JESUS AS FATHER

JESUS AS FATHER

In Spain, Italy, Portugal, and in many countries where Spain used to rule and where its missionaries spread the Catholic faith, it is usual to come across images of Our Lord calling Him "Our Father." In Spanish, "Nuestro Padre."

Many Catholics are curious about this, because we have all been taught that Jesus is the Son, not the Father. Every Catholic begins prayer saying, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." We know there is one God, but three distinct persons, each of them fully God. But the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, and neither the Father nor the Son is the Holy Spirit. They are three distinct persons, but one God and each of the three persons is fully God. The mystery of the Trinity!

So if the Son is not the Father, why is it a tradition in many Catholic countries to call Jesus "Our Father?"

The simplest, shortest and fastest answer is to say : Jesus is not the person of the Father in the Holy Trinity, but Jesus is like a father to us, and He is like the Father in the Holy Trinity.

Just one example of a Chamorro hymn called Jesus "my Father."

Jesus Tatå-ho mames.
Jesus my sweet Father.

JESUS IS LIKE THE FATHER

We have heard the saying, "Like father, like son." This simple saying is profoundly true when it comes to Jesus and His Father.

In John 14:8, the Apostle Philip asked Jesus to show them God the Father. Jesus replied, "Have I been so long a time with you, and you do not know me? Philip, he who sees me sees the Father also. How do you say, 'Show us the Father?'"

It is not that Jesus is Himself the Father, but that Jesus is so perfectly like His Father that "to see the son is to see the father." We say this even of human sons and fathers who look so much alike, and even more when the son has the same personality as the father. When it comes to Jesus, Jesus is so obedient to His Father, doing and saying nothing except what the Father asks Him to say and do, that "to see the son is to see the father."

Is the Father merciful? He is, and we see it in the merciful acts of Jesus. Is the Father a provider? He is, and we see it in the way Jesus fed the hungry. Is the Father all-powerful? He is, and we see it in the power Jesus had over the wind, the sea, the demons and diseases. Is God a Father? He is, and we see it in the way Jesus is fatherly to us.

Several times in the Bible, Jesus shares the same titles as God the Father. This is because both Jesus and His Father are one and the same God. The Father is called a Rock in Isaiah 44:9; Jesus is called a Rock in 1 Corinthians 10:4. The Father is called a Shepherd in Ezekiel 34:11-16; Jesus calls Himself a Shepherd in John 10:11. Both the Father and the Son are Rock and Shepherd in their own ways. In similar fashion, the Son is like the Father in that He truly resembles the Father in what He says and does.

And so, in Isaiah 9:6, the Messiah who is to come in the future was called by the prophet the Eternal Father. The Messiah, born in human flesh, is Eternal Father. And He is called so not merely by a human prophet, but by God the Holy Spirit, who inspired the prophet. God Himself calls Jesus "the Eternal Father." Not that Jesus is the person of God the Father, but that He is like God the Father.

JESUS IS LIKE A FATHER TO US

When the Son of God took on human flesh and human nature, He became our brother, since He became like us in all things but sin. And yet, this brother of ours calls us "children" and "His children." How can a brother call his brothers and sisters His "children?" He can, because He is our brother by sharing in our human nature, but He is a spiritual father to us as God and as founder of the Church to which we belong. He is both a brother and a father to us.

In Matthew 9:2 and Mark 2:4, Jesus called a paralyzed man, "my son." Here, Jesus is clearly calling Himself a father to this paralyzed man, and He acts like a father. What loving father would not want to cure a paralyzed son? And more than cure him of his physical condition, Jesus forgives his sins, something only God can do.

In John 13:33, Jesus calls His own Apostles, "little children," at the Last Supper. As the perfect image of His Father, Jesus revealed the Father and the truths of God to the Apostles, "the little children (Matthew 11:25 and Luke 10:21)."

And, lest we forget, Jesus is as much our father as is God the Father in that all creation was made by Him (John 1:3). All three persons of the Trinity were involved in creating the universe, but as the Son is the Word of God, when the Father thought (Word) of a tree, that tree came into existence because of that Word! And so on with all creation!

Besides being involved in our first creation, Jesus is also part of our re-creation, our second birth. Just as we have a first human father in the First Adam, who brought us death through his disobedience, you and I are born again through the obedience of the Second Adam, Christ, who is our father in salvation. That is why he is like a father to us because we are reborn through His blood; we are made members of His Body, the Church, of which He is the head, like a father.

What loving father would not die in order to save his child? And this is precisely what Christ did. He showed Himself to be the best father we could have, by dying to save us.

So, although Jesus is not the person of God the Father, He is like God the Father, and He is like a father to us. In that way, we can call Jesus "our Father," always keeping in mind that He is the Son of God the Father.