10 True measure for natural/human Fatherhood is God the Father the source CCC 238-240
The Father revealed by the Son
CCC 238 Many religions invoke God as “Father”. The deity is often considered the “father of gods and of men”. In Israel, God is called “Father” inasmuch as he is Creator of the world. Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, “his first-born son”. God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is “the Father of the poor”, of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection.
CCC 239 By calling God “Father”, the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God’s parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood, which emphasizes God’s immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. the language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: no one is father as God is Father. [This is a consoling statement. We recognize our poverty in humility, and thus seek remedies for it from the only Source possible.] [NB Jesus never directly refers to God as Mother, nor does He ever teach his disciples to do so. It is by analogy that Jesus refers to the Father as a ‘Mother hen who wants to gather her chicks’. Jesus directly teaches us to call God Father.]
Fatherhood besmirched in modern world, instead of looking to heights for goodness, rather search for basest elements to accuse Him. Anthropology, one man looks up. Turn gaze away from God, don’t look up, only see the dirt. Desire to come to grips fathers are flawed men, pretend God is like them. We love our father because he precedes the child in order of generation. We don’t want anyone premier, all are equal. Dependent on actions of another.
Evolution, here by chance as opposed to design.
Husband, animal husbandry, context behind the word, relevance masculine element of human creation. We are not self-sufficient, owe to another our existence. That is enough for respect.
CCC 240 Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father by his relationship to his only Son who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to his Father: “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” [Back to looking to Jesus to know the heart of the Father and the role of the Sacred Heart in this apprehension of knowledge]
11 Problem: Tendency to measure God’s Fatherhood by personal experience. Projection onto God of man’s deficiency.
Our age is impoverished in its understanding of Fatherhood. Fathers, both natural and spiritual, are portrayed (and sadly sometimes are) as expendable, buffoons, absent, abusive, gumball machine for goodies. These deformations get projected onto God the Father. Instead of the perfect attributes of the Father illuminating the actions of Man top down, it is rather bottom up. Sloth is also at play. Much easier to compare to our neighbor than to God ipse, Himself.
Modern world hyper worship own sense of self. Fatherhood God, ruler giver. Egalitarian society don’t like having someone tell us what to foo. Inherent rebellion. God the Ruler giver rely on another and then must obey.
Man want to be his own progenitor, impossible.
Brave New World making it possible. Illusion of possibility.
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