August/September
2009 - Vol. 32
God
is Father
From
a sermon by Cyril of Jerusalem, 4th century
If you want to know why we call our God
Father, listen to Moses: `Is he not your Father who created you, who made
you and established you?' (Deuteronomy 32:6)
Listen too to Isaiah: `O Lord, you are our
Father; we are the clay, and you are the potter; we are all the work of
your hand.' (Isaiah 64:8) Under prophetic inspiration Isaiah speaks plainly.
God is our Father, not by nature, but by grace and by adoption. Paul too
was a father: father of the Christians in Corinth. Not because he had begotten
them according to the flesh, but because he had regenerated them according
to the Spirit.
Christ when his body was fastened to the
cross saw Mary, his mother according to the flesh, and John, the disciple
most dear to him, and said to John: `Behold your mother.' and to Mary:
`Behold your son.' Christ called Mary John's mother, not because she had
begotten him, but because she loved him. (John 19:26-27) Joseph too was
called father of Christ, not as procreator in a physical sense, but as
his guardian: he was to nourish and protect him.
With greater reason God calls himself Father
of human beings and wants to be called Father by us. What unspeakable generosity!
He dwells in the heavens; we live on the earth. He has created the ages;
we live in time. He holds the world in his hand; we are but grasshoppers
on the face of the earth.
| Introduction
Commentary
on God the Father
»
I
believe in God the Father, by Augustine of Hippo
»
God
is Father, by Cyril of Jerusalem
»
The
Foundation Stone of the Soul, by Cyril of Jerusalem
»
The
Privilege and Responsibility of Calling God Father, by Cyril of Alexandria
Commentary
on the Lord's Prayer
»
Our
Father, by Gregory of Nyssa
»
Who
art in Heaven, by Gregory of Nyssa
»
Hallowed
by thy Name, by Origen
»
Thy
Kingdom Come, by Origen
»
Thy
will be done, by Origen
»
Give
us our daily bread, by Gregory of Nyssa
»
Forgive
us our trespasses, by Cassian
»
And
lead us not into temptation, by Origen
»
But
deliver us from evil, by Cyprian of Carthage |