one-legged Christians who have mutilated themselves in obedience to Jesus' command to rid ourselves of the causes of sin.

• Jesus said, "Let the dead bury the dead," but Christians have not opened mortuaries staffed by corpses. The meaning of the word "dead" in the first part of the sentence is not the same meaning as the very same word at the end of the sentence. The "dead" who are to do the burying are spiritually dead, not physically dead; the "dead" who are to be buried are physically dead.

• Jesus said that some people castrate themselves for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. When Origen took this verse literally in the third century, the Church rebuked him for doing so. He was never canonized as a consequence. People did call him "The Man of Steel," however; it takes a certain strength of character, however insane, to do what he did!

• "How can it be that the Lord would declare that all others, as many as have come, are thieves and robbers (John 10:8)? Is it true that all who came before are untrue and are blind leaders of the blind? What shall we say of Abraham, Moses, and Elijah? What of John the Baptist? Were these thieves and robbers? Certainly not!"[1]

The bottom line

The point being made, in my view, is that "God has no grandchildren" (David Du Plessis). The instruction to "call no man your father" is not about the vocabulary we use to identify the biological cause of our first birth or to honor our elders in the Body of Christ; it is about the interior recognition that God, the Son, Incarnate, causes us to be born again as true children of God, the Father. The way in which God is our Father surpasses every form of human fatherhood in the order of nature and in the Christian community.

So, what Jesus is saying is that we must not confuse those whom we call "father" on earth with our Father in Heaven.

There isn't any honorary title that we could give anybody that God does not deserve in a surpassing degree. God is "all-in-all."

Monsignors

Monsignor means "My Lord" in Italian.

The plural in Italian is: "Monsignori."

Unlike Holy Orders (deacon, priest, bishop), there is no sacramental rank or particular office associated with "Monsignor." There are three kinds of ecclesiastical honors that cause people to call a priest "Monsignor":

• Apostolic Protonotary, of which two types are retained:
  • de numero: the highest and least common form, customarily only seven. "De numero" probably means something like "of a [definite] number."
  • supernumerary: the highest grade of monsignor found outside Rome. "Supernumerary" probably means something like "beyond any [particular] number."
• Honorary Prelate of His Holiness (formerly "Domestic Prelate")
• Chaplain of His Holiness (formerly "Supernumerary Privy Chamberlain")

"Good Morning, Monsignor": {dead link}

No diocese is allowed to have more than 10% of its living clergy honored with the title. In other words, there is a ceiling number above which a local bishop may not exceed. When a bishop submits a name to the Holy See for consideration, an examination of files is conducted to make sure that there is nothing in the nominee’s background which might block him from receiving an honorary title. Not every name submitted receives approval and no reason is ever given. Finally, generally monsignors must begin at the “bottom level” (Chaplain to His Holiness), spend five years at that level before they can be advanced to the next level (Prelate of Honor to His Holiness). ...

Does it cost the diocese to make Monsignors? The answer is yes but it is very minimal given the record keeping and parchment issuing that is involved. The “taxa” or tax for Prelates of Honor is $200 and for Chaplains to His Holiness is $150. Should the new monsignor choose to obtain the proper dress which accompanies the honor, more cost is incurred by the priest himself.

Links

• "Why Do Catholics Call Priests 'Father'?"

Jesus talks about our fathers in Matthew 10:37 and Mark 10:29. Ephesians 6:2 reminds children, “honor your father and mother.” In fact, there are countless men referred to in the New Testament as fathers or father.

When Jesus tells the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, He has the rich man refer to Abraham by the title “Father Abraham” when praying to him (Luke 16:24; Luke 16:30). There's not a hint anywhere in the passage that he's wrong to call him that, either. James 2:21 likewise calls him “Abraham our father.” That's the exact formulation that seems to be banned by Matthew 23:9. Likewise, there's Acts 4:25, in which the Christians remind God of the words of “our father David Your servant.” Romans 9:10 refers to “our father Isaac.”

Romans 4:11-18 explicitly tells us that Abraham is our father through faith:

He received circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, and likewise the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but also follow the example of the faith which our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

The promise to Abraham and his descendants, that they should inherit the world, did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants -- not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham, for he is the father of us all, as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations" -- in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations; as he had been told, "So shall your descendants be."

And St. Peter refers to Mark as his (spiritual) son in 1 Peter 5:13 -- with the implication that Peter is his father in faith. So basically everyone in the New Testament uses father as a spiritual title. The Protestant formulation (that it's okay to call men father, but only if they're a biological ancestor) is clearly wrong.