The Name of Father
“Father:”—one of the first words uttered by infant lips, the first fruit, as it were, of the precious gift of speech, offered in honor of the Father in heaven and the father on earth, to whom we are indebted for existence and language.
Father: what a venerable name! It was pronounced from all eternity to express the mysterious relationship existing between the first two persons of the Deity. When God called men into being they addressed him by the name of “Father.” And such he was; for he made them his children, and as his children he endowed them with the highest gifts.
And when by sin they lost this high privilege of being children of God, he himself, in the second person of the Trinity, came down upon earth and restored to them that holy prerogative. This was the precious fruit of the life and works, the suffering and death of the Redeemer. “As many as believed in him, to them he gave power to become children of God.” God was, and is again in the fullest sense of the word, “Father” of all those who in the holy church are reborn children of God. Our divine Redeemer taught us to know him again as Father. He called him “Our heavenly Father”—“Our Father who art in heaven.” In like manner should his faithful disciples, following his example, address him when they pray, as “Our Father who art in heaven.” God, the Father of men! As many as are born again of water and the Holy Ghost are his children, and he is their Father.
How justly is this title his! Is it not to him that all men owe existence and life? And if by baptism they have acquired a supernatural sonship to God, is it not he who in the person of the Holy Ghost created them anew? It is he who must support and lead to a higher perfection that natural and supernatural life which was given by him, if it is to exist and arrive at perfection at all. He is in truth the Father of men, and we are his children.
But he has not willed to appropriate to himself exclusively this fatherhood, or the august title of Father. As he stamped upon all men the image of his divine nature and made them in his own likeness, so, according to the decree of his divine wisdom and love, his fatherhood should have its image in humanity; a certain number among men should participate in the privileges and prerogatives of his paternal dignity; they also should be fathers and have children. As to him so also to them should children owe their being. As he created his children in his natural and supernatural likeness, so also should fathers communicate to their children a part of their material as well as spiritual nature. As he by never failing grace seeks to lead his children to ever higher degrees of perfection, so also should fathers, by salutary influence, take part in this work of sanctification and perfection. As he from all eternity has the happy consciousness that all those who are by him and with him eternally happy owe their happiness and salvation to him, so should the human father also, when in heaven, have the consciousness that by fulfilling his paternal duties he has assisted his children to gain the happiness of heaven.
Every human father, then, is an image of the great Father in heaven, his divinely appointed representative on earth. “All paternity in heaven and on earth is from God,” says the Apostle. And what he says of worldly authority is in a higher sense true in reference to a father and to the paternal dignity. “There is no power but from God, and those who are, are ordained of God.” Now the father is an image and representative of the great Father who is in heaven; he therefore partakes of the prerogative of the divine fatherhood; he stands above his children; he is their lord and ruler; he has the title and right to honor, obedience, and subjection on the part of his children. They owe him reverence, obedience, and love as they owe them to God their heavenly Father, and are bound in consequence to render them. These words of the Lord have a particular value for fathers in relation to their children: “He that hears you, hears me; he that despises you, despises me.” Could the great heavenly Father have honored more highly the human father, his representative on earth, than when he gave the commandment which refers to him the next place to those which refer to his own divine person? He also honored fathers (and mothers) in the fact that the commandment which refers to them is the only one which he accompanies with a positive promise: “Honor thy father (and thy mother) that it may be well with thee.” What is more sublime than the expressions of the Holy Scriptures in which the Lord in manifold ways promises his heavenly blessings to children who obey their father (and mother)? On the other hand, what is more terrible than the curse which he utters against children who disobey, and are wanting in reverence to their father (and mother)? And have not these utterances been verified in sacred history? The choicest blessings for good children, and the most terrible afflictions for wicked sons and daughters. What the Scripture relates is proved by every-day experience.
And what follows from all this? Does it not follow that since God has imposed on children so imperatively the duty of obedience to their fathers, he must hold the dignity of father in the highest esteem? How venerable then is the name of father, surrounded as it is with honor by God himself!
And how honorable is fatherhood and the name of father when we look into the father’s heart! How has God formed the father’s heart? He made it after his own paternal heart. His heart has an infinite love for his children, an infinite desire to make them happy and to lead them to their true welfare. And such is the nature which the Lord has given to every father’s heart. Such is the unconscious tendency of every uncorrupted father’s heart. Find if you can a man whose heart, if God has blessed him with children, does not instinctively impel him to do everything in his power to make them happy. The world would call him an unnatural father who would not yield to this impulse. It is only in a state of barbarism that such a father is possible. Behold then the father’s heart.
But who has so constituted the father’s heart that when he becomes a father he is animated by these natural emotions and sentiments? It is a gift from the great heart of the heavenly Father to his image and representative on earth, a gift from the divine to the human father.
How noble does not this constitution of the father’s heart make the name of father appear! God himself has made the father’s heart what it is.
If the name of father is not revered, if it is sometimes despised and contemned, the reason is unfortunately found in the manner in which the high dignity is exposed by many fathers to desecration and dishonor. Without feeling or thought for the paternal dignity and the great obligations of their vocation, indifferent, nay, averse, to its duties, they disregard all those noble characteristics which distinguish the good father and retain nothing but an ugly caricature of a degenerate one.
Let us imagine a father who answers to the idea of paternal dignity. Picture to yourself a man whose life presents a model of a truly good father—who could withhold from him his profoundest admiration and respect? How highly is the name of father venerated by the children of such a father! how honored, treasured, and loved! Their whole heart is occupied in thoughts of him; absent from him, they long to be with him; his presence, his look, his word gives them delight. His memory remains uneffaceable in their hearts even after he has long rested in his grave. Is there anything more edifying, more consoling than the memory of a truly good father?
Venerable then is the name of father. It is used in all the relations and conditions of life to denote the good, the most excellent, the best. What an honorable evidence of respect for the master of a house when those of his household address him by the name of “father!” What a commendation when it is said of the head of an institution or congregation: He is a father to the institution, he is a father to the people. And can there be a greater honor for a president, king, or emperor than to be called with truth the “Father of his Country?”
Or let us look into the ecclesiastical state. When the priest exercises that most important function of his ministry in which all the care and solicitude of his heart is brought into action, and in which the faithful are accustomed to give him the highest proof of their confidence, he is called the “Father Confessor.” When the priest takes especial care of a soul which he wishes to lead onward in the way of perfection he is called the “Spiritual Father.” Bishop and priest who perform their high and onerous duties with particular love and care are called father of the diocese, father of the congregation. And for him who holds the highest dignity in the holy Church, for the head, the representative of Jesus Christ, no more beautiful and excellent name has been found than that of “father;” Pope means “father,” and our whole heart goes out to him when we say “Our holy Father.”
Honorable then is the name of father on earth. Will it not be honorable also in heaven? That mysterious sign which the elect receive in baptism and confirmation, and which the priest receives at ordination, will bear witness that they are children of God, and be their glory in heaven. Who can doubt that in like manner the dignity of father will be an everlasting glory for those who have been clothed with it here on earth?
Behold, Christian father, what thou art. The name of father is honored by both God and man, venerated on earth and glorified in heaven. Thou bearest it; it will, if thou bearest it worthily, be thy honor, thy happiness, and thy salvation in time and eternity.
Let your heart rejoice in the paternal dignity. Let the name of father be your pride. Let it be your ambition at all times and in every manner to prove yourself worthy of it.
