Every three years when this gospel rolls around, I usually get a nervous phone call or email from a parishioner, asking if they are offending Jesus by calling us “Father”. Another priest told the story about a delivery man who made the rounds every day at his parish. He wasn’t Catholic but he enjoyed spending time talking with the pastor and staff when he dropped off packages. There was one problem though. He would not call the priest “Father” because the leaders in his Church had instructed him to follow Matthew 23 literally and “call no man father.” He didn’t know how to address the priest so he settled on “Hey You”. These sort of stories always amuse me because people tend to pick and choose what they interpret literally, like today’s gospel, but then understand Jesus differently when he says things like, “if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.” I have yet to see eyeless, hands-free Christians running around anywhere I’ve been assigned!
So what is Jesus really saying? In dramatic fashion He teaches that our value comes from God alone. He is our goal, the purpose of our existence. Jesus says to call no man "Rabbi" or "Teacher" or "Father." We have only one Master, one Teacher, one Father - God himself. Jesus is speaking against idolatry, which is behind every sin. Idolatry happens when we place a creature above the Creator. Idolatry can involve objects such as cars, homes, money, and power. Jesus also indicates we can make idols out of human beings: rabbis, teachers, fathers (not to mention sports stars, actors, politicians & scientists).
St. Augustine, a brilliant and relatable saint who lived during the 4th and early 5th centuries in Northern Africa, offers a simple scenario to explain idolatry. He uses the example of a girl whose fiancé gives her an engagement ring. The ring is gorgeous and the boy is happy his lady likes it so much. She of course can’t wait to show it to her friends. The problem is, she starts to love the ring so much that it becomes more important to her than the one who gave it! When the boy discovers his girl loves the ring more than him, he is not so happy. And if he finds out she is using the ring to make her girl friends envious and show her superiority over them, he might be more than unhappy. He might even take it back. "I gave you the ring as a sign of our love - not to look down on others.”
St. Augustine says something similar applies to our relationship with God. He has given us gifts, blessings, all tokens of his love. He wants us to love his gifts and be grateful for them. He does not give the gifts, however, for their own sake - or to make us think we are better than others. Like an engagement ring, he wants the gifts to signify a relationship and lead us to him. Anything less involves some degree of idolatry.
Idolatry includes not just things but also persons. If I make some person more important than God, I am treating him/her as an idol. To use Jesus' example, someone might be a very good teacher. You feel like you could listen to her all day. But the question is: Does the teacher lead you to herself or beyond? A good teacher does not make a student dependent on herself. Rather, she teaches the student habits of study, a hunger for knowledge, and a sense of wonder. Those things lead a student to a love of learning which points a person to God.
You could say something similar about a doctor. Doctor is a Latin word for "teacher." A competent doctor is able to diagnose illnesses and to offer remedies. That is good, but even better if a doctor can lead a patient to the source of well-being and health - which is ultimately God himself. If we start thinking that medicine itself can save us, it has become an idol. And idols always lead to some degree of enslavement. Jesus tells us, when all is said and done, there is only one Doctor, one Teacher, one Father.
So, if Jesus warns us not to make any thing or person into an idol, what do we believe about titles of respect? Should we teach our children to call everyone - including their parents - by their first name? NO!. Jesus himself used titles of respect. For example, he refers to "father Abraham." Moreover, his great apostle, Saint Paul, told the Corinthians, "I am your father." And he referred to Timothy as his "son."
Titles of respect are good. I call my physician "doctor." When I see Archbishop Carlson, I say, “hello Archbishop” not “what’s up Bob?” Bishop means overseer and I know ultimately we have only one Overseer… God. Nevertheless, I am glad God has given us a human being to represent him in that role. Each one of us has a human father. Even the best dad is only a shadow of the one Father. But we have a commandment that says, "Honor your father - and your mother." A really good father is one who leads his children to our common Father in heaven.
What is true about biological and adoptive fathers also applies to spiritual fathers. From earliest times Christians designated certain men as, "father." Bishops, priests and other celibate men with no earthly children became spiritual fathers. They read Matthew's Gospel, including today’s passage of "call no man father." But they got Jesus' point which was not to do away with titles of respect, but to make sure never to turn another person into an idol. Those with roles of spiritual responsibility have the special burden to make sure they never lead people to themselves but always to the one heavenly Father. How humbling that God shares a portion of his healing power, infinite knowledge, and spiritual authority with his creatures, not for our own glory but to lead each other back into relationship with him.
So let us make sure we pray often for those who have been given a share in God’s healing, teaching, and authority. If they cooperate with his grace, they will help connect us with God himself through the gifts he has shared with them. Let’s also pray for the wisdom and strength to avoid settling for something less than God and the relationship he wants with each and every one of us. This idolatry may be easier but it cannot and will not fulfill us. May God use our lives to lead others closer to him. Amen.
