Why Father???

[sblakely]

How come we call priests Father? The gospels say that Jesus said call no man father for your Father is in heaven? Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this

[sbanks]

Not to cut and paste an answer here Sharon -- but read this from catholic.com
http://www.catholic.com/library/Call_No_Man_Father.asp

imo I see the priest as my "father" to help guide me towards God and help me stay on the path. Your minister or pastor or preacher of coC or other church does the same thing. Paul refers to himself several times as a father figure to Timothy and Titus - but yet we know he was not their father. The priest is devoted to the life of Christ and the life of service to the church and members. Their job is like that of your father - to guide you, support/love you and sometimes to kick you in the butt to get back in line.

+++++
how is the RCIA classes going? keep it up!! we are all praying for you!

[sblakely]

RCIA is great. I love it I am learning so much and having fun doing it. Thanks for the prayers. They are so needed and also returned.

[Joseph the Worker]

I was going to bring up the "teacher" thing too - that Jesus also instructed us not to call other people our Teacher.

[Marcus]

I dressed up in a Friar outfit for Halloween and a child walked up to me and asked if I was a priest. I told them as I pointed to my children "they call me father".

[prairie]

I think Jesus' point wasn't that we should never literally call anyone "Father" but that we shouldn't give excessive respect to people.

I had an experience of getting what I thought was kind of odd advice from my priest. Only after taking it and acting on it for some time did I realize that he had given me exactly what I needed in order to learn a valuable lesson. The mental image I get when I think about it is of a father running alongside his child, holding up the child's bicycle as the child learns to ride. He's very much a spiritual father.

Kinda weird that he's actually younger than I am.

[mllevaleur]

Good responses! Can't really add much more to the link given above in terms of what scripture means, etc.

But essentially, we are a spiritual family, with spiritual brothers, sisters, and yes fathers and even mothers. That's why.