Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven.

31st Sunday of Ordinary Time: 2023 Year A

Matthew 22:34-40; "Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven.”

Now it is easy to read over this verse without giving it much thought. And we might be quite confused why we call priests ‘father’.

A question you might want to ask is whether it is only Roman Catholics who call their priests ‘father. The answer to this question is no. The fact is all ancient Churches call their priests ‘Father’. Just some examples: the Byzantine (Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic), Coptic (Oriental Orthodox), Chaldean (part of the Assyrian Church of the East), Russian (Eastern Orthodox), and Syrian (Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic) Churches and others.

Now why would all the ancient Churches, churches which date back more than 1000 years, call their priests ‘Father’ while, if not all, most of the modern churches, which date back only some hundred of years at most, call their priests anything but ‘Father’? The answer is that the younger churches base their faith on only their modernist interpretations of Scripture, while the ancient churches faith is based on both Scripture and Tradition.

Modernist interpretations don’t take into account what has been believed and practised from the beginning of the Church. Their faith is based on what they are able to take from the text. That is also why all ancient churches have vast amounts of beautiful sacred art, while modernists call it idolatry. The ancient churches love and have devotion to Mary while the modernist churches call it blasphemy.

Now let us look more into Sacred Scripture. If we take the verse ‘ "Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven.” If we take it as it is simply put, how are we to explain the scriptural passages that contradict it? For example, in Mark 7:9–13, Jesus criticises the Pharisees and scribes for not honouring their “fathers.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honour your father and your mother’; …; but you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is Corban’ (that is, given to God) then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on.

Furthermore, calling the apostles and their successors “father” was common within the early Christian communities (cf. Acts 7:2; 22:1; 1 Cor. 4:15; 1John. 2:13–14, James 2:21; Matthew 3:9; John 8:44). “Brethren and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham” 1Cor 4:14ss “I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

Scripture itself tells us not to go interpreting it any which way. As in the case of all scriptural interpretations, we must understand this passage in light of the rest of Scripture 2 Pet. 1:20; “First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation” 2 Pet. 3:16 “Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.”

Now let us look at today’s Gospel again. Jesus in this gospel is speaking to the crowds and to his disciples, and what was He telling them. He was warning them not to become like the scribes and the Pharisees who “do all their works as to be seen, widening their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels, loving places of honour at banquets, seats of honour in synagogues, being greeted in marketplaces, and the salutation 'Rabbi.'” In short, warning them to not become superficial hypocrites, seeking vainglory, worldly respect, empty honour, meaningless titles.

Jesus expresses disgust with the many hypocrisies of the scribes and Pharisees. Hypocrites (hypokrites) was a technical term for a stage actor. In this case the Pharisees and Scribes were play actors as the people of God, play-acting as holy people but are fakes and phonies.

Jesus notes that “[t]he scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat” (Mt. 23:2). By this, He recognizes that they have an obligation to teach the people as Moses taught the people. As teachers of this Law, they must be respected. This first authority was given by God through the Old Covenant, as expressed in the Mosaic Law. As successors of Moses, the scribes and Pharisees claimed this authority, authority to teach it not change it. Unlike Moses, from whom they claim authority, the scribes and Pharisees used their positions for their own profit and glory,.and it is against this He warns His followers.