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).

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!

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)
  • supernumerary (the highest grade of monsignor found outside Rome)
• Honorary Prelate of His Holiness (formerly "Domestic Prelate")
• Chaplain of His Holiness (formerly "Supernumerary Privy Chamberlain")